Bitcoin - The Libertarian Introduction (a primer on Bitcoin)

[matonis]

Great piece, Erik. Thanks for posting it on your blog. I forwarded it to some of my Austrian econ friends too.

BTW, what is the source (and date) of your bitcoin instances chart? http://files.campus.edublogs.org/blogs.umb.edu/dist/2/123/files/2012/01/countries-v5q30e.png  because on a number of hosts basis RowIT shows it as US-1, Germany-2, Russia-3 http://bitcoinstatus.rowit.co.uk/  (scroll to bottom of page)

[1713533696]

1713533696

[1713533696]

1713533696

[mcorlett]

I posted my thoughts on reddit.

[ne1]

btw, evoorhees, I can't find it now, but I was reading some of your back in forth with the guy who is doing a ted talk and it was great.  He was asking some great questions and you were giving some great answers.  Just saying, good stuff. 

-NE1

[Technomage]

Great article. You probably don't mind if I translate parts of this article and use them on a Finnish Bitcoin site (soon to be launched)?

[wachtwoord]

The Olympic torch has been out numerous times.

Of those I still think cancer is strongest (or maybe viruses or even cockroaches).

Maybe something more people than just me would associate with something positive: "like the universe that will keep on expanding exponentially no matter how long you wait"*

* According to the current theories

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Hi all,

Earlier this week I was a guest on a radio show (Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock). During the interview, the host asked/demanded that I draft up a comprehensive overview of Bitcoin for those who were totally oblivious, and this would be released in the Freedom's Phoenix magazine today (April 13) for their April issue.

So of course I did, and the piece is now finished and published today. This is a primer on Bitcoin for liberty-minded folk, covering the topic from the lens of a non-techie libertarian. Even covering topics briefly, the document ended up at 14 pages single-spaced.

I've now republished this on my blog, so feel free to read and comment and copy and distribute at your leisure.

http://evoorhees.blogspot.com/2012/04/bitcoin-libertarian-introduction.html

I'll also be back on the radio show next week, to further discuss with the host and his audience why Bitcoin is the best thing to happen to human liberty since the internet.

Damn you, evoorhees! More great shit penned by you to read. I'm looking forward to reading this later today, for now I need to load a semi with barn wood destined to Valpo.

Later, bud.

~Bruno~

[FreeMoney]

"Bitcoin cannot be turned off - it is like a benevolent cancer which, so long as a few hosts survive somewhere in the world, can perpetuate itself and regrow at the speed of information."

 

Even with the qualifier "benevolent" and even if it is technically accurate... in my opinion... that is a terrible metaphor to use.

Do you know how many people in our modern world have lost loved ones to cancer?

No amount of qualifiers are going to remove the negative psychological weight from a word like that.  

And surely you must know how the enemies of something like bitcoin would just love to have good key words to jump on and
use against it.  

( below said in something like a Rush Limbaugh voice )
"Harumpf! And here we have another article where we have another bitcoin "expert", comparing this new "technology", to cancer! People, I ask you!"

Yeah that one made me cringe a little. Feel free to take and modify some of these:
"like a struggling life form that will survive as long as there is air to breathe"
"like a forest that will always regenerate as long as there's a little sunlight"
"like a bonfire that will keep burning as long as there is kindling somewhere in the world"
"like hot custard that always grows a thick skin, no matter how it gets stirred."
"like an Olympic torch that keeps on burning, as long as there is someone to pass it on to."
 

"Benevolent weed" might be better than cancer.

[waspoza]

Great article, thanks!

[herzmeister]

seeds and green life in general spreading would be considered positive... especially through the cosmos... panspermia  

[cypherdoc]

Erik,

thanks for taking the time to do this.  it really was excellent. 

i do hope you reactivate your blog for Bitcoin related writings.  i think you'd develop a large following and it would be good to hear regularly from someone who can articulate the community's feelings on these matters.

[Red Emerald]

Great read, even for those who just want Bitcoin to be the currency of the Internet and not the world.

[Realpra]

Nah I love the metaphor and I have lost two family members to cancer. People should grow up.

Very nice piece of work evoorhees, the best description of Bitcoin for non-technical yet intelligent people I have read thus far.

Didn't bother me either BUT:

The word you WANT to use is "FIRESTORM" - it sounds awesome and you can make the exact same analogy.

Also "your it" should be "your wallet" or "it".

Great read.

[Gabi]

The article is just... perfect. Awesome.

Great job!

[bc]

Great Post! I love reading bitcoin articles from people who genuinely 'get it'

+1
It always makes me feel better to know some other people realize what is happening, and maybe I'm not so crazy.

+1

[FreeMoney]

Great read, even for those who just want Bitcoin to be the currency of the Internet and not the world.

The Internet is like cancer, there's not going to be a difference eventually.

[evoorhees]

Thanks for the link to Seals. SealsWithClubs.com is wrong but does forward to SealsWithClubs.eu so it's not that wrong.

Fixed, thanks!

[evoorhees]

Sincere thanks to everyone who said such kind words about the piece, really made my day when I checked all the messages this morning! It really makes all the effort worthwhile to have such compliments from such honorable people here in this wonderful community.

For those asking about translations and any kind of distribution or re-posting, feel free to do whatever you'd like, however you'd like.

Onward!

 

[coinuser4000]

Excellent plain-english explanation of Bitcoin from the Libertarian perspective. An essay like this was long overdue imo.

[hazek]

I think it's only fitting to post this piece on the 5th most visited libertarian website, right?   

http://www.dailypaul.com/226936/if-the-government-hates-it-dont-you-think-you-should-at-least-consider-learning-about-it

[PrintCoins]

Put this wallet.dat file on a USB drive in your safe or mail it to your parents. Burn it to a CD and put it in a bank safety deposit box. Put it on a different computer. You can even email the file to yourself. Better yet, do two or three of the above. You only need to back up the wallet file once at the beginning (you don't need to do it every day or week, etc), and you should do it before you've received any money. Back it up, keep it safe, and the likelihood of you losing your Bitcoins will be lower than you dying in a car crash. If you don't back it up, the likelihood of you losing your coins is almost guaranteed.

Um... isn't this wrong (unless you are using a deterministic wallet). Every time you create a new address for receiving, or for change when sending, the wallet.dat gets a new keypair added. If you don't backup after this, then that money is lost (in the event of failure).

Wallet.dat needs to be backed up with every new transaction, or at least when enough transactions have occurred that it the loss would matter to you.

To me, I find this is the biggest problem with the software. When you do a lot of transactions, you need to make backups frequently. Practically this means that your backup device is likely sitting right next to your computer (not in a cd mailed to ma and pa). If my house burns down, my bitcoins are lost.

Now, I might be ignorent of a recent change to the software, but that was my original understanding of how it worked. Maybe it is smarter now and allocates 10K addresses for itself so that you don't need to be backing up all the time.