Bitcoin Forum

Hey all,

BitInstant's Charlie Shrem (Yankee) will be on live television today at 4:30pm EST.  Channel here: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/NewsChannel/20111128/national-affairs-111128/ (http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/NewsChannel/20111128/national-affairs-111128/)

I think the MintChip guy, David Birch, will also be on at the same time, so there might be a duel!!! Perhaps they'll let me stand off-stage feeding info into Charlie's ear if needed. ;)

If you're in Canada, please call the network after the show and tell them how awesome the episode was and that they need more Bitcoin discussions.

We'll try to post a web video version when we can.

UPDATE: Video Link Here
http://watch.ctv.ca/news/national-affairs/june-14/#clip700286 (http://watch.ctv.ca/news/national-affairs/june-14/#clip700286)

UPDATE: Blog Post Here
http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/6/14/ceo-charlie-shrem-on-bitcoin-canadian-ctv-national-affairs.html (http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/6/14/ceo-charlie-shrem-on-bitcoin-canadian-ctv-national-affairs.html)

yes!! ^^ LOL

Wut, David Birch that was speaking at the European Bitcoin conference ? Didn't know he had anything to do with MintChip

Is this happening right now? Is there a stream?

He is one of the judges who will pick the winning idea in the MintChip challenge. The last time I looked using MintChip to buy bitcoins was miles ahead of all the other ideas. I believe that's what you'd call corporate trolling  ;D

shoot 40mins to late

looking forward to seeing this on youtube

Just finished!

Will get video link soon

Woo! how did it go?

Charlie mispronounced "Keynesianism" but other than that he did great  ;D

What kind of last minute heads up was this?  :'(

Free high five to the first person to post a video link   ;D

I tried reading that slowly in my head and mispronounced it so I think I'll let it slide...

THANK YOU..RIGHT?

Damn, its a hard word to pronounce especially when your arguing with someone on national tv live.

Oh well, it was only Canada so no biggie  ;)

Can we get a pronunciation guide? :D

Good job Charlie (and Erik!)

Keep spreading the good word!

so where's our video link?

@charlieshrem and Dave Birch look at digital money. Is it safer than traditional currency? Find out here: http://ow.ly/bABm5 @CTVNews

I'm fairly disappointed by your reply to the "what is Bitcoin backed by?" question. I don't think they were looking for a lecture on "Econ 101: Supply and Demand".

Otherwise, good job!

@ 6:29

Sound's like he's blaming the Euro for the crash, instead of the real problem, which is fractional lending mixed with deregulation and tax funded bailouts.

Nicely done Charlie! Any other interviews in the works?

I don't quite know what to say except... WOOOOO!  :) gjgj!

Are there any 7-11s or CVS in Canada?

Charlie, well done once getting past the initial nerves. :D

edit:  what i liked most is that when you're relaxed you're able to speak about alot of important concepts quickly which is helpful when you don't have alot of time.

Video:
http://watch.ctv.ca/news/national-affairs/june-14/#clip700286 (http://watch.ctv.ca/news/national-affairs/june-14/#clip700286)

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

I'm glad you said cavirtex.com at the end, it really is the best way for Canadians to buy bitcoin

its funny the other guy next to you (Dave Berch?), appears to be becoming more open to bitcoin  ;)

Very good interview Charlie! GOOD JOB!!! ;D

But he doesn't buy the idea of it becoming a, "uhh, World Currency, or, Galactic Currency," or... something.
Who proposed Bitcoin as the currency of the Solar System? That was a strange, enjoyable digression. :)

Bitcoin!
the only way to trade in the milky way  ;)

Galactic Credits...if I ever create an altchain, that's what it'll be called.

Canada has 7-11s and Walmarts but you can't buy bitcoins at any of them yet. 

when an interviewer asks you what is backing Bitcoin say "it is backed by hundreds of thousands of ppl who have made a conscious decision to not let their govt's devalue their money every time a bank demands a bailout".

when someone like David Birch says that fiat money is backed by the govt's power to tax don't just let that go w/o a response.  say "oh that's just great...you mean our gov't can not only devalue our money by printing it for their own purposes but also back that same money by taking even more of it away from us via taxes?".

