Charlie Shrem on National Affairs - Canada TV 4:30 EST Thurs

[teflone]

Good job overall Charlie..   

[jothan]

Charlie mispronounced "Keynesianism" but other than that he did great 

I tried reading that slowly in my head and mispronounced it so I think I'll let it slide...

THANK YOU..RIGHT?

Damn, its a hard word to pronounce especially when your arguing with someone on national tv live.

Oh well, it was only Canada so no biggie 

CaVirtex is good, but also having BitInstant for CAD would be awesome.

[Bitcoin Oz]

You can have fool's gold but you cant have fool's bitcoin 

You can also have tungsten bars painted to look like gold ones and stored at fort knox.

 

[Fuzzy]

You can have fool's gold but you cant have fool's bitcoin 

heh, I've got some awesome ScamCoins here... 

[Transisto]

PR analysis
Stayed calm, +1 nice analogy with the blood / veins, +1
Didn't answer the question, -1
Don't interrupt the old man, -1

The part where you explained how to purchase bitcoin is perfect.

Ps : Galactic, solar-system local digital currency ? is this guy losing it.

[bc]

Kudos, Charlie. I think the best thing you did was to appear sane and friendly. Most of us would have been nervous in that situation.

when an interviewer asks you what is backing Bitcoin say "it is backed by hundreds of thousands of ppl who have made a conscious decision to not let their govt's devalue their money every time a bank demands a bailout".

when someone like David Birch says that fiat money is backed by the govt's power to tax don't just let that go w/o a response.  say "oh that's just great...you mean our gov't can not only devalue our money by printing it for their own purposes but also back that same money by taking even more of it away from us via taxes?".

Know your audience. Know yourself. Cypherdoc is very knowledgeable, and correct, and I have a tendency to approach political, bitcoin, and economics discussions in this way too, but this was a fairly light segment. There wasn't much time to get deep or super-passionate on any point without risking alienating the thousands of viewers who were probably hearing about bitcoin for the very first time.

Similarly, there's no point in raising the ire of David Birch when he's actually doing service for bitcoin in this interview. He gave it some credibility. We don't need to convince him. We don't need to convince anyone. We just need to present the facts. Bitcoin is building up a track record. It's not yet for everyone. It's rough around the edges. Right now it's only useful for those who can understand it. If you don't understand it, it's hard to reason about. Right now most people don't even know there's a fundamental problem with fiat money. Hell, they don't even know what fiat means. They've lived their whole lives with this thing, and they've never had to think hard about it's fundamental nature. Well that's all going to change - but we don't need to cram it down their throats. Soon enough governments will be busy cramming fiat down their throats. Let's be the saviors - not the wackos.

If you're having a conversation with one or two people, you have a chance to gauge their interest, intelligence, and disposition. You can tailor your arguments and anecdotes to suit their moods. If your on TV, it's a whole different ballgame. I'm not saying it can't be done. It's just not for everyone.

As more people hear, more will be interested. We'll grow the ranks, and find not only valuable ambassadors, but resonant phrases. We might be fond of using terms like "decentralized ledger" (I certainly am), or "cryptocurrency", but in time we'll learn that lay people can't actually hear those terms. Someone will hit on a new, dumbed-down, term that just makes sense to most people. They'll hit on a concept that's currently being presented too logically or in too much detail - and crystalize it for millions.

Bitcoin needs time to work its way into our culture. People need to hear the sad stories about dollars and drachmas, and the good stories about bitcoins and "lucky schmucks". There will be much gloom in the medium term. Bitcoin will be one of the bright points. At some point even the most stalwart critics will relent and purchase bitcoin - the evidence will be just too overwhelming. Herd mentality will kick in.

In the mean time, let's pick our fights.

Great job, Charlie.

[Jointops420]

When they ask what is Bitcoin backed by, the best response is to ask back what is gold backed by, and whatever clever answer they can come up with you can 100% guaranteed just as well apply it to Bitcoin, it's that simple.

They will say gold is shiny, is used for jewelry and in computers. Oh, and that it has couple millenias of history.

And you can say back Bitcoin is cool, is used to instantly transfer value across the globe for dirt cheap without middlemen, solves the two generals problem of consensus, ect ect

see how that works?

I did say that!

