Shower thought. Why is Bitcoin hard to define?

[Wind_FURY]

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.

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[Ailmand]

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.

If you are actually intending to explain it to a newbie, it is better to just give them a simple and short definition of bitcoin which is a digital currency. Then explain it's convenience. Do not explain the whole scope of bitcoin, trust me I have been into crypto for 5 years and I still find it boring to hear technical and deep conversations about crypto. LOL!

[Gaff]

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.

Lack of education is making it harder to define mate, and if a person got an adequate idea from bitcoin on how it changes lives from scratch to wealth; I guess describing it would be easy. When there's a friend that would like to ask me about what's with bitcoin, then I simply can tell him/her to just try to view my facebook posts and take a review last two years ago.
Definitely after that, they'll do me some private messages saying how did you do that? The answer behind it was because of bitcoin. Money can define how bitcoin is, and it was just like a kind of number can be appreciated through internet. Without the power of Internet connection, we can't make money through bitcoin and everything goes smooth because of it. Bitcoin brought me up from proverty towards having property as well, and changes the way of life I had.

[Bitinity]

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.

[pushups44]

The problem is that the average person has no real-life experience with blockchain technology, so the words used to describe it make no sense. I might say, "Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency based on blockchain technology or a distributed ledger," but that would probably lead to confusion over the terms used. This is where it might take some patience and simple analogies to get the message across.

[MiguelCryptoss]

Whatever that's seem new in term of technology, to me seem very difficult to define because of the technology developing phase. Believe me that some terms are still coming in even though the technology has spent 10 years. In few years fro now, this technology (Bitcoin) will not be difficult to define even to the illiterates around us.

Have tried explained Bitcoin to my wife, but the harder i tried the difficult she find it to comprehend. Since she has be doing some personal research on her own, its pretty good to know that she is doing well at the moment.

[okala]

To define what bitcoin is may be some time difficult most especially when you are trying to define it to a newbie, but in simplest form you can say bitcoin is a digital currency that is not controlled by any individual or institution and decentralized which is send in a peer to peer method of transactions without third party involvement, and the blockchain is the digital bitcoin bank because it runs on it.

[talkbitcoin]

i think you may be too hard on yourself. i would easily tell them that it is a new form of money and if they needed more explanation then i would go into more details as what it is and how it works, what decentralization means,... and things like that. but generally it depends on the person asking, sometimes to explain more means making it harder for some people to grasp it.

[dothebeats]

It's really hard to define one thing if the complex things come rushing into your mind first and completely forgetting about the simpler terms which are easier to comprehend by laymen. This has been discussed for plenty of times in this forum and there doesn't seem to be one universal definition in which bitcoin would fit. Anyways, here's my take:

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency that can either be an investment (for profits) or be used as a form of payment if someone would be willing to accept it.

[sheenshane]

I have been related scenario of what has OP said, but this is what I told to my friend that "digital money which can use peer to peer transactions on the internet and we can also make a profit in buying low and sell high price". In that way of explaining the might get tempted if they are interested. Majority of them who asked was now a crypto enthusiast and doing trading as well. There are too many ways you to answer them and depends upon on how you approach and must explain to them the possible risk to avoid for you to blame if they get failed on investing, but so far none of them.

[amishmanish]

It really is hard to define in an easy to understand and exciting enough manner. I think the problem is that you cannot define it in the same way for everyone.

There are different facets to bitcoin that a person will find interesting depending on his/ her background, education and intention. I'll attempt a few examples:

1. If its a tech-savvy person, you can just tell them that it is  "Money generated by a combination of mathematics, cryptography and internet".
2. If its a financially-literate, business-minded guy, you can say its "Border less and regulation-free method for raising and storing capital"
3. If its a professional from a different field (Lawyer, doctor, teacher), you can tell them its "The limited edition version of new money that only the most tech-savvy, internet people can access and that they shouldn't miss out".
4. If its your grandmother, maybe then "It is the one investment to recession-proof your pension and legacy (show her the physical coins)".

What more can you add?

