gabriella (OP)
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December 09, 2013, 12:07:13 AM |
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has anyone ever been able to come up with a <200 words explanation of what bitcoin is, in simple english, without words like "blockchain" and "hash", that would make even your grandma understand what bitcoin is?
there should be a prize for that, should anyone achieve it.
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Barek
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December 09, 2013, 12:09:37 AM |
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knight22
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--------------->¿?
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December 09, 2013, 12:27:50 AM |
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Just tell her it's internet cash.
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Mike Christ
aka snapsunny
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December 09, 2013, 12:31:55 AM |
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It's a peer-to-peer distributed accounting ledger, invented to remove the trust required in the banking system.
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Herodes
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December 09, 2013, 01:04:34 AM |
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has anyone ever been able to come up with a <200 words explanation of what bitcoin is, in simple english, without words like "blockchain" and "hash", that would make even your grandma understand what bitcoin is?
there should be a prize for that, should anyone achieve it.
Bitcoin is to banking what the internet was to information exchange. Easier, faster and more convenient than traditional banking. Independent, giving freedom back to the people, and not in the hands of a few powerful institutions. No need to trust a central system, but it's backed by mathematics that is secure.
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caminilegroup
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December 09, 2013, 01:11:27 AM |
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I had to explain it over thanksgiving, I compared it to stocks as it's value can change daily but no one controls it.
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aynstein
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Fortune favors the bold, and sometimes the bald.
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December 09, 2013, 01:36:52 AM |
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I had to explain it over thanksgiving, I compared it to stocks as it's value can change daily but no one controls it.
that never ends well, misses the value of the network in the idea of a bitcoin.
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AltaVista 4 Life!
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caminilegroup
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December 09, 2013, 01:56:11 AM |
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I had to explain it over thanksgiving, I compared it to stocks as it's value can change daily but no one controls it.
that never ends well, misses the value of the network in the idea of a bitcoin. If I try to explain TCP/IP stack to my grandmother I will put her to sleep. A simple understanding without all the techno babble is what I gave them. I did explain that I have these specialized computers that solve math problems really fast and that works toward making a bitcoin. I have had to teach classes on subnetting to people who only wanted to make games, that was fun. Sometimes you just have to go all Barey style.
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QuestionAuthority
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You lead and I'll watch you walk away.
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December 09, 2013, 02:18:58 AM |
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I had to explain it over thanksgiving, I compared it to stocks as it's value can change daily but no one controls it.
that never ends well, misses the value of the network in the idea of a bitcoin. If I try to explain TCP/IP stack to my grandmother I will put her to sleep. A simple understanding without all the techno babble is what I gave them. I did explain that I have these specialized computers that solve math problems really fast and that works toward making a bitcoin. I have had to teach classes on subnetting to people who only wanted to make games, that was fun. Sometimes you just have to go all Barey style. Just tell grandma that it's just like how she and grandpa used to go to free concerts to protest the government and marched in the street. My generation protests with money and we're too lazy to go outside so we use a computer. "Our way is better grandma because we don't have a baby 9 months later and name it Starshine or Moonflower."
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caminilegroup
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December 09, 2013, 02:19:55 AM |
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I had to explain it over thanksgiving, I compared it to stocks as it's value can change daily but no one controls it.
that never ends well, misses the value of the network in the idea of a bitcoin. If I try to explain TCP/IP stack to my grandmother I will put her to sleep. A simple understanding without all the techno babble is what I gave them. I did explain that I have these specialized computers that solve math problems really fast and that works toward making a bitcoin. I have had to teach classes on subnetting to people who only wanted to make games, that was fun. Sometimes you just have to go all Barey style. Just tell grandma that it's just like how she and grandpa used to go to free concerts to protest the government and marched in the street. My generation protests with money and we're too lazy to go outside so we use a computer. "Our way is better grandma because we don't have a baby 9 months later and name it Starshine or Moonflower." You sir have made my day.
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remotemass
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ASMR El Salvador
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December 09, 2013, 02:37:36 AM |
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Try this one:
Bitcoin is like 21 million Kilograms of digital gold. Each Kg of this digital gold is called a BTC. You can have up to a 100 millionth part of it (eight decimal places). But these BTC actually only exist as balances associated with a bitcoin address. You send BTC between two bitcoin addresses just like sending emails and the network updates the balances of each bitcoin address in a public ledger that everyone has because it is replicated and updated by the network. What you keep is not actually coins but the private key that allows you to spend the BTC of your bitcoin address balance. You cannot choose your bitcoin address. What you can choose, or pick randomly, is the private key. You can know the bitcoin address of any private key but not the other way around.
