Bitcoin: 7

It’s not always easy to be an early adopter of a disruptive technology like bitcoin.

In addition to dealing with bitcoin’s price volatility, sometimes rough-around-the-edges user applications and the uncertainty about the digital currency’s regulatory standing, as pioneers we also have to answer to our friends and families about our interest in this new technology.

More often than not, people with only a cursory knowledge of bitcoin tend to be grossly misinformed. To their credit, the technology underlying bitcoin is very complex. It’s no secret that as bitcoin enthusiasts, we acknowledge the need to more effectively educate the general public about this new digital currency so that we can debunk the myths that plague bitcoin’s reputation.

With that said, it is almost dumbfounding how predictable it is to hear certain phrases from our loved ones whenever the topic of bitcoin arises. These phrases are usually founded in concern, curiosity, and sometimes just plain ignorance, but every member of the bitcoin community has heard them at least once:

1. “So if there aren’t any physical coins, it’s not real money, right?”

It’s hard for some to define the intrinsic value of bitcoin because it doesn’t exist in the physical world.

Society has trained us to value paper and metal as stores of value, but the reality is that it’s about time for us to have a secure, global currency that operates solely in the digital space. The value of email as a digital substitute for snail mail may have been hard to see at first, but few would argue its merits today, and skeptics who say that bitcoin is not “real money” will most likely be eating their words in a few years.

2. “Didn’t bitcoin just go bankrupt?”

A lot of misunderstanding surrounding bitcoin lies in people’s perceptions of the currency as a company, not a technology.