How I would explain the Bitcoin blockchain to my mother, who knows nothing about crypto.

Think of the Bitcoin blockchain like your checks and checkbooks.

Say you want to give me $100 by check.

In order for that check to be valid:

• You need the check (with routing and account number)
• You need to sign it.
• Date it.
• Transcribe who it is for, your wonderful son :)

In order to keep track of your balance:

• You need to write the transaction in your checkbook ledger, and update your balance.
• Write down the check number.
• Who the money was sent to, your wonderful son.
• And the date you wrote the check.

When all the checks in your checkbook are used.

• You seal your checkbook with tape, write a unique number on the checkbook in permanent marker, date it and stack it with your other checkbooks.

Now let's get back to Bitcoin.

You want to give me 100 bitcoin.

In order for that bitcoin transaction to be valid:

• You need the Public key (equivalent to a routing/account number or an address)
• You need a Private key (equivalent to you signing a check).
• It needs to be time-stamped (just like when you date your check).
• You need a Bitcoin address to send it to (just like transcribing who the check is for).

Just like you record checks in your checkbook, Bitcoin records transactions on blocks.

• The transaction is recorded on a bitcoin block, like your check transaction is recorded in your checkbook ledger.
• Every bitcoin transaction is identified with a “hash” (equivalent to a check number).
• The address you sent the bitcoin to was mine (like writing my name on the check).
• Every bitcoin transaction is time-stamped (like the date you wrote on the check).

And finally, Bitcoin has blocks of transactions, as you have checkbooks of checks.

• When a block is full of transactions, it's the equivalent of using all of your checks in a checkbook.
• When a bitcoin block is full: it is closed, sealed with a hash (unique number), timestamped, and attached to the other blocks. This is equivalent to when you seal your checkbook with tape, mark it with a unique number, date it and stack the checkbook with your other checkbooks.
• And just like your stack of checkbooks in your closet, which looks like a chain of checkbooks, Bitcoin has its own chain of blocks, or...

Blockchain.

This was a challenging thought exercise @crypto.piotr! Great post like always.