Thanks for this intro, Mathew. I’m just getting up to speed myself. Mike Fay was kind enough to prepare this Quick Crypto Crash Course upon my request if anyone’s interested:
Have you heard about this British fellow who accidentally threw away his hard drive with bitcoin now worth $350 million and has been searching for it ever since? Ouch.
I sadly lost my keys to coin I bought back when it was 300 per coin. I was trying out different wallets. Back then buying Bitcoin was a little tough. You could only buy so much at a time, then only transfer X amount per transaction, per wallet- all manner of rules and not too many wallets. I wonder how much money I lost. It wasn’t THAT much- I certainly recalled the key to the primary wallet. I cashed that out when I thought it was going to crash. Speculation just ain’t my thing. My attention wanders too much.
Thanks for this. My biggest obstacle in getting people into Bitcoin is their belief that if crypto gets big enough, the government will just take or ban it, leaving us back at square one. Do you have a rebuttal to this argument? My line “ALL governments won’t ban it at once” gets no traction for some reason.
Mathew, do you have a recommendation for where to purchase bitcoin (i.e. CoinBase, Kraken, somewhere else that you like)? Secondly, thoughts on other cryptos i.e. Ethereum, Solana etc?
A great way to experience the true power of Bitcoin is to use a paymails like moneybutton or handcash, where you can send fractions of a cent. Try that with any of the other proof of work blockchains and you will be disappointed. Proof of stake is not worth mentioning due to its centralisation (despite what all anarchonuts claim)
Awesome! You have done what few others are willing to do! Now I finally have an intro to send to my 77 yr. old father, who is warming up to Bitcoin after I introduced it over a year ago. The biggest barrier to getting his generation to adopt crypto is the lack of precise easy to conceptualize explanations. Excellent Matthew! Thank You!
“They know not what they doodoo” 😂 I’m a simple person.
Last Monday I held two zoom sessions on “Entry Into Bitcoin Basics: from a noob to a noob” for some folks who didn’t know where to start. Interest is ramping up as some are seeing the writing on the wall with fiat, but the onboarding still seems to be the biggest hurdle.
I shared the bitcoin guide you wrote last year with them after the session was over as one of the resources to dig into. And since Monday, I’ve had enough interest from folks who missed it but had heard about the session that I’m planning another one. I will be using your house lock/key metaphor. It’s much better than the “it’s like your email (public key) and your password (private key)” that I was using.
Here is a neophyte question. At what point in the process are you likely to pay fees? Suppose one converts dollars into bitcoin, and sometime later bitcoin into dollars, can one expect to lose money to fees by those managing the tech in any capacity? Obviously this is not like using a bank insofar as no bankers own a bitcoin bank or the currency, so I imagine fees would be minimal compared?
Banking systems have many problems, but banks as intermediaries have some key benefits over this network system - first and foremost, they're liable and (usually) big enough to pay if they screw up. If you lose your password, you can validate yourself other ways and get to your money. If they screw up, there is a way to audit and correct. Absent court order, transactions are private. Many other things.
Main concern I have for bitcoin is not the math - it's the implementation (though there is and never will be a form of encryption that won't someday be broken). Even with a theoretically perfect encryption model, there is no perfect software implementation, and there will be an exploit to all software with sufficient motivations to find the exploit. Even so, bitcoin has numerous vulnerabilities for manipulation (by large enough entitites/consortia) that can't be solved. Not to mention the risk of all transactions being public and mineable.
Interesting and useful for trivial value transactions, but not for considerable wealth stores.
At this time I prefer physical cash over BTC. It has great benefits - anonymity, ease and speed of consumer transaction (instantaneous), protection from arbitrary de-banking, power outages, digital theft, etc.
I encourage all my friends to use cash as much as possible. A cash clip is an excellent birthday present.
Being able to explain the complex in simple language is the sign of someone who knows of what they speak. I'm going to have to start reading through your Bitcoin Wars series. Thanks for this!
This is magnificently important!
More like this, please!
