For some reason, the Portuguese man o' war came to mind for me. It's a dang crazy critter.
Portuguese man o' war characteristic // Analogy to bitcoin (?)
A "Pmow" floats around the ocean seemingly individually, but actually has the same DNA as all of the others "zooids" in its colony // A bitcoin node does its own thing but has the same bitcoin code; also, a bitcoiner does his or her own thing but we all are in consensus with the rules of the chain
The Pmows need each zooid to survive // Bitcoiners need miners to verify the chain and we also need users, traders, etc. and a community to keep bitcoin truly alive (miners alone MIGHT mean bitcoin is alive, but is it really? or is it just some computers running some software?)
My fave: Pmows literally sail the ocean with their "dorsal fins" or sails poking up out of the water. Somehow, they develop as either right or left "handed" sails. So, half of the group sails to the right and half sails to the left. This way, if they sail up on shore and die, it's only half of them...the other half sailed the other direction. // If bitcoin gets "shut down" in country X, country Y will continue on.
Pmows use their tentacles to zap little fish. // Bitcoiners zap zaps.
Pmows are cool. // Bitcoin is cool.