Please sum up bitcoin in less than 200 words. !! ( for a small flyer )

[BunworthBanshee]

Hi I am Looking for somebody to do a short intro to bitcoin, this will be put on the back of a small flyer that me and friends will distribute. I am looking for a kind of fiat vs bitcoin piece. explaining to people why we are are all in the finical mess the world finds itself in today.

I believe that many people just don't understand that the money in there pocket, is really not worth the paper its printed on. (so to speak )  so if that could be touched on?

We are very limited on space as it s a small flyer.

If anybody would like to contribute we would be very happy. 

also may be able to give a small tip as well. 

Thanks!

[ronimacarroni]

Bitcoin is a of yet a decentralized crypto currency that is created via the hashing power of specialized hardware.
The people who use the specialized hardware to create the bitcoins are called "miners" and they "mine" with their equipment.
The difficulty of mining bitcoins increases with each passing day and this leads to bitcoins becoming more scarce and more valuable.
Bitcoins can be used once mined or bought online as frictionless payment without the need of a third party provider such as paypal.
Despite bitcoins being technically cryptographic keys their worth as of now is in the $120 range and increasing by the day.
The value of bitcoins is stored as cryptographic public keys and is as of now within the $120 price range per bitcoin.

That last edit sounds better I think.

tip?

[btceic]

Bitcoin is to money what email was to mail.

Bitcoin is programmable money.

Absorb this for more:
http://m.techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/disrupt-sf-13-bitcoin-panel/

[BunworthBanshee]

Bitcoin is a of yet a decentralized crypto currency that is created via the hashing power of specialized hardware.
The people who use the specialized hardware to create the bitcoins are called "miners" and they "mine" with their equipment.
The difficulty of mining bitcoins increases with each passing day and this leads to bitcoins becoming more scarce and more valuable.
Bitcoins can be used once mined or bought online as frictionless payment without the need of a third party provider such as paypal.
Despite bitcoins being technically cryptographic keys their worth as of now is in the $120 range and increasing by the day.
The value of bitcoins is stored as cryptographic public keys and is as of now within the $120 price range per bitcoin.

That last edit sounds better I think.

tip?

Not bad but I was looking for a more layman intro. For the average no tech people. with more comparison between fiat and BTC.
More like this....

Fiat currency is money based upon nothing at all.
For the moment, the paper in your pocket will buy you food and furniture, but not because it has any real value. Our daily money is created by politically-favored groups who have been granted monopolies on the creation of currency. (They are referred to in polite company as central bankers.) They create our money, from nothing,

bitcoin is decentralized digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. unlike fiat nobody controls bitcoin, there is a limited amount of bitcoin, banksters can't just print bitcoin, etc etc...

[The Bitcoin Catalog]

International and decentralised payment processor with built-in scarcity.

[Meni Rosenfeld]

Bitcoin is a of yet a decentralized crypto currency that is created via the hashing power of specialized hardware.
The people who use the specialized hardware to create the bitcoins are called "miners" and they "mine" with their equipment.
The difficulty of mining bitcoins increases with each passing day and this leads to bitcoins becoming more scarce and more valuable.
Bitcoins can be used once mined or bought online as frictionless payment without the need of a third party provider such as paypal.
Despite bitcoins being technically cryptographic keys their worth as of now is in the $120 range and increasing by the day.
The value of bitcoins is stored as cryptographic public keys and is as of now within the $120 price range per bitcoin.

I'm sorry but this is terrible.

Most people won't have any idea what you're talking about and the others will think it's a scam.

The term "mining" shouldn't be mentioned more than once near the end, if at all. Here it (and "hashing") appears 5 times in the beginning. See also https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=296674.msg3185191#msg3185191.

Also there is a huge focus on the potential for speculative gains from investment in Bitcoin, at the expense of discussing its actual merits.

[qwk]

I'm thinking of something like, feel free to work on top of that, I haven't really put a lot of effort into it:


Here's bitcoin. It's open source money.

Like other successful open source projects, for example Linux, it's impossible for anyone to take control of it. Banks, the government, Evil Overlords, they have to accept that people use it just the way it works best for them.

Paying with bitcoins is easy. In the blink of an eye you'll be able to send them to anyone anywhere on the planet, no credit card, bank, postal service required. It's just as simple as sending email.

Counterfeiting bitcoins is impossible. Each and every bitcoin is scrutinized not only by you or a bank, but actually by all of the computers on the bitcoin network.

There will never be more than 21 Million bitcoins.
Unlike government issued paper money, noone can ever simply print more and reduce your holdings' value.
That might sound like there's too few of them to be useful, but don't you worry, they can be divided into bitcents and even lower. We won't run out on them.

Take money into your own hands. Use bitcoin.

[Micky25]

[BunworthBanshee]

I'm thinking of something like, feel free to work on top of that, I haven't really put a lot of effort into it:


Here's bitcoin. It's open source money.

Like other successful open source projects, for example Linux, it's impossible for anyone to take control of it. Banks, the government, Evil Overlords, they have to accept that people use it just the way it works best for them.

Paying with bitcoins is easy. In the blink of an eye you'll be able to send them to anyone anywhere on the planet, no credit card, bank, postal service required. It's just as simple as sending email.

Counterfeiting bitcoins is impossible. Each and every bitcoin is scrutinized not only by you or a bank, but actually by all of the computers on the bitcoin network.

There will never be more than 21 Million bitcoins.
Unlike government issued paper money, noone can ever simply print more and reduce your holdings' value.
That might sound like there's too few of them to be useful, but don't you worry, they can be divided into bitcents and even lower. We won't run out on them.

Take money into your own hands. Use bitcoin.

