Now, even if someone does not have the drawbacks of decades-long experience and mental models with a specific asset class, it is still very hard to understand Bitcoin.
Why? Because Bitcoin is the intersection of many, many different fields.
To truly understand Bitcoin, there is no other way than being a polymath.
Even if one has made it as far to (a) realize Bitcoin is something completely new and solely using existing heuristics and mental models will not work and (b) with Bitcoin, more than anything else, we do not know what we do not know โ understanding still requires a very broad set of competences.
The correct approach to understand when one starts going down the Bitcoin rabbit hole is therefore to assume one knows nothing and any experience and insight one has from previous aspects of life brings very little to the table.
First principles thinking is required. We can, however, try to define a little deeper what Bitcoin is. Below is listed some different ways of wrapping one’s head around Bitcoin.
Not an exhaustive list.
A living organism
Bitcoin is Free and Open Source software. It is not a piece of IP owned by a centralized joint-stock company that needs to optimize for the bottom line of the next quarter and is incapable of cannibalizing itself. Since the Bitcoin whitepaper was released and the genesis block was mined, we have seen an explosion of experiments, ideas and creative geniuses get involved in Bitcoin and crypto as a whole. To think of Bitcoin as a living, technological organism that adjusts, develops and constantly changes to survive can be useful.
A religion
Money, as many have learned and realized in recent decade, is just a social construction we are all part of. The value therefore comes from the amount of true believers.
Continuing this line of thinking, one could describe the religion as consisting of:
Prophet: Satoshi. No longer present. Impossible to ask questions.
Convictions: Decentralization.
Rituals: Running nodes. Mining. Hodling.
Holy scriptures: Bitcoin whitepaper. As with all holy scriptures, people interpret them in their own way.
Sacred objects: Genesis block, lowercase bitcoin
Sects: Different interpretations resulting in different factions/sects: small blockers, big blockers, etc.
An emerging economy
The consensus protocol can be thought of as the constitution
The society as the constituency (users on the demand-side; miners on the supply-side)
Core developers as the executive department who write the code and execute on the strategy, but amendments to the protocol (i.e., constitution) require approval from the constituency)
The native token is the internal currency
The investors underwrite the currency
Additionally, many one-liners and memes exist to describe Bitcoin. Not an exhaustive list.
Sound money
Digital gold
โAn insurance policy against an Orwellian futureโ
โA tool for freeing humanity from oligarchs and tyrants, dressed up as a get-rich-quick schemeโ
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Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from Latin: aurum) and atomic number 79, making it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally.
It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal in a pure form.
Chemically, gold is a transition metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions.
Gold often occurs in free elemental (native) form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, veins, and alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the native element silver (as electrum), naturally alloyed with other metals like copper and palladium, and mineral inclusions such as within pyrite.
Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium (gold tellurides).
A relatively rare element, gold is a precious metal that has been used for coinage, jewelry, and other arts throughout recorded history.
Still, gold coins ceased to be minted as a circulating currency in the 1930s, and the world gold standard was abandoned for a fiat currency system after 1971.
As of 2017, the world’s largest gold producer by far was China, with 440 tonnes per year.
A total of around 201,296 tonnes of gold exists above ground, as of 2020. This is equal to a cube with each side measuring roughly 21.7 meters (71 ft).
Gold’s high malleability, ductility, resistance to corrosion and most other chemical reactions, and conductivity of electricity have led to its continued use in corrosion-resistant electrical connectors in all types of computerized devices (its chief industrial use).
The world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments and 10% in industry.
Gold is also used in infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, and tooth restoration. Certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine.
F I A T
Fiat money (from Latin: fiat, “let it be done”) is a type of money that is not backed by any commodity such as gold or silver, and typically declared by a decree from the government to be legal tender.
Throughout history, fiat money was sometimes issued by local banks and other institutions. In modern times, fiat money is generally established by government regulation.
Yuan dynasty banknotes are a medieval form of fiat money
Fiat money does not have intrinsic value and does not have use value. It has value only because the people who use it as a medium of exchange agree on its value. They trust that it will be accepted by merchants and other people.
Fiat money is an alternative to commodity money, which is a currency that has intrinsic value because it contains a precious metal such as gold or silver which is embedded in the coin.
Fiat also differs from representative money, which is money that has intrinsic value because it is backed by and can be converted into a precious metal or another commodity.
