bitcoin - better than paper money? better than gold?

[stevenwagner]

Whats your bitcoin donation address?

[GDplusEng]

If socialism is a "cool" thing for cyber space ... why can't it be cool in real space (including earth)

[jumbobobcleo]

there was a time, past, when children with fingers like yours were FORCED to

play the piano. you have piano fingers. and the cutest little turned up nose as

well. oh, and your brain works well also. yer an earthy little fella arent you?

[nlucctw2]

napster was not peer to peer it was a centralized entity that allowed file sharing, thus is how it was able to be shut down, it was centralized.

[jumbobobcleo]

@nlucctw2 that is correct.

[janoxley]

Could you expand on how one actually spends bitcoins (where do you buy things from and how)

Also, it'd be interesting if the proof of work thing (which seems to me to use a LOT of CPU power) could be intergrated some how with the distributed computing thing to make better use of that CPU time (i.e all that CPU power working toward the good of mankind, curing cancer etc)

[manifesto2000]

Excellent video Jonathan. Your video makes Bitcoin more familiar, adding to the scant coverage in the popular media. The 51% problem currently exists in the banking and investment field, with CEOs banding together to get less regulation. In Canada we have investment heads asking that the Ombudsman on Banking Investment not be mandatory when complaints arise. An alternative to this decline of fidelity would be a consortium of investment companies that declare allegiance to criminal code rules.

[chibiariel]

Agreeee.

[E1GHTY8]

Very Interesting! I thought that this vid would add to the conversation.

"Money does something different than everything else in the universe. It increases in value over time. Everything else in the universe decays."

watch?v=1CUdWoyI_Fk&feature=re­lated

[Mathfails]

You liked this video. We'll use this to improve your recommendations.

[TheZeaf]

Haha, your voice had too much bass for my laptop speakers, it was giving major fuzz! I had to switch to headphones!

Anyway, back to watching the video!

[jericomovie]

@TheZeaf

The mic had some static caught in it. That sometimes happens when I have the headset on for too long. I noticed it after I made the video and didn't bother recording it again. I'm doing this for free, after all. But sorry for any inconvenience.

[TheZeaf]

@jericomovie No, no! It wasn't a problem! When I put on my headphones the crackle was gone! Excellant video! Definately worth and static recieved!

[masterm1k3]

Very good explaination of bitcoin in layman terms. I say that as a guy who knows cryptography concepts (hash, signatures, authentication) very well.

[jericomovie]

@masterm1k3

Thank you very much! That's very reassuring coming from someone who did not learn everything in an afternoon of googling. :)

[jason4themoney]

Good Idea, I would agree to having one currency system on a continuous data flow.. Would this system be running on multiple supply of power? Because you would have to compensate for power outages or any kind of power fluctuation in order to not disturb the flow of data crunching and chain processing...

[trick0171]

I like the idea of bitcoin. I downloaded the client around a month ago and tested it with Bitcoin Faucet. It isn't that it bypasses the government (technically you still need to pay taxes), but it does bypass banks, which is what I like most about it. The encryption is supposedly better than current banks, so counter-fitting would at least be very difficult. Also every transaction is public record which leaves a trail of checks and balances.

(MORE1)

[trick0171]

My main concern is the hording instead of using of bitcoins. At this point it seems volatile. Either it could keep getting bigger and increase in value, and start to be used more widely once easier systems are created for sellers, or the bubble will burst and peoples bitcoins will become worthless. At this point it is a complete guessing game.

That being said I just got a dwolla account and am going to buy a few coins and give the system a go.

Cheers.

(END2)

[jericomovie]

@trick0171

every currency runs the risk of being perceived as worthless. I imagine it will take time for something like bitcoin to really catch on. I suppose the value in bitcoin is its inability to be frozen by government pressure.

The fact that the ledger is available to everyone was a concern I wanted to address in the next video. Doesn't that mean you would have no privacy in your buying habits?

[trick0171]

@jericomovie

Agreed. The other problem I see is that once a bitcoin is lost, it is lost forever (no way to recover). This is different than gold for example where such a thing can be recovered by another. This is fine unless too much becomes lost.

