Technological industries are be always on the
verge of world domination or on sudden Dispute. Biotech, nanotech,
robotics, AI and yes, crypto currencies, all live in a state approaching
euphoria one day, followed by utter despair the next. Groundbreaking
innovations are matched by earth shattering failures. There is no dearth
of “news” to report.
So,the recent Bitcoin & the Blockchain Summit in San Francisco. Like many bitcoin conferences, one speaker enthuses the audience while the next confuses.
Tales of technological limits, encroaching regulation and wary consumers can leave even the most enthusiastic devotee a bit deflated. But at the end of the one-day bitcoin-by-the-Bay conference, attendees were left with a rousing call to arms, led by Andreas Antonopoulos.
Antonopoulos is a security expert, entrepreneur and high-vis bitcoin advocate. With the rigid countenance — and hairstyle — of a Star Trek TOS Klingon, Antonopoulos paced the stage and made his case for bitcoin, sans graphics or gamification — just a man, a mike and massive conviction. The audience put away their smartphones, stowed their MacBooks and drank it in.
“The media is refining the message, saying ‘The currency is a joke, but the technology — I don’t know, maybe there’s something there,'” he said.
“Bitcoin is a currency, bitcoin is a network, bitcoin is a technology and you can’t separate these things. A consensus network that bases its value on the currency does not work without the currency.”
“That means if you build a new application on top of bitcoin, you can operate the end devices and you can build an application, and you don’t need to ask for anyone’s permission to innovate. It’s innovation without permission. It’s innovation without central approval.”
Andreas Antonopoulos
Tales of technological limits, encroaching regulation and wary consumers can leave even the most enthusiastic devotee a bit deflated. But at the end of the one-day bitcoin-by-the-Bay conference, attendees were left with a rousing call to arms, led by Andreas Antonopoulos.
Antonopoulos is a security expert, entrepreneur and high-vis bitcoin advocate. With the rigid countenance — and hairstyle — of a Star Trek TOS Klingon, Antonopoulos paced the stage and made his case for bitcoin, sans graphics or gamification — just a man, a mike and massive conviction. The audience put away their smartphones, stowed their MacBooks and drank it in.
The currency is joke & technology is...
His first target: the media.“The media is refining the message, saying ‘The currency is a joke, but the technology — I don’t know, maybe there’s something there,'” he said.
“Bitcoin is a currency, bitcoin is a network, bitcoin is a technology and you can’t separate these things. A consensus network that bases its value on the currency does not work without the currency.”
Bitcoin’s greatest strength: it’s dumb
Then he dug into the reasons why bitcoin works, saying bitcoin is a dumb, transaction-processing network. “That is one of its strongest and most amazing features,” Antonopoulos proclaimed. It’s a dumb network that supports smart devices, pushing all of the intelligence to the edge.“That means if you build a new application on top of bitcoin, you can operate the end devices and you can build an application, and you don’t need to ask for anyone’s permission to innovate. It’s innovation without permission. It’s innovation without central approval.”
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