Disruptive technologies seem to develop a rhetorical byword that becomes a descriptive synonym for the technology. When describing BitTorrent, we talk of peer-to-peer file-sharing, and with Facebook, of social media.
Whatever the merits of these terms, they act as homogenous words for the particular technology, but in a neutral form that appears unbiased towards any brand.
The BitTorrent brand is a tool to perform p2p file-sharing. p2p file-sharing is still possible with alternative brands. BitTorrent is not a prerequisite – there are other file-sharing networks.
When I think of p2p, I imagine personal relationships and empowerment. The word has strong graphical imagery. Imagery of linking with other people, helping one another and handing back power to individuals. Of the inter-personal sharing of wealth and knowledge on local levels.
BitTorrent to me is just a protocol – no special feelings. Even worse, when in Brazil, the minister of culture spoke about BitTorrent: the company (referring to BitTorrent Inc. of course). Corporations are not cool. They are anti-cool.
Five times during the last two months, I was asked if I work for Bitcoin. Well… yes… in a sense I do… But not in the sense they are thinking, and I have to explain that Bitcoin is not a company but a community with many participatory groups involved in building its infrastructure.
Foot in the door
Algorithmic money are systems which make use of mathematics and cryptography, not laws and legislation like legal money. Algorithmic money is therefore incorruptible as the laws of mathematics are universal across borders, and are not subject to human flaws and fragilities.
People are bombarded everyday with corporate propaganda. Advertisements very blatantly try to subvert people’s natural rational choices using overt psychological trickery. The tools are often very malign and potent, able to wield considerable influence turning bright people into manipulated cattle herded around the supermarket. How many of us have gone to the supermarket to buy milk that is inconveniently at the rear of the supermarket, and had to cross dozens of ON SALE signs, only to emerge with milk and a dozen other items?
This chronic conflict against our minds has caused people to erect mental firewalls against the cacophony of advertisement and products. Who among us does not become guarded or skeptical? And rightfully so!
It is a biological reflex against an attack on our values. In response, advertisers have moved to using the guerilla tactics of viral marketing.
Instead if we explain some technical concept, nobody can reject the idea with common misconceptions of “the money got stolen” or “bitcoin is dead in the water”. A person will be more receptive to an idea than a product. The descriptive euphemism becomes a trendy word that instantly conveys bitcoin’s core values and concepts without needing the technical diatribe.
I’ve been calling bitcoin, democratic money. Every normal person loves democracy and the word is inspecific (almost meaningless) feel-good word (when taken in the colloquial, not formal form). Satoshi used similar terms in his paper, calling mining ‘one-CPU one-vote’.
Then once your audience is caught unaware, the euphemism can be explained to be having an implementation called bitcoin.
However democratic money is not really technically descriptive. A term I propose is:
algorithmic money
vs
legal money
Algorithmic money are systems which make use of mathematics and cryptography, not laws and legislation like legal money. Algorithmic money is therefore incorruptible as the laws of mathematics are universal across borders, and are not subject to human flaws and fragilities.
“Oh, and an example of algorithmic money is bitcoin, but there are others.”
With some misdirection, you managed to evade the mental-shield against salesmen and marketeers.
Make bitcoin trendy: invent your own language and style
It is also likely that the idea was also an attempt at solidifying Hu Jintao’s status of a paramount position in China, as all other leaders before him had an ideology associated with them, namely, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, and Jiang’s Three Represents.
When leaders ascend to office they often introduce a new political theory as a way of cementing their views in public consciousness. To a lesser extent we see this in UK politics. Tony Blair rose through the elections on New Labour and David Cameron keeps talking about his new-fangled Big Society idea which is esoteric politburo BS to make the Eton-educated politically privileged Cameron with no life experience look in touch with general society. He went straight from private privileged education into politics.
Every politician hypes their ground-breaking innovative out-of-the-box buzzword schemes come election time (HOPE) and that often includes their own new-fangled brand of politics. Peron called his brand of fascist politics the Third Position.
Bitcoin needs to become trendy to succeed. Linux really missed the ball here, with Apple products filling that hole. Linux is ten times more cool, but the culture and language to describe it in this way does not exist.
Buzzwords make me cringe more than nails on a blackboard, but Joe Public loves his social media, the cloud and ground-breaking innovative out-of-the-box buzzwords. It’s a way for non-creative people to feel on the cutting edge (I’m not an elitist, but this is a wider societal problem to do with stagnation in education, the denigration of teachers and hence the elevated hipster status of creators – a different topic).
