Bitcoin Is Like Sports
by @thebitcoinrabbi 2021/01/13open in new window
More often I have been explaining how #bitcoin works and is decentralized in context of a sports game. I find that it helps to answer a lot of the common questions:
Q: Who invented baseball?
A: It really doesn't matter. Anybody in the world can play. It doesn't matter if the original inventor wants to change the rules or reward himself points or anything else. We don't care what he thinks of our game.
Q: Who is in charge of the game?
A: Nobody is in charge, we all just decided to play. We all know and enforce the rules, and if somebody cheats, they get kicked out of the game. If somebody rewards themselves unearned points, we just ignore them.
Q: How do we know the rules won't change?
A: We all agreed to them when we started playing, and whoever wants to continue playing with these rules will continue, and if someone wants to change, they will need to play somewhere else.
Q: Can't it be hacked?
A: Everything is publicly visible. We can all see the entire field and all the scores. If someone were cheating, we would all know and tell them to get lost.
Q: Why is it worth anything?
A: We all decided to play, so it's worth something to us. If somebody wants to join, they will have to agree to acknowledge our points and value.
I value it, so it has value. Value is subjective.
Q: Won't it get banned?
A: Maybe, but it's just some people playing with a stick and a ball, not hurting anybody else, so the government could maybe stop you from playing it, but they can't ban the concept of hitting a stick with a ball, the game will continue somewhere.
Q: Should I join?
A: Do whatever you want. I'm having fun playing baseball, you could join or you could HFSP.