7 minutes
Bitcoin Explained to My Little Brother in Simple Words
- Hi Brother
- Monkey Needs Help, Monkey Needs Words
- Monkey Settles, Monkey Grows
- Rigged Game
- What Now?
- Closing Words
- Bitcoin Explained With More Words
Hi Brother
You know I’ve been interested in Bitcoin for the past three years.
Don’t worry, I know you don’t have much time or interest to listen or read on the subject.
But dear little bother, my spider senses are telling me Bitcoin will become more and more important in our lives.
So, I strongly believe that having a short but clear idea of what it represents will prove useful to you in the world of tomorrow.
Here’s a little story I wrote for you that will tell you all you need to know for the moment.
It won’t be long, it won’t be complex. I promise I did my best.
Monkey Needs Help, Monkey Needs Words
At first, we were monkeys.
We had no words but we could express ourselves by waving our arms and shouting. By trial and errors over many generations we refined our shouting into distinguishable sounds and words.
Words became phrases and phrases became languages.
But why were we shouting to begin with? Quite simply, because we need to coordinate. Just imagine tidying up our bedroom as we used to without words or signs.
Any human society is a complex web of needs and desires. So, any human society needs a medium to coordinate the needs of the individuals together.
We need to know who’s cold, who’s wet, who’s sick. We also need to know who can provide for them.
This connecting medium is the language. Language is basically a human tool for coordination.
Language is a connecting medium, okay got it.
– You
Monkey Settles, Monkey Grows
At some point, we became more numerous and started to settle into villages.
In each village we provide for the cold and the sick. We self-organize. We know and trust each other. All that by talking.
But as we grow from 200 monkeys to 21,000,000, the complex web of needs and desires grows.
Exchanges increase and barter (“troc” in French) hits its limits: how much is a cow worth in eggs? What about shoes or a haircut? How do we value all that?
The need for a common set of value measurement units naturally emerges.
To scale, any human society needs to communicate units of value across space and time. Humans need a numerical extension to their language.
That’s money.
Money is you talking to people you will never know. Through money you can express your needs and understand the needs of other.
This guy needs 2 gold coins for that cow and I can get 1 gold coin for that barrel of fish. If I want that cow, I have to go get another barrel of fish.
– Joe The Fisherman
Money is a language. Just like languages emerged to support coordination, money emerged to support languages. It’s a meta-language if you want.
Yeah so what’s the problem with that?
– You right now
The problem is that we now have broken money. Unfortunately, a broken meta-language leads to a broken society. Let’s see what we have today.
Rigged Game
Going through time fast, we used many different artifacts to be money. Ultimately a consensus merged around gold. It’s rare, hard to get, shiny, durable, you can make bracelets with it.
Gold is nice but gold is quite heavy and hard to carry around. So, gradually people left it at banks. In exchange, banks gave people tickets redeemable for a given gold weight. Tickets are light and can represent a big sum or a small sum. Much more practical. We dropped gold for tickets.
At some point, for some reason, the tickets were not convertible to gold anymore. More info on that here: Nixon shock or this 30” documentary.
Okay, so money was gold, then was not gold?
– Still you
Yes and here’s the catch.
Let’s imagine we are 10 friends playing the game of life. Each of us has 100,000$. Total is 1,000,000$. Since a $ is a value measurement unit we know we have each 10% of the purchasing power.
With that information we can coordinate. If I want to trade a cow for two barrels of fish I will use these $ knowing what they represent for everyone.
But there is one friend who’s special. He has for some historic reason the ability to print money. Let’s call him Fred.
What happens if Fred decides to print at no cost 500,000$, keeps 300,000$ for himself and gives 200,000$ to his friend Treasure? He just changed the rule of the game.
There was a total of 1,000,000 units and now there are 1,500,000 units. So, we have more units buying the same amount of things. Your units are worth less.
Which means you lost money brother. Your purchasing power decreased from 10% to 6.67%. The value of the money you earned working was transferred to Fred and his friends.
Is that bad? I mean I can still live my life no problem even if I have less buying power.
– You not caring that much about money
I know you don’t care that much about money but consider the other side of the printing press. The side where the purchasing power rises. If it happens once and for good reason, you may argue why not? Let’s give them money.
But as the process repeats over years and years, people on the wrong side of the printing press are naturally impoverished over time to the benefit of those on the right side of the printing press. It’s theft.
We have broken money: a select few have unequal access to the rules of the meta-language to their personal benefits.
This is problematic. Manipulating the meta-language in such a way destroys its meaning and usefulness.
What kinds of houses can be built with an inconsistent meter?
How can we have a conversation if the meaning of the words are changed by an external entity while we speak? Sounds weird, right?
That’s exactly what we are doing when we coordinate across space and time with a meta-language whose meaning is high-jacked by Fred. Overtime this destroys the fabric of society.
What Now?
Okay, what do I do? How does that impact me?
– You
Simply be aware that the underlying web that coordinates everything - money - is being high-jacked presently.
This impacts you today. Governments are trapped in that money system and due to their rising debts are forced to cut expenses more and more. Aka “let me spend less on health care and underpay nurses” because I’m broke.
How does that relate to Bitcoin?
– You
Bitcoin is simply a better meta-language to support the coordination of all humans.
Its rules are decided by the people, for the people. No authority can decide its future, everyone is in charge. Bitcoin is a fair language for money. Fair because no matter your rank in society, your units will never be diluted. A store of value for all.
When you’ll see Bitcoin rising in the collective awareness, know that it’s not about a price tag rising. What’s truly at stake here is two meta-languages fighting each others to the death.
On one hand, the USD with obscure rules subject to change.
On the other hand, Bitcoin with rules clear as water. Explainable in less than half an hour in a YouTube video.
Closing Words
A few hundreds years ago, the printing press removed the Bible from the hands of the Church and spread it to the people. People became free to choose how to live their faith.
Today, the Internet removes Money from the hands of the Central Banks and spread it to the people. People are now free to choose what money is theirs.
Our words. Our meta-language. Our money. Our Bitcoin.
Nothing is static. The world is changing. I hope you’re ready to surf the waves brother.
Love you,
Your brother
A big thanks to these bitcoiners for their feedback and the time they gave for the proof-reading @MadureNiko @til_ain and @Zach_of_Earth. Check them out, they are great.
And to the bitcoiners who paved the way with their articles, blogs, videos, tweets and relentless search for the truth.
Parker Lewis, Gigi, Nic Carter and Robert Breedlove for their crazy good writing.
Francis Pouliot for his highly toxic maximalism and ironclad integrity.
Stephan Livera, John Vallis, Brady Swenson and Peter McCormack for giving a voice to Bitcoin.
And many more I can’t cite them all.
Bitcoin Explained With More Words
Start with Gigi’s 21 lessons.
Then move on to those bigger meals.