BlackBerry captured the business PDA market by advertising their devices as pagers capable of sending longer page texts, not as the first portable wireless e-mail devices that they actually were, because back in the 90′s, “WTF is an e-mail?”
TiVo advertised their devices as revolutionary digital video recorders with hard drives, that revolutionize the way we watch TV by recording things digitally, and allowing us to timeshift live programming. TiVo has pretty much always been near dead because, “WTF is a digital video recorder with timeshift?” Had they advertised themselves as a digital VCR you didn’t need to rewind, things may very likely have been different.
This is a marketing and development lesson that Bitcoin MUST heed if it wants any chance at addoption.
~ Rassah on bitcointalk
Start using bitcoin as a verb. We google, we tweet and we skype people. If you liked this article then please bitcoin me.
Amir Taaki (genjix) can be reached via genjix@riseup.net
Digital finance?
Crypto finanance?
P2P finance?
I really think it should have the word finance in it.
‘P2P money’ seem cool enough for me
+1 I was thinking “P2P Money” all since the Headline.
p2p is an old buzzword, and one used by bittorrent though. What is new and not used? I even heard my bank manager call their bank accounts peer to peer.
Wow, if your bank manager used the term “peer to peer” then it must really have a coolness factor he was trying to tap into. I’ve always just used “peer to peer money” and I think that describes the type of system Bitcoin is and creates a positive idea about how it works. I’d definitely not use the word “finance” as for most people that’s just “insta-boring”. “Democratic money” isn’t bad except it conjures up images of voting and I’m not sure people see a connection between that and money.
Friend to friend. Like peer to peer but you dont send money to people you dont like. Well, I certainly dont.
>Every normal person loves democracy
Oh really? You just called a big part of your readers “not normals” (whatever that means). Democracy is a dirty word for a lot of people (as it should be because it is an authoritarian system not very different from facism).
What’s wrong with being not normal? I’m not normal and proud
And yes, the majority of people do feel chummy and teary eyed when they hear democracy. Maybe not you or me, but they do.
You mean, you’re weird?
Normalcy is just a matter of statistics. How most people are is normal. That implies nothing about quality, just quantity. I have never been normal and I don’t desire to be normal. Indeed, I would be sorry if I were.
How about:
The Global Internet Currency
I made this post in the forums the other day. I talk a lot about bitcoin to a lot of people. The one phrase that really gets people interested is:
“Bitcoin will end wars.”
A global currency that will put all nations on a fair playing field. Bitcoin is a fair currency that will end wars. I’ve gotten random people to ask me for more information just by saying this and then elaborating.
That’s powerfully crushing.
Here’s more to add to that:
In the past Kings used to require the consent of their populance to go to war when they went fund raising. It wasn’t like today where the president dips into the US wallet.dat and creates a new war. If the consent of the populance was lacking then the financial support would be too. No money, no war.
It’s cool to imagine bitcoin enabling such a role too.
Currency of peace.
Geeks don’t do violence.
Geeks created nuclear weapons. Dangerous in large numbers.
>> This chronic conflict against our minds has caused people to erect mental firewalls against the cacophony of advertisement and products.
Its not THAT bad. They’re just ads. Usually people have a lot bigger things to worry about in their life than ads chronically damaging their minds. Bills, Career, Family, Love life. I don’t think ads are as harmful as you describe.
>> Start using bitcoin as a verb. We google, make tweets and skype people. If you liked this article then please bitcoin me.
But to what address?
1JDBSh5VqUp7ANEf9E7Wxu1WPn77fhrYEJ
About ads: I don’t have Bills, Career and life is not a worry. Time for a drama banana.
I wouldn’t say you were “bitcoined”.
http://blockexplorer.com/testnet/address/1JDBSh5VqUp7ANEf9E7Wxu1WPn77fhrYEJ
Good thinking. Language is the key to human perception. Power to inject your own vocabulary is the power to shape public opinion. I like ‘algorythmic money’, math money, independent currency etc. Anything but ‘electronic cryptocurrency’, ok?
I really don’t think most people have any idea what’s meant by “algorithmic money”. I know we do as programmers but having taught programming to adult beginners I can say that for most this is just gibberish. It’s a hard problem to find something most people get a good image from and yet has some connection to truth about the money. I think we should ask an expert marketer like the purple cow guy.
Bitcoin is so vivical!
How about P2PGold? Bitcoin has a lot more in common with gold than most other forms of money.
I think adverts are THAT bad. Once people’s basic needs are met, food, oxygen etc., want we really want are things like friends, family and freedom. These are things that no one can charge you money for. The advertisers know what people really want, so they try to link their drink with having great friends or their car with the freedom of driving on the open road (of course, you’ll probably spend most of your time time in the car in gridlock).
