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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial;
line-height: 110%;">OPLIN 4Cast #231: Digital
currency</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal;
color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-style: italic;
font-family: arial;">May 25th, 2011</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/bitcoin.png"><img
class="size-full wp-image-1933 alignleft"
style="margin-right: 4px;" title="coins and
digits"
src="cid:part2.08050907.08020602@oplin.org"
alt="" height="100" width="119"></a>A couple
of articles and some tweets about Bitcoin came to
our attention recently, which led us to do some
research into digital currency. Conventional
currency (the money in your pocket) is issued by
governments, but for some time now there have also
been <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_currency">local
currencies</a> that serve a specific community.
Taking this one step further, there have been
efforts to create digital currencies that enable
Internet payments without a "middle man." The <a
href="http://www.openmoney.org/">open money</a>
project, based on LETS ("Local Exchange Trading
System") software is an early effort. Some digital
currencies, such as <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-gold">E-gold</a>,
have been shut down by governments because they
were suspected of enabling money laundering. Now
comes the <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>
system, virtual coins in the form of encrypted
files that are stored on your computer and can be
traded for conventional currency on exchange
websites. What does this have to do with
libraries? Well... we're not really sure. But if
cryptocurrency is about to become the next
Internet revolution, we thought we should mention
it to you. </p>
<div> </div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.gmlets.u-net.com/explore/sustain.html">Money
and the sustainable economy</a> (Michael
Linton and Angus Soutar, July 1996) "We act as
though money needs to be real-a limited
commodity that can drain away. This results
directly in unemployed resources-people who want
work are not able to find it. Indirectly, and of
more damage to the environment, there are also
misemployed resources-people doing damaging
things simply for the money. Yet MONEY ISN'T
REALLY REAL-MONEY IS INFORMATION. Money is just
a measuring device, which we use to measure the
value of our real exchanges."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf">Bitcoin:
a peer-to-peer electronic cash system</a>
[pdf] (Satoshi Nakamoto, May 2009) "Merchants
must be wary of their customers, hassling them
for more information than they would otherwise
need. A certain percentage of fraud is accepted
as unavoidable. These costs and payment
uncertainties can be avoided in person by using
physical currency, but no mechanism exists to
make payments over a communications channel
without a trusted party. What is needed is an
electronic payment system based on cryptographic
proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing
parties to transact directly with each other
without the need for a trusted third party."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://launch.is/blog/l019-bitcoin-p2p-currency-the-most-dangerous-project-weve-ev.html">Bitcoin
P2P currency: the most dangerous project we've
ever seen</a> (Jason Calacanis and the LAUNCH
team, May 2011) "We are 100% certain that
governments will start banning bitcoins in the
next 12 to 18 months. Additionally, we're
certain bitcoins will soar in value and a crush
of folks will flood the system and start using
them. Currently there are 6M coins at $6.70 each
for a total economy of about $40M. Bitcoin
speculation and hoarding will also cause a
massive spike in bitcoin value. For example, if
10M people find out about bitcoins in the next
year and want to buy $100 worth, $1B will be
infused into the bitcoin economy."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.betabeat.com/2011/05/18/will-work-for-bitcoin-coder-says-most-people-just-using-it-as-an-investment-vehicle/">Will
work for Bitcoin coder says most people just
using it as an investment vehicle</a>
(Adrianne Jeffries interviewing Nick Carlson,
May 2011) "If there's one point I'd like to
communicate in this interview it's the
following: Bitcoin may fail for any number of
reasons, technical or non-technical. But,
cryptocurrency is here to stay. Software evolves
quickly. Any technical point of failure in
Bitcoin's adoption will be remedied by the next
cryptocurrency, whether that's Bitcoin 2.0 or an
entirely new project. Moreover, I expect to see
significant academic interest in this area."</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><small><strong><em>Control
fact:</em></strong></small><br>
</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;">While
decentralized payment systems like Bitcoin
certainly have the potential for abuse, some
people also see them as a way to avoid unwanted
government controls on financial transactions,
such as the freezing of donations to WikiLeaks
from Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal accounts after
the release of U.S. State Department cables late
last year. </div>
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