Ben Swann on Bitcoin (and Aliens?)

Hi Guys,

With Saint Patrick's Day approaching, it seems like everyone is still searching for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow... Or at least a form of currency that we can safely and anonymously use without the Government's knowledge. In the new and rapidly evolving arena of crypto-currency, one name stands above all others: Bitcoin. From the recent collapse of Bitcoin exchange platform Mt. Gox to the fishy Newsweek story on the currency's alleged inventor to the suicide of Bitcoin's CEO in Singapore, it seems like you can barely walk out the door without hearing some mention of Bitcoin and it's ramifications on the world of commerce.

So what is this new form of currency all about and what does it represent? On the one hand it could be the start of a brave new world of exchange in which our private transactions are finally our own business, but a completely de-regulated system of commerce also comes with it's share of issues, and some have even implied that Bitcoin could be a Trojan horse for a one-world currency. In today's segment I interview journalist Ben Swann and continue my conversation with Defense Distributed director Cody Wilson on the subject of Bitcoin and what it means for the world.

Do you own Bitcoin and have any stories to share? What are your major concerns with it? I'm curious to know whether people trust it more or less than the U.S. dollar. What about precious metals?

Bye TV,

Josh LeCash


(Pardon the dodgy sound during the Ben Swann interview, it was due to the internet connection. Click on the Closed Caption button in the video if you have a problem hearing.)

I cannot view the video ATM but I will as soon as I can just wanted to give your thread a bump

I personally do own Bitcoin, how many? I cannot say I've known about Bitcoin for about 3 years and I got involved with it and the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem about 2 years ago. Two years down the road, I have learned many lessons and have a few things good and bad to say about Bitcoin,

1. I love Bitcoin. The concept, the community, everything. The real Satoshi Nakamoto is a true visionary genius and I do not buy into Bitcoin being a trojan horse like thing for a one world currency.

2. That being said - the government could try to implement something using a similar system as Bitcoin only centralized and attempt to impose it on the people I suppose. I just do not see that likely at this point or for a long time - Despite the recent media coverage 90% of people have never heard of a Bitcoin and many in the world do not even have access to electronics, etc. NWO - good luck getting granny to use bitcoin on her smartphone haha yea right!

3. Bitcoin easily could have made me a filthy rich man If I had only gotten involved a few months sooner...Bitcoin were going for pennies a piece at one time mind you.

4. I definitely trust Bitcoin more than the US dollar. In fact, I keep most of what I consider my savings in Bitcoin form in cold storage( can explain if need be). The way i see it - Sure Bitcoin is infamous for rapidly fluctuating in price and whatnot but ultimately I believe it has nowhere to go but up whilst the dollar has nowhere to go back down. If i leave 10K in the bank and go back a year later it might be 10.01k haha I leave10 bitcoin away I may come back in a year to find them worth 100k.

5. As far as precious metals - Gold and silver are reasonable investments IMO anything beats the dollar for storing your wealth.

6. Try bitcoin trading!! Seriously go do it. Drop 100$ buy some Bitcoin and go play around on an exchange. The market is unregulated and chaotic but honestly so much fun. It is my favorite hobby - trading Bitcoin that is. And the massive amount of manipulation makes it very profitable if you know anything about markets, etc. With BTC trading you can double your money or lose most of it in minutes haha trust me Ive done both. (To any who take this advise, be very careful! You WILL lose all of your money trading BTC if you are prone to panic lol)


I'll add more seriousness after I watch the video.


Also* My primary concern with Bitcoin is some of the features which make it so great also ultimately make it very powerful in the hands of those with ill intentions. Ive had my exchanges I was using been hacked and all my Bitcoin stolen. That being said if you keep your bitcoin in 'cold storage' it is virtually impossible to steal and I took the risk by using an Exchange. This is not Bitcoins fault as with the Mt.Gox situation.,

reply to post by lightedhype


Can you explain the 'cold storage' thing? I'm not new to Bitcoin in the sense of not knowing what it is, but I am a Bitcoin virgin.

As far as the video goes, Nice work!

Is there a program out their that will let you trade "virtual BTC" Against a live market?

