MayDay: I have to become an expert in <5 hours.

[sanjay]

Greetings fellow bitcoiners,

Around 2 weeks ago I agreed to speak on a panel that a friend of mine said was looking for speakers.  I speak at a lot of conferences and I tend to be comfortable.  I expected the usual 30 to 40 person room with 3 fellow panelists and a moderator.  Well the panel is today and the room is a 350 person theater so I need to get myself well versed on the state of alternate currencies by the time I leave my office in 5 hours.

http://mindfocus-eorg.eventbrite.com/  This is the panel  Guess which one I am

I own 500 BTC purchased at $0.70 and I have logged on 30+ hours on this forum so I am comfortable with the state of BTC- the problem is I have no idea what else is out there and  I want to be prepared since the moderator will probably expect us to be conversant in all the bitcoin related stuff that is out there.  I only care about bitcoins which is why I have had no interest in anything else except things like namecoin, etc that are discussed here.

My team is collaborating with certain other partners and patent holders to launch a secure mobile bitcoin wallet by the end of this year.  That initiative has the working name of SpreadTrust but we are in wireframes with an internal iOS beta anticipated late in October.  Our partners have issued patents that will help our product stand out and provide a rigorous level of two-factor authentication using a mobile phone.  I do not want to get into specifics about that project right now because I want to save it for when we have something to show you.  I also want to have our engineers prepared to answer your geeky questions because my last involvement with programming was in 1983 on an apple ][ and the language was BASIC so suffice it to say that logging into a website is the extent of my technological capabilities.

I would appreciate links to PDF's, Powerpoints, Essays, and Videos that can get me fluent in other related systems....sort of a primer on alternative currencies.  I can skim pretty fast so a few links willhelp me, or even names of stuff that I can Google myself.

Thank you in advance.  Please come say hi to me if you will be an attendee at this event.  It is not bitcoin related but 350 people in Los Angeles could possibly be converted to our religion if I do a good job.

Thx

XOXOXO

Sanjay

[evoorhees]

Well, many peoples' initial reaction to hearing about the "new bitcoin currency" is that there have been others like it in the past (beenz, etc.). It will be important for you to nip that in the bud, and discuss why bitcoin is unprecedented (namely the decentralization and all its ramifications).

Always stress the decentralized nature of Bitcoin. THAT is the magic.

One thing you might read up on is M-PESA, a digital payment system set up in Kenya. It's very popular, with Kenyan's trading these credits as real money and operating it all on their mobile devices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-PESA

[Melbustus]

I always see e-gold, beenz, and flooz mentioned in the conversation. Sometimes Zynga's stuff (zPoints, zCoins, I think) and Facebook credits get mentioned now too.

[evoorhees]

Also, QQ Coin in China (kinda a Zynga/Facebook credits thing). Extremely popular, and apparently has run up against the government for being too successful as a currency.

Articles:
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117519670114653518-FR_svDHxRtxkvNmGwwpouq_hl2g_20080329.html
http://alphavilleherald.com/2007/04/qq_the_skyrocke.html

[jostmey]

Point out the similarities between bitcoin and traditional money.

• Bitcoins are like cash in that you own them. They essentially reside on your computer.
• Bitcoins are like cash in that you can hand them out online. With credit cards, the merchant takes the money from your account with your credit card number.
• Bitcoins cannot be forged. This is just like physical money. Paper money has intricate designs, and coins are made out or rare metals (or were in ancient times).
• ect...

The video from weusecoins is always good to show.

And if people want to know what you can buy with bitcoins just send them to Search Bitcoin :-)

[sanjay]

Thanks guys.  I have been cramming by looking at slides on slideshare and I feel pretty good now.  I may be a bit bitcoin heavy in my focus, but why  not since I do not believe anything else out there has as much scope.  I followed Flooz pretty closely in the day and I know of Gwolla, e-gold, Liberty Reserve, mileage points, Linden Bucks, Facebook Credits, SocialRewards, etc...  I will look into Beenz and QQ Coin.  Again- I am pretty comfortable with bitcoins...it's the other stuff I am worried about 

[Meatpile]

Be fair and balanced and throw a negative in there to get some discussion going: As great as bitcoin is, a 100 people could start up 100 more blockchains making them all worthless. But for some reason many people have chosen to follow this one for now. How long will it last?

[ne1]

cool, just bought a ticket.  Maybe I will come say hi.

[sanjay]

Awesome!

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Good luck with your talk. Make sure to come back here and give us a report on how it went.


Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending

[sanjay]

Thanks to the bitcoiners who attended and came to say hello during the event!  It was a great time with around 220 people in attendance.  The audience was very diverse so I believe I was able to appeal to some more mainstream individuals in explaining the magic of bitcoins.  The other panelists were very engaging and I learned a lot about Woergl's and other complementary and local currency systems.  All in all a good night.