Fiat money can look similar to representative money (such as paper bills), but the former has no backing, while the latter represents a claim on a commodity (which can be redeemed to a greater or lesser extent).
Government-issued fiat money banknotes were used first during the 11th century in China.
Fiat money started to predominate during the 20th century.
Money declared by a person, institution or government to be legal tender, meaning that it must be accepted in payment of a debt in specific circumstances.
State-issued money which is neither convertible through a central bank to anything else nor fixed in value in terms of any objective standard.
Money used because of government decree.
An otherwise non-valuable object that serves as a medium of exchange (also known as fiduciary money.)
The term fiat derives from the Latin word fiat, meaning “let it be done” used in the sense of an order, decree or resolution.
Bitcoin – Digital Gold
The most common, and best, ways to think about bitcoin is as “digital gold”.
Like gold, bitcoin doesn’t rely on a central issuer, can’t have its supply manipulated by any authority, and has fundamental properties long considered important for a monetary good and store of value.
Unlike gold, bitcoin is extremely easy and cheap to “transport”, and trivial to verify its authenticity.
Bitcoin is also “programmable”. This means custody of bitcoin can be extremely flexible. It can be split amongst a set of people (“key holders”), backed up and encrypted, or even frozen-in-place until a certain date in the future. This is all done without a central authority managing the process.
You can walk across a national border with bitcoin “stored” in your head by memorizing a key.
The similarities to gold, plus the unique features possible because bitcoin is purely digital, give it the “digital gold” moniker.
Sharing fundamental properties with gold means it shares use-cases with gold, such as hedging inflation and political uncertainty.
But being digital, bitcoin adds capabilities that are especially relevant in our modern electronic times.
The world does indeed need a digital version of gold.
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The Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as the Pyramid of Khufu or the Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex bordering present-day Giza in Greater Cairo, Egypt.
Egyptologists conclude that the pyramid was built as a tomb for the Fourth Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu and estimate that it was built in the 26th century BC during a period of around 27 years.
Initially standing at 146.5 metres (481 feet), the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years.
Over time, most of the smooth white limestone casing was removed, which lowered the pyramid’s height to the present 138.5 metres (454.4 ft).
What is seen today is the underlying core structure. The base was measured to be about 230.3 metres (755.6 ft) square, giving a volume of roughly 2.6 million cubic metres (92 million cubic feet), which includes an internal hillock.
The dimensions of the pyramid were 280 royal cubits (146.7 m; 481.4 ft) high, a base length of 440 cubits (230.6 m; 756.4 ft), with a seked of 5+1/2 palms (a slope of 51ยฐ50’40”).
The Great Pyramid was built by quarrying an estimated 2.3 million large blocks weighing 6 million tonnes total.
The majority of stones are not uniform in size or shape and are only roughly dressed.The outside layers were bound together by mortar.
Primarily local limestone from the Giza Plateau was used. Other blocks were imported by boat down the Nile: White limestone from Tura for the casing, and granite blocks from Aswan, weighing up to 80 tonnes, for the King’s Chamber structure.
There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest was cut into the bedrock, upon which the pyramid was built, but remained unfinished. The so-called Queen’s Chamber and King’s Chamber, that contains a granite sarcophagus, are higher up, within the pyramid structure. Khufu’s vizier, Hemiunu (also called Hemon), is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid.
Many varying scientific and alternative hypotheses attempt to explain the exact construction techniques.
The funerary complex around the pyramid consisted of two mortuary temples connected by a causeway (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), tombs for the immediate family and court of Khufu, including three smaller pyramids for Khufu’s wives, an even smaller “satellite pyramid” and five buried solar barges.
Flavian Amphitheatre a.k.a Colloseum Rome – Italy
The Colosseum (Colosseo[kolosหsษหo]) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum.
It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world today, despite its age.
Construction began under the emperor Vespasian (r. 69โ79 AD) in 72 and was completed in 80 AD under his successor and heir, Titus (r. 79โ81).
Further modifications were made during the reign of Domitian (r. 81โ96).
The three emperors that were patrons of the work are known as the Flavian dynasty, and the amphitheatre was named the Flavian Amphitheatre (Latin: Amphitheatrum Flavium; Italian: Anfiteatro Flavio[aษฑfiteหaหtro หflaหvjo]) by later classicists and archaeologists for its association with their family name (Flavius).
The Colosseum is built of travertine limestone, tuff (volcanic rock), and brick-faced concrete.
