Don’t Leave BitCoin to the Libertarians! (Or, why Your Movement Needs Open Source Money)
Among activists one often finds an aversion to even thinking about money.
Among activists one often finds an aversion to even thinking about money.
Bitcoin is a digital currency for which no government, bank, or corporation takes responsibility. Like many others, I was curious to learn how it works and why it seems to be succeeding.
The current financial system is addicted to growth, through such things as the debt-based creation of money, the charging of interest upon debts, and the growth assumptions embedded in the valuation of shares and other financial assets.
Gavin Andresen, the lead scientist for the Bitcoin Foundation (and one of its only two staff members) sat down with a few of us at the UMass Amherst Knowledge Commons meeting on Wednesday. Having read so much hype and misinformation about Bitcoin over the past few months, I was excited to have a chance to talk to someone directly connected with this brilliant experiment in algorithmic institution-building. Bitcoin is, of course, the digital currency that has been in the news a lot recently because of its surging value among traders – and its dramatic crash.