Hundreds of thousands? Come on 'doc. If that were true, we would be seeing entirely different price levels.

Well, it is a galactic currency.

When they ask what is Bitcoin backed by, the best response is to ask back what is gold backed by, and whatever clever answer they can come up with you can 100% guaranteed just as well apply it to Bitcoin, it's that simple.

They will say gold is shiny, is used for jewelry and in computers. Oh, and that it has couple millenias of history.

i'm not sure that's not out of the question.  and if it is, who cares? we're close.

these types of interviews are strategic opportunities not to be wasted.

And you can say back Bitcoin is cool, is used to instantly transfer value across the globe for dirt cheap without middlemen, solves the two generals problem of consensus, ect ect

see how that works?

I did say that!

Cut me some slack lol, I was so nervous. They didn't tell me it was live until I sat in the chair

Having appeared on Canada's BNN multiple times I can agree that one can get fairly nervous when they know hundreds of thousands or millions of people will be watching. But you did a great job and the more you appear the less nervous you will be.

I think you did a great job of responding but doing so in a fairly diplomatic/political way since most people are still in the Matrix. Awesome job!

Thanks! Very nice of you to say.

Canada is just practice for American TV  ;)

yes that's one thing i noticed, some of what was said "We will put them out of businesses"  :-X  wasn't so diplomatic. say "bitcoin is a new competitor to WU and in some ways better." or something to that effect

its a good thing you didn't say bitcoin could replace the dollar, the people of the matrix would hate you for it, they love their paper bills, and they dont want to here how its a ridiculous system. it was cool the other guy said that for you "fiat will die, soon too" yes, thank you Dave!

Good job overall Charlie..   ;)

CaVirtex is good, but also having BitInstant for CAD would be awesome.

You can have fool's gold but you cant have fool's bitcoin 

You can also have tungsten bars painted to look like gold ones and stored at fort knox.

 :D

heh, I've got some awesome ScamCoins here...  :P

PR analysis
Stayed calm, +1 nice analogy with the blood / veins, +1
Didn't answer the question, -1
Don't interrupt the old man, -1

The part where you explained how to purchase bitcoin is perfect.

Ps : Galactic, solar-system ??? local digital currency ? is this guy losing it.

Kudos, Charlie. I think the best thing you did was to appear sane and friendly. Most of us would have been nervous in that situation.


Know your audience. Know yourself. Cypherdoc is very knowledgeable, and correct, and I have a tendency to approach political, bitcoin, and economics discussions in this way too, but this was a fairly light segment. There wasn't much time to get deep or super-passionate on any point without risking alienating the thousands of viewers who were probably hearing about bitcoin for the very first time.

Similarly, there's no point in raising the ire of David Birch when he's actually doing service for bitcoin in this interview. He gave it some credibility. We don't need to convince him. We don't need to convince anyone. We just need to present the facts. Bitcoin is building up a track record. It's not yet for everyone. It's rough around the edges. Right now it's only useful for those who can understand it. If you don't understand it, it's hard to reason about. Right now most people don't even know there's a fundamental problem with fiat money. Hell, they don't even know what fiat means. They've lived their whole lives with this thing, and they've never had to think hard about it's fundamental nature. Well that's all going to change - but we don't need to cram it down their throats. Soon enough governments will be busy cramming fiat down their throats. Let's be the saviors - not the wackos.

If you're having a conversation with one or two people, you have a chance to gauge their interest, intelligence, and disposition. You can tailor your arguments and anecdotes to suit their moods. If your on TV, it's a whole different ballgame. I'm not saying it can't be done. It's just not for everyone.

