779 lines
58 KiB
Markdown
779 lines
58 KiB
Markdown
# The Bitcoin Bible
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The Bitcoin Bible:
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The Safest and Easiest Ways to Buy, Sell, Store, and Speculate
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What Is Bitcoin?
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The world of Bitcoin is today one of the most promising, confusing, erratic sectors of the emergent
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world economy. So it will be for years to come because Bitcoin is in its infancy. Currently, it operates
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as digital payment system. Its efficiency far surpasses any other method of sending and receiving
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money. Its operation makes PayPal seem old fashioned and clumsy.
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But its potential is actually far greater. It seeks to be a competitor to all existing government currencies.
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Indeed, it could eventually replace them. In time, Bitcoin and other “crypto-currencies” could reinvent
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the monetary and financial world from the ground up — on the basis of human choice rather than
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government imposition. But for now, the primary users and enthusiasts of this nascent digital currency
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belong to the young generation raised in a world swimming in computer code.
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How can we know it has a future?
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Consider the modern trajectory of digital innovation. In the last 20 years, letters have become
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email, television has become YouTube, and telephones have left the wall socket and become pocket
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video phones. This is the digital revolution, and it has been accomplished by the free market, not by
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government. It was not a “plan”; it is something that came about through trial and error through the
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commercial marketplace.
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Bitcoin is in a similar position to what email was
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The purpose of Bitcoin is to
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like in 1990 or so. Hardly anyone understood how
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it worked or why we would need it. Most email serve as a digital-age payment
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addresses were long numbers like 34243920@
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system, evolving one step at a
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compuserve.com. There were only a few commer-
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time into an independent money
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cial services around. You had to dial up and connect
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to send and receive. Servers crashed. Messages to compete with that forced on
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were awkward because people didn’t know how to
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us by the nation-state.
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use email. Then the spam problem came. That was
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followed by the terrible problems with viruses.
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At any point in the evolution of email, there were people who doubted it would amount to anything at
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all. It would never replace the letter, people said. It was insecure, we were told. It was too much
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trouble, people thought. But gradually, over time, nearly every problem with email was solved, one by
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one. The technology stabilized. People discovered the great truth about software: A great technology
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is still great, even if the services using the technology need time to stabilize and get their act together.
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Over time, of course, email won the day. Now it is indispensable. And there are new iterations that are
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making gigantic inroads, from Facebook and Skype messages to smartphone SMS systems. We navigate
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what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
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the world with hand-held devices that speak directions and give real-time traffic data. We now take it all
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for granted. It wasn’t always so. Not even the science fiction cartoon The Jetsons imagined the existence
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of email. But now it is a reality of the modern world. No one thinks a thing about it.
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The next step is in this evolution is obvious: Money too needs to be reinvented. For a hundred years,
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the dollar has been essentially nationalized by the government and the central bank. Now there is
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market pressure for a money that leaves the world of government and enters the digital age. It needs
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to be liberated from the control of a politically appointed central bank and returned to the people.
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Bitcoin is the most successful attempt so far to create such a currency. Silicon Valley venture capital is
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lining up behind it. Young people are saving in it and some are even earning salaries in it. It is subject
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of feature stories in every major newspaper. Websites that accept it are becoming more prominent and
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profitable. It is serving as a safe haven in economically unstable countries. Every day, more merchants
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are accepting it.
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When it first appeared in 2009, people laughed and said it would go nowhere. Four years later, it is
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the subject of articles in all major financial publications. Transactions happen every second. Sums in
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the tens of millions are moved every day by individuals, and the entire market sector has a market
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capitalization exceeding $1 billion — a drop in the bucket as regard world finance, but far beyond
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what anyone believed was possible.
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Most strikingly, no politician invented Bitcoin. No commission approved it. No central bank controls
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it. It has absolutely no political and bureaucratic vacuum. No social consensus came up with the idea.
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Its success or failure depends entirely on the market. It is not even owned or controlled by a single
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corporation. Its value is not tied to any existing currency, but rather seeks to be its own unit of account.
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Bitcoin offers a path away from monetary controls. Once you move dollars into Bitcoins, the medium
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of exchange is released from the Fed’s fetters. This has serious implications for the conduct of
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monetary policy. As Time magazine put it:
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If a future Fed chairman tries to repeat Ben Bernanke’s policy of quantitative easing
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(effectively printing money), worried investors could start pulling their savings out of
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the dollar and send it streaming into the cloud so fast that the Fed would be forced to
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change course... Once alternative currencies are frictionlessly available on the Internet,
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every laptop will become its own Cayman Islands.
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In short, if the promise of Bitcoin comes to fruition, we could be watching the birth of a new global
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currency, one that can compete with and even replace the failed experiment in government paper
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currency.
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If it doesn’t succeed, the experience of Bitcoin itself will inspire the creation of new attempts at
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creating digital currency units that trade on the free market, rather than depend on governments.
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To properly understand Bitcoin, you must keep in mind that its purpose is not to serve as an investment
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vehicle. It is an entrepreneurial invention, somewhat like the steam engine, the railroad, steel, or email.
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It is a pure software, based on what is called cryptography (a lynchpin of Bitcoin because it allows for
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privacy and unique identifiers for both coins and owners).
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what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
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That technology is a payment system that is evolving as a real money. Right now its most spectacular
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use is in transferring funds from one person to another. It is as easy as sending a text message on a phone.
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That said, all technologies are introduced into society through the commercial marketplace. That
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means speculation will always be part of its development — just as it was with railroads. Also part of
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the market will be mistakes, surprises, failings, setbacks, but also progress, triumph, and ultimately
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greater human satisfaction.
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All the while, there will be many people who see Bitcoin and all digital currencies as a get-rich-
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quick scheme. People will get rich while many others will lose their shirts. But who will see the
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bigger picture? The trend of economic history is clear. The pressure to replace government currency
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with a modern alternative is intensifying every day. There will be no stopping a technology whose
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time has come.
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Background
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Bitcoin is a decentralized electronic currency conceived in 2008 by a person or group known only as
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“Satoshi Nakamoto.” His — or their — true identity is unknown. Nakamoto introduced the idea and
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the code, answered questions on an Internet forum. He wrote mostly about code but he sometimes
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branched out into economics and politics. His ideological orientation is indisputable: he is a believer
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in free markets and an opponent of government paper money. His invention was motivated by those
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convictions. Once his invention started to gain market traction, he disappeared without a trace.
