How to deal with the "bitcoin has no physical existence" argument?

[BCEmporium]

If you talked about Bitcoin with your friends you most likely already listened to this "argument".
It's not false, Bitcoin has in fact no physical existence, but nor does the printed money we call fiat.
The question is then on how to deal with this argument, in a short and easily understandable way, without scare them of by knowing the bills on their wallet are no more than regular papers representing x units of the virtual currency y, which is backed by thin air and its supply is limited only by the paper and ink in stock or the printing capacities of the machine that does them?

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Just as a personal thing, I deal with it by not dealing with it.  I'm the type of recluse guy who finds this type of human interaction futile and frustrating, and I have no desire to try to convince someone else to use bitcoin or to explain to anyone bitcoin's advantages.

And even if I were to engage in such a debate, I'm not entirely confident I'd do a good job convincing someone.  A lot of the technicalities escape me.  I'm not an economist and I'm definitely not a computer geek.  Wish I had more of a background in that.

[pooya87]

one of the problems that i have found to exist when i explain bitcoin to others or see it being explained to others is that telling them too much is sometimes harmful.

some people get scared when you talk about mining, private keys, signing a transaction, making cold storage, paper wallet, and any technical stuff.

that is why to these type of people i try to keep everything simple. bitcoin is money, and use coinbase for wallet then later on explain how everything else works in the next step. and if they ask questions like it is not physical i tell them paypal that you adore doesn't have physical form either.

[BCEmporium]

I don't mean scare them with bitcoin, but by knowing what fiat is indeed and knowing that it has no physical existence whatsoever also.
I often stumble on this, at first they don't believe me - even my father was convinced Greek Euros were more worthy because were backed by more gold, as Greece has some good gold reserves -, then they study it over a bit and come scared that our money (no matter the currency) is a scam and the discussion derails to it and to how scared they got by being aware of it.

[Radenz]

I think you can deal the argument with many sentences like "bitcoin has no physical existence because we can use it easily without physical coin, no problem of printed money" and  "why isn't there a physical money ? This is technology. This is more worthy than the traditional one." or many others.
Just my opinion. Hope helping.

[Fortify]

The irony of people using that argument, is that most of the world is controlled by credit networks that are managed in a virtual environment. Visa and Mastercard, to name a couple, rely on an extensive range of data centers to keep their ledgers accurate. Yes, it's not like physical notes or coins but many people spend a majority of their life using bank cards to pay bills.

[BCEmporium]

Turns out coins and bills are as virtual as credit cards, they don't worth the value printed on it, they represent such value.
The only "physical money" is gold or silver themselves, but fiat isn't backed by it or anything at all.

[JITENDERPAR3]

If you talked about Bitcoin with your friends you most likely already listened to this "argument".
It's not false, Bitcoin has in fact no physical existence, but nor does the printed money we call fiat.
The question is then on how to deal with this argument, in a short and easily understandable way, without scare them of by knowing the bills on their wallet are no more than regular papers representing x units of the virtual currency y, which is backed by thin air and its supply is limited only by the paper and ink in stock or the printing capacities of the machine that does them?

you right , but still we should always gies in the positive thinking about Bitcoin . so we should take care that we are going well not with the fake or false thing. and secondly it can't be printed use but we can accept it through a printed thing because we have  fascility of the accepting btc from baracode scan .
overall no reason to think about its bad way .

[Mastsetad]

I would answer that question by simply saying that bitcoin does not need any physical existence to be used, even if they does not exist physically like fiat but they can still be used as real money, if they are not accepted somewhere then they can easily get changed to fiat to get used then, and it is actually becoming physically gradually as it is being adopted in physical world now a days.

[DrGuns4Hands]

If you talked about Bitcoin with your friends you most likely already listened to this "argument".
It's not false, Bitcoin has in fact no physical existence, but nor does the printed money we call fiat.
The question is then on how to deal with this argument, in a short and easily understandable way, without scare them of by knowing the bills on their wallet are no more than regular papers representing x units of the virtual currency y, which is backed by thin air and its supply is limited only by the paper and ink in stock or the printing capacities of the machine that does them?

you right , but still we should always gies in the positive thinking about Bitcoin . so we should take care that we are going well not with the fake or false thing. and secondly it can't be printed use but we can accept it through a printed thing because we have  fascility of the accepting btc from baracode scan .
overall no reason to think about its bad way .

Well not all of the facilities here in our country accepting bitcoin unlike in your place bro that we could say that it has a physical apperance in real life because not all of the country exist that thing!. We could say that the world is in the virtual like all of the people or most of the people like paying via visa credit card or anything else without the appearance of the printed money.

