WEBVTT - TechStuff Cashes in Bitcoin 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:14.480 Stuff Works dot com either everyone and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:17.840 I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren and we thought we 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.919 would look at a subject that we've covered before on 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:23.200 the show Tech Stuff, but it was it was quite 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:25.599 a while ago. Yeah, it was back on July four, 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:28.880 so I was I was not here yet. Mr Christophilett 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.400 and Jonathan did an episode on bitcoin. Yeah, and in fact, 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.040 bitcoin is another thing that you've probably heard about if 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:38.720 you listen to our sisters show, a little known show 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:41.479 called Stuff you should know. Yeah, I mean, you know, 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:43.600 they're they're really up and coming folks. I think I 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:45.239 think that you should give him a chance. But those 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.559 kids are going please now. Josh and chucked an episode 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:53.600 on how bitcoin works on June. We also spoke again 0:00:53.640 --> 0:01:00.240 about it briefly in our wrap up and Prediction episode. So, 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:02.560 so why are we talking about it now? Well, as 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:04.640 it turns out, this is just one of the stories 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:08.800 that is constantly in the news, and particularly as of 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:12.000 the time we're recording this podcast and the second part 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:13.680 because this is going to be a two parter, there's 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:15.399 just too much to talk about for it. Want to 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:18.120 be one episode. We're recording this at the beginning of 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:21.040 March two thousand and fourteen, and at this time there 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.600 are lots and lots of stories about disasters that are 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:29.600 befalling various institutions that are that rely on bitcoin. It 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.399 has been a really wild ride for the past five 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:34.759 months or so. Yeah, so we want to go and 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:37.560 explain what bitcoin is, how it works, you know, give 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:39.720 a refresher on all of that, and and talk a 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:44.080 little bit about its origin because some interesting possible news 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:47.880 has unfolded even as of the day we're recording this podcast, 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:52.160 that being March six. Yeah, so we want to talk 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.240 about some of the stories behind how it got started 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.200 and the people behind it. Uh to really set the 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.120 ground for the next episode, which will be more about 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.520 the controversies that are going on. So to start off, 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.560 what the heck is a bitcoin? Well, it's clearly a 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:14.280 digital cryptocurrency. Obviously, I meant beyond that, Yeah, it's a 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:17.920 digital cryptocurrency, which, if you break that down, digital means 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.639 of course it belongs in the digital realm. Ultimately, we're 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:23.680 talking about zeros and ones here lives on the Internet. Yes, 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:28.520 crypto would mean some form of secrecy or encoding you 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.120 would to put something in a cryptogram means that you 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.520 have hidden it somehow in some form of you've done 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:38.680 transformation on information, and unless you have a key to 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.480 unlock that transformation, you can't get at what that original 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.240 info actually is. Right, it's a security measure, yea. And 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.239 so currency obviously that is something that represents wealth or 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.680 or value money of some kind. Yes, we we've actually 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:56.560 talked a lot about money recently. Yeah, it turns out 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:00.800 tax season really just weighs heavily on our minds. But yeah, 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:05.000 so so this bitcoin currency now, and we should go 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.240 ahead and say it is not the only digital currency 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:11.240 out there. There are actually quite a few other ones 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:13.959 out there, and maybe someday we'll do episodes on those. 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:17.480 The reason we're concentrating on bitcoin is again one it's 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:20.320 the most well known, at least among the general public, 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:23.480 and too, it's been the news quite a bit recently. 