The Colosseum could hold an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 spectators at various points in its history having an average audience of some 65,000; it was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles including animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Roman mythology, and briefly mock sea battles.
The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era.
It was later reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine.
Although substantially ruined because of earthquakes and stone-robbers (for spolia), the Colosseum is still an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome and was listed as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.
It is one of Rome’s most popular tourist attractions and also has links to the Roman Catholic Church, as each Good Friday the Pope leads a torchlit “Way of the Cross” procession that starts in the area around the Colosseum.
The Colosseum is also depicted on the Italian version of the five-cent euro coin.
Several walls were built from as early as the 7th century BC,with selective stretches later joined together by Qin Shi Huang (220โ206 BC), the first emperor of China.
Little of the Qin wall remains. Later on, many successive dynasties built and maintained multiple stretches of border walls. The best-known sections of the wall were built by the Ming dynasty (1368โ1644).
Apart from defense, other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road, regulation or encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration.
Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by the construction of watchtowers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling capabilities through the means of smoke or fire, and the fact that the path of the Great Wall also served as a transportation corridor.
The frontier walls built by different dynasties have multiple courses. Collectively, they stretch from Liaodong in the east to Lop Lake in the west, from the present-day SinoโRussian border in the north to Tao River (Taohe) in the south; along an arc that roughly delineates the edge of the Mongolian steppe; spanning 21,196.18 km (13,170.70 mi) in total.
Today, the defensive system of the Great Wall is generally recognized as one of the most impressive architectural feats in history.
As history has left behind, monumental architectural constructions that we can admire and reamain in awe as we look at them, after thousands of years since the first stone was put, in today’s world our digital PoW can be seen and admired the same as the Great Wall of China or the Piramid of Giza !!!
Wich brings us to the question, what is Free talking about ?!?
Long Live the CypherPunksCypherPunks Write CodeGenesisBitcoin Genesis Block Mined 03 January 2009The Times January 3, 2009Bitcoin – Proof Of Work
Bitcoin-type Proof Of Work
In 2009, the Bitcoin network went online. Bitcoin is a proof-of-work digital currency that, like Finney’s RPoW, is also based on the Hashcash PoW.
But in Bitcoin, double-spend protection is provided by a decentralized P2P protocol for tracking transfers of coins, rather than the hardware trusted computing function used by RPoW.
Bitcoin has better trustworthiness because it is protected by computation. Bitcoins are “mined” using the Hashcash proof-of-work function by individual miners and verified by the decentralized nodes in the P2P bitcoin network.
The difficulty is periodically adjusted to keep the block time around a target time.
Since the creation of Bitcoin, proof-of-work has been the predominant design of peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. Studies have estimated the total energy consumption of cryptocurrency mining.
The PoW mechanism requires a vast amount of computing resources, which consume a significant amount of electricity. Recent estimates from the University of Cambridge put Bitcoinโs energy consumption as equal to that of Switzerland.
History modification
Each block that is added to the blockchain, starting with the block containing a given transaction, is called a confirmation of that transaction.
Ideally, merchants and services that receive payment in the cryptocurrency should wait for at least one confirmation to be distributed over the network, before assuming that the payment was done.
The more confirmations that the merchant waits for, the more difficult it is for an attacker to successfully reverse the transaction in a blockchainโunless the attacker controls more than half the total network power, in which case it is called a 51% attack.
2ASICs and mining pools
Within the Bitcoin community there are groups working together in mining pools.
Some miners use application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for PoW. This trend toward mining pools and specialized ASICs has made mining some cryptocurrencies economically infeasible for most players without access to the latest ASICs, nearby sources of inexpensive energy, or other special advantages.
Some PoWs claim to be ASIC-resistant, i.e. to limit the efficiency gain that an ASIC can have over commodity hardware, like a GPU, to be well under an order of magnitude.
ASIC resistance has the advantage of keeping mining economically feasible on commodity hardware, but also contributes to the corresponding risk that an attacker can briefly rent access to a large amount of unspecialized commodity processing power to launch a 51% attack against a cryptocurrency.
