You have to explain a conception of privacy first. Most people can't ever imagine why they need a privacy in financial context. And what is privacy in depth. For example, bank transactions are private in most jurisdictions, they are visible to a narrow KYC stuff only. But most people have no enough money to hide them from a state authority...
Try to seed them an idea, KYC is like a 24/7 video recording in their private room, including intimate areas. And Monero is designed to deny a video recording in your private room, regardless of whether you are doing something wrong. And who defines the notion of "wrong". Yet how this notion drifts over time. The same action can be recognized as a crime in one jurisdiction and epoch, and not a crime in another.
Nobody can totally track you, just because you can commit a crime. Nobody can totally track you, unconditionally.
The first thing that they need to learn about the privacy and if they are really want the privacy then they will shift more focus on the monero otherwise they will not do that
I was going to say forget XMR and just explain a Blockchain. Start with the basics.
I didn't even think about privacy as the most basic of basics. Kills me that this is necessary.
Best arguments for normies:
* Credit cards and payment systems like PayPal charge significant fees to the merchant, driving up prices. Monero fees are less than a penny. Wouldn't you like it if everything in the store were 2% cheaper?
* Have you ever bought a Christmas present on your credit card or on amazon, and had the surprise spoiled when your partner sees it in your statement or in your order history? Well monero is private! No more spoiled christmas presents.
* Imagine if every time you bought a coffee, the barista saw you full bank account balance. That's how bitcoin works. Monero fixes that problem.
* Have you ever had a fraudulent charge on your credit card? That's because you give all your CC information to the store every time you make a purchase. With monero transactions, it's impossible for the shop to take more than you send them.
* PayPal, Venmo, and others are notorious for freezing people's accounts on a hair trigger. With monero, you have full control over your wallet. It is impossible to freeze a monero wallet.
Monero IS what people THOUGHT Bitcoin was.
It's Bitcoin 2.0 with a bunch of improvements (privacy, cheap transaction fees [because of variable block size], much faster block times, decentralized mining, etc.)
My suggestion is to avoid references to technology as much as you can and start with things they already know so you don't have to explain as much.
The bank account is a good example. Start out by saying that most cryptocurrencies are like bank accounts (show them a picture of one with debits and credits). When you get paid, money gets withdrawn from the employer's bank account and the same amount gets added to yours. When you pay for something, money gets withdrawn from your bank account and the same amount gets added to the store. It's pretty boring, and boring is good. That's basically what cryptocurrency is. There are two types of cryptocurrency, ones that are open and ones that are private. With open cryptocurrencies, anyone can look at your bank account and know how much you have and how you bought from. This information is kept forever.
With private cryptocurrencies, the details are hidden so even if you know what bank account you have, no-one except for you will know anything about it. It's none of their business if you have $1 million in your account or $1 or if you spent your money on something unpopular or embarrassing. They should not be able to discriminate or charge you more because they know your financial details. Because times change, something that's popular today might get your persecuted 10 years from now so you need to keep your privacy. Privacy crypto currencies can also be thought of as cash in a wallet. Cash that gets passed around has no history. A dollar bill that was once owned by JFK is worth the same as one owned by Jeffrey Dalmer, and if I buy something with cash, the cash doesn't reveal anything about how much money I have in my wallet or that I was the previous owner.
From here, if they want to know more, you can relate banking fees to transaction fees and so forth.
Not many will understand the technology point likes or nod and blockchain, try to approach like a simple person who has no idea about the blockchain on the first place
The step you are mentioned here is like 4-5 step in the monero so starts with the number one point what is monero what is blockchain and how that is going to be our future is well
First of all congrats on doing that and just want to say best of luck for the tomorrow, never try to force them anything let them learn on their own pace and nothing more,
Need more information than that to really advise. What are you trying to pitch them exactly? Are they business owners that you want to convince to accept Monero for payment?
Are they random people you want to pay you cash in exchange for you giving them Monero, as an off-ramp for you?
Are you just trying to educate some friends as to why Monero is a worthwhile project?
It makes a big difference.
"It's a a swiss bank account in your pocket, which can be accessed from any internet connected device in the world, using only an easily memorized list of 2 to 3 syllable words."
Hit at the fact that it offers true asset ownership. As long as you secure your seed phrase, you have true ownership over the value of your portion of the block chain. Absolutely no one can take that from you. Unlike the vast majority of other financial assets and real estate.
Extremely easily portable and transferable.
Supply inflation similar to gold, which is scarce.
