{"id":28179,"date":"2014-09-16T22:48:13","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T22:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe7060102697"},"modified":"2014-09-16T22:48:13","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T22:48:13","slug":"need-support-bitcoin-comic-1410889693","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/culture\/need-support-bitcoin-comic-1410889693","title":{"rendered":"Why We Need to Support the Bitcoin Comic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cShow before you tell\u201d was what I was told when I tried writing fiction at age fifteen on breaks from computer programming. It\u2019s often harder to engage than explain, something that the Bitcoin world hasn\u2019t succeeded at. This will change with the Bitcoin comic.<\/p>\n

Like almost everyone who reads Bitcoin Magazine, I have often struggled to explain my excitement and enthusiasm for Bitcoin to friends and family. I often thought that what we need is more compelling storytelling to share the idea of Bitcoin with a larger audience.<\/p>\n

In many ways, it\u2019s important to engage before you seek to explain. To show before you tell.<\/p>\n

But the complexities of Bitcoin make it a difficult thing to show. That\u2019s why I couldn\u2019t have been more excited when I came across the Bitcoin comic.<\/p>\n

Alex Preukschat\u2019s team in Spain has been tirelessly working over the past year to produce the best single educational piece I\u2019ve seen surrounding Bitcoin. That\u2019s not because it\u2019s the most informative, but because it shows first, and tells second.<\/p>\n

One of the great things about storytelling is that it is engaging. One of the problems as I see it in the Bitcoin space is that we\u2019ve done a great job of showing who many of the bad guys are in some sort of corrupt, centralized service, but we\u2019ve done a bad job of storytelling. What do we have to say about \u201cwhere do we go from here?\u201d So far no one seems to be able to paint a compelling picture.<\/p>\n

Comic books and graphic novels are one of my favorite forms of storytelling because they show not only a clash between good and bad, but extraordinary and even super-human acts of heroism. To me, there is hardly anyone in recent memory worthy of such memory than Satoshi and no better way to present Bitcoin to the world than explaining it to the world in a story format.<\/p>\n

The whitepaper may be a great entry point to Bitcoin for a highly engaged technical audience, but it is only in telling stories that we are able to engage more widely, and it is Satoshi himself who has left us the best story of all.<\/p>\n

Although in many ways, Bitcoin Comic doesn\u2019t fit into the core strengths of the Swarm network. It\u2019s more of a classic educational project than cryptofuel or any of the other fascinating decentralized technologies that Swarm is currently seeking to facilitate.<\/p>\n

But when I saw the Bitcoin Comic, I knew we needed to support it because our needs are the same as all people who have Bitcoins. Our salaries and support all came from the Bitcoin community, and we have a long term vision to help Bitcoin expand. We need material that you can give to your friends and family that will excite them, that will tell them a story that they feel that they can participate in.<\/p>\n

One interesting aspect of this is the possibility of getting a mention in the appendix or even a cameo in some part of the book. These cameos are your chance to actually be a part in the story in a substantial way, not simply as an observer but as a participant.<\/p>\n

Hasan Karahan of Blackhan.com was the first to support the Bitcoin Comic by getting a cameo in the comic, and had this to say:<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs an early Bitcoin adopter, I\u2019ve always thought that Bitcoin needs projects like this to reach a broader audience. With the Bitcoin Comic I feel like we are at a major breaking point and I wanted to be part of this crucial moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This isn\u2019t just a crucial moment for some of us. It is a crucial moment for all of us, to create a story that resonates with a large number of people and can create positive momentum that will carry Bitcoin forward to broader adoption.<\/p>\n

So far we\u2019ve reached about a third of the fundraising goal for the Bitcoin comic, and I\u2019d encourage each person to get at least one copy for themselves, and maybe a couple other copies as gifts for friends or family.<\/p>\n

We need to tell a more compelling story to a wider audience. And Alex and his team have given us one excellent tool for doing just that.<\/p>\n

At Swarm we have a modest salary of 5 BTC a month, and this month I\u2019m taking 1 of those Bitcoin and putting it in the pot, so that, come Christmas time, my family members can all learn about the Hunt for Satoshi. I encourage you to do the same.<\/p>\n

Participate at www.swarm.co\/comiccoin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cShow before you tell\u201d was what I was told when I tried writing fiction at age fifteen on breaks from computer programming. It\u2019s often harder to engage than explain, something that the Bitcoin world hasn\u2019t succeeded at. This will change with the Bitcoin comic. Like almost everyone who reads Bitcoin Magazine, I have often struggled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2695,"featured_media":28178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[3365],"class_list":{"0":"post-28179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"tag-swarm"},"author_data":{"id":2695,"name":"Jo\u00ebl Kai Lenz","nicename":"joel-kai-lenz","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/well-hello-there-96x96.png"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/why-we-need-to-support-the-bitcoin-comic.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2695"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}