Plant the Seed The choice is YoursChoose Wisely The Choice is Yours
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Fear is SicknessGold is Money…Uni-VerseSuccessGenes that erase memoriesResearches can erase painful memories from the brainScientists deletes “Fearful” memories of RatsPokemon Go users give away all privacy rights“Broken People” = Raw MaterialRobert NoyceCompounding InterestSimple & Compound Interest FormulaSimple Interest & Compound InterestPBIS RewardsROI – Return On InvestmentPlay the role of a fool…Occult – Anatomy20 Fastest Growing + Declining JobsCauses and Effects of InflationThe History of LogisticsSSG 16.9 – Legal Identity for allScientists call for Protection from Non-Ionizing Electromagnetic Field ExposureProtest’s are Illegal and punished with Jail Time in a “Free” Society !!!?ยฟ!!!Human Value ChainOpposition to the use of Blockchain Identity– Part 1Opposition to the use of Blockchain Identity– Part 2Human Capital Performance BondStrategies for Investing in Undervalued Human CapitalU.S Army TRADOC G-2Digitizing Government-to-Person (G2P) Payments
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R&D, wisdom, knowledge, curiosities, answers and many more questions ๐๐คฃ๐
You have a Choice !!!Power to the People !!! Wake the F… Up !!! No more excuses, you have a choice now !!!WHO as in WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATIONP F I Z E Rย InsiderPoem of the LegacyBeing Curious…Of course it doesn’t comply…The Problem with centralized Social-Media10 Principles of Strategic LeadershipGlobal Reserve CurrencyPsychology of a Market CycleSuccessSuccessTriangle of SuccessDon’t plan for travelling when old…๐๐ณ๐Be like a Tree…If anyone understands this please enlighten me too ๐๐คญ๐คhttp://www.revelationtimelinedecoded.comESGFor those that think WE are the Center of the Universe ๐คฃ๐ ๐Confident vs. Insecure PeopleDay by day…Managing Complex ChangeThe Cone of LearningThe Hero’s JourneyElectromagnetic Field of the HeartI-ChingLanguage creates RealitySex Organs of the Machine WorldPhilosopher’s StoneIsaac NewtonAbracadabraSingularityMulti-Mind Thought Control Process APPLE INC.RetrocausalityCERNEGOSYSCOIN ECOSYSTEMJagSteinSysCoinBitcoin might bury FIAT ๐ ๐คญ ๐DEFI Ecosystem on EthereumDeFi StackBitcoin Mining Ecosystem Map…the other 6 BillionbitcoinThis is about the other 6 Billion…Top NFT ProjectsBusiness CyclesCentral’s Bank’s 3 StrategiesGlobal DebtDefender of the FlowerFlower of LifeSacred GeometrySeed & Flower of LifeKnowledge – An Antidote to FearJOIN THE REVOLUTION ๐ ๐คฃ ๐Emotion – Judgement – Action…violent recolution inevitable.E S B IEvery generation…LOVE YOUR RAGE NOT YOUR CAGERevolutionThe Times – January 3, 2009REVOLUTIONBitcoin Genesis Block – 03 January 2009Introduction to BitcoinIntroduction to Decentralized FinanceIntroduction to Digital CurrenciesAll Metals We MinedMap to Multiplication Nikola TeslaTop VC’s Investing in BlockChain CompaniesAthmospheres of the Solar SystemGlobal GDP 2021Map of CyberSecurity Domains21 QuestionsSix Innovation ModelsWhat May Happen in the next 100 YearsAbstract – “…to pull the body out of dimension so that the person can walk through solid objects such as wooden doors.” Okay ๐คฏ ๐ณ ๐คฏ ?ยฟ?China’s Social Credit SystemBlockchain Platforms Comparison (BCP)ARISE
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For the first time in human history there is at the disposal of the masses a tool that eliminates the middlemen and takes trust from the hands of humans and beautifully makes it a mathematics code that cannot be breaken, hacked or tricked…
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Timothy May on the cover of the second issue of Wired magazine with 2 fellow cypherpunks
Sadly, this past week we lost an icon that helped to spur the cypherpunk movement. Timothy May, who wrote The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto in 1988, lauched a movement that is still very prominent today.
For the uninitiated, a Crypto-Anarchist focuses on subverting the current laws and using new technologies to the benefit of the common man.
In the original manifesto, May says crypto-anarchy focuses on โencryption, digital money, anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero-knowledge, reputations, information markets, black markets, collapse of governmentsโ.
The manifesto was written just before the first crypto wars began during the early 1990โs.
The governments of the world fiercely opposed the general public using cryptographic encryption protocols.