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:28.080 So it depends on a really complex algorithm in other words, 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:33.880 a very complex, uh mathematical system that tracks transaction. So 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:38.320 technically every bitcoin contains within it a history of all 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:42.960 transactions on the bitcoin platform. And this is this is 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.840 for a couple of different reasons. One is it helps 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.440 define how difficult it is to find a bitcoin. Two, 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.480 it tracks the transactions so that way no one can 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:56.880 spend the same bitcoin more than once. Uh. And it's 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:59.800 it's again one of those things that is kind of 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:02.640 in genius, and that by building it directly into the 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.840 structure of the currency itself, not only does it track it, 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:08.640 but it becomes part of it. So it's almost like 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:12.880 if a dollar bill contained inside the dollar bill every 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:15.760 record of every time that dollar had been used on something, 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:18.200 so that way you would know, like when you got 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.280 that dollar, you knew what it had been. You wouldn't 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.800 necessarily know who used it, but you would know what 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.840 it was used for. Uh. Personally, I think that would 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:30.160 be absolutely terrifying, but uh, you know that that we'll 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:33.039 get into some of that in our second episode. Anyway, 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:39.200 it's an interesting concept, uh. And it's also a little 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:44.400 scary to people because since it's digital, and since digital 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.480 means that you can manipulate stuff with computers, a lot 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.120 of people questioned whether or not it is a viable 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:53.440 currency because they're worried that you might be able to 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.160 do stuff like a lot of happens. What happens if 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.880 I just copy this dollar over and over and over 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:00.880 and over and over again, so now I have many 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.560 dollars instead of the one dollar that I started with. 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:06.240 Excepting stuff dollar, of course, we'd be talking about bitcoins, 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.200 and uh, the cryptocurrency part of it is also meant 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:13.040 to protect against that, to make sure that you cannot 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:17.359 take a single bitcoin, copy it a billion times and 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:22.279 suddenly become a bitcoin billionaire, and then simultaneously crash the 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:26.240 value of bitcoins worldwide. This entire system was proposed by 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.719 someone calling themselves to Toshi Nakamoto back in two thousand eight. 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.159 And I say someone calling themselves that, because actually this 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:35.839 this is a really big controversy right at this very moment, 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:37.680 like as of the morning of the day that we 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.400 are recording this podcast, News Broke and News is kind 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.280 of in big quotation marks. There on Newsweek, a journalist 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:49.080 is saying that this Satoshi Nakamoto person, which was once 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.919 believed very strongly among the community of bitcoin users to 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:55.839 be a pseudonym possibly for an entire group of people, 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.880 is actually a a dude. Yeah, a sixty four year 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:04.760 old dude, A sixty four year old Japanese American dude. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:07.720 So this, and not only that a sixty four year 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.760 old Japanese American dude who's named Satoshi Nakamoto. It's actually 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:15.880 his name, not a pseudonym. Uh. And as you were saying, 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:20.599 news in big quotation marks, because when you read this story, 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:26.480 you realize that there's nothing that directly connects Nakamoto of 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:31.160 the story with Nakamoto of the person who proposed bitcoin. Now, 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:33.960 there is someone who used that that screen name of 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:39.840 Satoshi Nakamoto to create a proposal for bitcoin and published 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.280 it right right right, That's that thing in two that 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:45.080 I was talking about. So there's this other person who 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:47.719 actually has that name and also seems to have a 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:52.200 background that would be compatible with someone who would create 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:57.000 this kind of cryptocurrency, at least on a surface level certainly. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:01.600 And also several members of actual Kamoto's family have said 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.880 that it would make sense, and that furthermore, he will 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:08.200 never confirm this, right, and then they themselves have no 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:11.200 knowledge of it, so therefore they can't confirm it, right. 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.160 And and this entire part of the part of the 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:19.760 big quotes involved here also that this this Newsweek investigation, Um, 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:24.880 it's just it's it's very it reads very uh, sensationalistically. Yeah, 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:31.520 there's a lot of circumstantial evidence and no hard corroborating evidence. Uh, 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:36.240 it's it's it's compelling circumstantial evidence, certainly, it's and it's 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:40.920 a very compelling story. William William Gibson of famous science 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.640 fiction writer Fame UM called the story on Twitter pinsion esque, 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:48.800 which referring to Thomas Pension of course another I guess 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.640 you could call him a science fiction writer anyway. But 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:53.800 but but yeah, so so this was this investigation was 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:57.360 done by one Lee or Leah McGrath Goodman, and it 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:02.160 was published online on March six for the print version 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:04.520 of Newsweek that I believe is come not coming out 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:09.160 until March. Yes, we got a sneak peek, and it's 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.760 set the world a Twitter, particularly on Twitter and also Reddit. 