I was just doing my usual weekend skimming of Chris Martenson's Peak Prosperity site when I came across an interview Martenson recently did with Patrick Byrne. I expect a lot of you know much of this but I am little minnow here and still pretty basic in my cryptocurrency understanding. But I just learned that Byrne is really into all this. Here is the article that I am about toquote from: https://www.peakprosperity.com/podcast/109865/patrick-byrne-why-cryptocurrencies-matter
So on that webpage the transcription of the podcast includes this from Byrne:
In the 1980s, I was a graduate student at Stanford in philosophy, but with a heavy quantitative and logic approach. I studied the mathematics that underlies cryptography. It’s called computation theory. It was a fascinating field, probably the only religious experience I’ve ever had in my life. I felt like I was seeing the face of God -- I loved it.
(I always like seeing Stanford mentioned as it's my alma mater, but I digress. )
Byrne goes on to say that about 5 years ago he read about a new form of money that no government was involved in, based on what he had studied. At that time, he thought he would like to use it on Overstock, and indeed early in 2014 the site began accepting it.
Three Ways They Use It
1. They accept Bitcoin when you go to check out.
2. Late last year, they became the first publicly-traded stock SOURCE.
3. You can pay $19.95 for a year of membership in Club O, their rewards program with a bit of cryptocurrency flair. It gives you free shipping, not a big deal in this era, but you can also earn by doing reviews.
Here's a keynote talk he did at a Bitcoin 2014 event, about an hour on YouTube.