export_ofoct.com (77)

[00:00.39] Todd: Okay. So, Anthony, I thought we would talk about bitcoin.

[00:02.89] Anthony: Okay.

[00:03.89] Todd: So, you are kind of the expert about bitcoin.

[00:09.39] Anthony: I wouldn't say I'm an expert, I just, maybe a hobbyist, bitcoin hobbyist.

[00:13.39] Todd: How long have you been involved with bitcoin?

[00:14.64] Anthony: I first heard about bitcoin in probably 2012, and I really,

[00:21.89] I'm really kicking myself that I didn't buy some then because it was about $20, but when I-

[00:29.65] Todd: So $20 per bitcoin-

[00:31.14] Anthony: Yeah, per bitcoin was about $20.

[00:33.89] Todd: Okay. So how much is it worth now?

[00:34.64] Anthony: Right now, it's about $8,500, somewhere around there.

[00:37.14] Todd: You've got to be kidding me.

[00:38.14] Anthony: No. I wish I was, but-

[00:39.64] Todd: Wow.

[00:41.64] Anthony: I got into it as a hobbyist around 2014, a little before I moved abroad, and I got into what is known mining.

[00:54.64] To briefly explain what that is, is miners, people who call themselves miners, they buy special computers which are called ASICs,

[01:08.39] and that stands for application-specific integrated circuit.

[01:12.64] The application-specific part means that the chips that you're using in that computer can only be used for one purpose,

[01:23.64] and that purpose is to solve cryptographic problems thus creating bitcoin.

[01:31.90] So that's what I was doing, I was running a mining computer.

[01:36.14] Todd: So you say mining, like mining, you're getting little bits of bitcoin-

[01:40.39] Anthony: Yeah, exactly.

[01:41.40] Todd: And it's tiny, tiny fragments.

[01:42.39] Anthony: Exactly.

[01:43.14] Todd: You have this chip in your computer.

[01:44.39] Your computer finds this cryptographic problem, so your computer, you get the reward by getting a small bit of bitcoin.

[01:53.89] Anthony: Exactly. It's called solo mining. You can do solo mining where you're only working with your, with whatever computers you have,

[02:05.14] but what's a lot more popular is pool mining where you join a pool and you work together with a group of miners to solve one problem. Once the block is discovered, as they say, each block contains 50 bitcoins.

[02:23.64] So depending on the computing power that you were giving the pool, you get paid out in equal measure.

[02:29.89] For people, that's a lot more profitable than solo mining because you could solo mine for years and never find a block.

[02:42.64] Todd: Yeah. For somebody who has no concept of this, the first thing they're going to ask you is, well, who creates these blocks of ... Who makes this?

[02:52.14] Anthony: That's a good question.

[02:53.14] Todd: It's like a "Where are we from?" It's like a chicken and an egg thing, so-

[02:57.64] Anthony: Exactly, and that's a very interesting point to bring up because allegedly the creator of bitcoin is someone called Satoshi Nakamoto.

[03:09.89] And he is the alleged creator, as I said, but the reason I say alleged is that no one has ever met this person.

[03:17.89] He's kind of a mystery, so no one knows his real identity.

[03:22.14] Some people have had made theories that it could be a group of people.

[03:27.64] It could be a specific person that, and that's just an alias, but no one really knows who this guy is and where he came from.

[03:36.14] Yeah, it's this really interesting concept.

[03:42.89] Todd: So, then how did this take hold? How did this get a foot in society? You know what I mean, like get a foot in the door, I should say.

[03:52.14] Anthony: Yeah.

[03:53.39] Todd: So somebody creates this system. This person is a mystery, but then the internet grabbed onto it and said, "Hey, this is a really cool thing.

[04:02.89] I want to buy this." It's just it's quite interesting that this market came out of nowhere and now it's challenging traditional currency systems.

[04:12.89] Anthony: Exactly. This was before the internet was even really what it is now, but I think in like 2007, I think, 2007, 2008, there was a group of people called the Cypherpunks,

[04:31.64] and they were kind of like anarchistic programmers that were anti-establishment.

[04:38.64] They ran this email mailing list, and they were just collaborating together talking about creating some kind of digital cash.

[04:47.64] Satoshi Nakamoto was a member of that mailing list, and that's where it kind of gained the underground movement and ...

[05:02.14] Really, I think there's what is called the white paper and that's the document that details everything about bitcoin, and it's really big.

[05:12.14] I'm not sure exactly how large, but it's like a book, and a lot of the reason it took off is people would read it and they would believe the technology,

[05:24.39] and they would try to sell it to other people because they believed in it really.

[05:30.89] Todd: Wow. That's an interesting history, and so basically this community read this white paper and then it took off-

[05:39.89] Anthony: From there.

[05:41.39] Todd: And gained momentum and then that here we are today.

[05:44.14] Anthony: Yeah, but I think a big part of it, as you mentioned, is really just convincing people because really fiat currency, I mean, if you break it down, it's just paper, right?

[05:54.64] Todd: Yeah.

[05:55.39] Anthony: It's just paper that the government makes.

[05:56.90] Todd: It's an illusion.

[05:57.90] Anthony: Yeah, and the only reason that it has any value is because we trust in it.

[06:01.64] So, if I give you a $100 bill or whatever, you're going to trust that you can spend that to buy something.

[06:08.15] It's the same thing with bitcoin. It's a process of convincing people that because this technology makes something that is scarce, it cannot be replicated,

[06:18.14] it cannot be ... Without the proper means, it cannot be moved or taken, that it is a valid way of transferring value digitally.

[06:30.89] So that's a really big part of it and a lot of people have bought into it.

[06:34.14] Todd: Wow. Very interesting.