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.080 People are kind of upset about this story. Well yeah, 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.360 and we can talk about the upset part two. I mean, 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.000 some people are of course reacting in that good old 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:26.640 Internet way where because the reporter happens to be a yeah, 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:32.120 she committed that terrible sin on the Internet of being female. Um. Yeah, 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:36.760 first of all, I know this is a tangent, but gentlemen, uh, 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:39.640 here's just just something from me to all of you 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:46.560 out there, never ever ever attack anyone based upon their gender. 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.440 It just bespeaks more of you than anything else that 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.760 goes for the ladies as well. All y'all just just 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.280 don't do that. Just the heck up. Okay. So anyway, 0:08:56.320 --> 0:09:00.240 beyond that, uh, the interesting things here, like they she 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:05.400 uncovered that he had history working for some very important projects, 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:09.520 many of which had top level secrecy involved. Oh yeah, yeah. 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:12.439 He's a mathematician and computer scientist who has worked for 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.040 the U. S. Military, the f a A, and several 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.360 major corporations that we know of. I mean, he's a 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:22.240 very secretive dude, Yes, he he seems to the word 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.959 paranoid has been used to describe him. And I think 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:29.880 it's completely accurate. Uh, it's not, you know, unjustifiable necessarily, 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.680 because if you're someone who's worked on these high level projects, 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:37.280 then clearly you have a heightened level of knowledge about 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.000 the stuff what goes on out there. I mean, if 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:42.400 it's top secret, then very few people know about it 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.760 besides you. Sure, sure, And and I assume that much 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:49.040 of that stuff is kind of scary, I I I imagine. So, 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.400 I mean you're talking about stuff that is probably still 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:57.120 to this day classified absolutely um, but Sonkamoto the figurehead 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:00.439 at any rate, um was a really act a voice 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.760 in the cryptography and in bitcoin communities in general until 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:09.680 late So yeah, he ended up kind of It's funny 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.040 he passed the torch to a person who didn't realize 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:16.200 he was grabbing a torch. It was a guy, a 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.520 guy named Avan Anderson, who is one of the one 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.079 of the kind of the spokesman for bitcoin these days. 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:28.280 He became the spokesperson when Nakamoto put his email on 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:33.200 Bitcoin's main web page. Yeah, contact info, right, Nakamoto said, 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:35.160 do you mind, Look, you know you're helping me out 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.839 with fixing the code for bitcoin to make it better. 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:41.959 Do you mind if I put your email address up 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:45.520 on the website? And Anderson said, sure, go ahead, and 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:49.319 so the Nakamoto puts up Anderson's email and then removes 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.960 his Makamoto's email, So now Anderson is the only email 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.079 up there. And that's when Anderson said, Yeah, that's when 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:57.199 I found out that I'm kind of in charge. I 0:10:57.240 --> 0:10:59.679 guess I own this now. Yeah, kind of, yeah, it's 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.600 it was definitely one of those I mean, the story 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.600 in Newsweek when you read it, and you start reading 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:10.520 about the personality of the person Nakamoto, who may or 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:14.520 may not indeed be this figure that Kakamoto. You start 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:16.960 picking up on things. We're thinking, well, I can at 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.280 least see from a personality perspective, this is very consistent. 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:24.040 Certainly right. This is someone who who essues and he 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:28.000 does not want any attention directed toward himself. He prefers 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:32.040 to remain anonymous, so much so that some attention is given. 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:33.959 Actually quite a bit of attention in the article is 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.400 given to the fact the Nakamoto is not living in 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:43.200 a particularly fancy house. It's not a lush environment, certainly not. 