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Humans don't really need anything except

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for food, shelter, clothing, and clean water. Theoretically, if everyone had

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the perfect amount of each of those things, we would have no need for money

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and everyone would live happily ever after. In the real world, some people

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have more water than others, but perhaps less access to food or clothing. And

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trading or bartering for a better balance has always been necessary. But

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picture this, the local mall with every shopper carrying around like bolts of

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cloth or construction grade lumber to each shopkeeper one by one trying to

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find the one who both has what they need and needs the thing that they happen to

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be carrying. Kind of ridiculous. That is

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why we need currency. Compared to cattle, for instance, it's easier to

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use, more durable, and more compact. Not to mention, it smells better. Metals,

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notably gold and silver, were used as currency for thousands of years. Then

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widespread adoption of government regulated centralized banking in the

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19th and 20th centuries brought about money. This currency exists in the form

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of promises stored electronically and printed on paper. Handy, sure, but

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unlike metals whose value we all agree on, with money we rely on someone else

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to tell us what it's worth. Which leads us to why there are people who want a

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new alternative to centralized banks. Regulated currencies are ultimately

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controlled by people and are therefore more easily manipulated for gain by

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those in a position of power with a deep understanding of the system. With

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Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, like anything, it's possible to gain the

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system for personal gain, but they are not centrally controlled. Supply and

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demand are the main drivers of their worth and the built-in limit to how much

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can exist. Just like precious metals should in the long term prevent mass

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devaluation and the inflation that's caused by central banks printing money

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that they don't have. Okay, so if we want to be more like metals, why not

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just go back to gold? Well, there are other advantages, too. Unlike gold,

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which is inconvenient to move around, Bitcoin is stored and transferred

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digitally in a virtual wallet. And unlike cash, each Bitcoin has a public

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transaction history that makes it theoretically impossible to counterfeit.

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All right, so how do I get them? Well, method number one is to use a computer

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to solve cryptographic problems. You can get more details on this in the Bitcoin

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sub forum online is techtips.com. Method number two, like any other type of

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money, is to exchange goods or services for it or even other currency using an

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exchange. So, sounds great, right? I sure think so. The obvious question

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though at this point is what can go wrong? And the answer is lots. At the

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moment, not too many merchants accept Bitcoin, so it's kind of hard to spend.

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Without regulation or predictable demand, valuation can swing up and down

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wildly. Some governments, notably Russia and China at the time of filming, are

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resistant to cryptocurrency and have gone as far as to ban the use of

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Bitcoin. And like anything new, the security of the system is still largely

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unproven. Can I truly buy something anonymously? Can it be easily stolen

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from me digitally? Can anyone promise me that this will still exist in one, 10,

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or a hundred years? Currency relies on trust. And only time will tell which

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cryptocurrency, if any, we can trust for our retirement funds. What can we count

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on? Bitcoin, do Deutscoin, Dogecoin,

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whatever you want to call it. Well, I don't know. But I'll tell you what we

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can count on. Lion is telling us what a great idea it is to head over to

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audible.com/techwicki to learn about their monthly audiobook subscription.

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Audible.com is the number one spot on the internet for audio books. You know,

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books that read themselves to you with your smartphone or other device. They

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have over 150,000 choices, including a personal favorite of mine, The Secret

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Diary of Adrien Mole by Sue Townsend. I read this as a kid and the only

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complaint I had about it was that a lot of the diary entries hit shockingly

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close to home, making it the kind of thing that would be awkward to read

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alongside my parents. Maybe that's an idea. Give audible.com a try. The first

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one is free and listen to it together with your pre-adolescent or adolescent

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son just for a lark. Anyway, guys, thanks for watching. Like this video if

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you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it. Leave a comment and let me know your

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thoughts on Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. And of course, you can

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exchange comments with each other because the new YouTube comment system

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is so much better than the old one, etc., etc., etc. Thank you, Google, for the large sums of cash that you gave me

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for saying that. Actually, they didn't, and I was being ironic. Anyway, and as

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always, guys, don't forget to subscribe to Techquie for more fastest possible videos just like this one.