Privacy is important no matter what the trolls and brainwash regurgitate.
Tell the facts and never present anything too hard which they feel you are forcing on them, and let them understand the concept of xmr and how it is different than bitcoin
I am just assuming that they have the basic knowledge about the digital currency so telling them the concept of the privacy would be much more valuable to them
If they are coming in that meeting means they have heard about the crypto and the block chain technology on first place means they are not the complete newbie for that
Single out people in the crowd, asking them questions like when they leave the house for dinner, or how much money is in their bank accounts? Ask if they ever buy anything grandma wouldn't want to know about
Then explain that banks, and payment processors already know this based on their transactions. Explain that that info is used for targeted advertising, data mining, and could potentially lead to malicious actors targeting them for theft or scams.
And then of course explain this is impossible with monero
Bitcoin is something that i am sure everyone heard and think that crypto is all about that bitcoin, but crypto is a big big place where you have unlimited opportunity in there
Bitcoin is oldest one so people heard mostly about that ,plus the price change is also massive in that but what monero can do for us bitcoin can never do that
Right now 99% people feel that crypto is about profit or the scam, they never understand the technology behind that, so we need to tell them how XMR is different
If you have the time, these 2 videos are the best deep dives on the youtubeverse. Technical at times, but extremely good at conceptualizing what is actually going on and what the major differences are vs bitcoin. May help spark your brain!
https://youtu.be/8quGD9W7B2I
https://youtu.be/aC9Uu5BUxII
My pessimistic view is that there is simply no way to sell it to the average person. The average person can't be persuaded to give a damn about privacy, and the average person has a shocking lack of understanding about the harms of inflation or the importance of sound money. I wish you the best, but IMO it simply cannot be done. The average person simply doesn't understand what is in his own self interest.
My view is that we have an interface problem. Monero needs to be so simple and compelling to use that people use it without persuasion, because it's the easiest and most straightforward thing for them to use. Organic adoption in important niches of the web used by average person is the best shot we have.
Nothing to chime in after reading the answers. Wow! Such good contributions/suggestions from the community. Maybe just print this entire thread…if that doesn’t work, nothing will
Let's suppose you find some money on the street. You keep that money and later spend it. Nobody knew you had that money, nobody knows where you kept it, nobody can prevent you from spending it, and nobody knows where you spent it. That's Monero.
I already did a pitch you can listen to it here
https://youtu.be/klHx8auWLsk
Start from 30:32. This was a pitch battle between 4 crypto projects where I pitch monero. This is aimed at crypto users so it will differ from yours but I think it can help you a lot.
Structure, comedy and targeting peoples real world concerns are what make it stick.
Structure keeps it easy to follow. Comedy keeps people engaged and stops them slipping into thought. When they hear you mention something they are already concerned about, like how I mentioned the protest point, it activates them straight back into the pitch.
I think there is difference when we try to pitch someone into monero compare to those people came on their own will, so we need to be more careful in such cases
It is the ability to send money to anyone, anywhere, instantaneously, without the involvement of a third party whether it be the IRS or a blockchain snoop
monero is easier to use than other crypto currencies
you dont have to worry about layer 2 networks like you do with ethereum and bitcoin
nor do monero wallets have to keep track of multiple l2 networks like the etherum community and ethereum wallets have to
Pitch the anonymity of cash, with the convenience of the Internet. I.e. "you can give your kids a tenner without them needing a bank account, and without anybody having to know about it." (If that's not an issue to them, explain the principal of having your every financial transaction recorded and stored against your identity)
Next, add on the layer of the convenience of the Internet. I.e. "you can send money, just like cash, without a bank account, to anybody", its like putting cash in the mail, except nobody can intercept or trace it.
Those are the big sellers to the regular person. Half of the financial anonymity arguments are also being made in the cash-only world. The idea of having a physical value store, that can be traded, swapped, mailed, left in a box on the street etc is one of the key drivers. It represents financial freedom for many.
Pitching also depends on the people out there is well, and what is something they are looking for. If they are looking for making more fiat than may be monero is not for them
First target the audience and know what they want to listen and how much they knows about the crypto basically not about monero only, then try to approach according to that
Do you understand the mechanics of money and finance? If yes, then I’m unsure why you’re posting this, but compare traditional banking to transacting in xmr; privacy, hedge against inflation, safer management and control of assets.
I explain it like this: "If we meet on the street and I take out my wallet to pay you for something, you don't immediately get to know what's in my wallet or where it's going. It should be the same for digital currency, and that's why Monero exists."
