Explaining the Bitcoin (BTC) takeover to an advanced civilization: a brilliant (hi)story thread (c) Oznog

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Alien: Welcome you to The Inter-Planetary Free Trade Alliance.
Human: How do we start trading from planet Earth?
Alien: To begin, you are talking with The Space Monetary Transactions Committee.
Human: We are ready!
Alien: What is the best payment system on planet Earth?
Human: We have 162 official currencies. 47 are linked to others.
Alien: The most used?
Human: The United States Dollar (USD).
Alien: Does it allow remote payments through computerized systems?
Human: Yes.
Alien: Even over remote distances with very high latency?
Human: Our engineers say that we can adapt our systems for that purpose.
Alien: Fantastic! Why USD deserves trust?
Human: It is the most used. 230 years of history. In 10 countries. Very stable.
Alien: What backs the USD?
Human: No commodity. Only the confidence in the political power of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Alien: What else?
Human: Well, the United States has the strongest military, with the best nuclear arsenal.
Alien: USD money supply?
Human: 18 trillions, since 1792.
Alien: Increase in the last 2 years?
Human: 14 trillions.
Alien: Physical-based alternatives?
Human: Yes! We have gold metal (79 protons per atom). Accepted as a means of payment for millennia.
Alien: Tons of gold in existence?
Human: 201 tons.
Alien: Asteroid 538e17 has 800 gigatons of easily minable gold on its surface.
Human: Ummm.
Alien: Digital-based alternatives?
Human: Oh yes! We have Bitcoin.
Alien: What is Bitcoin?
Human: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.
Alien: Wait, the document describing Bitcoin is like 8-9 pages only?
Human: Yes, how do you know that?
Alien: The same whitepaper was also sent to our planet several millennia ago. It transformed our economy to the next level.
Human: Really? But here almost nobody uses it.
Alien: But it’s permission-less, true? Why is it not used?
Human: It is expensive and slow. Transactions have up to $60 fees at critical times. This showed its inability to be a global means of payment.
Alien: Wait, we don't understand. Let's start at the beginning.
Human: Ok.
Alien: You have a global computer network with decentralized packet switching. Correct?
Human: Yes, we call it The Internet.
Alien: That network interconnects Bitcoin machines with the same ledger. Correct?
Human: Yes.
Alien: Transactions are grouped in new pages in the ledger. Right?
Human: Yes, blocks! Every 10 minutes.
Alien: All machines have the same “global vision”. True?
Human: Yes.
Alien: How do machines determine the next block?
Human: With hashpower (Proof-of-Work). By the Bitcoin miners.
Alien: Do users freely choose the fee for their transactions?
Human: Yes.
Alien: And miners make blocks with the transactions they want?
Human: Yes.
Alien: We don't understand. Why are transactions expensive and slow?
Human: Blocks are limited to 1 megabyte.
Alien: Oh, that explains it. Why don't the miners increase the block limit so Bitcoin can scale globally and replace the USD?
Human: We do not know.
Alien: We have connected to the Bitcoin network. On September 29, 2017, 94% of Bitcoin hashpower include signal with the text "/NYA/". What does it mean?
Human: New York Agreement.
Alien: What is New York?
Human: The city where the block limit was proposed to be expanded.
Alien: Wow, the miners must have deployed a large private army to protect that place. Right?
Human: Emmm no, they went without a back guard. It is said that they were locked in a room by some devs.
Alien: Devs?
Human: The Bitcoin Core developers.

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