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.480 And and his family has even reported that he's had 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:48.960 a little bit of money trouble with. He's had a 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.959 few medical issues over the past few years, and stroke 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.920 and some other medical problems. Yeah, and and his family says, well, 0:11:56.000 --> 0:12:00.280 if if Nakamoto are like this guy that we know, 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:04.000 is in fact this bitcoin billionaire or millionaire at the 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:08.800 very least because because all of the early adopters and 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:13.440 early workers in bitcoin have made out really well conveniently, well, yeah, 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.560 because you know, in the early days of mining bitcoins, 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:19.719 it was easier to mind them that's something part of 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:23.160 the system. Yeah, quick refresher. Course, bitcoins are released in blocks, 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.040 and at least originally they were released in fairly large 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:28.960 blocks of bitcoins. And the way you would get a 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.720 block of bitcoins is you would quote unquote mind them 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.880 by using your computer to solve mathematical problems. Now, those 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.880 problems were based upon the information contained within the bitcoin itself, 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:44.160 and the problems got harder the more computer power was 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.240 dedicated to try and find bitcoins. So, in other words, 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:50.920 the more people are looking, the harder it is to find. 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:54.560 Which kind of mimics the way a physical commodity works. 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:57.920 If you think about gold and you are an old 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.040 timey prospector out in San France, Cisco just before the 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.240 gold rush, it's not it's not impossible to think that 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:06.640 you with your pick ax and your and your pan 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:10.319 and your donkey, are able to find a significant amount 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.600 of gold. But then as other people learned that gold 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:17.600 is in them there hills, they swarm them their hills 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:19.680 and it becomes a lot harder to find gold because 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:22.120 now you've got people who have much larger equipment and 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:25.360 much more sophisticated means of getting at the gold. Sure, sure, 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.360 and it becomes a little bit more sparse as it 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:31.959 is distributed across this larger population. Yes, and in fact, 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:35.960 you get smaller and smaller deposits because you've mined away 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.120 that first Yeah. So the same thing with bitcoins, except 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:43.920 instead of using physical mining equipment, you're using computer power. Right, 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:49.200 and Sonkamoto the figurehead, with his digital pick axes and donkeys, has, 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.280 according to reports, held as many as a million bitcoins, 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:56.520 which is a few hundred million dollars in US exchange. 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:59.160 And I'm kind of that that value in US dollars 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:03.959 has has um has there's a variability and we'll talk 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.559 more about that in the second podcast to absolutely but 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:11.280 so so so that's one strange thing. Um, there are 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:16.840 several uh suggested reasons why Nakamoto the person might be 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:20.760 living small that that could be completely plausible and not 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.880 contradictory of the fact that he is, in fact Knockamoto 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.480 the figurehead, but it could also just be part of 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.320 a desire on on Nakamoto's part to draw attention away 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.080 from himself and towards the currency. Well. Yeah, and and 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.560 since since he's worried, here's the thing about those those 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:41.880 transactions being recorded in every bitcoin. If Nakamoto were to 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:46.240 start selling off his bitcoins in order to get some 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:50.120 other currency for it, uh, several things would happen. One, 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.520 he would have to pay taxes on it to people 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:56.720 would know, because those transactions get distributed across the entire 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:00.400 bitcoin network. So you get this point where everyone's hey, 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.880 look that bank of coins that we know belong to 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:08.720 Nakamoto are now being are now entering circulation. Therefore he's 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:13.080 getting rid of them, he's selling. So it may and then, if, 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:17.440 of course Knockamoto the man were to have a measurable difference, 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:19.760 you know, his standard of living were to change dramatically, 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:22.880 then you would say, okay, there's a smoking gun. Right. 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:26.240 You saw the digital effect of these coins being sold off, 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:28.520 and the physical effect of this this guy who was 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.960 living a very private life suddenly having a turnaround in 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:33.840 his lifestyle, you would say, all right, there's the connection. 