The idea that a normal citizen could completely hide what they say in an electronic message was their biggest concern.
The governments cited national security as a concern (Weโve heard this excuse used many times before).
RSA Security, a leading computer securty company founded by world-renowned cryptologists, created this poster against a hardware chip that used a US-government supplied encryption standard
The legislation of the anti-encryption laws would also affect payment processing technology. There was a large push back from tech companies that would have to deal with these issues first-hand.
The crypto wars of the 1990โs ended with the concession from the government that encryption was readily available around the world.
The public had won their first bout against the government surveillance state. Alongside the public, you had the cypherpunks and large tech companies that were all fighting a common threat.
There was not much of an issue in terms of encryption for quite a few more years.
Every few years afterward, the idea of backdoors into encryption schemes were brought up but nothing ever came about these new ideations.
The Crypto Wars Redux
The expansion of computational power and development of more efficient processing equipment closed the gap as to who can gain access to encryption software.
The widespread availabilty of software/hardware that can perform these cryptographic calculations involved in encryption and the ease of use has made it possible for the layman to encrypt their own personal messages, video calls,emails, and notes.
Encrypting an email with someone who has never imported a key to their keyring, or generated their own PGP public/private key pair is a thing of the past.
Many of the services that exist today offer these solutions out of the box. The process has become much easier for all parties involved.
Anyone that is now using this technology benefits from this on a privacy and security level.
With all parties benefitting, the leviathan rears its head once more. Australia has passed an anti-encryption bill that will force large tech companies to allow the Australian government to obtain hardware access(citing national security as a major reason).
Outrage has spilled out of the larger tech companies. The end-to-end zero knowledge messaging/calling app, Signal, has taken a stand against this bill.
This sounds very similar to the issues Tim May was battling with during the early days of the First Crypto War.
The cypherpunks came out on top and Iโm sure this legislation will face a similar fate.
Mayโs Impact on the World
The imprint that Timothy May left on the world is profound. The mass adoption of encryption as well as cryptocurrencies shows just how far ahead of the times he was.
May urged the importance of privacy.
He insisted on the use of encryption to keep your communications private.
Currently on a majority of mobile phones there are applications that provide encrypted communications. Whatsapp uses the Signal protocol which was developed by cypherpunk Moxie Marlinspike.
The rise of cryptocurrencies is an ideal that May was very hopeful for.
May did come out against the anti-privacy issues of bitcoin.
There are projects that offer solutions for this privacy debate.
Much of the developer-base of these certain cryptocurrencies have their foundation based in the cypherpunk tradition.
The Cryptocurrencies that aim for a privacy by default mechanism are monero and the soon to launch GRIN which uses the Mimblewimble Protocol (To see an extremely entertaining introduction to the GRIN project via talk-to-text chat for privacy preservation, listen to the creator of Grin).
Zcash is moving in the direction of private by default and the superior cryptography of the ZK range proofs will help to create a very private cryptocurrency.
Cody WIlson and Amir Taaki who worked on projects focused on the crypto-anarchic tradition including Dark Wallet and Defense Distributed
The impact Tim May made on the world by helping to create a social movement shows the importance and strength of his ideals.
He has impacted a generation of people that are growing up in the digital age.
He influenced builders in the 21st century.
You have people creating new currencies, exposing government surveillance on a national scale, circumventing the broken bueracratic system by creating their own markets, anonymous internet protocols, as well as making encryption applicable to the common man (You can find a list of prominent cypherpunks here and also here).
There isnโt enough that can be said about the applications in which he believed could positively affect us.
May was cognizant of the encroaching all-seeing eye of the state but I believe we are in much better shape now than weโve ever been.
There may be negative news about what we currently face as individuals, from the unprecedented surveillance of the Snowden leaks to the aforementioned Australian anti-encryption bill, but looking at the grand scheme of our daily lives, these tools and their functions have helped to create a much better day than May could have imagined in 1988.
He was a proponent for the industriousness of human nature to outpace the slow moving regulation that would try to bog down any progress.
You can listen here to what he thought people/creators should do when they develop ground breaking technology.
Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences!
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” It isnโt obvious that the world had to work this way.
