Tagcryptocurrency
Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years
The golden boy of crypto is on his way out of the pictureFormer cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of financial fraud in late 2022, was sentenced to 25 years of prison last week. Bankman-Fried was convicted of defrauding investors and delegating monies to fund his own lavish lifestyle and to try and square away the debts of his hedge fund, Alameda Research. The scandal amounts to one of the largest in financial history, with some 11 billion dollars worth of assets lost. Bankman-Fried was once an up-and-coming favorite in the tech world. He donated millions to political campaigns, shot trailers with celebrities promoting his crypto exchange, FTX, and seemed to present to the world nothing short of the next generation’s spitting image of success. However, it all came crumbling down. Read More ›
Blockchain and the New COSM Architecture
Investigating the past, present, and future of the InternetIn today’s featured COSM video, telecom expert Dan Berninger facilitates a discussion examining the past, present, and future of the Internet. Together they outline a compelling picture of a next generation internet that is less cumbersome, more efficient, and more secure. Panelists include Gurdeep Pall, Corporate VP of Microsoft, Dr. Bob Metcalfe, internet pioneer, entrepreneur, and Professor of Innovation at the University of Texas at Austin, and Dan Mapes, Founder of Verses Technologies. COSM is an exclusive national summit on the technologies remaking the world as we know it. The mission of the conference is to stimulate debate and deliberation amongst industry leaders, illuminating the synergy between Seattle and the world and providing a scene of civilized conversation and exchange. Read More ›
Is an Information-Based Currency Possible?
Two philosophers talk about the potential of digital, decentralized forms of money and exchangeIn today’s featured video, enjoy an older but essential interview on the topic of alternative forms of money like cryptocurrency. Philosopher Jay Richards interviews mathematician, entrepreneur, and philosopher Dr. Bill Dembski about his unique thought experiment regarding how one could create a decentralized, DIY, information-based currency. Richards also explores with Dembski the concepts of natural and artificial intelligence. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute Read More ›
What Will the Internet Look like in 10 Years?
Is a decentralized and digital system of currency the financial future? What is the "Web 3.0"?In the latest Mind Matters podcast, host Robert J. Marks sat with Adam Goad, a computer engineer from Baylor, to discuss the future of the Internet and the myriad of possibilities involved in the cryptocurrency and blockchain revolution. Is a decentralized and digital system of currency the financial future? What is the “Web 3.0”? Here’s the official description: In the age of data harvesting and Big Tech monopolies, what will the Internet look like in a decade? In today’s episode, Robert J. Marks speaks with computer engineer Adam Goad about “Web 3.0,” decentralization, cryptocurrency, and the future of the blockchain. Visit the podcast section of the site for more illuminating conversations on a broad array of topics in tech, culture, Read More ›
What is the Future of the Internet?
In the age of data harvesting and Big Tech monopolies, what will the Internet look like in a decade? In today’s episode, Robert J. Marks speaks with computer engineer Adam Goad about “Web 3.0,” decentralization, cryptocurrency, and the future of the blockchain. Additional Resources
John Tamny and the Future of Money
Forbes editor John Tamny discusses his views on crypto and traditional forms of money at COSM 2022The 2022 COSM conference saw a number of remarkable speakers, including winner of last year’s prestigious Kyoto Prize, Carver Mead, and Forbes editor John Tamny, who is featured in today’s highlighted video from the conference. Tamny sat down with philosopher Jay Richards to share his thoughts on the conference and his views on the future of money, especially regarding cryptocurrencies versus traditional forms. You can watch the conversation here, and can also access many other great talks and interviews on the Center’s main YouTube page.
