There’s not a big third-party in the middle taking thirty, fifty, or whatever percent of the cut on the way, it’s just directly from one individual to another individual.

In this episode of Made You Think we mixed it up by bringing in two guests: Taylor Pearson and Adil Majid, to ask them all of our burning questions about cryptocurrency. Neil came into the episode completely fresh and asked them everything he could think of, so if you’re new to bitcoin, ethereum, and cryptocurrency, or have a basic understanding but want to learn more, this is the crash course you’ve been looking for.

We cover a wide range of topics, including:

The history and the creation of cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies pros, cons, and uses
Various types and forms of cryptocurrencies
The major benefits of cryptocurrencies usage
Long and short-term price speculations
Reliable sources of cryptocurrency news and information

And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure check out Taylor and Adil online!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to also listen to our launch episodes on Antifragile by Nassim Taleb to learn how to profit from chaos, and on The Sovereign Individual, to better prepare yourself for the cyber-economic future.

Mentioned in the show:

Spire [1:28]
Cypher Punks [13:37]
E-Gold [13:57]
Dropbox [17:22]
Filecoin [17:38]
Source Wifi [17:42]
Uber [19:21]
Nick Szabo’s Blog - Unenumerated [23:19]
Steem Crypto-Reddit [38:54]
Made You Think: The Sovereign Individual [48:35]
Coinbase [50:05]
JP Morgan [54:11]
JP Morgan trading Bitcoin after fraud claim [54:11]
The Silk Road marketplace [1:10:00]
Bitcoin forums [1:11:05]
Ethereum [1:15:30]
The DAO [1:18:45] (the DAO hack)
Alibaba [1:23:14]
Inneo [1:23:23]
Belaji’s article on quantifying decentralization [1:24:20]
Bitcoin Whitepaper [1:29:10]
Vitalik Buterin’s blog [1:30:56]
Social Scalability article [1:35:55]
Nick Szabo’s Tim Ferriss Podcast episode [1:36:43]
Cryptocurrency on Medium [1:37:03]

Books mentioned:

The Dictator’s Handbook [4:18]
The Master Switch [4:46]
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital [57:37]
Digital Gold [1:08:11]
The Sovereign Individual [1:30:22] (Made You Think episode) (Nat’s Notes)
The Internet of Money [1:34:59]

People mentioned:

Taylor Pearson [0:49] (Twitter)
Adil Majid [1:21] (Twitter)
Tim Wu [4:46]
Satoshi Nakamoto [11:19]
Nick Szabo [14:02]
Kevin Kelly [34:05]
Gandhi [51:38]
Jamie Dimon [54:11]
Carlota Perez [57:37]
Ari Paul [1:07:47]
Chris Burniske [1:07:47]
Balaji Srinivasan [1:07:47]
Barry Silbert [1:07:47]
Vitalik Buterin [1:07:47]
Laura Shin [1:07:47]
Elizabeth Stark [1:07:47]
Fred Wilson [1:07:47]
Naval Ravikant [1:07:47]
Hal Finney [1:12:13]
Bruce Mesquita [1:34:47]
Andreas Antonopoulos [1:35:09]
Nassim Nicholas Taleb [1:36:20] (Antifragile Made You Think episode)
Tim Ferriss [1:36:43]

Useful resources:

Taylor’s articles on cryptocurrency (here and here)
Nat’s articles on cryptocurrency (here and here)

0:00 - Intro to the show and some information on what the episode will be about.

0:49 - Taylor Pearson and Adil Majid’s introductions and how they both got into cryptocurrency.

5:32 - Some of the ways that cryptocurrency is useful due to it being decentralized and free from governmental control.

8:45 - The two types of cryptocurrencies: currencies and tokens, and some key differences between them.

10:13 - What makes cryptocurrencies able to be decentralized and free from governmental control. Also, why people can’t create more bitcoins, info on the blockchain, and info on mining cryptocurrencies.

13:15 - Cryptocurrency creation attempts that came before the creation of Bitcoin.

14:26 - Who is creating cryptocurrencies, how they are created, and how they attain value.

16:23 - Some more information on tokens and some examples of these tokens.

18:11 - Why we would want to use tokens for transactions instead of traditional currency.

23:00 - What the customized contract aspect of cryptocurrencies is and how it is much more beneficial to all parties involved compared to traditional contracts or transactions.

30:59 - The international commerce aspect of cryptocurrencies and the huge impact they can have on minimizing transactional fees.

35:21 - How cryptocurrency is possibly going to affect tech and non-banking companies in the future.

39:18 - The potential of decentralized autonomous organizations in the future and huge impacts these can have on our daily lives.

41:20 - The difference between protocols and applications in cryptocurrencies.

44:49 - Some things that are holding cryptocurrencies back right now.

48:32 - Cryptocurrency regulation and the issue with governmental opposition to cryptocurrencies.

50:39 - Exchanges facing opposition, crypto being free of regulations, and some thoughts on governmental intervention.

54:11 - An example of large companies manipulating the price of cryptocurrencies and how the market cap increasing may help stabilize the currencies.

59:14 - Thoughts on the fluctuations of cryptocurrencies and whether or not it’s going to be valuable long-term or short-term.

1:03:15 - What’s been going on with the Chinese regulations and how that may play out with the different coins in the future.

1:05:45 - Some excellent sources of cryptocurrency information and news, and what types of sources to avoid.

1:08:05 - The backstory of Bitcoin and its creation. Also, some speculations on who the creator actually was.

1:16:10 - The creation of Ethereum, who the creator is, some benefits it has over Bitcoin, and the DAO hack.

1:22:01 - The Bitcoin fork, where Bitcoin split into Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash, and the differences between them.

1:23:29 - Quantifying the decentralization of these various cryptocurrencies.

1:26:28 - The energy arbitrage with Bitcoin, the possible environmental impacts, and Bitcoin mining.

1:30:08 - What you should check out after this episode to learn more about cryptocurrency.

1:32:58 - Where to go to learn more about the application aspect of crypto rather than the currency aspect.

1:38:40 - Wrap-up and where to find Taylor and Adil online.

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com

Part of what makes it so complex is also part of what makes it so interesting. There’s political philosophy, geopolitics, no regulations, network effects, incentivizing people to participate in a network, a kind of economics, and then, there’s the technical standpoint involved.

7: A Crash Course in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cryptocurrency

Made You Think