Cut me some slack lol, I was so nervous. They didn't tell me it was live until I sat in the chair

Expect more of it from now on(hopefully). Maybe join Toastmasters or something like it to help with public speaking. Good job though, really thrown on the spot with having only been told just before it was live.
I like what you are doing in general with pushing Bitcoin forwards.

[naypalm]

Great job Yankee! 

[LightRider]

Good interview. I hope everyone in Canadia gets to see it!

[miscreanity]

Add another 'nice job' to the list - I can sympathize with the initial jitters.

I've periodically had the opportunity to speak with some influential and progressive people, the kind that might be interested in funding the next CoinLab venture. Almost all of them have been completely, and somewhat surprisingly, unfamiliar with Bitcoin. Those that are aware of it regard the system warily, as something too new to be taken seriously yet.

Concrete examples and tailored analogies tend to be most effective; weusecoins.com does a great job of that from a consumer viewpoint. For business/entrepreneurial and high net worth types, the interest piques when I mention the potential to move arbitrary amounts of funds across borders and nearly instantaneously, especially when speaking about selling gold for bitcoins in one location and reversing the exchange upon arrival at the destination.

Whenever fears about Bitcoin disappearing come up, I compare the system to bamboo or ivy. Anyone who's wanted to get rid of either knows it can be an exceedingly difficult task, even borderline impossible if there's enough growth. If they press for a deeper answer, I note that the technical structure is built on proven technologies decades old (hitting the mathematics point you made), and that nodes are geographically dispersed such that the US would have more than a hard time shutting off Brazilian or Chinese participants. I try to avoid BitTorrent network comparisons at first because of the unwarranted negative connotations.

On the question about what Bitcoin is backed by, I've found that it gets the target's brain working when replying with this question: Where does the value of the Internet come from? For the more business-oriented, that can be modified to: What is the value of your contact network? When asked to put a number on something so nebulous but integral and ubiquitous, only a handful so far have been able to say more than 'highly valuable' without quantifying - a few times it's been stated as the most important part of the owner's company.

That's usually where I've seen a trigger hit, telling me the person realizes Bitcoin is more than it seems at first glance, and the impact has led to inquiries (some up to months afterward) asking me how to get started. Most of the time, they also want to know if and how they can use it with people they know. For that, I start with the analogy that it's like sending a message to an email address, only the message contains the number of bitcoins to be sent.

I sometimes suggest they also buy mining bonds to profitably support the network, but BitInstant is one of my perennial recommendations

In the mean time, let's pick our fights.

+1

You can have fool's gold but you cant have fool's bitcoin 

heh, I've got some awesome ScamCoins here... 

You misspelled SolidCoins

[istar]

You did great, not many would had done a better job.

I agree that a better answer to what backs Bitcoin is important, when you think about it, this is probably the nr 1 worry people have about Bitcoin. I dont think it should be sold in, as a replacement for FIAT money, but as a compliment that is needed so people can easily trade across the globe. People will have a easier time with accepting that as a good thing.

As for what Bitcoin is backed by I would say this.

Bitcoin is the first time ever that the internet have a independent currency that works like cash and cant be copied.
Its backed by many things but one of the most important is that its they only currency in the world with a limited supply, which makes it keeps its value over time.

This is possible because Bitcoin does not need to cater for a single country. FIAT currencies are forced to decrease in value constantly, since they must make sure that people in the country spend them and that the country have good export and tourism industry. With a to high value of FIAT the countries export industry will suffer.

This creates a race among countries to allways keep printing new money to push the value of their currency down.
But Bitcoin is independent as it does not represent a single country and can thus instead increase in value.
So over a ten year period your dollar might lose 30% of its value, But Bitcoin will gain 30% in value. So you would have gained 60% on putting some money in Bitcoin.

This gives bitcoin longterm value as this increase should go on for many years.

A independent world currency is needed since a single countrys currency should not be a world currency.
Even UN recognize this and Bitcoin could be that currency as no country owns it and it spreads all over the world via internet.

[Bitcoin Oz]

...

A independent world currency is needed since a single countrys currency should not be a world currency.
Even UN recognize this and Bitcoin could be that currency as no country owns it and it spreads all over the world via internet.

Im glad the UN cant control bitcoin either....