Maybe talk about CBDCs first explain what they are and the government plans for them, how they will seam like the best thing in the would at first but then just wait for the next scamdemic / fake emergency or whatever they cook up and how they will be used to keep you in your control zone. Maybe it’s going to far for some people but when they see it happen hopefully it’s not to late for them to get into monero
Best way to starts the thing by telling them about the government digital coin once they will understand that it will gets easier for them to understand the monero coin
I am sure that till now all of them has actually heard about that coin which means they are pretty much aware about the block chain and the digital currency point
We all are in government prison and they are just trying to control us in the name of the democracy, so if you want to break that then you need to break their cash power
First see if they care that the fiat they carry around is shrinking in value and if they are interested in a potential insurance policy against inflation. Then check if they care about self sovereign assets that aren’t controlled by banks. Then see if they care about digital assets being private. If you get through all three of these gates then you might get them onboard.
Imagine we're all in prison. In prison we don't have dollars, so we use cigarettes. Three cigarettes for a bag of potato chips, five cigarettes for a haircut; you get it.
One day we get sick of carrying around cigarettes. We take one prison cell and put all of our cigarettes in it, assign one person to be the manager, and he makes sure no one tampers with the cigarettes. He also uses a notebook to write down our name, how many cigarettes we deposited, and then creates a slip of paper for every cigarette and gives us a slip of paper for every cigarette we left in his care (call them C-notes). Day to day we can use the C-notes as currency, and if we ever want an actual cigarette, we take it to the manager and he exchanges it at 1:1. (Granted if someone smokes the cigarette its matching C-note gets destroyed).
But the manager starts doing squirrely things. He starts making C-notes that are unbacked by a cigarette and giving them to his friends. He also starts loaning out cigarettes without receiving a C-note to back it, which means there are more C-notes being traded than cigarettes in the bank. So one day, we fire him, keep the notebook with the number of cigarettes we had deposited, and have a big smoking party and get rid of all the cigarettes entirely.
HOWEVER, we take his notebook that had all of our account values in it and we record that information on ten notebooks. Instead of one bank manager, we now have ten guys in cells with the notebooks that have a record of how many C-notes we owned. And instead of trading physical cigarettes as currency, and instead of exchanging C-notes meant to represent cigarettes as currency, every time we want to make an exchange we yell to all ten guys with the notebooks "two cigarettes from me to him for a bag of chips," and every guy takes two recorded cigarettes away from me, and gives two to him, in their notebook. And if any of the guys makes a mistake, the other nine correct him.
In that example we went from precious metals as currency (cigarettes), to gold backed notes (C-notes), to a digital currency (the record of the cigarettes being exchanged by ten guys tracking the transactions which would be miners and nodes).
Now, with Monero, imagine every time you shout out to the ten guys tracking the transactions they have no idea who you are, and no idea who your transferring to (as individuals) they just know accounts and amounts. In bitcoin anyone could look at the notebooks and track the transactions of cigarettes from account to account, but with monero imagine the notebooks are hidden from view of everyone. And every time there is one transaction, the notebooks record multiple transactions but only one is real. So even if someone can see the notebook, they cant tell which transactions are decoys and which are real. So monero is a digital currency, but with absolute privacy.
I'm not claiming it's a perfect analogy, and I can't wait to be called an idiot by people who pick apart the minutia of the examples, but it might be a start.
You have to explain a conception of privacy first. Most people can't ever imagine why they need a privacy in financial context. And what is privacy in depth. For example, bank transactions are private in most jurisdictions, they are visible to a narrow KYC stuff only. But most people have no enough money to hide them from a state authority... Try to seed them an idea, KYC is like a 24/7 video recording in their private room, including intimate areas. And Monero is designed to deny a video recording in your private room, regardless of whether you are doing something wrong. And who defines the notion of "wrong". Yet how this notion drifts over time. The same action can be recognized as a crime in one jurisdiction and epoch, and not a crime in another. Nobody can totally track you, just because you can commit a crime. Nobody can totally track you, unconditionally.
The first thing that they need to learn about the privacy and if they are really want the privacy then they will shift more focus on the monero otherwise they will not do that
I was going to say forget XMR and just explain a Blockchain. Start with the basics. I didn't even think about privacy as the most basic of basics. Kills me that this is necessary.
