As is stands now, two-thirds of all in-person transactions are made through credit cards, which reveals your name and address with every sale transacted. Credit cards are regularly hacked so much so that 1/3 of all online credit card transactions in London are fraudulent. Credit card companies also rack up over $50 billion dollars in fees yearly of your money, whereas with Bitcoin, if you lose your password or get tricked into spending your money foolishly it’s like losing cash, never to be retrieved again. With currently 2.5 billion people worldwide without a banking account, by using digital currencies such as Bitcoin, all one needs is a mobile phone and the internet. Meaning that the people themselves can now be their own bank.
Today Randi discussed digital currency and Bitcoin with Paul Vigna and Michael Casey, authors of “The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Currency are Changing the Global Economic Order.” Also joining the show is Torsten Hoffmann, the writer, director and producer of Bitcoin documentary, “Bitcoin: The End of Money as We Know It.”
“You still get a lot of people who’ve never heard of Bitcoin. For us that was one of the motivations to write the book.”
“We both have come to believe that this is a real innovation that’s going to have a very large impact.”
“On a financial front, on a societal level, on a technology level, Bitcoin is making an impact.”
“Nobody in the Bitcoin world is encouraging you to do elicit things online.”
“Your identity within your Bitcoin account is encrypted. Your transactions are completely in the public record.” To caller @sodahead
“Bitcoin is more pseudonymous than anonymous.”
“The easiest way to make money from Bitcoin is write a book or produce a documentary. If you’re tech savvy, create a business.”—To caller Gerald
“Early 2013 was the first time I heard about Bitcoin. I remember thinking it was a scam. I resisted putting in the Wall Street Journal.”
“You’re going to see more and more security measures coming.”
“There’s so many different angles and rabbit holes you can jump down with Bitcoin.”
“Where Bitcoin intersects with the sharing economy is most interesting. It’s part of a much larger technology-based shift in aspects of social media and finance.”
“I wouldn’t recommend using Bitcoin as a sole currency. But using it as an additional currency you brand yourself as a company who’s ‘with it.”— To caller Joceylyn from SF
“At the very least start thinking about the money in your wallet. What does it represent? Bitcoin raises those questions that too few people ask.”
“When you say what Bitcoin actually is, it’s so unsexy. It’s a ledger, a record of transactions that lies on multiple computers.”
“We’re available to digitally transfer money to a stranger that we know cannot be counterfeited. All without a third party or without residing in a bank.”
“With Big Data tools all this tracking is going to be much more sophisticated in terms of security.”
“Criminals are mainly doing business in paper cash, not Bitcoin.”
“The upside to Bitcoin is there’s so many others ways the ledger that can be used. Eventually the demand for the coins will rise.”
“It’s a binary bet, it’s all or nothing.”
“We have the 5 stages of Bitcoin: Dismissal, Distain, Curiosity, Eureka!, and Acceptance.”
“There’s definitely criminal activity behind Bitcoin, but there’s massive cyber attacks across our economy everywhere.”
“Bitcoin as a ledger is un-hackable.”
“In regards to micropayments, Bitcoin doesn’t care about the size of the payment.”—To caller Michael from Boston
“People are thinking about ad revenue sharing. Taringa, the Facebook of South America, has 75 million users. They share their ad revenues through Bitcoin.”
“We have a chapter called ‘Everything Blockchain’, or Bitcoin 2.0. There’s so many other use cases for this ledger.”
“We can place our deeds and put them on the blockchain by a decentralized group of computers. You don’t need trustees. It’s more efficient.”
“With Bitcoin you can get credit card processing fees down from 3% to 1%.”
“The ability to keep a seamless record of how money is moving the system is where the power lies.”
“Bitcoin is an option, an alternative. Gold has persisted for years. Bitcoin will bring competitive pressure to our current global currency issues.”
“This is a platform that can decentralize the way we do commerce. It’s quite profound.”
“With the blockchain you’re traceable until the end of time.”
“Paper money is decreasing in value through deflation. Bitcoin will be more valuable because there will be fewer available over time.”
“When you first hear about Bitcoin you completely ignore it and shrug it off. But eventually you see it more and more and begin researching. My way to deal with this was to produce a film.”
“Bitcoin is such a complicated topic that most people don’t understand it by reading about it.”
“I approached the documentary like a startup. The Kickstarter paid for about 20% of the film, the rest funded by me.”
“Small businesses worry about the volatility, but Bitcoin directly converts into whatever currency you want.”
“Bitcoin lets you be in control of your money. The people in Greece can’t go into their bank accounts and get their own money.”
“All the problems that we see with inflation in Argentina or Greece can be fixed by crypto-currencies.”
“This film is not for people who own Bitcoin. It’s for people who don’t understand it.”
“Investigate an hour or two into one of the most technological advancements in our time.”
“Now I’m selling my documentary through Bitcoin.”
Join ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg’ next week when she talks to app developers of ultrasonic mosquito repellent Bug Spray and travel concierge DUFL. Randi will also be taking calls for listeners to discuss their Favorite Travel Apps!
Only on SiriusXM Business111 12pm ET/9am PT. Call in at 1-800-WHARTON!
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