As more people hear, more will be interested. We'll grow the ranks, and find not only valuable ambassadors, but resonant phrases. We might be fond of using terms like "decentralized ledger" (I certainly am), or "cryptocurrency", but in time we'll learn that lay people can't actually hear those terms. Someone will hit on a new, dumbed-down, term that just makes sense to most people. They'll hit on a concept that's currently being presented too logically or in too much detail - and crystalize it for millions.

Bitcoin needs time to work its way into our culture. People need to hear the sad stories about dollars and drachmas, and the good stories about bitcoins and "lucky schmucks". There will be much gloom in the medium term. Bitcoin will be one of the bright points. At some point even the most stalwart critics will relent and purchase bitcoin - the evidence will be just too overwhelming. Herd mentality will kick in.

In the mean time, let's pick our fights.

Great job, Charlie.

Expect more of it from now on(hopefully). Maybe join Toastmasters or something like it to help with public speaking. Good job though, really thrown on the spot with having only been told just before it was live.
I like what you are doing in general with pushing Bitcoin forwards.

Great job Yankee!  :)

Good interview. I hope everyone in Canadia gets to see it!

Add another 'nice job' to the list - I can sympathize with the initial jitters.

I've periodically had the opportunity to speak with some influential and progressive people, the kind that might be interested in funding the next CoinLab venture. Almost all of them have been completely, and somewhat surprisingly, unfamiliar with Bitcoin. Those that are aware of it regard the system warily, as something too new to be taken seriously yet.

Concrete examples and tailored analogies tend to be most effective; weusecoins.com does a great job of that from a consumer viewpoint. For business/entrepreneurial and high net worth types, the interest piques when I mention the potential to move arbitrary amounts of funds across borders and nearly instantaneously, especially when speaking about selling gold for bitcoins in one location and reversing the exchange upon arrival at the destination.

Whenever fears about Bitcoin disappearing come up, I compare the system to bamboo or ivy. Anyone who's wanted to get rid of either knows it can be an exceedingly difficult task, even borderline impossible if there's enough growth. If they press for a deeper answer, I note that the technical structure is built on proven technologies decades old (hitting the mathematics point you made), and that nodes are geographically dispersed such that the US would have more than a hard time shutting off Brazilian or Chinese participants. I try to avoid BitTorrent network comparisons at first because of the unwarranted negative connotations.

On the question about what Bitcoin is backed by, I've found that it gets the target's brain working when replying with this question: Where does the value of the Internet come from? For the more business-oriented, that can be modified to: What is the value of your contact network? When asked to put a number on something so nebulous but integral and ubiquitous, only a handful so far have been able to say more than 'highly valuable' without quantifying - a few times it's been stated as the most important part of the owner's company.

That's usually where I've seen a trigger hit, telling me the person realizes Bitcoin is more than it seems at first glance, and the impact has led to inquiries (some up to months afterward) asking me how to get started. Most of the time, they also want to know if and how they can use it with people they know. For that, I start with the analogy that it's like sending a message to an email address, only the message contains the number of bitcoins to be sent.

I sometimes suggest they also buy mining bonds to profitably support the network, but BitInstant is one of my perennial recommendations :)


+1


You misspelled SolidCoins :)

You did great, not many would had done a better job.

I agree that a better answer to what backs Bitcoin is important, when you think about it, this is probably the nr 1 worry people have about Bitcoin. I dont think it should be sold in, as a replacement for FIAT money, but as a compliment that is needed so people can easily trade across the globe. People will have a easier time with accepting that as a good thing.

As for what Bitcoin is backed by I would say this.

Bitcoin is the first time ever that the internet have a independent currency that works like cash and cant be copied.
Its backed by many things but one of the most important is that its they only currency in the world with a limited supply, which makes it keeps its value over time.

This is possible because Bitcoin does not need to cater for a single country. FIAT currencies are forced to decrease in value constantly, since they must make sure that people in the country spend them and that the country have good export and tourism industry. With a to high value of FIAT the countries export industry will suffer.

