Bitcoin Forum

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX-blY0Gv3o

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddJtgzN-_c4

Nice work, thanks!

Great talk. I always used to think that they were total tools. I was wrong.

thanks very much for this, i'm gutted I couldn't be there. Hoping to be able to see most of the good talks the come out of the weekend.

Same here.

They were quite humble and open minded. Very good talk.

No questions?  Come on.  These guys own 1% of all the bitcoins.  Doesn't that raise anyone's curiosity?

If anybody gets a chance ask them these questions:

1. Why?
2. How did you acquire your bitcoins?
3. What is your cost basis?
4. Are they held a personal property or as corporate property?
5. How does your bitcoin security work?
6. How will you handle bitcoins in your tax returns?

Some of these questions they don't have to answer now do they?

as long as they don't claim that they are satoshi nakamoto and try sueing gavin andressen for some odd reason links with stealing code.

.... but then again, it would make a nice sequel to the social network movie and gain some more publicity

nice .I'll share from my websites this video and pic.

what's their name on this forum anyway?  ???

good to know they are into bitcoin  :)

Thank you!

+1 My personal opinion of them changed quite a bit.

There was no really important or new information in their talk, but at least it has shown that they probably are not the elitist assholes that I imagined them to be.

kinda like preaching to the choir presentation  :D

They've already answered 1, 2, 3 (roughly), and 5.  Not that they had any obligation to do so.

4 and 6 ain't anybody's business.

Again we see investors looking to make an exit in Bitcoin pushing the remittance market and regulation as the ultimate goal and absolute pinnacle of success for a cryptocurrency, as though $400 billion were significant enough to support Bitcoin in the long run.  To put that in perspective, the economies of all but a handful of tiny island nations are worth more than that.  If Bitcoin can't even reach the size of, say, Iceland, it's doomed.  We have to think bigger.

Yeah; an excellent talk.  The thing I like about them is that they never, ever give up.

And I'm really hoping that their goal is to use the dough they got from Zuckerberg to wipe Facebook Credits off the map with bitcoin.  Heh.  Irony...  8)

Wouldn't government adoption of Bitcoin undermine many of it's essential revolutionary features? Sure the crypto currency might ensure its success this way but wouldn't it also lose its original purpose?

Everyone seems to miss the glaring point about "working with" the existing financial system.

It is all temporary. Bitcoin is the "poison pill" that will kill the host that doesn't adapt. So while the government and sundry financial services will be trumpeting success with Bitcoin's "taming" - what they're really enabling is for a bridge to exist between the old and the new, with the new eventually overwhelming the corrupt system.

Bitcoin is here to stay, and it doesn't matter what kind of slice the old bastards take out of it - it will be their downfall.

that was at best a below average talk. wow, harvard education and this is what public speaking sounds like? ouch.

It was a little bit DUH, I guess when you're born into such wealth you really don't have to be all that smart?

On the other hand, maybe they'll make "Jager Bombs", whores, and polo shirts easier to buy with BTC?

True, they're no Matt Mullenweg when it comes to public speaking, but I thought their presentation was pretty good.

Bingo.

If you're rich, you've got to be an idiot not to stay rich. And if you're poor, you've got to be a genius to get rich.

I saw someone say Bitcoin wasn't fair because it didn't keep the existing wealth structure. WTF.

Don't know what the guy did. He was probably a bankster.

Probably thinking along the lines of "there are people who have worked hard for 50 years to save up for retirement, and Bitcoin could take that money away".

Yeah, must have been a bankster.

Not everyone can give a Steve Job-like presentation. These guys are just VC's, rich kids with money to burn. But at least they speak in a honest and frank manner, from the bottom of their hearts.

It's "Loaded"  ;)

They don't give a shit about Bitcoin. They mock bankers, and their father is an actuary -- they got their money from the financial sector.

The education you gain at most colleges is not that different. Most of the books used are the same, sure your teacher may be one of the writers of the book and perhaps have a bit of a better understanding but you have just as much opportunity to learn at any college.

The key to going to a college like Harvard or any ivy league school is that your roomate, the guy sitting next to you in class or the people you meet at various events are the children of senators, CEOs, bank presidents, etc.

And when you are out on your own, starting a business...you start thinking about bringing in people you trust, people who you know what their talents are, people who have seen you passed out on top of a dead hooker at 4AM and have never breathed a word to anyone. Your college buddies. That is why you go to Harvard.

That is why the current project I am working on which costs billions of dollars which was commissioned by a General was handed over to the VP of my company who just happened to be that General's college roomate.

