In this talk “Blockchain vs. Bullshit – Thoughts on the Future of Money,” Andreas outlines the necessary criteria that will help you distinguish blockchains from bullshit, and why the goal of developing this technology should not be “banking the unbanked” but rather de-banking all of us.

This keynote talk took place at the Blockchain Africa Conference on March 2nd 2017 at the Focus Rooms in Johannesburg, South Africa: http://blockchainafrica.co/speakers/andreas-m-antonopoulos/

TOPICS:
The hype and empty promises around “blockchain” 2:30
Reconsidering info security, research in applied cryptography 4:45
Blockchains vs. databases 7:13
The essence of Bitcoin: revolutionizing trust 8:33
Open blockchains are the only ones that matter 10:24
Censorship resistance and other important characteristics 13:12
Criteria: blockchain or bullshit? 14:05
Fundamentally changing the allocation of trust 15:45
Permissioned “distributed ledgers” are boring & insecure 16:43
Hey Wall Street, Anonymous is coming for your keys 21:48
Promising opportunities, solving the unsolvable problems 23:06
The 3 elements to success in this industry 24:50
The necessary steps to mature out of infancy 27:44

QUESTION & ANSWER:
Hot vs. cold wallets – https://youtu.be/Aji_E9sw0AE
The revolution in trust – https://youtu.be/iWfpxB3HZOY

RELATED:
Blockchain for Beginners – https://youtu.be/i9nUMvpT2rM
How to get people to care about security – https://youtu.be/Ji1lS9NMz1E
Welcome to TrustNet – https://youtu.be/Rrj8sjHJthU
Hardware, Software, Trustware – https://youtu.be/Etyjc1JdmFU
Initial coin offerings (ICOs) – https://youtu.be/Q5R8KuxV4A0
What are the most exciting recent developments? – https://youtu.be/bCG5og_LwZY
Trust, promise of value, and intrinsic utility – https://youtu.be/Cxc9ybot9oM
The oxymoron of national blockchains – https://youtu.be/qSIBFBq9tRs
Private chains misunderstand the fundamental value of blockchains – https://youtu.be/haKVaGHKQJM

Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a technologist and serial entrepreneur who has become one of the most well-known and well-respected figures in bitcoin.

Follow on Twitter: @aantonop https://twitter.com/aantonop
Website: https://antonopoulos.com/

He is the author of two books: “Mastering Bitcoin,” published by O’Reilly Media and considered the best technical guide to bitcoin; “The Internet of Money,” a book about why bitcoin matters.

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MASTERING BITCOIN, 2nd Edition: https://amzn.to/2xcdsY9

Translations of MASTERING BITCOIN: https://bitcoinbook.info/translations-of-mastering-bitcoin/

THE INTERNET OF MONEY, v1: https://amzn.to/2ykmXFs

THE INTERNET OF MONEY, v2: https://amzn.to/2IIG5BJ

Translations of THE INTERNET OF MONEY:
Spanish, ‘Internet del Dinero’ (v1) – https://amzn.to/2yoaTTq
French, ‘L’internet de l’argent’ (v1) – https://www.amazon.fr/Linternet-largent-Andreas-M-Antonopoulos/dp/2856083390
Russian, ‘Интернет денег’ (v1) – https://www.olbuss.ru/catalog/ekonomika-i-biznes/korporativnye-finansy-bankovskoe-delo/internet-deneg
Vietnamese, ‘Internet Của Tiền Tệ’ (v1) – https://alphabooks.vn/khi-tien-len-mang

MASTERING ETHEREUM (Q4): https://amzn.to/2xdxmlK

Music: “Unbounded” by Orfan (https://www.facebook.com/Orfan/)
Outro Graphics: Phneep (http://www.phneep.com/)
Outro Art: Rock Barcellos (http://www.rockincomics.com.br/)

source

39 COMMENTS

  1. I like Andreas' speech, because I can tell he deeply thought about the tech and thought more deeply about how to explain this tech to normal people. We appreciate his work and effort!
    But, regarding his point that money is the first killer app for blockchain like email in the internet age, I disagree. Email is a tool equally necessary to everyone. People naturally wants it be borderless.
    In the case of Money, most people in advanced countries trust the current currency more than noisy cryptocurrencies. most people in less developed countries may not have learned about the blockchain yet. Event the latter adopts bitcoin fully, most of the former won't take it from them. We need to think up other use cases than money.

  2. Really fantastic speech! Never heard this pointed out so clearly. And it is still so relevant in 2019. I've invested in some really small cap stuff and starting to realize that even if the tech in itself is really awesome, it has nothing to do with market prices. And in five years unknown chains might pop up when people are ready for it and completely wipe out the onces I've put money in 😛

    Also, the money is to dlt what email was to the internet. What a good way of looking at it. Great!

  3. It's the value chain, stupid! (not the technology)

    Trusted local agents acting on a customer's behalf do have value. That's why they are paid for their services. If technology enables the same transactions without a local agent then that technology will change, disrupt the value chain. And that's the actual innovation – new value chains that are more efficient than the old ones. Whether that's done by blockchain or something else, by a central party or a distributed set of entities is irrelevant. Again, the disruption is not blockchain. The disruption is changing the value chain.

    On securing databases, applied e.g. to customer data, by distributing all the data in a blockchain you essentially wave privacy. That's not security, but akin to giving everybody the keys and then claiming that robbery has been stopped because burglers are out of jobs.

    On social networking – Geocities was one of the first social network at global scale, launched in 1994. Many followed. Facebook is essentially an implementation of an old idea tried many times before, distilled to bare essentials (in the beginning) and concentrated on a very narrow market segment, namely students. It reaped success not because of the mere idea but because it appealed to a particular audience and made it easy to share information important among this group. Another case of a disrupted value chain, not technology per se.

    In conclusion, any blockchain based venture, coins or otherwise, will fail unless it significantly improves or disrupts the value chain.

  4. Andre is just u. he a reflection of us in these respects. these info is inside us that's what will make it continue to evolve for us we the humanity and beyond. AND SO IT IS. AND WE WIN!

  5. Great ending summary, currency is to decentralized block chain what email was to the internet, the route to adoption. Damn, that is the most clear minded statement I have ever heard on the subject, Zero to One.

  6. im so glad people sent him bitcoin to make up for the ones he had to sell to make ends meet for his family. I loved his book and agree with this view of blockchain (and bullshit as well). I call the bitcoin blockchain the slow and electricity burning database you use when you dont trust anyone

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