Marc Andreessen’s 26 Twitter Posts (Jan 5)

[windpath]

Marc Andressen took to Twitter today to share his thoughts on the state of Bitcoin in 26 tweets. Here is what he had to say...

Some thoughts on the state of Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and distributed transaction and trust networks at start of 2015!

A year ago I articulated my views on Bitcoin in the New York Times, and I wouldn’t change a word today: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/why-bitcoin-matters/

Over the last several months of 2014, there were three Bitcoin counter-narratives that I will describe and analyze:

First, what I call the “dumb” critique: “Bitcoin BTC currency price dropped to below $300, proving Bitcoin is a stupid idea.”

Same class of critics slamming BTC for price falling in 2014 were slamming BTC for price rising in 2013. Only consistency is the slamming.

Further, the critique that BTC is bad because it was down in 2014 changes completely if one uses a 2-year window instead of 1-year window.

BTC was below $14 in Jan 2013. If 1-year performance has been disappointing, 2-year performance has been spectacular.

As a general rule, arguments that rely on cherry-picking specific date windows are not very good arguments.

The second critique I call “smarter”: “BTC is too volatile — it goes up and down too much and so cannot be used as a store of value.”

This is largely correct at the moment, and yet misses most of the point of Bitcoin as a distributed transaction and trust network.

Bitcoin was specifically designed to use speculation early on to overcome the normal chicken/egg boostrapping problem for new networks.

Attacking Bitcoin for having speculative levels of volatility is missing the point of how the system was designed for this point in time.

Now, yes, in the long run, BTC does need to stabilize — which I think will happen with a combo of scale + use of derivatives (hedging).

In the short run, Bitcoin is still highly useful as a transaction and trust network in many uses cases even with high volatility.

For example, payment applications of BItcoin don’t require users/merchants to hold BTC for any period of time. All benefits still gained.

Further, all other uses cases of Bitcoin and the blockchain are unhampered by volatility of BTC. The system continues working just fine.

Net net, the network boostrapping process is happening pretty much exactly as Satoshi designed and anticipated. It’s a thing of beauty.

The third critique I call the “innocent” one — “Are there enough sufficiently compelling uses cases for Bitcoin to succeed at scale?”

I previously identified many uses cases here http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/why-bitcoin-matters/ … ranging from ecommerce to remittance to micropayments to anti-spam.

Two particular areas of focus today are A use outside the US where currencies + banks are often awful, and B machine-to-machine payments.

At our venture firm, we continue to see an escalating stream of fascinating new Bitcoin uses cases and applications from entrepeneurs.

In addition, there are entirely new vistas of technological creativity opening up, such as sidechains http://www.blockstream.com/sidechains.pdf .

The price of BTC has very little to do with the level of creativity of thinking that’s going into new Bitcoin apps, or their usefulness.

By loose analogy, the price of domain names didn’t determine the usefulness of the Internet. This is a broad-based technology phenomenon.

What to watch in 2015: New apps, new use cases, international adoption, consumer education, technological innovation & spinoff ideas!

Final thought: The entire Bitcoin system is 6 years old. TCP/IP was 6 years old in 1981. Big things take time. Onward!

Source and links to the tweets: https://medium.com/@CoinCadence/marc-andreessens-26-twitter-posts-6d8189f74499

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[colinistheman]

Great words. Very well said and I think paints a fair picture of the scene.

The TL/DR version is:  HODL.

[pablox43]

Very good points. The future of Bitcoin will be interesting!

[cbeast]

"Net net, the network boostrapping process is happening pretty much exactly as Satoshi designed and anticipated. It’s a thing of beauty."   

[hilariousandco]

Great words. Very well said and I think paints a fair picture of the scene.

The TL/DR version is:  HODL.

Haha. Agreed. I think bitcoin will benefit from being highly speculative in its early stages (which I believe we are still in), but it's likely it will - or at least I hope it will - stabilise at some point in the future to be seen as a valid currency/store of value. I just hope when it does it's worth much more than it is now  .

[Gleb Gamow]

Leave it to me fix shit around here: https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/552196753949073408

Three links to date, and on nary a page a link to Mark's Twitter account or a single one of the 26 posts, hence righting that wrong. Plus, he has the 26 posts in the wrong order, hence I now have to fix that also. Stay tune, for that's what I'm working on next.

[Gleb Gamow]

As promised: https://twitter.com/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2

Compared to: https://twitter.com/pmarca

By only following one person (guess which one), I wonder how many followers I'll have this time tomorrow.

BTW, I'm never adding another tweet to it. In fact, I'd have no problem giving the account to Mark if he desires. Perhaps, somebody here can give him a heads-up that it exist. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to powder my brown nose.  

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2rhri0/marc_1a1_1a1zp1ep5qgefi2_when_people_start_doing/

[freedomno1]

Great words. Very well said and I think paints a fair picture of the scene.

The TL/DR version is:  HODL.

Well it is just a series of tweets it's not that long 
But TL/DR is that its working and Bitcoin still has a bright future, Bitcoin does matter.

[DiFranco]

Final thought: The entire Bitcoin system is 6 years old. TCP/IP was 6 years old in 1981. Big things take time. Onward!

These are all very good points and he speaks a lot of truth and I especially like his final thought. I also think the remittance market will be huge for bitcoin, but this year will hopefully see a surge in bitcoin's use in micropayments.

[Gleb Gamow]

Great words. Very well said and I think paints a fair picture of the scene.

The TL/DR version is:  HODL.

