<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Dante-Gabryell Monson</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dante.monson@gmail.com">dante.monson@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 2:49 AM<br>Subject: Fwd: <nettime> Now also bankers know what bitcoins are<br>To: Michel Bauwens <<a href="mailto:michelsub2004@gmail.com">michelsub2004@gmail.com</a>><br><br><br><br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Jaromil</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jaromil@dyne.org" target="_blank">jaromil@dyne.org</a>></span><br>
Date: Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 1:26 PM<br>
Subject: <nettime> Now also bankers know what bitcoins are<br>To: <a href="mailto:nettime-l@kein.org" target="_blank">nettime-l@kein.org</a><br><br><br><br>
re all,<br>
<br>
FYI: <a href="http://www.dyndy.net/2011/04/bitcoin-presented-to-the-old-world/" target="_blank">http://www.dyndy.net/2011/04/bitcoin-presented-to-the-old-world/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
Bitcoin presented to the Old-world<br>
<br>
� Posted on Wednesday, April 6, 2011<br>
<br>
� Filed under Conference, Currency<br>
� Tagged with cash, crypto, P2P, public<br>
<br>
� Related articles:<br>
� � * [23]Action in London, Revolutionary Credit Cards<br>
� � * [24]Process Ecology: the lesson from Nature for assessing the<br>
� � � Monetary System<br>
<br>
� Just back from the 10th edition of the [25]EPCA conference held in<br>
� Amsterdam, where I was a shoulder for my friend Genjix: bitcoin<br>
� developers were invited to talk about [26]Bitcoin to a specialized<br>
� audience of mostly >50 years old banker types in suits, with very few<br>
� exceptions.<br>
<br>
� Genjix presenting bitcoin in EPCA2011<br>
<br>
� The incipit of the conference booklet recites: �Over 200 transaction<br>
� services professionals from all over the world will attend, discuss and<br>
� experience this leading platform. For the last 10 years we have been on<br>
� top of trends and developments in payments. We focus in particular on<br>
� strategic innovation and break-through developments in on-line<br>
� transactions�. And in fact it looked pretty well populated for that<br>
� kind of context: besides the white-male-with-suits first scary<br>
� impression, especially for those who value variety, from the written<br>
� documentation available (I haven�t attended talks) one can tell these<br>
� people run quite some businesses � at least they did until now <g>- and<br>
� quite successfully.<br>
<br>
� The brochures of the conference talk about transaction systems,<br>
� RFID/NFC payment devices and all flavors of bank related products along<br>
� the names of �Mobile Money�, �Secure SD�, �ePassport� and �Automated<br>
� Fare Collection�.<br>
<br>
� Our guy Genjix is a colorful and open minded type, witty and messy, a<br>
� good mix that entertained the people present despite it being the last<br>
� presentation of the day; he did a good (unpaid) job presenting some<br>
� quite impressive information on the growth and usage of Bitcoin, making<br>
� people present progressively interested (or pissed, but then hard to<br>
� notice behind the suits) at this crypto-cash system that seems to be<br>
� there to stay or, one could argue, to multiply in different flavors in<br>
� the near future.<br>
<br>
� � �Being shown an anonymous digital currency with its own laundering<br>
� � service. Used for selling drugs. Bit-coin, you have cheered me up.�<br>
� � Michael Price<br>
<br>
� The presentation didn�t hide even the most controversial aspects of<br>
� bitcoin, pointing out to some very extreme usage: something that seemed<br>
� to relieve the audience, considering that banker types are pretty<br>
� beaten up by corporate ethics evangelists nowadays. In such cases<br>
� Bitcoin tends to show that anonymity is used in the �worst� way, which<br>
� is still half of the story. We are still far from developing a positive<br>
� narrative on anonymity and continuing on this track will likely move<br>
� policy makers into massive identification campaigns, as it has been now<br>
� since the 9/11 sad facts.<br>
<br>
� Still on the good side for bitcoin is its working implementation of a<br>
� distributed system relying on an �open source algorithmic contract�:<br>
� something definitely inspiring that knocks off the hegemony of<br>
� old-world currencies � and one can hardly imagine how they�ll ever<br>
� recover from this manifest process ultimately due to the unstoppable,<br>
� immanent influence of the digital dimension.<br>
<br>
� Bitcoin is a messenger and the message it carries doesn�t originates<br>
� even from a person, or a group of people, not even an organization or a<br>
� company: it�s a Geist (or Zeitgeist, should we say) that impersonates<br>
� the ultimate dissolution of centralized governance: everything that was<br>
� solid melts into thin air, should we mourn once again, while all those<br>
� who were on the deregulation train in 1984 have now to face their kids<br>
� reminding them how their World is made of lies � and dreams,<br>
� apparently, still alive.<br>
<br>
� Following a materialist point of view (and crypto-agnostic, we�ll<br>
� argue) bitcoin can surely be interpreted as a [27]Rube-Goldberg machine<br>
� for buying electricity � and this was even our very first reaction at<br>
� DYNDY when we got to know it the first time. Surely these are times<br>
� when materialism is needed, as opposed to more abstract financial<br>
� blabbering, but then consider that the processing power in bitcoin<br>
� serves to strengthen the network authentication: all that electricity<br>
� is energy invested by participants to enforce the integrity of the<br>
� network. Now consider how old monetary systems keep their integrity: a<br>
