When I started evangelizing bitcoin and blockchain technology in 2012, my dad was a hard sell. There was the common skepticism and the typical retorts of “what supports it?”, “what can be done with it?”. and “what the heck is crypto?” Back then, my tone wasn’t refined and the learning tools hadn’t fully matured yet… but frankly, I think the reason he didn’t get it was he’s not technical and doesn’t adopt early technology.
I persisted delicately and he finally gave up. Before the end of 2012, I had secured a fair amount of coins, and as the price increased by many multiples, I secured more and more of his ear for future opportunities that might arise.
Now, he didn’t decide to buy Bitcoins because he ended up understanding the technology, in fact, I’m still not sure years later if he understands much of the nitty-gritty of bitcoin or if he has realized the possible implications that blockchain technology provides. When Ethereum came along, he certainly didn’t understand the concept and why I decided to call it quits at the end of 2013 and risk considerable capital to jump-start the project with my then co-founders Vitalik, Mihai and Charles, and eventually the rest of the company. founding teamas it exists today.
Bitcoin is complex to explain, Ethereum takes it a couple of levels. It’s not rocket science, but it sure may seem like it to many people. Unheard terms like smart contracts, smart propertyeither dapps it may seem daunting to the masses. Even increasingly common terms or words like “cryptocurrency” either “distributed ledger system” may still be unknown to many. Let’s be honest. This technology is not easy for most to understand and the messages need continual refinement and elaboration for this to change.
Rightfully so, most of Ethereum’s current focus and goal is to put the tools in the hands of developers and show them how they can create the products that end users will ultimately value. Less time and resources have been spent explaining Ethereum to end consumers, businesses, and institutions.
With weekly announcements of “blockchain integrations” (See NASDAQ, IBM, Honduran Government and many others) and friendly legislation proposals emerging from countries like Canada, there is a clear increase in interest from many quarters, and as more integration projects start to make the news, more and more interest is coming from organizations that don’t want to be left behind.
explain complex ideas
So how do we get Ethereum and more generally complex ideas to the general public? Well, whether you’re a company trying to communicate new innovations to investors or an educator teaching a challenging subject in a short amount of time, The problem is how do you take a large amount of mostly technical information and simplify and effectively present it in an engaging and informative way?
One answer is infographics. Here are some benefits of this medium.
- Infographics are more eye-catching than printed words, as they typically combine images, colors, and content that naturally grab attention and appeal to those with shorter attention spans.
- Infographics can be easily shared on the web using the embed code and are perfect for sharing on social media.
- If it is visually appealing with consistent colors, shapes. messages and logo that provide an effective means of brand awareness
Below is the concept of the first Ethereum overview infographic designed for the masses. I’ll let it speak for itself and welcome comments and questions about why we crafted the message the way we did or why certain terms or ideas were omitted. Please feel free to share this and help spread the word around the web.
This is the first of a few proposed infographics. The next one will focus more on Ethereum use cases for various sectors, then one for the more technically inclined.
I’m missing Father’s Day with my dad (and my brother’s first Father’s Day) to be in Switzerland for Ethereum business. However, I saw my dad this week and felt some accomplishment when he, after showing him the infographic, he told me: “I finally have an idea of what Ethereum is and its potential. Now what is all this talk about Bitcoin?
Happy Father’s Day to all the Ethereum dads out there!
Anthony Di Iorio is one of the founders of Ethereum and currently serves as a consultant and advisor to the project. He is president and founder of decentralized Y Decentralized consulting services, which offers technology consulting services specializing in blockchain and decentralized technology integrations for enterprises, small businesses, and startups. Anthony is the cryptocurrency advisor at MaRS Discovery Districtorganize the Toronto Ethereum Rally Pool Y DEC_TECH (Decentralized Technologies) and will give lectures this summer at the University of Nicocia Master’s Program in Digital Currencies.
