The narrative around Bitcoin has, if you hadn’t noticed, shifted toward the blockchain in recent times. So if that’s case, what is the technology and what are we going to do with it?
What did the blockchain ever do for us?
Tag: bitcoin
Blockchain blockhead
I gave a talk on the blockchain to the Vendorcom Cryptocurrency SIG, putting forward a couple of fairly radical ideas about Bitcoin, the blockchain and the future. Or so I thought.
Fungibility and feasibility
Whatever Bitcoin is, it isn’t cash. Cash is fungible. I’m not saying whether we need e-cash or e-cash fungibility or not, but it’s interesting to consider the ramifications.
Bitcoin isn’t killing it in retail, even for porn
The figures show very clearly that Bitcoin isn’t being used as a retail payment mechanism. Will it ever be? I wouldn’t think so, but that doesn’t mean that cryptocurrency will never be used in retail.
What is bitcoin? As opposed to Bitcoin, that is
Oh dear. I have such a terrible attention span and I’m so easily distracted. I didn’t get more than a few pages into “The Age of Cryptocurrency” without setting off for Google.
California dreaming (Bitcoin isn’t a currency)
The citizens of California find themselves in the vanguard of a new economy, the epicentre of a monetary revolution and so on and so forth. I wonder if they’ve noticed?
The phoney war is over, part 2
In the battle for your digital identity, the banks do have some advantages. But they need a strategy, because the technology, business and social roadmaps are not as stable as they seemed.
I’m not keeping an open mind about Bitcoin, and nor is the government
I saw a number of excited, and entirely mistaken, tweets saying that the British government are supporting Bitcoin, when they are doing nothing of the sort. In fact, the relevant UK Minister merely said that they government are keeping an “open mind” about Bitcoin. They’re not: they are keeping an open mind about the blockchain, and that’s much more interesting.
Bitcoin, currency and competition
Why is there only one Bank of England? Only one Pound Sterling and one interest rate throughout the UK? The Head of the Competition and Markets Authority says that competition in currency is “welcome”. So what is he going to do about it?
Bitcoin in the New Forest
I think the idea that Bitcoin will replace payments cards in retail transactions because it is cheaper or more convenient is unrealistic.