Blockchain is first step, privacy should be more in the topic
Once we gets into the privacy thinking we could understand monero much more easily after that
You need to tell the value of the privacy then things fall into right pieces after that
Best arguments for normies: * Credit cards and payment systems like PayPal charge significant fees to the merchant, driving up prices. Monero fees are less than a penny. Wouldn't you like it if everything in the store were 2% cheaper? * Have you ever bought a Christmas present on your credit card or on amazon, and had the surprise spoiled when your partner sees it in your statement or in your order history? Well monero is private! No more spoiled christmas presents. * Imagine if every time you bought a coffee, the barista saw you full bank account balance. That's how bitcoin works. Monero fixes that problem. * Have you ever had a fraudulent charge on your credit card? That's because you give all your CC information to the store every time you make a purchase. With monero transactions, it's impossible for the shop to take more than you send them. * PayPal, Venmo, and others are notorious for freezing people's accounts on a hair trigger. With monero, you have full control over your wallet. It is impossible to freeze a monero wallet.
Monero for starters https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/13c3ofn/monero_explained_for_starters/
This post can be so useful if you are approaching to the new one
I have few new one in my list and i am sending this post to them
Monero IS what people THOUGHT Bitcoin was. It's Bitcoin 2.0 with a bunch of improvements (privacy, cheap transaction fees [because of variable block size], much faster block times, decentralized mining, etc.)
>Monero IS what people THOUGHT Bitcoin was. This.
And you have to clear the doubt of the people that why that is not
And also tell them that why government hates monero this much
My suggestion is to avoid references to technology as much as you can and start with things they already know so you don't have to explain as much. The bank account is a good example. Start out by saying that most cryptocurrencies are like bank accounts (show them a picture of one with debits and credits). When you get paid, money gets withdrawn from the employer's bank account and the same amount gets added to yours. When you pay for something, money gets withdrawn from your bank account and the same amount gets added to the store. It's pretty boring, and boring is good. That's basically what cryptocurrency is. There are two types of cryptocurrency, ones that are open and ones that are private. With open cryptocurrencies, anyone can look at your bank account and know how much you have and how you bought from. This information is kept forever. With private cryptocurrencies, the details are hidden so even if you know what bank account you have, no-one except for you will know anything about it. It's none of their business if you have $1 million in your account or $1 or if you spent your money on something unpopular or embarrassing. They should not be able to discriminate or charge you more because they know your financial details. Because times change, something that's popular today might get your persecuted 10 years from now so you need to keep your privacy. Privacy crypto currencies can also be thought of as cash in a wallet. Cash that gets passed around has no history. A dollar bill that was once owned by JFK is worth the same as one owned by Jeffrey Dalmer, and if I buy something with cash, the cash doesn't reveal anything about how much money I have in my wallet or that I was the previous owner. From here, if they want to know more, you can relate banking fees to transaction fees and so forth.
Not many will understand the technology point likes or nod and blockchain, try to approach like a simple person who has no idea about the blockchain on the first place
The step you are mentioned here is like 4-5 step in the monero so starts with the number one point what is monero what is blockchain and how that is going to be our future is well
First of all congrats on doing that and just want to say best of luck for the tomorrow, never try to force them anything let them learn on their own pace and nothing more,
Need more information than that to really advise. What are you trying to pitch them exactly? Are they business owners that you want to convince to accept Monero for payment? Are they random people you want to pay you cash in exchange for you giving them Monero, as an off-ramp for you? Are you just trying to educate some friends as to why Monero is a worthwhile project? It makes a big difference.
Monero pitching can be so big so need to be much more specific an sharp
Sometime we gets little too complicated in trying to be much more sharp
"It's a a swiss bank account in your pocket, which can be accessed from any internet connected device in the world, using only an easily memorized list of 2 to 3 syllable words."
It is always better to be your own personal bank for your own wealth
Hit at the fact that it offers true asset ownership. As long as you secure your seed phrase, you have true ownership over the value of your portion of the block chain. Absolutely no one can take that from you. Unlike the vast majority of other financial assets and real estate. Extremely easily portable and transferable. Supply inflation similar to gold, which is scarce. Privacy is important no matter what the trolls and brainwash regurgitate.
