A metaphor is an important tool used to convey complicated ideas to the general public. Since the beginning of Bitcoin (and especially Bitshares) we've had a very hard time coming up with a simple way to convey the core essence of what is being created here. Is it a company, community, bank or a government? The truth is, Bitshares has the potential to be all of these things. So what do all of these things have in common? What is their essence?
ANSWER: They can all be described as types of operating systems.
I'd like to conduct a fun little experiment. Pretend like you're chatting with a relatively tech savvy person and he asks you "what is bitshares?" In your own words, describe Bitshares using the FinancialOS metaphor as your foundation.