<center>__Feedback is what everyone should appreciate, because it is the only way to learn on how do things better next time.__</center>
In my previous post I wrote about how I spent my Saturday morning teaching about Bitcoin and Blockchain, you can read it here: [Talking about Bitcoin & Blockchain](https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@el-cr/talkin-about-bitcoin-and-blockchain)
I also promised I was going to write in detail what I thought to my friends during my last meetup.
The idea of this post is to receive feedback from all of you crypto enthusiast. And if you like to teach about the subject to newcomers or people that have never heard of Bitcoin, please share with me as well any good idea you have to motivate the audience.
I will really appreciate any feedback you could left me in the comments of this post.
Now let's break down what we talk and discuss during that meetup...
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# <center>Teaching about Bitcoin & Blockchain:</center>
## Intro:
I first started to list different examples on how some industries have already transcended from the physical world into the digital world without users thinking too much about it during the last two decades.
I said: _“The Internet as we know it, the Internet of information disrupted completely the way humans communicate.”_
The average age of my friends was 35, so they did understand very well when I mentioned to them how we used to write letters before and used the post mail services to send our letters to family members in another part of the world, wait for them to receive them, wait for them to read and write a response, and then finally going back to the post office to see if we have received the reply.
Now we just have to use a device, write an email instead, and with just 1 click, our family member receives the written letter in his/her inbox.
They all agreed.
The Bitcoin Billionaires book written by Ben Mezrich, a biography about the twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, is what I am currently reading. Very exciting book. In chapter 6, there was a clear example of the transcendency from the physical world into the digital world:
>“Less than a decade ago a dj, would have to load hundreds of vinyl records in heavy metal cases around with him to every single geek, today the same dj could carry his entire set on a USB stick or thumb drive in his pocket”
It was the perfect moment for me to use this example when I was giving the introduction of the speech, and telling them, just like in the book, that this is something that had to happen with money as well.
Right away, one of them mentioned that money is already digital, we pay with credit cards, we have bank accounts, people can wire money from one part of the world to another one, etc.
_“Yes it is true, but there is something many don’t know yet, many don’t see yet… once you deposit your money into the bank, you are giving away your control over it.”_ I replied.
Just like in the book I am reading now, the writer explains:
>when you deposit money into a bank, that bank doesn’t store your money in some vault somewhere waiting for you to retrieve it, that money immediately goes digital. In fact banks hardly store any actual money at all, by law banks only need to keep a small percentage of the money deposited in actual liquid reserve. The only physical money anyone really has is what is in his / her wallet, the rest becomes data, by the middle man who took a fee.
With Bitcoin we skip all these middlemen.
My friends when they were listening, they started to realize these things. For someone that is already into crypto, this is nothing new, but it is amazing the quantity of people out there that still have no idea what value Bitcoin can bring to them, and they will be very grateful to know these things by having someone explaining it to them.
Just like we have seen how the way of doing things have changed drastically with the discovery of the Internet, and all the new business models that the Internet brought, we are going to see similar effects and even bigger with this new technology called Blockchain.
I finalized the intro by saying that we are passing from the Internet of Information to the Internet of Value, exactly how I have heard it from experts or real OGs.
## A bit of history:
I believe it would be a lack of respect to start teaching your friends about Bitcoin and Blockchain and not mention “who” Satoshi Nakamoto is, or should I say “are”?
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My friends understood that nobody knows yet if Satoshi is a she, he or a group of people. Since the late 90’s a group of people called cypherpunks were already talking about the idea of a currency that uses cryptography without the need of being in control of a central entity, nor an issuer. And it wasn’t until late 2008 that someone by the name __Satoshi Nakamoto__ published the [Whitepaper of Bitcoin](www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf)
They could not understand why Satoshi left the project after a couple of years. And the questions started:
_“What was the cut for the creator of Bitcoin?” “Why did he want to be anonymous?”_
They asked these questions right away without letting me finish talking about Satoshi. I could not think of a better answer by saying something I remembered I learned by reading:
In human history, we have had important scientists and / geniuses that were not motivated by a monetary reward for their discoveries, it was more important to get professional recognition, the people’s lives improvement or even change the world.
For instance, the passion of Charles Darwin made him decide to bring to the public his ideas about evolution seeking for feedback at first.
At school we learn that Galileo Galilei always went forward with his sun-centered solar system model, even though the catholic church asked him to stop. He knew this was going to bring him trouble, but he continued instead, his ideas took him to prison for the rest of his life. Today we remembered him as the __Discoverer of the Cosmos__.
