For this episode on the eve of the Bitcoin white paper's 10-year anniversary, Nathaniel Popper and Paul Vigna, reporters who cover Bitcoin and crypto for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, respectively, and who have written books about it, discuss wide-ranging questions regarding the first cryptocurrency. We explore why it succeeded where previous digital currencies failed, what role the financial crisis and Satoshi's disappearance played in its success and how it compares to the development of the internet. We also look at the "blockchain, not Bitcoin" debate, the scaling debate and the merits of on-chain governance, and how scandals involving centralized services such as the Equifax hack and the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica breach will affect its development. Finally, we discuss its potential as a global reserve currency, potential abuse of crypto assets by bad state actors, and whether and how regulators can regulate decentralized technologies. Plus, Paul and Nathaniel give their thoughts on the next 10 years.
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Episode links:
Bitcoin white paper:
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
Nathaniel Popper:
https://twitter.com/nathanielpopper
https://www.nytimes.com/by/nathaniel-popper?8qa
Digital Gold:
https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062572066/digital-gold/
Paul Vigna:
https://twitter.com/paulvigna
https://www.wsj.com/news/author/7296
Age of Cryptocurrency:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250081551
The Truth Machine:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250114570
Edward Bernays' Propaganda:
http://www.igpub.com/propaganda/
CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz's speech discussing how they would prosecute illegal prediction markets:
https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/opaquintenz16
