Ikeep hearing about this magic computer money called bitcoin, and I have no idea what it is other than it is currency.
After reading Mike Brown’s stories in The Reporter and a hundred articles later, give or a take a few, I’m starting to understand a bit (no pun intended).
From my limited perspective, this computer money is similar to PayPal, the Federal Reserve and Wikipedia. Knowing a little about each one of these things has helped me with my bitcoin bewilderment.
And a little is about all I know about each one.
Apparently, this digital money is something I can use to buy or sell stuff on the Internet. I guess they call it cryptocurrency, because like the term crypto suggests, this money is hidden. I can’t hold it, bite it, or burn it like the dollars in my wallet.
But like my dollars, this computer money can buy some things like music, furniture, clothes and in some places pizza delivery.
Here’s what this money looks like: 1P1VuFz4yCn32S- F8VsuMyyaM5BGkV3feQR.
Yup, it’s just a series of random characters.
This currency is so new that only the geekiest of computer nerds use it now, so I won’t be using it until it’s much easier to understand.
When thinking about cryptocurrency it helped me to consider what Erik Voorhees, a computer geek of the highest degree and Bitcoin entrepreneur, suggested.
He said Bitcoin is really two things. It’s a payment network called Bitcoin with a capital B, similar to PayPal, and it is also a currency used on the network called bitcoin with a lower case b.
Now, I’ve used PayPal online to purchase flowers, give to charity and get books. This payment network is operated and controlled by one company Pay-Pal, Inc., akin to an online credit card, and it uses the U.S. dollars that are in my bank account to pay for the things I buy. It is not a currency.
In contrast, those U.S. dollars I spend in PayPal are operated and controlled by the U.S. Federal Reserve. The Fed creates and prints the paper money I use to buy my stuff.
The crazy thing is Bit-coin/bitcoin is both a network and currency. And the mind-blowingest thing about this Bitcoin network and special computer money is that it has no boss, Federal Reserve, president or even God. No one can tell this computer money what to do. No one owns it. No one prints it.
Well, that’s not entirely true. Actually, everyone owns it. It’s kind of like Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is that online encyclopedia of information that everyone and their mother can add to, edit and adjust.
As an English teacher in the 2000s, I first taught students to be wary of this encyclopedia of lies, because the accuracy of the information it contained could not be authenticated.
Now, in 2018, I’ve come to change my view of Wikipedia. As more and more people have a hand in contributing to the entries, the information it contains has become more accurate. Check out the entry for Rockdale, Texas, and you’ll see that someone last updated the information in July of this year.
Today, I tell students to use Wikipedia and make sure to scroll down to the bibliography, because the source material that is being quoted is reliable. It has become an invaluable research tool.
Like Wikipedia and all its anonymous contributors, bitcoin currency is not created or controlled by a central party. The money, all those random characters I listed above, is controlled by the network of computers it uses.
This monetary system created by Satoshi Nakamoto (not his/their real name) is revolutionary.
It’s just like Wikipedia in the early 2000s, because people are still wary of its value. I’m still wary of this computer money, but if I can get some good Chinese takeout delivered to my door using it. I may change my mind.
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