For Practice ?

Ty for the thread

S+F

Dubble post

Capitol F
Capitol U
Capitol D

What does it spell?

More bollocks. But hey, it is a government scam, this bitscoin no? with all thei bits, they can coin anything. I know how this works. Anyone who invents in a bitscam is a hahahahaha and needs to be lolled.

I lolled.

hahahahaha

My major concern with Bitcoin is that the Fed will decide they own it, and thenceforth all Bitcoin belong to them, thus pretty much ruining it.

As I've said, I'd LOVE to see it continue pretty much as is for, oh, say a year, maybe 18 months.

reply to post by andr3w68


It is difficult to explain honestly - I am no computer genius and the technical gets confusing but basically, when you store Bitcoin in a wallet on your computer on an online wallet it is vulnerable only because they online wallet website or your personal computer itself if vulnerable. A 'Bitcoin wallet' is simply a software application on your computer and like anything else if your computer is compromised by a hacker a bitcoin wallet can be compromised as well. That being said - Bitcoin in a wallet will have 'private keys.' Similar to the concept of PGP encryption for those familiar.

Anyways, these 'keys' essentially ARE the Bitcoin (not quite but for argument's sake) and thus whoever controls these keys controls the Bitcoin. From any Bitcoin wallet you can go to settings and 'export private keys' this will save an encrypted file containing these keys under the name you choose to the location you choose. Now once you take this file, you put it onto a USB stick or otherwise and BAM. Cold storage. If the file containing your private keys is saved onto a USB device and only that device than your coins will never be able to be stolen whether your comp is connected to the net or not. As long is this USB is not connected to an online computer they will be inaccessible to anybody but the beholder. Many people with Bitcoin do this and hide the USB as a form of savings hoping to come back one day with a USB stick worth millions of dollars lol.

There are people out there who collect old hard drives by the dozen and dig through them just hoping to find some old 'private keys' file to Bitcoin somebody forgot about lol.

Lol all you want friend but I'm in my early twenties and I live pretty comfortably without having to work because of Bitcoin. I said in my first post Bitcoin could've made me filthy rich and while it did not do that it has made me quite well off because I saw the potential and made a smart investment. People who think Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme or government scam simply do not understand the concept or what a Bitcoin even is.

Bah, to each their own. I for one will of course welcome anything which seeks to tear us free from our current financial slavery situation.

Also, I share a fear with an above poster. In theory the US Govt could just sneakily buy up the majority of BTC out there from exchanges and do what they wish with it...

sn0rch
Capitol F
Capitol U
Capitol D

What does it spell?

More bollocks. But hey, it is a government scam, this bitscoin no? with all thei bits, they can coin anything. I know how this works. Anyone who invents in a bitscam is a hahahahaha and needs to be lolled.

I lolled.

hahahahaha

edit on 13-3-2014 by sn0rch because: (no reason given)

Ok wise guy, please explain why?

I got a feeling you your just trolling

reply to post by Bedlam


Built yourself a mining rig ey


Me and a friend were considering doing this a few years ago, I think at the time he said he could do it for $16 a pop, I'm not entirely sure if that was the exact price, he had the smarts and I had the money, but alas we never did it and seeing the price now really saddens me lol

Bedlam
My major concern with Bitcoin is that the Fed will decide they own it, and thenceforth all Bitcoin belong to them, thus pretty much ruining it.

As I've said, I'd LOVE to see it continue pretty much as is for, oh, say a year, maybe 18 months.

If the Fed can't control it they will either steal it or just hire a hacker that will delete it. Who would want money in a form of currency that you lose when the system crashes no electricity or internet bye bye bit coin. At least with gold and silver it is tangible and you can use it everywhere unlike Bitcoin.

Stealthbomber
reply to post by Bedlam

 

Built yourself a mining rig ey

I can't say. Not because it's NDAd, but I've been pitching this hard as a business case to the other guys in the company. We design FPGAs and custom ICs as part of our business, so making a better part than the ASIC miners you see isn't impossible.

However, it's better/worse than that. We have shared access to some really wonderful computational assets of unusual type and which you likely haven't seen in the MSM.

