It is fascinating to watch institutions try to deal with Bitcoin, an innovation which is designed to ignore current institutions. This piece in the USA Today makes a good effort toward shoving cryptocurrency into a box, where it can be mastered and controlled and ignored in favor of bigger authorities. The major news is that the IRS will now call …
Why Warren Buffett is wrong on Bitcoin
My local St Louis homie Vance Crowe hands out a very dignified, respectful backhand to megabank investor Warren Buffett, who recently derided Bitcoin as a “mirage.” Bitcoin allows us to instantly send money to one another securely, without relying on a financial middleman who works bankers’ hours, charges transfer fees, and gambles with depositor’s money with the potential to do …
Bitcoin learns, banking doubles down on mistakes
A couple of weeks ago a did an interview about what the failure of Mt. Gox meant to the future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for a Boston public radio station. Bottom line: Bitcoin and innovations like it are complex, adaptive systems – not bureaucracies – and thus can use mistakes to create a better future.
Thievery and failure may actually improve Bitcoin
MtGox, one of the most prominent exchanges for the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, was recently hacked, causing a potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars. While this sounds like one reason to not use Bitcoin, I see it a different way. Bitcoin is a complex adaptive system which allows it to improve from failure – it may be what Nassim Nicholas …
Bitcoin is real even if you think it’s a joke
I’m writing about alt currencies for this month’s Garland Report Monthly, and Bitcoin is front and center. That’s why I love this analysis of how Bitcoin has become a global sensation, based on nothing but social construction – from the blog Deus Ex Machina. Bitcoin, BTC (or $BCOIN on StockTwits) is a decentralized value transfer protocol. It is an anarcho-capitalist …