Trudeau’s Truckers Reveal Problems with Banking Infrastructure
And crypto isn't the solution you might think it isOn February 14th, Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, invoked the Emergencies Act in order to stop the flow of funding to the truckers who were protesting vaccine mandates in Canada. This order allows and encourages banks to freeze the accounts of anyone suspected of involvement with the protest. The Canadian use of the Emergencies Act in this way has been widely criticized for its draconian and expansive overreach of governmental authority. However, that hasn’t stopped the Canadian government from moving forward with the plan, and they have said that they have already begun freezing accounts. Even before this, though, a Canadian judge had halted access to funds donated to the truckers through the GiveSendGo website. Additionally, GoFundMe, of Read More ›
Is Bitcoin Just a Flash in the Pan? Peter Thiel Responds
He reveals that PayPal started out as a libertarian project to free money from central control but that proved harder than anticipatedIn this fourth and final episode based on his talk at COSM 2019, Peter Thiel — who founded PayPal in part to help break up currency monopolies — offers some thoughts on cryptocurrencies’ future. In the earlier episodes of his discussion at COSM 1919 with philosopher of technology George Gilder, top venture capitalist Peter Thiel offered Three Contrarian Ideas: 1.Big Tech, as it operates today, is communist. 2. Big Tech is also slowing down. And 3. Learning today has almost nothing to do with the so-called educational system. Now, about the future of cryptos: This portion begins at 27:21 min. A partial transcript and notes, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. George Gilder: Peter, you started PayPal, in part to Read More ›
How To Create Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Simplified
While still deeply skeptical of what ownership of an NFT really means at present, Fickser decided to experiment with creating, buying, and selling NFTsIntroduction: At Expensivity, Bernard Fickser explains that a non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique token in cryptography that represents, say, real estate or art rather than money. Because the tokens have unique identities (non-fungible), they can be bought or sold while reducing the risk of fraud. So how do they work?: The series is called How Non-Fungible Tokens Work: NFTs Explained, Debunked, and Legitimized (July 30, 2021). In Part 3, Fickser demonstrates the do-it-yourself minting of NFTs. 3 The Do-It-Yourself Minting of NFTs The process of creating NFTs, along with buying and selling them, is simple and straightforward. All that’s required is setting up a crypto wallet that handles Ethereum cryptocurrency (ETH), loading it with some of that currency, visiting Read More ›
Blockchains Have NFTs Unnecessarily Tied Down
New ideas propose severing the accidental relationship between NFTs and blockchainsNon-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), for those who haven’t been paying attention, are digital collectibles that have been gaining popularity. Essentially, they allow someone to “mark” their “ownership” of a piece of cyberspace. Since their original inception in 2012, NFTs have invariably been tied to blockchain technology. However, a recent review of the technology by Bernard Fickser has shown that there is nothing inherently tying NFTs to blockchain. In fact, blockchains may be holding NFTs back considerably. (For those needing a refresher, a short guide to how the blockchain works can be found here.) In his article, Fickser notes several interesting discrepancies between NFTs and cryptocurrencies. First of all, there is a lot of technology built into cryptocurrencies to keep them anonymous, while the entire point of Read More ›
Cryptography: Are Non-Fungible Tokens a Scam? Or Can They Work?
