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

[GermanGiant]

"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

[n3rvi0zz0]

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

[gentlemand]

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

His paragraph sums up the concept of trustlessness. The biggest attempts pre Bitcoin never managed to address that and were centralised and thus vulnerable. Look up the history of E-gold.

[owm123]

The exception is that bitcoin leaves a public record of transactions in the blockchain forever. And bitcoin transactions are far from being as anonymous as (www.bitcoinisnotanonymous.com) giving someone cash.

[Mickeyb]

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.

[franky1]

The exception is that bitcoin leaves a public record of transactions in the blockchain forever. And bitcoin transactions are far from being as anonymous as (www.bitcoinisnotanonymous.com) giving someone cash.

so if i walked up to you in a coffee shop. no names, i gave you $20, you gave me btc..

tell me what government database will show my name against that transaction..

next i send the funds to 4 addresses
1abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba
1azbycxdwevfugthsirjqkplomn
1zabcydefghxijklmnwopqrsvtu

now tell me.. one of them is for a friend in the bahama's. what government database tells which one is my friend.

now. can my friend by knowing the transaction links..(taint). know the name of the person i met in the coffee shop.
now can the guy in the coffee shop know the name of my friend.

?? ?? the answer is no

[alani123]

This is of course amusing to listen to but there were many early concepts that could be related to what bitcoin is today. So I wouldn't say that this is surprising. Speculating that the internet would revolutionize things maybe didn't seem that realistic to the general population in the 90's but academics knew better.

[Minecache]

Http error code 402 has been around for years.

https://m.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/27g1z0/402_payment_required_this_code_is_reserved_for/

[ShetKid]

Might have been a motivation for satoshi to create it. Can't call it prediction exactly. And I don't think he even imagined it would turn out to be so good. And from the video it seems he wasn't expecting a blockchain transparent system.

[countryfree]

Yes, we know that. it's an old idea. In the nineties (possibly in the 80's, too), they were computer games with some e-tokens in it. It was only Monopoly money, but quite many people had thought of an electronic currency which could freely exchanged. But it took a few years for someone to turn it into reality.

[Dorrittulx]

Name someone else who said this? You can't. This man is a genius.

[franky1]

and the 1990's star trek franchise preddicted the apple ipad


the 1970's star trek predicted the flip phone


also the 1970's predicted bluetooth headsets


and 1940's charlie chaplin predicted obama and david cameron and the current economic and social environment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBpX0pkWKDY

[Hazir]

The exception is that bitcoin leaves a public record of transactions in the blockchain forever. And bitcoin transactions are far from being as anonymous as (www.bitcoinisnotanonymous.com) giving someone cash.

They are being anonymous, block chain doesn't store your name and address after all. They are just not private. As everyone can see them. That is a difference.

[Gleb Gamow]

"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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman#Death

Friedman died of heart failure at the age of 94 years in San Francisco on November 16, 2006. He was still a working economist performing original economic research; his last column was published in the The Wall Street Journal the day after his death. He was survived by his wife (who died on August 18, 2009) and their two children, David, known for the anarcho-capitalist book The Machinery of Freedom, and Janet. David's son, Patri Friedman, was the executive director of the The Seasteading Institute from 2008–2011.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patri_Friedman

Patri Friedman (born July 29, 1976 in Blacksburg, Virginia) is an American libertarian activist and theorist of political economy.[3] He founded the nonprofit Seasteading Institute, which explores the creation of sovereign ocean colonies.

I found Satoshi! What did I win?

[ShetKid]

Name someone else who said this? You can't. This man is a genius.

Yes he is a genius and understands it well. But I won't say that no one else predicted it to . Even Nick Sbazo posted a paper back in the days  about the currency. EHe is also suspected to be Satoshi.

[Bit_Happy]

Name someone else who said this? You can't. This man is a genius.

Milton Friedman was a genius with or without this one quote. He also brought free market ideas to a huge audience.

[Gleb Gamow]

Name someone else who said this? You can't. This man is a genius.

Yes he is a genius and understands it well. But I won't say that no one else predicted it to . Even Nick Sbazo posted a paper back in the days  about the currency. EHe is also suspected to be Satoshi.

Sbazo could easily deny being Satoshi if he was only working under contract for Satoshi, i.e., Peter Thiel + Patri Friedman + Wayne Gramlich (dude loves trains and lives in California, and could've easily met Dorian).

[ShetKid]

Name someone else who said this? You can't. This man is a genius.

Yes he is a genius and understands it well. But I won't say that no one else predicted it to . Even Nick Sbazo posted a paper back in the days  about the currency. EHe is also suspected to be Satoshi.

Sbazo could easily deny being Satoshi if he was only working under contract for Satoshi, i.e., Peter Thiel + Patri Friedman + Wayne Gramlich (dude loves trains and lives in California, and could've easily met Dorian).

Maybe, it could be them. Even I don't believe it is only an individual behind it. Very less likely to have so much knowledge in so many things and implement it perfectly. I guess we will never surely know.

[alani123]

Name someone else who said this? You can't. This man is a genius.

Yes he is a genius and understands it well. But I won't say that no one else predicted it to . Even Nick Sbazo posted a paper back in the days  about the currency. EHe is also suspected to be Satoshi.

Sbazo could easily deny being Satoshi if he was only working under contract for Satoshi, i.e., Peter Thiel + Patri Friedman + Wayne Gramlich (dude loves trains and lives in California, and could've easily met Dorian).

Too bad google's indexing was different back then or you would have found out.  

[maku]

I am not surprised at all with that 'prediction' of e-money. Everyone knew it will happen someday. Exact method of transfer, protocols, infrastructure were of course a mystery at that time.
In the future we may see even something far superior than bitcoin invented. And the question is not 'if' we see it but rather 'when'.