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Nakamoto designed the software that manages the currency network, along with the network that
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supports it. Anyone can look at the underlying code. It is not “owned” by any one group or business
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or individual. The Bitcoin network is controlled directly by the individual owners themselves, a
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system known as peer-to-peer (P2P).
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The motivation being its creation tapped into a sense that most close observers have of government
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money. Nakamoto argued that government money relies too much on people’s trust of their political
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elites and the system that they established. It is constantly mismanaged. No one knows what the
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banking elites are going to do next. It is not an open system. It is inflationary. It creates booms and
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busts. To top it off, it is expensive.
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In contrast to the majority of other currencies, the functioning of Bitcoin is not dependent on a central-
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ized institution. Anyone can start an exchange, retail shop, or website that tracks prices and exchanges.
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All of these draw from a database that is publicly distributed. The software designed by Nakamoto uses
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cryptography to provide security, such as the guarantee that Bitcoins may only be spent by their owner,
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and never more than once.
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Bitcoin is one of the first implementations of the concept of crypto-currency, and without a doubt
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the most successful to date. Nakamoto’s major achievement is the solution of the problem of double-
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spending in a decentralized system, which had been a major cause for concern for economists and
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programmers alike.
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Even in the mid-1990s, programmers were talking about the need for a digital currency, but each attempt
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what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
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faltered because there was no way to prevent the unit from being copied — that is, to prevent fraud.
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The Internet specializes in making copies. But in the area of money, copies are the kiss of death. It
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leads to inflation and instability and finally destroys the value of all existing currency. What we need
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is a money stock that is fully transparent and predictably fixed at some point in time.
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Bitcoin was the first successful attempt to control copying. To prevent a Bitcoin or any fraction of
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a Bitcoin from being spent more than once by the same person (in other words, to avoid fraud), the
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network uses what Nakamoto describes as a distributed time-stamp server, which identifies and se-
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quentially orders the transactions. Every Bitcoin is assigned an owner. This prevents their modification.
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The history of all Bitcoin movements remains stored in what’s called the blockchain, a database that
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maintains a record of all transactions in the network. This information is stored in “nodes,” which are
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nothing more than computers executing the Bitcoin software worldwide, connected to each other via
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the Internet. In other words, if you use Bitcoin, you are a node.
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Even though Bitcoins are sent instantly and any operation may be monitored in real-time, the individual
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transactions are shown on screen when using the Bitcoin software that chronicles the clearing process.
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Worldwide, there are between 25–50 million Bitcoin transactions taking place per day. That is small
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compared with government currencies, but not insubstantial. You can watch Bitcoin transactions in
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real-time at blockchain.info. For a fun site on which to listen to music made of Bitcoin transactions,
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see ListentoBitcoin.com.
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These exchanges are confirmed and verified by the software. The greater the number of confirmations,
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the more remote is the possibility of being a victim of double-spending. When a transaction exceeds
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six confirmations by the network, a transaction is considered technically irreversible.
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How reliable is it?
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To date, there is not a single documented instance of double-spending in Bitcoin. It is possible for a
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computer attack to hit a particular exchange, but the system as a whole cannot be hacked. So far, no
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one has seen a way for it to be possible for more Bitcoins to be assigned to more owners.
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As a payment system that transfers funds from one person to another, it is extremely efficient. The
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payment is logged by the software before the network verifies that it is real and sound and then
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confirms the transaction. The majority of receivers and retailers who accept Bitcoins are satisfied
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with one single confirmation. For small amounts, it’s even reasonable to accept transactions instant-
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ly, even before they are confirmed by the network.
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The information that allows users to control Bitcoins in their possession can be stored in any electronic
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medium, such as personal hard drive, memory cards and sticks, CD, Web mailbox, etc., or in websites
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that offer “Bitcoin accounts.”
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You can keep this information on printed paper. You can even carry around such pieces of paper and
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use them for tippigg the wait staff at a restaurant, for example. You can even keep it in your mental
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memory. Bitcoin ownership can be transferred through the Internet to anyone with a “Bitcoin address,”
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what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
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similar to the way an email is sent to an email address.
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Thanks to Bitcoin’s cryptographic architecture, a transfer between Bitcoin addresses is far more secure
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than a transfer between bank accounts (and that’s not counting the risk implied by the mandatory
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third-party intrusion within the banking system).
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As it develops, we will continue to see wild swings in the price as irrational exuberance gives way to
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despair and back again. Bitcoin has so far proven solid as a rock. The software infrastructure built
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around Bitcoin will grow, fail, develop, grow, and fail again. This will happen for a long time, just as
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it did with email, Web media, and cellphones.
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Also, as is common in these cases, some people will write it off as a failed experiment on the first dip.
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This has already happened in the history of Bitcoin. In 2011, the price collapsed from $30 down to $2.
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Even technical publications wrote it off as a failed experiment. Then it went through a revival, shooting
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up astronomically until the existing Bitcoin exchanges couldn’t handle the load. That led to panic
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selling again. This could happen many more times before the market completely shakes itself out.
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Remember that Bitcoin does not trade at a fixed relationship to any other currency. It is designed to be
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a floating currency that competes with all others. For that reason, its value will be forever fluctuating.
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This feature is what alarms many potential users. It acts like a wild stock and no one has any solid
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basis for understanding its current and potential valuation. That said, plenty of venture capitalists and
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many large investors are already deeply involved in the Bitcoin market.
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Here is a complete picture from July 2010 to the present (April 11, 2013). You can see the wild run-up,
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but then a settling down at an exchange ratio of eight times its price on Jan. 1, 2013. It’s been a rocky
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road, but the overall increase of 800% is a phenomenal increase.
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Price of One Bitcoin in USD
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200
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100
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0
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Sep1 Jan1 May1 Sep1 Jan1 May1 Sep1 Jan1
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Bitcoin Transactions Per Day
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50k
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25k
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0k
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Sep1 Jan1 May1 Sep1 Jan1 May1 Sep1 Jan1
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Such swings in a new market are to be expected. The first run-up and dip of Bitcoin happened as more
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retail outlets came online and silver fell in price. The huge run-up from $15 to $266 occurred in the
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midst of the Cyprus crisis and bailout. We can probably expect another upward sweep during the next
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what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
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currency crisis, wherever it happens to be, followed by yet another sell-off. So far, each run up and
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down and resulted in a new stable zone higher than it was previously.
