Blockchain vs. Bullshit - Andreas M. Antonopoulos (Personal Notes)

harryhoudinei (43)in #steemit • 7 years ago (edited)

Notes From: Blockchain vs. Bullshit: Thoughts on the Future of Money

Presented By: Andreas M. Antonopoulos

Notes by Harrison K.

Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a technologist and serial entrepreneur who has become one of the most well-known and well-respected figures in bitcoin.

Follow on Twitter: @aantonop https://twitter.com/aantonop
Website: https://antonopoulos.com/

He is the author of two books: “Mastering Bitcoin,” published by O’Reilly Media and considered the best technical guide to bitcoin; “The Internet of Money,” a book about why bitcoin matters.

Presented On March 2^nd 2017

Blockchain vs Bullshit: Thoughts on the Future of Money

The hype and empty promises around "blockchain" 2:30

Is this the greatest technological innovation and explosion of innovation since the mobile internet OR is it the greatest hype around an advanced technology in the history of technology
- BOTH which is a good characteristic of an advanced technology
There will be a shakeout
- When the waters recede you will see who was in the water without a swimsuit, standing their naked (empty promises)
- A lot of bullshit peddled to VC's

Reconsidering info security, research in applied cryptography 4:45

Unprecedented growth in Applied Cryptology

Largest deployment of public key cryptography ever

It turns out people only protect keys when those keys are attached to value
- Personal Note: this also applies for physical keys as well, although physical keys without value are not a commonality
- Holding your own Bitcoin very quickly changes your attitude towards information security
  - You didn't care about your:
    - Photos
    - Location
    - Basic Information
    - Same Password 123donkeytits on 17 different websites
  - Now you know 2FA
  - Storing value has the unique ability to focus your mind in terms of security to those

Blockchains vs. Databases 7:13

Driving the most incredible research in applied cryptology we have ever seen
Nobody Thought we'd be doing:
- Advanced Shcnoor Signatures
- Advanced Elliptic Curve Applications
- Ring Signatures and Rain Proofs for confidential Transactions
The state of anonymity and privacy is advancing rapidly
Applied cryptography on the largest most secured cryptographic network the world has ever seen
- Highly Disruptive
Blockchain is one of the four foundational technologies behind Bitcoin and it can't stand alone
- Blockchain is Bitcoin with a haircut and a suit that you parade in front of your board
  - Blockchain is the sanitized version of Bitcoin for companies/people to terrified of disruptive technology
  - Blockchain has become a word in a world where words don't mean anything

The Essence of Bitcoin: Revolutionizing Trust 8:33

Essence Of Bitcoin is not Blockchain
It is the ability to operate in a decentralized way without having to trust anyone
- To be able to use software to authoritatively to verify and authenticate
You don't trust anything but your own verification and validation
- Network Effect
Bitcoin introduced the concept of decentralized security through computation
- ..and this has not yet sunk in.
Replaces the security model where an institution is in the middle
- It is the first market place security model
  - Incentives/Punishments ensure that the network itself is a neutral arbitrator
    - Revolutionizes trust

Open blockchains are the only ones that matter 10:24

You can use the term blockchain if you are describing other technologies in this space that are open blockchains
- Essence of the technology
  - A trustless system that does not rely on anyone as an intermediary of trust
- Power of Blockchain
  - Open
  - Borderless
  - Transnational
    - Network Centric Trust
  - Neutral
    - Not serving the goals
    - Everyone follows the same rules
    - No good/bad
    - No authorized/unauthorized
    - No illegal or Illegal
    - ONLY
      - Valid or Invalid
        
        RADICAL NEUTRALITY
      - Censorship Resistance
        
        Making it impossible to censor/restrict/disrupt

Criteria: blockchain or bullshit? 14:05

Both start with a B
- If you can replace the word blockchain with database it is BUA
- Reestablishes trust in intermediaries

Fundamentally changing the allocation of trust 15:45

Opens up the ability to engage/transact on a global level with everyone
Giant platform of trust
- Doesn't care who you are where your from what you look like
A 12 year old has the same power as JP Morgan Chase

Permissioned "distributed ledgers" are boring insecure 16:43

Replace the function of a centralized clearing house with a consortium of n participants with known permission and assemble transactions and sign them
- Is the banks alternative to Bitcoin Blockchain
Theirs no immutability
- No blocks
- No chain
ClearingHouse
- It is not a participant in the market
  - No skin in the game
  - NYSE is not an active trader
    - Speration of Concerns
  - Independent part with oversight with no skin in the game
  - Banks in Crypto = Breaking Consensus Rules
    - No incentives
    - Banks: "Trust Us"
      - People: "Trust You? No Thanks"
    - Bank Cartels will try to close transparency
      - A very profitable Bullshit

Hey Wall Street, Anonymous is coming for your keys 21:48

Be careful what you evaluate
- Fundamental Purpose Of Tech
  - Create an open borderless neutral system
- Banks will make this a disaster
  - There keys will leak
- Decentralized currency is so secure because instead of storing the information all in one place you spread it out so thin it becomes virtually impossible to attack
- Anonymous and Wikileaks will fuck the banks
  - They cant keep info secure
    - Never have

Promising opportunities, solving the unsolvable problems 23:06

1977 imminent failure of the internet

The 3 elements to success in this industry 24:50

Identify A Viable Market
1. Its early
  1. Petco online commerce empire 1997 too early
  2. Webgrocer 1999

Right Market vs Wrong Time

Timing
1. Identify but off by a decade
Sequencing
1. Why did facebook not happen in 1992?
  1. Density of Adoption
    1. No mobile devices
    2. No dense social network

The necessary steps to mature out of infancy 27:44

Keep smashing things together before you can start doing interesting things
You cant do
- Voting
- Real Estate
- Retail
- C2C
- POS Retail
- YET
- Not enough liquidity
- Not enough Adoption
Still at infant stage
Doesn't mean they cant happen, just not happening this year.
Has to be able to secure trillions of dollars in assets
- Liquidity
- Infrastructure
Currency is the email of blockchain
Its enticing to say this is more about money
- It is in the long term
Money part needs to be build first
- Security
- Velocity
- Infrastructure
- Liquidity
It is not about banking the unbanked it is about unbanking all of us