The Basics of Bitcoin & Blockchain with Stan Larimer

You’ve seen their tables at libertarian conferences, and heard their radio ads warning of an immanent collapse of the financial system. Goldbugs, who stockpile precious metals, have been stereotyped as paranoid — occupying a fringe of the already-fringe liberty movement. Until recently, the only group further on the fringes than the goldbugs were the “crypto-anarchists”: radical libertarian computer geeks with theories about how to replace central banks and financial institutions with an unregulated online payments system and password-protected "cryptocurrency". Most of these digital cash schemes came to naught — frustrated by the complex problem of getting strangers to trust the validity of online transactions, and guarantee that the “money” — strings of 1s and 0s on a hard drive somewhere — is actually being transferred once, and only once, to another digital location. Bitcoin solved this problem with a decentralized, public ledger (aka, "blockchain"), recording all transfers of bitcoins in real time. A decade after its creation, the elegant protocol for money on the internet is now a topic of household discussion. Last year, Bitcoin appreciated nearly 20 fold, from $1,000 per Bitcoin in January 2017, to almost $20,000 by mid-December.

If you’re still in the dark about cryptocurrencies, tune in to our special hour-long primer with Stan Larimer. Bob and Stan will break down the basics of Bitcoin, as well as the Bitshares competitor, that Stan is helping to build on Bitcoin’s foundations as an alternative blockchain-based financial system. Known as “The Godfather of BitShares,” Stan Larimer has forty years of experience in software, hardware, and systems engineering, program management, business development and even teaching rocket science at the US Air Force Academy. Stan is CEO of Cryptonomex, a leading custom blockchain development company.

Does Bitcoin signal the end of money-printing and inflation by central banks as we know it? Furthermore, does it represent something larger and less predictable?