Bitcoin Forum

I shot video of a speech by Andreas M. Antonopoulos (Let's Talk Bitcoin) at the recent Los Angeles Bitcoin Meetup.  I think he gives the most compelling presentation on the value of Bitcoin (the network, the protocol, the invention) anyone has ever made.  Here is a link to the video series:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSdnuFOLV4nMiQG9gvPBX_VQUf6E4COM

If you share it, please provide credit: Valerian Bennett - valerian@reXBT.com.

Thanks!

This man can be Satoshi himself for all I care. Andreas for president

I liked these videos.
Maybe he should also talk on the potential of bitcoin to be used by robots and other autonomous agents.

Good quality, thanks! Andreas is awesome! One the voices I most admire and respect in the Bitcoin-world.

Inspiring stuff. Thanks for sharing!

Wow! This was a great speech.

"We replaced the FED by 100 lines of coding."

Really good presentation. Each one of the video segments gave me something to ponder. When I was in Argentina, I couldn't find a single person who spoke English. This guy has flawless English. Not many geeks are also good at languages. Not many geeks can stand in front of an audience either.

I always enjoy listening to Andreas Antonopoulos. Saved it for later when I have time to listen.

Not sure where you were, but I'm in Argentina right now and I am impressed at how many people DO speak english.

THank you very much Valerian!
i will post it to the Greek forum too

really cool video !
Bravo Andreas!

Thank you for recording this and for the kind words and support.

I hope to do many more of these presentations at local bitcoin communities, where I get the most value and best questions from the audience!

This was very motivational, very nice. Thanks for sharing OP.

My only advice would be to not use derogatory terms for describing the FED, WU etc. Objectively explaining improvements over the established system is enough. Sure you can throw a joke at them but don't call them crooks, imo.

Also, your point on BTC being used to buy a joint, you said something like it's only the last thing in the production and distribution chain, implying that law enforcement is doing something wrong. BTC is used for something illegal and thus should thus be persecuted, just as any other part of the chain. Sure we are making progress on the decriminalisation of cannabis, but your point is not very good.

Very good presentation.

"Not sure where you were, but I'm in Argentina right now and I am impressed at how many people DO speak english."

I was in BA for ten days. It took me three days to be able to buy a sim card. Obviously there are plenty of people in Argentina who can speak english but compared with my experiences in Uruguay, Panama and Colombia, my lack of spanish was a struggle. And damn, I have never heard people who can talk so fast, except maybe in China! :)

I thought it was an apt analogy. In context it made perfect sense. BTC is too easily (lazily?) persecuted for its anonymity and the attendant connection with Silk Road, et al. And yet every part of the supply chain to the point of those illegal goods being offered for sale has been funded using a fiat currency.

By extension, you can't knock any form of currency because of the questionable ways in which an immoral minority will use it. That's like saying you can't sell cars because some people will drive outside the regulations. Perhaps you misunderstood?

I disagree.  There's no reason to sugarcoat anything.  We need more people who aren't afraid to "call a spade a spade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_call_a_spade_a_spade)".

THAT was amazing! Viva le revolution!!!!

Damn straight brother!

I wonder what Andreas thinks about Gavin visiting the CIA and CFR ... And what he thinks about the Bitcoin Foundation being part of a digital economy task force ...

Here's the thing.   Andreas killed it in Vegas.  Period.   My only issue was that he was soo upset by the bullshit, that it showed in his voice.  And in response, you can hear the arrogant, condescending, (even chuckling at one point) responses from the other panelists.  These guys don't have emotion.  It's a proven fact that a large percent of CEO's are sociopaths, and sociopaths lack the ability for empathy.  What they do respond to however is solid facts, presented in a ROBOTIC, unemotional manner.  Conveying thoughts with even a twinge of irritation in your voice will result in them completely discounting you as a source of reliable information.  It sucks, but this is the truth.  

When someone says extremely strong phrases and terms with a lot of emotion to guys like that, they tend to disregard the person.  Andreas is our voice to these people, and his frustration and outright anger is understandable.  I hope that he can somehow mask it a little in the future, and speak the language these idiots speak.  They're full of shit, and they hide it well.  That's what they do for a living.  So Andreas, being a fucking master wordsmith in his own right, hopefully can put on the bullshit mask, and convey the *same* concepts to these people with words, and intonation that they will have to respect.  Facts without emotion, but with a calm urgency and even cutting phrases that don't branch off into too much emotion.  

