How to Explain Bitcoin to a 7-Year-Old

Hacker News

	How to Explain Bitcoin to a 7-Year-Old (medium.com)
	31 points by tonydiv 532 days ago \| comments

webwielder 532 days ago | link

This fails to address the biggest question any self-respecting seven-year-old will ask:

"Why?"

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

Young kids always ask that, don't they!

I'd probably talk about trust, but there's no correct answer here. My guess is that Bitcoin was created because its creator doesn't trust the government.

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dmix 532 days ago | link

> My guess is that Bitcoin was created because its creator doesn't trust the government.

Also privacy in private markets, so not trusting VISA/Mastercard etc to sell my transaction data [1].

Plus the decentralized value [2], so not trusting the bankers/finance industry who have a large influence on the value of state currencies in addition to the government.

[1] http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/05/the_publicpriv...

[2] http://paulbohm.com/articles/bitcoins-value-is-decentralizat...

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vonskippy 532 days ago | link

Obviously the guy doesn't have access to any 7 year olds.

Besides being way (way way way way way) too long, it's way too complex.

Lottery, transaction, millions, security camera, online, indestructible, odds, all words that would need their own explanation in 7 year old terms.

This is just more bitcoin fluff trying to ride the buzz.

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eurleif 532 days ago | link

Well, I'm not sure about 7 year olds, but it's the first explanation of Bitcoin I've seen that I think my father may be able to understand. I'm going to link it to him.

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akcreek 532 days ago | link

I was going to send it to my wife - I think she could understand this better than how I've been explaining it. I don't know anything about kids.

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munchor 532 days ago | link

http://youtu.be/Um63OQz3bjo

I agree that explaining people (be them 7 or 20 years old) what bitcoins are and what the fuss is all about is quite complicated.

Usually I just send people that video, but this explanation is pretty interesting (maybe not as effective as the video, though).

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mrb 532 days ago | link

The room full of piggy bank analogy is IMHO a lot more effective and accurate explanation that this video which barely brushes how Bitcoin works. (I too have been explaining Bitcoin to people since 2010 while being deeply familiar with its internals.)

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serginho 532 days ago | link

I hate these clumsy startup-ish videos(I wanted to type `z' at the end of the word but I remember the last night (US day?) post...).

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

The video is good, but still complicated. The second I say, "your computer generates Bitcoins," people give me a funny look.

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supercoder 532 days ago | link

"There’s a robot in the room that runs lotteries. Every so often, this robot randomly chooses a piggy bank in the room, and puts 50 coins in it. "

Is this true ? So saying if I'm a user of bitcoin, will I just wake up one day to find 50 coins added to my balance ?

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

Assuming you're a miner, yes. In order to a be a miner, you just need to install the program.

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supercoder 532 days ago | link

Yep maybe the analogy needs to be updated to reflect that :)

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

Yeah, I'm not sure how to explain it without making the analogy a lot more complicated.

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dr_win 532 days ago | link

Because it is hard to see from the camera how many coins are there in particular piggy bank, there are working small permoniks (aka miners) with funny caps.

https://www.google.com/search?q=permonik&tbm=isch&tb...

Permonik randomly wanders the room and re-counts the coins in piggy banks. Always he erases an old number and writes his count on the piggy bank with marker.

The robot watches permoniks. He sees how fast they are and if they count well (their counting is equal the majority of other permoniks for given piggy bank). The lottery rewards fast and honest permoniks with higher odds of win.

There is one more thing. When doing transaction, you may leave a small number of coins (aka the fee) under the piggy bank. This is a reward for permonik as he visits the piggy bank for recounting.

Each permonik has a master and all his revenues go to master's piggy bank.

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alien_acorn 532 days ago | link

Miners are people who pay (with compute time) to play the lottery.

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Devilboy 532 days ago | link

Every 10 minutes some coins are dropped in a big dark pool and everyone interested in catching them play hungry hungry hippos until some lucky person gets it.

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serginho 532 days ago | link

It's just a currency for Silk Road. That's how it is explained. As clear as when I always remember when I wanna understand how is it addicted to the real economy.

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

That's not true. Just because Silk Road is one of its main uses, there are many others. I think Bitcoins will do really well in gaming, small payments, and international trade.

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serginho 532 days ago | link

I hope.

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joeblau 532 days ago | link

That explanation doesn't really explain how the coins are mined, but it I guess for a 7 year old, that explanation should be good enough.

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mwcampbell 532 days ago | link

What about the kill switch? http://www.loper-os.org/?p=1009

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

I love this line:

Some people are incensed by “hoarders” – not I. I don’t give a damn. At least Bitcoin hoarders never had to kill anyone to obtain their wealth, unlike those who control land and other natural resources.

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arthulia 532 days ago | link

This is pretty good, not sure about the lottery thing though, since not everyone is a bitcoin miner.

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

Thanks. I agree, it's not perfect.

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eurleif 532 days ago | link

How about: Anyone can place a security camera in the room, but maintaining one costs money. The lottery goes to the security camera operators.

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

Hm, it doesn't cost any money to gain access to the network though. Anyone can download the client.

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shawnz 532 days ago | link

I think the point is that mining costs a little bit of money in electricity, and mining is more effective the more money you put into it.

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

Yes, but it doesn't cost money to view the network's history.

To stay true to the analogy, I would include lottery tickets. However, I don't think this is necessary. The core concepts are explained.

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eurleif 532 days ago | link

>Yes, but it doesn't cost money to view the network's history, which is analogous to purchasing a security camera.

It works if you assume everyone who purchases a security camera makes their video feed/history publicly available for free.

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

But then only one person would need to buy the cameras, so why mention it?

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eurleif 532 days ago | link

If only one person has a security camera, his buddy can go in the room and mess with the money, and he can splice in fake footage so no one finds out.

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gfodor 532 days ago | link

If you want to stretch the analogy (you shouldn't) you should say a camera requires batteries to run.

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

Hey that's a clever idea. I love it.

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anklos 532 days ago | link

As a (7 year * 4) old man, I dont really understand your explanation:(

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mrb 532 days ago | link

What do you think about my explanation?: Bitcoin: The Simplest Non-technical Explanation: http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=66

(Although, like the room full of piggy bank analogy, mine is only a partial explanation.)

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

How can I improve it?

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serginho 532 days ago | link

> There’s a room that anyone can access. The room has security cameras that anyone can view, and every second of recorded footage is available online forever.

's/anyone can access/noboby can access/'

's/anyone can view/noboby can view/'

>Naturally, these piggy banks have coin slots, and everyone can see which coins are in which piggy bank.

's/everyone can see/nobody can see/' (Hide it == Show it)

> These piggy banks can never leave the room.

's/leave the room/leave to the light/'

>Then, I walk into the room with a ski mask on.

>> with a ski mask on.

Yeah, You mean it!

>Anyone in the world can see me on the security cameras, but not my face.

>> but not my face.

That's what we are paid for.

>“Who made the robot..?”

The same who made these schemes and manipulations to rule the crowd.

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

I don't quite understand your comment, mind elaborating?

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serginho 532 days ago | link

Nobody knows what he works for. I mean mining. Is it for good things or not. That's the summary.

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serginho 532 days ago | link

So do I.

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shurcooL 532 days ago | link

How do I create/get my own piggy bank with a key?

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tonydiv 532 days ago | link

Good question. Anyone can sign up for a piggy bank outside the room. The robot also takes care of that :)

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webwielder 532 days ago | link

Bitcoin is a lot like quantum mechanics. Nobody really understands it.

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