2012-12-10 digitaltrends.com - The future of money: It’s not in your hands

[Akka]

Anonymous. Digital. Unadulterated by politics. Mathematically pure. Bitcoin isn’t just unique; it’s punk rock – the antithesis of all the other mothballed nonsense I’d seen at Money2020.

Best comment ever.

Basically an article about what could be seen on the Money2020 Conference.

...I re-caffeinate and meander back toward the front of the room. Just then, I spot something interesting: A small Bitcoin booth, somehow hidden in the center of the room, surrounded by a crew of three guys who are clearly decades younger than anyone else at Money2020.

A hacker friend of mine clued me into Bitcoin a few years back. And I’d seen the random blog post about it since then. But I still don’t fully grasp the concept. A black-haired guy, about my height, dressed in a slightly wrinkled, blue button-down shirt and khaki pants turns my way as I approach the Bitcoin kiosk. The badge around his neck tells me his name is Roger Ver

Bitcoin, Ver explains, is the only truly new idea in the financial industry, and “the most important invention since the Internet!” Whereas credit cards and digital wallets are simply advanced ways to spend cash, Bitcoin is an entirely separate, digital currency, controlled by no nation. All purchases are entirely anonymous, and heavily encrypted.

“It’s more stable than the U.S. dollar. And because each new Bitcoin is produced by a complex algorithm, it’s impossible to just make new Bitcoins anytime you want, like the Fed does with dollars,” Ver concludes. “That’s probably why no country will ever adopt it.”

Now this is something I could get excited about: A rogue currency that flies in the face of the entire world financial system. Anonymous. Digital. Unadulterated by politics. Mathematically pure. Bitcoin isn’t just unique; it’s punk rock – the antithesis of all the other mothballed nonsense I’d seen at Money2020....

...We are about to be bombarded with a staggering array of new payment choices, none of which need to exist, but that the Money2020 crew – from Google on down – are hell-bent on forcing upon us. There will be a hundred different wallets, a thousand pre-paid cards, a billion loyalty rewards programs, and a whole layer of other services offering condensed versions of everything, which claim to be easier to understand. They aren’t. It’s a mystifying mess, and there’s absolutely nothing new on the horizon, besides Bitcoin.

You know, the one used for drug purchases and child porn.

Full article: http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/the-future-of-money-its-not-in-your-hands/

[2_Thumbs_Up]

Now is Powell’s big chance, I think. These guys have the power to throw money at the thing he cares about most. I hold my breath, curious how he’ll spin it.
“Well,” says Powell, “it’s an entirely digital currency. Right now, people only use it to buy drugs on this site called Silk Road – that and child pornography. I think it has a lot of potential.”

I loved the article but seriously, every bitcoiner needs to take a public speaking class or something.

[Akka]

Now is Powell’s big chance, I think. These guys have the power to throw money at the thing he cares about most. I hold my breath, curious how he’ll spin it.
“Well,” says Powell, “it’s an entirely digital currency. Right now, people only use it to buy drugs on this site called Silk Road – that and child pornography. I think it has a lot of potential.”

I loved the article but seriously, every bitcoiner needs to take a public speaking class or something.

I thought that too, we really need professional salesman for such events.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Now is Powell’s big chance, I think. These guys have the power to throw money at the thing he cares about most. I hold my breath, curious how he’ll spin it.
“Well,” says Powell, “it’s an entirely digital currency. Right now, people only use it to buy drugs on this site called Silk Road – that and child pornography. I think it has a lot of potential.”

I loved the article but seriously, every bitcoiner needs to take a public speaking class or something.

Not every bitcoiner but certainly those who want to go to expos, conferences, and trade shows.  The sad thing is on top of being a horribly bad comment (almost black flag bad), it is completely untrue.  

Hi my name is X and I am advocating "Y".  Let me start by ensuring my target audience tunes out by throwing out a completely irresponsible and false statement.  My target audience won't know it is false and since I am the expert are likely to believe me.  Anyone potentially interested is now not interested and this is how I advocate for "Y".

