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what is bitcoin what does Bitcoin do is
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it perfect neither was email when it was
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invented in 1972. this is the greatest
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Bitcoin explanation of all time if you
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have a family member that doesn't quite
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understand cryptocurrency send him or
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her this they will thank you thank you
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for the opportunity to speak with you
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today my name is Peter van valkenberg
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and I'm the director of research at coin
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Center an independent non-profit focused
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on the public policy issues affecting
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cryptocurrency and public blockchain
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networks
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what is bitcoin
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Bitcoin is the world's first
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cryptocurrency and it works because of
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the world's first public blockchain
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network
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what does Bitcoin do
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it's simple it lets you send and receive
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value
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to and from anyone in the world
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using nothing more than a computer and
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an internet connection
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now why is it revolutionary
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because unlike every other tool for
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sending money over the Internet it works
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without the need to trust a middleman
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the lack of any Corporation in between
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means that Bitcoin is the world's first
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public digital payments infrastructure
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and by public I simply mean available to
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all and not owned by any single entity
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now we have public infrastructure for
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information for websites for email it's
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called the internet
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but the only public payments
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infrastructure that we have is cash as
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in paper money and it only works in
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face-to-face transactions
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before Bitcoin if you wanted to pay
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someone remotely over the phone or the
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internet then you could not use public
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infrastructure you would rely on a
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private bank to open their books and add
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a ledger entry that debits you and
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credits the person you're paying and if
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you both don't use the same bank well
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then there'll be multiple Banks and
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multiple Ledger entries in between
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with Bitcoin The Ledger is the public
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blockchain and anyone can add an entry
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to that ledger transferring their
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Bitcoins to someone else and anyone
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regardless of their nationality race
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religion gender sex or credit worthiness
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can for absolutely no cost create a
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Bitcoin address in order to receive
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payments digitally
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Bitcoin is the world's first globally
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accessible public money
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is it perfect
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no
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neither was email when it was invented
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in 1972.
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bitcoin's not the best money on every
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margin uh it's not yet accepted
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everywhere it's not used often to quote
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prices and it's not always a stable
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store of value but it is working and the
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mere fact that it works without trusted
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intermediaries is amazing it's a
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computer science breakthrough and it
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will be as significant for Freedom
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prosperity and human flourishing as the
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birth of the internet
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and Bitcoin is just the beginning
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if we can replace private payments
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infrastructure then we can replace other
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private choke points to human
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interaction as well
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now
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why should we want to build more public
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infrastructure why should we Embrace
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blockchains over corporate
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intermediaries why should we tolerate
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their inefficiencies and work to make
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them better why should we want the
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pioneers of this technology here in the
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United States and not fleeing overseas
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a simple reason because the corporate
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intermediaries providing today's
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critical but privately owned
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infrastructure are becoming fewer larger
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and more powerful and their failures are
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in critics increasingly grave
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so roughly half of all Americans 143
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million people had their social security
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numbers exposed to hackers because of a
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breach at Equifax
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the Swift network has relayed hundreds
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of millions of dollars in fraudulent
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transactions because of hacked member
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banks in Bangladesh Vietnam Ecuador and
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Russia the FBI suspects now that the
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largest of these hacks was perpetrated
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by North Korea
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corrupt low-level employees at an Indian
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Bank Punjab National were able to
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fraudulently certify Swift messages
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stealing 1.8 billion dollars it's the
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largest electronic bank robbery in
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history in fact it's the largest bank
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robbery in history
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in October 2016 an estimated 1.2 million
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Internet connected devices were hacked
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and turned into a botnet that for
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several hours made prominent websites
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unavailable across Europe and North
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America including CNN and Fox News The
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New York Times And The Wall Street
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Journal increasingly
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physical machines are being connected to
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the internet to augment their
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capabilities they're wired through
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servers that are owned and maintained by
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private and trusted intermediaries the
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so-called Internet of Things
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pacemakers from St Jude's Hospital have
