Explaining Bitcoin to Boomer Generation Money Illiterates

First off, don't go trying to evangelize Bitcoin to people who are not interested, it will only sour their perception of it more.

With that said, if someone comes asking to learn more about Bitcoin but they only have a grade school understanding of money, this is what I would expect the line of questioning to look like, and how I would respond in order for them to understand it tangibly. You can't use flowery language, or big complicated words, or you'll have lost them.

Question 1: What is Bitcoin? (Likely referring to the concept of the whole system.)

Answer: Bitcoin is a balance sheet, like that of one found in a checkbook. It keeps track of whom sent Bitcoin to whom. Everyone has a copy of the same balance sheet, and everyone must agree to the history of all transactions. Anyone can look at the history at any time. No one can lie or fudge numbers in the history. This makes it a source of truth without having to trust the word of anyone else. The mechanism that keeps everyone honest is called the Blockchain.

Question 2: What is a Blockchain?

Answer: A block chain is exactly that, a chain of blocks. In keeping with the checkbook analogy, a "Block" would be the balance sheet in your checkbook. Once it fills up, you get a new checkbook, right? Each time the balance sheet fills up, it needs to be confirmed and a password is discovered that represents all of the transactions in the balance sheet along with the password of the previous balance sheet. Because the previous passwords of past balance sheets are included in the new password, they are all "chained" together. When the password is found that represents all of the past transactions by a miner, that miner is rewarded with 6.25 Bitcoins from the pool of remaining Bitcoin along with all of the fees people paid to include their transaction in this balance sheet.

Question 3: Remaining Bitcoin?

Answer: Only 21 Million Bitcoins will ever be created, no more. This is enforced by the programming code.

Question 4: So what IS a Bitcoin?

Answer: The best tangible analogy I can explain it is with a puzzle. A Bitcoin is a puzzle made of 100 Million pieces called Satoshis, or Sats. You can have ownership of any number of the pieces. No one may tell you where or to whom you can send the Sats you own. A Bitcoin is a sum of its parts. Currently, the value of a Bitcoin in $USD is about $37,000. This means people are willing to purchase a whole Bitcoin for. But you don't have to buy a whole one, you can also buy fractions of a Bitcoin, which is more reasonable to get some.

Question 5: What gives Bitcoin its value?

Answer: It's value represents what anyone is willing to pay for it. It has a different value in every other currency. Think of it as a currency conversion. However, because there is a limited amount of Bitcoin, the value of it will increase over time as more and more people use it. People are willing to convert their wealth into Bitcoin to preserve their wealth, because it will increase in value faster than the inflation rate. Think of it as gold, but it can be sent anywhere in the world, and the transaction is finalized in only 10 minutes, and far cheaper than wiring money anywhere.