Five definitions can make it easy to understand Bitcoin. This cryptocurrency can be considered as money, a game, a land grab, and a human right.
The cryptocurrency par excellence, born 10 years ago, has passed from being connected with drugs on the Internet to being an asset, a right and a savings vehicle. It is so multifaceted that only rare people could claim to fully understand it.
If Bitcoin novices absorb these five definitions of Bitcoin, they will become aware that they can enter the network simply by buying Bitcoin fractions.
Bitcoin is Money
Despite exceptional levels of price volatility throughout its short life, Bitcoin has demonstrated its ability to be used as money worldwide. It is still not possible to buy products everywhere, but it will be possible to exchange this crypto currency for US dollars. Currently, robust markets to exchange Bitcoin for dollars, euros and Amazon gift cards are flourishing worldwide.
A gold coin can be used to buy a dinner, but it is not easy to find someone to exchange it for dollars. The same happens with Bitcoin as several million people worldwide already own bitcoins to store wealth.
Bitcoin is a Land Grab
Bitcoin is scarce, just like the amount of land on earth. While an increasing number of people move from the English pound sterling, the Japanese yen and the US dollar to Bitcoin, the lands of Bitcoin will only become more expensive and difficult to find.
People without bitcoins will have to borrow them, similarly to how those without property rent it. The land grab for Bitcoin will continue because people, companies and governments will not be able to afford to be Bitcoin tenants instead of owners. Bitcoin’s price has increased in the long term because it is being treated as premium real estate. As there is no single gatekeeper in the Bitcoin world, every person is a potential property owner.
Bitcoin is a Game
Bitcoin is not backed by any government, which leads to comparing it to a game. Since the creation of Bitcoin rules, they have been continuously enforced by thousands of players every ten minutes on average.
Bitcoin rules for money creation and value transfer have proven extremely reliable, encouraging more people to join the game. Software downloaded onto computers or phones allows playing, without requiring the learning of all the rules, but what must be clear is that there are rules.
Bitcoin Works like E-Mail
The computer science behind e-mail may not be understood, but the concept of sending and receiving e-mail is universally known. E-mail addresses can be shared, but only the password holder can access messages. Similarly, a public Bitcoin address can be shared with anyone sending money, which can only be spent with a password (or private key). Some consider Bitcoin hard to use, but people just need to get used to it. Understanding and using Bitcoin will become as commonplace as understanding and using e-mail, that is, sending and receiving.
Bitcoin is a Human Right
Buying food in California with Bitcoin is not revolutionary, but doing it in Venezuela is. With this savings vehicle, anyone worldwide can store money safe from corrupt governments. Bitcoin is an alternative form of money that should be accessible to those that want to own it.
Currently, billions of people send and receive information through the Internet. In the future, billions of people will be able to receive and send value through the Bitcoin network. This should be considered a human right: communicating on the Internet is freedom of expression and Bitcoin is freedom of money exchange.
By Willmen Blanco
