Tag: Bitcoin

Bitcoin vs Dash – Bitcoin mental blocks: SegWit & UX

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A lot of people left comments on my videos saying “If SegWit comes in…” “Just you wait and see if Segregated Witness comes in…” What they don’t get is, that’s a huge “if”. The problem isn’t just that there are unconfirmed transactions now… the problem is, we have no idea how or when the solutions will be implemented. That is the real problem, and Bitcoin maximalists have a huge blind spot for that. It seems to be because they’re only thinking about Bitcoin in terms of the technology, not in terms of the human factors – the governance, the politics. It’s as if they say “Well the technology exists so it’s all going to be fine.” And when you ask “How is that tech going to be implemented?” they say “the technology exists so it’s all going to be fine.”

You also see this flavour of thinking when it comes to user experience. They say “I don’t care about having to copy and paste a Bitcoin address” Or they bring up QR codes. It’s true, QR codes give an improved user experience compared to long confusing strings of characters that make up Bitcoin addresses. However, QR codes pose their own problems. I’ve often been on the web looking at a QR code thinking, what am I supposed to do – point my phone at my monitor? That just seems weird. If people had to scan a QR code to get to Google or Facebook, the web probably wouldn’t be as popular as it is today.

If you want a service to get popular, you have to extend your empathy, imagine yourself in the shoes of a complete noob and try to feel what they would in that situation. If you get caught up thinking “I’m comfortable with this (so I’m sure everyone else will be too),” you’re confining your tech to be used by an elite few.

 

Why Amanda B. Johnson loves Dash – Episode 155

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The Story: Amanda B. Johnson of Dash Detailed

Amanda B. Johnson is a familiar face to many who are interested in financial technology, and particularly to those interested in cryptocurrency. For months she was the host of The Daily Decrypt, bringing news about new developments in the technology, informing us about the latest altcoins released and the progress of Bitcoin adoption. Eventually she got frustrated when she saw how tedious and stilted the movement was in Bitcoin, and about how awful most of the new coins were. She finished The Daily Decrypt and decided to start Dash Detailed, giving us a weekly report of the progress in Dash – the currency which she figures is the most likely to reach mainstream adoption.

In this episode, Amanda tell us why she’s so excited about Dash, explaining the concept of money as a service, the importance of user experience, how she might market Dash to people who know nothing about cryptocurrency in the future, and why it’s not easy to crack Dash’s privacy features – even when someone controls a masternode. We also talk about the incentives involved in Dash, and how its anonymity features compare to Monero’s.

Join us in the next blockchaining episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Amanda B. Johnson & Pete Eyre: The Daily Decrypt – Episode 79

The Links:

Will Dash ever get its killer app? Amanda at Anarchapulco 2017

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

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Dash digital cash vs Bitcoin: Which will achieve mass adoption first? – Episode 154

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The Story: Bitcoin & Dash – User experience and governance in cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is an amazing technology that captured the imaginations of many people. Various individuals were stunned at the idea that mathematical algorithms could form the basis of our money, rather than central bankers and corrupt politicians, as is normally the way today. People were seduced by the idea of sending value around the world in a matter of minutes, a currency uncontrolled and uncontrollable by authority, and sending micropayments to websites to read their articles – instead of having to tolerate clickbait content beholden to advertisers. Bitcoin has delivered on some of those promises, however, it’s 8 years on and it still seems to be far from mainstream adoption.

If we take a step back from the hype and the dream of Bitcoin – still alive in the minds of many of us – we can see that Bitcoin has a few key problems. The main problem is, it’s too hard to use. People have to use long addresses which look like computer errors, to know the right transaction fee to send their cash or risk their transaction being at the back of a queue of 80,000, they have to generate new addresses for security, make paper wallets or buy a Trezor if they really want to be secure – and if they lose their wallet, or get hacked, they might just lose their life’s savings. Does that sound like a currency which is ready for mass adoption?

Now, I don’t know any digital currency which is ready for mass adoption – but I do know one which might be close. Dash “Digital Cash” is a currency which started in 2014, and the team is actively working on the problem of user experience, devising a system where people can log-in from any computer with a username and password, send currency using something like looks like a name, have their money secured while still retaining control, and not worry about losing their retirement fund just because they misplaced their private keys. Even now, Dash has the functionality of instant payments, and of private payments.