Then we also have an important list of idealists which their revolutionary ideas changed the world, like Nelson Mandela who never stopped fighting with his ideas of freedom for the black people of South Africa, he spent almost 30 years in prison. He never seek for monetary reward for being a hero, he wanted a change for the people.
Like them, many others through our history wanted to make public their ideas and make an impact, without giving importance to anonymity, many of them were punished by those few in control of power.
The reason I use these examples it's because I like to think of Satoshi Nakamoto as a cryptographer scientist, revolutionary inventor that wanted to bring freedom for the world from central banks and governments. Who wisely enough decided to go anonymous to avoid persecution from those in power and being accountable by government entities because of his peer-to-peer disruptive payment system that will compete and overtake all the government currencies of the world.
If you think about it this way, who would like to go public expecting a monetary reward.
I was hoping I answered their questions. I was sure I did after the way they looked at each other.
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## But how does Bitcoin and it’s Blockchain work?
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Like I said before, it has been challenging for me, a non technical user, to understand it, it is obviously more challenging to explain it to another non technical person.
My simple words for them were that Blockchain it’s a public network where all the transactions are available and nobody can control it nor modify these transactions. It is decentralized, anyone can have access to its code, developers can make it better but cannot hack it.
_“If there is something that humans cannot go against, it’s mathematics, and the Bitcoin network it is protected by mathematics”_ I added, using the same words that many in the space have said before.
These mathematics are summarized in something called cryptographic algorithms, which is known as Proof of Work (PoW).
“But how does the network actually work in reality, and where is the network?” One of them asked.
I answered by saying that we all use devices with apps that in order to work we need to be connected to the internet, then I asked them “in reality, where is the internet?”
To explain it a bit more clear, in order for the network to work, there are computers around the world connected to the Blockchain network and between them, with the use of the internet and the use of electricity. These computers with different computer power are called NODES, and these nodes communicate between each other, and they all share the same registered public information of all the transactions on the network. All these computers connected to the network control the network, there is no single entity, person or government that controls the network, this is a way to explain it’s decentralization.
All the computer power together from all these nodes or computers connected globally protect the network and the irreversible transactions.
_...At this moment using a whiteboard and a marker is very helpful._
After drawing in the whiteboard few boxes connected by a single line, I started to explain in my words what a BLOCK is.
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_“So as you can see, I just drawn these boxes which we will call blocks, and connected them with a straight line creating a chain of these blocks”_
In these blocks, data is recorded, these data are the transactions we previously talked about. In each new block besides the new data there is also the data of the previous block on the chain. Each block has a capacity of 1MB, and there are bitcoin rewards per block solved. The ones that solve the mathematical problem of the block are called MINERS.
Going back to the Proof of Work (the consensus algorithm that every miner uses in the network), it's the equivalent of the answer to the mathematical problem that a block to be solved requires.
At this point, I felt I was losing them and getting lost as well, even though I get the idea in my mind.
They understood most of it, and I did not want to get into more concepts like the HASH and the details involved in how a transaction is done.
## My favorite part... the fundamentals:
### Consensus
Bitcoin users may not trust other Bitcoin users because they don’t know each other, but they all trust the network, its evolution and all the information recorded in all the blocks because they all understand that transactions are irreversible. At the same time, all the participants of the network control the network together, this makes it impossible for a specific entity to have control over it or decide to unilaterally change the protocol.
I did not want to dip further here since I knew I was going to be then talking about hard forks and soft forks, not the topic for someone that listens to you about Blockchain for the very first time.
### Scarcity
Only 21 Billion Bitcoins can be mined, a specific amount are released every 10 minutes, which is the reward for the miners. This amount is reduced every 4 years, this is called halving and the next halving will occur in 2020.
It is estimated that the last Bitcoin will be mined in 2,140 and we will not be alive to see this.
I told them this is an important aspect that influences the value of Bitcoin because of the growing demand.
### Immutable
In these infant 10 years of the Bitcoin network, there is no person or entity that has been able to hack Bitcoin. I went back to the blocks explanation, and told them that in order to hack bitcoin, the hacker would have to change the data of the block plus the data of all the previous blocks on the chain. In order to do this, the hacker would have to have much more computer power and energy then all the nodes together, it is extremely expensive to do that.
The more time passes, the harder it is. So hackers realized that there is much better economical benefit from the network by participating in it then trying to hack it.
### Censorship Resistance
When they started to compare Bitcoin with the Dollar, I took the opportunity to mention to them that once you deposit your money in your bank, you lose control over it. Not only banks use your money and make more money with it while paying you almost nothing in return, but they also charge you for using your money. And if that wasn't enough, they can confiscate your funds or block your account if they consider they should.
