Cryptonauts Present: What is bitcoin? Seriously... WTF is it EXACTLY?

Hey Cadets,

Captain Crypto here. It's our job to educate the world with truthful, simple information. We're going back to basics. My team always tells me to answer the "who, what, where, when, how, why" to each thing I say or propose... which I never do.... but since I'm writing... I suppose this could help me. This is my interpretation.

I see bitcoin as the first big invention for the fourth industrial revolution of the digital age. Not only is it a currency that is stamped in TIME, it is also the INTERNET PART II. It's already in every other country I've been to. The States is one of the last but it's slippin its way in....

I saw this downtown LA:

SPECIAL THANKS TO: Andreas Antonopoulous and Phil Champagne - most of my knowledge is from their research and writing/books. Also to Publica - Antons, Josef, Yuri, Aleks, Scandiweb, Publicans, and our supporters. All love from our end!

Cliffnotes:

WHAT is bitcoin? Digital Money. Valued Currency.
WHO made it? Satoshi Nakamoto
WHERE is it? On nodes, accessible through internet.
WHO controls the network? NO ONE and EVERYONE.
HOW many bitcoins in the world? 21 million.
WHY is proof of work necessary? It's vital for security.
WHAT happens if we print more bitcoins? YOU CANT.
WHY was bitcoin created? To disrupt the financial system and give the entire planet access to be their own banker
WHY does the protocol work? It solves the problem of the Byzantine General's Problem, it's decentralized, immutable, secure.
WHAT importance is decentralization? High. Because now the only way to destroy bitcoin is to destroy all the nodes or destroy the internet itself.
WHEN do we know if the bitcoin we sent as already been sent? blockchain.info - track your public address
HOW can you tell if it's a bitcoin address? The first number is always a "1" or a "3"
HOW do I send transactions of I don't have internet? You can send transactions through sms or even short wave radio.
WHAT is money, really? It's a medium used to communicate value between people/parties
WHY is bitcoin a currency? Because it meets all the requirements
WHY is bitcoin pioneering the beginning of a new internet world? It is the first technology to succeed at solving the Byzantine Generals Problem and it is the first time we can have a glimpse of a decentralized world.

WHAT properties define whether or not something is an actual "currency..? The following is the same for ANY type, paper money FIAT or bitcoin or anything else.

And now.... What y'all have been waiting for...

Currencies must be:

1. a medium of exchange
2. quantifiable
3. durable
4. divisible
5. portable
6. fungible
7. preserves value over long periods of time (paper money and bitcoin only)
8. to put bitcoin as the champion, it is DEFLATIONARY rather than inflationary.

Is bitcoin a medium of exchange? yes because it's peer to peer and can be used in trade. It is quantifiable because it has units of account. It can be divided into much smaller units and it is durable. You can store bitcoin anywhere online, on a phone, etc. and it can be exchanged for something else (another currency). It ALSO passes Sharia Law.

Let's go deeper.

WHAT is bitcoin?

Theres a picture of an 8-bit mario coin right there. In essence, THAT is bitcoin. As simple as I can put it. It is digital gold, coins, dollars, metals, whatever you consider VALUE... 100% digital and in the computer. Let's go more complicated.

HOW does bitcoin work?

bitcoin works as a team. It works in unison with both technology and participants. If everyone only looks out for themselves, the value of it would be $0. bitcoin actually REWARDS you with a certain number of new minted bitcoins. The value, then comes from the fact that bitcoin works completely as a whole instead of one individual. HOWEVER - the MORE teamwork, the higher the value. Higher value means each INDIVIDUAL also has higher value. Make sense?

WHAT does each technological component do to aid bitcoin's protocol?

TECHNOLOGIES: 1.Blockchain, 2. hash algorithm, and 3. nodes. 4. PROOF OF WORK

1. A blockchain (aka public ledger)![stone.jpg]
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   Picture Egyptian hieroglyphics being chipped away on a stone tablet. All bitcoin transactions are DIGITALLY carved in 1 megabyte-sized "Blocks". After the block is done, its chained up to the last one. However, the person attaching the chain gets to graffiti the summary of the last block to the new one. Too much? Each new block has a fingerprint from the last block to make sure that its CONSISTENT. This tech is Rock Solid.

2. cryptography (SHA256 algorithm)

When you send a transaction over to someone else, the process is encrypted uni-directional. Let's use ARMPIT HAIR so you guys won't forget this. Say you pull an armpit hair out. How hard is it to put back in? Same thing with the encryption. Once a transaction is encrypted, it is sent over through the network. The hair has been released. Asymmetrical encryption occurred so putting that hair back is impossible. EVEN if you were able to get the hair back in, it would have already completed the transaction. RECAP: the only time anything is encrypted is when you are SENDING it. You can publicly see and audit everything else anywhere in the world as long as you have internet.