But somehow the universe smiles on encryption.โ
Julian Assange
The universe smiles on encryption
” The innovation is that BTC is hard to shut down. […]
Designed from the ground up to survive under the most adversarial conditions. “
Hasu
Bitcoin is hard to shut down
” Bitcoin is the most successful privacy coin to date. “
Pierre Rochard
Most successful privacy coin to date
” Bitcoin is a mathematical miracle. “
Steve Wozniak (Apple Co-Founder)
Mathematical miracle
” Bitcoin is a technological innovation that happens once a species. “
Trace Mayer
Technological innovation that happens once in a species
” Bitcoin doesnโt care about who you are or what your feelings are.
Bitcoin represents equal opportunity
to participate in a system
not encumbered by
our legacy fiat structures. “
White Rabbit
Participate in a system not encumbered by FIAT
” We’re here to unfuck the money and there’s no stopping us.
Fix the money,
change the world. “
White Rabbit
Fix the Money, Change the World
” Hardly anybody actually
understands money. “
Nick Szabo
Nobody understands money
” When you have a disruptive technology,
they call it a category killer.
Bitcoin is a serial killer –
itโs going to go through
40 or 50 different industries. “
Dan Morehead
Bitcoin is a serial killer
” It’s 21 million or death.”
Robert Breedlove
21 million or death
” It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. “
Satoshi Nakamoto
In case it catches on
” Trusted third parties
are security holes. “
Nick Szabo
Trusted third parties
” There are only going to be
21 million coins,
there are billions of people
in the world, some reasonable percentage of who might
find it interesting to
own a piece of Bitcoin.”
Adam Back
21 Million Coins
” I think itโs essential for a program of this nature to be open source. “
Satoshi Nakamoto
Open Source
” SHA-256 is very strong. Itโs not like the incremental step from MD5 to SHA1.
It can last several decades unless thereโs some massive breakthrough attack. “
Satoshi Nakamoto
Sha-256
” Code mixed with robust game theory is superior to hierarchical command and control. “
โญoinsure
Code superior to hierarchical command and control
” Given that money is one half of every commercial transaction and that whole civilizations literally rise and fall based on the quality of their money, we are talking about an awesome power, one that flies under the cover of night. “
Ron Paul
Money… an awesome power
” The world has to adapt to bitcoin, not the other way round. “
Herzmeister
The world has to adapt to bitcoin
” When I first bought bitcoin it took me two years of speculation to understand what Bitcoin really was.
But once I fully had a grasp of it, it was life altering. “
Russell Okung
Bitcoin is life altering
” Many countries stand to gain from Bitcoinโs adoption as it would remove their dependence on the US dollar and provide them with a feasible alternative. “
Misir Mahmudov
Bitcoin a feasible alternative to the US $
” Bitcoin is a optimist bet on the future, a bet on human ingenuity.
Gold is a pessimist bet on the past and, often a bet the end of civilization. “
Rodolfo Novak
Bitcoin a bet on Human Ingenuity
” Everyone has got to believe in something.
Why not believe in something verifiable and unforgeable. “
Hass McCook
Believe in something verifiable and unforgeable
” Open source software is a meritocracy of ideas, not of people.
So people are always talking about “Who controls Bitcoin?”
Good ideas control Bitcoin.
Not people.”
Ben Prentice
Good ideeas control Bitcoin
“Bitcoin is a seed of hope in a society which lost vision years ago and perspective just recently. “
Kim Neunert
Bitcoin a seed of hope
” Bitcoin has an inescapable, unavoidable, and omnipotent magnetism for the brightest and most revolutionary minds on the planet.
I’ve never witnessed anything like it. “
Brandon Bridge
Bitcoin’s magnetism
” This is why proof of work needs to be expensive, if it is cheap you can roll back things easily.
You want it to be very difficult to change history.
The only way to make it difficult to change history is to make the process of writing the current history very expensive. “
Jimmy Song
Difficult to change history
” Bitcoin is like gold but with this magical ability that you
can teleport it.”
Vijay Boyapati
Bitcoin magical ability to teleport it
” Can Bitcoin be stopped?
“Not really, this thing is a beast.
As Mises wrote:
Ideas can only be overcome by other ideas. “
Trace Mayer
Bitcoin cannot be stopped
“I’m not here to fix Bitcoin.”
Michael Saylor
Fix bitcoin
” Buying bitcoin is the most powerful protest an individual can make against the current economic system. “
Luc Dossis
Buying bitcoin is the most powerful protest
” These numbers have nothing to do with the technology of the devices; they are the maximums that thermodynamics will allow.