We are bombarded with such messages from birth, twisting, confusing and conflicting what we really want. I’m sure this has a profound negative psychological effect on the population as a whole, it’s just difficult to analyse because that’s the way it’s always been for us.
Sorry, a bit off topic and I doubt bitcoin’s gonna help with that anyway
Back on topic: a new “internet payment system” works for me as an introductory phrase. Followed up with “cheaper than Paypal or credit cards”. People understand that right away!
“Bitcoin, the gold of tomorrow!”
We could definitely put some spin on Futurama episode 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw1XJbV2HK0
Power phrases:
“Bitcoin will end wars” – very powerful!
“The people’s money”
“Digital Cash”
> Start using bitcoin as a verb.
> We google, make tweets and skype people.
I think you meant “we tweet”. Otherwise you’re using it as a noun.
Thanks for catching that, I edited the article to include your better phrasing
I think you’ve provided your answer in the OP, genjix – although not how you expected.
“Algorithmic money vs. legal money” is awful. Nobody on the street will get what algorithmic means. And ‘legal’ has the implication of ethical or moral, for those (most people) who haven’t looked too closely at what the words actually mean.
The correct terms to use need to be co-opted before they are stolen by those who would damage bitcoin. As a simple example, consider the US abortion debate: once the term ‘pro-life’ was used, it was difficult for the pro-choice side to come up with something as instantly powerful, and yet opposed. We’re in the same position – and, incidentally, we array ourselves against the same general forces. Those who seek control over others. But…
In the OP, you also said this:
“Algorithmic money are systems which make use of mathematics and cryptography, not laws and legislation like legal money. Algorithmic money is therefore incorruptible as the laws of mathematics are universal across borders, and are not subject to human flaws and fragilities.”
And I see there the germ of an approach:
Incorruptible Money versus Legislated Money.
Just a thought.
One more exellent article on bitcoinmedia, I think I ll bitcoin you !
The coin is the coin. The coin is a public money. Lexicon you say? Bah.. I’d coin you a few millis just for trying but you better relax a bit before you get goxxed. Your jive talk ain’t gonna make the coin any shinier. People don’t want marketers snooping around their private keys, we just want to exchange goods and services with a public money. What is that ball that linux dropped anyway? My two satoshis, I don’t see it that way. Block chains a tickin’ I’m out like an invalid TX.
Money 2.0
Bitcoin is a way to transfer value over the internet. We have many ways to transfer information over the internet. With Bitcoin, we now have a way to transfer value over the internet, direct, person-to-person, without having to go through a bank or other third party.
“Algorithmic money” ? I like it!
It’s a bit long though, but it should easily be contracted in algomoney or something.
I like “crypto currency” …it’s shorter than algorithmic money…rolls off the tongue better. If you want to distinguish it from other crypto currencies, you can say it’s “p2p crypto-currency”, “distributed crypto currency”, or “decentralized crypto currency.”
crypto-currency is nice but it focuses too much on the anonymity and “cryptic” aspect.
“Algorithmic” is more neutral for that matter.
Online cash
anonymous and independent global electronic money
I’ve found “open source” works well to start the description, whether it be”open source money” (which I use on non-techies) or “open source crypto-currency” (which I use for techies). Open source is a term many people already understand, and can quickly understand the Bitcoin project since it has many attributes of an open-source project:
* bitcoin isn’t going to disappear if one vendor disappears
* the project could fork, as the alt chains have demonstrated
* nobody really “works for” an open source project that no one truly controls
* there are many people working on the project without expectation/primary motivation of financial gain (though, obviously, some are working on bitcoin with the expectation of financial gain).
* there are companies that have their businesses devote toward Bitcoin, yet do not speak for Bitcoin as a project.
Sure, the Bitcoin ecosystem includes more than just the open-source part of bitcoin, and miners might not even be running the open-source client, but the term “open source” gets the idea across using a term people already understand.
In contrast, “Algorithmic money” doesn’t convey any additional information, in my mind.
For techies, I also follow up with something about PGP, as it also invokes ideas they already know: “kind of like PGP, where only the private key can be used to re-assign the money, but anyone can verify the assignment using the public key”.
Striving to describe anything technical using more familiar terms to the listener is the key. Here’s Feynman on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM
EXCELLENT conversational topic! Bitcoin MUST be explained briefly and in language easily understood by the masses…here’s my two-cents –oops– two-bits
Counterfeit-proof world-wide electronic money…
Universal e-money…
Uncrackable Internet Money…
Keep up the suggestions folks!
