What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin for Dummies. A quick & understandable explanation.

A simple explanation to understand why everyone is talking about Bitcoin.

Dear reader, before you read this article I want you to know this is not financial advice. Do your own research before investing your money. This is an education intended article. I’m just explaining what I wish someone had told me before I started the Cryptocurrencies journey.

If you want to read the Spanish version of this article, you can find it here: ¿Qué es Bitcoin?

Let’s start at the beginning.

As you all know, during human history, money has taken a huge part in how humans have evolved, and specially in how societies have formed themselves around a special kind of money, wether it is fiat money like the one we have nowadays, or seashells as they used to do some time ago. The point is, we (humans) have always found a way to exchange goods for a certain type of currency.

So, Bitcoin is not far from those seashells humans were trading some time ago, except for one thing (well or maybe two, but let’s go step by step).

Bitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency. But what does that mean, you may ask?

It just means that Bitcoin is a type of currency that you can send through the internet, and that no one has control over it.

Now that you know WHAT Bitcoin is, let’s take a look at a serie of advantages that we can find with it, compared to the traditional fiat money we are used to:

• Bitcoin transactions are P2P (Peer to Peer), which means you send your money directly to another person via the Internet, without going through a bank or intermediaries.
• The fees you’ll have to pay to do transactions only depend from the network itself. No one can choose to make you pay more fees just for his own profit.
• You can send it worldwide, to whoever you want, as there are no requisites to owning Bitcoin, anyone with a Bitcoin address can send and receive them.
• No one can freeze your accounts, as only you control them.

In conclusion, no one owns/manages YOUR money apart from YOU.

Alright, I guess you are starting to see Bitcoin’s potential, and why it’s gaining so much popularity over the world, so let me ask you some questions now:

Imagine a society where governments and banks do not have control over their population’s money…

Do you really think it would be worse than the extreme consumerist and competitive society we have found ourselves immersed in since we are in the Dollar Standard?

Haven’t you ever wondered why the most prosperous time in human history was during the Gold Standard?

And what would happen if we transitioned into a society based in a Bitcoin Standard?

Do you think people with the ability to send money to whoever they want, and without a central point of Authority (which can inflate its monetary supply infinitely), would be making longer-term decisions, as they would have faith in their money, or short-term ones as everyone is doing nowadays?

Either if you agree with me or not in these questions, I hope they made you think, or at least I wish that you learned something from my article, and it helped you get a little grasp of what Bitcoin is, and why everyone is talking about it lately.

I hope you liked this article, I just want to say thank you if you reached this far!

Make sure to leave a ‘Clap’ if you enjoyed this article, it supports my work and helps me to keep motivated to write more articles!

And if you do are still worried about something, hit me up at [email protected], and I’ll answer ASAP!

Thanks for reading!