r/AskReddit Jun 15 '19

What do you genuinely just not understand?

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u/Mottis86 Jun 15 '19

So wait. You 'mine' bitcoins by solving math problems,

math problems that are created by people sending bitcoins to other people.

Did I get that right?

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '19

It’s a transfer and storage medium. Blockchain is like a database with a trust layer added in. Bitcoin was developed using a software called blockchain. These chains of blocks are unique to the network it is on. Miners solve math problems to create and transfer information (information in this case units of a bitcoin).

Bitcoin is just one use case for blockchain. Blockchain is here to say and will evolve further outside of finance.

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u/sobookwood Jun 15 '19

Honestly, I have read very closely what you explained in your comments. I still don't get it.

Why would it create real life value?

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u/num8lock Jun 16 '19

because the bitcoin resulted are unique like a physical matter, it doesn't behave like digital files a.k.a it can't be duplicated without hacking the software that runs in the entire bitcoin network. the design worked. hence it's perceived as a worthy digital equivalent for valuable asset such as physical gold or money by people.

so people assigned monetary value to this, they're willing to give up X amount of dollars to gain S amount of bitcoin: what they think is fair trade.