Notes From: Blockchain vs. Bullshit: Thoughts on the Future of Money
Presented By: Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Notes by Harrison K.
Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a technologist and serial entrepreneur who has become one of the most well-known and well-respected figures in bitcoin.
Follow on Twitter:https://twitter.com/aantonop
Website: https://antonopoulos.com/
He is the author of two books: “Mastering Bitcoin,” published by O’Reilly Media and considered the best technical guide to bitcoin; “The Internet of Money,” a book about why bitcoin matters.
Presented On March 2nd 2017
Blockchain vs Bullshit: Thoughts on the Future of Money
The hype and empty promises around "blockchain" 2:30
- Is this the greatest technological innovation and explosion of innovation since the mobile internet OR is it the greatest hype around an advanced technology in the history of technology
- BOTH which is a good characteristic of an advanced technology
- There will be a shakeout
- When the waters recede you will see who was in the water without a swimsuit, standing their naked (empty promises)
- A lot of bullshit peddled to VC's
- ICO/Ponzi/Pyramid
- BAU (Business as Usual) disguised as innovative and disruptive
Reconsidering info security, research in applied cryptography 4:45
- Unprecedented growth in Applied Cryptology
- Largest deployment of public key cryptography ever
- It turns out people only protect keys when those keys are attached to value
- Personal Note: this also applies for physical keys as well, although physical keys without value are not a commonality
- Holding your own Bitcoin very quickly changes your attitude towards information security
- You didn't care about your:
- Photos
- Location
- Basic Information
- Same Password 123donkeytits on 17 different websites
- Now you know 2FA
- Storing value has the unique ability to focus your mind in terms of security to those
- You didn't care about your:
Blockchains vs. Databases 7:13
- Driving the most incredible research in applied cryptology we have ever seen
- Nobody Thought we'd be doing:
- Advanced Shcnoor Signatures
- Advanced Elliptic Curve Applications
- Ring Signatures and Rain Proofs for confidential Transactions
- The state of anonymity and privacy is advancing rapidly
- Applied cryptography on the largest most secured cryptographic network the world has ever seen
- Highly Disruptive
- Blockchain is one of the four foundational technologies behind Bitcoin and it can't stand alone
- Blockchain is Bitcoin with a haircut and a suit that you parade in front of your board
- Blockchain is the sanitized version of Bitcoin for companies/people to terrified of disruptive technology
- Blockchain has become a word in a world where words don't mean anything
- Blockchain is Bitcoin with a haircut and a suit that you parade in front of your board
The Essence of Bitcoin: Revolutionizing Trust 8:33
- Essence Of Bitcoin is not Blockchain
- It is the ability to operate in a decentralized way without having to trust anyone
- To be able to use software to authoritatively to verify and authenticate
- You don't trust anything but your own verification and validation
- Network Effect
- Bitcoin introduced the concept of decentralized security through computation
- ..and this has not yet sunk in.
- Replaces the security model where an institution is in the middle
- It is the first market place security model
- Incentives/Punishments ensure that the network itself is a neutral arbitrator
- Revolutionizes trust
- Incentives/Punishments ensure that the network itself is a neutral arbitrator
- It is the first market place security model
Open blockchains are the only ones that matter 10:24
- You can use the term blockchain if you are describing other technologies in this space that are open blockchains
- Essence of the technology
- A trustless system that does not rely on anyone as an intermediary of trust
- Power of Blockchain
- Open
- Borderless
- Transnational
- Network Centric Trust
- Neutral
- Not serving the goals
- Everyone follows the same rules
- No good/bad
- No authorized/unauthorized
- No illegal or Illegal
- ONLY
- Valid or Invalid
- RADICAL NEUTRALITY
- Censorship Resistance
- Making it impossible to censor/restrict/disrupt
- Valid or Invalid
- Essence of the technology
Criteria: blockchain or bullshit? 14:05
- Both start with a B
- If you can replace the word blockchain with database it is BUA
- Reestablishes trust in intermediaries
Fundamentally changing the allocation of trust 15:45
- Opens up the ability to engage/transact on a global level with everyone
- Giant platform of trust
- Doesn't care who you are where your from what you look like
- A 12 year old has the same power as JP Morgan Chase
Permissioned "distributed ledgers" are boring insecure 16:43
- Replace the function of a centralized clearing house with a consortium of n participants with known permission and assemble transactions and sign them
- Is the banks alternative to Bitcoin Blockchain
- Theirs no immutability
- No blocks
- No chain
- ClearingHouse
- It is not a participant in the market
- No skin in the game
- NYSE is not an active trader
- Speration of Concerns
- Independent part with oversight with no skin in the game
- Banks in Crypto = Breaking Consensus Rules
- No incentives
- Banks: "Trust Us"
- People: "Trust You? No Thanks"
- Bank Cartels will try to close transparency
- A very profitable Bullshit
- It is not a participant in the market
Hey Wall Street, Anonymous is coming for your keys 21:48
- Be careful what you evaluate
- Fundamental Purpose Of Tech
- Create an open borderless neutral system
- Banks will make this a disaster
- There keys will leak
- Decentralized currency is so secure because instead of storing the information all in one place you spread it out so thin it becomes virtually impossible to attack
- Anonymous and Wikileaks will fuck the banks
- They cant keep info secure
- Never have
- They cant keep info secure
- Fundamental Purpose Of Tech
Promising opportunities, solving the unsolvable problems 23:06
- 1977 imminent failure of the internet
The 3 elements to success in this industry 24:50
- Identify A Viable Market
- Its early
- Petco online commerce empire 1997 too early
- Webgrocer 1999
- Its early
- Right Market vs Wrong Time
- Timing
- Identify but off by a decade
- Sequencing
- Why did facebook not happen in 1992?
- Density of Adoption
- No mobile devices
- No dense social network
- Density of Adoption
- Why did facebook not happen in 1992?
The necessary steps to mature out of infancy 27:44
- Keep smashing things together before you can start doing interesting things
- You cant do
- Voting
- Real Estate
- Retail
- C2C
- POS Retail
- YET
- Not enough liquidity
- Not enough Adoption
- Still at infant stage
- Doesn't mean they cant happen, just not happening this year.
- Has to be able to secure trillions of dollars in assets
- Liquidity
- Infrastructure
- Currency is the email of blockchain
- Its enticing to say this is more about money
- It is in the long term
- Money part needs to be build first
- Security
- Velocity
- Infrastructure
- Liquidity
- It is not about banking the unbanked it is about unbanking all of us