Money with the capacity to evolve.
The best conceivable form of money.
How about “power money”?
Let’s face it, those who control the distribution (a.k.a. seeding) of BTCs will ultimately control the direction and size of bitcoin economy: some bitcoin miners may commission space tourism, others — the production of alpaca socks, etc. Miners are in effect the central banks of bitcoin economy.
+1 for Cryptocurrency or CC
To expand on my quote, I think Bitcoin should be marketed using old terms and concepts, even if they aren’t exactly correct. No one out there knows what crypto or algorithmic means. Gold has a weird, sometimes bad reputation thanks to the seedy night-time marketers over the last few years, and the crazy conservative anti-government types that have been associated with it. Even cloud is a buzzword that’s not really understood by the masses. So, keep it simple and stupid. Like Internet Money, or Digital Dollars. Maybe Cloud Cash if you really want to use the new buzzword. Better yet, call it “sending your money over the phone or the internet, similar to PayPal, but without fees and restrictions,” and don’t even concern them with the ingenious intricate details happening under the surface. Bitcoin is revolutionary, with a whole lot of potential uses, but I doubt that in our complacent society it will spark any revolutions. It can still win through gradual change.
Hey Rassah, I used your quote
I still don’t get how bitcoin looks remotely interesting or revolutionary using vanilla terms like digital dollars.
That’s the hard part: how to explain its interesting revolutionary features using old terms and concepts. I don’t really know how (not a marketing major), but I guess you’d call it something like a bank account that doesn’t need a bank, or debit card account without fees, or something with free international transfers. Things everyday people use and understand.
I rather name it “digital p2p decentralised crypto-comodity”
Ideal Money and Asymptotically Ideal Money (J.F.Nash) ==> [bitcoin] ===> Algorithmic Money ===> Almoney
While I like the term “algorithmic money”, the appropriate term for what we consider money today is “fiat money”. It only exists by decree. To call it “legal” gives the implication that any other type of money is “non-legal”.
legislated money maybe?
“BitCoin – a Real F*ckin’ Online Analog of Gold”
Maybe this slogan will catch those millions of stupid mainstream cattle. Put it close to the dairy section of supermarket.
Fiat money should just be called F-Money from now on. It can stand for Fiat or Funny.
Anothe reason not to tie the idea to gold: that could lead people to associate Bitcoin worth to gold worth, and if gold crashes (it may be at the top of the bubble now), all associations with Bitcoin will become negative too.
How about “Fair Money”? We’ve got Fair Trade, but where’s Fair Money?
We’re using unfair money now, as it’s value is beyond our control and it can be seized from us, or one’s assets can be frozen.
Using “Fair Money” as a starting point, many technical characteristics of Bitcoin can be described: It’s inflation is predefined, it’s impossible for someone to freeze your funds, it gives you (modest) privacy over your finances while still being transparent, it’s nearly free to transfer to whomever you choose wherever they may be.. etc.
Fair trade needs Fair Money
Fair enough? Fair me a tosh or two if you think it’s a good idea 
1FLcaEq1je2ZYc7nJQJoiH7Z1fdM9MZ95j
P2P cryptocurrency
P2P invokes good thoughts of its decentralized nature–power to the people, decentralization is the way of the future. And crypto currency is sexy and a real descriptor. I think that best describes what it is.
Then bitcoin is a specific brand. I like the idea of using it as a verb.
i’ve already heard the term ‘peer-to-peer crypto-currency’ or just ‘crypto-currency’ in numerous news broadcasts already. consider this: we could call it “Frank” as far as we like, and if the media doesn’t use it, then our discussion is moot and of little worth. what matters is not what we decide. what matters is what the *media* uses. so in short, i this discussion seems of little worth to me since the media will use whatever they want. and that will be what gets attached to this new ‘crypto-currency’. and ‘crypto-currency’ is already far ahead of other terms from what i’ve listened to in the news. if you want your ‘vote’ to matter, the only way for it to really matter is for media to use it. but everyone can be their own form of media outlet. the more you use your term, the more people will hear it, and the more it might catch. but i personally think ‘crypto-currency’ is a fine choice, as it is immediately understandable. and ‘P2P crypto-currency’ is better as it is more descriptive. i believe however that this term has already surfaced years ago as the buzzword.
Democracy may not be a good word to attach to it. Many people are starting to realize it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what’s for dinner.
Democracy is what allows the common herd to be stampeded by evil people into making decisions for the rest of us.
You can keep your democracy. I’ll keep my autonomy.