2013-04-26 BBC Radio 4 - A Point of View

[kiko]

Another(!) BBC Radio 4 segment on Bitcoin Tonight 8:50pm BST.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01s0ssj/A_Point_of_View_Bitcoins_Cyber_Freedom/

This time covering the sociological/political side of things.

From the website:

John Gray wonders what the rise of the cyber currency Bitcoin tells us about ourselves.

[kiko]

Bump, link is hot.

[aigeezer]

Good stuff, with occasional groaners such as: "its value has oscillated wildly as a result of hacking" or "the true flaw of this and any other virtual currency is that it can't deliver its users from the hazards and conflicts of the real human world" (whatever that means, compared to, say, Bernanke-bux).

He throws down an interesting gauntlet: "BTC embodies a kind of cyber-anarchism, the idea that the decentralized networks of the Internet will enable the idea of freedom from government which has eluded so many revolutionaries in the past, to be finally realized. It's a philosophy that shares the fatal illusion of anarchism in all its varieties, the notion that most human beings actually want freedom from government."

Refreshingly different from the clumsy "assault rifle stuffed with heroin" blather of late - a stiletto rather than a hatchet.

Well worth a listen. Thanks for the link, kiko.

[No_2]

Diverse and interesting points conveyed in an almost poetic manner. Good item, thanks for the link...

[cjp]

I agree with him that Bitcoin (or any combination of decentralized Internet technologies) can't solve the fundamental problems of human interaction. It won't create an anarchistic utopia, and I even expect that it won't destroy government(*). However, if it can steer us even a little bit away from totalitarianism towards a bit more anarchy, that will be totally worth it.

Is he underestimating the possibility of protecting Bitcoin from government? I think Bitcoin is technologically solid, but if government bans it, it might be socially driven into a niche of "geeks and criminals".

(*) It might stop capital tax and transaction tax, but there will still be lots of other ways of taxation. Governments that don't figure this out quick enough will be replaced with other governments.