“What is Internet Anyway?”

Or, the Bitcoin of 1994

In 1994, the Today Show posed a question nearly everyone was wondering:

“What is Internet, anyway?”

Their answer is vague and hilarious:

“Internet is that massive computer network. The one that’s becoming really big now.”

A second anchor skeptically responds, “What does that mean; what do you like, write to it like mail?”

Flash forward 23 years, and the confusion of the Today Show makes great content for an SNL skit. Few of us can imagine living a life without the Internet. Trillions of dollars are made annually through it, students couldn’t exist without it, movies and television are streamed on it, social networks have the GDP and power of nations, banks are totally virtual, etc., etc., etc. It goes without saying we do a lot more with the Internet now than “write to it.”

What if these anchors were to replace the word “Internet” with “Bitcoin,” in this segment? They very well could be from 2017 instead of 1994.

See, people understand Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and the blockchain just as much as the Today Show of 1994 understood the Internet. In 2017, we use phrases like “immutable ledger” or “decentralized network” or “gold 2.0” to describe Bitcoin and blockchain tech. In 23 years, I’d be willing to bet that we will be laughing at the naivete of these descriptors.

We may not understand Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies or the blockchain yet. But to label them as a fraud, or a bubble, or to scoff phrases like, “What do you do, like, write to it” will probably accomplish nothing more than providing comedic relief in the years to come.

Maybe we should take a lesson from the Today Show of 1994. Maybe we’re looking at innovation that will change the world. Innovation that will touch the lives of every human on the planet, and change the course of history.

Maybe you should be asking the question:

What is Bitcoin, anyway?