Beginner's Guide

Why Bitcoin Wins

Bitcoin was engineered with qualities of perfect money. It's designed to preserve money through time AND space.

Rabbit Hole

Question #1

What is Money?

Money is the measuring tape for valuing goods and services. You can also save money for the future.Without money, people would need to barter for everything they need. This is highly inefficient because the amount of exchange rates between different items becomes exponentially difficult to calculate the more items you add to the mix.Money provides a solution to that issue by being the medium between every good and service, thus simplifying human exchange. It also allows for transporting value through time.

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Question #2

What is Bitcoin?

(Bitcoin is abbreviated as BTC)

Bitcoin is a decentralized public ledger of transactions, secured by servers (nodes and miners), encryption, and energy.Simply put, it's digital money that is globally available for everyone to use and store their value.Anyone with internet and a phone/computer can use it.

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Question #3

Why Use Bitcoin?

Bitcoin has many use cases. The most common use is as an inflation hedge, a protection from authoritarianism, and a source of private property rights.1.2 Billion People Live in Countries Experiencing Double or Triple-Digit Inflation. Source4.3 billion people across 95 countries live under authoritarian regimes. Source

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Question #4

What about other "crypto"?

Bitcoin is in a league of its own due to network effects, security, and the historical tendency for money to trend towards only one currency. (Source)No other crypto has even close to the same amount of users and decentralized servers as Bitcoin does. (Source)

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Question #5

Why does Bitcoin use Energy?

Energy used by Bitcoin servers (nodes and miners) protects the network from attack by making it too resource expensive to hack.Critics have been quick to point out Bitcoin’s energy usage, even though the network uses less than 1% of the world's total energy production.By percentage, Bitcoin uses more sustainable energy than most other industries. (Source)

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Question #6

Why is Bitcoin Valuable?

Bitcoin was the discovery of absolute scarcity. There will never be more than 21 million Bitcoin.Every other currency and resource on Earth has a supply that can increase over time, even Gold.Bitcoin is the only commodity with a fixed supply, which is why it’s the perfect money. Most things priced in Bitcoin will eventually decrease in value, due to the increase in productivity and technology.

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Question #7

Won’t the Government Ban Bitcoin?

Since Bitcoin is globally spread out, every country would have to attempt to stop it simultaneously. Even then, due to privacy tools, finding everyone and shutting the network down would be near impossible.If you secure your Bitcoin properly with an offline wallet, no one would know you own any Bitcoin. You can simply remember or hide your password somewhere. This provides inalienable property rights to every single person on Earth.The positive incentives governments have to adopt a scarce reserve asset and to attract a quickly growing tech industry will make a ban unlikely in most countries.

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Question #8

Isn't Bitcoin Expensive?

Bitcoin is divisible into sats, just like a dollar is divisible into cents.1 dollar is divisible into 100 cents, while 1 Bitcoin is divisible into 100,000,000 sats (short for satoshis).You don't need to buy a whole Bitcoin. You can buy just a few sats, if you wish.

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Question #9

Isn’t Bitcoin Slow?

For smaller transactions, Bitcoin can use the Lightning network, which typically takes a few seconds and only costs a few sats. Bitcoin’s Lightning network is faster than Visa and other credit card processors.For larger transactions, the base transaction layer can take between 10 minutes to 4 hours for final confirmation, depending on how many people are sending transactions at that time.Now, compare that to traditional banking. A wire transfer can take 24 hours and a bank-to-bank transfer can take 3 business days.

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Question #10

Who Created Bitcoin?

Bitcoin was created by an anonymous software engineer that went by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto.No one knows much about the creator, but much like the discovery of the wheel, as long as the mechanics of the technology are transparent, the details about the creator are largely irrelevant.In Bitcoin's case, the code is open source, so anyone can read the programming and inspect it, to make sure there aren't any flaws.

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Question #11

How Can I Buy Bitcoin?

There are many ways to buy Bitcoin. There’s online exchanges, Bitcoin ATMs, in-person exchanges, and mining hardware.The easiest and lowest cost way to purchase Bitcoin is through an online exchange.Some recommended exchanges for beginners are Cash App, Strike, and Swan. Tech-savvy individuals that want to prioritize privacy can use Bisq and Robosats.

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Question #12

Is Bitcoin a Ponzi Scheme?

By definition, a Ponzi Scheme requires a promised return by the leader. Since Bitcoin is a decentralized network with no leaders and a fixed supply, it’s not possible to artificially promise a return.Critics confuse Bitcoin’s average annual increase in value with something that is artificial. But the dramatic increase in value is simply the increasing demand of Bitcoin’s utility outpacing the fixed supply.

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Question #13

Isn't Bitcoin Political?

Bitcoin is neutral and apolitical, much like the internet.There are people that support Bitcoin from all different political parties.Bitcoin is for everybody.

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Question #14

What is a Blockchain?

Bitcoin uses a blockchain to keep track of every transaction.A block is just a list of transactions that finalizes approximately every 10 minutes. Every block is chained to the last block, to keep every transaction in chronological order.

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Question #15

What is a Bitcoin Server?

There are two types of Bitcoin servers, a miner and a node.A Bitcoin miner is a specialized computer that confirms every block of transactions for a fee and competes with other miners to earn the last remaining coins.A Bitcoin node is a small computer verifying every block and keeping a copy of the entire transaction history.

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Michael Saylor

"Bitcoin is digital gold - growing harder, smarter, faster, & stronger due to the relentless progression of technology."

Hope.com

Bitcoin Apps

Cash App

Try out bitcoin or add to an existing trove. Buy and sell, send some to friends and family, or transfer your funds to another digital wallet on the blockchain.