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Bitcoin 101, with Daniel Altman | Big Think

Big Think | December 28, 2025



Bitcoin 101, with Daniel Altman
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Economist Daniel Altman explains the decentralized virtual currency Bitcoin.
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DANIEL ALTMAN:

Daniel Altman is Big Think’s Chief Economist and an adjunct faculty member at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Daniel wrote economic commentary for The Economist, The New York Times, and The International Herald Tribune before founding North Yard Economics, a non-profit consulting firm serving developing countries, in 2008. In between, he served as an economic advisor in the British government and wrote four books, most recently Outrageous Fortunes: The Twelve Surprising Trends That Will Reshape the Global Economy.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Daniel Altman: It’s been a big year for bitcoin, the virtual currency. This is the currency which only has value because people want to use it. They want to trade it so that they can buy things online, buy things perhaps in private settings and so they can hold onto it because they expect it will gain value into the future. It’s a currency that has been controversial because one of its exchanges broke down recently with the possible loss of millions of dollars for people who thought they had bitcoins that may have been stolen. But it’s also been controversial because of legal issues, how will certain entities allow it to be traded. Will there be tracking of bitcoins, is it something that will remain truly private in the future. Now bitcoin over the past year has seen a lot of volatility in its value in part because of some of these controversial events and in part because there’s been more knowledge of bitcoin and that has spurred more demand that people want to hold this thing as a currency or perhaps as an investment. And the fact is because it’s so volatile and because there’s a possibility that many other virtual currencies will enter the market and compete with bitcoin, you have to think about it perhaps more like an investment as well as a currency than you would with something like dollars.

Dollars, yes. If you hold on to them they lose value relative to inflation as prices go up. But it’s fairly stable and you know that you’ll be able to use dollars in the future. Bitcoin is a little riskier because we don’t know exactly what the demand for bitcoins will be in the future and there’s the possibility that we will run out of new bitcoins. There’s supposed to be a finite number out there. If that number is reached and no more bitcoins are created then essentially individuals will have the power to make monetary policy for the entire bitcoin market by either hoarding bitcoins to contract the money supply or pushing their bitcoins out into the market to expand it. Now this is something that we rarely see in regular currency markets because individuals don’t have that much power. But it is something that could possibly happen in the bitcoin market in the future. Now if you’re considering buying bitcoins I think the right way to think about it is something like investing in fine wines or expensive musical instruments or paintings. It’s something that you wouldn’t want to do unless you really knew a lot about what was going on in that market and the underlying value of these things and how it was created. So I would say bitcoin can be a fun experiment. It can be something that you want to invest time in as well as money but perhaps not just for the dilettantes, especially because there’s so much uncertainty surrounding its value in the future.

Directed/Produced by Jonathan Fowler and Dillon Fitton

Economist Daniel Altman explains the decentralized virtual currency Bitcoin.

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Written by Big Think

Comments

This post currently has 47 comments.

  2. @davidfoss7721

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    The day this video was posted bitcoin was worth $621, at its peak in late 2021 it was worth over $60 000. If you invested $10 000 when this video was first uploaded you would have become a millionaire just 7 years later.

  3. @natashaphillips4371

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    As a trade enthusiast who has made lots of money investing with Steve Hendricks, made 31k$ last week putting in 12k$ I will advice y’all get a professional to guide your investments as I can proudly say it’s the best way moving forward

  8. @qtluv2358

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    If anything, banks should abandon physical money and transfer to Bitcoin. Banks will be able to turn the government around, they can do the same with Bitcoin like real cash except no vault required and no need to go to the bank before it closes on Friday at 4pm. Less risk of getting robbed from complex Bitcoin wallet codes. Although banks will have to work differently from how they work now, it can work and will definitely make most people switch over to Bitcoin

  9. @southerntiger3107

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    Why not just invest in tangible things of worth, such as precious metals/cars/houses… ect. This just seems like a huge disaster waiting to happen. If the united states, Russian, Chinese government, even the U.N. treasury can get hacked, (all of which have all ready happened BTW) Whats to stop these "less powerful" entities with less financial backing, from getting hacked? I mean look what Edward Snowden, one man, got away with. And what he took has little to no monetary value. Imagine the internet hounds clamoring at a chance to get some cryptocurrency on websites with mediocre security protocols and servers.

  12. @UzairSyed1

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    Hello there! Have you thought about – Brians Bitcoin Big Bang (do a search on google)? Should you be contemplating making money with Bitcoin, Ive heard some decent things about it and my auntie got great benefits with it.

  15. @zak00101

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    The problem with bitcoin and vmoney is that there are easy to launch or print. There are a lot of vcurrencies. Eventually one of them would show better qualities than bitcoin and all savers of this vmoney would loose a lot of wealth.

  17. @shonwu5927

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    this guy either knows a lot about a very small aspect of cryptocurrencies or he has a very strong agenda. most likely both. do your own research people… this is a revolutionary piece of technology. if you guys think the internet benefits society, just you wait…

  23. @kirkikane

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    QUESTION: say bit coin or a new currency a international curruncy came out and it was used by every one and it was completley privatly owend would they be the government? sorry for the spelling 

  25. @mikehawk7819

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    wtf are people gonna do when there is a major black out?
    how much is shitcoin going to be worth then?
    fuck all thats how much.
    it only has value because people believe it does. 

