In the old days, a bit coin was one on which someone had done a tooth test, to determine if it was really a genuine gold coin, or not.
(Don't even ask what a "byte of corn" was, back then!)
Posted on 03/30/2021 12:20:14 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
If you still can’t figure out what the heck a bitcoin is…
I have one apple with me. I give it to you.
You now have one apple and I have zero.
That was simple, right?
My apple was physically put into your hand.
You know it happened. I was there. You were there. You touched it.
We didn’t need a third person there to help us make the transfer. We didn’t need to pull in Uncle Tommy (who’s a famous judge) to sit with us on the bench and confirm that the apple went from me to you.
The apple’s yours! I can’t give you another apple because I don’t have any left. ...You have full control over that apple now. You can give it to your friend if you want, and then that friend can give it to his friend.
What if we gave this ledger — to everybody? Instead of the ledger living on a Blizzard computer, it’ll live in everybody’s computers. All the transactions that have ever happened, from all time, in digital apples will be recorded in it.
You can’t cheat it. I can’t send you digital apples I don’t have, because then it wouldn’t sync up with everybody in the system. It’d be a tough system to beat. Especially if it got really big.
The rules of the system were already defined at the beginning. And the code and rules are open-source. ...
You could participate in this network too and update the ledger and make sure it all checks out. For the trouble, you could get like 25 digital apples as a reward. In fact, that’s the only way to create more digital apples in the system.
(Excerpt) Read more at freecodecamp.org ...
A Van Gogh might be worth 100 million dollars. That's only for the condition of full bellies, warm houses and no cares in the world.
It's worth a 100 million in a supercilious world.
In practical terms, it is worth mostly nothing.
And there lies the crack in your explanation big enough to hold the entire internet. No one person or entity holds single control. The entire Bitcoin community shares the responsibility of ensuring it's security, utility, and sustainability.
Sometimes, like any community, there are differences of opinion in what's best for all. In those cases, when those involved can't come to some agreement, a fork results and a new cryptocurrency emerges.
BCH, SBTC, ..., are examples of forks of the BTC blockchain. Each have their own community of supporters and maintainers.
I dare say the one will very likely open the door to the other. I recall seeing an article which said this idea was being floated in Washington DC.
Force everyone into digital currency controlled by Washington DC, and outlaw everything else.
It is only worth what other potential owners are willing to pay.
In practical terms, it is worth mostly nothing.
Agree.
I "came into" this about 4 months ago.
Moving the goalpost.
Buying Archegos is not buying bitcoin.
Bitcoin is not unknown, like the object behind your back.
BTC is fully known, code is open source, written about massively, and valued by people and institutions and States daily.
The unknown object behind your back is simply unknown.
As for not being able to lay eyes on it...
I use electricity every day. My understanding is rudimentary. I can't see it. It has great value to me.
(Don't even ask what a "byte of corn" was, back then!)
I got lost after line 5/6
My point is that this is only true during conditions of prosperity and world wide calm. I guess my mind always thinks about the potential for everything to go badly in the future, and as a consequence I believe people should design their lives for robustness and assume that bad things are going to happen for which they need to be prepared.
I should not be surprised if China invades Taiwan within a year or so.
Best to have real world tangible assets, but that's just me.
A bubble then.
The confusion here is ‘your wallet’ how secure is this? If lost or damaged and no longer working; There goes the Nest Egg?
Fearful of on line shopping and the spies among us. How is
Bit Coin better? Perhaps the article will share a few answers.
PS...
Thanks aMorePerfectUnion. A Five Year Old is above the grade here! LOL a pre-K.
You can move your coins to a cold wallet where you will be holding them instead of an exchange like Binance or Bittrex.
“ My point is that this is only true during conditions of prosperity and world wide calm.”
Maybe.
There are always a group with $
Go on Reddit subreddit Crypocurrency you’ll learn a lot more there.
“ Best to have real world tangible assets, but that’s just me.”
Personal preference, I guess.
I have both.
I stashed them in multiple legal jurisdictions.
+1.
“ I like to see and touch my assets.
Weren’t you warned as a child about that?!
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