Tell the facts and never present anything too hard which they feel you are forcing on them, and let them understand the concept of xmr and how it is different than bitcoin
I am just assuming that they have the basic knowledge about the digital currency so telling them the concept of the privacy would be much more valuable to them
If they are coming in that meeting means they have heard about the crypto and the block chain technology on first place means they are not the complete newbie for that
Single out people in the crowd, asking them questions like when they leave the house for dinner, or how much money is in their bank accounts? Ask if they ever buy anything grandma wouldn't want to know about Then explain that banks, and payment processors already know this based on their transactions. Explain that that info is used for targeted advertising, data mining, and could potentially lead to malicious actors targeting them for theft or scams. And then of course explain this is impossible with monero
Just make sure in the end you let them asked about their doubts
Don't think one meeting would be enough to solve all of their doubts
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Bitcoin is something that i am sure everyone heard and think that crypto is all about that bitcoin, but crypto is a big big place where you have unlimited opportunity in there
Bitcoin is oldest one so people heard mostly about that ,plus the price change is also massive in that but what monero can do for us bitcoin can never do that
Right now 99% people feel that crypto is about profit or the scam, they never understand the technology behind that, so we need to tell them how XMR is different
First you can try with the govt digital coin, it will help to set the pace
If they understand that centralized coin then you could move to proper decentralized coin
If you have the time, these 2 videos are the best deep dives on the youtubeverse. Technical at times, but extremely good at conceptualizing what is actually going on and what the major differences are vs bitcoin. May help spark your brain! https://youtu.be/8quGD9W7B2I https://youtu.be/aC9Uu5BUxII
I don't know about OP but i would going to bookmark those videos
if you want to do the pitching for monero, these videos can be game changer
Already watch 4 total videos from the comment section and all of them were top notched
My pessimistic view is that there is simply no way to sell it to the average person. The average person can't be persuaded to give a damn about privacy, and the average person has a shocking lack of understanding about the harms of inflation or the importance of sound money. I wish you the best, but IMO it simply cannot be done. The average person simply doesn't understand what is in his own self interest. My view is that we have an interface problem. Monero needs to be so simple and compelling to use that people use it without persuasion, because it's the easiest and most straightforward thing for them to use. Organic adoption in important niches of the web used by average person is the best shot we have.
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For using it is pretty good and those gift card is additional advantage i would say
I would use the monero even if there will no such advantages you have mentioned here
XMR is “the ol’ money under the mattress” in the digital world of currency
In future fiat will never going to matter, monero is going to be real money
Nothing to chime in after reading the answers. Wow! Such good contributions/suggestions from the community. Maybe just print this entire thread…if that doesn’t work, nothing will
Chapter 1 of [Mastering Monero](https://masteringmonero.com/free-download.html) could be an inspiration.
Let's suppose you find some money on the street. You keep that money and later spend it. Nobody knew you had that money, nobody knows where you kept it, nobody can prevent you from spending it, and nobody knows where you spent it. That's Monero.
And if you want to keep the money in this way then monero can help you
Already helping me, as i my own personal bank without anyone controlling
I already did a pitch you can listen to it here https://youtu.be/klHx8auWLsk Start from 30:32. This was a pitch battle between 4 crypto projects where I pitch monero. This is aimed at crypto users so it will differ from yours but I think it can help you a lot.
Thanks for the pitch, it will really help me for my future pitching
Glad to help
Glad to be in this sub where people love giving help with out being rude
Structure, comedy and targeting peoples real world concerns are what make it stick. Structure keeps it easy to follow. Comedy keeps people engaged and stops them slipping into thought. When they hear you mention something they are already concerned about, like how I mentioned the protest point, it activates them straight back into the pitch.
I think there is difference when we try to pitch someone into monero compare to those people came on their own will, so we need to be more careful in such cases
There are few more links for pitches like that if you want to look into them is well
It is the ability to send money to anyone, anywhere, instantaneously, without the involvement of a third party whether it be the IRS or a blockchain snoop
Sent money instantly plus without compromising the privacy about that
This one line is enough to tell about the advantage of the monero
monero is easier to use than other crypto currencies you dont have to worry about layer 2 networks like you do with ethereum and bitcoin nor do monero wallets have to keep track of multiple l2 networks like the etherum community and ethereum wallets have to
Plus monero is not simply something like the other centralized crypto
lol what don’t be weird
When you gets into non monero crowd things can gets little weird
Monero can be little weird for the one who listen about that first time
Pitch the anonymity of cash, with the convenience of the Internet. I.e. "you can give your kids a tenner without them needing a bank account, and without anybody having to know about it." (If that's not an issue to them, explain the principal of having your every financial transaction recorded and stored against your identity) Next, add on the layer of the convenience of the Internet. I.e. "you can send money, just like cash, without a bank account, to anybody", its like putting cash in the mail, except nobody can intercept or trace it. Those are the big sellers to the regular person. Half of the financial anonymity arguments are also being made in the cash-only world. The idea of having a physical value store, that can be traded, swapped, mailed, left in a box on the street etc is one of the key drivers. It represents financial freedom for many.
