What Bitcoin unit look like in real life

[m2017]

Since I'm new to this development, I'd seen information about the new digital currency (Bitcoin) online as I tried to learn more about it. There are countless articles on blockchain technology and the idea of mining on Google. Google searches return a ton of articles discussing the blockchain system and the idea of mining. However, I've discovered that none truly respond to the query "What is Bitcoin?"
I can produce a one-pound bill for a friend to grasp and inspect if they were to ask me, "What is a pound?" When he inquires about what a bitcoin is, what can I provide for them to review? Is there a list of figures I can print out and use as my reference? Alternatively, should I point to an entry on a public ledger and say, "There! That shows my bitcoin history!"

Basically, I'm curious to know what a bitcoin or any cryptocurrency unit looks like in real life.

This is the peculiarity of bitcoin, that physically it doesn't exist and can't exist, which means that it can't be seen, touched like a coin or banknote. Actually, this is not the most surprising thing about btc. Virtual money has existed before and is very diverse. In fact, when sending bitcoin to someone, either btc is not sent anywhere, but only information about this is transmitted to the blockchain. You can't own a btc, but you can get ownership.

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[Freddie Boyer]

if i'm not mistaken, the best way to use the bitcoins is to keep them safe. Because the more you transact your bitcoin, the difficulty nature of bitcoin transaction increases and it will be easy to loose your bitcoin value. So as you get more number of bitcoins then keep it as safe as possible. And try your best to use them only for trading or paying bills.

[Snowshow]

showing
101111101011110000100000000

or showing


on a forum. is not how value is made

because in both cases they are just displays and explanations of discussion.. not actually part of the value system

if i showed you a picture of a banana on this forum. does not mean you can eat it from the forum
..
if you cannot tell the difference of a discussion forum vs a payment system, then you need to take some time to do some research

learn the rules and functions of the payment system and work within those rules of that payment system to then create new value.

EG
going to a loan shark and asking for a loan. is not creating new money. its borrowing someone elses already created money.
if you want to create new money you have to go to a bank that has the facility to do so.

learn the difference. not all loans create new money

talking about dollars in any discussion platform does not create new dollars.

You're correct because dollar is a debt unit - an instrument of debtors liability created at a bank via loan contract. That's why you cannot create dollars here on the forum. However, bitcoin is just a dozen of binary digits. And those can be created everywhere by anyone. I did it here. You did it here. Nakamoto system does it. Thousands of crypto system as well. It's just that people give different names to those digits. Simply, whoever needs them digits can create them at an instant. So, why are you people spending tons of energy or money to get them?

[xzy887]

if i'm not mistaken, the best way to use the bitcoins is to keep them safe. Because the more you transact your bitcoin, the difficulty nature of bitcoin transaction increases and it will be easy to loose your bitcoin value. So as you get more number of bitcoins then keep it as safe as possible. And try your best to use them only for trading or paying bills.

what are you saying ?
Bitcoin transactions will never be difficult. Because direct p2p transactions can be done through Bitcoin. And here you can easily keep your information secret and transact. If no one but you knows the security of your bitcoin wallet, you will never have trouble with bitcoin transactions. And you will have no fear of losing the value of your bitcoins. Because it is impossible to get security of your wallet there.
So everyone always keep the security protection of your wallet.

[Z-tight]

if i'm not mistaken, the best way to use the bitcoins is to keep them safe. Because the more you transact your bitcoin, the difficulty nature of bitcoin transaction increases and it will be easy to loose your bitcoin value.

You have to keep your BTC safe at all times, nobody wants to lose their money, so the way to avoid losing your money is to keep it safe. BTC transactions is fast and easy all of the time and it doesn't get difficult no matter how many times you make a transaction, maybe you are mistaken it with mining difficulty which increases and decreases with time.

So as you get more number of bitcoins then keep it as safe as possible. And try your best to use them only for trading or paying bills.

Do you mean small amounts of BTC for daily spending may be kept in a hot wallet, and more attention be given to larger sums of BTC as it should be stored in a hardware wallet, that is correct. Though you can freely use your BTC for any purpose, not only for trading or payment of bills.

