Last night, JK Rowling published a post on her Twitter profile explaining that she doesn’t know what Bitcoin is and wants to understand more about it. As a result, in a few hours, her account has been clogged with so many messages that the author of Harry Potter seems worried.
I don’t understand bitcoin. Please explain it to me.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 15, 2020
One of the answers came from the “official” Bitcoin.org account, but Rowling doesn’t seem to be sure of the definition.
I don’t think I trust this. https://t.co/ziZzKg1aS0
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 15, 2020
Many have also intervened trying to provide similarities or metaphors with the world of Harry Potter but with poor results.
This “challenge” in responding to JK Rowling with the simplest possible definition of Bitcoin was also taken up by Vitalik Buterin from Ethereum, for example, but also by Tyler Winklevoss, Stani Kulechov from Aave and many others.
It’s a digital currency. There’s ~18m units of it. It’s not backed by anything, it’s just valuable because it is, like collectibles.
There’s a network of computers (which anyone can join) that maintains a decentralized global excel spreadsheet of how many coins each person has.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) May 15, 2020
However, Rowling still doesn’t seem to understand and starts tweeting the answers saying that they’re not clear or even that she’s worried that she can’t open her account anymore without someone attacking her for not owning any crypto.
I’m sure cryptocurrencies are fascinating. I’ve genuinely tried to grasp the very detailed information I’ve been sent tonight (people close to me understand it & have tried to explain it when I’m stone cold sober), but I’m afraid this is a total blind spot to me. 1/2
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 15, 2020
This started as a joke, but now I’m afraid I’ll never be able to log in to Twitter again without someone getting angry I don’t own Bitcoin. One day you’ll see a wizened old woman in the street, trying to trade a Harry Potter book for a potato. Be kind. She did try to understand.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 15, 2020
