On Identity and Pseudonymity in Cyberspace — First published in Citadel 21, Volume 4. In 1981, at a time where the internet was in its infancy (and I was just a gleam in my father’s eye), the legendary mathematician, computer scientist, and science-fiction author Vernor Vinge published his prophetic novella True Names. The story unfolds in two…

A couple of weeks ago I had the immense pleasure of giving the opening talk at the Value of Bitcoin conference. I would like to revisit some ideas of this talk and maybe dig deeper into some parts. After all, my keynote The Bitcoin Journey was restrained by time: 21…

A letter to all of you who still have no bitcoin. — I am writing this letter because I am convinced of two things: (1) our current money is fundamentally broken (2) using superior money will benefit you in particular — and society in general — in the long run. Money is a touchy subject — most people don’t like to…

An optimistic letter to friends and foes around the globe. — The madness of this world became obvious in an instant. Everything is changing way faster than most of us ever imagined — but I’m not worried. To the contrary, I’m weirdly optimistic — because of Bitcoin, and because of you. You probably don’t know me; I probably don’t know you…

The world you know and love is no more, even if it isn’t obvious to every one of you just yet. We will look back at this moment in time, the months we are currently living through, the weeks that will mark the line between the pre-virus and the post-virus…

How Bitcoin is surviving and thriving between worlds — As I have argued previously, Bitcoin is a living organism. But where does this organism live, exactly? As with many questions in the world of Bitcoin, exact answers are hard to come by. …

How Bitcoin Thrives on the Edge between Order and Chaos — Bitcoin works. No matter what other opinions you hold about this strange phenomenon, it undoubtedly works, marches on, or, as I (and others) have previously argued, is alive. Even if most of the world would grind to a halt, the Bitcoin network would continue to produce valid blocks every…

José is a bitcoiner. Like many others, he discovered bitcoin a couple of years ago and is fascinated by the technology. Unlike many others, however, José lives in a country where the traditional financial system ceased to work: Venezuela. “It’s almost as if Venezuela was what Satoshi had in mind…

You don’t. Further Reading Proof of Life by Gigi Bitcoin Obituaries by 99bitcoins How to Kill Bitcoin? by Steven Hay How to Kill Bitcoin by Basic Crypto Bitcoin Threat Model by JW Weatherman Let’s Destroy Bitcoin by MIT Technology Review How Governments could Kill Bitcoin by Kyle Torpey How to Destroy Bitcoin…