[kamvreto]

Bitcoin is a digital currency that has no physical form, but has value and is very valuable. Currently, a physical condition is not always needed, let's see if someone is presently using payment with a payment application without physical money.
When someone asks about bitcoin you only need to answer Bitcoin is a decentralized Digital Currency that has a fluctuating value and is very valuable.
and you can use the Bitcoin wallet application to show that you have a number of bitcoins that are very valuable and can be exchanged for Fiat money or to buy some things. Or if you want to have a physical form of bitcoin, many sell Physical Bitcoin Coins which are only used as accessories or souvenirs.

[Hydrogen]

Basically, I'm curious to know what a bitcoin or any cryptocurrency unit looks like in real life.

An officially printed and difficult to duplicate piece of paper, with a public key and private key to electronically stored crypto funds.

With a seal that would be broken when the keys were read. Is what I've always thought physical crypto might resemble.

There are physical cryptocurrencies like kong cash which I seem to remember having a good format:

HOW DOES KONG WORK?

Kong are comprised of a two parts - a physical note with a special purpose secure element, and a time-locked smart contract that mints the Kong asset. The secure element generates a private key which can never be extracted; the public key is stored in the smart contract. Kong is claimable only after expiration AND with a signature from the secure element chip.

Before the note has expired you can treat it just like cash. Unlike fiat cash, the total supply can be trivially audited and unlike crypto, can be exchanged with no records or transactions fees.

https://kong.cash/

[Newlifebtc]

The Bitcoin is not something that you can compare to a life because it is a digital currency so this currency is a currency that we all know how it's okay because anything digital has to do with digital and is not something that you will see physical so the difference between the star currency bitcoin has and Fiat currency is because that can be seen and can be touch why bitcoin cannot be touch but can be seen

[nurilham]

Bitcoin is an illusion created via numbers and word(BTC). It doesn't really exist. Here you have all explained: https://youtu.be/4rWmOq0o1hM

Man, if BTC is an illusion, it can't be tradable and it won't have value.  
It is the fact that BTC is a digital coin and it has value. If it is only an illusion, no one wants to use BTC as a digital asset or a digital currency.
Do you have BTC? Or do you ever sell and buy it on an exchange? People around the world trade BTC on CEX, DEX, or even P2P. It is enough as an indicator that BTC really exists.

[mendace]

Bitcoin is a digital currency, so it does not have a physical form like a one-pound bill. Instead, it exists as a record on a digital ledger called the blockchain. When someone owns bitcoins, they have the ability to access and use them by possessing a digital key that allows them to access their bitcoin address on the blockchain. This key can be stored on a physical device, such as a USB drive, or it can be stored in a digital wallet app on a computer or mobile device. So you can show this, a nice hardware wallet with Bitcoins inside, if you understand the value of this technology then when you hold it in your hand you will be able to feel its full weight.

[n0ne]

Can I ask you a question to answer your question?

How will you show your friends what their money looks like in their Bank account or their Credit card? .... I will show them the digital representation of my Bank balance on my Banking App.... or I will draw a Bank statement from my Bank. 

Now the difference with Bitcoin is this.... there is no centralized Bank..... but rather a decentralized "database" if I can call it that... with the transaction history of all bitcoin transfers that were ever made. Your bitcoins and your transaction history can be drawn from this Blockchain database, with Blockchain explorers. (it consists of a combination of letters and numbers.. like your Bank statement)

This explanation is over simplified to explain it to newbies. 

That's precise and clear. Anyone can understand it in a very simple way. No one knows whether the specified amount is being transferred between the accounts, mere number reflection happens between the buyer and sender done by a third person. We believe in it, just because it have physical presence. With cryptocurrency same thing happens through a decentralised network were we can keep track of every activity associated with the numbers that are completely virtual without physical shape.

[Newlifebtc]

Bitcoin is a digital currency, so it does not have a physical form like a one-pound bill. Instead, it exists as a record on a digital ledger called the blockchain. When someone owns bitcoins, they have the ability to access and use them by possessing a digital key that allows them to access their bitcoin address on the blockchain. This key can be stored on a physical device, such as a USB drive, or it can be stored in a digital wallet app on a computer or mobile device. So you can show this, a nice hardware wallet with Bitcoins inside, if you understand the value of this technology then when you hold it in your hand you will be able to feel its full weight.

Exactly you are right with god does not have a physical form but it has a digital form which you can only see as I said before but cannot touch so what I understand in Bitcoin is is the digital currency that regulate or cycle it itself through digitally but you cannot feel it or see it except the value so if you had currency is something that you can see then have based on their country during the denomination of currency

[sheenshane]

I suggest you read it very carefully the Bitcoin Whitepaper.  Learn and understand every statement so that you'll figure out what Bitcoin looks like.

