I often meet newbies and try to explain to them what makes Bitcoin special. I am trying to compile a list of advantages of Bitcoin.
Is there anything anybody feels I should add to the list below?
Also I think its better to keep to concrete, succinct, advantages. Not what might be considered wishy washy hype about how it will 'help bring sub-saharan Africans out of poverty by allowing them to purchase goats with Bitcoin".
Some of the reasons which I currently state:
-It allows you to have full control of your money, nobody can take away your money.
-It is not controlled by anyone. Its a decentralised peer-to-peer network. Based on open source software. This means it can not be manipulated, Bitcoin supply is fixed modelling it after gold. Nobody can stop or prevent transactions.
-It has low fees compared to other online payment methods like paypal, credit cards etc.
-It is truly global.
-It is programmable money that allows for smart contracts.
-Anybody including kids from their basement, can create financial applications without permission. This is because its open source technology and the network is not controlled by anybody. Nobody needs to ask permission to use it and nobody can restrict access. If you have access to the internet you can access it.
-It is pseudo anonymous and with some extra effort it can be very close to anonymous. You need sophisticated state actors using significant resources to de-anonymise if somebody takes extra effort.
-It is less hackable then traditional payment systems because it is a push system. That means you dont provide your 'secret keys' to receiver/merchant when you make a payment, unlike with credit cards.
You pretty much summarize the advantages of it so I will just add that since it can be access by anyone then for those people who cannot open bank accounts because of the lack of supporting documents will now have opportunity to store their money without the need of those documents as long as they have internet connection. Yes there is a risk that their money will drop in value because of the fluctuation of prices but the advantage of it is that they will be able to keep their money somewhere wherein they would not be able to spend it immediately whenever they have impulse in buying something that they don't actually need compared to just storing the money in their wallet which is more likely to be spent immediately and in the end they would not be able to save.