I got goosebumps by his comments on the Vegas panel ... but I could tell that certain statements he made were almost laughed at by the idiots on the panel because they were so inflammatory.   For example, he commented that Bitcoin is as serious as being pulled out of your house and having your family tortured, in some countries.  It was not until a later podcast that I heard Andreas actually explain that statement.  When i first heard it, I (and im sure many others on the panel) immediately were like "ok maybe this guy isn't exactly grounded in reality, another libertarian Bitcoin kook" .... But in fact, he had a discussion with someone who said those exact words to him.  The person *was* afraid to attend the conference because his family *had* been dragged out by the govt for similar activities.

Had he presented it that way on the panel, I believe the idiots on the panel would have responded very differently.  Almost with a sobering respect.  He could have made them all look like fools.  But due to the way these guys think (unemotional, businessminded, factually based)... Andreas emotional presentation may have seemed "not grounded" in reality, but coming instead from an irrational perspective.  

One thing Andreas does not do is "irrational".  So i hope he can really hone his presentation of these incredibly important facts, and try to subdue his anger in settings like these.  

Andreas you have a way with words that I have almost never seen before.  Truly.   Please know that every ounce of urgency and emotion and disgust you have inside you, is already being felt by all of us out in the "field".  We just need someone who can convey it in a language that sociopathic empathy-less entrepreneurs can understand.  If theres some way you can remain cognisant of the often arrogant, heavily business minded (utterly absent of emotion or empathy) audiences you speak to, I think you could literally bury them with factual, unemotional words.  You can form sentences like no other.  

Please stick around the american conferences.  And please don't take offense to this post.  Ive actually been mulling over this very issue in my head for several days now, debating whether I should convey it to you, because of the risk of offending you.  I can't stress enough how incredibly important your involvement is in all of this.  Please don't give up and bail to the other countries if possible.

-BittBurger-

This is the card many in society have to play in order to get taken seriously by those who are higher up in the hierarchical ladder :)

Bitcoin has a tendency of leveling the playing field. Soon you will see people playing with cards facing up. Blockchain anyone?

I couldn't agree more: I try to tailor the tone and content to the audience, as much as possible. See for example, my appearance on Bloomberg and even Max Keiser, where I am facing a general audience and I offer a perspective focused on technology innovation, security innovation and growth opportunity for a new industry.

In the Vegas case however, I had 500 people in the audience who had spent 2 days listening to the entrepreneurs talk money. Which is fine and necessary, but I felt that a different PoV should also be voiced, on the last day, on the last panel. So I tailored my content and tone to my audience: the 500 people who came with passion for bitcoin, not my four (very gracious and patient) co-panelists. Not my best work, or my proudest moment as a panelist.

I do dozens of interviews per week and appear before a variety of audiences several times a week too. Some of those come out well, but not all. Sometimes I miss the mark on my audience. Not everyone cares for what I have to say, but I speak from the heart and I'm always open to changing my mind and my tone as I learn.

Thank you for the honest feedback.

Well done Andreas!

I just sent those videos to about 50 people who I've talked to about bitcoin but just don't grasp it completely. This will help them a ton.

Just halfway through the series. This guy is good! Knows what he is talking about, good flow, has humour...
The series consists of 8 bite-size 5mins videos, highly recommended:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSdnuFOLV4nMiQG9gvPBX_VQUf6E4COM

I prefer the longer form.  Cause the bite size chunks don't have the Q&A session. 

Taking in all of the above comments, a slightly toned down version of this presentation would be a great intro for potential investors or other interested parties. The comment about replacing the Fed with 100 lines of code is priceless. The dissing of western union, although absolutely correct, could be replaced by a more humorous comment to tone it down without softening the message. Facts and figures can never be taken the wrong way by any audience. Great work!

I'm currently making a transcript of those 8 episodes, and not being a native speaker, I have a few (as he talks very clearly) words I'm having difficulties with.

Episode 1, 4:05
And so I spent the last 6 months obsessively consuming and writing and coding and reading everything I could about bitcoin, until I lost so much weight that my family <???> intervention

Episode 8, 3:46
They can use M-Pesa, global payment network based on cellphone <???>

Can anyone help, please? :)

nice talks. i saw every :)

....so much weight that my family staged me an intervention

Can't catch the one in episode 8, sounded like "billets", may be others can help

Thank you!
I'll make the transcript available to everyone - so that blockgenesis' team can translate it easily - once it's done, as well as a french translation (and maybe a french subbed version of the 8 episodes, if my friend accepts my 0.25BTC offer to sub the videos in french  ;D)

I'm doing this because this is by far the best introduction to bitcoin I have ever heard.

More questions, sorry...

