Bitcoin was predicted by a Nobel Laureate in 1999 !!!

[Kakmakr]

Walter Wriston, former CEO of Citibank, 1997

Money is a social construct, not just a technological one. For e-cash to be money, everyone has to agree that it's money.

“Money is a terrible thing.” Gene Roddenberry, Creator of Star Trek

“We have eliminated hunger, want, the need for possessions.” Jean Luc Picard, Captain, USS Enterprise

Could it be true?

Could the future not just be cashless, but moneyless?

Doing a prediction is easy, even the movie industry can do it. 

[notbatman]

Bitcoin was predicted in the 1990 cyberpunk movie RoboCop 2. The punks used it to trade an illegal designer drug called "nuke". The movie also predicted the 2013 bankruptcy of Detroit.

It's only a matter of time before police forces are privatized and ED209 is patrolling our streets keeping us "safe".

The future of law enforcement ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9l9wxGFl4k

[NorrisK]

The part about not having a record is the only part that is not correct about the prediction if you look at bitcoin.

As long as the address is not linked to you it is however almost anonymous.

[GermanGiant]

As long as the address is not linked to you it is however almost anonymous.

That is why we call it pseudo anonymous.

[n3rvi0zz0]

As long as the address is not linked to you it is however almost anonymous.

That is why we call it pseudo anonymous.

a wallet that does not have a name associated not mean it's pseudo anonymous.

IP addresses , logins, id Verifications...

[disclaimer201]

You could use Tor, never use a single address twice, don't send your ID to third party exchanges unless you absolutely have to, don't get verified voluntarily if all you want to do is trade crypto for crypto- in other words use bitcoin as it was intended to be. Don't be lazy.

[franky1]

As long as the address is not linked to you it is however almost anonymous.

That is why we call it pseudo anonymous.

a wallet that does not have a name associated not mean it's pseudo anonymous.

IP addresses , logins, id Verifications...

bitcoin does not ask for logins..
bitcoin does not ask for ID
bitcoin does not ask for retain the IP address of the sender..

what you are talking about is businesses, who also trade in FIAT and are required to do KYC because of the fiat stuff..
again the blockchain does not ask for these things. and if you stay away from such exchanges. and not publicise your real life and bitcoin address.. bitcoin IS pseudo anonymous.. which means anonymous until you decide to link your name to the address.

and if you rebuttle that IP addresses appear on the blockchain.. that IP address is not you..

[Blue_Tiger73]

the first Crypto coins appear before that, he didn't predict nothing was enough if someone talk about E-cash with him

Um...What. He kind of did predict Bitcoin. The first crypto currency that people actually used, is Bitcoin. Which was released in 2009. That is 10 years after 1999, maybe you need to work on your maths skills mate. In Bitcoin you can kind of see where it came from if some is sent to you, Bitcoin address!

[USB-S]

the first Crypto coins appear before that, he didn't predict nothing was enough if someone talk about E-cash with him

Um...What. He kind of did predict Bitcoin. The first crypto currency that people actually used, is Bitcoin. Which was released in 2009. That is 10 years after 1999, maybe you need to work on your maths skills mate. In Bitcoin you can kind of see where it came from if some is sent to you, Bitcoin address!

There were many other e moneys before, but they all had problems. Biggest of them all was double spend. Network would get filled with noise and in a short time frame you could spam a transaction from the same account multiple times before it hit the server. If it got to the server it would register both or all transactions. Bitcoins public ledger called the blockchain eliminates double spend. If I got anything wrong, feel free to correct me.

[FrostStick]

Well he could be talking about other "e-cash" that existed before bitcoins. He never mentioned anything about cryptocurrency.

[yenxz]

not suprised,many people will think about e-cash on past,just they cant make sure when it happen..

[Possum577]

I don't think that anonymity part is that important at all. I think that Bitcoin has many more things going for itself and that are much bigger inventions than its anonymity or non-anonymity.

Who wants to hide something has already so many ways that he doesn't need Bitcoin. It just a matter of how much trouble are you ready to go through to get something done.

Yeah but it's alot easier to hide $1,000,000 with Bitcoin than it is with cash in a suitcase.

To the OP, thanks for sharing. I didn't know Milton Friedman made these comments...he's a legend!

[Light]

I don't think that anonymity part is that important at all. I think that Bitcoin has many more things going for itself and that are much bigger inventions than its anonymity or non-anonymity.

Who wants to hide something has already so many ways that he doesn't need Bitcoin. It just a matter of how much trouble are you ready to go through to get something done.