[hazek]

When they ask what is Bitcoin backed by, the best response is to ask back what is gold backed by, and whatever clever answer they can come up with you can 100% guaranteed just as well apply it to Bitcoin, it's that simple.

They will say gold is shiny, is used for jewelry and in computers. Oh, and that it has couple millenias of history.

And you can say back Bitcoin is cool, is used to instantly transfer value across the globe for dirt cheap without middlemen, solves the two generals problem of consensus, ect ect

see how that works?

I did say that!

Cut me some slack lol, I was so nervous. They didn't tell me it was live until I sat in the chair

Oh no no, dude I wasn't criticizing you..  I was speaking in general and replying to Blitz

[Nejc Kodric (BitStamp.net)]

Charlie you did a great job! Congrats.

Best regards,
Nejc Kodrič
www.bitstamp.net

[Boussac]

Good job. It's probably one the first time ever one can see a fair treatment of bitcoin in a mass media.

[apetersson]

First of all good Job! One of the best Bitcoin introductions i have seen!

Similarly, there's no point in raising the ire of David Birch when he's actually doing service for bitcoin in this interview. He gave it some credibility. We don't need to convince him. We don't need to convince anyone. We just need to present the facts.

In the mean time, let's pick our fights.

I think David Birch makes an excellent Bitocoin antagonist. He has a good knowledge of the payments industry, looks "old enough" to be the grumpy old guy, and he does not dismiss it completely. i have also never hear him bitch about the whole "black market" thingie.
What he will get soon is the whole point of Bitcoin is not that it is anonymous but pseudonymous and you have to work hard to use it anonymously. (purchase with cash/tor/laundry etc..)

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

First of all good Job! One of the best Bitcoin introductions i have seen!

Similarly, there's no point in raising the ire of David Birch when he's actually doing service for bitcoin in this interview. He gave it some credibility. We don't need to convince him. We don't need to convince anyone. We just need to present the facts.

In the mean time, let's pick our fights.

I think David Birch makes an excellent Bitocoin antagonist. He has a good knowledge of the payments industry, looks "old enough" to be the grumpy old guy, and he does not dismiss it completely. i have also never hear him bitch about the whole "black market" thingie.
What he will get soon is the whole point of Bitcoin is not that it is anonymous but pseudonymous and you have to work hard to use it anonymously. (purchase with cash/tor/laundry etc..)

David is a great guy, and I've spoken to him on many occasions. His beliefs boil down to the same as most of us. He believes that we are at the end of a fiat era and government currencies. He believes Bitcoin is a FANTASTIC example and probably the largest adoption of a universal cross-border collective currency.

The only difference is, he leaves the door open by saying Bitcoin may not be the final product rather its a work in progress. I know many of us believe this same thing, we dub it the 'Bitcoin 2.0'

-Charlie

[waspoza]

Good job man! 

[Dusty]

Very nice job!

[molecular]

First of all good Job! One of the best Bitcoin introductions i have seen!

Similarly, there's no point in raising the ire of David Birch when he's actually doing service for bitcoin in this interview. He gave it some credibility. We don't need to convince him. We don't need to convince anyone. We just need to present the facts.

In the mean time, let's pick our fights.

I think David Birch makes an excellent Bitocoin antagonist. He has a good knowledge of the payments industry, looks "old enough" to be the grumpy old guy, and he does not dismiss it completely. i have also never hear him bitch about the whole "black market" thingie.
What he will get soon is the whole point of Bitcoin is not that it is anonymous but pseudonymous and you have to work hard to use it anonymously. (purchase with cash/tor/laundry etc..)

David is a great guy, and I've spoken to him on many occasions. His beliefs boil down to the same as most of us. He believes that we are at the end of a fiat era and government currencies. He believes Bitcoin is a FANTASTIC example and probably the largest adoption of a universal cross-border collective currency.

The only difference is, he leaves the door open by saying Bitcoin may not be the final product rather its a work in progress. I know many of us believe this same thing, we dub it the 'Bitcoin 2.0'

-Charlie

In Prague he said something along the lines: "You guys need to be on the phone, if you're not on the phone, you go down.". I just remembered this. Hmm, did we achieve this goal sufficiently already with bitcoinspinner, blockchain.info wallet, electrum4a,... ?