Why Bitcoin Matters

2014-01-25 Bitcoins

This New York Times piece is by far the best one I’ve read yet on the impact of Bitcoin. It’s interesting, then, that it’s also one of the most positive. In the post Marc Andreessen puts Bitcoin in context as the culmination of decades of computer science research rather than just some weird, ultra-libertarian pipe-dream. He explains what really matters about the new currency (mostly: eliminating the 2-3% charged by credit cards and making transactions almost literally costless). And lastly, he responds to some of the complaints that it is a criminal paradise (“Much like email, which is quite traceable, Bitcoin is pseudonymous, not anonymous.”)

Definitely worth the read.

And almost enough to convince me to join a mining pool…

1 thought on “Why Bitcoin Matters”

  1. Nice article–thanks. I confess I was a bit disappointed that he sidestepped the most interesting questions at the end, regarding regulatory implications (not to mention more political and social implications). It’s hard to wrap my brain around the all the implications of effectively undercutting the monopoly that sovereign states have had on currency for past several centuries….

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