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.920 Then this guy is definitely the Nakamoto of the story. Sure, 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:41.320 and Anderson has said that that Knakamoto the figurehead once 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.320 emailed him um and I quote, I wish he wouldn't 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.280 keep talking about me as a mysterious shadowy figure. The 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:50.880 press just turns that into a pirate currency angle. Maybe 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:53.680 instead make it about the open source project and give 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:56.960 more credit to your dev contributors. It helps motivate them. Yeah, 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.600 and uh, it's interesting too. I mean, first of all, 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.840 Anderson says he never talked to Knockamoto on the phone 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.000 or anything like that. It was always through an email, 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.880 and it was through untraceable email. Uh. And also I 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:12.560 believe there was a future um exchange between the two 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:17.400 of them where uh Anderson or Anderson said, I'm going 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.680 to go talk to the CIA. They've expressed interest in bitcoin, 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:23.000 and I want to explain to them how this could 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.400 be the future of currency and could be an amazing 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.040 thing that could change the world. And that's the last 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:32.119 he ever heard from Nakamoto, which suggest that perhaps Nakamoto 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.600 did not want the attention of any kind of governmental agency, 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.680 having worked for them in the past. That's a possibility. 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:40.840 I'm assuming that the person in the figureheads are in 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.560 fact the same entity, because again we don't have any 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:48.720 direct connection. There's a lot of very compelling, circumstantial evidence, 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:53.000 so we don't know ultimately whether Nakamoto the man is 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:57.600 Nakamoto the person who came up with bitcoin. Uh, the 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:01.400 the various stories kind of lend at least enough credence 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:04.600 where it's it's it's a possibility that you can't just 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:07.960 easily dismiss uh, certainly. Yeah. There is also part of 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:09.680 the controversy about all of this, and part of why 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.280 people are upset about the story breaking, is that it's 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:16.720 been suggested that Nakamoto, the person's livelihood and safety are 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.760 in danger if people know who he is and know 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:22.960 that he kind of holds the mental keys to bitcoin. Yeah, 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.400 there's definitely that as well, and some people have directly 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.920 criticized Newsweek and this reporter in particular for doing that. 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:32.719 As I said before, not all of the criticisms are 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:38.440 directed in a way that's actually uh yeah, yeah there, right, 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:42.239 there may be valid criticisms. I'm not dismissing that, but 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:44.399 there's a right and a wrong way of doing that, folks. 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:48.919 So anyway, Yeah, it could very well be that that 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:53.800 this man's privacy has been uh violated in a way 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:58.200 that could see harm visited upon him in the future. 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:00.480 That that's a that's concerned. A lot of people have 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.200 on the reporters side, they've said that all the information 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:06.439 they had was stuff that was already publicly available. It 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:09.840 wasn't like they went and dug all this information up 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:14.480 in places that that anyone could could not have done, 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:17.600 Like any person could have had the same experience, any 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:21.480 intrepid person who chose to contact this dude through his 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:26.840 model trained communities and visit his house unannounced, um, making 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:29.520 him feel threatened enough that he called the police before 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:33.760 he before he uh engaged in any sort of comfort. Yeah, 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:36.280 that's yeah, just and anyone like that. And the conversation, 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:38.520 by the way, did not once it got to bitcoin. 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.159 He's like, yep, this this talk is over and he left. 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:45.720 So it whether he has anything to do with bitcoin again, definitively, 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:47.800 we can't say. But we've got a lot more to 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.920 say about bitcoin before we do that. However, let's take 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:56.040 a quick break to thank our sponsor. Okay, So Nakamoto, 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:01.040 the man and the figurehead both have really try to 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:04.680 stay away from the public eye. Uh and in general, 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:10.320 the it's there's this interesting conflict where you've got a 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:14.520 community that really wants this currency to to exist, they 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.560 want it to work and do, and they want this 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:19.400 to be the future of currency. On the other hand, 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.719 you have a lot of people who are responsible in 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:26.280 some way for the currency's existence. Who don't really want 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.720 to talk about anything at all. And this conflict also 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:32.920 grows into the fact of what the currency is intended 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:36.159 to do. You see, it's it's not a centralized or 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:40.199 regulated currency. The way most currencies work. There's something that 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.400 are issued by a governmental body, right, and the weight 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:45.840 of that government therefore is behind the currency. They're they're 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.119 usually ensured in fact, by that government body. Yeah, so 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:52.720 you've got some sort of government that is both responsible 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:57.520 for the currency to to stay in value, uh, and 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.840 that you know, ultimately if something goes wrong, bail you 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:05.880 out in some way or another. And bitcoin is different. 