Dear @MikhailaAleksis,
It was a pleasure meeting you in cyberspace today to talk #Bitcoin. For your convenience, I have collected some follow-up resources below. I am sharing them publicly so others might benefit from this list as well.
I predict 3 prevailing FUD narratives going forward. In order of intensity:
1) Energy FUD 2) Inequality FUD 3) Bitcoiner FUD
Re 1:
a) Bitcoin uses too much energy.
b) Bitcoin uses the wrong kind of energy.
c) Bitcoin does "useless" computations, it should rather fold proteins or solve cancer.
d) Bitcoin is bad for the environment regardless of energy use or source; waste of time and precious metals.
Re 2:
a) It is unfair that early adopters get rich.
b) It is unfair that rich people can buy a lot of bitcoin.
c) There has to be a better way to do fair distribution.
d) Poor people will never be able to afford bitcoin.
2/ Among other things, money solves a coordination problem. Trading a single good against others solves the combinatorial explosion of a barter economy. It is a scalability solution that allows coordination across large groups of people.
3/ The two basic forms of money are ledgers (made of information) and physical tokens (made of atoms). Physical tokens keep track of themselves. Ledgers need someone who is in charge.
"Bitcoin is protected by a wall of encrypted energy. The fact that there's a lot of energy involved is a good thing. It creates security to the network." -- @michael_saylor
3/ How did he do it? He dove down the rabbit hole, quickly and deeply. Bitcoiners know that all roads lead to Bitcoin maximalism. For some, it's a long and rocky path. For GigaChad it's a 5 minute ride in his rocket car.
2/ We often forget how far we have come, and how difficult the most basic stuff used to be. In Bitcoin, some of the basic stuff is still difficult.
Pete in 1991: "What is an IRQ?"
Peter in 2020: "What is an XPUB?"
3/ But also in Bitcoin we have come far: BIP32, BIP39, BIP44, BIP141 - all of them make Bitcoin easier to use. We take them for granted, but we shouldn't. A lot of thought and hard work went into these improvements, leading to better UX in the end.