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Explain Bitcoin Like I’m Five
freecode.org ^ | December 12, 2013 | by Nik Custodio

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: bitcoin; bitcoinexplained; btc; crypto; description; explanation
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Its a non metal fiat coin with no intrinsic value.


61 posted on 03/30/2021 1:42:05 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Could I buy a physical Bitcoin? Where would you send the money...ie where are the bitcoins? Who’s the Bitcoin CEO? I’m 5.


62 posted on 03/30/2021 1:48:08 PM PDT by sanjuanbob (Do NOT buy Chinese Products)
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To: Vermont Lt

“... bitcoins can be divided to the 8th places.”

So I could be holding “pieces o’ eight”? Interesting ...


63 posted on 03/30/2021 1:50:27 PM PDT by ByteMercenary (Slo-Joe and KamelToe are not my leaders.)
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To: Vermont Lt

I feel queasy about any kind of digital currency. I think even if it was not a central bank digital currency...”someone” would have control of it. If I had total control...maybe, but it is hard for me to make that connection between a physical dollar bill and something that lives on a computer.

I admit I don’t know much about it, but listening to Gen. Robert Spalding (Who wrote the book “Stealth War” it sounds like the nexus of digital currency and the 5G world is something to watch carefully. The fact that it is part of the plans of Communist China (as he describes in a portion of his book) makes me very uneasy.

I do need to educate myself further, no doubt.


64 posted on 03/30/2021 1:52:58 PM PDT by rlmorel ("I’d rather enjoy a risky freedom than a safe servitude." Robby Dinero, USMC Veteran, Gym Owner)
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To: Rightwing Conspiratr1
Q works for MI-6 and supplies special equipment to 007.,

And here all my friends have been whispering "Mossad."

SMH

65 posted on 03/30/2021 1:58:09 PM PDT by gloryblaze
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Like you are five?

Go to your room.


66 posted on 03/30/2021 2:11:54 PM PDT by Pikachu_Dad ("the media are selling you a line of soap)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Chinese electricity costs what the CCP says it does. All statistics from China are manipulated to make the CCP look good and cannot be trusted.

Electricity is cheap enough that they have cornered the market on bitcoin creation.


67 posted on 03/30/2021 2:15:27 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

If anything, the article attempts to explain blockchain (the “distributed ledger”), the technology behind bitcoin. It does not address bitcoin from a currency aspect.

“Why does/doesn’t it have value?”
“How do I buy it?”
“How do I spend it?”
“What is a ‘digital wallet’?”
etc.

I think the best use for blockchain is with elections (if they people in charge are determined to have digital elections of some sort).


68 posted on 03/30/2021 2:20:24 PM PDT by NaturalScience
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To: aMorePerfectUnion
Do you have anything for two-year-olds?

:)

69 posted on 03/30/2021 2:21:27 PM PDT by amorphous
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To: PROCON
From what I understand, every single bitcoin transaction is carefully recorded and propagated among millions of other computers.

My question is that as billions and billions of transactions are ultimately recorded using bitcoin, that will come to a rather large database of historical transactions. At some point, we might run out of hard drive space to hold them all.

70 posted on 03/30/2021 2:34:18 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (By stealing Trump's second term, the Left gets Trump for 8 more years instead of just four.)
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To: rlmorel

Yeah, I can speak about Bitcoin, and that is that no one is in charge of it. It has been running for about a decade without being hacked or changed.


71 posted on 03/30/2021 2:35:14 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: ByteMercenary

Hence the term “bit” coin.


72 posted on 03/30/2021 2:35:36 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: cgbg

I understand what you are saying. But one country “banning” it isn’t possible. They are not going to shut down the internet. And while the US, for example, might ban it...the rest of the world won’t. It would simply make transactions confirmed off shore.

There is no law that says I cannot barter..

Not directing this at you—but I have to laugh at all the freedom loving, anti deep state people on FR who are willing slaves to the Fed’s debt. I guess when their SS and mil retirements drip from the teat of the Fed they just cuddle up and suckle.


73 posted on 03/30/2021 2:41:01 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: SeekAndFind

And these miners spend serious money on specifically designed CPUs, which suck larger and larger amounts of power for faster and more complex calculations. China is most likely the leader in huge banks of processors and power supplied to these units. In fact, China is in the middle of building faster CPUs. So there are many big boys involved with this.


74 posted on 03/30/2021 2:41:21 PM PDT by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Okay I’ll do it. I’ll explain it like you are 5.

Bitcoin is to make little boys like you ask questions.
When you’re 18 if you do good in school, then we will discuss bitcoin.


75 posted on 03/30/2021 2:46:48 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: aMorePerfectUnion
How many billions are those super smart institutions now losing on the loans to Archegos Capital?

Worked in the business for 30 years. Here's my observations on Wall Street:

Wall Street is a land of many “very smart” people and some “others” as well.

One day, a couple of rocket scientists go into a room. When they come out they have a new “thing” that only they understand but it makes their firm mega-bucks. With their new-found wealth the rocket scientists retire to some new venture.

The competitors see what’s happened and they create their own version of the “thing” and they too start making mega-bucks as well. The thing works fabulously until, one day, it doesn’t.

It seems, with the rocket scientists gone, no one understood the risk but they sure loved the money.

Now, there is gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands by the “others” who run the firms. They fire entire floors full of people who had absolutely nothing to do with it and swear to anyone who will listen, “Never again.”

Then, one day, a couple of rocket scientists go into a room…

76 posted on 03/30/2021 2:56:14 PM PDT by Renkluaf
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Bkmrk


77 posted on 03/30/2021 2:56:21 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (RIP my "teddy bear". )
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Hmmm... i’ll take a crack at this....

I see you are holding some money issued by our federal government that is based solely on faith instead of gold reserves.

Well... I happen to have in my hands, hidden behind my back(hands empty), something that will be far more valuable than your money... would you like to buy some?

Now... you wont get to see what i’m holding, but you can trust me... I will hold onto it for you, so I can make it grow and be worth even more. Everyone else is investing in this, so you know it is something you can trust.

So... how many of my bitcoins would you like to buy? (which i will keep for you)


78 posted on 03/30/2021 3:00:24 PM PDT by Safrguns
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

“Tulips”, thought I.


79 posted on 03/30/2021 3:25:56 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: aMorePerfectUnion
Last night my crypto portfolio broke it’s all time high.

Good for you. You have now been demonstrated to be smarter than a lot of other people who came into this pyramid scheme later.

80 posted on 03/30/2021 3:27:20 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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