Does anyone really give a fuck about those 2 lying, cheating, thieving bastards? I've never had a facebook account so don't really know how it works. But I can tell that they are just modern day crack whore wives..... Gimme a wee bit money and I'll leave you alone... Fucking shameless cunts, do they not have any self respect?

I'd take wads of cash for free too, but I'd at least have the decency to keep my fucking mouth shut. Couple of greedy bastards want more than they deserve. Couple of cunts.

What have they done or said that indicates they don't give a shit about Bitcoin?

Does it matter what they have said or not said?

Couple of fucking thiefs. Bitcoin was probably their idea. Some slanty eyed Jap stole it from them.

They want it regulated. They're shills for the financial industry.

Did you miss your dose of Valium this morning?

Maybe they see that regulation is unavoidable if Bitcoin is to gain mainstream adoption. It might not be a bad thing for services for Bitcoin to be regulated. But Bitcoin itself is difficult to regulate.

Skull and Bones baby! Its who you know.

So bitcoins can be, seized, restricted from crossing boarders, taxed, tracked, limited in the amount individuals can hold, and the exchanges run by the same people who screw everyone over now. They're bad things, IMO.

I wouldn't go as far as equating regulation to all those scenario you've listed. Regulation does not necessarily mean seizing or tracking or restriction. It might be just regulation of exchanges, or maybe of merchants, but nothing too intrusive.

nah, I took all 10 of them at once. Then I got my cock sucked from a real life woman. Can you say the same on either count?

FinCEN want to regulate virtual currency under the Bank Secrecy Act (1970):

"Designed to help identify the source, volume, and movement of currency and other monetary instruments transported or transmitted into or out of the United States or deposited in financial institutions"

"Required banks to (1) report cash transactions over $10,000 using the Currency Transaction Report; (2) properly identify persons conducting transactions; and (3) maintain a paper trail by keeping appropriate records of financial transactions"

http://www.fincen.gov/news_room/aml_history.html

Restriction and tracking!

And the DHS have already seized money in Mt. Gox's Dwolla account.

If we're going to fight back against that kind of regulation, Bitcoin needs connections and influence of exactly the type the Twinkievoss twins can provide. They've already talked about getting a Washington lobbyist. We know they've got powerful buddies - that was the point of Harvard, right?

The regulation is coming one way or another. Whether we are ready is up to us.

The Bitcoin Foundation are going to hire a lobbyist. http://www.itworld.com/357078/bitcoiners-rally-enlighten-washington?page=0,1

The Winklevoss's want Bitcoin to be regulated. They are the current system. And that's why they don't give a shit about Bitcoin. They care about adding 0s to their bankaccount, not about the freedom Bitcoin offers to everyone else.

Nice video.

These guys give bitcoin a good rep.

People talking bad of them must be jealous, and therefore dumb.

Non sequitur.

 Unus ignis quis vir multum ab audere et exclamavit: "Studium fuga, meum prohibere!"

Let's hope so.

And when you hear them talk it is clear they are just in it for the money. There is no passion in their speech (if you can even call it that). I would be VERY VERY careful of these guys. They have millions and millions tide up. They are looking out for themselves first.

Not saying to get them out (to early for that), but they need to be kept a close eye on, very close.

Was that annoyingly nested quote-block from hell necessary? Also, would it be surprising that someone who invested a million dollars was in it for profit? Do you understand how investment works?

As for their fundamental basis for investing - who knows, that requires a level of personal information that probably isn't available to anyone except their closest friends. It remains to be seen whether they're a benefit or a hazard.

Your question is relative. Do I know how investments work? I think for most people (sheeple) yes, And I also know how it works for visionaries. I'm worried the Winklevoss twins are mostly the former.

Further, I'm afraid the Winklvoss twins would do whatever it takes to become billionairs and I'm not sure they actually care about BTC. That should be our fear. They could be like a twin Trojan Horse...

+1

i've seen more passion from a javascript meetup talk. you don't have to be steve jobs to be a good speaker.. you just have to believe in the cause. it's just extra uuh, suprising that uhh these guys uhh graduated uhhh from Harvard.

Some of you guys sound like pollyannas. Either bitcoin is strong enough to withstand any money-grubbing the Winklevii can dish out today, or it is already a failed experiment doomed to collapse tomorrow when the real predators arrive.

Yeah, they're not great public speakers. I think they did fine for a crew who were knocked off their game when the first 5 minutes of whatever flow they were expecting was ruined by Cameron's bad mic.

Sure, they don't have a groundbreaking message to relate. It doesn't matter. Do you? Are you certain your motives are purer than theirs?