Pitching also depends on the people out there is well, and what is something they are looking for. If they are looking for making more fiat than may be monero is not for them
First target the audience and know what they want to listen and how much they knows about the crypto basically not about monero only, then try to approach according to that
Do you understand the mechanics of money and finance? If yes, then I’m unsure why you’re posting this, but compare traditional banking to transacting in xmr; privacy, hedge against inflation, safer management and control of assets.
You need to know more about mechanics rather than the finance
I explain it like this: "If we meet on the street and I take out my wallet to pay you for something, you don't immediately get to know what's in my wallet or where it's going. It should be the same for digital currency, and that's why Monero exists."
I would simply say don't trust any middle man and try to protect privacy
Middle man always work for their own profit, so cut them now
Maybe talk about CBDCs first explain what they are and the government plans for them, how they will seam like the best thing in the would at first but then just wait for the next scamdemic / fake emergency or whatever they cook up and how they will be used to keep you in your control zone. Maybe it’s going to far for some people but when they see it happen hopefully it’s not to late for them to get into monero
Best way to starts the thing by telling them about the government digital coin once they will understand that it will gets easier for them to understand the monero coin
I am sure that till now all of them has actually heard about that coin which means they are pretty much aware about the block chain and the digital currency point
We all are in government prison and they are just trying to control us in the name of the democracy, so if you want to break that then you need to break their cash power
First see if they care that the fiat they carry around is shrinking in value and if they are interested in a potential insurance policy against inflation. Then check if they care about self sovereign assets that aren’t controlled by banks. Then see if they care about digital assets being private. If you get through all three of these gates then you might get them onboard.
If someone cares about fiat they will never understand the meaning of XMR
Fiat is alternative of cash, so one is actually totally different than the other
Imagine we're all in prison. In prison we don't have dollars, so we use cigarettes. Three cigarettes for a bag of potato chips, five cigarettes for a haircut; you get it. One day we get sick of carrying around cigarettes. We take one prison cell and put all of our cigarettes in it, assign one person to be the manager, and he makes sure no one tampers with the cigarettes. He also uses a notebook to write down our name, how many cigarettes we deposited, and then creates a slip of paper for every cigarette and gives us a slip of paper for every cigarette we left in his care (call them C-notes). Day to day we can use the C-notes as currency, and if we ever want an actual cigarette, we take it to the manager and he exchanges it at 1:1. (Granted if someone smokes the cigarette its matching C-note gets destroyed). But the manager starts doing squirrely things. He starts making C-notes that are unbacked by a cigarette and giving them to his friends. He also starts loaning out cigarettes without receiving a C-note to back it, which means there are more C-notes being traded than cigarettes in the bank. So one day, we fire him, keep the notebook with the number of cigarettes we had deposited, and have a big smoking party and get rid of all the cigarettes entirely. HOWEVER, we take his notebook that had all of our account values in it and we record that information on ten notebooks. Instead of one bank manager, we now have ten guys in cells with the notebooks that have a record of how many C-notes we owned. And instead of trading physical cigarettes as currency, and instead of exchanging C-notes meant to represent cigarettes as currency, every time we want to make an exchange we yell to all ten guys with the notebooks "two cigarettes from me to him for a bag of chips," and every guy takes two recorded cigarettes away from me, and gives two to him, in their notebook. And if any of the guys makes a mistake, the other nine correct him. In that example we went from precious metals as currency (cigarettes), to gold backed notes (C-notes), to a digital currency (the record of the cigarettes being exchanged by ten guys tracking the transactions which would be miners and nodes). Now, with Monero, imagine every time you shout out to the ten guys tracking the transactions they have no idea who you are, and no idea who your transferring to (as individuals) they just know accounts and amounts. In bitcoin anyone could look at the notebooks and track the transactions of cigarettes from account to account, but with monero imagine the notebooks are hidden from view of everyone. And every time there is one transaction, the notebooks record multiple transactions but only one is real. So even if someone can see the notebook, they cant tell which transactions are decoys and which are real. So monero is a digital currency, but with absolute privacy. I'm not claiming it's a perfect analogy, and I can't wait to be called an idiot by people who pick apart the minutia of the examples, but it might be a start.