Eric Schmidt discusses Bitcoin on CNBC

[Gordonium]

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000163361&play=1

[glub0x]

seems like shmidt is only waiting for a legal frame. except from that he looks like having 0 problem with the concept behind bitcoin.

[cupronickel]

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000163361&play=1

Thank you. Great point made about virtual currency only being useful to the underworld until they make a small mistake. It's then very traceable, much much more so than greenbacks etc.

I see nothing but support and inevitability in Schmidt's remarks. Schmidt got filled in on Bitcoin by Assange pretty early on; bits of that talk are in his (Schmidt's) book iirc.

[cypherdoc]

seems like shmidt is only waiting for a legal frame. except from that he looks like having 0 problem with the concept behind bitcoin.

that's how i see it.

[Zomdifros]

Great to see this. Many people are unable to understand Bitcoin but will learn to trust it when powerful figures like Eric Schmidt embrace it.

[impulse]

"Bitcoin is a technological tour de force"

[Herodes]

"Bitcoin is a technological tour de force"

Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tour+de+force
an exceptional achievement by an artist, author, or the like, that is unlikely to be equaled by that person or anyone else; stroke of genius: Herman Melville's Moby Dick was a tour de force.

[Gordonium]

Great to see this. Many people are unable to understand Bitcoin but will learn to trust it when powerful figures like Eric Schmidt embrace it.

Yep, it is very hard to dismiss Bitcoiners as loonies when figures like this are coming to embrace it.

[Herodes]

Great to see this. Many people are unable to understand Bitcoin but will learn to trust it when powerful figures like Eric Schmidt embrace it.

Yep, it is very hard to dismiss Bitcoiners as loonies when figures like this are coming to embrace it.

Did he embrace it ? Didn't he mention regulations and so on, that the nation states will be interested in regulating bitcoin to maintain power and monetary control ?

[Gordonium]

Great to see this. Many people are unable to understand Bitcoin but will learn to trust it when powerful figures like Eric Schmidt embrace it.

Yep, it is very hard to dismiss Bitcoiners as loonies when figures like this are coming to embrace it.

Did he embrace it ? Didn't he mention regulations and so on, that the nation states will be interested in regulating bitcoin to maintain power and monetary control ?

Well I said that when figures are him are coming to embrace it. Not that He would already be embracing it. And atleast he seem to be very interested about the concept and from there it is very short road to becoming a true bitcoin-freak

[oakpacific]

Great to see this. Many people are unable to understand Bitcoin but will learn to trust it when powerful figures like Eric Schmidt embrace it.

Yep, it is very hard to dismiss Bitcoiners as loonies when figures like this are coming to embrace it.

It's also a praise coming from a high-level computer scientist.

[lettucebee]

Eric Schmidt quotes (from other sources):

“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place"

“We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.”

“You can trust us with your data”

[Severian]

Dear God-

Please keep Eric Schmidt away from Bitcoin. Thanks.

[BTC Books]

Eric Schmidt quotes (from other sources):

“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place"

“We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.”

“You can trust us with your data”

And:

"You're having a dispute with your neighbor... How would you feel if your neighbor went over and bought a commercial observation drone that they can launch from their back yard. It just flies over your house all day. How would you feel about it?"

...as opposed to Google Street View, of course.  He has rights to privacy.  We don't.

[cupronickel]

I just noticed there is a transcript. Relevant pieces quoted here for convenience. It's Jared Cohen doing the first part.

on one of the business elements this book raises is about virtual currencies. at one point you talk about the real challenge being a accommodation hiding the physical location of services. if you're a business person, ceo or government trying to regulate all this, boy, does that seem tricky. it's a $2 trillion industry. add virtual currency and it only becomes more complicated. it's going to be increasingly difficult for criminals and terrorist toss operate off the grid. and to go back to the point eric was making, yes, it can be used for money laing. when criminals are using technology the room for error goes up. any mistake they make or anybody in their network, either professionally or socially has the potential to unravel the entire network.

And now Schmidt:

eric, do you see a day, a point in time where big businesses, whether google or others, decide to actually accept big coins as a currency or other forms of virtual currencies like that. big coins is a technological tour deforce. i don't know ultimately whether it will be legal. it is too early to say. what i do think is that in the spread of all of this globalization, you're going to have much more efficient money flows. in every case they will be trackable. you can track corruption.

[NOTAL]

Good interview, thanks for sharing.

[Herodes]

Anyone else giving other search engines a go these days ?

[kiko]

Anyone else giving other search engines a go these days ?

I'm happily moved over to duckduckgo, it does pause for a second before referring sometimes, but I'd personally give them a lot more slack just for providing a viable alternative.
It's gmail I can't seem to get around to aborting; one of these days.

[QuantPlus]

Dear God-

Please keep Eric Schmidt away from Bitcoin. Thanks.

If you believe in privacy...
Eric Schmidt and his ilk are the Devil incarnate.

Google wants to display targeted ads on your BTC Wallet...
You know, just a friendly reminder to buy that hemorrhoid medicine.

[Este Nuno]

QuantPlus, are you R-----Plus?

You got into Bitcoins? You must be loaded by now.