Bitcoin received some unexpected exposure this week after internationally renowned life coach Tony Robbins posted a piece on his website all about the cryptocurrency – tweeting it to his three million followers. The post, entitled ‘What You Need to Know About Bitcoin’, took a refreshingly balanced and objective view of the cryptocurrency, tackling the technical intricacies in a clear and understandable manner while thankfully keeping nonsense to a minimum.
What the heck is bitcoin, and how does it work? Find out here. https://t.co/KkenntACZd
— Tony Robbins (@TonyRobbins) December 30, 2018
Robbins Gets it Right
Robbins’ team, for it is unlikely he wrote the piece himself, do a good job of explaining the technical side of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Comparing mining to solving riddles in a computer game that then unlock previously inaccessible parts of the game, for which the player is rewarded, was an easy to understand analogy. They also reference the infamous clip from the Today show of the early 1990s where the hosts struggle to comprehend the internet, which is a very fitting, and much used, example.
One slight anomaly in the article is the reference to the price of Bitcoin, which they quote as being $9,979 at the time of writing, something Bitcoin holders can only dream of at the moment. Bitcoin has not been that price since February 2018, which illustrates how long this article has been sitting in Mr Robbins’ in-tray. The fundamentals are still the same of course, so in that aspect the article is still accurate.
Balanced and Fair Arguments
On the negative side, there are the usual associations with Silk Road and mentions of exchange hacks. The article stops short of mentioning the often-cited terrorism angle directly, but it does mention the use of cryptocurrencies in tax evasion and the purchasing of illegal goods. Generally though, the article gets it right and puts across a balanced point of view, and it’s not a bad introduction for someone who has heard of Bitcoin but knows next to nothing about it. Towards the end, the article sums up Bitcoin is a very succinct yet accurate way that cannot be argued with by either side:
Bitcoin has the potential capability of changing how the world handles finances, but there are still problems with it.
