Bitcoin Chat with Gavin andresen, Fred Wilson, and Nathaniel Popper 4pm PDT LIVE

[futureofbitcoin]

Sorry if this is in the wrong section, but i figured some people might be interested in watching this live stream.

Nathaniel Popper‘s Digital Gold, a history of the people who built Bitcoin into a global distributed transaction network that is not controlled by any person or any company, is available for purchase today. I’ve been reading it and enjoying it very much. Even though I have been involved in and closely following the sector since 2011, I did not know all the details of the early days and Nathaniel captured them well.

In celebration of the book being out, The New York Public Library is hosting a conversation between Nathaniel, Gavin Andresen, and me tonight. It will be moderated by Andrew Ross Sorkin. The event is sold out and has been for a long time, but the details are here. The livestream for the event tonight is here.

A lot of people ask me “are you still bullish on Bitcoin” and that question irritates me. Because it suggests that Bitcoin is simple. Bitcoin is not simple, it is not going away, and it continues to fascinate me more than almost anything out there in the tech sector. I’m excited to have a chance to talk about it in public with people who understand it better than I do.

The link to the livestream: http://livestream.com/theNYPL/bitcoin

[Jeremycoin]

Am I to late for the streaming? I hear nothing but an instrumental music, no one talking right now???

[futureofbitcoin]

It's over. I thought it was quite interesting.

I think you can still watch it though. It's music for the first minute or two until the people arrive.

[coinableS]

Thanks for posting, it's showing the full video now even if you missed the stream.
I think the fastfood style headsets they are wearing are funny.
Very interesting, worth watching.

[itsAj]

Will be tuning in these guys have some great perspectives about future development.

[Chef Ramsay]

If anyone can post a synopsis of the footage for the general lurking audience, may plenty of rich karma come your way.

[thebenjamincode]

If anyone can post a synopsis of the footage for the general lurking audience, may plenty of rich karma come your way.

yeah it will be great if would know what they talked about

[coinableS]

If anyone can post a synopsis of the footage for the general lurking audience, may plenty of rich karma come your way.

Very well, they started with an introduction and asked each interviewee how they would explain bitcoin to a 3 year old. The guy the wrote the book that this even was promoting (popper) calls it a spreadsheet in the sky, Gavin calls it digital cash and the Fred Wilson talks about the underlying technology. Andrew the host asked how do you get bitcoin, he was hinting at mining but Gavin said you have to buy it or earn just like you would with fiat money. Then they discussed the libertarian view of bitcoin and if that was meant to be when bitcoin was created it or if libertarians are the ones who adopted it. Then onto illegal transactions, silk road etc. Somewhere along the line some one blurted out 51% attack which sent the whole interview on a tangent about the fork in 2013 and the host Andrew seemed convinced that it was possible to be sold/receive "fake bitcoin" (bitcoin from a off chain, not the main accepted chain). I'm surprised Gavin didn't voice up and explain more about this.

Then they started to speculate and discuss the future of bitcoin and how it will fit into the world. Fred seems convinced that banks and credit cards will adopt the blockchain for transactions. Gavin gave a good explanation that bitcoin isn't something that you can "pigeon hole" into something we all know today. When automobiles came out they were called horseless-carriages, because all they knew were carriages and horses and it was "pigeon holed" into this category.

Then they went onto to discussing the price, not much insight here.

Who is satoshi talk...

Is bitcoin just for illegal transactions, etc... and that illicit use was part of the rise of bitcoins value. Then discussion of Lazlo and his 10,000 BTC pizza.

Fred admitted to owning between 500 - 2000 bitcoin. Gavin says he owns "some bitcoin"

Then they went on to bitcoin the currency vs the blockchain technology.

Then they took questions from the audience, like what CANT you do with bitcoin, whyy will miners still mine after 2140 when no more block reward.

That about sums it up.

[futureofbitcoin]

I think fred's insight is particularly valuable as he is an intelligent and well educated person who isn't motivated by political ideologies and isn't a "geek". So he looks at this from the most neutral and realistic point of view.

Gavin also seems to understand the problems of the current bitcoin. It's weird how so many people on this forum doesn't understand such simple truths.

[remotemass]

I have just watched it and think it was damn good.  
I think it is a quite good introduction to bitcoin.
The public didn't laugh much when Gavin said there was no GavinCoin but I found that funny