You can ride a bicycle attached to a dynamo to generate electrical energy in order to power the lights in your house now. Alternatively, you can attach that dynamo to a bitcoin miner, successfully mine bitcoin now, and then give that bitcoin to the local electricity company in the future when you actually need the lights on.
Substitute running your house lights and riding a bike for any other two things that involve human effort. Substitute bitcoin for any other currency.
Money is just a way of representing work that was done at some time in the past, which you would like to exchange for something useful now or at some other point in the future.
The major difference between bitcoin and other currencies is that bitcoin has no central authority over its supply and distribution, which means it has several desirable properties, such as its inability to be debased.
You can ride a bicycle attached to a dynamo to generate electrical energy in order to power the lights in your house now. Alternatively, you can attach that dynamo to a bitcoin miner, successfully mine bitcoin now, and then give that bitcoin to the local electricity company in the future when you actually need the lights on.
Substitute running your house lights and riding a bike for any other two things that involve human effort. Substitute bitcoin for any other currency.
Money is just a way of representing work that was done at some time in the past, which you would like to exchange for something useful now or at some other point in the future.
The major difference between bitcoin and other currencies is that bitcoin has no central authority over its supply and distribution, which means it has several desirable properties, such as its inability to be debased.