I also still need an answer for the "billets" (episode 8, 3:46)
They can use M-Pesa, global payment network based on cellphone <???>

Episode 5, 2:46
Bitcoin also, for the first time, converts money, or asset ownership, into a <???>
Content-type?

Episode 3, 1:25
Leafcutter ants don't eat the leaves, they ferment them with an enzyme and then they feed them to <???> and then they eat the <???>.



By the way, Andreas, this looks wrong.
Leafcutter ants actually practise agriculture (of some sort of fungus), not cattle-breeding.
They don't eat insects, but the fungus that they grow (which is still amazing).

Also, There are actually hierarchical systems in nature, dominance, subordinance, and hierarchy can be observed in a lot of species, where one leader takes decisions for the other, and even some kind of "elections" which are usually fights for power (but how is that so different?  ;D)

You might want to adapt your (great) speach a little.  :)

"minutes"


Yes, "content type"


"aphids" and "aphid larvae"

Many thanks shawshankinmate37927!

EDIT : Full english transcription available!

http://pastebin.com/8rQikEv6

Credits goes to a friend of mine who did most of the work.

I particularly like the parts about the inherent problems with hierarchical systems and possible implementations for voting and governance.  Time to decentralise the way we run our countries in the same way that Bitcoin has decentralised money.

Any chance you could organize a Spanish version, too? I found the talk very inspiring to the point to ask if I could use it to actually hold a speech along its lines to an audience here in Chile if there was a transcript. My Spanish is … 2 years of living here so I would have to heavily rely on preparing and training a script to get all the terms right.

Great presentation!

Bitcoin, although practically impossible, could go down but the idea of a bitcoin won't.

I should be able to post the videos subbed in english soon (as well as the subtitles files).
Since already synchronised, it'll be quite easy to translate, then.
But expect french from us, I don't speak spanish at all, apart from the survival stuff (like "una pinta, por favor", which might not even be correct but usually works).
Hopefully, there will be more translations from other people, though.

Great presentation Andreas!!

I think you are one of the best voices Bitcoin has.

I like pretty much all the presentations and interviews I have seen you make.

Keep up the good work!

Just looking at your eyes I could tell the passion. Very good job. Next step would be to target regions of the US were you would not expect anyone to know about bitcoin; regions hit by every level of "crisis", not just preaching to the bitcoin community. I understand this is a long and hard journey though.

Thank you again.

Andreas,

just a great presentation!  

Cryptocurrencies truly are a revolution toward achieving a greater-good / balanced world.

I didn't notice anyone post link to the whole presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTPQKyAq-DM

This one includes the Q&A session, which is not to be missed.

Nice, watching that now.  The Q&A part starts about half way through the vid if people don't want to re-watch the whole thing again (I've watched it three times already, heh).

Thanks, watching it now. For those who wants to jump directly to Q&A...
Starts at 42m20s and lasts for another hour

Thank you valerian253. I found the video on the sidebar of the youtube page (When Hitler Finds Out About the Butterfly Labs Monarch).

Mr. Antonopoulos is displaying the perfect amount of restrained contempt in regards to the fees associated with getting money to the people who need it the most.
If you have ever tried to do something so "simple" as getting a well to a community who needs fresh water in a developing country...you would get a small taste of the frustration.

It isn't often spoke of (the "siphoning" of funds when sending aid) and maybe until now that was best, because you didn't want to discourage people who were willing to give and push them to the point of apathy.
 
This issue should be exposed, it's been a long standing problem, now with bitcoin there is a possible solution.

He's a very good speaker, I'd like to see more people being half as educated about this network as he is.

English to italian translator available here  ;D

I listened to the entire 3 hour podcast he had with Joe Rogan. Excellent stuff. Just really interesting to listen to.

Excellent, we're about to release a first english/french subtitled version, polishing the french one now, which takes a bit of time, but... Soon.  ;D

Thanks for sharing this amazing video. I agree with you. It is, indeed, the most compelling presentation I’ve seen so for. Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a really good speaker, and has a very convincing attitude.

I'm glad everyone is getting so much value from this video series. Hopefully, it will be just the first of many. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJnKNq1ro2l5oxB-bAeaOhQ).

Thanks so much for doing the translations for different languages. That's beyond my wildest exceptions! The more people that get the message the better ;-)

re: the Q&A at the end…  Originally, we were having some technical difficulties so that part of the presentation never got uploaded. I'll look into it again. Enjoy! </v>

I agree, Andreas is amazing but the ant analogy needs some work, lots of examples of hierarchical system in nature, gorillas, chimps, lions, wolves all have a alpha male at the top, seems like hierarchical to me.

Being a bit nit picky but keep up the great work Andreas.

 ;D