Bitcoin Forum

Fresh article from CD:


http://www.coindesk.com/richard-branson-blockchain-summit-private-island/

http://www.blockchainsummit.io/

Looking at the participants list it seems a much bigger deal than Satoshi Roundtable meeting in Feb. Hope they're up to something really good (someone in the comments speculated about Virgin Bitcoin-Friendly bank and linked to this: https://twitter.com/VirginMoney/status/464771768423833601 (https://twitter.com/VirginMoney/status/464771768423833601) ).

Man so jelly, didnt get me invite yet, must be coming by parrot.  Check out his island for those of you who didnt see the doc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuPQ6VHO_uk

Sounds like really cool, high profile stuff.
I wonder what will come out of this meeting.

I see this coming out with the same outcome as Satoshi Roundtable... I'm sure it was a great time for everyone that went, many great talks and connections were made and we're all fine with that, but nothing really palpable came out of it, which is a bit of a bummer for all us.

I'm also not sure how the moderators are related to Bitcoin... But oh well. I hope there's some footage or at least there's someone who puts out a list of topics that were discussed on the meeting.

Awesome.

Richard Branson is a big time baller.
I hope this attracts a couple of whales maybe.

If it brings richard branson more into bitcoin on an emotional level thats a result for me, the guy has very big influence in banking and mobile technology which bitcoin could use.  Imagine being able to use bitcoin on everything virgin :)

It makes me laugh when people doubt if BTC will go back up. We have billionaires on this boat and you ain't even know it. They will not let it sink.

impressive line-up  8)


@thejaytiesto

some people dont even read news on coindesk. what do you expect  :P ?

The guests really seem to be an interesting choice. People have mentioned that they could be planning on building a "new Bitcoin", though. Also, the core aspect seems to be the Blockchain technology. But remember: For the Blockchain to be safe, it needs to be mined in a decentralized manner. And in order to achieve this, there needs to be an incentive to do so. That's where we need Bitcoin. Bitcoin has value, and only because of that can its Blockchain be truly safe.

That sounds like a real party, got to admit I would love to go to that island ha-ha.
Private islands ftw :)

I wonder if this is actually very little to do with Branson himself, he rents the island for events (given a big wad of cash) - I imagine he is quite happy to appear the "host" considering the sums involved.

What's more likely; all these great minds will be sat around excitedly waiting for the don himself to arrive, passing the time whilst eating a $300 packet of chocolate nuts they bought from the tiki bar because they're in affluent company and didn't want to appear cheap with a melon. Occasionally somebody will share an insightful anecdote, like how they bought "too many" 100% organic natural wool socks with bitcoins this year, much to everybody's applause. They did too. "This is it...", they think... "We're home". Then like a bat out of nowhere Branson will appear in his 3mph hot air balloon... everybody standing around in awe and oblivious to the irony, wondering if he's been around the world in it again. He'll land and shake hands with a few people, smiling broadly as always. "Bitcoin eh, lovely idea. Just smashing." And before you can say "I bought all your books!" he'll step back into his balloon for a sunset departure as everybody stands around in awe once again. The radio is on, it's Phil Collins with "In the Air Tonight". Branson will wave. They'll wave. He'll wave again. They'll wave again. "What a guy!" somebody exclaims. Cue the hot kitesurfer woman listed on the website, who steps in and becomes the Smile Man as each attendee takes his turn trying to woo her affections by talking overbearingly about the size of their blockchain etc. And with that... the end of the proceedings are reached and they are pushed out to sea in a dinghy, each several big ones out of pocket and feeling slightly bewildered but nonetheless satisfied. This is why he is a billionaire, after all.

Looking at the list, im not sure how I feel about this.......


I need to sleep on this one.

Hopefully, the Lord says his piece and makes it known what's good coming up here. That's right I said it.

looks like nothing about bitcoin, more about would-be entrepreneurs with business surrounding bitcoin all for the fiat  :-\

RB is already a decent investor in bitcoin currency and business i doubt hes that worried about building an altcoin.  If they did it would probably just fail even with their backgrounds.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/344wgc/richard_branson_to_host_bitcoin_summit_on_private/cqrodxs (http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/344wgc/richard_branson_to_host_bitcoin_summit_on_private/cqrodxs)

Beautiful.