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.160 It is not centralized. It's decentralized. The idea here being 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:13.480 that because it's not dependent upon any one government, should 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:17.920 any one government have major problems, which we've seen. I mean, 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:22.080 there's problems all around the world where governments rise and fall, 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.240 and as a result, the currency often takes a huge 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:28.919 beating during those those times of turmoil. Oh yeah, and 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.720 I mean we've seen that repeatedly in the past few years. Yeah. 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:35.320 This would allow you to have a global currency that 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.240 you could use through you know, no matter where you are, 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:41.280 and no matter where you're trying to purchase something that 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.719 is not dependent upon any one government. So in theory 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:49.200 it would remain it's its value would remain uh, unaffected 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.600 by whatever you know, regional conflicts happen to be going 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.720 on at the time, So you know, that's one of 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:59.840 the ideas. Another one is that because there's no governmental regulation, 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:04.400 are quote unquote interference anyone who has a deep distrust 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:07.199 for the government, no matter where in the world you 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:09.800 happen to live, no matter what sort of government happens 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:13.959 to be personally. Uh, then this would allow you an 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.399 opportunity to work outside of that, to have a money 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:20.280 that you could use that does not in any way, 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:26.080 uh benefit outside of the system. And whatever anarchist fight 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:29.040 club style definition you want to take on that. And 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:31.199 one more, one more quote from from this kind of 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.800 ridiculous inflammatory news Week piece, by the way, on on 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.280 in line with all of this, uh, the reporter tracked 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:41.000 down one of nakamotives, the nacamotive. The person's daughters by 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.320 the name of Eileen Mitchell, and she said of her father, I, 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:47.959 quote again, he is very wary of government interference in general. 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:49.680 When I was little, there was a game we used 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:52.560 to play. He would say, pretend the government agencies are 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:55.120 coming after you, and I would hide in the closet. Yes, 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:58.200 so we you know that, In general, we've had a 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:02.400 lot of a lot of the folks who are big 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:06.040 fans of bitcoins have been called many things, including anarchists. 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:08.879 Some say that it's it's you know, it's largely in 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:12.920 the United States anyway, largely a libertarian kind of fan base. 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:17.760 In fact, Nakamoto the person self identifies as libertarian. Um. 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:22.200 Then there are other people who are interested in bitcoin 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:26.640 who don't necessarily identify as either anarchists or libertarians. They 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:29.560 are investors who are interested in bitcoin because it's a 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:32.160 what potential way to make a heck of a lot 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:34.879 of money. If you've ever looked at the value of 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:38.720 bitcoin and versus the US dollar over the past uh, 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:40.679 you know, it went from you know, a couple of 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:44.160 bucks for a bitcoin to astronomical levels at one point 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:47.280 of over a thousand share. Yeah. So I mean they're 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:53.240 the actual community is very diverse. Yeah. And in addition 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:57.800 to it being called an an anarchists dream or a 0:22:58.119 --> 0:23:01.679 investment opportunity, it's also been used as an opportunity to 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:06.480 conduct transactions that would otherwise be outside of the law. Right. 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:08.520 We'll have a lot more to say about some of 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:14.320 the the less respectable ways one can use one's bitcoins, 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:17.520 or at least one could have used one's bitcoins in 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:21.280 the next episode. There's some other interesting little technical factors 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:23.840 I'd like to to cover before we we wrap up 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:26.880 on this one. The one of the things that is interesting, 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:29.520 Like we've mentioned, you know, a physical commodity like gold, 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:34.000 Ultimately there is a finite amount of that on earth, 0:23:34.440 --> 0:23:37.240 you know, So once you mind all the gold that 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:39.600 is available on Earth, that's it. All the gold that 0:23:39.680 --> 0:23:41.720 is available has been mind. It's now out in the 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:45.359