I was sitting at my computer the other day when my mother in-law, Linda, came to visit my wife. Being my mother in-law, I could hear every word she was saying from the upstairs. She was curious about my ether mining rig I had just put together in the living room. All I heard was, "what the hell is that?" and, "What does it do?" being repeated after every explanation my wife offered to her question. To be fair, my wife Is no expert and only knows what I have told her and I only know what I have read from the internet for the past few years. The difference between Linda and my wife and I is that Linda doesn't know much about crypto or computers or anything other than bitching about her husbands son or neighbors and other bullshit like that.
Let's say that I didn't just pretend I couldn't hear Linda and don't ignore her obvious attempt to get my attention and take a bite, try to explain to her what the mining rig is doing. Where do I even start? Ok, i'll just say it's mining ethereum. Assuming I don't want her to either lose her limited amount of attention or just get into some trash talk event, I might want to set a fish hook of "It's a money machine!". In all honesty, It really is just a money machine... until ether goes full pos and I turn in to gaming rigs for the family. Linda would ask how It makes money though and that's where I know, in her perspective, that I would turn into some bafoon explaining to her about block rewards and pow mining. I really can hear her now with some old timie upstate ny accent " Yaaaaaa, but how do you get the money?". Seems like a simple question but says a ton about how she thinks of value.
One thing I love to see is when someone realizes fiat is not the only option. The moment when I introduce and send crypto to a friend and they say "How do I get the money?". I say " It is money". That little head twist of confusion gets me every time. I get it though. You can't just kick someone a fat 50k bits for some avocado and expect them to take it. But for the sake value, exchange and potential, Bitcoin and others are currency. Not to Linda though. To Linda, fiat is one and only. Any talk of decentralized hibber jabber or trust-less consensus what to's would just sound like clash of clans gems to her. How do I get a message into a brain that has to process everything through her mouth and straight out of her ass?
Many things are involved when someone is so skeptical and various topics need to be unpacked. first, I would explain that bitcoin, intrinsically, has as much value as fiat. Maybe get into central banking while trying to avoid general politics a.m.a.p.. After that, talk about how the way banks transfer money requires an intermediary to remain secure. Explain that bitcoin needs no intermediary and is directly peer to peer. Rabble on about blockchains using hashing algorithms to crack blocks and verify transactions allowing secure transfer of value globally. Shit. Too deep. Shes getting older but looks older than her actual age. How will she understand any of it? It's ok. She will get it. I just breakdown the concept into bite size pieces, or maybe just fuck it all. I think I did the right thing. If she brings it up again, I will just say it's computer thingy and it make math real good.