Can bitcoin change society?

Bitcoin was launched in 2009 as an experimental digital encrypted currency with very unique properties that sets it apart from all other currencies in use today. Bitcoin is open-source, decentralized, impossible to counterfeit and rare, as the algorithm will only generate around 21 million bitcoins. The short video below succinctly explains some of its properties and advantages.



If you research bitcoin enough at some point you'll wonder how you can start mining this new crypto-currency yourself. It was in this search that I stumbled upon, Geir Harald Hansen, the creator of bitminter.com - a bitcoin mining pool made easy for beginners. Geir kindly and honestly answered a few of my questions regarding bitcoin. His thoughts on the potential success of bitcoin and comparison to current currencies, I thought were worth sharing below.

Can Bitcoin change society?

Take a look at the world economy. One financial crisis after another. Venezuela recently devalued their currency. The US is printing money faster and faster. Or rather they are creating crazy amounts of US dollars by typing a number into a computer. Fractional reserve banking. Banks too big to fail. The US and several other countries are effectively bankrupt as they will never be able to pay their foreign debt. Welcome to the circus. The entire world economy is just a giant ponzi scheme. Whether you are a scammer depends not on what you do, but on whether or not you work for a government. I can't decide whether it is funny or sad. Maybe it's both.

Part of bringing sanity to the economy is to use things that are actually in limited supply for currencies and stores of value. Environmentalists may not agree, but there are plenty of trees to make paper money from. Typing a number into a computer is not limited supply either. Gold, silver and bitcoin on the other hand are in limited supply. Perhaps something better than bitcoin will appear. But I'm pretty sure fiat money is not the future. I think society may soon be ready for a change. But most people still just do what the masses do. Anything that is not mainstream is "not real".

Many think Bitcoin is monopoly money. Actually it is US dollars, Euros, etc. that are printed en masse like monopoly money. Bitcoin is nothing like monopoly money. But this thinking is based on emotion, not logic. Fiat money is "real money" because this is how we've been doing things for hundreds of years. Anything that is different from the established way is wrong, silly, or not real. This way of thinking greatly slows down bitcoin adoption. But at the same time an increasing number of people are getting fed up with the current system, and "banker" has become a swear word. As the global ponzi scheme nears collapse and more people are adversely affected by it they will be less inclined to cling to it just because it's tradition.

Whether buying ASIC-based Bitcoin mining equipment will be profitable is anyone's guess. Anything related to Bitcoin is a gamble. Don't invest more than you can afford to lose. But do get involved with Bitcoin in some way or other. Years from now when people laugh about fiat currencies and how primitive the world used to be, you can say you took part in changing it. This could be an important moment in history.

Bitcoins can be exchanged with all currencies. At the date of this post 1BTC =  £17.64 = $27.30 = €20.34, could this be the digital gold rush?

If you want to find out more and/or get involved, check bitcoin.org

In memory of Aaron Swartz

The Cloud forecast

A cloud

The latest buzz word in today's tech world is "the cloud". The hype surrounding this (yet another) vaguely named technology is never ending. If we can learn anything from the past, the cloud alongside names such as Google and Macintosh (sure these sound familiar now but remember when you first heard them?) is bound to become a winner.

This kind of weather phenomenon is becoming more ubiquitous in our lives, without us even realising it. But what is it? What exactly does it do?! Well, in short, the cloud is made up of a (large) bunch of interconnected web servers scattered all over the world, making up one huge machine with humongous processing power and unthinkable data storage capacity.

Businesses are all eager to jump onto the cloud. This makes sense, specially for small businesses, as never before has such a large and easily scalable computer resource been available at such (relatively) low price. But what are the advantages for the individual folk like you and me? What's the fuss all about, what do we get from the cloud?

The cloud aims to store all our data, so that we can access it from any internet enabled device from anywhere in the world. For example, why carry your music with you when you can pay a monthly subscription to access millions of tracks from from your computer at home and your phone on the go?

The cloud wants to provide you with all the applications you require. Be it an office suite or any other software, instead of buying or downloading it for free and installing it on your computer, you'll be paying the cloud for a monthly/yearly subscription to use it. I already hear you saying - "Great! This is so convenient. Where do I sign up?"

Not so fast, lets look at the bigger picture. With every service this technology provides we see a transfer of ownership from the user to the hazy mist of the cloud. Be it pictures, videos or documents who knows what prying eyes will scan our private digital creations? Privacy is starting to become a thing of the past. Someone, somewhere will have the power to run detailed diagnostics, statistics and trends on our habits, locations, likes/dislikes, connections, opinions, etc. - not only on an individual level but also on whole populations. Even if you think you have nothing to hide, based on history, would you not agree that the larger a power is, the bigger the risk of corruption and abuse of such power?

For long it has been said that information is power. I wonder what kind of power cloud we are creating by allowing such an unprecedented centralization of information in the hands of a few large corporations. Hopefully not a black cloud that comes back thundering down on us.

Another kind of cloud