[Xester]

I just show them my bitcoin wallet and then asked them to allow me to load their phone so that they will believe.  I also showed them every transaction I made.  I converted my bitcoin into a fiat currency in their face so that they would believe.  But even if they so that bitcoin is real, they still do not indulge themselves because it is complicated.

[~Bitcoin~]

I used to show them how bitcoin is superior and more secure than usual electronic payment system we use including internet banking. And after i complete my intro about bitcoin with the word that your balance can be viewed by anybody but nobody can use those bitcoin without your private key and even millions of computer can't calculate those private key out of bitcoin address, which part they like the most.

I don't get on those argument regarding can we touch bitcoin or can i see what is bitcoin etc after i finish telling them how bitcoin works. But if some force and keep arguing with you to show them physical form of bitcoin giving bitcoin paper wallet containing few bitcoin will be enough.

[ObscureBean]

knowing the bills on their wallet are no more than regular papers representing x units of the virtual currency y, which is backed by thin air and its supply is limited only by the paper and ink in stock or the printing capacities of the machine that does them?

And may I ask you sir, what is Bitcoin backed by?  
In any case, does it really matter that fiat is not backed by anything? What would you like it to be backed by? Gold? And who decides that gold holds any value? Gold or thin air, who cares as long as you can use it to buy anything you want. The whole system is built around fiat, if fiat fails, everything fails so it's in the interest of everyone, people, government banks etc that it doesn't. The very concept of money is based on thin air.

[Betwrong]

knowing the bills on their wallet are no more than regular papers representing x units of the virtual currency y, which is backed by thin air and its supply is limited only by the paper and ink in stock or the printing capacities of the machine that does them?

And may I ask you sir, what is Bitcoin backed by?  
In any case, does it really matter that fiat is not backed by anything? What would you like it to be backed by? Gold? And who decides that gold holds any value? Gold or thin air, who cares as long as you can use it to buy anything you want. The whole system is built around fiat, if fiat fails, everything fails so it's in the interest of everyone, people, government banks etc that it doesn't. The very concept of money is based on thin air.

I agree with this. People who are saying that fiat money are backed by something, they just have too much faith in what they are told by the governments. Whether Bitcoin is backed by something valuable and physical from the point of an individual depends a lot on their perception because actually you can buy gold and other precious metals with Bitcoin.

[coynedterm]

If you talked about Bitcoin with your friends you most likely already listened to this "argument".
It's not false, Bitcoin has in fact no physical existence, but nor does the printed money we call fiat.
The question is then on how to deal with this argument, in a short and easily understandable way, without scare them of by knowing the bills on their wallet are no more than regular papers representing x units of the virtual currency y, which is backed by thin air and its supply is limited only by the paper and ink in stock or the printing capacities of the machine that does them?

if we think about the bitcoin deeply in such a way that how much the bitcoin is exist in the world then we found only limited existence in form of internet data and we feel unsafe .
but actually nothing is simple as we think .
it is very safe and easy to  make deal without fear .

[Vinz24]

For me, I dont care if bitcoin has no physical existence as long as it has value and I will consider it as an asset. There are a lot thing that has physical existence but it has no value.

[talkbitcoin]

i think the simplest way is to show them how they can use bitcoin to purchase something.

for example if there is like a coffee shop, a restaurant a food truck even that accepts bitcoin you can take them there and pay for a cup of coffee for example and show them that "this is the value this none-physical money has"

nobody is going to care if bitcoin has a physical existence or not when they can spend it for their day to day needs.

[BCEmporium]

I've no issue about the way our financial system works or want it backed by anything.
The issue is that people along the time made false assumptions about fiat money, and fail to know the same arguments they use against Bitcoin applies to fiat.
This said, I often feel like Morpheus giving red pills...

[dollarneed]

If you talked about Bitcoin with your friends you most likely already listened to this "argument".
It's not false, Bitcoin has in fact no physical existence, but nor does the printed money we call fiat.
The question is then on how to deal with this argument, in a short and easily understandable way, without scare them of by knowing the bills on their wallet are no more than regular papers representing x units of the virtual currency y, which is backed by thin air and its supply is limited only by the paper and ink in stock or the printing capacities of the machine that does them?

I always heard this from many of my friends they were skeptical about bitcoin has no physical existence.
However i don't like if bitcoin has physical existence i mean being virtual is fun than has physical existence, you don't need a place to store them and aware of loosing it (if you keep your private key safe) and it's obviously better than physical then i explained to them actually bitcoin can turned to physical like paper wallet or physical bitcoin, but still with virtual is the best.

[blockcha1n]

The argument is void for me. For most fiat money, there is no equivalent physical value, too. It can be issued real value covered Bitcoin coins, then a physical value would be present.