11-14-2019, 07:16 PM
yeah, and I think when people talk about features a lot of the common complaints you hear about bitcoin are either around technical features, or certain aspects of bitcoin, and I think it sort of misses the point. Yes, bitcoin is technology. Yes, bitcoin is infrastructure, it’s communication infrastructure, but we communicate about value, and we can also communicate other types of information. And yes, bitcoin is about money. But at the end of the day I think bitcoin more than anything else represents a social movement and a set of ideas, and I know that sounds very esoteric, and a bit philosophical, but I think what a lot of people are starting to grasp as they go down the proverbial bitcoin rabbit hole, and I love that we call it a rabbit hole, because it’s such a strong reference to the movie The Matrix.
Meltem Demirors: (30:47)
I think as people start to learn more and more about bitcoin they understand that it’s less and less about technical features, but it’s more about some of the unique aspects of bitcoin’s design that are impossible to replicate. And at the end of the day, we’ve seen this time and time again if you have a company that has paid employees, you have a known founder, you have entities that are set up that hold funds that were raised, that creates points of failure that governments can go after.
Meltem Demirors: (31:17)
And bitcoin’s sort of birth and creation, and the myth of Satoshi Nakamoto, and how bitcoin was launched and released into the world I think has some of those characteristics of other social movements that sort of emerged that are leaderless that become really powerful. And by the way throughout history, a lot of revolutions have been started by pseudonymous or anonymous creators, writers who have hidden or obfuscated their names. And so, I think there’s this interesting sort of tension there where a lot of people try to reduce or simplify bitcoin to just technology, or to just money, or to just one thing.
Meltem Demirors: (31:57)
And it is complex and multidisciplinary and multifaceted, so in order to have that conversation, I think it just takes time for people to understand these multiple components that are working together to imbue bitcoin with some of the really unique characteristics that it has.
Nolan Bauerle: (32:12)
Meltem Demirors: (30:47)
I think as people start to learn more and more about bitcoin they understand that it’s less and less about technical features, but it’s more about some of the unique aspects of bitcoin’s design that are impossible to replicate. And at the end of the day, we’ve seen this time and time again if you have a company that has paid employees, you have a known founder, you have entities that are set up that hold funds that were raised, that creates points of failure that governments can go after.
Meltem Demirors: (31:17)
And bitcoin’s sort of birth and creation, and the myth of Satoshi Nakamoto, and how bitcoin was launched and released into the world I think has some of those characteristics of other social movements that sort of emerged that are leaderless that become really powerful. And by the way throughout history, a lot of revolutions have been started by pseudonymous or anonymous creators, writers who have hidden or obfuscated their names. And so, I think there’s this interesting sort of tension there where a lot of people try to reduce or simplify bitcoin to just technology, or to just money, or to just one thing.
Meltem Demirors: (31:57)
And it is complex and multidisciplinary and multifaceted, so in order to have that conversation, I think it just takes time for people to understand these multiple components that are working together to imbue bitcoin with some of the really unique characteristics that it has.
Nolan Bauerle: (32:12)