During the first four years, people that help maintain and secure the network, processing transactions, get at least 50 BTC, every 10 minutes. Every four years this reward halves. Right now it is 25 BTC every 10 minutes or so. Before 2030, 20 milion BTC will already have been mined, that is, given as reward to people that help the network.
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{ Imagine a sequence of bits generated from the first decimal place of the square roots of whole integers that are irrational numbers. If the decimal falls between 0 and 5, it's considered bit 0, and if it falls between 5 and 10, it's considered bit 1. This sequence from a simple integer count of contiguous irrationals and their logical decimal expansion of the first decimal place is called the 'main irrational stream.' Our goal is to design a physical and optical computing system system that can detect when this stream starts matching a specific pattern of a given size of bits. bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=166760.0 } Satoshi did use a friend class in C++ and put a comment on the code saying: "This is why people hate C++".
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Desensitizer
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December 09, 2013, 02:37:48 AM |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjoI really like that explanation. Not only is it straightforward and easy to understand, it is a visual learning tool too. I don't know about others here but I get a lot out of having a video explanation also. If she is truly invested in learning about bitcoins she should be willing to sit through the video.
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coins101
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December 09, 2013, 02:40:20 AM |
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It's like a ration book, but you can only use it on your computer
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caminilegroup
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December 09, 2013, 02:40:59 AM |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjoI really like that explanation. Not only is it straightforward and easy to understand, it is a visual learning tool too. I don't know about others here but I get a lot out of having a video explanation also. If she is truly invested in learning about bitcoins she should be willing to sit through the video. I showed that to my wife, all she got out of it was she could buy alpaca socks, lol
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beckspace
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December 09, 2013, 02:41:19 AM |
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- Hey, grandma, since when do you remember the prices of food and things always going up?
- Oh, son, since always.
- And do you remember, besides how hard grandpa worked all his life, it was always very hard to save the money because everything keeps going up, until today?
- Yes, son. The poor bastard worked really hard.
- That's because since one hundred years ago our government keeps printing new money, when it needs, and the prices goes up, stealing from workers and savers, like grandpa.
- I imagine. Those motherfuckers! (My grandma swears a lot!)
- So, there's this new money that tries to fix that, it's a computer money. Controlled by machines, not people. And, in theory, the prices of things goes down or stays the same in the long haul when you use it.
- Computers?!
- I understand computers, you know that!
- Oh, son, you're really smart. I hope god gives you everything in double for everything you do!
- Thanks, grandma. It more than doubled already.
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7Priest7
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December 09, 2013, 03:41:06 AM |
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Bitcoin is a e-currency, value is created by the technology that processes the transactions.
^ That should sufficiently explain Bitcoins without confusing anybody or delving too deep. Words like decentralized just confuse individuals with smaller vocabulary's.
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beetcoin
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December 09, 2013, 03:44:42 AM |
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the problem is that in order for her to understand how bitcoin works, she needs to understand everything other than BTC works, especially fiat.
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maxxoccupancy
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December 09, 2013, 03:45:19 AM |
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It's like gold or silver, but you can send it or spend it online without any fees.
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I would like to work on development of a polymorphic altcoin that maintains a stable value and is more resistant to fraud. btc: 15diNSNVontYf5iUvQqnLSQJ9rCAHuwpyJ betyourbits.com LTC: LRqVTEPcS7uusMy7JDqYEUg6KqdhfRWC5B DogECoin: DDHG719WNCCav5MWQQqyxLABFhZTG3jwX3 QRK: QdKnP5SqoG9r4CNuFcY1oesaYUAsu1W5hF
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7Priest7
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December 09, 2013, 03:46:53 AM |
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It's like gold or silver, but you can send it or spend it online without any fees.
Comparing it to physical items or investment ventures will just add confusion. BTC is not physical nor is it intended as a investment vessel.
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caminilegroup
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December 09, 2013, 03:52:04 AM |
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Just tell her
Grandma, bitcoin is nerd porn and I want to collect them all.
Kidding, and yes I know I botched ^ on purpose.
It is going to be hard to explain this to someone who doesn't understand the underlying concepts of how the network works. Notice I didn't say internet, you need to understand networking if you do truly want to understand bitcoin.
Could print out the source to bitcoind and have her read it.
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