This creates a race among countries to allways keep printing new money to push the value of their currency down.
But Bitcoin is independent as it does not represent a single country and can thus instead increase in value.
So over a ten year period your dollar might lose 30% of its value, But Bitcoin will gain 30% in value. So you would have gained 60% on putting some money in Bitcoin.

This gives bitcoin longterm value as this increase should go on for many years.

A independent world currency is needed since a single countrys currency should not be a world currency.
Even UN recognize this and Bitcoin could be that currency as no country owns it and it spreads all over the world via internet.

Im glad the UN cant control bitcoin either....

Oh no no, dude I wasn't criticizing you..  I was speaking in general and replying to Blitz ;)

Charlie you did a great job! Congrats.

Best regards,
Nejc Kodrič
www.bitstamp.net

Good job. It's probably one the first time ever one can see a fair treatment of bitcoin in a mass media.

First of all good Job! One of the best Bitcoin introductions i have seen!


I think David Birch makes an excellent Bitocoin antagonist. He has a good knowledge of the payments industry, looks "old enough" to be the grumpy old guy, and he does not dismiss it completely. i have also never hear him bitch about the whole "black market" thingie.
What he will get soon is the whole point of Bitcoin is not that it is anonymous but pseudonymous and you have to work hard to use it anonymously. (purchase with cash/tor/laundry etc..)

David is a great guy, and I've spoken to him on many occasions. His beliefs boil down to the same as most of us. He believes that we are at the end of a fiat era and government currencies. He believes Bitcoin is a FANTASTIC example and probably the largest adoption of a universal cross-border collective currency.

The only difference is, he leaves the door open by saying Bitcoin may not be the final product rather its a work in progress. I know many of us believe this same thing, we dub it the 'Bitcoin 2.0'

-Charlie

Good job man!  ;D

Very nice job!

In Prague he said something along the lines: "You guys need to be on the phone, if you're not on the phone, you go down.". I just remembered this. Hmm, did we achieve this goal sufficiently already with bitcoinspinner, blockchain.info wallet, electrum4a,... ?

If by on the phone he meant smart phone, obviously yes, we'll be covering this aspect.  If he meant analog line, I don't get it .

Great job, I watched it twice
Good point definitely smartphone + tablet wallet and trading app and good bye WU ,PayPal and etc

we have had mobile wallet and trading app for quite a while and I don't see mainstream bitcoin usage... something's missing.

Awareness.

Of the people I've talked with across a broad spectrum of industries and disciplines, from a wide age range among management and executives to engineers and investors, there is perhaps low single-digit recognition of Bitcoin. That's including the majority being "I've heard of it" responses. Only a handful, usually younger individuals, actually have had even a rudimentary understanding of how Bitcoin works and what its potential is. Almost all of those consider Bitcoin interesting, but remain guarded, preferring to wait for version 2 or 3, or a 'stable' release.

Until people know the Bitcoin logo as well as even an obscure household brand-name, growth will be an uphill battle. Anonymity and irreversible transactions are just not big selling points for most people. Catch-phrases that speak to what matters to them would go far in getting the initial interest, something like: "Bitcoin: Better Money"; "Bitcoin Doesn't Do Bailouts"; "Bitcoin: Checking & Savings All In One"; "Keep Your Rewards, Pay Lower Fees With Bitcoin".

i guarantee you alot of ppl worldwide are sitting up and talking about the recent price rise in Bitcoin.  most ppl are interested in money to some degree or another given the last 4 yrs of turmoil and when something starts moving up in price they pay attention.

That's for sure - $6 million rise in total market size over the course of a week? It could easily be tens of thousands of people jumping on board - still a tiny amount overall, but geometric expansions start small. Once more people realize there's an alternative...

I keep thinking this thread title says "Charlie Sheen"


http://memeorama.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/I-fucking-love-cocaine-bear.jpg

Your not the only one:

http://forums.thedailywtf.com/forums/t/26234.aspx


Besides for his drug field sex-capades the guy is a multi-mullionare TV star.

Here you can see how we should spin the news.

Wasnt btchina the second largest bitcoin exchange by volume not long ago ?