When the dollar is in trouble, that will be one of the alternatives, and the more Bitcoins are used, the worse it will be for the dollar.
I follow Rick Falkvinge, who founded the Swedish Pirate party and was one of the very early adopters of Bitcoin.
I am really surprised bitcoin isn't more popular in India, given the strong gold culture here. I call it Gold 2.0. It has all the attributes other than the fact that it isn't tangible, and tangibility is less important in the digital age.
Bitcoin is getting there. But it’s not there yet. When it gets there, expect governments to panic and society to be reshaped into something where governments cannot rely on taxing income nor wealth for running their operations.
When the Internet first launched, you had all these newspapers saying that the Internet was only used by bad people, to do bad things and what was the point of it. But the Internet changed everything, just like Bitcoin will.
Just as it got easier to use email, it will be easier to use Bitcoin as people invest in it and become more familiar with it.
I had been exposed to bitcoin early. I thought the consumer application of it felt, to me, further away. I thought there would be faster adoption of the blockchain in the enterprise space and with banks.
If bitcoin is more expensive or slower than traditional financial systems, people aren't going to use it.
Bitcoin will make a dent in society when more normal transactions occur that would have occurred with dollars or credit card.
Silicon Valley is a great place for Bitcoin, since everyone understands computers, and there are lots of libertarians running around.
We dealt with a lot of skepticism early on, when we first spoke about bitcoin.
We want enough people adopting Bitcoin for a robust infrastructure. It's an act of patriotism. It gives the country a robust parallel system.
That was the moment I wanted to use bitcoin: when I saw Harriet Tubman on a $20 bill. It's like, when you see all the slave movies, it's like, why you gotta keep reminding us about slavery? Why don't you put Michael Jordan on a $20 bill?
The ability to easily buy and sell Bitcoin has been a really key factor in accelerating Bitcoin adoption.
Within my social circle, there is a large group of people who will take bitcoin as legal tender; like, you can go to them and settle debts in Bitcoin, and they will happily take it.
Until part of your paycheck is regularly paid in Bitcoin, I'm not sure how it would really go mainstream. I can imagine places in the world where there are not functioning banking systems or payroll systems, where it could go mainstream first because you're not trying to replace the way people are already doing something.
Bitcoin has the potential to destroy credit cards and banks as we know it. Maybe that is a good thing or a bad thing, but I like the idea that if someone needs to remit payments, they can do it without being gouged.
The regulation picture has gotten a lot clearer in the U.S. and most of Europe. And that's fantastic. I think that's why you're seeing companies like Microsoft and Dell accepting Bitcoins.
For a major publisher like Time Inc. to embrace Bitcoin sends an important message to both its readers and to the broader media community.
There is going to be enormous amounts of resistance to the adoption of bitcoin, but I really believe that it's about the most peaceful revolution that we can have in this world.