By Warren Buffett’s logic, if cryptocurrencies are rat poison squared, non-fungible tokens are rat poison to an infinite power. But is that all there is to be said about them?Introduction: At Expensivity, Bernard Fickser explains that a non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique token in cryptography that represents, say, real estate or art rather than money. Because the tokens have unique identities (non-fungible), they can be bought or sold while reducing the risk of fraud. So how do they work?: The series is called How Non-Fungible Tokens Work: NFTs Explained, Debunked, and Legitimized (July 30, 2021). In Part 1, he looks at the problems with making NFTs work. 1 Non-Fungible Tokens: Rat Poison Raised to an Infinite Power? “Poised to radically reconfigure the crypto-asset market, non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are revolutionizing our conception of money and value, creating not just entirely new markets but even new economies that are Read More ›
Using Benford’s Law to Detect Bitcoin Manipulation
Market prices are not invariably equal to intrinsic valuesFor a while, there was a popular belief among finance professors that the stock market is “efficient” in the sense that stock prices are always correct — the prices that an all-knowing God would set. Thus, investors can buy any stock, even a randomly selected stock, and be confident that they are paying a fair price. This belief was based on seemingly overwhelming evidence that changes in stock prices are difficult to predict. Efficient market enthusiasts argued that if stock prices are always correct, taking into account all currently available information, then any changes in stock prices must be due to new information which, by definition, is impossible to predict. Therefore, the evidence that changes in stock prices are hard to Read More ›
Cloud Computing? There’s a Lot of Smoke in Those Clouds
Big Tech creates many environment issues that we do not often hear about, the way we hear about coal mines and landfillsWhen we think about environment problems, we naturally imagine huge smokestacks turning the sky dark and coating the trees with soot. But glitzy high tech stuff like cloud computing and cryptocurrency use a lot of energy too. Cloud computing, where we use computing resources via the internet without installing and maintaining them, is a huge energy hog we never see: The music video for “Despacito” set an Internet record in April 2018 when it became the first video to hit five billion views on YouTube. In the process, “Despacito” reached a less celebrated milestone: it burned as much energy as 40,000 U.S. homes use in a year. Naomi Xu Elegant, “The Internet Cloud Has a Dirty Secret” at Fortune (September Read More ›
The Startling Energy Costs of Bitcoin
As Bitcoin gains credibility, power consumption worries growMost people are aware of the rising price of Bitcoin. Despite the fact that most people are unaware of how to transact in it, and few merchants take it as a form of currency, Bitcoin is becoming an increasingly popular investment. As interest in Bitcoin grows, a few people are starting to take notice of the startling energy costs associated with Bitcoin transactions. As Mind Matters has been pointing out for years, the energy costs associated with having a “trustless” system such as Bitcoin is immense, with Bitcoin transactions generally costing 400,000 times as much energy as a single transaction on the Visa network. According to the BBC, the Bitcoin network – which, again, very few people are regularly transacting in – now consumes more energy than the Read More ›
Are Crypto and Blockchain Key to a Tech Renaissance?
A former director of the US Mint thinks that the market will gravitate toward these solutionsA panel discussion at COSM explored the future of crypto currencies like Bitcoin and blockchain technologies in general. What might they mean for global money, global security, and internet architecture? The panel, moderated by Wired contributing editor Spencer Reiss, comprised futurist George Gilder, Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media, Ed Moy, former Director of the U.S. Mint, and William Dembski, mathematician, entrepreneur, and philosopher: Can Crypto and Blockchain Reverse the Tech Decline (and Enable an Internet Renaissance)? Here are some snatches from the dialogue (aired September 11, 2020): George Gilder (on what’s wrong with the internet): It’s a broken paradigm. How do you tell a broken paradigm? The more money you spend on it, the worse it gets. Read More ›
Collectors’ Items Are Now on the Blockchain
When I was growing up, trading cards were all the rage. They mostly centered on baseball but trading cards for every major sport emerged. The Topps Company has long had the lead in baseball cards, with Fleer and Upper Deck trailing far behind. Recently, Topps made a radical move into the digital sector by making some of its trading cards available via the WAX blockchain. WAX stands for Worldwide Asset eXchange. WAX is a blockchain (i.e., cryptocurrency) system that is geared around the buying, selling, and trading of virtual items. Previously, WAX was primarily used to trade goods within gaming platforms. For instance, the massively multiplayer economic strategy game Prospectors utilized WAX to allow users to trade items. However, in Read More ›
Is Crypto Just a Flash in the Pan?
Or, to put it more bluntly, will blockchain ever grow up to be a real financial system? Forbes says yes, cautiously
Cryptocurrency a “High-Tech Cry for Help” Says Steve Forbes of Forbes Media
Chair of Forbes Media Says Money Is About Trust
Experts forecast the future of money in general at COSMFacebook wants to start minting its own money. Amazon is said to be thinking about it. Bitcoin has many enthusiasts. But what determines the value of money in a digital age?
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