Bitcoin for boomers - well, how do you explain to an older person - mom, dad, friend - the idea of cryptocurrencies and the fact that you might want to own at least some digital currency? We will try to help you with this very article! Bitcoin for Boomers We got the idea to write this text after the last "affair" with JK Rowling. This is because she became interested in the topic of cryptocurrencies. She simply wanted to understand what Bitcoin is. The cryptocurrency community started to provide educational help to the famous author of Harry Potter books. Unfortunately, the effect was... unsatisfactory. You can read more about it here. Only that in the writer's place could have been your mom, dad or anyone else who has heard about Bitcoin but didn't understand what all the fuss was about. And you can't be surprised at such a person! After all, since childhood we are instilled with the idea of what money is and - once we understand reality a little better - that it comes from the state, so to speak. To someone with such a mindset, BTC seems like some kind of whim of millionaires or computer geeks. But it's not. All right, let's try to explain all this to the boomers instead of laughing at them. One step at a time though... How NOT to explain what BTC is... Telling someone who is not interested in technology and economics in an excited tone that "Bitcoin is a kind of decentralized currency that is not issued by a central bank, but by a community of miners, and on top of that its supply is limited"... We know that in the eyes of cryptocurrency purists and early adopters this sounds like an introduction to a great, fascinating story that can only be listened to with blazes on your face. However, most people may respond by asking if we're okay anyway... Yes, we won't convince anyone to use BTC. In general, let's avoid "lesson number 1" difficult words and concepts that may make someone consider us an "expert", but the effect will not be achieved. On the contrary: the person will think that cryptocurrencies are something so complicated that he or she will only comment on it ironically: How to start? In short, explaining to someone what BTC is should start with that person understanding the nature of current fiat currencies. Only by understanding that today's central bank policies and the rampant printing they employ threaten to cause their life savings to melt away at an alarming rate can it open their eyes to the advantages of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. So let's start with the fact that the currencies we hold in our wallets and digitally in our accounts are backed by nothing. OK, someone might even say that they are backed by the monetary policies of central banks and the belief in them by society itself, i.e. a certain social contract. At the same time, however, no one at the bank is going to exchange your banknotes for gold or anything durable. As a matter of fact, since the early 1970s, since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, our banknotes are just paper, pieces of paper, and in their essence they are worth as much as their production. If someone doesn't like the digital nature of BTC, it's worth pointing out to them that the money we hold in our accounts is also digital. It's true that we can turn it into a physical form, but then all we get are pieces of paper, whose value is determined by the central bank. In total, they can be devalued by 50 percent in one decision. If someone thinks this is unrealistic, they have a poor memory, because we experienced something like this in Poland in the 1990s. But BTC is not backed by a gold or silver reserve Yes, this is also true. There is no gold or silver reserve behind Bitcoin. Only that Bitcoins don't come out of thin air like fiat currencies (the ones we pay with every day). - What do you mean? - a much more intrigued boomer will ask, because a moment earlier we reminded him of the devaluation of the Polish zloty in the 90s. This is a good moment to superficially explain mining, or the process of Bitcoin issuance. Again: no difficult terms! First, in the case of ordinary currencies, central banks are responsible for issuing them. These can theoretically print an infinite amount of them. Some are even already mocking the Fed for planning to "print" the crisis that has begun. Of course, in effect, this will sooner or later lead to inflation, and perhaps even to hyperinflation. Here it is worth emphasizing that these two concepts are not the same. High inflation is simply a very large jump in prices. Hyperinflation is already a decline in confidence in the currency. And if the latter bases its value - as we have already mentioned - on faith in it, it can mean its actual death. In other words, frugal people will lose their funds, because they will turn out to be only papers, for which we can no longer buy anything. The gainers will be people in debt and the state itself, if it is drowning in debt (this is called debt rollover). Can BTC also be destroyed by hyperinflation? Theoretically yes, but the matter is more complicated, while the cryptocurrency itself is protected against such a tragedy through mining. Behind the process of issuing BTC
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