Allison, can you explain what a bitcoin is?

[Stephen Gornick]

Remember ... this is from January, 1994.  Just 17 years ago.

Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric stumped:


The point I'ld like to make is ..., we have MacroMyopia.  We tend to overestimate changes in the short term (zomg, I want to pay for my next Big Mac with bitcoins) yet underestimate them in the long term (e.g., heh, who knew those bitcoins I got from my gaming PC back in 2010 would have ended up being more than enough to use as the down payment on my house).

[Update: Well since the BTC/USD was under $1 when this was written and has now reached $147, even that "long term" measure of success was underwhelming.  Forget the down payment, if this keeps up those coins will be enough to buy the house, and they don't even need to be "cashed out" to dollars first:
 - http://rt.com/news/house-for-sale-bitcoins-781 ]

[Stephen Gornick]

Here's the Bitcoin equivalent:

 - http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?play=1&video=3000158264

 - http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1biptm

[Stephen Gornick]

Necropost, but interesting followup:

The video above ended up today being the top post on /r/bitcoin:
 - http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1q8ztz

we have MacroMyopia.
[...]
even that "long term" measure of success was underwhelming.  Forget the down payment, if this keeps up those coins will be enough to buy the house, and they don't even need to be "cashed out" to dollars first:

Ha, that was prescient!

Bitcoin: Man Buys Flat With Forgotten Fortune
 - http://news.sky.com/story/1161340/bitcoin-man-buys-flat-with-forgotten-fortune

[beetcoin]

i can see the comparisons, yeah, but it's a little different in that the internet was a completely new industry/thing, with nothing else prior that is similar to it.. BTC is unique, but commodities and currencies are very similar to them.