Shower thought. Why is Bitcoin hard to define?

[traderethereum]

Bitcoin is a new way for people to make money, it is available on the internet for now, but in another country, it is available in our real life. So you can pay your expenses in monthly using bitcoin, you can have a new investment type besides gold, you can make more money from bitcoin by trading.
I think you can try to explain that, so I think it will make them curious and want to know more. Then you can try to explain a bit of detail about bitcoin and ask them to search on the internet. You don't have to explain about peer-to-peer or blockchain technology because that will too complicated to them. Just explain the simple explanation, and I hope that they can understand and want to use google to help them.

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[jakelyson]

You should not define bitcoin to a newbie in one go. They will be overwhelmed with the information that you will be feeding them. It is better to just describe it in the simplest word you can but enough to arouse curiousity. If he gets interested enough, he will research it on his own.

[dupee419]

A non-Bitcoiner friend asked me, "What is Bitcoin?", I was unable to answer directly as my mind was racing to find an answer. My first instinct was to tell him that it was a "peer to peer digital ecash for the internet", but should something global, trustless, provably scarce, independent, open, and censorship-resistant be described as something so shallow?

Bitcoin is much more, but it's very hard to find the words to describe it.

I don't think the problem is defining Bitcoin to people who are not familiar with it, the real problem here is not by defining what BTC is but to find the most effective answer that will make them convinced about Bitcoin, the real question is how can we define BTC to these non-bitcoiners without making them doubt and convincing them that BTC is real.

[0t3p0t]

A non-Bitcoiner friend asked me, "What is Bitcoin?", I was unable to answer directly as my mind was racing to find an answer. My first instinct was to tell him that it was a "peer to peer digital ecash for the internet", but should something global, trustless, provably scarce, independent, open, and censorship-resistant be described as something so shallow?

Bitcoin is much more, but it's very hard to find the words to describe it.

I agree. People arround us that does not have an idea about Bitcoin or cryptocurrency in general will find themselves hard to understand the terms used most especially in technical terms. In my case I just told my friends and relatives that Bitcoin is a new form of money online that can be used as a payment method or investment purposes. For me it doesn't matter on how I explain to them but if they are really interested with Bitcoin I know that they will find an answer for themselves because google is always there to help them.

[CryptoMobster]

That old magic internet money. I get your point. Certainly when explaining it to a new person

[EdenHazard]

Recently I read an article about bitcoin in medium and the tittle of article is You don't understand bitcoin because you think money is real you can read article fully on medium. I think that is the interesting article and we can have an imagine hos to discribe about bitcoin to other people easily. As you may know, the currency always real from time to time (including barter) this thing that makes we have a difficult way to discribe about bitcoin as we assume bitcoin is money. Because a new person who just know bitcoin will be difficult to understand how bitcoin works and what bitcoin is because of they can't hold it.

[manok jepang]

it is difficult to explain to laymen about virtual money, even many consider bitcoin as the latest gambling on the internet.

[mk4]

*snip*

If you really aren't stupid(lol), it's simply most likely because your friend is simply not explaining it well for a non-technical person. When explaining online, we frequently throw words like "decentralized", "peer-to-peer", "open source", and the like, not taking into consideration the person listening might not even know what these words exactly mean. Hence I frequently use the statement "transacting with bitcoin doesn't need a mediator company"; because based on experience, people tend to understand it better that way.

[AjithBtc]

When my friend introduced bitcoin to me, it was truly hard to believe. This is all because of its virtual presence without a physical state. The same thing will happen with each and every common man who has been using fiat throughout his life. Now e-wallets have helped with the digital service for the same fiat, so through some technical difficulties it can be explained according to the effort taken.

[xvids]

When ever someone ask me that question I would just tell them that it is a crypto currency,
And if they ask about the value I would just simple say that the value depends on the demand it is just like a stock market the people are responsible for the price it depend on the stock and demand.

