People trying to get their money out of ATMs in Turkey.#bitcoin use case; be your own bank@steemit
So let's talk about, let's go back and talk about why I think the Bitcoin is great, let's go back to the days of the internet. So think about digital information. Why is digital information great? So the way I look at it is, for the first time, when the internet came about,We can now transmit information, transmit messages, in real time, instantly, without third-parties involved, and also, practically for free. So this is why I call the faster, better, cheaper. Right, when something is truly faster, better, cheaper, that's when it's revolutionary, it changes the world. So with digital information, with electronics and computers, we now have information at these speed of light. So before that, with Pony Express, or even postal mail, to transmit a message, even across the Atlantic ocean, it could take days, or weeks. Am I right? So that's why communication was very limited to small communities and anything outside, you don't know what's going on in the rest of the world. With the internet, we can now have the information at your fingertips, and this has been going on for the last 20 years, by the way, right? But this is the best part, is that, the digital aspect. It's the digital aspect of information that allows for all this breakthrough.
Faster, better, cheaper. So what about Bitcoin? How is Bitcoin-related? So a lot of people say Bitcoin is related, it's kind of like the internet was 20 years ago, and I truly believe that. So I'm very excited. So now, insert digital information with digital assets. And digital assets is even better than digital information because now you can have real value transferred over at the speed of light. Right, real value. Think about that, what this means, okay. It's also instant, it's also no third parties and lower cost. So same thing, faster, better, cheaper. But what we have now, is the real value being transferred.
Does that make sense? So this is why I say it's close to teleportation, because, with that, you can even have instructions,with the, you can even hire, you can even pay for someone in China to go and do the dirty work of actually buying and bringing the car to you. So with enough Bitcoins, you can send it out there, and someone will do it, and give the Tesla to the recipient.
Okay? So it's real value at the speed of light. So a little bit more about BitcoinSo this is maybe confusing to some of you, but what I mean by this is information now has value. Okay, it's definitive, transferable value. So, before that, let me go back one before I show that word. Information is always valuable. If I take some pictures, I can share with you, wow that's great I and do share on Instagram or Facebook, but it's not definitive, nor is it transferable. Meaning by sharing photographs, all I'm doing is making multiple copies, I'm sharing with 100 people or 1000 people.
So, why I like Bitcoin? To summarize, for the first time, we actually have a digital asset. Think about that. All the assets you own, other than the ones, the few of you who own Bitcoin, all of your assets, all of the things that you own that you worked hard for in your life are physical in nature. The other types of assets are intangible. Like for example, your Stanford education. Or your knowledge about the world. Right? But any other tangible assets, always, always physical in nature.
Everything from the money you own, have in your wallet, the precious metals gold, and silver, the stocks, and bonds,even real estate, all physical in nature. Right? Some of you, do any of you own domain names? Yes, so domain name comes close, but email addresses actually are not digital assets. Would all of you have email accounts? But you don't own them.
Right, at a moment's notice Gmail can stop your account or lock you out, or iCloud, Apple iCloud could. Right? So you don't own your email address any more than, it's more like a permission for you to use it. Okay? Domain names, you sort of own them, but it's at the mercy of the domain name registration companies.
They can make a mistake, or they can take it away from you, right, and what if, I've heard some horror stories with domain names. But the point is, none of you, if you don't own Bitcoin or digital crypto-currencies, none of you own digital assets. Don't we already live in an internet digital age? Yes? Who's still living in the stone age? So given that we live in the digital age, Bitcoin is very important, Bitcoin or cryptocurrency is very important,because for now we really have digital assets, okay? Second thing is, it's not just any digital assets, it's not just, you know, seashells, or peanuts, or pieces of rice or candies because this is a strictly limited and scarce digital asset. 20 million, 21 million
sounds like a lot, but in the grand world of things, it actually comes down to about 0.003 per person in the world.
Right, it's only three one-thousandths per person if you spread it all around seven billion people. So what happens is Bitcoin was actually created down to eight decimal places. So if you have 100 million units in each Bitcoin, so that way people could use it insmaller things.
So that's what we call, for each Bitcoin we call one million bits, okay, so that's, even though that's a lot, but it's still scarce and limited; no one can make more Bitcoins. Does that make sense? You cannot print them, no company can issue more Bitcoins like they can issue virtual currencies. So, for example, how many of you belong to airline frequent flyer miles or hotel reward points? Yeah, so those points you have there actually are centralized by the companies, right.
That's why no one in their right mind would spend their allowance, or spend their monthly paycheck to buy more airline miles. Or, do any of you do that? Do you buy more hotel points they ask, they always offered it, they say "hey you wanna buy more miles?" I'm like, "yeah right". And the reason I say that is because the airline miles are ultimately controlled and configured by the airlines, and they can do whatever they want, they can increase the redemption prices, they can make it invalid, they can say your miles don't expire, and then a few years later they say your miles do expire, you know, they change the rules on you. But with a decentralized crypto-currency, that would never happen, okay. So if you own, for example, 21 Bitcoins, then you always have,at least one millionth of the supply of the whole world's Bitcoin. Okay, so lastly, those two features, of it being digital and it being scarce, it actually makes for a good payment system. So today, Bitcoin is not yet the world's best payment system
essentially you can make money out of thin air. You buy these machines, connect to the wall, to the power, and you just get these free lottery tickets, eventually you win Bitcoins, okay. So today, unfortunately, it's no longer 50 Bitcoins per ten minutes, it's actually 25 Bitcoins per ten minutes. And then the schedule is, actually, this July, there is going to be another halving.
Where the reward for Bitcoin goes down further. So after July it's only going to be 12.5 Bitcoins for every ten minutes, which is about 1800 per day, and that's how we get slowly get to the 21 million Bitcoins. Okay, so Bitcoin mining is very popular for these reasons. Let's go quickly to trading, okay. Trading is something interesting, crazy stuff. People look at it as investing.
bitcoin created to expedite everyone worldwide financial transactions without having to be associated with the various parties and institutions
So why People trying to get their money out of ATMs?#bitcoin use case; be your own bank@steemit
Nice thought, but I think in cases like that pure cash is still the best solution.
I was holding some ETH when I saw on the news that it was kicking off in Turkey. I immediately sold my ETH and got my Bitcoin, I just think of Bitcoin as a safe option and one that will rise in times of uncertainty.
I don't see any alts like that yet, but who knows, maybe Steem will be like that one day too!