The only good news is Bitcoin is so powerful that when thrown under the bus by it's own "supporters" the potential still shines through the horrible presentation.

That’s his pitch?! Drugs and kiddie porn? I can’t believe it – this acid-soaked fool has blown his big chance in one sentence. Who would invest in a thing like that? I look up to see the whole table recoil, their faces blank, not knowing how to react. Suddenly, Paul laughs. “Tell us more!” he says, and the rest of the crew nods in giddy agreement.

Unshaken, Powell goes on to exalt the benefits of Bitcoin while admitting the pitfalls of a small, volatile market that is regularly targeted by hackers. The money men around the table appear entirely undeterred by the risks. I can see dollar signs in their eyes.

Actually it was BTC in their eyes.   Nice article though.   Good to see more "mainstream" articles about bitcoin.    I also love the writing style of the author.

Each one of these companies – around 65 in total – have their own “innovative” product to sell. Digital wallets, payment dongles, piles of pre-paid debits cards, ‘social banking,’ payment solutions, credit cards packed with gifting and “reward” schemes – a whole jumbled mess of jargon that some witless bastard dubbed “Banking 2.0.”

Banking has been around for 4,000 years, and we’re just now getting to version two.

[elux]

HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4900202

[evoorhees]

Now is Powell’s big chance, I think. These guys have the power to throw money at the thing he cares about most. I hold my breath, curious how he’ll spin it.
“Well,” says Powell, “it’s an entirely digital currency. Right now, people only use it to buy drugs on this site called Silk Road – that and child pornography. I think it has a lot of potential.”

I loved the article but seriously, every bitcoiner needs to take a public speaking class or something.

I was there at this show and Jesse did a great job... of course a journalist will take the any contentious statement and blow it up, that's how they work.

I felt like the whole group that was there at various times during the show presented Bitcoin in a great light. Micon, Tuxavant, Jesse, Charlie, Roger, and Ira all great.

[2_Thumbs_Up]

Now is Powell’s big chance, I think. These guys have the power to throw money at the thing he cares about most. I hold my breath, curious how he’ll spin it.
“Well,” says Powell, “it’s an entirely digital currency. Right now, people only use it to buy drugs on this site called Silk Road – that and child pornography. I think it has a lot of potential.”

I loved the article but seriously, every bitcoiner needs to take a public speaking class or something.

Not every bitcoiner but certainly those who want to go to expos, conferences, and trade shows.  The sad thing is on top of being a horribly bad comment (almost black flag bad), it is completely untrue.  

Hi my name is X and I am advocating "Y".  Let me start by ensuring my target audience tunes out by throwing out a completely irresponsible and false statement.  My target audience won't know it is false and since I am the expert are likely to believe me.  Anyone potentially interested is now not interested and this is how I advocate for "Y".

The only good news is Bitcoin is so powerful that when thrown under the bus by it's own "supporters" the potential still shines through the horrible presentation.

That’s his pitch?! Drugs and kiddie porn? I can’t believe it – this acid-soaked fool has blown his big chance in one sentence. Who would invest in a thing like that? I look up to see the whole table recoil, their faces blank, not knowing how to react. Suddenly, Paul laughs. “Tell us more!” he says, and the rest of the crew nods in giddy agreement.

Unshaken, Powell goes on to exalt the benefits of Bitcoin while admitting the pitfalls of a small, volatile market that is regularly targeted by hackers. The money men around the table appear entirely undeterred by the risks. I can see dollar signs in their eyes.

Actually it was BTC in their eyes.   Nice article though.   Good to see more "mainstream" articles about bitcoin.   

This is very true. To be honest I do see some comedy in comments like this as well. I'm with Doug Stanhope in this case "if you got a good product, you don't need advertising, people will come around (speaking about drugs)". So I am able to laugh at the pure stupidity of a comment like that, only because I believe Bitcoin is a strong enough product to withstand it. But I still know I could be wrong, so anyone who is speaking about Bitcoin publicly, please take some kind of speaking course.

