Tag: cryptocurrency

Why Amanda B. Johnson loves Dash – Episode 155

by Kurt Robinson on March 6, 2017 in Podcast • 0 Comments

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:

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

by Kurt Robinson on February 22, 2017 in Podcast • 0 Comments

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:

The Episode:

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

by Kurt Robinson on February 16, 2017 in Articles, Technology • 3 Comments

There are problems with Bitcoin scalability and governance – can Dash provide solutions? Read more →

Future-proofing your career – Episode 151

by Kurt Robinson on February 7, 2017 in Podcast • 0 Comments

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:

The Episode:

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A game you have to invent, to win – a clip from Episode 121

by Kurt Robinson on August 17, 2016 in Best Bits • 0 Comments

For those of you who are too busy to watch an hour long interview, we decided to take out some of the best bits for you to enjoy.

In this clip, Andrew Levine (a.k.a. @andrarchy) describes some important concepts relating to his idea of a massively multiplayer OFFline game. It’s a kind of roleplaying game, with a limited set of rules, which the participants may change as they go along. The players decide what the prize is, and what one must do to achieve it. Andrew also explains how roleplaying games like this enable us to indulge in impulses, such as dishonest, which we couldn’t necessarily get away with in our regular lives, and finally he mentions how cryptocurrency and Steemit make these kinds of ambitious projects possible.

Watch the full episode here.

Steemit’s New Economic Paradigm

by Kurt Robinson on July 29, 2016 in Articles, Technology • 0 Comments

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.

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

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Ethereum’s New Financial Paradigm with The Last American Vagabond

by Kurt Robinson on June 11, 2016 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

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The Cash:

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 108 – Ether, Slock.It and The DAO: Decentralised Autonomous Organisation

by Kurt Robinson on June 3, 2016 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

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The Cash:

The Story:

Many people are just starting to hear about Bitcoin for the first time, and grappling with all their brain cells to understand the basics of how it might function, let alone its implications. Meanwhile, those who have been interested in cryptocurrency for years are continually looking forward to try to imagine or develop the next big thing, building on top of the base which Bitcoin has laid, and pushing into ever-more disruptive territories. The DAO, or decentralised autonomous organisation, is one project which has many people’s eyes fixated on it.

The DAO is a platform on which decentralised applications might run, allowing for decentralised arbitration services which move further towards making government courts of law redundant. Within a few short weeks, the DAO raised about $130 million through crowdfunding – the largest crowdfund in history to date. Of course, this is no guarantee of its success, but it does indicate the level of public support and faith that this project has behind it.

Will the DAO go on to transform the world? Or is it merely a stepping stone to building something even more ambitious, transformative, and disruptive? We discuss its potential in this episode of the Paradise Paradox.

Disclaimer: We are not financial advisors, we have no idea what you should do with your money, and we don’t claim that we do. Do your own research before making any financial decision, and be careful.

In the interests of disclosure, note that we do own Bitcoin, Ether and DAO.

The Eps:

Episode 50 – Ethereum and the Future: Juan Galt

The Links:

Andreas Antonopoulos on decentralised arbitration

The DAO – a radical experiment that could be the future of decentralised governance

Episode 86 – Juan Galt: Seeking Freedom: The Acapulco Files

by Kurt Robinson on February 2, 2016 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

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The Cash:

The Story:

Ever since the peaceful anarchist event, Anarchapulco, in 2015, many people from the US and Canada have decided that moving to Acapulco, Mexico might improve their lives. Many found ways to make money off the Internet or to transfer their existing jobs to a new location, and start a new life where they didn’t have to worry so much about any government interfering their lives, threatening them for operating their business in a way that the state didn’t like, or getting their dogs shot by police officers for no apparent reason.

They may face many obstacles on their journey, including their friends and family warning them to stay away from the city which is run by drug cartels, where the police periodically go on strike, and which is reputedly the fourth most dangerous in the world. Nevertheless, these brave soldiers journey on, and many of them are willing to share their expatriation wisdom experience with the world. It takes one man to document the evolution of this community of liberty-minded individuals, this Latin American “Galt’s Gulch”, and his name is Juan Galt.