Thanks for that, this is definitely closer to what we are looking for. We don't want to mention "mining" we feel that the average user dose not need to understand mining, much the same way as the average user of paypal dose not need to understand its mechanisms to use it.

[ktttn]

Bitcoin:
In 2009, a big problem was solved- the problem of how to spend cash on the internet.
Bitcoins, instead of being minted by a company or the government, are generated by powerful computers that spend all day verifying and compressing earlier Bitcoin transactions. When a miner figures out how to compress old records, it gets 25 new bitcoins. The computers are called Bitcoin Miners and anyone can buy or build one to connect to the bitcoin network, the most powerful computer network on earth.
To use bitcoins, you need a Wallet. There are dozens of options from Armory to Blockchain.info or Inputs.io. They're all free to use. You can even use your brain as a wallet by memorizing a passphrase that translates into a Keypair.
A Wallet is essentially two long numbers, an Address and Private Key. You can buy second-hand bitcoins on an online or local exchange like Satoshi Square in NYC or Bitstamp, Coinbase or Kraken online.
What this means for online commerce is that middleman companies like Paypal are getting closer to becoming obsolete. There are lots of other implications for the whole world, too.
What's a bitcoin worth? It depends on what someone is willing to pay for one. Coindesk.com has a ticker that tells you current exchange rates based on the online market. They're worth around $130 as of the time of this writing, but have been slightly past $200 in the past. Nobody knows how valuable they might be one day.
Bitcoin is:
P2P, which means that there's no middleman.
Open source, which means anyone can help build the program.
Cryptographically secure, which means that the transactions you make are encoded so nobody can intercept them.
Highly Divisible, instead of having two decimal places, like $1.00, bitcoin has eight, like this: BTC1.000000.
Optional fees, to speed up a transaction, you can pay a fee to a miner, but it usually isn't necessary.
There's lots to bitcoin. Visit bitcointalk.org or bitcoin.org to learn more.

[ktttn]

I'm thinking of something like, feel free to work on top of that, I haven't really put a lot of effort into it:


Here's bitcoin. It's open source money.

Like other successful open source projects, for example Linux, it's impossible for anyone to take control of it. Banks, the government, Evil Overlords, they have to accept that people use it just the way it works best for them.

Paying with bitcoins is easy. In the blink of an eye you'll be able to send them to anyone anywhere on the planet, no credit card, bank, postal service required. It's just as simple as sending email.

Counterfeiting bitcoins is impossible. Each and every bitcoin is scrutinized not only by you or a bank, but actually by all of the computers on the bitcoin network.

There will never be more than 21 Million bitcoins.
Unlike government issued paper money, noone can ever simply print more and reduce your holdings' value.
That might sound like there's too few of them to be useful, but don't you worry, they can be divided into bitcents and even lower. We won't run out on them.

Take money into your own hands. Use bitcoin.

Thanks for that, this is definitely closer to what we are looking for. We don't want to mention "mining" we feel that the average user dose not need to understand mining, much the same way as the average user of paypal dose not need to understand its mechanisms to use it.

It's important to mention mining. Otherwise it's unclear where they come from.

[wachtwoord]

Bitcoin is freedom
Freedom from arbitrary purchasing restrictions
Freedom from obligated identification
Freedom of independent wealth preservation
Freedom from centralized control
Bitcoin is a revolutionary vehicle to change things for the better: "Instead of trying to change governments with a useless vote, or pathetic pleading, we merely abandon the government's powerbase - the power derived from control of exchange and currency." - Eric voorhees

[2048-bit]

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Introduction

Ideas from here?
The page is under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license

[Wilikon]

1PfRM3YruXN4rt3oy6e7bWS9r69sLSk9zn

[Wilikon]

https://i.imgur.com/LTW2qh3.png

Hope people can see it this time :-)



1PfRM3YruXN4rt3oy6e7bWS9r69sLSk9zn

[MAbtc]

Bitcoin: Magic Internet Money.

Hehe, this one is the best so far. 

[galbros]

Bitcoin is an electronic crypto currency that is easy to use.  It provides for a fair amount of anonymity like cash but can be used easily online.  It has low fees compared to something like paypal and is great for very small payments, e.g. less than 1 US cent.  You can easily get started for free, get an online wallet at blockchain.info and some free bitcoins at dailybitcoins.com.

I realize that this is not perfect but I think it is pretty good for a lay audience.  Obviously insert your favorite online wallet and faucet.

Good Luck!

[FirstAscent]

All these descriptions suck.

Mention mining, but use the word generate. Mention crypto, but use the word secure. Do not use the word 'wallet'.

Point out the following traits:

- Secure
- Electronic payments
- Capped circulation
- Hedge against inflation
- No single controlling body
- Currently used by merchants
- Unlimited divisibility
- Huge potential for third world countries

[theymos]

Here's what I wrote for the sidebar of /r/Bitcoin. It'd make a good first paragraph.

Bitcoin is the currency of the Internet: a distributed, worldwide, decentralized digital money. Unlike traditional currencies such as dollars, bitcoins are issued and managed without any central authority whatsoever: there is no government, company, or bank in charge of Bitcoin. As such, it is more resistant to wild inflation and corrupt banks. With Bitcoin, you can be your own bank.

[freedomno1]

Whistles

An open source peer-to-peer digital currency. Bitcoin is
 a digital currency a protocal and a software that enables:
- Instant peer-to-peer payments
- Worldwide payments
- Almost no processing fees
- And much more
Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority;
manning transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively
by the network. Through many of its unique properties, Bitcoin allows exciting
uses that could not be covered by any previous payment system.
The Software is a community-driven, free, open-source project released under the MIT license