Stop Explaining “Blockchain” and “Cryptocurrency” in Technological Terms

It’s freaking people out

What is blockchain technology? How many times have you heard, “It’s a ledger…a ledger…what the hell is a ledger? It’s the #1 association with blockchain technology, yet, unless you’re an accountant, you’re using a term people rarely use in their daily lives. We have a major problem, folks.

The Problem

Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and most of “tech,” are run by smarter than average people. And while we need smart people innovating and making the world a better place, they often struggle to explain things in terms the average person can understand. Need proof?

If blockchain and cryptocurrency (B&C) are so amazing, so inevitable in the future, why are the markets down? Why aren’t people rushing to exchange their dollars for ETH en masse? Is it because of scam tokens and exchanges? Is it because of Warren Buffett? No, the markets are down because people aren’t buying — that’s it. No mystery.

Whether it’s the stock market in 2008, or cryptocurrency in 2018 — a crash is the economic representation of society’s fear conquering certainty.

When it comes to cryptocurrency, why are people afraid? Because they don’t get it. What tech-people consider simple is different than what lay-people consider simple. Techies spend their lives immersed in STEM culture, often using language unfamiliar to most.

The Solution

As a lay-person myself, I have one plea to the B&C community:

Stop explaining these technologies in technological terms — it’s scaring people away. People fear what they do not understand. If your goal is to attract new members to cryptocurrency, talk instead about how it will make their lives better.

If I was explaining the telephone to someone in the early days, I wouldn’t mention how it turns sound waves into electrical signals that can blah, blah, blah…you lost me. Instead we say: imagine being able to talk to anyone, anywhere, like they were in the same room. That’s something the average person can grasp.

The same goes for electricity, or the combustion engine, or the Internet. People don’t want to know how it works; to them, it’s magic. All they care about is improving their lives. How will you convey that?

But it’s not enough to explain things in terms other intelligent people understand. It must be broken down painfully simple, so a 5-year-old can understand. From there, add layers of complexity and nuance to fit your audience.

Here’s how I explained it to my niece — she’s 11 — but the explanation is simple enough.

Examples: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Protocols

Blockchain = freeway.

Cryptocurrency = cars, trucks and motorcycles.

Protocols = rules of the road (i.e. traffic laws)

Think of cryptocurrencies traveling on the blockchain like vehicles driving on the freeway. Different companies make different vehicles for different purposes. Just as different companies create different cryptocurrencies for different purposes.

And just like there are rules of the road (i.e. having a driver’s license, wearing a seatbelt, traveling under the speed limit) there’s rules for how cryptocurrencies can travel on the blockchain. Don’t get caught up in the big words.

Cryptography

Cryptocurrency is very secure and private, mostly because of cryptography.

Imagine you’re sending someone a letter in the mail, but you only want the person you’re sending it to to read it. Imagine you’re sending something private and you want to make sure no one looks inside and sees what you’re sending.

With cryptography, it’s like shredding the letter into 100 pieces before you send it. When it gets to the person you want to read it, it automatically reassembles itself. The only difference is that with cryptography, it’s more like you’re shredding it into a billion pieces.

Decentralization

You know the Christmas lights where if one light goes out, all the lights go out? Versus the ones where if one light goes out, the rest stay on? Decentralization is the latter.

With centralization, one weak point can threaten the entire system. But with decentralization, a bad bulb can be fixed without all the lights going dark.

Conclusion

Explaining things simply may sound like an unnecessary, hand-wavy exercise. But in order for your technology to reach its potential, we must bring the uninitiated into the light.

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Eric Levine works on operations at EasyTrade (https://easytrade.io), a marketplace for every token.