Yes and no. The ledger is available, but the ability to trace it back to a person is not - unless there is another way to trace (such as email or information you give to the seller that is more than the bitcoin address).

[jericomovie]

@trick0171

Ah, I see. Then that is exciting. Could you imagine being able to review the ledger for the world? Talk about market research. If businesses can use the ledger to predict where the market is going, there is less chance of mal-investment, making the economy more robust.

[lizadfuel]

Anyone who thinks bitcoins have more value than gold or the dollar is confused.

[AutodidacticPhd]

I'll have to read the paper first, as I'm sure it covers many of the more obvious questions I have, but the most interesting problem I see is that p2p networks are prone to unforeseen emergent behaviors that might not be desirable in a system used as the basis for a currency.

[ronwandell]

Very good video, Nice work.

[jericomovie]

@ronwandell

thank you :)

[edwardtang1977]

it would suck like paypal. 

[JRCrowley]

Wrong. bitcoin IS fiat. It's a currency system based on trust. That's the definition of fiat. You're trusting the system of bitcoin.

Dude, you lost me with your title, bitcoin better than gold? Not sure what you're smoking, but you may want to stop before the last brain cell is gone.

[ronwandell]

@JRCrowley from wikipedia

"Fiat money is money that has value only because of government regulation or law. The term derives from the Latin fiat, meaning "let it be done", as such money is established by government decree. Where fiat money is used as currency, the term fiat currency is used."

If a country declared bitcoin to be "legal tender for all debts, public and private" then and only then would it be fiat.

[theprodigy2186]

Glad to see you taking this on, I think it deserves attention. Cheers!

[Dogschach]

So, if someone figures out a way past the authentication and starts double spending, who do you go to if you don't want the government or any other third party involved? If the solution to this problem is an agency that specializes in detecting false authentication, wouldn't this defeat the whole purpose of bitcoin?

[gasdorf]

sell sum bitcons for new mic

[TheAmazingAltruist]

your microphone is unbearable

[eronni]

I agree that this system would have its problems, but I think it's a step in the right direction to have money based on its actual value and it being non-physical, so it can't be stolen. Paper money and its digital counterpart's value are largely affected by what our government does and what other governments do. Gold is now finding a new home in electronic engineering plus it's more difficult to make large transactions with. Bitcoin sounds like a real alternative and a benefit for the future.

[kwukduck]

Good incentive, the first part about proof of work and hashing is not really spot on, you should read a bit more about it to get it straight i think. To reply to the 51% issue, it is one of the core strengths of bitcoin, 51% of the network must agree, when it's small that's also it's weakness i agree, but consider this, after just a few months of small media attention the network capacity is already beyond that of the worlds top super computers combined. Very hard to get 51% as you can imagine.

[Uhlbelk]

I know this is dealing with the intricacies of computer networking and filesharing but I am much more interested in how this is actually applied to real world. Currency works because people trust it to work (much like wallstreet is based on predicted value). People trust it to work because they can physically possess it. They may do 99% of their financial transactions through computers, but it is trusted because they believe they can go to the third party and physically take their currency.

[95TurboSol]

Not a big fan of the bitcoin idea, I like physical money. Maybe I'm just old school but I'm not even very comfortable with 99% of my money being in BOA stored electronically. I assume all banks have physical files as backup for all their information... I hope lol.

[jericomovie]

@95TurboSol

I imagine someone said the same thing when we transitioned from gold and silver to paper. Trouble is, if you have a bank account, only a small fraction of the paper is kept in the vault. The rest is just an electronic representation. Using debit or credit cards invokes the transfer of electronic funds. It's everywhere. So Bitcoin really isn't just about moving from paper money to e-money, but how we should manage e-money.

[95TurboSol]

@jericomovie

Yeah that's exactly why it makes me nervous! What happens if a solar radiation burst or an EMP fries the network? Not even P2P would help in something like that. I just hope they have a physical file of my information.

[eronni]

@95TurboSol See that isnt any different from now. Your retirement, most of your savings, any credit youve built up (totally up to your financial worth) is all stored digitally. You're no better off with the current money system.

[FreedomAtRisk]

@95TurboSol inflation.