TE15: Bitcoin, Part 7 of 7 Digital Currencies

scottcschweitzer ,

Bob Van Valzah dropped in for a long session on Bitcoin & Digital Currencies which turned into the second half of a seven-part series on Digital Currencies.

This episode is the conclusion of that discussion:

  • Any anonymous form of cash can be used towards bad ends, it’s not limited to Bitcoin.
  • Discussed handing over a bitcoin wallet to pay for something.
  • Banks, and suspicious activity reporting, limit of $10K.
  • What else can Bitcoin be used for beyond illicit transactions?
  • Silkroad, and how little an impact it had on Bitcoin when shutdown. It was October 2013, and you could barely find it by looking at transaction volumes.
  • One of the biggest uses is transferring money to foreign families or speculators.
  • Where to get a Bitcoin wallet, and Bitcoin ATMs.
  • Once you have a wallet you can put $20s into an ATM, and buy bitcoin.
  • What are hard forks? Reviewed making your own Bitcoin.
  • Discussed the three transactions per second limit.
  • Created BitcoinCash from Bitcoin, to dramatically improve transaction rates.
  • Viewing Bitcoin as an advancement in money technology, people will be creating new technologies in this space.
  • Bitcoins make for a good medium for exchange, but not necessarily a good store of value due to its volatility.
  • The value of Bitcoin tracks Metcalf’s law, which means that the value of Bitcoin is related to the square of the number of unique people using the currency.
  • The value of a cyber currency might in-fact be a function of the square of the transaction rate if enough unique people are using it, which for Bitcoin is limited to three transactions per second. BitcoinCash and others have dramatically increased the transaction rate limits that hobble bitcoin.
  • Thanks to Bob for his expertise.
  • The trading value of Bitcoin going from $3K to $18K from September to December.
  • One last time we addressed whether Bitcoin is in-fact real?

This was the final episode of the Digital Currencies series. Soon we’re going to post the full series as a single podcast, Episode 16, for those interested in hearing the whole thing in a single shot.

Please stay tuned, starting later this month we’re going to launch a series on security.

Interested in evaluating Solarflare’s ServerLock Firewall in the NIC technology?
Please send an email to sschweitzer@solarflare.com

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