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These are the convulsions of a new currency being born. Free markets are always in a state of flux,
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with buyers and sellers forever participating in the process of price discovery. This is particularly true
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in nascent frontier markets, where early adopters meet with future waves of market participants, each
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with their own unique set of desires and expectations. Bitcoin has been called the “Wild Wild West”
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of the currency world, so it is not surprising that we should see violent swings in its price and disrup-
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tive innovations in the infrastructure serving the economy.
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Left alone, markets undergo the process of “creative destruction” at breakneck pace... and they are all
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the better for it.
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The short price history is that Bitcoin languished for most of its three-year history until it suddenly
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took off in March 2013, mostly in conjunction with the banking crisis in Cyprus. It shot up and fell
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back, but still remains at a very high point relative to its history. These gyrations have confused many
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people. What is the correct dollar-to-Bitcoin exchange ratio? No one knows for sure right now, just as
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no one knows the correct dollar-to-euro or euro-to-yen exchange ratio. This is for the market — and
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the buyers and sellers involved therein — to decide.
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Is It Money?
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People who use Bitcoin everyday treat it like money. Those who have no familiarity with it dismiss it
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entirely. Other commentators like Paul Krugman agitate against it on grounds that nothing can be
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money unless it is “legal tender” and controlled by a central bank.
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It is true that the “peer to peer” nature of the Bitcoin network makes it impossible to establish a
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centralized control of the whole system. This prevents the arbitrary increase of the quantity of coins
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in circulation (which would cause inflation) and any other type of manipulation of their value on the
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part of the authorities.
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The Bitcoin software (also known as “Bitcoin client”) installed in users’ computers transmits each
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transaction to nearby nodes, which in turn propagate it throughout the network. Invalid transactions
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are refused by honest clients (those who comply with the protocol). As yet, most transactions may be
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carried out free of charge, but it is possible to pay a transaction fee so that miners prioritize (speed up)
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their processing.
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Where do new Bitcoins come from? They are “mined” the same way that gold is mined. This mining
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takes place when a computer works to verify transactions by solving complicated math problems. In
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the early days, the mining was easy. But the program is designed to make mining harder as more
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computers get involved in the process.
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The idea here is to strictly restrain money creation. Every 10 minutes, a new block is added to the
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overall blockchain. Currently, each new block contains 25 additional Bitcoins. Every time 210,000
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Bitcoins are mined, the production rate is halved. But just as there is only so much gold in the world,
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there are only so many Bitcoins.
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what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
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In 2140, the total number of Bitcoins in circulation will reach 21 million. Their supply grows as a
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geometric series (at a constant rate). Already, more than half the total supply has generated. In 2017,
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three-quarters of the total supply will already be in circulation.
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Bitcoins are divisible down to eight decimal points, and potentially more, which removes the practical
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limitations to price adjustment. In other words, one Bitcoin can buy you a cab ride or it could buy you
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a condominium in Manhattan, depending on the market valuation. If the value of Bitcoin rises that
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much, it is easy to denominate goods and services in ever smaller decimal units. If Bitcoin matures
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enough, its value will become independent of any existing monetary unit.
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As of this writing, Bitcoin has a $1 billion-plus market capitalization. Still, the Bitcoin economy is
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tiny compared with well-established economies. Even so, all types of goods and services are currently
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being exchanged for Bitcoins, and there are many websites offering the exchange of almost every
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currency for Bitcoins through different funds transfer systems.
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We aren’t ready to say that Bitcoin is already money, though clearly many people (perhaps half a
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million or so) already regard it as such. But for it to be a universal money, there would have to be
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more general interest in its value independent of other currencies, and pricing would need to take
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place not based on the exchange rate, but on its own. That said, we are watching its moneyness
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emerge slowly, but steadily, exactly as gold and silver emerged in the past.
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Why Bitcoin Is Hard to Understand
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Even the most qualified people have trouble understanding how Bitcoin works, just as it might have
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been difficult to explain email 20 years ago. The reason for this is that Bitcoin challenges a series of
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concepts that have rarely ever been questioned before. We need to unlearn these suppositions before
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adopting better ones.
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Even knowing that Bitcoin is superior to any other monetary system, many people tend to prefer that
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with which they are familiar, rather than venturing into unknown territory. The eternal battle between
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the conservative — who supports the theory of “better the evil you already know” — and the adven-
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turer — who would rather go for the “good that is yet to be known” — takes place within all of us.
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But once the legacy of misconceptions has been rejected and the inertia of habit has been overcome,
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the path becomes far easier for the adventurer, who will also pave the way for the conservative.
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What are the ingrained habits that make Bitcoin appear implausible?
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• We are used to seeing the act of paying as separate from the act of recording the
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payment. Through Bitcoin, nobody pays (nobody sends or receives Bitcoins);
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instead people modify balances in a sort of decentralized ledger (which is sort
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of like a big book). Thus, the act of paying is indistinguishable from the act of
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recording the payment;
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• We are used to thinking that the monetary system needs to be guarded by a privi-
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leged caste of central bankers and regulators. The Bitcoin protocol does not protect
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what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
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someone or some group in particular, but rather protects the tool itself and, there-
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fore, all those who use it;
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• We are used to our bank accounts being linked to our identity. Bitcoin addresses are
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anonymous if their owners so wish;
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• We are used to transactions that are known in detail only by those directly involved
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in them (plus the third-party payment processor). With Bitcoin, information about
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all transactions is public and easily accessible;
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• We are used to money as a receipt with more or less backing. With Bitcoin, the unit
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and the receipt are the same “thing,” and impossible to duplicate or to falsify.
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Will There Be a Crackdown?
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One possible failure scenario for Bitcoin is that of a worldwide governmental campaign against the
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software and the sites that accept Bitcoins. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has already
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intervened to insist that miners and exchanges register the same way any currency trader does. The
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FBI is carefully watching Bitcoin for fear that it is a vehicle for money laundering. Other government
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agencies will certainly get involved, wanting to regulate and control.
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What about the ultimate fear that government will simply outlaw digital currency? Given the nature of
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the system, the total elimination of Bitcoin (as that of any other P2P network) does not seem either
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technologically or economically viable. It is just not possible to rid the world of particular combina-
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tions of 1s and 0s. Government is powerful, but not that powerful. Even if something called “Bitcoin”
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were made illegal, the currency could be reinvented under another name.
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There are certain factors mitigating against even the attempt. Large corporations are already accepting
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it. Venture capital has already put vast sums into development. It is a global, not a national, currency,
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meaning the difficulties of unified laws and enforcement are vastly more.
