Gavin Andresen: Money, Fixed
2010 Jun 26
See all posts
Gavin Andresen: Money, Fixed @ Satoshi Nakamoto
- Author
-
Gavin Andresen
- Email
-
satoshinakamotonetwork@proton.me
- Site
-
https://satoshinakamoto.network
I'm happiest when I'm working on One Big Thing. I think I've found my
next Big Thing, and I'm excited!
Bitcoin is a new kind of money
that fixes a bunch of bugs in the old-fashioned money you have in your
bank account and your wallet.
Getting excited about a new kind of money is kind of crazy. You're
probably thinking I've been brainwashed by the loony wing of Tea Party
that believes that the Federal Reserve was illegally created and that we
should go back to a solid currency backed by gold stored in Fort Knox.
Or that I've drunk the Rainbow Sunshine Kool-Aid of the loony wanna-be
Socialists who think that local currencies are the answer to everybody's
economic problems.
I'm excited because Bitcoin isn't a pie-in-the-sky theoretical idea
for how to make a better currency. It is a working system that a few
geeks (like me!) are already using and trying to break. It fixes
these bugs in our current monetary systems:
- It doesn't require trust in any central authority; there is no
central bank or company or board of directors controlling the
currency.
- It is immune from long-term inflation, because it is designed so
that only a limited number of Bitcoins will ever be created.
- It is a global currency and, like the Internet, national borders are
pretty much irrelevant in the Bitcoin world.
- Because it is based on the best currently-known cryptography, it
cannot be counterfeited.
Of course, it is possible there's some terrible, fundamental flaw in
the Bitcoin system that nobody has thought of yet. I've been thinking
about it really hard (and dissecting the C++ source code) for the last
month or so and I can't see any flaws, but I know that time and
experience are the only true test of any new system.
I'm already putting my Bitcoins where my mouth is, and have created a
simple little website to get some experience with handling Bitcoins. The Bitcoin Faucet will
give you 5 Bitcoins to play with.
For free.
Maybe I am crazy. What percentage of crazy people
think they're sane?
10:11 PM
Joe said:
I'm new to yet interested in bitcoin. Freebitcoins didn't work for
me. I entered the right address (as far as I know) but did not get any
transfer after about an hour. I tried again but my IP has been logged so
cannot try again.
Just giving a heads up that either it was sent to another person
(which makes me wonder: what happens with a typo when you give somebody
your address, say, on paper?) or the program is not working properly. Or
I am missing something.
Interesting blog posts, I look forward to reading more during some
free time and also seeing where bitcoin goes.
7:58 AM
Joe said:
Update: It worked. Transfer happened sometime since my last
comment.
3:17 PM
Gavin Andresen said:
Yeah, Bitcoin needs to get way more user-friendly; you didn't get
your 5 free bitcoins right away because it was busy downloading the
66,000 "blocks in the block chain."
Not a good out-of-the-box user experience, but with the interest
generated by Sunday's slashdotting, hopefully there will be rapid
progress on easier-to-use Bitcoin implementations.
6:00 PM
Joe said:
Thanks for the reply. I agree. Thankfully, I'm not the only one who
sees potential here. Which, ironically, is why there's potential at
all.
Personally, I'll be waiting to tinker with an API written for .NET,
Python, Scala, or via the cmdline (maybe something similar to how
Mercurial does it).
There's lots of opportunity for developers. And that translates to
the emergence of better usability. (Err, well most of the time.) In the
meantime, I suppose I'll hang around the forum and delve more into the
other aspects of it.
8:31 PM
noagendamarket said...
Hopefully we are well on our way to ease of use. As Steve Jobs would
say-if you need to copy and paste you've already failed o_0
Gavin Andresen: Money, Fixed
2010 Jun 26 See all postsGavin Andresen
satoshinakamotonetwork@proton.me
https://satoshinakamoto.network
I'm happiest when I'm working on One Big Thing. I think I've found my next Big Thing, and I'm excited!
Bitcoin is a new kind of money that fixes a bunch of bugs in the old-fashioned money you have in your bank account and your wallet.
Getting excited about a new kind of money is kind of crazy. You're probably thinking I've been brainwashed by the loony wing of Tea Party that believes that the Federal Reserve was illegally created and that we should go back to a solid currency backed by gold stored in Fort Knox. Or that I've drunk the Rainbow Sunshine Kool-Aid of the loony wanna-be Socialists who think that local currencies are the answer to everybody's economic problems.
I'm excited because Bitcoin isn't a pie-in-the-sky theoretical idea for how to make a better currency. It is a working system that a few geeks (like me!) are already using and trying to break. It fixes these bugs in our current monetary systems:
Of course, it is possible there's some terrible, fundamental flaw in the Bitcoin system that nobody has thought of yet. I've been thinking about it really hard (and dissecting the C++ source code) for the last month or so and I can't see any flaws, but I know that time and experience are the only true test of any new system.
I'm already putting my Bitcoins where my mouth is, and have created a simple little website to get some experience with handling Bitcoins. The Bitcoin Faucet will give you 5 Bitcoins to play with.
For free.
Maybe I am crazy. What percentage of crazy people think they're sane?
Some comments
10:11 PM
Joe said:
7:58 AM
Joe said:
3:17 PM
Gavin Andresen said:
6:00 PM
Joe said:
8:31 PM
noagendamarket said...