And they strongly imply that brute-force attacks against 256-bit keys will be infeasible until computers are built from something other than matter and occupy something other than space. “
Bruce Schneier
Maximums that thermodynamics will allow
” Cryptocurrency is such a powerful concept that it can almost
overturn governments. “
Charles Lee
Cryptocurrency can almost overturn governments
” Bitcoin will do to banks what email did to the postal industry. “
Rick Falkvinge
Bitcoin is the email for the postal industry
” I do think Bitcoin is the first [encrypted money] that has the potential to do something like change the world. “
Peter Thiel
Bitcoin has the potential to change the world
” Bitcoin is the most important invention in the history of the world since the Internet. “
Roger Ver
Bitcoin the most important invention in the history since the Internet
” Gold is a great way to preserve wealth, but it is hard to move around. You do need some kind of alternative and Bitcoin fits the bill. “
Jim Rickards
Bitcoin fits the bill as a way to preserve wealth
” You canโt stop things like Bitcoin.
It will be everywhere and the world will have to readjust.
World governments will have to readjust. “
John McAfee
Bitcoin will be everywhere and the world will have to readjust
” I think the fact that within the bitcoin universe an algorithm replaces the function of the governmentโฆ is actually pretty cool. “
Al Gore
An algorithm replaces the function of government
“People have made fortunes off Bitcoin, some have lost money.
It is volatile, but people make money off of volatility too.”
Richard Branson
Some lost, some won with Bitcoin
” The ability to create something which is not duplicable in the digital world has enormous valueโฆ
Lotโs of people will build businesses on top of that. “
Eric Schmidt
Create something wich is not duplicable
“PayPal had these goals of creating a new currency.
We failed at thatโฆ
I think Bitcoin has succeeded on the level of a new currency, but the payment system is lacking.”
Peter Thiel
Bitcoin succeeded as a new currency
” As people move into Bitcoin for payments and receipts they stop using US Dollars, Euros and Chinese Yuan which in the long-term devalues these currencies. “
John McAfee
Bitcoin devalues $ โฌ ยฅ
” Bitcoin is the Currency of Resistanceโฆ
If Satoshi had released Bitcoin10 years earlier,9/11 would
never have happened. “
Max Keiser
Bitcoin the currency of resistance
“At its core, bitcoin is a smart currency, designed by very forward-thinking engineers. “
Peter Diamandis
Bitcoin is a smart currency
“The internet is going to be one of
the major forces for reducing
the role of government.
One thing thatโs missing but that
will soon be developed,
is a reliable e-cash.”
Milton Friedman
E-Cash
” Bitcoin is a technological
tour de force. “
Bill Gates
Tour de force
” If you donโt believe it or donโt get it,
I donโt have the time
to try to convince you,
sorry. “
Satoshi Nakamoto
Don’t have the time
“WikiLeaks has kicked the hornetโs nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.”
Satoshi Nakamoto
WikiLeaks
” Lost coins only make everyone
elseโs coins worth slightly more.
Think of it as a donation to everyone.”
Satoshi Nakamoto
Lost Coins
” In a few decades when the reward gets too small, the transaction fee
will become the maincompensation
for [mining] nodes.
Iโm sure that in 20 years there
will either be very large transaction volume or no volume.”
Satoshi Nakamoto
Transaction fee
” As computers get faster and the total computing power applied to creating bitcoins increases, the difficulty increases proportionally to keep the total new production constant.
Thus, it is known in advance how many new bitcoins will be created every year in the future.
Coins have to get initially distributed somehow, and a constant rate seems like the best formula.”
Satoshi Nakamoto
Coins distribution at a constant rate is the best formula
” Bitcoin is the beginning of something great: a currency without
a government, something
necessary and imperative. “
Nassim Taleb
Bitcoin a currency without a government
” Those who believe in Bitcoin also believe in cleverness. “
Arif Naseem
Believe in bitcoin believe in cleverness
” Bitcoin is the most stellar and
most useful system of
mutual trustever devised. “
Arif Naseem
Bitcoin a system of mutual trust
Cryptocurrency is freedom,
Banking is slavery. “
Arif Naseem
Cryptocurrency is freedom
” Our basic thesis for bitcoin is
that it is better than gold. “
Tyler Winklevoss
Bitcoin better than gold
” I think the whole narrative
of blockchain without bitcoin
will amount to very little. “
Fred Ehrsam
Blockchain without bitcoin
” Every informed person needs to know about Bitcoin because it might be one of the worldโs most important developments. “
Leon Louw
Bitcoin world’s most important developments
” Bitcoin is a very exciting development, it might lead to a world currency.