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There’s an additional factor here too. Bitcoin is the greatest tool ever invented for passing money
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from one party to another without a paper trail. This is something that politicians, bureaucrats, and
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government employees of all sorts in all lands desire very intensely — even more than regular
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citizens. It might remain untouched for that reason alone.
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Nobody knows for certain what Bitcoin’s destiny will be; the only thing we know is that the idea of a
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decentralized crypto-currency is here to stay.
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The Technical Superiority of Bitcoin
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Why is Bitcoin superior to government currencies? The quick answer: Because no one — no committee
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of “experts” — controls its destiny and because the rules set by the protocol devised by Satoshi
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Nakamoto are not imposed; each user chooses to accept them. Like a free society, Bitcoin manages
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itself. But what does this mean in practice for the user?
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what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
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Let’s list the advantages. Bitcoin:
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1. Strengthens privacy by eliminating the interference of third parties in transactions.
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2. Increases in supply at a predictable and slowing rate, helping to preserve — and possibly
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even increase — Bitcoin’s purchasing power.
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3. Lowers, or even eliminates, transaction costs on the Web. Fees and costs associated
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with current methods of exchange — Visa, MasterCard, and even PayPal — tend to
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hinder free exchange.
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4. Simplifies and accelerates payments, dispensing with unwanted intermediaries.
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5. Affords users anonymity, if they desire it.
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6. Allows transfers anywhere, ignoring geographic and political barriers.
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7. Fosters transparency: Although users are not forced to reveal their identities, all trans-
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actions are recorded in a freely accessible record so that errors can be spotted quickly.
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8. Supports complex transactions (escrow, deposit insurance, guarantees, mediation, etc.)
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with solid cryptographic support for all types of rules and conditions that are freely
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agreed upon by the parties.
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9. Is available nonstop: There are no holidays or weekends for Bitcoin operations.
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10. Makes micropayments viable on a large scale.
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11. Prevents the freezing of funds.
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12. Prevents chargebacks.
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13. Prevents the arbitrary restriction of goods and services that may be purchased.
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14. Allows for the accumulation of huge fortunes within a very tiny space.
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15. Can be easily hidden and does not need to resort to a third party for safekeeping and/
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or transfer.
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16. Can be stored in multiple locations simultaneously.
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17. Does not rely on a third party or a particular legal system to preserve its value.
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||
18. Provides protection against all forms of theft, including taxes: The technology on
|
||
which the Bitcoin protocol is based is several times safer than that used by banks and
|
||
credit cards.
|
||
19. Cannot be removed by legal/computer attacks, due to its decentralized nature.
|
||
20. Cannot be forged.
|
||
21. Is easily and instantly recognizable.
|
||
22. Is infinitely divisible.
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
10
|
||
For quite a few reasons that no one any longer denies, email has replaced the postal service in all its
|
||
primary duties. How many reasons in its favor does Bitcoin have to build up for fiat money to become
|
||
obsolete? It could be rocky road forward, but there will be no letup in the pressure for the world to
|
||
embrace precisely what Bitcoin represents.
|
||
OK, I’m In. What Should I Do to Get Started?
|
||
Now that you’ve seen the advantages, you might be ready to jump in. But before you do, remember
|
||
that this market is far from being settled, and your own technical skill needs time to develop. It is
|
||
best to start very small, just to get a feel for it. People who first enter this sector can sometimes make
|
||
mistakes that result in lost coins. Even today’s experts will tell you that “user error” has resulted in
|
||
problems in the past. Start small; you can ramp up your holdings later on.
|
||
In addition, the Bitcoin industry is completely open and it will likely attract a sizable number of
|
||
crooks and scam artists. For this reason, you should use only reputable sites. New companies will
|
||
come along and proclaim themselves to be wonderful. Modern website design can make anything
|
||
seem wonderful.
|
||
But here is a truth you must remember: All exchanges and websites are subject to crashing and hack-
|
||
ing. With healthy competition, this will happen less and less over time. But in the intervening period,
|
||
you should keep possession of your own Bitcoins and not trust an institution that claims to be a bank
|
||
to keep them for you. One of the great advantages of Bitcoin is precisely that you do not need banks.
|
||
If, while you are exploring an option, anything strikes you as odd, if you see any strange pop-up
|
||
advertising, if there is the slightest sign of trouble, back away. There are other places to go. Another
|
||
glory of Bitcoin is that it allows you to move money almost instantly and with no fuss from one
|
||
vendor to another and back again.
|
||
How to Get Started: Your Bitcoin Wallet
|
||
The first step in getting Bitcoins into your possession so that you can trade with them is to obtain a
|
||
“wallet.” The Bitcoin wallet is the file needed to send and receive Bitcoins. This file contains our
|
||
Bitcoins, although in reality, it contains cryptographic keys (unique, secret, private keys) that make us
|
||
owners of our Bitcoins and allow us to authorize payments (transfer the possession of our coins). The
|
||
word wallet actually applies, however. It is the piece of equipment that keeps track of your Bitcoins
|
||
and allows you to use them.
|
||
Getting one or more wallets is easy; here are the two most popular ways of doing it:
|
||
The Official Way
|
||
Bitcoin-Qt (the name of the official Bitcoin client) is a program that can be installed on any computer
|
||
that runs Windows, Mac or Linux. You just need to download it from Bitcoin.org and install it. It will
|
||
automatically create a wallet and will start downloading the transaction history (blockchain). You
|
||
need only be online to send from this wallet; it’s not necessary to be online if you just want to receive
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
11
|
||
Bitcoins. This method is used by the most technically sophisticated among users. Once you have this
|
||
wallet, you can then sign up with an exchange. Two examples are Mt. Gox and the newer American
|
||
exchange called Tradehill. Both are reputable and tested by users. More are on their way.
|
||
The Easy Way
|
||
In the old days of only two years ago, users had to have a high degree of technical expertise to use
|
||
Bitcoin. Now there’s a new generation of Web wallets that are very safe and easy to use. Their level of
|
||
security relies on the fact that the private keys are encrypted in the user’s browser, so the service
|
||
provider will never have access to your Bitcoins.
|
||
The two best and most reputable wallets are available from Coinbase.com and Blockchain.info. These
|
||
companies both offer free smartphone applications.
|
||
You should begin by downloading the smartphone application. Whatever you download to your
|
||
smartphone you can (and should) duplicate on your desktop computer. That way, you have two ways
|
||
to access your Bitcoin wallet.
|
||
The one we recommend is My Wallet, offered by Blockchain. If you don’t want to go through the
|
||
entire tutorial, simply do the following:
|
||
Download the Blockchain app on your device. Register with a 10-digit password. And that’s it. Now
|
||
you are ready to receive Bitcoins.
|
||
The detailed tutorial below describes the process using My Wallet from Blockchain.info. This is a
|
||
tutorial for using the website edition, although the smartphone edition is the same. Again, we recom-
|
||
mend doing both to ensure you have two ways to access your wallet.
|
||
Again, this is to date the easiest and most secure method.
|
||
Setting up Your Bitcoin Wallet — Tutorial
|
||
Go to Blockchain.info/wallet. Click on the “Start a New Wallet” button.
