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This is an opinion editorial by Mark Maraya, author of “Rainmaking Made Simple” and Holly Young, a builder in the Portuguese Bitcoin community.
We’ve all been there. You’re at a social event and a friend, acquaintance, or relative comes up to you and says, “You were into Bitcoin, right?” You know you have their attention for a while to give them an overview and pique their interest. So how do you make them understand such a complex, multifaceted subject?
Here are some ideas to pick and choose the next time you find yourself in that situation!
Centralization is the enemy of wealth
Any centralized coin can be taken away from you in two ways. You can do this directly by withdrawing it from your bank account, just like it happened Greece In 2015 and 2016, when people lost 20% of what they had in their accounts due to government haircuts or reduced access to your own assets, As has now been shown The US and UK are doing this to Russian companies or individuals during the current crisis in relations around Ukraine. Second, since all of our fiat currencies are centralized, we can do this through inflation – the government prints more money, which means everything in your bank account loses value – and effectively robs you of your purchasing power.
Bitcoin is a new type of digital money that will never be issued or controlled by a company or government. It is a new form of money that we have never seen before and is a 21st century hedge against inflation and central bank money printing. Unlike the US dollar, it is a rare digital asset backed by a wall of encrypted real-world energy. These currencies were at par with the US dollar ten years ago and are now worth 20,000 times more Further than the dollar.
Because it’s scarce and completely decentralized, it’s deflationary and no one can take it away from you as long as you keep it in storage not connected to the Internet.
What is Bitcoin?
The term bitcoin actually means two things: Bitcoin is an asset (currently 20,000 times more than USD) and The Bitcoin Network It’s growing faster than the Internet or Facebook or Amazon. Bitcoin assets travel on decentralized digital rails (a shared distributed ledger where a record of all Bitcoin transactions is kept) across tens of thousands of devices and computers. This digital asset is a 21st century storage technology that uses military-grade encryption and allows value and wealth to be stored on a smartphone or hardware device called a wallet.
If you learn the language of Bitcoin, its buyers cannot directly or indirectly (through inflation) steal the fruits of their labor (or life force) and wealth using software, math and energy. Anyone who owns government-issued currency (and that’s all of us) is watching their wealth melt away like an icicle in the sun. Anyone concerned about keeping their wealth in the future (and that should be all of us, especially those who have children and want to leave them a legacy) should wake up and smell the coffee. Fiat currencies are losing their value fast, and while Bitcoin is still volatile, everything will hold its value for a long time.
The Bitcoin network has never been hacked
In 13 years. The Bitcoin network is solid.
How Bitcoin Works in a Nutshell
Bitcoin runs on a blockchain. As its name suggests, a blockchain is made up of blocks. Each time a new block is confirmed it is added to the blockchain. Bitcoin blocks are confirmed by computers called miners, and every time a miner solves the math problem that confirms a block, it is rewarded with new bitcoin written in the original Bitcoin code. It takes a lot of energy and is the system that keeps the Bitcoin blockchain secure.
Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive process that creates new coins and maintains a record of all transactions performed on the Bitcoin network since its inception. Bitcoin miners take real-world energy (both tapped and renewable) and turn it into monetary energy that will outlast your grandchildren. The more power Bitcoin miners use, the more secure and unhackable the network becomes.
The protocol has a fixed distribution schedule that releases 6.25 coins to the network every 10 minutes. Distribution output will be halved to 3.125 cents every 10 minutes in 2024.
Every time a Bitcoin transaction is made, it is recorded in the next block. Once a block is confirmed and added to the blockchain it can never be deleted.
Who Uses Bitcoin?
More and more people are using Bitcoin. In the first half of 2021, the number of Bitcoin users is estimated to have increased by less than 165 per minute (“How fast is bitcoin growing?“). That’s a lot of people and a lot of growth.
Bitcoin is the first and only digital asset to be named legal tender by a nation state. Bitcoin is the first and only asset in history to be named a top Treasury holding by Fortune 500 company and intelligence software firm MicroStrategy.
Here’s what their CEO Michael Saylor had to do to tell about It is:
“We changed our balance sheet from a depreciating asset to an appreciating asset. So we have two professions. One is an enterprise software business and the other is a digital asset business. So why did we do it? Defensively, I don’t want to lose money or destroy the value of the company. Wealth perishes. The second level is opportunistic, where we can buy a high-quality asset. A digital asset is better than an analog asset. The third phase is strategic. Better buy Cyber Manhattan before everyone moves here. If Bitcoin is worth 100% per year and I can borrow fiat for 5%, my arbitrage is 95%. Why wouldn’t I do that?”
There is a lot of negativity about Bitcoin in the press
If we look back in history, it is very rare for a newcomer to be dethroned without a fight. The fiat banking system has been virtually king since its invention by the Medici. It will not go quietly. The fiat system was able to dictate the terms and its employees profited enormously from doing so. Upstart King Arthur pulled the sword from the stone, against all odds, until Bitcoin came along. Do central banks and governments want it? They won’t.
This is one of the main reasons central bankers attack and spread lies about Bitcoin.
What are those lies? This is not supported by anything. It wastes energy. It is volatile. It is controlled by billionaires. It has no practical uses. It is primarily used by criminals and terrorists. It’s a ponzi scheme.
Trash. Bitcoin has the potential to disrupt the status quo – hence why it’s so maligned by whoever holds the microphone right now.
You can buy a fraction of a bitcoin
Of course, most of us don’t have 20,000 odd dollars with which to buy an entire bitcoin. A bitcoin is divided into one hundred million satoshis – that is, if you want, you can invest 10 dollars in bitcoin as an initial investment.
“Bitcoin is our silent weapon against central bank-driven time theft.” – Ross Stevens
“Bitcoin is a currency for the people, backed by the people.” — Sylvain Laurel
This is a guest post by Mark Maraya and Holly Young. The views expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
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