CY18 March A collection of Bitcoin commentary from the brightest minds in the crypto community. Crypto Words CY18 March Contents Goals and Scope ......................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Support Crypto Words .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Seven Myths of Bitcoin ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 The Bullish Case for Bitcoin .............................................................................................................................................. 9 How Blockchains Will Enable Privacy .................................................................................................................. 38 Why America Can’t Regulate Bitcoin .................................................................................................................... 50 Are Bitcoin Bubbles Predictable? ............................................................................................................................. 58 The many traditions of non-governmental money ................................................................................... 64 Homo Sapiens, Evolution, Money & Bitcoin..................................................................................................... 72 Proof-of-Stake & the Wrong Engineering Mindset .................................................................................... 91 Maduro’s Mint of King Cnut ............................................................................................................................................ 96 Disclaimer: ................................................................................................................................................................................... 101 https://cryptowords.github.io/cy18m3 1 Crypto Words CY18 March Goals and Scope Crypto Words is a journal of Bitcoin commentary, established February 13, 2019. Its purpose is to document and advance commentary and research in disciplines of particular interest to the Bitcoin community. The journal is broad in scope, publishing content from original research, essays, blog posts, and tweetstorms from a wide variety of fields, especially governance, technology, philosophy, politics, and economics, but also legal theory, history, criticism, and social or cultural analysis. Its broader mission is to capture the conversations and think pieces in the Bitcoin space for current and future researchers. Crypto Words hopes to continue and expand the tradition established by publications such as the Journal of Libertarian Studies and Libertarian Papers. History There exists a gap in Bitcoin publishing. For authors with commentary and scholarly papers on topic, the choice of publication outlets is relatively limited. The number of journals that serve as outlets for crypto research is in any event too small, as the number of crypto thinkers continues to grow with every market cycle. This generation of Bitcoin thinkers have limited places to submit thought pieces for publication. Content is scattered across the web, and in some cases behind paywalls which prevent the free flow of information. With the advent of the Twitter and blogging, authors also now have the option of self-publishing: they post the content to their own site or some private site, link it in a blog post, or post a working paper. But this is obviously not the best way to document and publish. What is needed is a journal that takes full advantage of the possibilities of the digital age as a go to resource for think pieces in the crypto space. Enter Crypto Words. Published independently, Crypto Words is a journal that welcomes submissions on a range of topics of interest to the crypto community. In addition to conventional research articles, we welcome review essays blog posts, tweets as well as papers in other formats, such as distinguished lectures. Finally, wherever possible, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Authors retain ownership without restriction of all rights under copyright in their articles. Crypto Words is open access, and we encourage readers to “read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles…or use them for any other lawful purpose.” We want our ideas read, spread, and copied. https://cryptowords.github.io/cy18m3 2 Crypto Words CY18 March Support Crypto Words The posts and journals published here have been carefully curated and crafted as a true labor of love. If you’ve found any of this content useful here’s how to show your thanks and keep the project going. Spread the word Have a website or use social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn? Please consider sharing the content found on Crypto Words or linking to https://cryptowords.github.io. Follow us on social media We post regularly on Twitter and use it as our main form of communication. — We don’t rapid fire posts but add commentary where we see fit. Posts are typically links to our content here, trolling nocoiners, sarcastic remarks, and other things regarding development of this site. If these sorts of things interest you, follow along on: Subscribe to our newsletter We publish our journal monthly and share it via Twitter and via newsletter. Consider subscribing to the newsletter. If you’re not on Twitter all day, it might make sense to subscribe so you never miss a publication. Our pledge • We will never sell you out. • We will never shill you shitcoins. • We will only deliver what is promised. https://cryptowords.github.io/cy18m3 3 Crypto Words CY18 March Seven Myths of Bitcoin By George Kikvadze Posted March 2, 2018 First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win. Mahatma Gandhi Bitcoin has been around for almost 10 years; and right now, the cryptocurrency is clearly in its “fight” stage. This is both understandable and expected. Every “trusted” third-party intermediary has everything to lose. And the myths about bitcoin that these intermediaries have been disseminating need to be addressed. Myth # 1: Bitcoin is criminal money. The Bitcoin Blockchain is a transparent, digital ledger on which each and every transaction is registered, time stamped and visible to anybody who wishes to view it. If you give someone a $100 note, no one has any idea where that note has been since its minting by the Federal Reserve. No wonder a study by Harvard highlights the preponderance of large bills used by criminal organizations. But with bitcoin, the movement is tracked from inception and available for viewing on the Bitcoin Blockchain. In its 110-page annual report on money laundering and terrorist financing, the UK Treasury considers bitcoin a significantly lower risk in money laundering and terrorism financing than cash. And as Jason Weinstein, co-Founder of Blockchain Alliance and former head of the U.S. Justice Department’s cybercrime division, put it: “Criminals should run, not just walk away, from bitcoin.” https://cryptowords.github.io/cy18m3 4 Crypto Words CY18 March Myth # 2: Bitcoin consumes a lot more electricity. If you consider the aggregate energy demanded by the “old rails” of finance and government services such as notaries and registrars, it’s easy to understand that bitcoin is actually much more efficient than the systems it aims to disintermediate. The amount of energy spent every year to mine copper, nickel and other minerals around the globe — transporting them, turning them into coins, storing, distributing and securing those coins — you get the idea. Or consider the process of cutting forests to produce paper required for contemporary systems of titling, registration and certification. The Bitcoin Blockchain — the new “World Wide Ledger” will gradually update paper-based systems and with that the inefficient energy accompanying them. Coin Center — a D.C. based crypto-currency advocacy group — has produced an insightful report on the topic, with a more detailed study on its way. https://cryptowords.github.io/cy18m3 5 Crypto Words CY18 March Myth # 3 Bitcoin is a Bubble. In recent months, bitcoin has been attacked by economists, central bankers and various “experts.” But the qualifications of these crypto critics are few and irrelevant. Would you listed to a doctor advising on stock markets or a car mechnic commenting on blood presure ? When critics compared the cryptocurrency to the 17th century tulip mania, Naval Ravikant, founder of Angelist, explained the flawed juxtaposition this way: “Tulips are not durable, not scarce, not programmable, not fungible, not verifiable, not divisible and hard to transfer… but tell me more about your analogy.” When it comes to bitcoin, I’m betting with technologists and coders. And in regards to sceptics, I expect many will reevaluate their ambivalence about the significance of this technology. This has happened with internet. It will happen with bitcoin. Meanwhile, my advice to them is to go out; to acquire and to use bitcoin. See what it is all about. Myth # 4 I love Blockchain; just not bitcoin. This is similar to saying I love the Internet; just not the TCP/IP protocol. Bitcoin is one of the fundamental applications of blockchain technology. It’s the