Bitcoin conversations

The other day a friend of mine said to me "When your grandchildren ask you about how you made it you can tell them you made it with a thing called bitcoin"
"Woah woah woah" I said "Why would I not suppose they use bitcoin? Why would I not just say I saved my first BTC and it has appreciated by virtue of saving and I worked hard not to need to spend it?"
"Touché" was her response.

Another friend told me BTC was in a bubble and when it pops he will buy some. I asked "what makes you think everyone isn't thinking the same thing? Making the "pop" last only seconds. I hope you have money on a trading platform somewhere because in bitcoins case what goes down must go up"

And finally I was simply asked to explain in the shortest terms possible why a friend should accept it. Instead of reeling off technicals and price quotes I simply reversed the current standard. Why did he accept dollars? What was the intrinsic value of the dollar? Ink, paper, war machines? Who controlled that value? Military? Definitely governments, politicians and corporations. Why not support a people supported currency without these intrusions and manipulations? "Fiat is a recurring method for payment designed pre-internet that has failed time and time again. There is no reason, especially now, that it should or even can survive in its current capacity." Like others I too believe the real bubble is in the dollar, its value much more than its worth. I like to ask friends if we were using a system like BTC; transparent, secure, non-inflationary, cheap, accountable, fast, mathematical, de-centralized and precise. Would they switch to a centralized non governmental private company that prints ink on paper as fast as they can without end or transparency? Which pays for bombs and spying on its own citizens? Which can not be audited by the people but can destroy the people through manipulation? Would they change to that currency or would they keep the simple yet robust BTC protocol?

Just a few conversations everyone has and will have.

One more day in 2013 to get yours before it really goes boom.  Good luck.

Bitcoin Accountability

Because of the nature of bitcoin, its inherent protocol and public and open system of account on the blockchain it is poised to replace notary and legal services. As Andreas Antonopoulos so eloquently puts it in his many bitcoin talks:  video.   As BTC adoption grows and infrastructure software and hardware is built new ideas and products will inevitably move our society closer to a modern streamlined technically advanced system. One in which 3rd party costs are saved by sender and receiver because through bitcoins transparent trusted accountability transactions can be legally audited and retained. As Mr. Antonopoulos points out this will lead to some jobs being lost. All I can say to that is humans are adapters. Adapt or fall behind. If I am surfing and I am in a barrel and I see the wave closing out I make minor adjustments in the split of a second and save myself from being crushed by the weight of the wave. I adjust and survive. The ability to accept a better means of transacting our most important business negotiations and use that to your advantage are all that is necessary to benefit from this new form of technology. There is even software like www.wagepoint.com that helps businesses pay and do accounting in BTC or bitpay.com which helps businesses accept BTC and turn it into dollars or keep BTCs instantly. These programs were born this year and have barely seen the light of day let alone a full year of use and are already increasingly popular despite two major "crashes" and some bad press. As BTC becomes more popular, as a fundamental understanding of the underpinnings of its protocol become internalized and people all around the world take advantage of its "simple yet robust"* system I believe we'll find ourselves again on steady grounds for a robust free market without prohibitively expensive overheads and a faith we once had in dollars and gold transitions into the faith of cryptocurrency with bitcoin at the helm. Please read the white papers on the bitcoin protocol for in unbiased explanation of how it works. Www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Bitcoin and Banks; Full Circle

Banking is 10,000 years old. Since records of production began to be recorded on clay tablets and lending of grain with interest were agreed upon, banking in some form has been an integral part of society. And now a new chapter has been added to the history of banking; Bitcoins. The idea of bitcoins. The protocol. The technology. Records will show this as more than a fad.

But what happens to institutional banks when we become our own, when all we need is a smartphone? This is a discussion that is currently spreading through the bitcoin atmosphere but feel the anwser is more positive and obvious for banks than I am reading in the news/blog reports.

I see a complete circle re: withdrawls/deposits of BTC. First removing the fiat currency and replacing it with more traditional and fundamental staples of wealth and of course new wealth. More of what a bank was when they first started accepting deposits. Safe houses. Protected temples that housed items like Gold, silver and in some cases, seed. Although a cryptocurrency is created online in a virtual world and is difficult to steal from a well protected online wallet some holders of the valuable asset want hard copies of their hard earned wealth and with that, security of said asset. This is where the banks, after being thoughly cleansed of all their toxic assets and fiat currencies (not back by a quantifiable resource), are again needed for safe keeping of hard cryptocurrency and precious metals etc..

The 3D printed coin, artifact or solid gold bar with private key engraved could be well served in a modern technological and fortified safe; A bank. So in a sentence; fiat money or the representation of them are withdrawn to purchase something tangible like physical manifestations of BTCs, gold and silver. These are then deposited in local banks for safe physical keeping. The idea may be simple and to some fundamental virtual investors redundant, but I believe that the bank need not die, simply grow and learn and adapt.

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