In this short episode, Kurt presents the case of why Dash might reach mass adoption before Bitcoin. Join me in another paradigm-shattering, central-banker-unseating, digital revolution episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Bitcoin vs Dash – which is the currency of the future?

Why aren’t we seeing greater adoption of cryptocurrency?

Bitcoin’s bubble vs Dash’s killer app

Dash.org

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Future-proofing your career – Episode 151

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The Story: How to prepare for an uncertain work future

Futurism is a field which is fascinating to those who study it – presenting a puzzle in the form of the question: how are all the current trends going to interact in ways which are going to affect the entire world? However, most people don’t care so much to think about the future, and that’s a problem, because we are quickly entering an age in which the people who can’t see a few years into the future, will quickly be left struggling to deal with the present.

Many people believe that being an employee, as opposed to operating a business, is a secure proposition, as having a fixed income with a dependable employer enables some certainty. That can be true in the short term, but it’s not necessarily true in the long term. Large economic crises typically happen every 7 years – just long enough for many to be over-comfortable, and subsequently desperate. True survivors and hustlers have multiple sources of income, doing short-term contracts, gig-based work like on Fiverr or Freelancer, and investments.

Automation is also something that people are worried about. If you work in the manufacturing sector or transport, machines will probably come for your job sooner rather than later. Burger-making and selling machines will soon be common, displacing a lot of fast-food workers. How soon will the robots come for your job? And how quickly can you prepare?

With robots watering plants, tilling fields, running factories, delivering goods, there will be a much lower cost for mass production, which means cheaper goods and a lot more wealth for many. Perhaps they will choose to spend some of that wealth on things which they really like, which machines can’t make, or can’t make yet – things which are unique – handmade items, art, music, and fine food. In the past, a writer had to have millions of fans to make a decent living. With modern technology, Patreon and Amazon self-publishing, a writer might make a good living with just a few thousand dedicated supporters.

Join Kurt as he gazes into the future in this mini-episode of… The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Humans need not apply

Coursera.org

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Alien economics – The ideas economy

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In the evolution of money, first comes barter, then goods like silver, gold and conch shells, then comes fiat currency, then cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. What comes next? At each step of the way, people trade something which represents an idea – the idea of labour, or the idea of value provided. What if we could trade ideas themselves?

Steemit’s New Economic Paradigm

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An introduction to Steemit

I (Kurt) have been posting on the new social media platform, Steemit, for more than a month, and it seems to be promising for several reasons.

One of the most obvious is that, people can get money on there, which means that many starving artists and writers finally have a platform where they can quickly monetise their content, without having to know too much about website design, sales or marketing.

A deeper point – one which will most likely drive the more constant growth of the platform – is that the system is structured to incentivise helpful, constructive interactions. The system is designed to encourage people to be cool. That’s no small feat. I’ve thought in the past, that if someone really wants to change the world, they have to change the incentives, and that exactly what is what the creators of this site have done.

Since joining, I’ve had to stop myself a few times on other social networks, thinking “Is this the way I would phrase this if I were writing on Steemit? Can I find a way to be softer, more compassionate, more inclusive?” Of course, some people persist in unconstructive feedback, even despite themselves, but the signal-to-noise ratio on the site is still extremely impressive.

In this video, I give an introduction to why this new platform is interesting and may be the way of the future, and I read out an article which I published on the platform, which many people enjoyed, talking about what makes the site and its associated currency, Steem, valuable, and the reasons it may well succeed in the long run.

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

Here’s my original article, and here is the article I mentioned by Leah “Stellabella” Stephens.

To download the audio, right click here, and press “Save as”.

 

 

 

 

Episode 116 – Two Conceptions of Capitalism

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The Episode:


To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

The Cash:

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Story:

In this episode Kurt and I are at the central bus station of Guadalajara, Mexico. We were patiently waiting to begin our voyage to San Luis Potosi – for a great adventure exploring the worlds of natural medicine. This episode is a captured conversation started by few Aussie friends that visited the week before, they had some very interesting questions about today’s society.
 
Many young adults ask questions like, why does the government need to privatise public services? examples of these services may be medical, electricity, transport, and water? and of course the bloody roads. These concerns are based on the already poor quality services at high tax costs and this instills a negative outlook on the future. To further this issue, it is widely known and understood that private companies, which buy these services, must put the interests of shareholders first. This is because of the inherent nature of business and the human component rarely becomes a concern, let alone a priority.
Our society has been conditioned to believe that this is all part of capitalism, MacDonalds, Starbucks and greedy governments. History can teach us many lessons and like all power structures, there is a common natural evolution; to increase in size, centralise power and incubate corruption. However as most young folks attended public schooling they tend to have a shallow and selected view of history, they look to the other side as the solution – Socialism.
 