In this episode, Kurt interviews Juan and talks about the ways that cryptocurrency might be used in the near future to replace government property registry systems, his documentary (renamed since the interview as “Seeking Freedom: The Acapulco Files”), and ways to break down borders using Bitcoin and smart contracts. Join us on a jet-setting, freedom-fighting, border-bounding episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Episode 50 – Juan Galt: Ethereum and the Future

Episode 52 – Juan Galt: The Panopticon & Your Privacy

The Links:

“Seeking Freedom: The Acapulco Files” on Disruptek.Info

“Seeking Freedom: The Acapulco Files” on Facebook

“Seeking Freedom: The Acapulco Files” trailer on YouTube

Disruptek.Info

Juan Galt interviews Andreas Antonopoulos

BitHalo: Mother of smart contracts

Bitnation – Governance 2.0

Episode 82 – Tuur Demeester: Adamant Research

by Kurt Robinson on January 11, 2016 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

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The Cash:

The Story:

Tuur Demeester of Adamant Research states that Bitcoin is “as if gold was invented 7 years ago”. Bitcoin was indeed designed to have all of the qualities that make sound money, and has provided what was thought to be impossible – a scarce digital commodity – a crypto-anarchist’s wet dream.

Since Bitcoin’s initial rise in popularity, many people have began to question what the word “money” even means, forcing many economists to question their theorems and assumptions. And, when comparing cryptocurrency to fiat currencies around the world, an inquiring mind may eventually come to the conclusion that there is nothing more dangerous or destructive than to have money under the control of central banks – enabling endless wars and imprisonment of many peaceful people.

Since 2007, many central banks have been colluding with governments to increase currency supplies, creating an excess of “cheap money” – that is, currency from loans with artificially low interest rates. The low interest rates encourage entrepreneurs to borrow more and more – which, in the short term, appears to stimulate the economy – however, this then becomes an unstable economy, because the business owners have been fooled about the true amount of resources available. This leads to many bubbles – and the subsequent bursting of these bubbles.

Take the Australian economy as an example. Over the past ten years, or longer, Australia has been riding the wave of the commodity boom, caused by artificially cheap credit and loose investment, accompanied by strong buying power from a booming Chinese economy. Now, however, many prices in the commodities market have been falling for the past twelve months, and nobody knows where they will find a bottom, and the Chinese stockmarket is suddenly struggling with its own crisis. As a consequence, many mutual funds and other investment firms are left out to dry, holding derivatives from companies such as Glencore, which have overextended themselves using cheap loans. Furthermore, many regular Australians might be left holding houses and other property, fueled by the collective delusion that is financially sound to undertake a 30 year contract to pay off a loan and get that family dream home.

The icing on the cake is that there is a surge of baby boomers that are looking to retire this decade. They are feeling very comfortable with their investment portfolio and with massive equity held in the family home. “Now is the time to enjoy myself after a lifetime of work”, say Mr. and Mrs. 65. Unfortunately, if international markets continue to tumble under the pressure of falling commodity prices and the collective population awake to the reality of the insolvent banking system – retirement could quickly become a luxury of past years.

It’s here that the immeasurable value of the new virtual asset, Bitcoin, will play a major role in access to and storage of your own money. Perhaps a safe haven to park you money, or at least a little bit for the soon coming rainy day. In this episode we speak with Tuur Demeester, where we talk about Bitcoin, the future of the world economy, the Australian economy, and his investment newsletter. Join us on a rollercoast ride from boom to bust, in the next thrilling chapter of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Currency Collapse Normalcy Bias

Episode 70 – Glencore Risk: Credit Crunch Crisis Crash

The Links:

Tuur’s Q&A at LaBITconf

How to Position for the Rally in Bitcoin by Adamant Research

Australia bet the house on never-ending Chinese growth. It might not end well