American television host Ellen Degeneres took a jab explaining what Bitcoin (BTC) was to her live audience yesterday, Feb. 15, by comparing the digital currency to a goat that “doesn’t exist except for on that Internet.”
If you want to know what bitcoin is, I learned about it. A bit. pic.twitter.com/txICiTXYgi
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) February 15, 2018
After asking the audience who has heard of Bitcoin to applause, and then asking who can explain what Bitcoin is, Degeneres answered her own question:
“Nobody knows how it works. Nobody. Everybody’s talking about Bitcoin and nobody understands it. It’s like a plot twist in a confusing movie.”
While her comparison of Bitcoin’s digital nature as similar to that of a picture of a cute goat that only exists online doesn’t fully transmit a solid understanding of cryptocurrency, Degeneres does correctly explain that BTC works “sort of like the stock market” and that one can store their Bitcoin in a digital wallet that can either be off or online.
Due to the recent market volatility that brought Bitcoin’s price up to $20,000 in December and below $7000 in February -- not quite the “$20,000 or nothing” that Degeneres says -- she sees Bitcoin as a “digital Antiques Roadshow” that can make you either “a millionaire or totally broke.”
A lack of consumer understanding of cryptocurrencies is often cited as the reason more government regulation is needed. EU regulators have again cautioned potential crypto investors against investing in something whose risks they don’t understand, and the IMF chief recently cited a “herd mentality” as a cause for needing crypto regulation.
Commentators on Reddit overall liked the non-technical nature of Degeneres’s Bitcoin explanation, user FalcoLamborghini writing that “considering the audience, this was actually good for BTC.”
Even after her research into what Bitcoin is, Degeneres still tells her audience,
“Personally, I’d rather own a baby goat”
