Bitcoin Forum

Last night Huffington Post Live did a video segment on Bitcoin. BitInstant's Roger Ver and CoinBase's Brian Armstrong were there to reprazent. Also, the "Austrian" Neils Van Der Linden (famous for last year's "Don't Buy Bitcoin") YouTube video was there to demonstrate his lack of understanding regarding Mises' Regression Theorem (he doesn't yet know that he doesn't know what he's talking about).

The host quickly noticed that she was the only female  :P

Watch the video:
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/5037b5b402a76066bd0000da (http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/5037b5b402a76066bd0000da)


https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/400799_420194741351368_782844884_n.jpg

Already a thread on this;

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=103929.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=103929.0)

Thanks for the link.  This one actually works.

I think big press events still deserve a thread in the main forum, though they're all archived in the News subforum.

Besides, this was relevant not just for the "news" but for the community members involved :)

I was disappointed we didn't hear a proposal for carrot-coin.

Just watched the whole thing. That was BRILLIANT!

I have to say Roger Ver (Memory Dealers / BitInstant) and Brian Armstrong (CoinBase) are definitely top choices for representing Bitcoin.

Brian Armstrong nailed the deflationary objection from the guest "economist". Nice job guys!

Seconded!  Those guys make great evangelists.  The only tiny thing I would change was Roger's emphasis on the word mathematics, which for a general non-geek audience is likely to be a turn off, we need some kind of alternative catchphrase there.

I disagree. I just watched Roger introducing it again. He first references it like this:

"...guaranteed by the laws of mathematics rather than the laws of men."

I think that's a huge win. Everyone, including non-geeks, understands math is basically beyond question. If something doesn't compute mathematically there is an error somewhere, anywhere except for the math because irregular math means irregular physics aka not reality. That's a strong endorsement for Bitcoin.

So the host immediately responds with:

"Everything you just said makes sense to me because I did a lot of research ... but in layman's terms that's confusing, because it brings up the concept of algorithms, correct? And the sort of basic math that has to exist for bitcoins to be created on computers ... it is confusing would you agree?"

And Roger replies brilliantly:

"Right, but for the average person who is just interested in buying and selling things around the world or with other people they don't need to worry about that. All they need to know about bitcoins is it's 100% mathematically impossible for anyone to be able to block you from sending or receiving your bitcoins with anyone in the entire world, and that's a revolutionary thing."

I suppose using a MAC was absolutely required  ::)

Well, as a promotion I think it was very very good. No need to nitpick.

I would like to add that Erik Voorhees also does a fantastic job with interviews.
His style is much calmer than mine.

Some examples here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvRRrJRhrlA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvRRrJRhrlA)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=088le0gCh-0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=088le0gCh-0)

If anyone has other major media interview requests,  I am happy to help any time.

yes, I would of missed this if it didn't pop-up on this main forum.

pretty cool, but it felt like the show was just getting started and then... its over... damn i really wanted to see the guy in the yellow shirt get shot-down you know  :P

Sorry to say but that segment was terrible for the layperson. If that segment was my introduction to Bitcoin, I would have been confused out of my mind. Why didn't they give some kind of introduction to Bitcoin before the interviews?  ???

Also, the hostess was pretty bad. Saying you don't know about the subject you are interviewing about makes you sound weak and makes it sound like you shouldn't be doing the interviews at all.

Nice job Roger!  You really got a nice solid hit with your first point about things being backed up by what is possible and impossible with mathematics I thought.  I think that that is one of the most crucial aspects of Bitcoin and well worth using as a starting point.  To me it nullifies some of the most annoying (and ignorant) logic/knowledge failures that a lot of 'experts' throw down.

You cannot enter a technical discussion in an interview like this. This is just a teaser of the capabilities of bitcoin, if they want to know how it works they will have to look it up and spend many hours reading.

This is about as much as you can possibly expect in general media as an introduction.