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
12
|
||
Fill in your alias and a password of your choice, and copy the CAPTCHA.
|
||
Regarding the password: Use at least 10 characters, do not include any words or names, and try to use
|
||
uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and (ideally) other symbols. Try not to use “regular”
|
||
words, because there are robots on the Web that use what are called “dictionary attacks” to rapidly try
|
||
out passwords and attempt to guess yours.
|
||
For example, your password should not be johnsmith1. It should be more like j0hn5mi1h#. This is
|
||
very important not only in signing up for Bitcoin, but for all your online dealings.
|
||
Whatever you do, don’t forget your password. You cannot recover it.
|
||
The next screen will present you with a mnemonic that you can use to retrieve your password in the
|
||
future, in case you forget it. Make sure you write it down and make some copies.
|
||
It is important that you don’t lose your password. If you do, you will lose your Bitcoins
|
||
(Blockchain.info does not save this information).
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
13
|
||
The next screen you’ll see will be the login page to your wallet. The URL should read
|
||
https://blockchain.info/wallet/YourAlias. You will see two boxes: one for your wallet’s identifier (a
|
||
long string of characters, such as 0d683d57-b040-3d0c-f43e-0a83d15b0aef) and one for your password.
|
||
Enter the password you selected in Step 3 and you’ll be taken to your wallet.
|
||
Congratulations! You’re now inside your wallet.
|
||
Next, you can go to your account settings, where you’ll have access to your account information. In reality,
|
||
there’s no need to change any of the settings. Your wallet is good to go as it stands, with one exception.
|
||
Back up Your Wallet
|
||
You’ll want an easy way to back up your wallet (something you should ALWAYS do). There are two
|
||
ways to do this, with your email address or directly from your wallet.
|
||
Backing up Your Wallet via Your Email Address
|
||
Do this by entering your email address in the space where it is requested. This will send a confirmation
|
||
code, which you will need to enter in the “confirmation code box” below where you entered your email.
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
14
|
||
As soon as your email address is verified, you will receive your wallet’s backup in your inbox. If you
|
||
save your email, you are fine. If not, save this file somewhere safe and/or store it in the cloud. Even if
|
||
the website (blockchain.info) disappears, you’ll have access to your Bitcoins with this backup file.
|
||
Backing up Your Wallet via Your Wallet Home (if you don’t want to use your email address):
|
||
Go to “Wallet Home.” And at the bottom right, you’ll see a “Backup” area with some buttons for
|
||
downloading your wallet’s backup. The “Download” button will allow you to save the backup file
|
||
directly into your computer; the “Dropbox” button will connect to your Dropbox account to save the
|
||
file there; same thing with the “Google Drive” button. The “Email” button is just another way to do
|
||
what we described above.
|
||
Receiving Bitcoins:
|
||
Now this is the fun part. You have your wallet set up. Now you can actually receive Bitcoins. You can
|
||
do this in one of two ways: Either you buy them from an exchange for paper money or someone gives
|
||
them to you for trade.
|
||
The easiest possible way is to find someone you know who uses them. Most anyone is happy to give
|
||
away 0.001 Bitcoin just to get a new convert involved. This person will know all about scanning QR
|
||
codes from phone to phone. This is the fastest and easiest way.
|
||
Anytime you are receiving Bitcoins, you need to use your Bitcoin address (the same information is
|
||
stored in your QR code). In your wallet’s Home, you’ll see your Bitcoin address at the bottom left.
|
||
It’ll look something like this: 1BFyhVVBVG8EuK3Upv738Bqd7e8hmGmgxu.
|
||
This is the address you need to give to the person who’s going to send you the coins (make sure you
|
||
copy and paste it to avoid mistakes). You can create more addresses, which will all point to your
|
||
wallet. It is very useful to have different addresses to organize your wallet. So you could have an
|
||
address for your business, another for Bitcoin purchases, etc.
|
||
This is how you create them:
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
15
|
||
Go to “Receive Money.”
|
||
You’ll see your default address listed there (the same that showed on the wallet’s Home). Go to the
|
||
bottom right corner and click on the “New Address” button.
|
||
A new window will pop up with a new generated address. Here you’ll be able to label your address as
|
||
you wish (i.e., Business).
|
||
Your new address will show on the list. So next time you need to receive coins from a business-relat-
|
||
ed transaction, you will be able to use this address and keep payments separated (you can create as
|
||
many addresses as you want).
|
||
Sending Bitcoins:
|
||
From your wallet’s Home, go to “Send Money.”
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
16
|
||
From here you can do a “Quick” send or a “Custom” send. If you just want to send some coins and
|
||
you don’t mind from which address they’re going to be deducted, just use the quick option. Now, if
|
||
you’re sending coins related to your business activity, you might want to deduct the amount from the
|
||
“Business” address you created. For this, you need to use the Custom send (just click on “Custom” at
|
||
the left, under the Transaction Type dashboard).
|
||
Let’s say you selected the Custom send. The first thing you’ll need to do is select the address you’ll be
|
||
deducting your coins from (in our case, we’ll select “Business” from the menu).
|
||
In the “To” box, you’ll need to enter the address of the person you’re sending the Bitcoins to (make
|
||
sure to copy and paste the address to avoid errors). You can even send to multiple addresses if you
|
||
click the “+” button to the right.
|
||
Next to the address, you’ll need to enter the Bitcoin amount you are sending (i.e., 1.45BTC).
|
||
You can add a note to the transaction if you want. But be careful what you say: Anyone will be able to
|
||
read it, since it’ll be embedded in the blockchain.
|
||
There’s also a drop-down menu to select to which address you want the change to be directed. Select
|
||
the same one you are taking the funds from.