Most importantly tough, they bring new attention to bitcoin. With new attention comes more players. With more players come more investment. Through more investment comes more market cap. And most importantly - with more market cap comes a greater inroad for cryptocurrency, and one step closer to the entire world casting off the shackles of the corrupt central bank, fiat, coercive, game.

wrong.

my son and i followed them out of the Conference Hall after their speech as my son wanted a pic with them.  naturally we were amongst a small hoard of ppl doing the same thing.

outside the hall we found them being interviewed by some female reporter surrounded by ppl.  Tyler was speaking about how he thinks Bitcoin can be used to bring freedom to ppl of the third world.  how a new sense of freedom and relief from poverty could be harnessed using a pure new form of money.  she asked him about the mtgox seizure and he hopefully said it probably wouldn't matter in the whole scheme of things as Bitcoin is unstoppable from a global perspective.

their handlers then whisked them off down the long hallway before anyone else could talk or get pictures from them.  it's a long, long hallway and i decided to follow them to see if the crowd thinned out so we could grab that picture for my son.  the crowd did thin some and just before they were to turn into an exit i shouted out to them to take a picture.  both of them immediately stopped and said "sure" much to my surprise and the chagrin of the bodyguards.  i quickly shoved my son btwn them and snapped off a very memorable picture.  that picture meant a lot to the both of us.

i'm convinced that the two of them are a humble, caring, thoughtful pair and my opinion of them shot up orders of magnitude.  to my mind, the burden of proof has shifted to Zuckerberg to prove to me, at least, he was not the schmuck in that dispute.

They seemed genuine to me. Before the conference my outlook was of two rich brats lol. Goes to show that assuming things based on the outside doesn't truly give you a perspective on the inside.

The Twins have a long way to go before they are legitimate players. There is a storm coming in bitcoin land and it's going to be fairly harsh for wannabes.

I wouldn't dare judge anyone until they do something that proves them to be greedy and untrustworthy. For now all I can say is we have millionaires on our side lets just hope it's to our advantage.

Great, so you have a story of them, against the wishes of their bodyguard, taking a picture with your son. That is really heartwarming but that doesn't convince me. What convinces me is what I see on a day to day basis, not a personal anecdote here and there. (Not that there is anything wrong with that - more data points in which to judge.) I think of athletes like Michael Jordon who are known to be very condescending and unfriendly to people (when the cameras aren't rolling) - saying all the right things in interviews and taking pictures with kids. It works, it's PR (and I'm not saying the twins are doing the same, but we should keep an eye on them.)

Now maybe, they just don't come across as "emotional" or "enthralling" with regard to their speeches. We will find out. But right now, we need to be very very careful with who is "let into" the BTC community - including Ripple.  ;D

Time will tell and further, where they spend all of those BTC's and money that they got. The proof will surely be in the pudding...

+1

+1

Very exciting presentation.

I don't think anybody should judge anyone for circumstance of birth, be they rich or poor, but by their actions.

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+2
If anybodys gonna charm the pants off of murica, make antibitcoin legislation unpopular, and explain bitcoin to the lowest common denominator of online rich people, and interface with dangerous politicians, it's that face... those fa- those faces.
Anyone know if the prizewinningnameguesser got paid?

It was more about the body language. Both hands in the pockets, head down while being interviewed, speaking softly and in measured tones.

In contrast to the performers, who when interviewed in front of a crowd wave their hands, look around head up and smile flashing their teeth, speaking in loud commanding tones.

Also the immediate, no hesitation to help response to my request for a picture.

The behavior was completely consistent with what you saw on stage.

Just my two cents.

Overall, I was impressed that they made it out and it was interesting to watch their keynote.   I don't think we should be using the word "wannabe" when talking about the twins, they have their hard earned money invested like the rest of us so they are a part just like us.  I did wish they would of stay near the stage after their keynote for some additional follow-up questions but I had reports of them around the conference so I know some others got a chance to chat it up.   It was much more of a positive than a negative for Bitcoin and that is what we need.   Thank you Winklevii. 

I have not reached a conclusion regarding anyone in the community. I think what many of us here are saying is just to be careful, especially when a few individuals have SO MANY shares. Not to make this political, but look at some recent politicians and there ability to sway peoples minds with great control of their body language and an excellent use of linguistics (and teleprompters  ;D).

Being careful will only help us. But thanks for your opinion, it does help to give some perspective.

My impression of that is there appears to be a difference in the personal security risk immediately after the keynote than during the next day sessions.

It's probably because the keynote had the highest number of attendees, gawkers, press, us ready to rush the stage. Not to mention everyone focused on the twins at the moment after they just got done endorsing the dark side.