Explaining Bitcoin At Easter

At Easter, my cousin brought up the topic of bitcoin and how I had been tweeting about it. This started a conversation with many interesting questions, here are some of the ones that jumped out.

Do you need an account?

No. Bitcoin is the opposite of banking where everyone needs a solid ID. The bitcoin network is dumber than the banking network, so entry is much easier, since there's less chance of fraud. This allows addresses (kind of like accounts) to be calculated at free will.

How do you earn bitcoin?

I equated this to any other asset, like a dollar. You can sell things for bitcoin, you can work for bitcoin, and you can buy bitcoin with your local fiat. Breaking out of the "this fiat is the only currency" mindset is a very hard thing to do, especially when raised on it.

How do you spend bitcoin?

You can spend bitcoin from any Internet enabled device. The people accepting bitcoin is low, but growing steady, and there are multiple great services (such as https://purse.io/?_r=4QqksC and Gyft), so if you really want to use bitcoin as a currency, you can.

This was a nice refresher, and the first time I had gotten to talk to the family about bitcoin without initiating the conversation. These simpler questions are what I was expecting - but I still enjoyed answering them. Hopefully soon they will come back with further questions or even do their own independent research.