This is surely how it will go down.

This is the most certain way this meeting will be held. It pains me to see that the future of bitcoin is discussing on private island by dozen of the most influential and rich people. In the end there are no miners or general bitcoin users who will have the right to change and vote how bitcoin must change, but big fishes like Branson alone will have the only right to voice opinions. It is a little sad that it comes to this.

I actually read the whole story :D Well written. But I don't really see why he would do an event like that, actually. We always claim that Bitcoin is decentralized and therefore safe. Now is the time where this will be actually tested - if it is "safe" and "decentralized", it won't matter that a billionaire is organizing some even on his island, if not... Well, then Bitcoin may not be what we expected it to be all along.

Just because billionaires are involved doesn't mean anything. If it did the price should have gone up already. Investments and ideas sometimes fail but bitcoin could remain easily remain at the value it is at now or maybe even fall.

Yeah, that's what people should at least always keep in mind. Nothing is "safe" or "for sure" in this game. Even though it is very good to have billionaires on board, this means that people who are working on successful projects all the time spend their actual time (far more worth than money for them) to work on things related to Bitcoin - can't get any better than that, actually!

Well they are just working out their strategy for whatever plan they have, other people form groups in bitcoinland and do their thing.  It just sucks a little that these are all the most powerful people in bitcoin no doubt.  Also the biggest holders so probably bullish for bitcoin.

But he hasn't invested big in Bitcoin yet, so it doesn't really matter to him what the price is.

He can dip his foot in the Bitcoin water, without taking any big risks and still do very well out of it if the price increases and usage increases, if it doesn't he loses nothing too.
I don't expect him to be like Soros and try to move the market in his favour with massive whale buys or investments, that isn't really his style and is too risky in Bitcoin too.

Surprised Branson hasn't begun to accept bitcoin for Virgin payments.
That'd be very bullish.
The Virgin empire is huge.
Would be great to be able to pay for Virgin holidays & flights in bitcoin.
I flew business class to Vegas from London in March, was nice.
Would have been better if I could have paid in BTC.

That Richard Branson is one fancy ass crazy and rich F#ck!

http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/adam/51a6a2382622cdca616823cb6ae1084/bitcoin.jpg

http://www.businessinsider.in/photo/23475664/Richard-Branson-Tells-Us-The-Story-Behind-His-Famous-Kitesurfing-Photo-With-A-Naked-Model.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gWBJtr3.jpg


Shenanigans aside, as long as he backs, supports, and throws his hat in the ring repeatedly in favor of Bitcoin, Richard Branson is one of us.

i dont know i think its possible he is a rather large investor, do you remember that video when RB "came out" lol for the first time saying he had a little bit invested in bitcoin, this was before the $266 bubble or right after it i think.  Also he is invested in bitpay.  I would think he is a very large holder of coins wouldn't surprize me if he had 100k like winklevoss.

perhaps with the meeting could create new innovations in the world Bitcoin.

This might actually have positive or negative results for the bitcoin worth.

Richard Branson is clearly a forward thinker.  He would be a great asset as an ambassador to bitcoin, and may help solve some of the usability issues that are hindering further adoption.  This is great news!

I second that.

I don't like these things in general even if, maybe, they might be beneficial for the whole BTC ecosystem but I'll not be so sure.

Anytime a new altcoin has insane success its often due to a strong central aspect whether that be the devs or some kinda group with too many coins or power lol.  It might not be pretty but it could take us to next step.

IMO, this is a great event that might lead to amazing things.
It will be interesting to see what Paul Brody has to discuss, considering the fact that he is linked to IoT(internet of things)

While I despise elitist behavior like this, which only douchebags with luck condone, I se how this could be positive for BTC publicity wise, so whatever, let it happen and I hope we benefit from it.

Richard Branson s not a fool, the bitcoin is a great business.

It seems to do more to fashion and marketing, we will see.

What's scary is there are probably enough billions on that island to buy tons of BTC and create a mining monopoly that goes higher than 51%. What would happen then? Judging by the principle that BTC is a self regulated system and that after wasting that many resources you might as well not do nothing evil against it, nothing bad would happen, but some people maybe would benefit by attacking it.

And then the entire decentralized nature of BTC would be pointless.  It seems like a lot is already being concentrated in the hands of a small number...