Based on the Whitepaper said, it's a digital currency form or it looks like numerous lines of codes as posted on the first page that is composed of 1 and 0, which seems like a line of 1s and 0s on a computer screen.  That's how coding works and you'll need to learn, if you know how to read codes, it's written in C++ and can be found on GitHub.

Try to figure out now and explore the beauty of this technology that Bitcoin has.

[franky1]

You're correct because dollar is a debt unit - an instrument of debtors liability created at a bank via loan contract. That's why you cannot create dollars here on the forum. However, bitcoin is just a dozen of binary digits. And those can be created everywhere by anyone.

you are not creating crypto currency on this forum

what you are not realising is money is created within its own monetary systems
bitcoin is created within the bitcoin network via the bitcoin rules and bitcoin never comes out of the network


EG the EU banks create EU bank notes in the EU system.

people do not just create bitcoin/crypto currency by just sending a tweet or message on a discussion forum
it involved code and rules to actually have policy of control and rules of transfer within a monetary system.

if you dont know how monetary systems work. dont waste months thinking you can create money randomly .. instead actually learn where and what the money systems are and the mechanisms involved to create money in those systems

That's why you cannot create dollars here on the forum. 
...
 Thousands of crypto system as well. It's just that people give different names to those digits. Simply, whoever needs them digits can create them at an instant.

fiat is not just dollar.. there are hundreds of fiats. multiple different "dollars"
canadian, australian, sinagore, liberia

but they have their own systems

each crypto currency has its own network and system and policies too.. you do not create a crypto currency by just describing it on a forum

So, why are you people spending tons of energy or money to get them?

different monetary systems have different communities with different reasons or needs to access those systems. they offer different features, different benefits. and different value creation mechanisms

bitcoin offers a deflationary system to hedge against all the fiat inflationary systems

bitcoin has features for international reach that are better and cheaper than fiat remittance abilities and costs and time

the cost of creating new coins within bitcoins system offers long term benefits for that involvement. and the costs then support the underlying value.

for instance PoS coins have a lower cost of creation. meaning when the market speculats to their ATH there is alot of no-value bubble price difference compared to its underlying value amount.
ethereum right now has about a max value line of $50(compared to its $900 value line as pow) so it went to a 1.6x market speculation to a 24x market speculation when it swapped to PoS

bitcoins value line is abut $15k and its market was at a 5x speculation hype bubble when the ATH temporary event last year occured. and is now back to real good value of 1.1x

there is alot you need to learn about monetary systems. their money creation policies. their value discovery and underlying value support amounts. and the speculative markets above value

[ChiBitCTy]

Gavin Andresen, former lead bitcoin developer (appointed by Satoshi) did come up with the idea of "physical bitcoins".  Essentially some posted a coin they had made which is thought to be the first ever produced and Gavin suggest they add and address to the coin by putting the private keys on the back of it, and cover it up.  ( see this and the historical timeline of physical bitcoins here- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5174217.msg52116521#msg52116521 ). 

This sparked the first ever physical bitcoin/physical bitcoin wallet ever.  First BitBills were introduced, then shortly after Casascius.  Casascius made these coins as a way for people to better be able to grasp the concept of bitcoin.  He felt that if people had something in hand, it might help them to better understand the concept.  So this one thing you could try to use to help out.

[GreatArkansas]

Bitcoin is an illusion created via numbers and word(BTC). It doesn't really exist. Here you have all explained: https://youtu.be/4rWmOq0o1hM

Man, if BTC is an illusion, it can't be tradable and it won't have value.  
It is the fact that BTC is a digital coin and it has value. If it is only an illusion, no one wants to use BTC as a digital asset or a digital currency.
(....)

Hahaha, seems this guy is spreading FUD, even provided a youtube link that explains why Bitcoin is a joke.
Bitcoin is really not an illusion because first, a lot of people are participating to make Bitcoin work, computer power, which we called bitcoin mining, helps the Bitcoin network runs. Peer-to-peer.
Second, more than 10 years and Bitcoin is still here, created multiple all-time highs since it was created.