[lyks15]

It is true. Bitcoin is hard to explain but easy to understand when you show it how to do it and how to use it. Like in lesson in school when your teacher teach about every problem procedure it is hard to understand but when you apply it in actual activity you can understand easily and you can perform it well. Likewise in bitcoin you can easily understand it when you try to invest on it rather than reading articles about bitcoin.

[joeperry]

~snip~

Exactly but since my friends of mine are not really into technical stuff and even I told them the technical term of Bitcoin they still won't understand it but to explain it in a simple way I always tell to them that "It's an online money that's volatile because it's price is defined by the buyers and also depends into demands and supply of it" from this they have an idea what a bitcoin is but yes... it's much more. Anonymity, mode of transaction, investment, trading... it's flexible for what i'm seeing it's really a complicated stuff that a non technical or semi technical persons won't easily understand.

[The Cryptovator]

I know its little bit hard to explain about bitcoin to nebiwe whoever not yet involved with it. Although your explanation is correct but they will not understand by this way. Short answer should be, bitcoin is a virtual currency. Then step by step you have to explain how it is work. I answer like this if someone ask me. If you can explain that how it would be convert in real money then they will interested on bitcoin. Otherwise newbie will not believe on it.

[Haunebu]

It really is hard to define in an easy to understand and exciting enough manner. I think the problem is that you cannot define it in the same way for everyone.

There are different facets to bitcoin that a person will find interesting depending on his/ her background, education and intention. I'll attempt a few examples:

1. If its a tech-savvy person, you can just tell them that it is  "Money generated by a combination of mathematics, cryptography and internet".
2. If its a financially-literate, business-minded guy, you can say its "Border less and regulation-free method for raising and storing capital"
3. If its a professional from a different field (Lawyer, doctor, teacher), you can tell them its "The limited edition version of new money that only the most tech-savvy, internet people can access and that they shouldn't miss out".
4. If its your grandmother, maybe then "It is the one investment to recession-proof your pension and legacy (show her the physical coins)".

What more can you add?

I can add this for people of all ages: Basically, if you need to pay without the government noticing your transactions in an anonymous manner, Bitcoin is your solution which is an alternate currency to FIAT, credit cards, Paypal etc.

If financial anonymity is your concern, Bitcoin is what you need.

[mk4]

Because besides the technical specifications behind it, bitcoin is pretty much fundamentally different for each person. Bitcoin might be a currency for Bob in the Philippines, whereas bitcoin might be a store-of-value of Mike in Venezuela, or maybe both for some people on other countries.

I personally have this problem too. I have so much different definitions of bitcoin on my mind that I really don't know which one to say when someone asks me about it. LOL. Not to mention the number of different definitions increases more and more as I learn more about bitcoin. One thing's for sure though, I never describe bitcoin as an investment, as people shouldn't be doing in the first place.

[Leonardo7]

I think it will be simple to tell newcomers that bitcoin is a type of money that is used online or over the internet and it has a limited supply unlike the dollar and that it doesn't exist as a tangible substance, also that it rises and fall in the market.

[kyucryp]

if I get a question like you. I will answer, if bitcoin is one of the blockchain-based digital currencies that we can use for investment and trade. and we can use it to transact if there are sellers who accept crypto currencies. and I will introduce crypto currencies so that your friends will get to know all crypto currencies.

[Cacingkemi]

You should answer that bitcoin is an asset in the form of a currency that is on a peer to peer basis that you have said yeah, IMO the short definition that bitcoin is an investment like oil but not real in the very rare sense but even though not real bitcoin is very beneficial and has high popularity. There is also something you have to say that bitcoin is easier to used well you should be able to answer it.

[Reppeps1417]

I was a "Non-bitcoiner" before  , and I often ask my friend who's into bitcoin about it.
Every time he tries to explain it to me I would  feel like a grandma who ask my grandson about the internet. ??

It seem so clear to him what he is explaining  but every term he uses confuses me and make me jump from one
idea to another. I'm not that stupid either, I even consider my self to be  knowledgeable about technology.

But when I really invested in knowing what bitcoin is all about I was like "Well that was that.. Okk soo it all make sense to me now~"

Its nature of being abstract does not help on constructing it in your thoughts  and followed by technical terms to define and support the main definition well that's one way to confuse someone