You know how difficult it is to explain to new people in cryptocurrency about all of the aspects regarding cryptocurrencies and how they work? Especially really new people, that don’t really know if they want to know the nitty-gritty technological details and permutations. Just in case, YouTube channel “3Blue1Brown” has already done the difficult part of explaining everything there is to know about crypto and Bitcoin.
If your friend doesn’t have 26 minutes to watch this, then don’t waste time explaining how it works. You will only get frustrated and end up regretting that you actually started to talk about blockchain and Bitcoin in details. Instead, share the video, and identify the true nature of your friends. Do they really want to learn, or just want to get enough proof that it’s okay?
Perfect for beginners
The video guides viewers through the process of creating their own Bitcoin token, i.e. how they would arrive at the same place if they were Satoshi themselves. It starts by talking about how a communal ledger might work, and the difficulties that people would have in order to actually create, track, and secure this ledger. He explains what digital signatures are and how they are actually more secure when compared to a handwritten signature.
He shows viewers what a private and public key are and explains their role in securing i.e. signing the transactions. He’s got another video that talks about SHA 256 security, and how secure it actually is, and how much luck one would need to successfully guess the secret key of a transaction (which is the best method to discover the secret key without stealing). Then he goes on to explain the mining process, i.e. how proof of work works, and why it’s necessary, eliminating every possible objection to blockchain and decentralized systems (much like Satoshi’s whitepaper.) He guides the viewer through a series of logical challenges and questions, designed to provoke the mind to answer them.
He wraps up the video with an explanation of what the blockchain really is, after having the viewer understand the scenarios that would lead up to the need for such a solution. He explains how blocks work, and how miners, users, and the network works to provide value and create a secure environment for making transactions.
The best thing about this video though is the creator, and his meticulous approach to videography, animation, and detail. He loves to create these kinds of videos for all sorts of difficult to understand topics, and really does provide a great and efficient way for people to learn about the topic he is talking about. In fact, the video misses the point about how transactions actually work, but he included this blog post in the description to supplement this lack of information. It’s an article by Michael Nielsen and it contains a lot of in-depth knowledge.
Featured Image via BigStock.