Page 6 - 24 October 2025

PAGE 6 · THE REPORTER 24 OCTOBER 2025

what matters. Bitcoin. If fiat is how new coins enter the
is a promise backed by system. Because the rules
institutions, Bitcoin is a are fixed and the reward falls
promise backed by maths. over time, Bitcoin is often
Its creators asked a blunt called “digital gold”: scarce,
question: what if you could divisible and costly to
have money that didn't need produce.
a bank or a central ledger to Don't get the wrong idea:
keep the accounts? The this isn't a plot to overthrow
answer was the blockchain, every bank tomorrow. Most
a public, permanent receipt day-to-day Bitcoin activity
book shared by thousands of
computers so nobody can happens on exchanges,
“Bitcoin for the Bewildered” will be published in a quietly erase an entry. marketplaces that keep their
series of 4 articles. This is a less of a laugh-out-loud own internal ledgers and
piece, aimed to give readers a clearer sense of what Here's how to picture it only settle to the public chain
Ons wens die volgende tagtigjariges van harte geluk this whole Bitcoin business really means, not just the without the techno-babble. occasionally. Many so-called
met hul verjaarsdae en wens hulle alles van die beste currency itself, but the ideas behind it.... Think of the town ledger in crypto payments never
vir die toekoms toe: the Barkly East Reporter touch the main blockchain
Bitcoin for the Bewildered office, the one the rugby club at all; they're internal
We congratulate the following octogenarians on their treasurer uses to jot down accounting entries inside
birthdays and wish them everything of the best for the Part 1 – The Strange Thing who paid for raffle tickets, apps. This may appear to be
future: who still owes, and who a contradiction; in reality, it
Called Bitcoin chipped in for the urn. Now isn't. The public blockchain
Issie Vorster, 87 op 24 Oktober imagine that instead of one
Stephanus Vorster, 85 op 26 Oktober book kept in one office, every remains the shared town
Betsie Sciocatti, 83 op 30 Oktober I should come clean up Africa followed suit: the ledger, but many exchanges
front, I don't own any crypto, South African Reserve Bank household had an identical and apps keep their own side
I looked into it out of opened in 1921 and copy on their table. Every ledgers for speed and
curiosity to see what all the borrowed heavily from those time someone recorded a convenience, recording
fuss was about. That said, if international models. In payment, every copy was internal trades and only
you're thinking of poking short, our Reserve Bank is updated. If any copy showed updating the public book
your head into this world, part of the same family of something different, the when funds move in or out.
here's the sensible stuff you institutions whose job is to village would know at once. So when someone “buys”
need to know without the steer money, smooth shocks T h a t ' s b a s i c a l l y t h e Bitcoin, they may simply see
techno-babble. and try to keep prices and blockchain: every payment a number appear in an app
Let's start with the simple jobs steady. becomes a line in a public rather than a physical coin
ledger, transactions are
truth: most of the money we Here's the crucial point: grouped into “blocks,” and appearing in their palm.
use today is a promise. Paper modern fiat money is not each block is linked to the Is it a cure-all? No. Is it a
notes, bank balances, the b a c k e d b y g o l d . one before it, so the record is useful experiment? Possibly.
numbers on the phone app, Governments stopped tying permanent. For people who distrust the
they're not backed by gold or paper to bullion decades idea that governments or
anything you can hang on a ago, which means central A few more practical bits, central banks can expand
wall. They work because the banks can increase the because people like to know the money supply at will,
state, the banks and the rest money supply when they how the sausage is made. A Bitcoin offers an alternative:
of us agree they work. That's judge it necessary. That Bitcoin wallet isn't a pouch rules you can read and a cap
what economists call fiat ability can be useful in a or a bank app with a number on supply that can't be
money, from the Latin for crisis, but it also has a you can ring. It's a pair of changed on a whim.
“let it be done”, and it's the downside. When more cryptographic keys: a public Whether that's sensible for
plumbing of modern life. money chases the same address (your account you depends on what you
number of goods, like number you can give out)
How we got here matters. In and a private key (the secret want from money: stability
1910 a small group of sausages at the shop, prices that lets you spend the for the shopping list, or
senators and banking men tend to rise. That's inflation money (bitcoins)). If you lose scarce digital stuff to hold for
met in private on Jekyll in plain English, and it's the the private key, you lose the future.
Island and sketched ideas reason people get nervous access; there's no bank to Next week I'll handle a
that helped shape the when governments print or call and reverse it. That's question sensible folks keep
Federal Reserve, which push lots of money into the f r e e d o m w r a p p e d i n asking: if there are only 21
Congress created in 1913. economy. responsibility. million Bitcoins, won't we
The Fed today is not a simple Enter the alternative. The run out? Short answer: no,
government office, it's a whole idea came from And then there's “mining,” but the full answer needs a
hybrid, with an appointed someone calling themselves which sounds romantic but look at tiny slices, how
Board of Governors and a Satoshi Nakamoto, who put is simply computers doing exchanges keep accounts,
network of regional Reserve the plan on paper in 2008 hard work. Machines race to and why you can still buy a
Banks, which is one reason and then quietly wandered solve a tough math puzzle; cup of tea even when a single
folk argue about how off, which makes for good the winner gets to add the coin is worth the price of a
“private” it really is. South pub chat, but the maths is next block to the chain and cow.
collects a reward in newly
minted Bitcoin. That reward By Logan Lamont

The Reporter which is registered at the Post Office as
a newspaper is printed and published by the
proprietors, Barkly East Reporter cc (Reg No.
2002/024771/23) at 28 Greyvenstein Street, Barkly
East.
Copyright on all materials in The Reporter reserved
by the proprietors.

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NOVEMBER 2025
1 Golf Day (Barkly East)
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