[Akka]

Also, even the Author of that Article makes a humoristic approach on the Drugs and Child porn introduction.

I have quoted it above, but again his conclusion about the whole Money2020 is just hilarious, so again:

..We are about to be bombarded with a staggering array of new payment choices, none of which need to exist, but that the Money2020 crew – from Google on down – are hell-bent on forcing upon us. There will be a hundred different wallets, a thousand pre-paid cards, a billion loyalty rewards programs, and a whole layer of other services offering condensed versions of everything, which claim to be easier to understand. They aren’t. It’s a mystifying mess, and there’s absolutely nothing new on the horizon, besides Bitcoin.

You know, the one used for drug purchases and child porn.

Really love it. I hope many people will read this.

[alexanderanon]

This article is so wonderfully dismissive in tone. That is, to everything at the conference but Bitcoin.

[molecular]

I read this long article from beginning to end.

I enjoyed every part of it.

Too bad the writer got drunk at that meeting on the first night. Should've been interesting.

The firm that german guy (Paul Jozefak) works at, http://www.liquidlabs.de/, is a pretty interesting venture (just read their webpage for a while because they're based in Hamburg where I live and I was interested). Maybe something will come from them at some point.

We don't just speculate like a think tank. We build. Our investor is a large financial services company with years of success and vision for tomorrow. It gives us access to know-how, marketing channels, capital and a constant feedback loop which is critical for success.

[sunnankar]

Imho, classic stuff. Jesse Powell meeting with big money to present bitcoin... with a journalist in tow, far south of formal and quite likely buzzing and then coming out with the opening statement:

it’s an entirely digital currency. Right now, people only use it to buy drugs on this site called Silk Road – that and child pornography. I think it has a lot of potential.

Not got to the end of it yet but Thompson couldn't have told it much better

It really is not that big a deal and is actually a pretty strong selling point. The fact that Bitcoin is about 4 year old and is being used for these generally accepted nasty purposes only shows how powerful it is as a financial honey badger. Now it can be followed up with 'Sure, Bitcoin is used for ugly purposes but WordPress accepts it in order to ensure people can exercise their freedom of speech and not be censored. Bitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency that is censorship resistant. It has not been shut down because they cannot shut it down.'

Anyone involved in the finance and payments space knows how trammeling it is dealing with censorship prone currencies. That is why they see profits to be made with Bitcoin.

[molecular]

Imho it doesn't really matter who presents bitcoin and how they present it. If there where any issues with security it would have made headlines and anyone with sense hearing you can use it for gambling, drugs, liquor and loose women knows its already accepted in all the best places so the rest will catch up soon enough.

Both the author of the article (epsd101) and Powell (jespos) joined the discussion on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/14lzyw/the_money2020_conference_and_the_future_of_finance

On a side-note: jgarzik asked Powell wether he had asked the author to remove the kiddie-porn stuff. I was tempted to post something about Iranians using bitcoin to circumvent sanctions but didn't want to make waves. (see thread jgarzik goes berzerk in #bitcoin-dev, wtf?).

[World]

The firm that german guy (Paul Jozefak) works at, http://www.liquidlabs.de/, is a pretty interesting venture (just read their webpage for a while because they're based in Hamburg where I live and I was interested). Maybe something will come from them at some point.

We don't just speculate like a think tank. We build. Our investor is a large financial services company with years of success and vision for tomorrow. It gives us access to know-how, marketing channels, capital and a constant feedback loop which is critical for success.

interesting one of Europe's best VCs
edit:
Paul old speak video
http://thisweekin.com/thisweekin-venture-capital/this-week-in-venture-capital-10-with-om-malik-from-gigaom/

[World]

Paul Jozefak
Leveraging his experience from leading positions in SAP Ventures Europe and Neuhaus Partners venture capital fund, Paul has founded and is currently running Liquid Labs GmbH, an "innovation laboratory" helping to develop companies in the financial tech and financial services space. Paul hails from both Slovakia and the US, and is now based in Hamburg, Germany.