The 5 Things That Make Bitcoin Hard to Understand
It’s not super simple to figure out what bitcoin is all about.
There’s a few things that can perplex people when learning about bitcoin.
We decided to ask the ZapChain community what the most difficult things are to explain when talking about bitcoin.
Also, we’ve included a short explanation of each of these components of bitcoin to help everyone better understand what we’re talking about.
Mining
Mining is the way the bitcoin transactions are completed on the network. All over the world, computers verify bitcoin sending/receiving.
“The blockchain and mining — they are, of course, related.” –Joseph Hsieh, co-founder of Expresscoin
“Mining centralization: to what extent will it happen in the long term, and what will be its effect on Bitcoin’s decentralized nature?” –Elliot Michael Lee, engineer at Braintree.
“Economic benefits of not having monolithic trusted third parties middle-manning transactions, as well as how miner incentives will keep the network flowing, and how digital mining compares to real mineral mining.” –Chase Sechrist, just a spectator
Speculation
The price of bitcoin seems to always be in flux. It’s a rather volatile store of value because it is still so new.
“It’s confusing to everyday people to distinguish between bitcoin (currency) and bitcoin (Protocol).” –Michael Dunworth, co-founder SnapCard
“People are usually reticent about investing in Bitcoin because of the high price tag on 1 coin. They don’t realize that a bitcoin can be broken into hundreths of millionths of peices, so unfortunately lose out on a great investment opportunity.” –Jason Rosenstein, technologist and entrepreneur
“Why its value hasn’t grown faster.” –Luis Buenaventura II, co-founder and head of product at Rebit.ph
Blockchain
The bitcoin blockchain is a public record of transactions on the network. It allows bitcoin to be a genuinely verifiable digital currency.
“The blockchain, and how it enables applications that go way beyond payments.” –David Orban, Faculty and Advisor at Singularity University
“The importance of the blockchain technology. I have had to explain it more times then I can recall.” –Teemu Paivinen, Founder / CEO at Coinmotion
“The difference between bitcoin and the blockchain.” –Adam Draper, Founder of Boost VC
Decentralization
Bitcoin operates on a peer-to-peer network. No one owns it because it is decentralized — making it an entirely new type of system for money.
“The hardest thing to understand is the decentralized aspect. Who’s in charge?” –James Dueck, CEO at PlainTheory.com
“That it is much more than a currency, it is the fuel that finances the future of peer to peer decentralized systems.” –Mark Hilgenberg, Libertarian activist
“It’s decentralized nature. Most people can’t comprehend there not being someone in charge.” –James Peerless, Founder of ChainPerks.com
The Whole Bitcoin Thing..
There are a lot of aspects to bitcoin, so it can be a bit overwhelming. Many have to do a lot of reading to completely understand it.
“The hardest thing to understand is how it all works.” –James Donnelly, Founder of BitSweeper.org
“Why it really matters.” –Ageesen Sri, executive officer and co-founder of SecuraCoin
“Mostly everything.” –Catheryne Nicholson, CEO and Founder of BlockCypher
