I want this to serve as a video you can show someone who doesn’t “get” blockchain or bitcoin but wants to understand why it matters or has value. In the same way, most people using the internet have no idea how it works, you don’t need to fully understand blockchain or bitcoin to benefit from it.
*Note, I say the government controls inflation later in the video but I was referring to most countries like Canada (not the US) where I previously explain the federal reserve controls printing which is not related to the government*
In this, I want to go through some examples and attempt to reillustrate a very insightful piece of wisdom about the problem with money shared by Alan Watts over 60 years ago. As he once said “Money is a measure of wealth. Money is not wealth. Dollars are like inches. They are a way of measuring real wealth which consists of material resources + energy + intelligence. That’s wealth.”
This is a very short clip of his audio from this lecture you can listen to for yourself: https://youtu.be/qeLh29-scdk
*Disclaimer: This is not financial advice and is purely for entertainment purposes.*
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:00 Car Analogy
04:11 Use Cases For Crypto
05:10 The Problem
09:10 Money As Measurement
12:40 Inflation
13:46 The Disconnect
14:45 Money Technology
17:35 Blockchain
19:27 Bitcoin
22:00 Outro
As the title suggests, I’m covering bitcoin and blockchain in a way that is so simplified that it may not be up to standard for a very technical person, but the point of this explanation is to show people why it’s important more so than to explain how it works. Technology has always been taking something simple and making it more complex and more intelligent. This will continue happening and things will keep getting more and more complex, so naturally, it will become more challenging to understand these things. So then, to function in an increasingly technological society that is improving faster than we can comprehend, the main focus should be on how to use the technology and why it matters.
The reason this distinction is so important is that like many other highly complex things, explaining how they work does not help the learner understand it. For example, if a quantum physicist started to explain quantum physics, you might get lost very quickly, but if they were to describe to you the futuristic and amazing possibilities that quantum physics can enable you might be more interested in learning about it and be able to relate to it from the perspective of seeing a problem and a solution.
In the same way, it’s important to look at blockchain and bitcoin as a solution to a very big problem. The issue is that many do not understand or see the problem and thus do not see the need for a solution. In my examples, I go through comparing bitcoin and blockchain technology to other technological advancements and just zeroing in on the point that you only need to understand the basics of how to use it and what it solves. It solves the issues with our financial system which are very complex and hard to explain very simply, but those issues are the inaccuracies of money, the centralization of control over it, and the manipulation allowed for and enabled by that centralization. Some examples I cover and compare to are the internet, quantum physics, and understanding car engine combustion.
Did this help you to better understand bitcoin or blockchain technology? Which was your favorite example? What is the best way to explain blockchain or bitcoin at a high level? Let me know what you think about this in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe!
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