🤯 Bitcoin... like I'm 5

GM everyone. This is 2036. We scroll for gems all day so you don’t have to.

Here’s what we’re serving up today 🍲: 15 years ago today, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin Whitepaper. But is there an easier way to understand bitcoin? And who is Satoshi?

Let’s dig in.

🚨 Bold claim alert: the blockchain is the most important development in history since the advent of writing itself.

For the first time in history, we have a verifiable, unfalsifiable, and complete digital record of a system.

It cannot be censored or tampered with because every participant in the network has a complete copy of the ledger on their computer.

On a blockchain, you can’t delete history. You know who owns what. There are no disputes over ownership or transaction history.

It’s a marvel that 99% of us underestimate [at 2036, we try to be in the 1%!]

The first application of blockchain technology was Bitcoin: a decentralized ledger of who owns how much bitcoin - a global, private, rules-based, digital form of money.

Now - if you ask the crypto intelligentsia what you should read to understand bitcoin, they’ll say the Bitcoin Whitepaper- a 9-page document published by Satoshi Nakamoto on October 31st, 2008, that explains how bitcoin works.

But I disagree.

Satoshi - widely believed to be either:

• Hal Finney, a deceased American software developer who received the first bitcoin transaction from Satoshi’s wallet

• A team of NSA, British Intelligence Services and CIA members (in Japanese, Satoshi vaguely means “intelligent” and Nakamoto "central”)

… wrote the paper primarily for a technical audience.

That means it can be complicated to read.

Just like you wouldn’t read the New Testament in its original language - Greek - you don’t have to read the most technical explanation of bitcoin to get it.

So today, I’ll bring you some non-technical alternatives.

If this is you…

…and you have a few minutes to spare this week, here are the absolute best resources on the Internet to learn about bitcoin.

🥇 Bitcoin like I’m 5

Explain Bitcoin like I’m 5 is the single greatest short blog post on bitcoin.

I wish everyone could read it.

If you haven’t yet, you know what to do.

🥈 Introduction to Bitcoin

Introduction to Bitcoin: what it is and why it matters is the best explanatory video on YouTube I’ve ever come across.

It was recorded by Andreas Antonopoulos.

Andreas was one of the original bitcoin educators. For years, he even lived using only bitcoin.

As a result, he was once shamed for spending all his bitcoin by Bitcoin Cash advocate Roger Ver:

After his response, Andreas received ∼100 bitcoin in donations from people who got into bitcoin because of his work (∼$3.5M today).

Not shabby at all.

🥉 Bitcoin Explained

Bitcoin Explained is another classic Andreas video.

This one is slightly longer than the one above but is often considered the best.

I’ll let you be the judge of that.

If you focus on just these three resources, you’ll know more about bitcoin than 99% of people. It’s an investment in yourself that’ll pay dividends for decades.

This one didn’t make the cut (gotta keep my lists to 3, you see) but if you have time, it is 100% worth it.

There are others out there - like this 2-min article on smart contracts - that explain fundamental crypto concepts for beginners.

And we’ll dive into them in due time.

In the meantime, enjoy Satoshi’s creation and all the green it’s been throwing at our screens lately.

Bitcoin went from being worth nothing to over $500 billion in just 15 years - creating an alternative financial system in the process.

Happy birthday, Bitcoin 🎂

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2/ Bitcoin’s weekly gain marks the end of an era

3/ Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller calls Bitcoin a brand he should probably own