1. Nodes (miners)

Nodes are computer libraries that work in unison. Like the ants I mentioned earlier, these nodes contain the exact SAME information, including the very first transaction recorded on the genesis block (1st block) ever... So if Cryptonauts made a coin... and Gio from cryptonauts sends Satoshi Jr. the very first one.. it would be the first transaction recorded. ALL NODES have a record of this. It doesn't take too much space thanks to Merkle trees and limited block size but thats way deeper than we need to go. These nodes are also the operating system to mining. The best way to think of this is a bunch of people on their iPhones playing trivia against each other. The trivia questions are actually security questions that only the sender would know, such as where were you born, etc. The winner of the trivia writes himself a check and claims the rewards. If he tries to cheat, it gets rejected. Teamwork still triumphs.

WHERE does bitcoin exist?

bitcoins can live on and off the network, which is a PROTOCOL. What is that you might ask? It's a set of computer rules that must be followed in order to work. Imagine what Football or Basketball would be like with no rules, no refs. Pretty greedy and easy to take advantage of huh? Well too bad it wont work here. Here, your bitcoin is literally the last place you left it. If its your digital wallet, its there. If its on its way somewhere, its being confirmed. If its done, you no longer have it's nowhere in your possession.

The easiest way to describe the network is: imagine an anthill with no queen ruler. Instead, each ant is unique and works autonomously (NOT CHAOTIC like many would think). These ants each hold their value, and CANNOT BE COPIED.

WHAT makes up a bitcoin? Satoshis

1 bitcoin can be divisible to the 8th decimal - and the smallest unit is 1 satoshi. So instead of being sad about having only .001 bitcoin... that's actually 100,000 Satoshis! Which I personally believe that 1 satoshi will eventually be worth 1 cent. So, SATOSHI huh? well...

WHO created the bitcoin protocol? Satoshi Nakamoto.

Is it one person? a group? Who do you think he/she is?

Some believe it's the first syllable from these big 4 japanese companies::

For me, I believe that the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is 6d7b3f8ad28b16aa0f5a3128465be936c32a94f2ba8163dedc148654fa9e78a8

I encrypted my answer using the SHA256 algorithm, the exact same one they use for the NSA and for bitcoin. Decryption needed it if you want to know my answer ;)

Truth of the matter is, no one knows. NO ONE knows for sure who Satoshi Nakamoto is. The last open email from him before he went dark was December 12th, 2010. Why did he disappear from the world? No one knows. I believe he didn't want the attention. He knew about greed, people getting kidnapped, all that. Even if he was kidnapped theres nothing he could do because SATOSHI DOES NOT OWN ANY BITCOIN.

WHAT are some rules of the PROTOCOL? Consensus, block time, half time, longest chain validity

People say bitcoin is too slow, or its inefficient or this or that... well wanna know why? Because they're rules NOT meant to be broken or split (aka fork). It's written in the PROTOCOL so that it will be relevant throughout the 4th dimension. It's written in not just stone... its written in TIME. So for each block....

WHY is each block only 1 megabyte? Though I believe there has been an implementation for bigger blocks... the reason is because one of the rules of the PROTOCOL is CONSENSUS, AKA an unanimous decision.

BEFORE a block is accepted onto the chain, all the workers have to agree that the one you're presenting is the right one. This means that each NODE MUST either ACCEPT or REJECT the block. Everyone is accountable, and no one is safe. Which makes your transactions safer (oh the irony). Back to topic of BLOCK SIZE...

Now, if some started accepting 5 megabyte blocks. And the homie mario next door also accepts 5 mb blocks.. and my cousin phil down the street starts taking it... Well then bitcoin will have failed on the part of being fair. Thus, keeping it consistent is how we carve this tech into stone forever increasing in value. ALSO one last interesting fact - If everyone was selfish and kept rejecting these blocks, bitcoin would be value-less. TEAMWORK.

WHY is the block time 10 minutes? CONSENSUS occurs before the block is placed onto the block chain. This happens every 10 minutes. FOR A REASON. No matter how much computing power (Proof of Work) you have to solve the "winning trivia", it will always be 10 minutes. If more people come into the room with trivia books, the trivia gets harder. Same vice-versa. Think about that.
so WHY 10 minutes?

It's the safest way to ensure accuracy and truth. By waiting that long, not only is it more likely to be extremely accurate, but it also stops anybody from trying to overtake the train. Remember the rule that the "longest" chain is the real one? Well, to change the blockchain and its history, you'd have to start from the beginning of time. The ten minutes would make impossible to catch up. After 6 blocks (1 hour) your transaction is permanent. SAFE. SET IN STONE. Permanently YOURS to do what you want with. If I wrote gio a check and it bounced, I wouldnt even know till later. Or if Trader Joe's charges me double and I dispute that charge... that could take months. Now. 1 hour... 60 minutes of waiting time to 100% know that the transaction is final... is time im willing to wait for. Patience I lack but I do when it comes to something with such high value.

