Bitcoin has been around for sometime now, which makes its important to understand its workings if only to in turn explain it to your ever-curious grandparents.
One of the first things that you should know about Bitcoin is that just like the Yen or the Dollar or the Euro, even Bitcoin is a kind of currency, only that it is a decentralized digital money that has been created, held and spent , all around the world, electronically.
It is both similar to conventional money as well as different from it. One of the main things that makes it different is the fact that it is also governed mathematics and distributed computed rather than by centralized banks, making it easier and faster to transfer from one part of the world to the other.