[Fundamentals Of]

What do you mean in real life? Don't you know that Bitcoin is a digital currency, an electronic cash system? There is no bill or coin version of Bitcoin. There is no hard Bitcoin. Even if there are bills and coins representing Bitcoin, they aren't the real Bitcoin. The real Bitcoin is stored in the blockchain. Your Bitcoin is kept in the blockchain. But you have a personal and unique address where Bitcoin could be sent to you and from where you could also send to another.

If you want a material that answers your question "What is Bitcoin?", read the whitepaper.

[Gallar]

try to search on google what is bitcoin? and the results will come out like this,
"Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that can be bought, sold and exchanged directly, without intermediaries such as banks."
then you pay attention to the word digital money, digital money means "all currency, money, or assets similar to money that are primarily managed, stored, or exchanged through digital computer systems, especially through the internet network."
and bitcoin is digital money, so that means it is virtual, and has no form.

[digaran]

You're correct because dollar is a debt unit - an instrument of debtors liability created at a bank via loan contract. That's why you cannot create dollars here on the forum. However, bitcoin is just a dozen of binary digits. And those can be created everywhere by anyone. I did it here. You did it here. Nakamoto system does it. Thousands of crypto system as well. It's just that people give different names to those digits. Simply, whoever needs them digits can create them at an instant. So, why are you people spending tons of energy or money to get them?

Since people are unable to print dollar, they use computer and electricity to mine bitcoin and sell it in exchange of dollar or any other currency, that's called being smart.

[Snowshow]

You're correct because dollar is a debt unit - an instrument of debtors liability created at a bank via loan contract. That's why you cannot create dollars here on the forum. However, bitcoin is just a dozen of binary digits. And those can be created everywhere by anyone.

you are not creating crypto currency on this forum

what you are not realising is money is created within its own monetary systems
bitcoin is created within the bitcoin network via the bitcoin rules and bitcoin never comes out of the network


EG the EU banks create EU bank notes in the EU system.

people do not just create bitcoin/crypto currency by just sending a tweet or message on a discussion forum
it involved code and rules to actually have policy of control and rules of transfer within a monetary system.

if you dont know how monetary systems work. dont waste months thinking you can create money randomly .. instead actually learn where and what the money systems are and the mechanisms involved to create money in those systems

That's why you cannot create dollars here on the forum.  
...
 Thousands of crypto system as well. It's just that people give different names to those digits. Simply, whoever needs them digits can create them at an instant.

fiat is not just dollar.. there are hundreds of fiats. multiple different "dollars"
canadian, australian, sinagore, liberia

but they have their own systems

each crypto currency has its own network and system and policies too.. you do not create a crypto currency by just describing it on a forum

So, why are you people spending tons of energy or money to get them?

different monetary systems have different communities with different reasons or needs to access those systems. they offer different features, different benefits. and different value creation mechanisms

bitcoin offers a deflationary system to hedge against all the fiat inflationary systems

bitcoin has features for international reach that are better and cheaper than fiat remittance abilities and costs and time

the cost of creating new coins within bitcoins system offers long term benefits for that involvement. and the costs then support the underlying value.

for instance PoS coins have a lower cost of creation. meaning when the market speculats to their ATH there is alot of no-value bubble price difference compared to its underlying value amount.
ethereum right now has about a max value line of $50(compared to its $900 value line as pow) so it went to a 1.6x market speculation to a 24x market speculation when it swapped to PoS

bitcoins value line is abut $15k and its market was at a 5x speculation hype bubble when the ATH temporary event last year occured. and is now back to real good value of 1.1x

there is alot you need to learn about monetary systems. their money creation policies. their value discovery and underlying value support amounts. and the speculative markets above value

You're repeating the same irrelevant stuff and ignore the point. The point is that every idiot can create a system that will print numbers. That's why you have the inflation of crypto systems - systems that print numbers. This has absolutely nothing to do with the banking systems that prints debt units(fiat currency units), and secure them with collaterals. Debt units must be returned to the issuer by the debtors and that's why they are valuable. Just like people need food for nutrition or oil for energy they need debt units for loan repayments. On the other hand, whoever needs the numbers - for marking, counting or calculating, can create them in an instant with a keyboard or pencil. And you people are buying numbers or spending tons of energy to "protect" them. You pay  $17K for the number "1" or $170K for the number"10". It's a stupidity never seen before. No matter how much text you write you cannot change that stupidity.