HALVING RULE: Every 4 years, the reward for each block solved reduces by half. When bitcoin first came out, every 10 minutes 50 bitcoins would be sent to the miner who solved the block. Then it was 25. Now it is 12.5 bitcoin per 10 minutes... which is still a lot. The next half will be 6.75, and so on. Good to know... but why should I care...?

We should care because this makes bitcoin DEFLATIONARY. We know that the value of bitcoin will continually rise until the year 2140, when the last bitcoin is mined. While paper money can still be printed and is fleeting... the bitcoin protocol is SET IN TIME. FOREVER HERE TO STAY.

The Proof of Work system is great for the bitcoin protocol. It's horrible for our world so we should try solar power but I think its always going to be necessary. Necessary ONLY for bitcoin, however. To be set in time forever, the only way it would work is if proof of work is in there. This means that is it gets more popular, more mining power is needed. Higher CPU power = Higher chance of claiming a block. More power means more INITIAL INVESTMENT the miner has to put into winning the reward. More is at stake and therefore, it will be more secure.

While your transaction is going through, the nodes are trying to find the answer that matches with your key. There's mining robots now, and soon quantum computing. However, no matter what technology comes out, it will still take them 10 minutes to validate the block. I'm sure he didn't mean to drive the mining power waste to that high, but it is what it is.

Putting it all together with the final rule: The Longest Chain is ALWAYS the Valid Chain.

Let's say I jump offline for 2 weeks. I come back on and... how on earth would I know which blockchain is correct? Simple. The longest one is always the right one. The crazy part is that.. the longer the chain, the harder to hack. Meaning as its getting harder to hack as I'm typing these words out.

HOW does the evolution of other technologies project the success of bitcoin's future?

THE EVOLUTION OF 2 THINGS: (note that EVERYTIME something new comes out, theres a TON of hate or ignorance that occurs until "everyone and their momma's elbow bracelet are doing it".

MONEY- Started off with a bartering system, aka I'll trade you 3 shoelaces for 8 scissors so i can run with them. Then came precious metals. Then paper money, which took a RIDICULOUS number of years to truly get implemented. Then credit cards. According to Josef Marc, CEO of Publica, he told me that back in the day credit card companies would come to YOUR door and ask you to sign up. It's not like that at all. Then the internet part 1, where FANG came and took over (facebook, amazon, netflix, google). Now part 2 - bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Still not convinced? Let's talk tech.

TECH- People used to ride horses to work. Then the car came out. AKA the "killing machine". The car would slip on the horse poop and kill people. Straight murderers, pirates and rapists.. these car guys. But then we built better roads and now who drives a horse to work? Lighting homes at night used to occur through candles, heat and natural gas. Then along came the homie Electricity. AKA the "household killer". The homes would light on fire as the natural gas combusted with lit candles. Straight murderers, pirates and rapists... those electric guys...

Then we have the old school gaming systems that have evolved. We also have the medium of film from tapes to dvd to nothing at all. We used to call people on CORD PHONES! now I can call a phone number using the internet..? Let's not forget Airbnb and hotels, as well as Uber and taxi services. Apps. Internet of Things. Tesla.

When the internet first came out... it was only for straight murderers, pirates and rapists im sure... those internet dudes. Bitcoin is here! I'm sure its only for straight murderers, pirates and rapists. LETS TRY GET RID OF IT THEN!

HOW HARD IS IT TO DESTROY CRYPTO?

Honestly, close to impossible would be my answer. The first way to destroy bitcoin is to destroy the internet. yeah, DESTROY. The second way would be all the nodes are destroyed. Luckily I have a node here and I can easily launch it into space away from everyone using the Cryptonaut Shuttle - With ONE NODE, I can revive the ENTIRE NETWORK. The final way would be if the entire world got together and made a centralized currency. Not impossible, but at least we would have world peace. On the extreme side of the coin, world war 3. Then what holds value is animals, plants, fruits, etc. Technology has never evolved faster, and its NOT SLOWING down. That's why I hold the original that cannot be tampered with. Speaking of which... market's dippin. Buyin for sure. See yall on /r/bitcoin

Did you like the article? yeah? no? hated it? why? let us know =). New video coming out on youtube May 25th, 2018.... watch out for it!

Our latest episode which dropped MAY 1st:

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Thanks for reading!!! Oh, if you have time to vote for us that would be dope! NYC see you soon.

• Capt. Crypto

sources:
bitcoin whitepaper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

"The Internet of Money" - Andreas Antonopolous

"The book of Satoshi" - Phil Champagne