I think over the next decade it will grow to become one of the most important ways to pay for things and transfer assets. “
Kim Dotcom (CEO of MegaUpload)
Bitcoin might lead to a world currency
” Bitcoin may be the TCP/IP of money. “
Paul Buchheit (Creator of Gmail)
Bitcoin the TCP/IP of money
” We have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical framework that is free of politics and human error. “
Tyler Winklevoss (Co-inventor of Facebook)
Mathematical framework free of politics and human error
” I really like Bitcoin.
I own Bitcoins.
Itโs a store of value, a distributed ledger.
Itโs a great place to put assets, especially in places like Argentina with 40 percent inflation, where $1 today is worth 60 cents in a year, and a governmentโs currency does not hold value.
Itโs also a good investment vehicle if you have an appetite for risk.
But it wonโt be a currency until volatility slows down. “
David Marcus (CEO of Paypal)
Bitcoin a store of value
” [Virtual Currencies] may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system. “
Ben Bernanke (Chairman of the Federal Reserve)
Bitcoin may hold long-term promise
“There are 3 eras of currency: Commodity based, politically based, and now, math based. “
Chris Dixon (Co-founder of Hunch now owned by Ebay, Co-founder of SiteAdvisor now owned by McAfee)
Math based currency
” Bitcoin is here to stay.
There would be a hacker uproar to anyone who attempted to take credit for the patent of cryptocurrency.
And I wouldnโt want to be on the receiving end of hacker fury. “
Adam Draper
Bitcoin is here to stay
” Itโs money 2.0, a huge hugehuge deal. “
Chamath Palihapitiya (Previous head of AOL instant messenger)
Money 2.0
” If there is one positive takeaway from the collapse of Mt.Gox, it is the willingness of a new generation of Bitcoin companies to work together to ensure the future of Bitcoin and the security of customer funds. “
Brian Armstrong (CEO of Coinbase)
Future of bitcoin
” Bitcoin seems to be a very promising idea.
I like the idea of basing security on the assumption that the CPU power of honest participants outweighs that of the attacker.
It is a very modern notion that exploits the power of the long tail. “
Hal Finney
Bitcoin a very promising idea…
” Bitcoin enables certain uses that are very unique.
I think it offers possibilities that no other currency allows.
For example the ability to spend a coin that only occurs when two separate parties agree to spend the coin; with a third party that couldnโt run away with the coin itself. “
Pieter Wuille
Bitcoin enables uses that are very unique
” At its core, bitcoin is a smart currency, designed by very forward-thinking engineers.
It eliminates the need for banks, gets rid of credit cardfees, currency exchange fees, money transfer fees, and reduces the need for lawyers in transitionsโฆ all good things. “
Peter Diamandis
Good things
” There is so much potentialโฆ
I am just waiting for it to be a billion dollar industry.โ
In a first, Bitcoin developers have done something amazing amid the criticism over the lightning network and issues associated with it. A team of developers has made an international payment using the radio … Continue reading International payment using the radio waves→
My inspiration for this page was given to me by my new aquired friend, a fellow Truth Seeker – Joris and to whom I dedicate this page… Wish you… as well as to … Continue reading Discipline Quotes→
Bitcoin white paper turns 15 and the Legacy of Satoshi Nakamoto lives on. โIโve been working on a new electronic cash system thatโs fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party,โ Satoshi Oct. 31, … Continue reading Bitcoin White Paper turn 15→
In a first, Bitcoin developers have done something amazing amid the criticism over the lightning network and issues associated with it. A team of developers has made an international payment using the radio … Continue reading International payment using the radio waves
My inspiration for this page was given to me by my new aquired friend, a fellow Truth Seeker – Joris and to whom I dedicate this page… Wish you… as well as to … Continue reading Discipline Quotes
To all my readers from the bottom of my heart I wish you Happy Holiday among family and friends, a jolly Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and may 2024 bring you … Continue reading Merry Christmass and A Happpy New Year to all
Bitcoin white paper turns 15 and the Legacy of Satoshi Nakamoto lives on. โIโve been working on a new electronic cash system thatโs fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party,โ Satoshi Oct. 31, … Continue reading Bitcoin White Paper turn 15
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