Many of you probably spent Thanksgiving last year explaining the rise of Bitcoin to a wide-eyed family around the table trying to make sense of this magic money from the interwebs. “It’s like digital money,” your 2017-self explains, “that can be used for goods and services, get in now before the price hits $100k.”

You go on to use concrete examples, like explaining how you can transact person to person with no bank in between from anywhere in the world. The funds are in your wallet, which is like an account, and fully secured using the power of encryption. Money changes hands by way of “miners” on the network, which is just a collection of computers running fancy software that anonymously records and shares your transaction with every bitcoin node on the planet.

Pretty simple, right?

“Aren’t the miners just like the bank?”, your semi-tech literate sister’s new boyfriend asks, desperately trying to ingratiate himself with the rest of your family still looking at you like an escaped mental patient.

“No, not even close,” you explain, since the miners don’t own the accounts or even know which transactions they’re validating.

At the end of the discussion, your Uncle Bill was throwing cash at you begging to get him in. Your father was still skeptical, your mother said this “tech stuff” goes right over her head, and your in-laws looked at you like this:

Facing The Gravy

So you may have encouraged some friends and family, perhaps some you see only once a year, to invest a little bit in this new digital money since the rise and fall from $20k was nowhere in sight last November.

Let’s put it in perspective, this is where we were 1 year ago:

Don’t be the jerk who brings up bitcoin this Thanksgiving https://t.co/7AtjP0LgD6 pic.twitter.com/JmzRcOhUvo — Recode (@Recode) November 20, 2018

See that line? That was you explaining Bitcoin in between comments on how moist the turkey is.

“Did you buy a new brand this year, add more butter? It’s just delicious!”

Last year is long gone, and here we are today on Thanksgiving 2018. The crypto landscape has changed, mostly for the worse in terms of price, but the actual underlying technology has never been stronger. That silver lining only helps to a small extent.

Let the Stats Speak

“But really,” you say, “Bitcoin has been up and down for years, there are tons of examples, the current downturn is temporary, just wait for the next bull run when institutional investors get on board.”

No matter whether you're a Bitcoin fan or Crypto hater, here's data you can use. The price of Bitcoin, every Thanksgiving since 2010. [2018 price as of Nov 20 11:00am EDT. Data @YahooFinance] pic.twitter.com/mgeib006JU — OddStats (@OddStats) November 21, 2018

In fact, you can explain that everything is on sale right now. Average your holdings down and stock up before the train really leaves the station next quarter. Wait, let’s not encourage more buying, that’s what got you in trouble last year.

If All Else Fails, How To Deflect Bitcoin Questions

Alright, so you did your best with charts drawn on a napkin explaining that Bitcoin has had many ups and downs along the way. It was declared “dead” many times and this most recent crash is just a part of the journey to massive worldwide penetration of cryptocurrency into the everyday lives of every single person on the planet.

Your family members that you convinced to buy bitcoin last thanksgiving pic.twitter.com/d4nWTRlfAn — icebergy ❄️ (@icebergy_) November 21, 2018

Here are some helpful ways to deflect from the current Bitcoin drop and overall market conditions by tossing some distracting squirrels on the table.

“Yes, Bitcoin is down 45% since last Thanksgiving, but did you see what President Trump tweeted this morning?”

“I know, Uncle Bill, the crypto bags are heavy and sorry about that whole Hmstr thing, but tell me more about that guy your daughter is dating, when does the parole board meet?”

“Mom, I’m sorry I stayed home last Christmas to manage my crypto portfolio collapse, but did you do something different to the stuffing this year? Seems less dry.”

As a final deflection, just explain how you have sworn off technology entirely and now see worldly finances as a burden which is why you sold your heavy bags to live life in a van down by the river.

Stick to safe topics like politics and religion, avoid the “B” word this year.