|
||
Hit “Review Payment” and confirm it if the information is correct.
|
||
You can access a history of all your transactions going to “My Transactions” at the top of your wal-
|
||
let’s Home.
|
||
How Does a Bitcoin Wallet Work?
|
||
The Bitcoin Client will automatically generate a wallet that will contain a pair of public and (their
|
||
corresponding) private keys. This is the way encryption works. For the purposes of the user, you only
|
||
need to be concerned with your public key. The public keys are the ones you can see — the ones you
|
||
give to the other party when you want to receive a payment. Private keys, however, are stored in your
|
||
wallet (in the wallet.dat file).
|
||
Imagine your public addresses as being inviolable mailboxes that everyone can see and in which
|
||
anyone can deposit their Bitcoins. Each public key is “opened” with a specific, impossible-to-duplicate
|
||
private key that is stored on your software.
|
||
If you receive 1 Bitcoin, it has been sent to one of your public keys (or address). The only way to
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
17
|
||
transfer the ownership of that Bitcoin (to “send” it to another person) is by using the stored private
|
||
key that corresponds to that public address.
|
||
As long as you keep the wallet, you’ll possess the private keys that will allow you to use the Bitcoins
|
||
controlled by that wallet. That’s why it’s a good idea to keep backups.
|
||
Once you have your Bitcoin wallet, there are several ways you can get more Bitcoins.
|
||
Exchanges and Trading Sites:
|
||
There are many sites where you can get small fractions of Bitcoins for free. These sites are filled with
|
||
advertisements and can be tricky to use. They might be fun to play with, and there’s nothing wrong
|
||
with doing that, but they are not for people who are truly interested in using or saving Bitcoins.
|
||
You can also deal with a local dealer and trade cash for Bitcoins at a premium.
|
||
What you really need to do is sign up for an account with a real Bitcoin exchange. This requires
|
||
linking your bank account the same way you would do electronic banking with a utility company,
|
||
your cable company, or your credit card company. The steps you go through are the same. Think of
|
||
the Bitcoin exchange as just another vendor you deal with.
|
||
The most known and used Bitcoin exchange to date is Mt. Gox. It handles 80% of all Bitcoin trade.
|
||
But there are many other sites that facilitate the exchange with all types of currencies and that support
|
||
various systems for transferring funds. BitInstant, Bitstamp, Bitcoin Nordic, Coinbase, and mercaBit
|
||
are just some that sell Bitcoins through hundreds of thousands of points of sale worldwide.
|
||
Of all these, Coinbase is the most popular because it easiest. Your bank will probably refuse Coin-
|
||
base’s attempt to connect until the account is verified. This happens in the usual way: Two small
|
||
deposits will be made into your account. When they arrive, you put those amounts into Coinbase, and
|
||
then you are linked up.
|
||
A new American exchange that is working hard to make Bitcoin more mainstream is Tradehill. All of
|
||
the main exchanges today require a great deal of identity checking. You will face a double confirmation
|
||
that you are, indeed, the owner of the bank account you link. For those who think of Bitcoin as a way
|
||
to disappear financially, this process will show otherwise. All of these exchanges work very hard to
|
||
legitimize their businesses.
|
||
In addition, there are sites that accept payments through Western Union or Liberty Reserve, like Nanaimo
|
||
Gold. There are sites that accept gold and silver in exchange for Bitcoins (and vice versa), like Coinabul.
|
||
Please note: You can make new wallets and new accounts all you want. If you have a blockchain
|
||
wallet and a Coinbase.com desktop and want to move the money, you can send from one to the other
|
||
and back again — all without notable fees. This is vastly easier than making a regular account.
|
||
Accepting Bitcoins for goods and services:
|
||
Do you have a business for which you are interested in accepting Bitcoins? There are many services
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
18
|
||
out there that will help you set up an e-commerce solution to your business. Coinbase does this. But
|
||
the most popular is BitPay.com
|
||
There are tens of thousands of vendors that accept Bitcoins, and the invaluable Bitcoin Wiki is updated
|
||
by the minute to tell you who they are. For example, you can buy supplies for your business from
|
||
Amazon with BTC4amazon. Or you can buy from the “Amazon” of Bitcoin itself: BitcoinStore.com.
|
||
Through them, you can:
|
||
● buy gift and debit cards (CryptCard, BTCinstant)
|
||
● buy precious metals (Amagi Metals)
|
||
● buy novelty physical Bitcoins (CoinedBits)
|
||
● trade equities (MPEx)
|
||
● buy gold and crude futures (ICBIT)
|
||
● get a website designed (FarmGeek)
|
||
● order flowers (BitcoinForFlowers)
|
||
● buy pharmaceuticals without a prescription and at half price (JCM Pharmacy)
|
||
● buy electronics and books (Bitcoinin)
|
||
● post classifieds (BitcoinClassifieds)
|
||
● buy survival food and storage (Survival Food)
|
||
● go to photography school (Icon Photography)
|
||
● buy beauty products (Bitcoin Knotwork)
|
||
● donate to charity (BitCharity)
|
||
● and thousands of other things…
|
||
This is only a tiny sample. Again, Bitcoin Wiki is updated daily with information on where you can
|
||
use your Bitcoins.
|
||
However, one of the most popular services in the Bitcoin world right now, sometimes credited with
|
||
having made paying with Bitcoin mainstream, is Bitspend.net. Here you can put in any Web address
|
||
from a commercial site and pay with Bitcoins, instead of dollars. This site is so popular that it crashed
|
||
in its first week. Now it is stable and a wonderful way to use Bitcoins at any store you want.
|
||
Contrary to popular opinion, the retail and wholesale Bitcoin sector is actually better developed than
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
19
|
||
the exchange sector. It is possible to set a price in any currency and denominate it in Bitcoin automati-
|
||
cally at current exchange rates so that the cost won’t be affected by fluctuations.
|
||
Through BitPay, payments can also be automatically converted to the currency the merchant prefers.
|
||
(So your customers can pay with Bitcoin, but you will receive dollars, if that’s your choice. Many of
|
||
the merchants accepting Bitcoin now are using this. Examples include WordPress, OkCupid, and
|
||
Reddit. Namecheap is another good example of a company that is providing this.)