[jojohamasa]

A non-Bitcoiner friend asked me, "What is Bitcoin?", I was unable to answer directly as my mind was racing to find an answer. My first instinct was to tell him that it was a "peer to peer digital ecash for the internet", but should something global, trustless, provably scarce, independent, open, and censorship-resistant be described as something so shallow?

Bitcoin is much more, but it's very hard to find the words to describe it.

I have been asked the same thing several times before and what is my answer? I just tell them that bitcoin is a way to earn money in the internet. I answer like that because I believe that most people will be interested to learn more about something which is related to "earning money". Once they are interested then I will tell them more about it, my main idea is to attract them to learn about bitcoin. So we should have an attractive answer to make them curious about it.

Your style is a good entry point to gain interest in the bitcoin
I suggest you talk to them about financial freedom, low cost of financial transactions as well as disposal of bank control.

[pixie85]

It's hard to define when you're talking with someone who doesn't use a smartphone at all. Or someone who has a computer but uses it only to check social media and google things.

If you're talking to a young person who uses electronics every day you should tell them that bitcoin is electronic money that allows you to make fast and cheap payments everywhere in the world but doesn't depend on central authority like fiat money.

[bhabygrim]

I don't think that it is hard to define just tell them that it is like gold or stocks the only difference is it is on the internet and it is decentralized.
And the small piece of it is called Satoshi or Bits.

[kucritt]

hahaha you are right, id we said bitcoin is the digital currency, i think its not wrong, but its not correct 100%. we need to define bitcoin with their system on it, like the blockchains system that used on bitcoin network, the decentralized system. we should define it all ahhahahaS

[Mometaskers]

A non-Bitcoiner friend asked me, "What is Bitcoin?", I was unable to answer directly as my mind was racing to find an answer. My first instinct was to tell him that it was a "peer to peer digital ecash for the internet", but should something global, trustless, provably scarce, independent, open, and censorship-resistant be described as something so shallow?

Bitcoin is much more, but it's very hard to find the words to describe it.

Since I don't live in the US, the first thing I tell people is to try to think of it as a dollar. You can hold and exchange it later or you can use it to pay directly if someone is willing to accept it without conversion. Usually enough for them to realize it's really not much different from the cash in their wallets.

I rarely talk about the blockchain to anyone unless they seem curious enough since it tend to confuse people.

[misterjo]

bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, where you can send money anywhere in the world with low commissions or also buy products ... then it is already explained other things if possible (such as investment, trading or ways to earn money)

[pooya87]

Bitcoin is much more, but it's very hard to find the words to describe it.

it only seems hard because we haven't had to do it that often. how many times does someone ask you what bitcoin is? if you explain it a couple of times then it will become easier. besides it is usually harder to explain things that we understand ourselves and have never had to explain them. for example if someone asks you "what is a bank", "what is starbucks",... you will have the same hard time coming up with some explanation.

[Mastercon]

You don't need to describe about bitcoin or give any definition since its hard for newbie to understand bitcoin. All you have to do is tell him that its a digital currency. More you go deep more than chances he don't understand. Ask him to try bitcoin himself it can help him to understand proper about bitcoin

[Indrawan77]

It is hard to define because its a sophisticated technology, but you can explain about it as simple as possible, you can just said it's a digital currency that don't need a third party, it could give people freedom to used, there are many ways to describe bitcoin, and it's easier to explain when you give them the example in practical

[TravelMug]

A non-Bitcoiner friend asked me, "What is Bitcoin?", I was unable to answer directly as my mind was racing to find an answer. My first instinct was to tell him that it was a "peer to peer digital ecash for the internet", but should something global, trustless, provably scarce, independent, open, and censorship-resistant be described as something so shallow?

Bitcoin is much more, but it's very hard to find the words to describe it.

Well it's really hard to explain especially for people who are not technically inclined. I would just say it's  "digital money", simply as that.

But it gets more complicated if he/she started to questions more about it and that where the problem arises. You can throw a lot of words that doesn't ring a bell to them. That's why it's better to have a sit down talk with that person so that he can truly understand why bitcoin is.