Creative analogy needed for non-techies on Cryptocurrencies

[mikealpha]

Hey folks,

I'm hoping you good folks here can help with examples and analogies to explain the basics of Cryptocurrencies (specifically Bitcoin) for 2 articles I'm writing aimed at a younger audience (<12 year olds) and maturer non-techies. The article will be void of terms such as 'blockchain, hashing, agorithim' etc. and replaced with either creative or real-life 'working' examples (farming, mining, cooking etc.). Specifically, I'm looking to answer 2 questions:

What is Bitcoin and Why is it worth the ~2KEUR it is now?

So far, I have the following notes - ignore the grammar: it'll be polished later but wondering if anybody could add to it:

version#1:
King Satoshi announces buried treasure (coins) in Land X. People quickly gather with axes and shovels and the first group find (mine) the coins with relative ease. As word spreads to far away lands, more and more people join the search making it increasingly difficult to find these precious coins and to date, only 16 million have been found. There are still people searching for this treasure and the equipment used to dig is becoming increasingly expensive.....


version#2:
Bitcoin, unlike gold or other precious metals, is not a tangible currency. Its value is a function of several factors including, but not limited to:

1). The appealing concept i.e. that of a de-centralised currency owned, managed and traded by the people
2). Similar to gold, the effort & resources required to 'mine' Bitcoins which becomes exponentially more difficult as we near the 21 million cap
3). The slow adoption, acceptance and 'usefulness' of Bitcoin in making real-life purchases for tangible goods and/or services
4). Supply & Demand - Bitcoin is similar to the 'USD of FOREX' and is considered the 'base' currency against which most new concepts are pegged

This is a work in progress and will be followed up with animated content to explain the theory better. My post is essentially me sharing notes and I'd love to hear creative examples I can use to better explain and answer my 2 questions above.

Cheers

[Qartada]

There's an interesting explanation for five year olds on Coindesk.  The idea is to compare Bitcoin to something physical (in their case, an apple).

I think the most important thing you need to change about both versions one and two is to include mentions of the double-spending problem and distributed ledger, as this is one of the most important things that blockchain technology has brought to the world.

Mining is important but it seems like a harder thing to explain and it needs to have the basics explained of creating decentralisation through a distributed ledger.  Then you move on later to mining, to explain how transactions are included in the ledger.