If we pull it off, I'll U2U you one day with the tale.

buster2010
At least with gold and silver it is tangible and you can use it everywhere unlike Bitcoin.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't care about it as a currency long term. I want to make a bunch of money off of it and then leave its smoking carcass behind me as I drive away.

Well, maybe more like a careful vampire pack sucking our prey dry over about 18 months, as we drive other miners into bankruptcy by jacking the difficulty level up too high for them. Mwa ha ha ha!

Crypto-Currencies are definitely the way to invest in today's world. I do not subscribe to buying Bitcoins as personally i believe there are too many inherent dangers with Botcoin, i prefer other currencies that have better transaction times etc (Worldcoin) is my preferred.

What you also have to realise is that the communities of people who develop these currencies are integral to the success of the coin. There are so many coins out there to choose from that it can confuse people.

You can buy these coins with USD or GBP on certain exchanges. The UK has a good site called Bittylicious where you can buy the coins direct for cash.

You need to set up a wallet where you can deposit your purchases.


Don;t expect to invest in a decent coin and instantly become a millionaire, they should be viewed as long term investments. Like i said above, after my own research i opted to purchase Worldcoin (for many reasons), hopefully one day they will rise in value like Bitcoin did.

Bitcoin, IMO will always be a strong coin but it will be taken over by others. I am a firm believer that it was the first "test" coin and will eventually be replaced by other more Marketable coins with higher security and quicker transaction times. Bitcoin currently has a transaction time of 10minutes which is ridiculous.

Watch this space for Crypto-Currency ATMs coming t a town near you.

buster2010

Bedlam
My major concern with Bitcoin is that the Fed will decide they own it, and thenceforth all Bitcoin belong to them, thus pretty much ruining it.

As I've said, I'd LOVE to see it continue pretty much as is for, oh, say a year, maybe 18 months.

If the Fed can't control it they will either steal it or just hire a hacker that will delete it. Who would want money in a form of currency that you lose when the system crashes no electricity or internet bye bye bit coin. At least with gold and silver it is tangible and you can use it everywhere unlike Bitcoin.

This statement isn't true at all.

1. You can buy certain Crypto-Coins in Silver and Gold and hold them in your hand. I know because i own some of them.
2. You can download your coins onto a memory stick or whatever means you feel and have them securely located on many drives if you want "incase of a power cut or bye bye internet".
3. If the internet went "bye bye" the planets financially would go "bye-bye".
4. You can't just hire a hacker to delete it. Some of the greatest computer minds who have worked for Microsoft's security, cyber Anti-terrorism agencies, Oracle security, Google security etc. are the developers of these exchanges.

The way physical money is going, it will be replaced with e-money eventually, these crypto-currencies are leading the way with platforms and promotion of it.

reply to post by jrmcleod


I think your post may have single-handedly made me want to build a mining rig. Alas, that would mean I would have to toss aside my deep seeded hatred for AMD. The benifits outway the hatred though.

www.imtotallygoingtogobuildaminingrignow.com *

*The above web address is not to my knowledge real. I am in no way associated with it, however, if my knowledge is wrong.

I think I may have scared my friend off too when he wanted to use solar power and I wanted to just bypass the meter lel

Bedlam

buster2010
At least with gold and silver it is tangible and you can use it everywhere unlike Bitcoin.

Well, maybe more like a careful vampire pack sucking our prey dry over about 18 months, as we drive other miners into bankruptcy by jacking the difficulty level up too high for them. Mwa ha ha ha!

You Sir, are an evil genius



Haha

Bit coin is a form of fiat money that can not be traced and leaves no paper trail. It passes from person to person without the need for a central bank so it cant be taxed. As it cant be taxed the fat cats that run the world are not making any money from it. So they will do anything they can to put it down.

My biggest fear is that all countries will ban the use of it. But that's much harder to do in thew west than it was in Russia and china.

I also think that because of the anonymous nature of BTC that the US government will want to use it for black projects as it cant be traced. So i expect to see them making large seizures or hacks on exchanges but never banning the use of it.