All they need to do is coordinate amongst themselves to buy up all the volume on all BTC exchanges, and then they can set sell walls at $1 million USD/BTC (or whatever price above the highest/last limit sell they conquered), then say hello to hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars in profit once they control all the liquidity (automatically buying up any later limit sells priced under their wall, so they are always the lowest ask).

But isn't this already possible?
This is what I'm really afraid of. And the forget about decentralization!
 >:(

And how would that be threat to decentralisation? Please explain.

@ButterZone, that scenario is totally unrealistic. Even if they were trying to buy it up quietly and very slowly, to cost would be huge and the risk too high. Plus, miners (and hackers) will be the lowest ask.

Yes, it's possible, so why don't they want to make that much profit? Is there some law that says Richard Branson cannot trade BTC on exchanges, upon penalty of immediate execution without trial?

Why are you afraid of your satoshis being worth 1 US cent (or more) each? BTC is not sold only in whole units.

This is good for BTC. The more successful entrepreneurs like Branson organize BTC parties, the better. It's just good PR.
I'm not afraid of anything coming from this.

Maybe because that would not be good for their image and Bitcoin's image to manipulate it so heavily.

Manipulate? Image? Ridiculous. BTC is a joke as long as its furthest currently-programmed decimal place is only worth 0.000002293 USD and not at or above parity with the smallest denomination of the world's reserve currency. Branson would be a hero and a villain to exactly the same people who view him as such today.

Richard Branson is a very ambitious person, he would not just want to disrupt the main financial businesses.... he will go for the whole thing.

I expect a total NEW Alt coin, with all the shortcomings of Bitcoin addressed. It will have a funky name. "FUCOIN"

Whatever it will be, it would be disruptive in nature, but it would adhere to the laws and regulations of most countries, to make adoption easier for governments. {Something like Ripple}

So hes going to get bitcoiners with probably large holdings of bitcoin to support a project which could devalue bitcoin?  the gamble could pay off sure but its risky.

why everyone should make his own new altcoin, just improve and help bitcoin, no need to throw other garbage coin, and hoping to become rich quickly like all the users on the altcoin section

Branson and company, should definitely help the bitcoin price with all the money he has, no not for let people like me dumping at the current price, but for not let the btc die...

Guess I wasn't far off the mark after all. Quoted from the press forum https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1040854.0

Its probably safe for him to put it like that, if he said... yeah so ive invited a few people to my island to see how we can take down bank and gov power it might not go down so well PR wise for some of his business connections.

branson is a business man. he is not willing to use his wealth to make the price go up so others can dump. that's definitely what will happen, he knows that.

So he can set a stratospheric height bid wall just under his ask wall so others cannot dump past it.

Publicity is just one side of the coin, media attention is always good. But we need people like Banson to do one more thing - use their deep-pocketed interests and be ready to throw good money after bitcoin is closer and closer to collapse therefore preventing an outright or dramatic catastrophe and fail of bitcoin. Whales for the win.

he don't need to buy all the walls of the sellers, he just need to triggera panic buy, then the other will pump the price and adoption will increase as a result

If the majority of the BTC available will go to few hands (which is already possible as I wanted to point out) what then? What prevents them to play with it?
Look at the stock market: this is happening on an everyday base.
I have more fear of BTC coins being in a few hands than a possible 51% attack to the mining itself.

And, if this will happen, this world will not be as different as the outside financial world which is already controlled by very selected few.

I hope this makes sense.

Holding >50% of PoW coin supply =/= centralisation. You control the price* (to some degree) but you don't control the network. And you can manipulate the market with much less than 50%. Such risk is inevitable. Could you imagine any currency/asset that is always equally distributed and impossible to hoard? Even if that was possible, the currency would be useless.

Edit:

* to fully control the price you would also need significant fiat reserves.

That way they would just basically buy every single Bitcoin in existence without any prospect of selling them for a higher price at a later time. They would basically execute Bitcoin that way while paying an incredible price for it.

In that way you would control such a big amount of liquidity that you could influence the market in any way you like. Whether this stabilizes or destabilizes Bitcoin depends on you. But inevitably it is going to cost you big time!

I mean whatever we're discussing here is only hypothetical for the moment.
I just wanted to point out what it might lead to.

Thanks for your inputs.