Thanks for this intro, Mathew. I’m just getting up to speed myself. Mike Fay was kind enough to prepare this Quick Crypto Crash Course upon my request if anyone’s interested:
https://faybomb.substack.com/p/the-quick-crypto-crash-course
Have you heard about this British fellow who accidentally threw away his hard drive with bitcoin now worth $350 million and has been searching for it ever since? Ouch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MBRgLEXLEE
Thank you Mathew! Definitely need the Bitcoin 101 series. More helpful than you know.
I sadly lost my keys to coin I bought back when it was 300 per coin. I was trying out different wallets. Back then buying Bitcoin was a little tough. You could only buy so much at a time, then only transfer X amount per transaction, per wallet- all manner of rules and not too many wallets. I wonder how much money I lost. It wasn’t THAT much- I certainly recalled the key to the primary wallet. I cashed that out when I thought it was going to crash. Speculation just ain’t my thing. My attention wanders too much.
Matthew, I live to read and understand your thorough explanation of bitcoin! Thanks!
But how did you know I keep copies of your essays in my home safe?😳
Thanks for this. My biggest obstacle in getting people into Bitcoin is their belief that if crypto gets big enough, the government will just take or ban it, leaving us back at square one. Do you have a rebuttal to this argument? My line “ALL governments won’t ban it at once” gets no traction for some reason.
Mathew, do you have a recommendation for where to purchase bitcoin (i.e. CoinBase, Kraken, somewhere else that you like)? Secondly, thoughts on other cryptos i.e. Ethereum, Solana etc?
Thanks so much for imparting the wisdom!
A great way to experience the true power of Bitcoin is to use a paymails like moneybutton or handcash, where you can send fractions of a cent. Try that with any of the other proof of work blockchains and you will be disappointed. Proof of stake is not worth mentioning due to its centralisation (despite what all anarchonuts claim)
Awesome! You have done what few others are willing to do! Now I finally have an intro to send to my 77 yr. old father, who is warming up to Bitcoin after I introduced it over a year ago. The biggest barrier to getting his generation to adopt crypto is the lack of precise easy to conceptualize explanations. Excellent Matthew! Thank You!
“They know not what they doodoo” 😂 I’m a simple person.
Last Monday I held two zoom sessions on “Entry Into Bitcoin Basics: from a noob to a noob” for some folks who didn’t know where to start. Interest is ramping up as some are seeing the writing on the wall with fiat, but the onboarding still seems to be the biggest hurdle.
I shared the bitcoin guide you wrote last year with them after the session was over as one of the resources to dig into. And since Monday, I’ve had enough interest from folks who missed it but had heard about the session that I’m planning another one. I will be using your house lock/key metaphor. It’s much better than the “it’s like your email (public key) and your password (private key)” that I was using.
Cheers.
Here is a neophyte question. At what point in the process are you likely to pay fees? Suppose one converts dollars into bitcoin, and sometime later bitcoin into dollars, can one expect to lose money to fees by those managing the tech in any capacity? Obviously this is not like using a bank insofar as no bankers own a bitcoin bank or the currency, so I imagine fees would be minimal compared?
Banking systems have many problems, but banks as intermediaries have some key benefits over this network system - first and foremost, they're liable and (usually) big enough to pay if they screw up. If you lose your password, you can validate yourself other ways and get to your money. If they screw up, there is a way to audit and correct. Absent court order, transactions are private. Many other things.
Main concern I have for bitcoin is not the math - it's the implementation (though there is and never will be a form of encryption that won't someday be broken). Even with a theoretically perfect encryption model, there is no perfect software implementation, and there will be an exploit to all software with sufficient motivations to find the exploit. Even so, bitcoin has numerous vulnerabilities for manipulation (by large enough entitites/consortia) that can't be solved. Not to mention the risk of all transactions being public and mineable.
Interesting and useful for trivial value transactions, but not for considerable wealth stores.
I'm sure that I have a few bitcoins lying around. Just can't remember where.
Richie not so rich
Good tutorial. Well written.
At this time I prefer physical cash over BTC. It has great benefits - anonymity, ease and speed of consumer transaction (instantaneous), protection from arbitrary de-banking, power outages, digital theft, etc.
I encourage all my friends to use cash as much as possible. A cash clip is an excellent birthday present.
Being able to explain the complex in simple language is the sign of someone who knows of what they speak. I'm going to have to start reading through your Bitcoin Wars series. Thanks for this!