Five Minutes of Bitcoin Science (Cartoon Version)

Source: Liu Jiaolian

The main spot Bitcoin ETF has stopped net inflows recently, and BTC (Bitcoin) is fluctuating above $60,000. Jiaolian has also begun to see some people's positions and beliefs begin to waver, and even remarks such as the bull market will end hastily in the second half of this year have appeared from time to time. In the final analysis, if you only regard BTC as a symbol with price fluctuations that is no different from stocks, funds, precious metals, etc., then you can only participate in speculation on price fluctuations at a very superficial level. If you want to really invest deeply in BTC, hold BTC for a long time, or even regard BTC as a means of savings, and even finally measure all wealth in the world based on BTC, then you may have to put in some effort to learn some knowledge that touches the essence and soul, such as "What is BTC?"

The knowledge involved in BTC is vast and broad. The following is a five-minute animated cartoon science popularization made by a foreign netizen. It is intuitive and easy to understand, vivid and vivid, and it is easy for primary school students to understand. The original work is an English animation. Jiaolian intercepted its key scenes and provided text descriptions for readers to see.

Before paper money was invented, people used shells as currency for a long time.

When the British first arrived in some primitive tribes, they used shell beads as currency. British merchants accepted the other party in exchange for items with beads, because he could use the beads to exchange for other good things from the other party in the future.

Because shell beads are very difficult for the tribesmen to make, they require high skills and spend a lot of time.

So they would use this work to represent other labors of equal difficulty. And the difficulty of bead making allowed it to maintain its value.

But later, Europeans brought more advanced tools. This made it much easier to make shell beads.

So, slowly, British merchants were no longer willing to accept bead products as currency. In other words, the trading value of beads disappeared.

You might ask: What about using gold?

Great idea! Gold is hard to mine, so it's very rare. But it has a disadvantage: it's too heavy.

So the government issued paper money. At first, paper money was used to represent gold.

The government printed paper money based on the gold reserves in the safe.

But more and more paper money was printed, far exceeding the amount of gold reserves.

People who save with paper money eventually become penniless.

When paper money is too easy to print, society will collapse. This sounds like a replica of the shell story, doesn't it?

So, you may ask, is it possible to invent a currency that is easy to carry but difficult to manufacture? Yes. This is Bitcoin.

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto invented Bitcoin. It is a digital currency that can be sent from one person to another peer-to-peer without relying on banks or governments. No corruption. No manipulation.

Bitcoins can only be made by computers by calculating extremely difficult puzzles. This consumes a lot of electricity and time.

You may say again: Bitcoin is digital, so can I use the copy and paste function of the computer to easily copy Bitcoin?

The answer is: No. The reason is that we use a public record called the blockchain to record every bitcoin that has been created.

And this public record is copied and saved on everyone's computer.

If someone copies a bitcoin and spends it, it will be rejected by the network because it does not meet the requirements of the puzzle. This is why Bitcoin is so secure.

The US dollar can be issued in unlimited quantities. The maximum issuance of Bitcoin is only 21 million.

Therefore, Bitcoin is almost impossible to inflate. There are only two ways to get Bitcoin: earn it by consuming electricity and time; or, buy it from others.

So, as the inventor, can Satoshi Nakamoto control Bitcoin like the government controls legal currency? No. No one can control Bitcoin. Bitcoin is jointly controlled by the network, which is composed of many people and anyone can join.

If someone wants to modify the Bitcoin code, then this code needs to be agreed by the majority of millions of Bitcoin users, otherwise the change will not happen.

Today, millions of people around the world send bitcoins to each other every day, faster and at lower costs, without the involvement of banks or governments.

Because bitcoin is hard money that is difficult to make, the more people use it, the more valuable it is. Of course, this does not mean that you can get rich with bitcoin. Bitcoin's adoption is still developing, and the price has been fluctuating.

In summary: good money should be easy to use and difficult to make. And because bitcoin is digital, it is fast and easy to use. And the blockchain makes it difficult to inflate.

After saying this, Mr. Nakamoto disappeared forever. His disappearance eliminated the last single point problem in the entire design of Bitcoin. Maybe this was part of his entire plan!