� huge government building with armed guards along the perimeter, to not<br>
� even mention the huge investment of resources and infrastructure to<br>
� distribute this money (street level access) and authenticate it at<br>
� transaction time. Remember prof. Greco? we�ve been talking about this�<br>
<br>
� � Bitcoin is a �disruptive technology�, but disruptive for whom? as a<br>
� � human creation, it inherits human problems that are also present in<br>
� � older systems; still P2P currencies as bitcoin let us save energy<br>
� � rather than consume more, also substituting the violence of armed<br>
� � guards with agile and cryptographic communications.<br>
<br>
� Ultimately, the positive message that bitcoin also carries is that of<br>
� more possibilities in engineering currencies, that of a future in which<br>
� complementary currencies can make economic systems more resilient to<br>
� the the disruption of capitalist behaviors, while closely relating<br>
� people to their community values and maybe even revolutionize the way<br>
� we contribute to the common good � paying taxes for what we really<br>
� care, rather than not paying them, let me add.<br>
<br>
� Quoting Wei Dai in [28]one of bitcoin�s founding texts: �It�s a<br>
� community where the threat of violence is impotent because violence is<br>
� impossible, and violence is impossible because its participants cannot<br>
� be linked to their true names or physical locations. Until now it�s not<br>
� clear, even theoretically, how such a community could operate. A<br>
� community is defined by the cooperation of its participants, and<br>
� efficient cooperation requires a medium of exchange (money) and a way<br>
� to enforce contracts.�<br>
<br>
� Now I�m wondering how people present at the EPCA 2011 conference feel,<br>
� threatened or pleased by this epiphany? in either case it might be<br>
� interesting to watch reactions. The transaction products I read of are<br>
� stacking on technological complexity and seamless design that is<br>
� ultimately undermining the very possibility for people to trust them.<br>
� On top of that now there are on-line grass-root communities actively<br>
� building new systems in a decentralized fashion. Will the monopoly of<br>
� violence enter this game to defend the old-system, despite the<br>
� squeaking sounds of its carcass, the diffused lack of trust for old<br>
� hierarchies and the lack for collective agency within its cheated<br>
� rules? We will see where this ends up: after all today it felt like one<br>
� of those historical days marked by such a talk made by a little<br>
� provocative guy wearing a t-shirt and nail polish speaking in front of<br>
� a old and well dressed audience � but then no-one was really scared.<br>
<br>
� IRC excerpt from #bitcoin-dev during the conference:<br>
<br>
<jaromil> sirius-m: i'd expect some more fashion happening<br>
<topi`> jaro: they just don't know how :)<br>
<sirius-m> thanks for being there, it's a new important audience for bitcoin<br>
<sirius-m> people who otherwise might not hear about the project<br>
<jaromil> true but knowing the types i think they are thinking how to fork it in<br>
�their own advantage<br>
<jaromil> prolly wasted effort<br>
<topi`> at least they start talking about it:)<br>
<topi`> good luck finding ways to exploit the system<br>
<krytzz> hopefully they cant fork the network<br>
<krytzz> only could start a seperate one :(<br>
<sirius-m> nah, it's good that you're spreading the word :)<br>
<topi`> if there *will* be some threat coming from corporate sector, then we'll<br>
� � � �finally find out how resilient the whole architecture is :)<br>
<br>
� � Like this article? Donate BTC :^D<br>
<br>
� � 1GJehYZs5BZfL4RTCBFUpTVrjX6XRhDWdq<br>
<br>
� � * Comments open on the DYNDY article website<br>
� � � <a href="http://www.dyndy.net/2011/04/bitcoin-presented-to-the-old-world/" target="_blank">http://www.dyndy.net/2011/04/bitcoin-presented-to-the-old-world/</a><br>
<br>
� � * Copyleft<br>
� � � � 2010-2011 GNU FDL<br>
� � � <a href="http://dyne.org" target="_blank">dyne.org</a> foundation<br>
<br>
<br>
References<br>
<br>
� Visible links<br>
�23. <a href="http://www.dyndy.net/2011/03/action-in-london-revolutionary-credit-cards/" target="_blank">http://www.dyndy.net/2011/03/action-in-london-revolutionary-credit-cards/</a><br>
�24. <a href="http://www.dyndy.net/2011/03/the-analogy-with-process-ecology-for-assessing-the-monetary-system/" target="_blank">http://www.dyndy.net/2011/03/the-analogy-with-process-ecology-for-assessing-the-monetary-system/</a><br>
�25. <a href="http://www.epcaconference.com/" target="_blank">http://www.epcaconference.com/</a><br>
�26. <a href="http://bitcoin.org/" target="_blank">http://bitcoin.org/</a><br>
�27. <a href="http://trustcurrency.blogspot.com/2011/03/bitcoin-rube-goldberg-machine-for.html" target="_blank">http://trustcurrency.blogspot.com/2011/03/bitcoin-rube-goldberg-machine-for.html</a><br>
�28. <a href="http://weidai.com/bmoney.txt" target="_blank">http://weidai.com/bmoney.txt</a><br>
<br>
� Hidden links:<br>
�88. <a href="http://www.dyndy.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/genjix_bitcoin_epca11.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.dyndy.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/genjix_bitcoin_epca11.jpg</a><br>
�89. <a href="http://www.dyndy.net/wp-content/pdf/newspaper.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.dyndy.net/wp-content/pdf/newspaper.pdf</a><br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
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<br>
--<br>
jaromil, �<a href="http://dyne.org" target="_blank">dyne.org</a> developer, �<a href="http://jaromil.dyne.org" target="_blank">http://jaromil.dyne.org</a><br>
GPG: B2D9 9376 BFB2 60B7 601F 5B62 F6D3 FBD9 C2B6 8E39<br>
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