Although cryptocurrency has been around since 2009, it is still strange and foreign to a lot of people—especially people of a certain age.
I was once asked by a friend how I would explain Facebook to someone like Christopher Columbus, and I just couldn’t do it. Think about it: how would you explain what Facebook or Twitter is to a man whose great accomplishment was discovering a new land and who lived long before the discovery of penicillin? It’s an almost impossible task.
That’s how it feels sometimes, trying to explain cryptocurrency trading to people in certain age brackets.
The Importance of Metaphors and Similes
We all use metaphors and similes when we are trying to communicate a thought to another. For example, when you want to explain how deep your friend's voice sounds, you might say he sounds like Darth Vader—if your listener is familiar with that reference.
You could tell your mother that your new girlfriend is as pretty as a sunflower 🌻 or as snow white 🐻❄️, depending on which reference she is able to understand.
If I say that my manager is a vicious tiger when it comes to drilling me for meeting the annual KPI, the picture is clearer than if I had just said she is aggressive.
Adjectives are good, but metaphors and similes take adjectives to the next level in description.
In explaining cryptocurrency to elderly folks with zero knowledge of it, finding the accurate metaphor or simile is a challenge.
What Reference Perfectly Describes Cryptocurrency?
You could describe cryptocurrency as a market—a spiritual market that is only accessible through the internet. But that is a very reductionist way of looking at things.
I could tell my mum that trading cryptocurrency is like buying mangos from the market, only that these mangoes are not really tangible. You can’t feel them or touch them; you only know that you have them because of the numbers on your phone.
I can already see her face as I give the explanation:
"So you mean, you are spending money on something that is not real?"
How do I tell her that cryptocurrency is real, but not real as she would define "real"? That reality is not what she thinks it is…
Now I sound like a mad philosopher saying that out loud to myself. Lol.
The Challenge of Explaining Spot Trading
Now, imagine my chagrin when I thought about explaining to my mother what I wanted to do with part of the money she sent me for food while in medical school. I did not want to experience the hard work of exploring possible metaphors and frames of reference that my mother would be comfortable with.
Now I think about it again, how would I have explained spot trading to her? My mother grew up in a time when the internet was but a fairy tale. How do I explain to her that you can set a limit order for a digital commodity that allows you to buy or sell it at your desired price?
How do I explain to her that observing resistance and support charts is one of the keys to successfully performing spot trading?
Maybe I could tell her that
spot trading is like buying bananas from a market at either an agreed market price now or at a lower price in the future if bananas lose their value in the future.
It still sounds like a poor representation of what spot trading entails.
Or maybe it is that simple…
Maybe I am just overthinking it.
Either way, I think I might need some help.
Thumbnail made with canva.