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been hacked baby monitors from trendnet
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have been hacked and jeeps from Jeep
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have been hacked to the point where they
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can be remotely commandeered and driven
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off the road
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now those vulnerabilities are
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inescapable in systems that have single
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points of failure it doesn't matter if
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the point of failure is a corporation or
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if it's a government there shouldn't be
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a single point of failure
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similar choke points existed before the
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internet if you wanted to deliver a
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message you'd have to go through one of
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three television broadcasters or a
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handful of newspapers
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private corporations are essential but
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no critical infrastructure should rely
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on one or two the internet removed
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single points of failure in
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Communications infrastructure and
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ushered in a wave of competition among
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New Media corporations building on top
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of its public rails blockchains can
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similarly disintermediate critical
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payments and iot infrastructure
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the technology is not yet ready to
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answer all of those questions today but
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it is our best hope
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and as with the internet in the 1990s we
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need a light touch pro-innovation policy
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to ensure that these Innovations
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flourish in America for the benefit and
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security of all Americans and one more
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clip just to expand on that here is
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Brian Brooks the former United States
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acting Comptroller of the currency
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explain the difference between web 1 web
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2 and what cryptocurrency is web 3. so
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the characteristic of web one if people
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remember their original AOL account was
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an ability to look in a curated Walled
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Garden at a set of content that was not
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interactive but was presented to you on
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AOL the way that Time Magazine used to
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show you the Articles they wanted you to
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see inside of their magazine just you
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could see it on a screen
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the innovation of web 2 was that
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suddenly you could not only read content
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but you could also write content this is
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when the blogosphere became a big thing
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people remember this from the late 90s
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the early 2000s and the reason for the
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centralization of the internet of course
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was that all of that activity was being
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monetized by a very small number of
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companies Facebook is the chairman the
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chairwoman mentions Google and two or
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three other companies what makes web 3
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different is the ability to own the
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actual Network and that's what crypto
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assets themselves represent is an
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ownership stake in an underlying Network
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so when you hear people talk about for
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example layer 1 tokens what they mean is
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this is your reward for providing The
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Ledger maintenance services the
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computing power to the network that on
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web one and two was done by Google right
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so now people in my hometown of Pueblo
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Colorado can actually own the ethereum
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network but they can't own the internet
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that's owned by Google and a few other
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companies that's what the project of
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crypto is all about is allowing people
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to directly own the networks that are
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have native assets that are supporting
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it and that's the nature of
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decentralization where the token holders
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are the people who control the assets
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okay not the Google token holders for
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for our language here on the hill those
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are digital assets right which are the
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keys to open up the Ledger for you to
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participate right so describe to us how
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those those digital assets fit into this
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internet Revolution web 3. so so the
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concept is that you have sort of
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application layer tokens and you have
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protocol layer tokens so if I'm an owner
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of Bitcoin let's say that I'm a miner of
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Bitcoin somebody who actually creates
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Bitcoin the Bitcoin is the reward I
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receive for doing the work to keep the
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network operational and that allows me
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to own a piece of the Bitcoin blockchain
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or take ethereum which is easier to
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understand The Ether token represents an
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ownership stake in the network but on
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top of that Network are all kinds of
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apps that get built on the network much
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like the apps on your phone depend on
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the underlying Network existing that
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lets the phone operate and so people
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will make judgments about which network
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is likely to win and they will invest in
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the tokens in that Network much the same
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way you might invest in Google stock
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because you think Google is going to
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scale access to the original internet
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the difference being here you can vote
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on what happens in the future of a proof
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of stake Network for example you can get
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rewarded through a proof of work token
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for maintaining a ledger on something
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like Bitcoin but the real message here
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is that what happens on the
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decentralized Internet is decided by the
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investors versus what happens on the
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main internet is decided by Twitter
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Facebook Google and a small number of
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other companies if you're interested in
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learning more about cryptocurrency click
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subscribe we drop a video every single
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