What Crypto?
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What is crypto? In my yesterday's post, I had written about why everyone needs a bitcoin. And while I explained and gave my point of view on why everyone needs a bitcoin, I, however, found out that there are a lot of people who don't know what crypto is.
When I started to explain about crypto to someone, they asked me, What is crypto? What is crypto? And not many people in my general life know about crypto.
Even if they do know, they have a lot of misconceptions about what actually crypto is, and if it is safe for them to buy it, or if it is not.
The Problem With Explaining Crypto
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When I try to start explain what crypto is to normal people, it sounds like a lot of mumbo-jumbo, and crypto jargon, and difficult words that people don't want to invest their time and their mental efforts to understand it.
What People Think About Cryptocurrencies
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Some people think that cryptocurrencies are digital currency just like your money. But they miss the point.
It's not like your money. It has value, like your money, but it is not exactly like your money.
Today I'm going to attempt to do what I haven't done in a very long time. I'm going to try and explain to you what Bitcoin is in a very, very simple language.
If you understand it, if it helps you, then please don't forget to leave a comment below. And if you don't understand, then please don't forget to complain so that I can improve in my next post.
What is Bitcoin?
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What is Bitcoin? In simple terms, Bitcoin is money by the people, for the people, created by Satoshi Nakamoto.
The protocol has been developed and maintained by thousands and thousands of people across the world.
You can read the whole history of Bitcoin, you can go and check the comments, the discussion that led to the development of Bitcoin on the forum, and eventually it was launched and the founder just decided to vanish.
Money of the People
Like I said, Bitcoin is a digital currency created by the people. It is money that has been created by people.
If you live in the United States of America, the US dollar is printed by the United States government or the Federal Reserve.
If you live in, let's say, England, the money is printed by the government of the United Kingdom.
But Bitcoin is not created, it is not developed, it is not printed by any government. It is created by efforts by normal people from around the world.
For Beginners
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I won't go into much detail because if you are a noob, by noob I mean novice, if you are a novice then you would not be able to understand everything.
So let's just focus on what it is, what it can do, and how you can do what you need to do with Bitcoin.
Sending Bitcoin Anywhere
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With a Bitcoin wallet, you can send your Bitcoin or your digital money, as you may wish to call it, to anyone across the world.
There are no intermediaries, there is no bank, no third party looking over your transaction.
A Bitcoin transaction can be completely anonymous. No one will know that you have sent this cryptocurrency to someone else that might be living in Russia, or Indonesia, or Fiji, or Mauritius, or America, or maybe even the International Space Station.
Faster Transactions and Privacy
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The transactions are usually instant. It might take a few minutes, but usually it gets completed within a few minutes.
If you compare it with the traditional banking system, takes like 30 minutes, paypal takes another few minutes, and there are several third-party middlemen who look at your transactions, they look at your name, your personal details, and there is no privacy.
While on the other hand, Bitcoin provides some privacy. It might not be 100% anonymous, but there is a certain level of privacy attached to it.
A Real-Life Example
I remember one of my crypto friends told me once that a long time ago he was into import and export business in his country and sending money and receiving money was a big hassle.
The banks took a lot of commission and even after paying that, it took sometimes a day or sometimes it took three days for him to send the money to his vendors.
So he was searching online about quick ways to send money and he stumbled upon Bitcoin.
What happens next is that this guy starts using Bitcoin at a very very initial stage, maybe around 2012-2014 era, when Bitcoin was not even $3000 or $4000, it was less than that.
I may be wrong, I don't have the price on the top of my mind, but you guess it.
So this guy starts sending his money to his vendors in China through Bitcoin.
They were receiving Bitcoin within a few minutes and they were happy. There was no bank and the fees that took or the transaction fees was much much lower than what traditional banks were charging back then.
My friend tells me that he has paid hundreds and thousands of dollars in transaction fees.
He eventually had to stop doing that because obviously government wouldn't allow that.
So for a few years or many years he was able to send and receive money or let's say send and receive monetary value bypassing all the regular third party scrutiny and delays.
And reached his client or his vendor within a few minutes.
The Power of Bitcoin
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Before I end this article, let me tell you a few things. Bitcoin is a type of money that is not controlled by any single entity.
It's controlled, decentralized by hundreds and thousands of people who run Bitcoin nodes on their computers, on their machines, and it is governed by independent people.
It's a technology. It is a powerful piece of technology. The last 13 to 14 years has proved what Bitcoin can do to the world.
A powerful piece of technology can be used to enhance humanity, or it can be used to bypass the government's scrutiny, or it can be used to do stuff that is not good for humanity.
My opinion is that you use it to benefit humanity. Use Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency so that you can reach your clients faster, so that you can send money to your windows quick enough.
Don't try to escape the government control, but use the latest technology. Use Bitcoin for the good of humanity.
Save dogs, save animals, save children, save trees and forests, send money across the oceans to organizations that are doing this good work.
So that's all from my side. Hope you enjoyed reading this post. I'll come back tomorrow and write more. Until then, have a wonderful day.