Bitcoin Forum

Hey guys,

I need your help: I will hold a presentation at school in one week about Bitcoin. It will (should) be around 30-40% technical (what is p2p in bc, where it came from, security etc..) this is fairly "easy". The rest is about the changes it might provide for our economic system, politic etc... do you know any "reliable" sources / websites / blogs. Which arent "all hail bitcoin" the new money and ecosystem. The biggest problem here is the social "impact". Anyone know good blog posts, websites or whatever how bitcoin could impact/ change or political system, laws or social life?

Most of the research I have done has led me to believe that bitcoin articles fall in to categories - rah, rah bitcoin OR bitcoin is the devil ... 

Based on what you know right now, can you make any assumptions on what the "social impact" of bitcoin will be or could be? Fresh ideas are so much nicer than regurgitated blog posts ...

I dont start thinking about it as long I dont have enough information. Thats why I am asking here... I have some ideas, but they are more then vague... ;( I am pretty good at human behavior analysis. And based on my information from the past I could make a "guess". But thats something no one likes to hear :D

Well, to be honest, most people making predictions about bitcoin are just making guesses anyway, so your guess ( after some research ) will be as good as theirs.

Maybe share some of you ideas and get a dialogue going. Your presentation will be 100000000 times better if it is original and you will feel a lot more confident presenting your own well-researched ideas.


Currently, my own opinion is that bitcoin currently has no social impact but has the potential too. I think it needs much wider adoption before we start to see any social impact and I don't think we would neccessarily see it in western countries. I'm thinking the most potential is in developing nations with unstable currencies, as it could offer a "stable" shelter for a populations money ...

Well my personal own opinion is: It will fail, soon or later it will be a "small group" of traders, and hundreds of users. "just enough" to not be forgotten. If any one know Magic the gathering, Bitcoins will go the same way... and has some similarities: You open a booster (Mine new bitcoins) if you are lucky, you win some money. In 10 years or so, something easier, "less greedy" (resources / disk space / network) will replace Bitcoin (just like Jugi-oh / pokemon replaced Mtg) The concept of Bitcoins is flawed by its concept: You sell Bitcoins for really money. While it is likely that someone sell Bitcoins for money. (as long as new bcs are mined) it is unlikely that someone else will in future sell there Bitcoins for money. They just will "trade" around. The result? Bitcoins drain money out of the system, and will not return them. Leading to the "hoarding" problem. Not that Bitcoins will never be used for products. They will never be sold again for money. It is like one hash for one dollar, which will never return.

But I dont want to draw a "dark picture" about bitcoins :)

Under the assumption that everything will went well: Bitcoin will be used rarely for legal transactions. But it will not be banned. Bitcoin is the "one click hoster" (rapidshare/ megaupload) of money. Not really illegal, also not legal. Hard to grasp or stop it. If we even ignore this (natural) behavior, and assume that really EVERYTHING will went well: Bitcoins will get a status like virtual goods and will increase the awareness of "virtual money and goods". Selling and buying items from Diablo III will no longer seen in public as "problem", virtual goods and money are on the same level as "real money". All rules from our "normal" world will then apply to Bitcoins. We will even see banks. And all rules we know today for money, credits, interest and (mabye to some extend taxes, paid by the "transaction" farms, which will be observed by states)


Crap! Wrote more then I wanted :D Enough thought food for now :)

I think it will catch on

I'm afraid that you won't find much out there like that. But, maybe you don't have to. You might not be able to grab such information from other people that have researched Bitcoin, but you certainly can do exactly what those people would do: dig deeply through the raw information to make a conclusion. It'll be significantly harder to do than most topics, but it's certainly doable. I'd start with the news articles out there. Search for "bitcoin" in your library's database.
Oh the irony that would ensue if this happens: Our largest exchange used to be called Magic the Gathering Online Exchange.


The good 'ole "deflationary spiral". For this, you might consider researching the Austrian School of economics for their argument against the Keynesian school of economics.
My thoughts exactly, except for the legal transaction part. To quote the New York Times:
NOAM, COHEN. "Speed Bumps on the Road to Virtual Cash." New York Times 04 July 2011: 3. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.

No no, you miss understand me. I am not talking about "deflation" or "inflation" of Bitcoins, or the hoarding of them (bitcoins). I am talking about the money (dollars if you want so).

To create a thriving and living system, people need to exchange there bitcoins back to money. They will trade, btc 2 btc (to sum it up) but not back to money. Thats how share holdings work. For example. Imagine everyone would just trade shares to shares. What do you think would happen? :)

Why not use the article from Milken Institute?

Did you check all the nearly 100 links at the end of wikipedia?

You could check the press hits thread on this forum:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1958.0

They only need to treat bitcoins as money, which is already happening.


No they will trade btc for products and services and vice versa, just like the usd because both are a medium of exchange.

Could you provide a video of your school presentation ? If you did provide a video of a full school presentation, I'm sure many would appreciate it.

Oh the irony.

Probably rather refer to file sharing as a whole.
Not specifically Megaupload  :P