I’ve been thinking lately of the best way to explain Bitcoin to newcomers, so that they get the importance of it and how valuable it is. The best analogy I have come up with is land, or property. 

Think of your life, your business and everything you own as a structure. Now imagine it is standing on the economic layer which acts as its “base”. For a long time we have all built our lives on top of the dollar or other forms of fiat money. This has brought a lot of troubles, many of which we were not aware of. Simply, we didn’t have any other choice because there was never a viable alternative.

Now the problem with fiat, among others, is that a tiny group of people have the power to change its policies. This can happen overnight and without much warning. Meaning, that the ground in which you are building your life is shaky. It’s like building your house on sand. When the winds of life and the storms that it will undoubtedly bring (sooner or later it always does), a house built on sand will not withstand and eventually will collapse.

I remember being a young boy in Argentina, staying at my friend's house during summer holidays. One day, out of the blue (at least to me at that time) the government issued a series of decrees in which all dollars held in the bank would be turned into pesos, our local currency. This meant the value of it would instantly lose a third and they would put a limit on the amount of money each citizen was able to get out of the bank each day.

For most people this was a devastating blow, everything they worked so hard to build during their lifetimes and what they had hoped would be there for their children was no more. I still remember how hard it was for me to understand, and the general feeling of dismay that lingered for years after that (some may argue that it still does).

Sadly enough my country never recovered. I remember when one peso was worth one dollar… Today it is almost 100.

Sadly when it comes to a government issued currency that is not backed by anything else but that state power, we are not in control and everything can be taken away by the flick of a switch. Moreso, the people who are in charge of it’s policy (politicians and bankers) are the people we trust the least in our entire society. This cannot last much longer.

Now, in comes Bitcoin. What you need to understand about this new technology is that for the first time in human history we have an asset that its rules are set in stone. Bitcoin has certain properties and they will always be that way, it will never change drastically.

The only way to make changes to the bitcoin protocol is for the whole community to adopt these changes together. In a few words,  it is totally decentralised, no one is in charge of it. No matter how powerful a single individual may become, there is no way for a few people to get power over the network.

So in this way, Bitcoin represents solid ground (to go back to our land metaphor) in which we can build something that will last forever and resist every storm.

With time (I believe) as we go through life, its challenges and its changes. Everything built on sand will fade, where everything built on solid ground will endure. This means that most of human activity will tend to drift into Bitcoin. It won’t happen fast or straight away, but that is the direction things are heading, they must, if we intend to keep on progressing as a civilization.

So now that we know Bitcoin is land, we need to understand that there are only 21 million coins, or plots of land. Everything will eventually be built on it, and there is very little of it. There can’t be any more Bitcoins created, the code is law and it has already been established. This means that the value of every piece of Bitcoin is invaluable, even like land it can be rented out and you can get paid to own this new real estate in the form of interests and lending.

Unlike traditional land, bitcoin fits in your pocket, requires no upkeep costs, can be divided into fractions, has instant liquidity, can be transferred across the globe almost instantly and with little fees. As well as being censorship resistant, hard to track and tax.

I don’t think we (as a society) have come to fully understand the value of Bitcoin and its implications. It will change EVERYTHING (think of the internet or printing press on steroids). So once again, I urge everyone to spend time and learn as much about it as possible. I have a feeling the people who catch onto this early (we are still very early) will benefit massively. Those who don’t, may just be left behind holding the ever depreciating fiat currency bag.

I want the transition to be smooth and with the least amount of pain necessary. So please, take some time and try to understand what is happening here. Thanks, and have a great day!

If interested in getting the image above as an NFT (all money will be used to fund my "LOVE of ART" project) feel free to get in touch with me at [email protected] :)