The Daily Hodl
  • FEATURES
    • News
    • Bitcoin
    • Ethereum
    • Ripple and XRP
    • Altcoins
    • Trading
    • NFTs
    • Blockchain
    • Futuremash
    • Regulators
    • Scams
    • Crypto 101
  • HODLX
    • Latest Stories
    • FAQ
    • Submit Guest Post
  • INDUSTRY ANNOUNCEMENTS
    • Latest
    • Press Releases
    • ChainWire
    • Sponsored Posts
    • Submit Your Content
  • CRYPTO MARKETS
    • Bitcoin (BTC)
    • Ethereum (ETH)
    • Binance Coin (BNB)
  • BEGINNERS
    • What Is Bitcoin?
    • What Is Blockchain?
    • What Does Hodl Mean?
    • How to Pay Your Bills with Bitcoin
    • Best Bitcoin FAQs
    • Example of Bitcoin’s Purpose
    • Cryptocurrency Has Multiple Meanings
    • Authenticator Alert – Securing Your Crypto
  • SUBMIT
    • Guest Post
    • Press Release
    • Sponsored Post
    • Advertise
  • EMAIL ALERTS
  • DAILY HODL MIX
No Result
View All Result
  • FEATURES
    • News
    • Bitcoin
    • Ethereum
    • Ripple and XRP
    • Altcoins
    • Trading
    • NFTs
    • Blockchain
    • Futuremash
    • Regulators
    • Scams
    • Crypto 101
  • HODLX
    • Latest Stories
    • FAQ
    • Submit Guest Post
  • INDUSTRY ANNOUNCEMENTS
    • Latest
    • Press Releases
    • ChainWire
    • Sponsored Posts
    • Submit Your Content
  • CRYPTO MARKETS
    • Bitcoin (BTC)
    • Ethereum (ETH)
    • Binance Coin (BNB)
  • BEGINNERS
    • What Is Bitcoin?
    • What Is Blockchain?
    • What Does Hodl Mean?
    • How to Pay Your Bills with Bitcoin
    • Best Bitcoin FAQs
    • Example of Bitcoin’s Purpose
    • Cryptocurrency Has Multiple Meanings
    • Authenticator Alert – Securing Your Crypto
  • SUBMIT
    • Guest Post
    • Press Release
    • Sponsored Post
    • Advertise
  • EMAIL ALERTS
  • DAILY HODL MIX
No Result
View All Result
The Daily Hodl
No Result
View All Result

Bitcoin Analyst Andreas Antonopoulos Reveals the Pitfalls of Old Money, Power of Bitcoin and Ethereum

by Daily Hodl Staff
July 4, 2019
in Blockchain

Computer scientist Andreas Antonopoulos, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency analysts and Bitcoin advocates, says money is a form of free speech. In a new London Real interview, Antonopoulos looks at how money functions in society and tackles one of the key criticisms of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies – that they have no value and that they are worthless imaginary playthings invented to extract real money from unsuspecting people.

“Money is a language. If you look at it from a very raw perspective, money doesn’t have value. This is an important thing that most people don’t immediately understand: that money itself doesn’t have value. Money is a vector for transmitting value.

It’s how you express value. But the value isn’t in the money. It’s in the product or service you bought with it and it’s in the labors you gave in order to acquire it in the first place. That’s where the value comes from. There’s nothing intrinsically valuable in the money.”

The hyperinflation of certain national currencies has tested this theory, exposing that money has no intrinsic value, with piles and piles of devalued paper Venezuelan bolivars and Zimbabwean dollars offering little utility beyond making arts and crafts.

While some forms of money in the past had intrinsic value, such as gold, Antonopoulos says that that was the best way to establish money as a social construct when it first began. But the purpose of value is communication.

“What you want money to do is communicate value. And it allows us as a society to coordinate markets and behaviors by saying, ‘This is important to me and I’m going to express that to you by giving you three tokens of appreciation that I had to work for.

And the time-cost of money is one of the most important characteristics. We value money, most people value money, based on how many hours of personal labor and effort it takes to acquire. That’s why at some point it becomes funny money when you could acquire it trivially and you don’t work anymore for it.”

Antonopoulos says money is an abstract symbol that we imbue with meaning, and then we exchange it with one another. In other words, it’s language.

“Money is a language of extremely narrow scope and applicability but enormous power because what it expresses is value, especially the value of human time which is extremely valuable to people. And therefore, it allows societies to coordinate on what they communally decide is valuable by aggregating the information of every individual decision you make as to, ‘Is this worth enough of the time value I’ve put into work today? Do I want it enough? Do I value it enough?’ And if you do, you send a signal that other people also coordinate with, that sets prices, that allows us to say, ‘Ok, we need more of this good because that good is important because people are buying it. So it’s a coordination mechanism…

Controlling that language is enormously powerful. If you can control the flows of money, you can control a lot of social activities as well as expression of personal values, which is the censorship and the surveillance capitalism angle of this. Also, if you free it completely, then it gives a degree of personal liberty that is enormous. 

Then you can look at it from a technical perspective and say. ‘Well, if it’s just a language, we can make it entirely digital. It doesn’t need to have physical form. We can communicate it instantaneously to any part of the planet. Borders are meaningless. Race, religion, nationality, gender – none of these other social constructs are meaningful in the context of that language.