|
||
If you are interested in following just the dollar/Bitcoin exchange rate, there are innumerable apps you
|
||
can download for free on your cellphone. They display prices like this:
|
||
Finding people willing to sell their Bitcoins:
|
||
You can locate people who want to sell by using services such as TradeBitcoin, LocalBitcoins, or
|
||
specialized forums, among other places. There are many miners who sell their produce and local
|
||
traders who buy and sell for a commission. It is very common for people to get together at some
|
||
neutral location, such as a Wi-Fi cafe or restaurant.
|
||
If you have a friend who has a Bitcoin wallet, it is easy to move Bitcoins
|
||
back and forth. You can get their Bitcoin address (they can email it or text it)
|
||
and send Bitcoins that way with the push of a button.
|
||
Another way to send someone Bitcoins is by scanning their QR code (the
|
||
square design that looks like a block barcode). It looks like a version of this:
|
||
Scanning this code puts their identifier in your send address. In the blank that allows you to specify
|
||
the amount you want to send, be careful to put in the right amount. You might start with trying to send
|
||
only a tiny amount, such as 0.001BTC.
|
||
If you are on the receiving end of the transaction, you need only hold up your code and ask your
|
||
friend to scan it.
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
20
|
||
Once you trade with someone, you will be asked if you want to add this person to your address book,
|
||
thereby replacing the long alphanumeric code with a simple name. This is a very good idea. That way
|
||
you can have it for later dealings. You don’t need to scan again. You should be fastidious about putting
|
||
this information in your wallet. That way, you do not risk accidentally sending money to someone you
|
||
did not intend to. All transactions clear in as little as a few seconds to as long as a few minutes.
|
||
These wallets are all in an early version of the software. As such, they are subject to human error. If
|
||
you make a mistake, it cannot be undone. Such is the fate of every first generation of software.
|
||
Mining
|
||
Once upon a time, many people made lots of money mining Bitcoins. But due to the increased diffi-
|
||
culty of obtaining Bitcoins through this means (related to the ever-increasing computational power
|
||
being added by miners to the Bitcoin’s network), nowadays, it is essential to have 1) a very high
|
||
computational power and 2) use a mining pool to be able to have shared results.
|
||
It’s been a long time since mining ceased to be within reach of the average PC user, and even the most
|
||
powerful servers are being left behind by a superpowerful card called ASIC. More and more, mining
|
||
is being left to specialists. At this late stage, mining is not profitable for average users. It will cost you
|
||
more in equipment than you will earn.
|
||
Banks, Failures, and Cold Storage
|
||
With fiat money, we are used to fearing bank runs that come in wake of financial problems and bank-
|
||
ruptcy. Even with deposit insurance, people worry that they won’t get their money back. With Bitcoin,
|
||
those fears largely evaporate, because every Bitcoin or fraction of a Bitcoin has an owner, and that
|
||
owner directly controls its fate. There is no need for traditional banking in the way we’ve come to
|
||
think about it.
|
||
Consider the case in April of the shutting down of a major Bitcoin exchange called BitFloor.com. It’s
|
||
account with its bank was closed for reasons no one yet knows. It put a sign on its website saying that
|
||
it had stopped business. Many of its customers were very upset, but why? Because of the inconve-
|
||
nience. But the fear that the money would somehow not be there for all customers was nowhere in
|
||
sight. The Bitcoin exchange rate was completely unaffected. It barely made the news.
|
||
The Bitcoin sector has given rise to certain kinds of warehousing functions. You can put your Bitcoins
|
||
in what is called “cold storage.” Let’s say you own a large amount, say, 1,000 Bitcoin. You do not
|
||
need instant access to them. In fact, you’d feel better if you did not. You can use any of the main
|
||
services to put those in cold storage for safekeeping. You can even download your Bitcoins and keep
|
||
your own cold storage on a thumb drive. You can even print out your Bitcoins and keep them in a safe
|
||
place. Then, when you need them, you can transfer them back into online use.
|
||
How can you be sure that a company that is keeping your Bitcoins in cold storage will not use them
|
||
for some other purpose? Every Bitcoin and every fraction of a Bitcoin has a unique identifier. The
|
||
transactions that take place are all posted publicly on the blockchain. If they were ever moved, you
|
||
would know instantly, and a permanent digital trail would exist. For this reason, it would be extremely
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
21
|
||
difficult, if not impossible, to steal any Bitcoin without the owner’s knowledge.
|
||
Some Final Distinctions
|
||
The glory of the market economy is its instability. Perhaps that sounds strange to stay, but the truth is
|
||
that a perfectly stable market is one where there is no growth, no advance, and no progress. There is
|
||
only stasis. That is precisely the way governments like the world to work, because it allows them to
|
||
control it, which means controlling you.
|
||
Markets thwart that desire completely. There are new ideas, new products, new technologies, new
|
||
services, and new ways of doing business. This is essential. But this process is always trial and error.
|
||
Nothing is perfect out of the gate. Enterprise is in a great position to learn from these mistakes, but
|
||
the mistakes have to happen in order to provide that lesson.
|
||
In the future, we are likely to see the development of Bitcoin deposit insurance, more robust futures
|
||
markets, insurance markets, instant micropayments for online services, a broad-based debit card
|
||
market, a BTC-denominated stock market, and so much more. We are still in the infancy of this
|
||
technology, which could not only create a new global economic sector, but could actually end up
|
||
redefining the relationship between the individual and the state.
|
||
In the early days of the Internet, the technology was new and the providers were not prepared for its
|
||
rapid growth. On the consumer end, of course, everyone expected everything to work perfectly.
|
||
Speculators got involved, and the usual hysteria and the madness of crowds took over. At the first sign
|
||
of trouble, overbought stocks crashed, people bailed, sentiment changed, and many people declared
|
||
the new system dead.
|
||
Of course, the Internet did not die. It has been a source of economic growth for the last 15 years and it
|
||
will continue this way. Those who placed their trust in the conventional wisdom — this new system
|
||
can never work — ended up on the wrong side of history.
|
||
That same cycle seems to be repeating itself with Bitcoin. For the first two years of its existence, it
|
||
languished at 14 cents to the dollar. Then, as its merits were discovered and retailers got involved, the
|
||
software infrastructure could not handle the increased load. It became overbought, and panic selling
|
||
ensued. All over social media and among those who doubt there is any merit to Bitcoin at all, there
|
||
was widespread chortling and declarations that Bitcoin failed.
|
||
But these pronouncements missed a crucial distinction. There is a huge difference between Bitcoin as
|
||
a technology and Bitcoin exchanges as institutions. Every single Bitcoin exchange could fail, but that
|
||
says nothing about the success or failure of Bitcoin as a technology. It’s like declaring railroads a
|
||
failure because the train didn’t arrive on time, or judging email to be bad because the earliest services
|
||
were spotty.
|
||
Think back to the Pets.com fiasco of 2000. Just because this one company flopped did not mean that
|
||
Internet commerce was dead. On the contrary, the death of this institution and many others taught
|
||
lessons for others to follow.