With Bitcoin, you control your own money, and there is no bank or government that can control it.
I told them the story of a friend of mine that was supposed to receive an online transfer from a client, his bank rejected the transaction because the client wrote in the details of the transfer the word “bitcoin”. You can’t transfer whatever amount you want to whoever you want whenever you want with the current online banking system. This doesn’t happen with Bitcoin.
### Borderless
One of the advantages of using crypto, in this case Bitcoin, is that there is no need to transport Bitcoin from one country to another country. Your Bitcoins are already in the global network. There is no need to declare it if you travel from one place to another, you just need an internet connection and your device.
I made a parenthesis here to also mention that in fact, nowadays you don’t even need the Internet to interact with the Bitcoin network. There are companies like [Blockstream](https://blockstream.com/satellite/) that already have satellites orbiting Earth to broadcast the Bitcoin Blockchain.
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My friends were impressed by that.
---
## Bitcoin’s intrinsic value
While we were having fun discussing about these characteristics of Bitcoin, they also wanted to compare it with gold when they were asking about how come Bitcoin has a value.
Many can argue whether Bitcoin has an intrinsic value or not when comparing it with gold.
“Everything I mentioned about fundamentals, makes people to trust in Bitcoin” It does has characteristics like gold, but has better advantages.
Besides all the previous mentions about scarcity, censorship resistance, etc. You don’t need to transport Bitcoin like you have to with gold in case you need to. Bitcoin is also durable and it is divisible.
It is considered the first disruptive asset of its kind. It has characteristics of a store of value, medium of exchange and it is also a unit of account.
I told them that in actuality, it is considered more a store of value than a medium of exchange because of its volatility. We won’t see less volatility until we have a better balance between value and price. The fact is that the more users we have in the network the less volatility, and since Bitcoin it is considered an infant asset because of its time of existence, it is just a matter of time for it to be more stable in this aspect.
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## Why are there so many cryptocurrencies?
Since the Blockchain code is completely open source, anyone has access to the code and can create their own Blockchain.
We have been living the Wild Wild West of crypto, too many scams and projects that actually don’t need Blockchain technology. But with more regulation, we will have a healthy market and the majority of these projects will disappear. Only the ones that have proven useful will prevail.
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---
They did ask good questions, and I finalized the speech by reviewing what we discussed and also left them some homework:
- Read the Satoshi Whitepaper, I told them that even if they don’t understand something, not to worry.
- To read the entire website of [bitcoin.org](www.bitcoin.org)
We finalized the meeting with a good cup of coffee. They were very grateful and excited, even one of them was already searching on Netflix about Bitcoin documentaries to watch tonight.
We will organize another meeting, in which we will review everything we saw that day and also we will talk about the different type of Blockchains, how it is disrupting other industries such as Social Media, and if we have time, how to choose the right wallet.
If you are reading this and want to provide me with feedback, please do not hesitate to write a comment below. It is my first time teaching about Bitcoin and I really enjoyed it.
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### Thank You!
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_Disclaimer: I am not an expert in the subject, I am just another crypto enthusiast. I don't charge for teaching Bitcoin, I enjoy creating value in others. I entered the crypto space in 2017, survived the bear market and I am willing to help anyone that wants to learn about how to enter the Crypto Space._
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_Info Source:_
- [Bitcoin.org](www.bitcoin.org)
- Book: Blockchain Revolution by Don and Alex Tapscott
- Book: Blockchain: The industrial internet revolution by Alex Preukschat
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_Image Source:_
- [Satoshi](https://all-stocks.net/yes-i-am-satoshi-nakamoto-craig-wright-reassures-again-john-mcafee-claims-to-know-the-real-bitcoin-founder/)
- [Blocks](https://www.computerworld.com/article/3277617/the-top-blockchain-jobs-you-need-to-know-about.html)
- [Blockstream](https://www.iied.org/can-blockchain-unblock-climate-finance)
- [WWW](https://mycryptotax.co.uk/cryptocurrency-wild-west-must-be-regulated-uk-lawmakers-say/)
- [nodes](https://www.nvestlabs.com/2019/05/03/klaytn-blockchain-for-a-social-cause/)
- [BTC 2](https://www.maxpixel.net/Crypto-Currency-Money-Bit-Coin-Bitcoin-3227442)
- [Rocket](https://slitrade.com/)
- [BTC books](https://www.thehighereducationreview.com/news/do-you-need-education-in-order-to-invest-in-crypto-nid-640.html)