In this episode we discuss a true capitalism, which is based on a free market system powered by sound money (Gold, Silver, Bitcoin). Advancements in information technology is opening a new world of commerce as well as new options for governance. Where all people can have an equal say and can be involved in shaping society. Our future civilisations will be empowered and united, government as we know it today will be a memory and a laugh, somewhat like the stone age. For the meantime understand that today’s government bodies do not require our full attention, as these structures are on limited time and out of gas.

The Eps:

Closet Communist

The Links:

The Story of Your Enslavement
The Wealth of Nations audiobook
Capitalism is About Love – Jeffrey Tucker

 

Ethereum’s New Financial Paradigm with The Last American Vagabond

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The Episode:


To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

The Cash:

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Story:

Aaron had the chance to jump on The Infinite Expansion podcast with fellow Anarchapulco attendee, Tim Bryant, of The Last American Vagabond, to have a discussion about the benefits of Ethereum and how it is ushering in a new era of financial technology – even while many banks are still just getting involved with blockchain technology, and many regular people still don’t know what Bitcoin is.

Ethereum is billed as an “international computer”, a way to execute computer code using a widely distributed network all over the world, a development which not even its users and developers yet understand its full implications or possible implementations.

Aaron and Tim talk about the benefits of Ethereum to be used in smart contracts, how it might work in conjunction with other cryptocurrencies, and how cryptocurrency is sometimes rejected in the truth movement, even though it might well be perfectly aligned with their goals.

Join us as we propel ourselves into the future on this next episode of The Infinite Expansion podcast and The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Episode 50 – Juan Galt: Ethereum and the Future

Episode 75 – Andreas Antonopoulos: The Disruptarian

The Links:

Tim’s website The Last American Vagabond

 

Episode 109 – Bitcoin Halving

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The Episode:


To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

The Cash:

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Story:

In this episode Aaron and Kurt discuss some of the late action to come to Bitcoin. Aaron recently attended the CDMX Bitcoin meetup in Mexico City, where he tunes into the Mexican bitcoin vibe. Although the spotlight was taken by Ethereum and the DAO, it was still a Bitcoin meet up. The Bitcoin discussion took focus on the upcoming Bitcoin halving, where the mining reward falls from 25 bitcoins to 12.5 bitcoins per 10 minute block. This deflation mechanism is built into the Bitcoin blockchain algorithm, as outlined in the Bitcoin White Paper. The bitcoin currency is receiving much price speculation as a result of the supply and demand economics of this mathematical change. The past months have seen a gradual rise in the bitcoin price – this is believed to be an early result of the near halving. However, with endless factors in the bitcoin price discovery, nobody can ever state for sure. What we do know, is that, Bitcoin is growing up.

We are now 33 days or less away from the halving and everyone is keenly watching the bitcoin price. With early and positive movements in the bitcoin price, we can only look for hints in the Bitcoin statistics. A note taken at the Bitcoin meet up – Mexican bitcoin exchanges are experiencing an increased in exchange activity, this is based on the increased inflow of fiat currency for the exchange for bitcoin. Not just the active trade activity, there are huge increases in the fresh money into the bitcoin economy.

Sometimes its difficult to imagine the Bitcoin money system growing to equal the government constructed and controlled one, but there are many ways to view Bitcoin. Some see Bitcoin as new money, others see it as a fast remittance system and some of us see it as a technological advancement in world communication. Bitcoin is all these things and more; this is the beginning of a completely new era of world finance. By this I mean, Bitcoin is the game changer that most of us have been waiting for. The increased adoption of Bitcoin will have very heavy implications for governance, social ideologies, world economics and trade – and will leave those who think they are in charge, questioning their own levels of control. Here, they will find no choice but, to let ‘man’ free. This is one that only Father Time knows how it will play out and maybe the true nature of the financial super hero!

The Eps:

The Links:

1967 Scrooge McDuck and Money

Why do big banks fear Bitcoin? 

Bitcoin Block Reward Halving = Upcoming Price Increase! – Trace Mayer Interview

Bitcoin Block Reward Halving – Countdown Clock

Bitcoin is built to incite peaceful anarchy

Record highs predicted as new supply halves