Anti-Bitcoin people for the European Bitcoin Conference

[genjix]

We've got a great lineup for the conference (and some more which aren't on there yet), but are still missing speakers against bitcoin!

Many pro or neutral bitcoin people we ask are enthusiastic, but we haven't been able to get any anti- people on board. One of them even responded negatively to me, despite me being very polite. Perhaps they are too emotionally invested in hating on bitcoin or seeing us as scammers! (who knows)

Anyway, please suggest people we can contact. I'd hate for this to be a bitcoin cult meeting, and would rather have an open discussion from both sides. There's too much group-think and memetic inbreeding in the community.

We have all the groups covered, but feel free to suggest other people too.

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[ThomasV]

try Krugman :-)

[genjix]

lonelyminer sent me this PM:

Hi,

I don't have permissions to post outside of newbie forums so I'm replying with a PM. How about Nielsio, he made the famous "Don't buy Bitcoins" video on youtube, and he's from Netherlands if I remember right so travel wouldn't be very far.

[wareen]

Prague has a rather large university of economics - why not ask one of them:

   http://keke.vse.cz/information-in-english/staff/

Being local it would be really easy for them to attend the conference.
I'm sure that some of them do not approve of Bitcoin's economic principles and maybe one would be willing to share his expert opinion on the matter.

Bitcoin has to have at least some appeal to the economic research economy as a large-scale socio-economic experiment, touching many theoretical economic principles.

Presented in the right way I'm sure you would find someone willing to talk at the conference and I for one would be interested to hear some academic economists view on Bitcoin.

If you don't find anybody else then you could at least give it a try!

I can understand that it is probably hard to convince some popular opponent to indirectly give Bitcoin credibility by attending a conference, so you probably have more success with someone who has not yet expressed his opinion on Bitcoin openly but you would just expect to be sceptical.

[Gabi]

Don't worry, seeing the price drop, i think we have enough anti-bitcoin people even between the bitcoin supporters! They are disguised!

[error]

I don't generally see people who hate underwater basket weaving at underwater basket weaving conferences.

[someotherguy]

May I suggest Jörg Guido Hülsmann, from the University of Angers, in France.  Aurthur of  "The Last Knight of Liberalism: the ethics of money production".

[Are-you-a-wizard?]

I think the majority of "anti-bitcoin" people actually think along the same lines as myself which is that I think Bitcoin is a great idea, but has such an insane amount of work before it actually becomes viable and society simply will not accept it to the point that it is almost a waste of time even trying.

I say almost because I think the technology itself is great and could be used for other purposes than currency.

Then there is the fact that a large portion of the sites are run by amateurs or scammers that keep getting our passwords leaked and other bullshit. Your Bitcoin consultancy is decent, but even you had a fuckup with Britcoin at one point and your about as credible as it gets in the Bitcoin community.

Bitcoin shouldn't have gone public, it should have remained as a closed experiment similar to how the internet began between academic institutions, even Facebook started along those lines. Gradually more people that actually have an interest and understanding of the technology would have got involved until it was ready for a public release. Sadly it's too late now, it was released into the wild before it was ready and it's reputation is tarnished as a result.

[elggawf]

I don't generally see people who hate underwater basket weaving at underwater basket weaving conferences.

I'm in the same line of thinking as this - what's the point of bringing someone against Bitcoin to a Bitcoin conference? A conference isn't exactly the main problem area things like this have with "echo chamber syndrome", people know full well when they go to a conference they are going to see the latest and greatest in good/exciting news. You don't really go to a swimming pool conference for a balanced presentation on the safety and ecological impact of swimming pools.

It strikes me that the "hostility" you get from anti-bitcoin people you ask simply boils down to that it could go one of two ways for them: Best case scenario, they get a chance to prove themselves right to at least a few people in the audience - Whoopdeedoo, they can do that from the comfort of their own home without having to worry about flying fruit. Worst case (and most likely) scenario, they're thrown to the wolves and everyone has a good chuckle at their expense. It's pretty obvious to me why you haven't exactly had a torrent of interest in it.

[2112]

Bitcoin shouldn't have gone public, it should have remained as a closed experiment similar to how the internet began between academic institutions, even Facebook started along those lines. Gradually more people that actually have an interest and understanding of the technology would have got involved until it was ready for a public release. Sadly it's too late now, it was released into the wild before it was ready and it's reputation is tarnished as a result.

Very nice and succint summary. I would just add that the Internet, unlike Bitcoin, didn't have the hot mining-lottery-tickets decaying with half-life of 4 years. So the ignition mechanism was built-in from the inception.

[Revalin]

Bitcoin shouldn't have gone public, it should have remained as a closed experiment similar to how the internet began between academic institutions, even Facebook started along those lines. Gradually more people that actually have an interest and understanding of the technology would have got involved until it was ready for a public release. Sadly it's too late now, it was released into the wild before it was ready and it's reputation is tarnished as a result.

You're not the first to say it.  Let's dig back ten months:

No, don't "bring it on".

The project needs to grow gradually so the software can be strengthened along the way.

( ... )  Bitcoin is a small beta community in its infancy.  You would not stand to get more than pocket change, and the heat you would bring would likely destroy us at this stage.

But BitCoin is decentralized; no one can say you're not allowed to use it for something.  It's organic.  Once it was on the net, it was going to grow, for better or worse.

Fortunately that also makes it damned hard to kill.  Either it will eventually outgrow it's tarnished reputation, or someone will create an altcoin that does a better job addressing the flaws.