Well it is just a series of tweets it's not that long 
But TL/DR is that its working and Bitcoin still has a bright future, Bitcoin does matter.

Dude, that took me over an hour to build while taking a shit, and even though I stated I'm open to giving it to Marc for free, I'm goin' do my damndest to obtain one satoshi outta his rich ass - two, if he balks. 

Seriously, I enjoyed building it, taking as much pride as possible to parallel his Twitter account theme, taking certain liberties, of course. The key is, is that now all the tweets are in chronological order, as he intended, and if he had taken the time to do it correctly, the tweets would have been buried, as they just about are there now on his account. But now, they're stand-alone tweets in a readable fashion. Granted, they're elsewhere on periodicals, and the like, but I have them in their original format/venue, a task nobody prior to me took to task, so tisk!

Hope you guys enjoyed.

[wesk1212]

I think comparison of bitcoin with TCP/IP is a little too far.

Agreeed. Even intetnet.
It makes me sigh when i see ppl get hyped up its going to replace fiat some shit like that

[RixDollar]

Excellent post!

I always appreciate Andreessen's intelligence and confidence.

[Flashman]

I always appreciate Andreessen's intelligence

Well I used to... selecting twitter for a communique of that length has given me doubts 

[Gleb Gamow]

I always appreciate Andreessen's intelligence

Well I used to... selecting twitter for a communique of that length has given me doubts  

At the risk of patting myself on the back - again - I created this Twitter account for some other reason: https://twitter.com/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2.

: To show that Twitter could be used as one-off message board. To illustrate how such a platform could NOW be used, I simply took Marc Andreessen's 26 iconic posts and put them in order so that they're now readable from the first to last sans having any other noise surrounding them.

Picture another example incorporating a related theme (header/avatar/link color/etc.) that included in its bio is a tip jar/BTC address: Although January 19th is fast approaching, it's not outside the realm of possibility to have Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech tweeted in chronological order. Surely, the press would pick it up, thus giving Bitcoin/cryptocurrency much needed exposure.

Another quick example (not sure of an appropriate date to first introduce, not that that's important) is Paul Harvey's God Made a Farmer.

Taking the idea to the nth degree, some advantageous fuck could pen the Bible or War and Peace from the end to the beginning, all the while collecting tips via crypto(s) for his efforts if s/he prior put some marketing efforts into place, otherwise it'll all be for naught/scant.

On July 4th, possibly this: "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"

As I've illustrated, the uses are now endless in using Twitter as a unique message board, all due to ...

We’re not going to go backward. When people start doing things a better way, it kind of doesn’t matter what the old way was.

~Marc Andreessen

[freedomno1]

Great words. Very well said and I think paints a fair picture of the scene.

The TL/DR version is:  HODL.

Well it is just a series of tweets it's not that long  
But TL/DR is that its working and Bitcoin still has a bright future, Bitcoin does matter.

Dude, that took me over an hour to build while taking a shit, and even though I stated I'm open to giving it to Marc for free, I'm goin' do my damndest to obtain one satoshi outta his rich ass - two, if he balks.  

Seriously, I enjoyed building it, taking as much pride as possible to parallel his Twitter account theme, taking certain liberties, of course. The key is, is that now all the tweets are in chronological order, as he intended, and if he had taken the time to do it correctly, the tweets would have been buried, as they just about are there now on his account. But now, they're stand-alone tweets in a readable fashion. Granted, they're elsewhere on periodicals, and the like, but I have them in their original format/venue, a task nobody prior to me took to task, so tisk!

Hope you guys enjoyed.

Apologies I meant that when I read it in the concise form it was a quick read but give you props for finding something productive to do when taking a shit.
But if you had to compile it from a series of random tweets not in a set order .... then that is a pain so kudos.

I always appreciate Andreessen's intelligence

Well I used to... selecting twitter for a communique of that length has given me doubts  

Just a tad in agreement with that should have chosen a way to keep the full message intact , still a good message though.

[Gleb Gamow]

Great words. Very well said and I think paints a fair picture of the scene.

The TL/DR version is:  HODL.

Well it is just a series of tweets it's not that long  
But TL/DR is that its working and Bitcoin still has a bright future, Bitcoin does matter.

Dude, that took me over an hour to build while taking a shit, and even though I stated I'm open to giving it to Marc for free, I'm goin' do my damndest to obtain one satoshi outta his rich ass - two, if he balks.  

Seriously, I enjoyed building it, taking as much pride as possible to parallel his Twitter account theme, taking certain liberties, of course. The key is, is that now all the tweets are in chronological order, as he intended, and if he had taken the time to do it correctly, the tweets would have been buried, as they just about are there now on his account. But now, they're stand-alone tweets in a readable fashion. Granted, they're elsewhere on periodicals, and the like, but I have them in their original format/venue, a task nobody prior to me took to task, so tisk!

Hope you guys enjoyed.

Apologies I meant that when I read it in the concise form it was a quick read but give you props for finding something productive to do when taking a shit.
But if you had to compile it from a series of random tweets not in a set order .... then that is a pain so kudos.

I always appreciate Andreessen's intelligence

Well I used to... selecting twitter for a communique of that length has given me doubts  

Just a tad in agreement with that should have chosen a way to keep the full message intact , still a good message though.

I forgot to mention that with just a little effort, Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper could be tweeted in the same fashion as to how I aligned Marc's 26 tweets. BTW, did you find all the Easter eggs?: https://twitter.com/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2