2013-05-17 GigaOM - The Future of Bitcoin: 3 Predictions From Experts

[kiko]

http://gigaom.com/2013/05/17/the-future-of-bitcoin-3-predictions-from-experts/

Bitcoin is being treated as a serious currency by investors, entrepreneurs and the government. GigaOM convened experts to hear what they say about what will happen next — here’s three highlights.

[1715193493]

1715193493

[John (John K.)]

Satoshi Nakaomot
Ouch. 
Other than that, the article is awesome!

[aigeezer]

Satoshi Nakaomot
Ouch. 
Other than that, the article is awesome!

Meh. It's a positive article, which is always welcome in a world of "assault rifles stuffed with heroin" stories about BTC.

However, I found the article irritating for at least two reasons. The first is that it reinforces the "not ready for grandma" meme. Ageism is rampant in the BTC community, and, in my opinion, it leads one into making errors of judgment. I've mentioned here from time to time that I have teenage grandchildren, and I've used and mined BTC since 2011 - it's no big deal. No age demographic is homogeneous in its skills, attitudes or behaviors.

A second irritant for me is the reinforcement of the "BTC must be regulated" meme. I hold the view that "peer to peer" and "regulated" are incompatible notions. By all means regulate the fiat systems - they are regulators' property to manipulate, but once inside the world of BTC all transactions must be peer to peer - otherwise it's just another regulators' tool, and regulation is "fiat" (let it be so) by definition.

[bitcoinanon]

Satoshi Nakaomot
Ouch. 
Other than that, the article is awesome!

A second irritant for me is the reinforcement of the "BTC must be regulated" meme. I hold the view that "peer to peer" and "regulated" are incompatible notions. By all means regulate the fiat systems - they are regulators' property to manipulate, but once inside the world of BTC all transactions must be peer to peer - otherwise it's just another regulators' tool, and regulation is "fiat" (let it be so) by definition.

It is irritating how people refuse to keep an open mind about BTC. A lot of experts and non-experts want to reason and talk about BTC like it will eventually be fiat, meaning more regulated and more centralized. Though I do not consider myself an expert on BTC everything that I have read about it does not suggest that regulation or more centralization is necessary. I do consider myself an expert on the media and its agenda. I understand how topics, ideas and words are passed around in the mainstream media to influence a certain mentality. Its evident and do not think it would be any different for BTC. Therefore, even after hearing the top experts one should still keep an open mind about what is possible in the BTC community. I would even argue that BTC is more of a community than a currency, because without the community it has no purpose. We do not have to subject ourselves to the recycled reasoning of fiat currencies and centralized banking systems. I think more Quality ideas will be discovered with more debate.

[BTC Books]

Satoshi Nakaomot
Ouch. 
Other than that, the article is awesome!

Just a keyboard transposition.  I doubt too many journalists have Satoshi's name in their spell checker.

Otherwise, kind of a hum-drum article.

[odolvlobo]

This article is a summary of a GigaOM meetup and the opinions in the article accurately match what the panelists said.

As for regulation, I must reluctantly agree with those that say that some sort of regulation in inevitable, and it is naive to think otherwise. Of course, regulation of bitcoin transactions will be severely limited because there is no third party,  but the financial infrastructure that will be built up around bitcoin will be regulated just as much as the current financial infrastructure.