So true neutrality means anyone or anything to anyone or anything. You don’t even need to be human to engage in the activities of money. Software agents can do it, which is unique to Bitcoin and other open public blockchains. Until now only humans or associations of humans have been allowed to have ownership of assets under law. And now, in fact, not in law, but in fact software agents can independently own money without any human supervision. Which is another mind-blowing thing that we haven’t considered the implications… 

We can already create autonomous companies that can operate without human supervision. They’re called decentralized autonomous organizations or DAOs, and that’s one of the really interesting applications that comes out of Ethereum, which is another open blockchain. Ethereum is not about payments. It’s about governance and running software that acts autonomously. So you could have a corporation that has plenty of shareholders but no bosses. Or plenty of employees, but no bosses. Or no employees, no shareholders and no bosses and operates on itself…

A lot of people would think about autonomous organizations that do malice. But I like to think of it, in terms of, what about building a decentralized altruistic organization like a decentralized charity, a charity that collects charitable, giving donations in cryptocurrency and then, in response to activities that happen in the world, for example, noticing keywords about earthquakes and tsunamis in particular regions, then distributes these charitable donations directly to people who are in that country perhaps by saying, ‘Show me a geo location on your phone that proves you’re currently in the disaster zone and I will send you a small amount to help you out. And then you’d have 100% of all donations go directly to charitable uses. Zero operating costs. Zero people in the middle to take advantage. Complete transparency, open books. And you could have an autonomous charity with no humans involved. Bizarre, I know, but this is within our future.”

[the_ad id="42537"] [the_ad id="42536"]
Check Latest News Headlines


 
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.
Submit a Press Release

Industry Announcements

  • Binance Expands AI-Powered NFT Generator Bicasso
    March 28, 2023
  • Open-Source Blockchain D-Ecosystem Raises $6 Million Ahead of IDO on March 29, 2023
    March 27, 2023
  • Bitget Becomes the First Centralized Exchange To Offer Financial Transparency Through Space and Time
    March 27, 2023
  • OKX Launches Turkish Lira Deposits and Withdrawals
    March 27, 2023
  • Cardano’s Top NFT Marketplace JPG.Store Announces Plans To Empower More Artists Globally
    March 27, 2023
  • Narwhal Finance Secures $1 Million in Seed Funding Led by Animoca Ventures
    March 24, 2023
  • Sports Prediction App Pooky Launches Full Version of Its Play-and-Earn Game
    March 23, 2023
Submit a Guest Post
ADVERTISEMENT
Bitcoin
$28,316.59
$28,316.59
2%
Ethereum
$1,802.53
$1,802.53
3.3%
Cardano
$0.380868
$0.380868
13.46%
XRP
$0.460298
$0.460298
19.52%
Dogecoin
$0.076029
$0.076029
5.81%

Spotlight

  • US Prosecutors Slam Terra (LUNA) Founder Do Kwon With Eight Counts of Fraud for 2022 Crypto Collapse
    March 26, 2023
  • Billionaire Tim Draper Says Bitcoin (BTC) a Hedge Against Potential Domino Bank Run Crisis
    March 27, 2023
  • Veteran Trader Tone Vays Says Bitcoin Breakout Incoming, Forecasts Extended Rallies for Top Crypto Asset
    March 27, 2023
  • Shiba Inu’s Shibarium Aims To Process Transactions in Seconds for Less Than Pennies: New Public Documentation
    March 27, 2023
NBX Warsaw Summit Banner
DON'T MISS A BEAT
Crypto headlines delivered daily
to your inbox
BTC, ETH, XRP news alert options
By joining The Daily Hodl news list you agree to our
Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Featured Image: Shutterstock/Billion Photos

Cryptocurrency news and analysis, covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, XRP, altcoins and blockchain technology

Categories

Bitcoin • Ethereum • Trading •
Ripple and XRP • Altcoins •
Blockchain • Regulators •
Scams • Crypto101 • HodlX •
Futuremash •
Industry Announcements

ABOUT US | EDITORIAL POLICY | PRIVACY POLICY
TERMS AND CONDITIONS | CONTACT | ADVERTISE

JOIN US ON TELEGRAM

JOIN US ON TWITTER

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK

COPYRIGHT © 2017-2023 THE DAILY HODL

No Result
View All Result
  • FEATURES
    • News
    • Bitcoin
    • Ethereum
    • Ripple and XRP
    • Altcoins
    • Trading
    • NFTs
    • Blockchain
    • Futuremash
    • Regulators
    • Scams
    • Crypto 101
  • HODLX
    • Latest Stories
    • FAQ
    • Submit Guest Post
  • INDUSTRY ANNOUNCEMENTS
    • Latest
    • Press Releases
    • ChainWire
    • Sponsored Posts
    • Submit Your Content
  • CRYPTO MARKETS
    • Bitcoin (BTC)
    • Ethereum (ETH)
    • Binance Coin (BNB)
  • BEGINNERS
    • What Is Bitcoin?
    • What Is Blockchain?
    • What Does Hodl Mean?
    • How to Pay Your Bills with Bitcoin
    • Best Bitcoin FAQs
    • Example of Bitcoin’s Purpose
    • Cryptocurrency Has Multiple Meanings
    • Authenticator Alert – Securing Your Crypto
  • SUBMIT
    • Guest Post
    • Press Release
    • Sponsored Post
    • Advertise
  • EMAIL ALERTS
  • DAILY HODL MIX

© 2023 The Daily Hodl