Bitcoin: The End of Money as We Know It Page #7

and globally share

text, pictures, videos,

anything digital.

Why not money?

Money, which, we

now know only exists

as digits in a bank's database?

- Wouldn't it be great,

if you could send

Bitcoin transactions

just simply via a tweet?

For example, you would

say @theendofmoney

one dollar worth of bitcoin

and so we built just that.

All you have to do is to

hashtag it with tippercoin.

Press send.

And our twitterbot will

process the transactions,

notify you and give you a

link and this will allow you

to either withdraw your bitcoins

or send it to someone else.

- With Bitcoin, you

can send one dollar

or 1,000,000 dollars worth of

value anywhere in the world.

You can do it for free

or you can pay the

Bitcoin network fee,

which is still just

around a penny.

And there is nothing

that the big banks

or the politicians

can do to stop it.

- [Voiceover] A cryptocurrency

that can only be created

and transferred with

computer networks

may be the next step of

the digital revolution.

The rise of machines.

Self-driving cars, drones,

robots that rely less

and less on humans.

- What I often think is

that the future of Bitcoin

or digital currency from

a broader perspective

is really about machine

to machine payments.

So by the time you have an

un-manned taxi driving you

around New York, and

then going to power up

at an unmanned power station,

or going to get repairs

at an un-manned auto shop.

You'll see the machine

to machine payments done

with some sort of

digital currency.

- We actually built this

world that we live in

over the last two or 300 years.

We made some mistakes.

We've learnt to

make things better.

The idea that there

is this magic key

that if you just sort of

stop doing a few things,

that they'll be perfect

order that will settle,

is a very childish,

ideological delusion

in my opinion.

But that's not to say

that Bitcoin isn't

an exciting thing.

It's an terrifically

exciting thing.

But we have to try

and engage with it

with working minds not

with magical thinking.

- People are suggesting

that it's going

to be another world currency

rivaling the dollar, or

the euro, or the yen.

I think that's not

going to happen.

I prefer to trust the banks

or the central government

compared to the Bitcoin is

because someone is accountable.

Whereas with the Bitcoin it

is completely deregulated.

There is no central control.

There is no one

held accountable.

It is a free float, purely

demand and supply driven.

- So, clearly, this

is not a currency.

Currencies don't

behave like this.

But what this is is a high-risk,

speculative commodity.

- So, for the

entrepreneurs, the bankers,

the governments and

anyone else studying

and watching Bitcoin,

all I have to say

is that there will probably

be a lot of volatility

in an upward trajectory

and to buckle up.

- [Voiceover] Criminals,

scam artists, bad actors,

are drawn to any kind of

money like a moth to a flame.

- Silk Road was a

marketplace that was online.

it existed in the

underground web.

Now this marketplace

allowed people

to sell things that were

illegal to governments.

- [Voiceover] Fake

ID's, pirated music,

bibles in North Korea.

Are cryptocurrencies

inherently bad

or just the newest tool

to acquire the forbidden?

- Porn is illegal in Iran.

Well, there was a few

percentages of sales

on Silk Road was to

sell porn to Iranians.

Now, a much broader one,

that gets a lot of press for

the guys at Silk Road is drugs.

- I've been doing research

over the past couple of years

into the online

drug marketplaces

in the Dark net

using TOR and Bitcoin

as technologies to enable

illicit drug transactions.

We did a global

survey of drug users

and we had over

20,000 people respond

to that and the

majority of those people

were buying traditionally

illicit drugs.

Ecstasy, cannabis.

The F.B.I. brought

down Silk Road.

It certainly hasn't

stopped the trading

of illicit drugs online.

- A lot of people want

to criticize Bitcoin

for the use for illegal

things or illicit things.

But if you look at it,

the most popular currency

in the entire world for doing

bad things is the U.S. dollar.

- If you think of Bitcoin

as a platform instead

of a currency then

you really begin

to see the potential it has.

- The ledger which

cannot be forged,

it cannot be changed and is

universally accepted is Genius.

There will be Bitcoin

technology forever

and it will have applications

for years to come.

- [Voiceover] Creating a

secure, global payment system

may just be the beginning.

Patents, contracts, land titles,

proof of ownership can

be baked into Bitcoin.

Securely held in

the public ledger.

- I read up more about Bitcoin.

I played with the source code.

I built some things

that I realized,

this is a actually a very,

very powerful protocol.

It's not just a currency but

it's actually

programmable money.

- [Voiceover] The digital

age has fundamentally

changed the world.

We have embraced

digitized music, film,

medical records,

communications, the internet.

The free exchange of information

and currency can

fuel revolutions,

help in a disaster.

But our money is shackled

to the 20th century,

manipulated by

governments and banks.

The champions of Bitcoin ask us

to imagine payments

without a middle man.

Investments without a broker.

Loans without a bank.

Insurance without

an underwriter.

Charity without a trustee.

Escrow without an agent.

Betting without a bookie.

Record keeping

without an accountant.

Global, secure, nearly instant

and free.

Is it fantasy or the future

of money and commerce?

(intense instrumental music)

- I love bitcoins.

I'm really into bitcoins.

Well Satoshi Nakamoto

That's a name I love to say

And we don't know

much about him

But he came to save the day

If you don't know what

a Bitcoin is, right,

usually the way

people describe it

is a digital cash.

It's money for the internet.

Bitcoin as your going

into the old blockchain

Oh Bitcoin, I know you're

going to reign, gonna reign.

They were like, "oh,

I love my bank."

I'm like, "really?"

You ask a banker, "you

know what's two plus two?"

He's like, "well, I can

tell ya but there's a fee."

(laughter)

Down the road it will be told

About the Death

of Old Mount Gox

About traitors

trading alter coins

And miners mining blocks

Now Bitcoins is

a new technology.

I like to say it's

banking (mumbling)

All of the convenience,

none of the evil.

(laughter)

Oh Bitcoin, as your going

into the old blockchain

Oh Bitcoin, I know you're

going to reign, gonna reign

Till everybody knows,

everybody knows

You know when I go in line

and I buy like, I don't

know, a pair of socks.

If I pay with a credit card

I'm just buying socks.

Right, if I buy those

socks with bitcoin,

it's a revolution.

(laughter)

I am sticking it to the man.

Oh Lord, pass me some more

There's always people

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