BTC Stands for Better Than Cash
Asking the right questions about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
“What is Bitcoin, and how does it work?”
Every time someone asks me that question when the conversation of crypto comes up I think in my head “They’re asking the wrong question.” The real question should be “what is Bitcoin and why should I care?” You don’t know how the internet truly works from a technical standpoint, but you do know what it is and you do care about it. The internet disrupted the way we communicated, paid, and valued each other, and Bitcoin, thanks to its code and community, is already in the process of doing something similar. Blockchain technology and its use cases are so broad, that its implementation can really be as ubiquitous as the internet! To care about that though you need to understand just what it is, and how you can have a role in it.
So what is Bitcoin?
It is a peer to peer cryptographic payment network with a supply cap of 21 million. This network has a public ledger called the blockchain that is a record of all the transactions. Here’s a diagram of how blockchain works.
You can get an audio/visual explanation here, or read the white paper for a more technical explanation.
Why should you care about Bitcoin?
Honestly, because it’s better than cash. Not only is it transparent and secure, but everything surrounding alternative coins (Altcoins), decentralized finance (DeFi), and non fungible tokens (NFTs) lead back to Bitcoin. The power of it being an open sourced protocol meant folks were able to fork (copy) the source code, and tweak it so that they could solve other use cases in industries that were financially inefficient and predatory. For example, DeFi provides folks with new ways to manage their finances than traditional banking systems. NFTs are making artists, and their patrons millions through secondary markets.
And of course, any holder of Bitcoin in the past decade has seen positive returns on their money more than any other financial asset.
Bitcoin showed that we can start to deliver new business models that are community driven, as opposed to revenue driven.
And it is only the beginning.
So join me in catching this wave early! I aim to walk us through the different parts of the blockchain and crypto space, and discover use cases of successful contributions to the future of currency, community, and cryptography. The space will thrive with, or without you! You can be like China and try to ban Bitcoin from your life, or be as radical as El Salvador who decided to make it legal tender.