  28. @VIdicus120

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    How can this be a real Big Think video, I am disappointed. Couldn't you find someone who could explain how a hash function worked and how the blockchain is maintained? This guy is smirking because he has NO IDEA what BITCOIN IS and he is giving YOU the 101. Do research for yourself, it is an open-source idea, like the wheel, it is here to stay

  31. @DrCureAging

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    All I see for and against any money system is opinion against opinion, and generic argument against generic argument. Because fundamentally, as everyone knows but doesn't stress the point of is that money itself is based on faith. Today, we may be run by the Christianity of money (or cash/debit/etc), tomorrow it could be digital, or maybe even in canned foods or chicken poop or stay the same. 

    The problem is in predicting the future of opinions like money because the concrete evidence like we see in science aren't present and can't possibly present due to the nature of an "opinion"

  34. @Fdp221

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    Always remember Mahatma Gandhi :

    First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

    Im not rich and i own bitcoins so fuck you with you paper money and enjoy hyper inflation with your savings melting away like snow under the sun

  35. @Goforth.And.Conquer

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    *****  Bitcoins are essentially the same as a stock.  they have to ability to rise in price as well as the ability to fall in price.  The only difference is that it is not a stock, it is a cryptocurrency which no government has control over.  Much like a limited edition collectible, bitcoins retain value because there is a limit to them.  As an example, if the federal government printed off hundreds of billions of new dollars each day and distributed them to the public, we all would never be any richer.  It would simply decrease the overall value of the dollar so that it would cost more of them to buy something…  Anything which is unlimited has no value because eveybody can get as much as they want without having to work hard for it.  I'd suggest doing more research before bashing the technology/currency without having the slightest understanding of the process and currency itself as well as basic economic principles.

  36. @d8ndaddy

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    There's a reason the smartest engineers and developers in the world are so excited about bitcoin.

    I get the initial reaction from most people, but bitcoin increasingly strikes me as the exception to the rule of "too good to be true."

  37. @wontonotnow2

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    Wow…people still don't get it.  I understand: a new system of payment comes around and gets shit upon due to the inherent fees involved, red tape, inaccessibility etc…except this doesn't do any of that, and has been attacked because of the fact that it works better.  P2P non-centric ledger that at least hints toward global currency due to cryptography? Garbage….Unknown and thus feared/hated.  Printed paper money from a government: Trusted.  I thought this argument was over. Keep your retirement money in fiat, and be safe.  Also experiment and learn some nuts&bolts of a new system.  Give it a try.  

  38. @bennotoorn1015

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    This is definitely the worst bitcoin 101 I've ever seen. And I can tell you all, I've seen a lot! Focusing on the price over the invention is a bad way to explain Bitcoins. And as far as I can see the comments here, we have a long way to go to enlighten the people. The main reason that not everyone is ready for the red pill, is because they don't understand what the so called REAL (fiat) money actually is and how money/a medium of exchange works in general.

  41. @KonaChuck22

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    For those concerned that bitcoin would have a negative affect on the poor, helping the poor is actually one of bitcoins most talked about qualities. For the worlds poor and unbanked, with an inexpensive SMS phone, they can send and receive bitcoin from relatives working abroad. They are able to bypass the banking system, bypass the high fees of Western Union or Moneygram and bypass their countries currency which may be rapidly losing value.

  43. @nappiral

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    The total number of bitcoins will be 21,000,000 coins as of the year 2140. Each coins is presently divisible to 8 decimal places and that divisibility can be easily increased to smaller parts if necessary.  That means right off the bat each of the 21,000,000 coins can be divided into 100,000,000 pieces.  21,000,000 x 1000,000,000 = 2,100,000,000,000,000 total pieces (2.1 quadrillion pieces) of bitcoin possible once divided.  I think there will be enough to go around for a while and if they just add 1 more decimal to the divisibility that number increases 210,000,000,000,000,000 (210 quadrillion). 

  44. @LeonidasGGG

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    Sooo it' like gold. A finite element that has it's own market and that we use for exchange of goods. And like gold, the ones who hold more of it dictate the rules of the game. In this case it could very well be some 15 year old in Africa and not some big Wall Str banker… And THAT is what they fear.

  46. @ralphmazio3432

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    Problems with what he's saying:  
    1)
    Bitcoins are divisible up to 8 places.  1 Bitcoin = 100,000,000 Satoshis(smallest unit)  Currently there are 13,000,000(roughly) Bitcoins for a total of 1,300,000,000,000,000 Satoshis.  A digital currency is different than what we've experienced in the past because of this divisibility.  We will never have a problem with supply.

    2)
    There is NO reason not to "risk" getting into bitcoin.  It will likely be a HUGE part of the monetary system in 10 short years.  You DO NOT have to buy a large amount.  Buy 10 dollars worth and play with it.  You certainly aren't concerned with losing 10 dollars are you?  Personally, I think everyone should invest at least 100 dollars in bitcoin if only to hedge their bets.  It WILL NOT go away—ever.

  47. @b44rt

    December 28, 2025 at 10:11 am

    God, I wish you had to take a bitcoin exam before you can spew your nonsese here in the commets. Bitcoin is NOT a pyramid scheme, it is NOT a scam. It is the sequal to our current money system.

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