bitcoin 2016—Wright/Nakamoto, advocacy/ advances, analysis, scale problems, international, crime, wall st/ banks/ corps, legal/ regulations, projects, central banks

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hi all. wired reported last dec that Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto,[a6] and then followed shortly after saying he “might be a hoaxer”[a13] and motherboard concurred[a10]. there is now a lot of press coverage.[a] a new wave of press coverage just burst forth mainly following on the heels of BBCnews.[a3] however as that article mentions he seems to have convinced other elite bitcoin participants including Andresen and Matonis. he was promptly hit with a tax raid/ confiscation on his properties leading to the natural question of whether he would have been better off without “coming out the closet”.[a9] Nakamoto is thought to be worth about $400M in bitcoins, pseudonymous or not (assuming the keys arent lost!). wright is highly educated, referred to as “australian professor”; [a2] points out he has 2 phds and 8 masters degrees. he says he doesnt care if people believe him or not (but then what is his motivation in disclosure?). the pseudonymous Nakamoto has now been nominated for a Nobel Prize (economics).[a12]

bitcoin technology/ ideology is continuing to advance with some bordering-on-feverish advocacy [b] and more sober/ restrained but still favorable/ optimistic povs.[c] its apparently outperforming currencies based on stability and/or gains [b13]. a new australian political party claims it will improve democracy,[b14] another a “fairer world”,[b10] another wonders if it could replace SWIFT,[c6] even the new yorker looking at it,[c11] and a new coursera course.[c12] a very thorough free article/ analysis showed up in london review of books.[c9] early signs are it seems to evoke a large possible role, maybe bordering on radical/ revolutionary, in remittances[c15] and currency exchange[c16] which are a very big deal in international finance.

scale and misuse/ spam [d9][d10] aspects is an increasingly gaping, bordering on critical problem [d][d13][d15][d17] as exactly as forewarned by Andresen.[d14][d18][d8] bitcoin was not necessarily built to scale early on, although so far its still working. [d4] says its growing 25% faster than early internet growth! there are issues with forked code.[d6][d7] serious academic researchers (Cornell etc) have gotten into the analysis with proposed solutions.[d12][d16]

international aspects of bitcoin continue to bubble.[e] it esp plays a big role in places with unstable or depreciating/ deteriorating currency. news from russia[e2][e11][e13], greece,[e3][e4][e5][e8][e9][e10] venezuela,[a6] india,[e14] china,[e15][e17][e18] EU.[e12][e16]

the crime news is big with the arrest of Karpeles for embezzlement.[f7][f8][f9][f13][f14] its even been linked to ISIS funding now.[f11] then theres the DEA extortion case with 6yr sentence.[f15][f16] bitcoin is showing up more in ransomeware.[f6][f17] it makes big headlines in government crime auctions.[f18][f19] silk road mastermind Ulbricht still shows up in the news.[f2][f3][f4]

wall st/ banks/ corps are busy researching its potential.[g] eg Nasdaq[g1][g3], NYSE,[g2] barclays,[g5][g7] even Visa.[g11] early/ major proponent overstock.com has long been showing up in bitcoin news with a $16M investment/ funding.[g12]

the legality/ regulation causes big headlines eg with previously shadowy govt agencies such as IMF,[h] BIS,[h2]. FTC with $38M settlement against butterfly labs.[h6] japan is one of the leading/ best regulatory enviroments as far as legalization.[h8][h9] australia adroitly captured bitcoins schizophrenic quality by going both ways in opposing actions in regulation and banking crackdown.[h11][h13]

there are many innovative new projects.[i] of course gambling may show up in a big way.[i1] the crowdsourcing concepts look especially promising to me but its in early stages.[i4][i7] browser integration for micropayments looks awesome, maybe Netscapes Andreeson may finally get his wish over 2 decades later.[i8][i10] even Gates talks about bitcoin these days.[i11]

possibly the most conservative entities on the planet, central banks are making some noises on the topic and looking to create rival systems.[j] as they say in NY, “good luck with that”.

bottom line for bitcoin these days: interesting times…

 

a. wright/ nakamoto
b. advocacy
c. analysis
d. scale
e. intl
f. crime/ auctions
g. wall st/ banks/ corp
h. legal/ regulation
i. projects
j. central bank

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