Yeah but it's alot easier to hide $1,000,000 with Bitcoin than it is with cash in a suitcase.

To the OP, thanks for sharing. I didn't know Milton Friedman made these comments...he's a legend!

But there are a lot better ways and less traceable ways to hide that kind of money than in Bitcoin. Right now Bitcoin doesn't have the transaction volume to adequately hide/mask a million dollar transaction - whereas you could probably get away with it a little easier with the current financial system.

[maku]

I don't think that anonymity part is that important at all. I think that Bitcoin has many more things going for itself and that are much bigger inventions than its anonymity or non-anonymity.

Who wants to hide something has already so many ways that he doesn't need Bitcoin. It just a matter of how much trouble are you ready to go through to get something done.

Yeah but it's alot easier to hide $1,000,000 with Bitcoin than it is with cash in a suitcase.

To the OP, thanks for sharing. I didn't know Milton Friedman made these comments...he's a legend!

But there are a lot better ways and less traceable ways to hide that kind of money than in Bitcoin. Right now Bitcoin doesn't have the transaction volume to adequately hide/mask a million dollar transaction - whereas you could probably get away with it a little easier with the current financial system.

Because current financial system is designed to be flawed and exploited. Creation of money from thin air.
Behind the scenes transactions and lack of transparency is major issues and are crucial problems for many people.
Total transparency of bitcoin will be a remedy for this rotten financial system.

[notbatman]

Years back (2001) there was a fellow on the internet that went by the Name John Titor. He claimed to be a time traveler from 2036 and made the following statement in response to a question about money:

Q: What type of money do you use in 2036?

A: Its not very different than it is now. Yes, we have money and credit cards. However, like everything else, the monetary system is decentralized. Banking is based mostly around the community structure. There are no multinational banking or computerized economic systems. There are also no income taxes.

His statement about no "computerized economic systems" would seem to refute the who deal but I find the statement interesting non-the-less.

[cjmoles]

Good article.  You know, a lot of people don't realize that the theory and the technology behind Bitcoin has been around for quite sometime.  It just took a little while to consolidate the knowledge base and to work out some of the kinks which ended up being worked out in Satoshi's whitepaper.

[n2004al]

"The one thing that's missing, but that will soon be developed, it's a reliable e-cash. A method where buying on the internet you can transfer funds from A to B, without A knowing B or B knowing A. The way in which I can take a 20 dollar bill and hand it over to you and there's no record of where it came from. And you may get that without knowing who I am. That kind of thing will develop on the Internet."

- Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman in 1999

The Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MnQJFEVY7s

Friedman is a giant. the Nobel is to few for him. To many thing was "predicted" by him and were verified. This prediction I hear for the first time. But make me to respect even more him. Are to many other him's predictions which wait to be verified. I am giving below another one which I like to much and is something that have to do with the above write at the main post. Here him's thought (I like to call prediction that must becaome true in the future; maybe spreading and re framing in a wider way the above prediction):

“We don’t need a Fed,” Milton Friedman says, twirling a letter opener as he speaks. “I have, for many years, been in favor of replacing the Fed with a computer,” he adds. Each year, it “would print out a specified number of paper dollars” to augment the money supply. “Same number, month after month, week after week, year after year.”

Read the entire interview here: http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/milton-rose-friedman-offer-radical-ideas-21st-century

Imagine if the e-cash predicted in the main post be the stamped money by the computer. Can be, in the essence, the same but expressed in different way.

[makcik]

Bitcoins, which are now a very famous and useful currency over the world. But, guess what a Nobel laureate in 1999 had already guessed about a currency in which money can be transferred to any person without any third party's consent.
It was just a prediction of what can happen in the future.. And this has turned into a reality in the form of bitcoins. Isn't it amazing!

[cellard]

To be honest its not that shocking, it's just the natural step forward in mankind. A lot of people predicted mobile phones back in the day too (Back in the Future for example) what counts is making it real. Satoshi made this vision great for the first time ever, that's why Bitcoin is worth trillions of dollars.

[disclaimer201]

Exactly this. It's was an evolutionary step foward after the invention of the internet. Bankers of the world begin to understand this now and are desperate to slow down the process or try to stop it. Due to BTC's decentralization and the current fucked up state of the financial economy, it's only a matter of time until it succeeds on a large scale, no matter what shills do or say. All these new accounts spreading FUD on bitcointalk will only bring down prices temporarily. We should use it as a buying opportunity, just like they do. I doubt 300 Dollars/BTC will last very long. Major uptrend is imminent.