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
22
|
||
So it is with Bitcoin.
|
||
Right now, 67% of Bitcoin trades go through Mt. Gox. If this company has technical trouble, the
|
||
entire market is affected. This is a frustrating fact for many people in the whole industry. People are
|
||
calling for more exchanges and a greater diversification of holding, and there will be more. There will
|
||
be thousands of exchanges in the future.
|
||
The exchange rate crash from a high of $266 to a low of $50 in the course of 48 hours was linked to
|
||
the failure of Mt. Gox, which had servers that became wildly overloaded. It didn’t help being hit with
|
||
distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks at the same time. Such attacks usually originate from
|
||
robots sending rapid-fire submissions through data-receiving portions of the website. Such attacks
|
||
afflict every website in the course of its life, and they can only be prevented once they have occurred,
|
||
allowing network administrators to customize the server against the most likely attacks.
|
||
But the DDoS hammerings of Mt. Gox in early April exacerbated panic selling and the dramatic price
|
||
drop. So frustrated were the server’s managers that they actually suspended trading for 12 hours,
|
||
leaving only a handful of other exchanges and a very thin market.
|
||
This was not the first such case, and it won’t be the last. Mt. Gox has already dramatically improved
|
||
its server infrastructure since this event. But still, the faults of one exchange should not affect an
|
||
entire industry so dramatically, which is why so many people are working toward diversification.
|
||
As Matt Ridley has written:
|
||
It would be a mistake to write off Bitcoins as just another bubble. People are clearly
|
||
keen on new forms of money safe from the confiscation and inflation that looks increas-
|
||
ingly inevitable as governments try to escape their debts. Bitcoins pose a fundamental
|
||
question: Will some form of private money replace the kind minted and printed by
|
||
governments?
|
||
Even if Bitcoin does achieve that end, wild swings will continue to be part of this industry. This is
|
||
why so many people are looking forward to new innovations, including Bitcoin ATMs. I actually used
|
||
one of the prototypes while at a New Hampshire conference. They are currently being perfected for
|
||
release in the coming months. Innovators are already looking at plugins for existing ATMs that will
|
||
allow quick conversions. When this happens, people will be in a position to move in and out quickly.
|
||
Just keep this in mind: Bitcoins are not conceived of as an investment vehicle. Until the market stabi-
|
||
lizes and until you become technically adept at using them, you should never keep more money in
|
||
Bitcoins than you can afford to lose. Some people have made, and will continue to make, a killing on
|
||
speculation. But you can’t (and shouldn’t) count on being among them. The exchange rate could take
|
||
years to stabilize. During this period, it will respond to unpredictable events, such as bank failures.
|
||
Even if the long-run pressure is for Bitcoin to become more valuable in terms of goods and services,
|
||
we are likely to see more downward swoops as well.
|
||
On the other hand, venture capital is all over this market. As TechCrunch says:
|
||
Bitcoin’s record highs and the ensuring surge in hacking attempts and thefts may be
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
23
|
||
grabbing headlines. However, beneath the chaos, Silicon Valley’s best-known venture
|
||
firms are finally starting to make real bets around the crypto-currency.
|
||
The price of a single Bitcoin had more than quintupled to $265 amid a banking crisis in
|
||
Cyprus and new signs from the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
|
||
that regulators will tolerate the currency. It then settled back down to $120 as increased
|
||
volumes and DDoS attacks hit the biggest Bitcoin exchanges today and yesterday.
|
||
While anyone who has ever worked in trading knows that a chart like this often ends in
|
||
a world of pain, there is a growing sense that Bitcoin, or another math-based currency
|
||
like it, is here to stay.”
|
||
The purpose of Bitcoin is to serve as a digital-age payment system, evolving one step at a time into an
|
||
independent money to compete with that forced on us by the nation-state. It may sound like a dream,
|
||
but we’ve already seen digital technology make many dreams come true, including instantaneous and
|
||
wireless video phones that are free and allow you to speak with anyone in the world.
|
||
The best way forward for you as an individual is to become an owner. If anything in this report con-
|
||
fused you, or it all seemed a bit abstract, owning is the true remedy. That’s what changes everything.
|
||
If it is at tiny amount like 0.0001 BTC, owning is the key to learning and then doing.
|
||
Markets are continually reinventing the world. Might they do the same thing for money? And banking?
|
||
And insurance? And financial services? It is a trial-and-error process, but many people are dedicated to
|
||
making it happen. Between now and then, it will be a wild and wonderful ride. We do, indeed, live in
|
||
interesting times.
|
||
Jeffrey Tucker is executive editor of Laissez Faire Books and head of the Laissez Faire Club. This report
|
||
was produced in cooperation with many people deeply involved in the Bitcoin world: programmers, mer-
|
||
chants, software engineers, economists, and bank specialists. Major sections were contributed by others
|
||
who wish to remain anonymous. But I would like to make particular mention of Michael Goldstein of the
|
||
University of Texas as an astute consultant, Doug French as an excellent explainer and critic, and Joel
|
||
Bowman of The Daily Reckoning as well. I bear responsibility for any final errors. tucker@lfb.org
|
||
Best sources for continuing news and more information
|
||
• Bitcoin Wiki
|
||
• Bitcoin Subreddit
|
||
• The Bitcoin Channel
|
||
• Bitcoin Forum
|
||
• Laissez Faire Club Forum.
|
||
what the GOVERNME NT doesn’t want you to know about… BITCOINS
|
||
|
||
Club
|
||
Leave the World Alone. It Manages Itself.
|
||
© 2013 Agora Financial, LLC. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Reproduction, copying, or redistribution
|
||
(electronic or otherwise, including on the World Wide Web), in whole or in part, is encouraged provided the attribution Agora Financial is preserved. 808
|
||
Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21202. Nothing in this report should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer
|
||
your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by
|
||
our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investment advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security
|
||
recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication or 72 hours after the mailing of a printed-only
|
||
publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended in this letter should be made only after consulting with your invest-
|
||
ment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.
|