Explaining Bitcoin to Muggles

[njaard]

Dear Bitcoin Talk,

When I try to explain Bitcoin to people who don't know it, I get a bit tongue-twisted. Anyone have any elegant explanations that anyone could understand?

I like reddit's concise "Magic Internet Money" but it doesn't really explain it.

Let me try a few:

• "the Internet is to communication as bitcoin is to money" - very vague
• "It takes control of money away from big banks and gives it to you" - a bit idealistic
• "It lets you very quickly send anyone in the world money, the way email lets you send someone a letter" - better

So, how does one nicely explain bitcoin to a normal person in 1 sentence, or 2, or 4, 8 or even 16.

Also, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm one of Armory's newest full-time employees, and I'm just getting up to speed with Armory and the inner workings of Bitcoin itself. I haven't had much of a public face with regards to bitcoin because I don't like talking. I approach Bitcoin from the technical point of view more than the idealistic. Cryptography is cool, and computers can do fun things. Also I'm a professional C++ programmer and I'll be happy to give anyone technical help when it comes to that. I live in Santa Cruz County and I'm happy to meet people in meatspace to discuss bitcoin and drink coffee or beer.

edit: I changed the sentence to powers of two

[deepceleron]

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

People don't understand money either; those that do have to study for more than a paragraph.

http://www.extension.harvard.edu/courses/subject/economics
Replace "money" with Bitcoin.

[Kasandra]

paper mail -> email, paper gold certificates -> bitcoin

[EAC Future]

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

People don't understand money either; those that do have to study for more than a paragraph.

http://www.extension.harvard.edu/courses/subject/economics
Replace "money" with Bitcoin.

http://we.lovebitco.in/img/dceleron-shirt2.jpg

I think this T-shirt is the best description of what we consider Bitcoin right now.  However, I have also heard that Bitcoin has myriad applications.  And it's like saying that Bitcoin's value is that it can be transferred quickly and at low cost.  To use a comparison it's like saying the purpose of the internet is for email.  We all know that is ridiculous but did we 15 years ago?.. Perhaps this is something similar.

[Wendigo]

And how will we get drinks from the vending machines on the street with digital money?


Damn i need coffee now 

[guybrushthreepwood]

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

People don't understand money either; those that do have to study for more than a paragraph.

http://www.extension.harvard.edu/courses/subject/economics
Replace "money" with Bitcoin.

I think that's probably the simplest and most effective explanation of Bitcoin I've seen. Can you buy these shirts any where?

[deepceleron]

I deleted the original, but it could be recreated pretty easily so anybody could upload it to one of those Internet t-shirt printing places.