FAQ About What is Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency and Blockchain to a regular Joe, Budi, Untung from a view of myself a bull run class of 2016; 2x bear markets; and a #Winterbuilder.
TL;DR I have met multiple people either a traditional banker, landlord with USD 10Mn dollar individual assets, fintech bros and sisters, VCs, warung (mom & pop stores) owner, a grandfather who wants to learn, or parking-man who owned who experience in trades SHIBA INU last bull run 2020/21. I’ve stated few questions and answer of whats is Crypto, Bitcoin, what's technology behind it, why it matters from my point-of-view.
Joe, Budi, or Untung represent a regular name, regular person name that you might hear if you visit Indonesia (specific to Java and Bali Island). Similar to the name, bitcoin and crypto has come to major mainstream idea where 7 out of 10 people in Asia might heard a name of it last major bull market cycle throughout 2020/21.
I have met many friends and family especially in Indonesia, a few of Southeast Asia countries, in the US, and some countries in EU. Conversation usually started after they know that i am part of 2016 Crypto class, the first questions that usually popped up:
- What is Bitcoin?
- What is Crypto Coin?
- Who is running, creating, valuing Bitcoin?
- I’ve heard major loss in value, its a ponzi scheme?
- Is it a multilevel marketing? Robot Trading?
- Is it legal in your country? (many more)
- Between Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Ether, Shiba-Inu, Elon’s Crypto/Doge —> which thing can I invest?
Many of these questions is so hard to find an answer for the first timer, because information overload in the crypto space, they either get it or not, even after they get the information they want, most people get information about FUD, Which often misleading & only lead to price action as key driver vs the technology behind it. some of my writings below hope will help you to understand and how to get started.
What is Bitcoin?
If you know about gold, and its form, the limitation of gold in the current era the physical form itself, if you own 1kgs of Gold, can you bring it around? Ie: moving country, or simply going around with airplane while bringing that gold. The answer is Maybe. What if you own 10kgs, 100kgs worth of gold? Can you move it? The answer is no.
Bitcoin is like gold, but vs having “sound money” or something you can touch, bitcoin made out of computer code, the gold of cryptocurrency world — using a mathematical equation where regular people like you and me, can participate in mining one with computer power or hash-rate.
No company, no government controlling instead global peer to peer (many people) participating in mining or running what we called bitcoin node so the system always running 24/7, so always available for you to do transfer, peer to peer electronic cash, or using bitcoin to hedge against physical fiat money, inflations.
What is crypto coin?
Let me start from Blockchain = its a open & digital public ledger that everyone can access so there is no fake transaction or fake accounting, where everyone can see anything within that particular blockchain over time and validated through each block. Each block contains cryptographic hash with its timestamps. Blockchain technology facilitating transaction record, distributing the data within the blocks itself as efficient as it can be.
Crypto or Cryptocurrency = are many things it represent a value and technology, an ecosystem of digital assets that work as a medium, mostly medium of exchange, exist as a form of digital and meant to be secure with cryptography and publicly accessible. Based on coingecko.com as per this writing we had 13418 cryptocurrency coins/tokens, within 525 available exchanges and 900billion total market cap.
Who is running, creating, valuing Bitcoin?
Bitcoin as peer to peer electronic cash, meant to be running by regular person, or group of people, globally, no entity, means you & I can participate freely with the right computer, network, and digital mining equipment to mining bitcoin on bitcoin network, to generate bitcoin as reward; or simply running your own node. Bitcoin first published in bitcoin.org whitepaper, introduced by an alias (person/group) called Satoshi Nakamoto, then fast forward since 2008-09, after the genesis block-0, bitcoin has been through many pricing volatility (vs fiat money), but 1 BTC = 1 BTC; 1 BTC = 100 million sats/satosis.
Who is valuing bitcoin? Supply and demand. There will be only 21 million BTC that is available to be mine, right now we already have 90.898% in circulations BTC 19,088,481.25.
Debunk: Two unclear items, which they might heard from the internet by most people who wanted to get into the crypto space.
I’ve heard major loss in value, its a ponzi scheme? all the DeFi loss even biggest hedge fund losing their value?
No it's not a Ponzi scheme. No explanation needed. I'll cover DeFi Crash and 3AC hedge fund next time
Is it a multilevel marketing? Robot Trading?
Also its not multilevel marketing, you can buy bitcoin from any one (peer to peer), buy it through global or local exchanges, buy it through DeFi exchanges or DEX.
Is it legal in your country?
Many countries and its jurisdiction has a different POV about bitcoin, where they realized the potential to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, countries like El Salvador legalized it as legal tender. Or multiple countries right now allow it as part of their commodity trading, most countries in Asia. Country like United States or region like EU keep developing their stand in regards to Bitcoin activity not only as an digital asset for trading, but as overall financial innovation. As more people using it beyond its BTCUSD price action, more project will develop the capabilities over L1, L2 itself the stand of each government activity (to regulate) towards bitcoin will always evolving.
Between Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Ether, Shiba-Inu, Elon’s Crypto/Doge —> which thing can I invest?
$Bitcoin, $Ether, $Shiba token, $Doge = Cryptocurrencies, which all of them are available to buy in CEX, Peer to peer, or DEX.
This is not financial advise, because i explained it on my own point of view, and mine only. Always do your research, but if you new to the space, always go with the top two market cap in this case, if you check coingecko.com, or any other website like coinmarketcap.com it will always shows 1) Bitcoin ($BTC) 2) Ether ($ETH) go to exchanges (DEX or CEX) and acquire the gold of cryptocurrency which BTC or add some to Ether.
G’s POV & answer that was hard for me back in 2016 Era;
So i’ve heard about BTC for the first time back in 2010/11, at that point of time the price of BTC was IDR 3,500,000 (250-320 USD) per BTC, this is the first time i be able to check the price using local exchange in Indonesia (Yes i did register and logged in). But I’ve first heard about Bitcoin when I heard about a guy (which not really a person, not sure) named Satoshi Nakamoto, which giving incentive to people with BIT-Coin, when they solve mathematical equations using PC, around 2009 - early 2010.
First time i don't understand or don't know where to buy, what are those bitcoin but turns out this is not only a 2010, 11 or 17 problem, this continuous development of Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology will always been a problem by new joiner and investor every single cycle, so I dedicating this writing to the community back as a shared knowledge.
in the future, more information overload in the space will be a real problem and this basic information will save you time to understand what matters in your first month of bitcoin & crypto currency as a regular person.
To support:
BTC: 3FBqqPahEdxRFKZfVwrEePTrii8pfwdUe1
ETH: 0x56656e5C76B5B552F5e89a82fc46912d95790480
DOT: 13tDopkhoEogiVm2iAtPAAPN3GpHMSZxMb6sMuto39MHnQnN
XMR: 42hQLpU9pEo9nPt2CB7HDNc2FXDkKjKFcMFsdWucJGKDTudwnzonozMBaoZnFjeb6zCKS3n8jPGYm1C6aFUhAT9c4Kg4URr
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