“The following is a talk by Andreas M. Antonopoulos to the Los Angeles Bitcoin Meetup on January 9, 2014 at CoLoft in Santa Monica.”
“A CNN/ORC International survey released Monday has a solid majority of Americans supporting the legalization of marijuana. Some 55% agreed that marijuana should be legal, with 44% disagreeing. CNN called the results ‘a major turnaround from past decades,’ citing its own and General Social Surveying polls showing support for legalization at only 16% in 1987, before rising to 26% in 1996 and 34% in 2002. Support has jumped 12 point in just two years; CNN had support at 43% in 2012. The CNN poll results are similar to an October Gallup Poll that had support for legalization a record-breaking 58% nationwide. That was in line with a number of other polls since the 2012 elections.”
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2014/jan/06/cnn_poll_finds_55_support_mariju
“In a new note to clients, Wedbush analyst Gil Luria lays out which companies Bitcoin and/or cryptocurrencies in general could boost, and destroy. ‘We believe Bitcoin and its associated technology represent a potential disruption to our covered companies,’ wrote Lauria. ‘Furthermore, we believe Bitcoin’s potential lies beyond the ‘coin’ as the underlying blockchain protocol can be used to replace traditional intermediaries by acting as an exchange mechanism for a multitude of transactions.’ And now, the companies he’s referring to.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/winners-and-losers-in-bitcoin-2014-1
“Initially, the Internet was dramatically inferior to conventional communications networks, but over time Internet applications became increasingly sophisticated. Today, the Internet’s capabilities are much greater than those of the conventional services overseen by the ITU. Bitcoin applies the same philosophy to payment networks. Rather than trying to build every feature into the core protocol, the creator of Bitcoin defined a simple, flexible way to transmit money. The system leaves it to others, like Bitpay, Coinbase and firms that haven’t been founded yet, to build secure, user-friendly payment applications on top of that basic infrastructure. It’s impossible to predict what those services will look like.”
“There is a number of industries today that are already obsolete, kept alive by sheer inertia or by political subsidies. Many politicians, in an attempt to ‘save jobs’, are foolishly taking resources from new, viable industries and giving to these obsolete ones. ‘Saving jobs’ in this context means that politicians are rejecting ways of producing the same level of output with a much more competitive and cost-efficient method, and is not to be applauded at all.”
http://falkvinge.net/2013/12/10/rick-falkvinges-list-of-stone-dead-industries-today/
“Forget decriminalization or medical marijuana. Bolstered by state ballot victories, top-tier contenders in 2014 are seeking full legalization, the drug’s highest-profile advocacy ever. Advocates for marijuana legalization say the 2014 elections represent the first time that serious, top-tier candidates for major state and federal offices are advocating for full legalization of the drug. In Pennsylvania and Maryland, top contenders for the Democratic nomination for governor are calling for legalization, as is the likely Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine. And earlier this week, a legalization bill was introduced in the Legislature in New York, making the state the sixth with an active bill.”
“By granting individual businesses the ability to instantly settle international transactions the creative destruction of the marketplace has obliterated the hold that banks have over these long-distance payments through the SWIFT, TIPANET or any of the dozens of RTGS networks around the world. As adoption of bitcoin grows, it will displace more and more of the global M2 supply and, consequently, grow exponentially in value. Below you will see the value of bitcoin in today’s dollars should it expand to a certain portion of the whole of M2. For convenience, I’ve also put in the fractional units of bitcoin; milli and microbitcoins as you will soon be denominating bitcoin transactions in that manner.”
http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2013/12/10/bitcoin%E2%80%99s-evolution-will-be-swift.html
“What we’ve got is a monetary system that lacks the real old-time value of gold. And it lacks the real new-time value of simple, low-cost Internet-based information exchange. We can receive an electronic copy of War and Peace online at virtually no transaction cost. But if we want to pay for it, we must pay fees to zombie banks and credit card companies (and inform the NSA of our reading habits). Digital money is the biggest innovation in currency in 6,000 years. Modern technology opens this universe up to us – exposing thousands of monetary galaxies and currency solar systems. Surely, we will find at least one planet hospitable to human commerce.”
http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/bitcoin-2-0/
“Years ago, information was controlled and distributed by single entities. This is why media conglomerates and newspaper companies were so powerful. When we talk about how the internet disrupted those companies, we are really saying that new protocols created the disruption. The protocols provided a way to send and receive instantaneous information without anyone’s permission. The protocol behind Bitcoin is providing the same type of disruption only instead of sending information without any third-party involvement, we are now able to send money without any third-party involvement. In essence, we are democratizing money and rewriting the rules for commerce.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danreich/2013/12/03/bitcoin-and-the-two-things-you-need-to-know/
“Actually, the Bitcoin protocol has more potential than merely rendering the banks and Wall Street obsolete. It could become the global ledger of companies, stocks, contracts, patents, insurance and so on without the need for paper pushers in the middle. This protocol changes everything. The sooner you comprehend that, the better for you and for society. But that’s a whole other article. For now, here are ten ways Bitcoin is better than the Federal Reserve System.”
http://www.activistpost.com/2013/12/10-ways-bitcoin-is-better-than-federal.html