In this talk in Berlin, Andreas looks at the inner structure of bitcoin and how high-level financial and trust applications are composed from smaller elements. Using analogies from Lego blocks to a chef creating new recipes, this talk highlights the connection between creativity and the flexibility offered by fine-grained components.
Transcript
[AUDIENCE] With the Bretton Woods system being broken and traditionally infecting markets... in developing regions [through] the World Bank, and the IMF deploying capital in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.. How does Bitcoin expand and take advantage of these developing markets? How does it become a [useful] currency amongst a greater portion of the population, without macro-economic and geopolitical policy dictating its expansion?
[ANDREAS] That is a great question. The simple answer is: through the people in this room. The people who can code. Some of Bitcoin's user interfaces, security implementations, and documentation suck.
No one can use [bitcoin] yet unless they spend hours and hours trying to understand it. In 1989 or early 1990, I sent my very first email. I connected over a modem to a remote account... where I logged in to a UNIX shell, then proceeded to download, compile, and execute a mail program.
I used that program to compose an email message. I got the email address a person on another continent. I sent them an email and it was amazing. Thirty-six hours later, they received my message.
[Laughter] It only took about two hours of work. I had basic UNIX command-line and C programming skills. Exactly twenty years later, my mother picked up the new iPad I sent, [swiped] her finger, and sent me an email. [There is a] transition [period between the two].
Today, [using] Bitcoin is like being thrown into the bowels of UNIX and nothing makes sense. The words don't mean what they actually do, none of the interfaces are polished or usable. You try to do something and it does the exact opposite of what you expected. It is almost impossible for [most] individuals to secure their bitcoin.
It is bloody difficult, but we are seeing change. We are seeing new devices and user interfaces. When I first joined Bitcoin, there was one wallet. We didn't even call it Core then, we called it "Bitcoin." When we get to the points where my mother can use bitcoin, we will begin to win.
That should be your goal. If you are a developer, user interface designer, or a documentation person, in the meantime... we can help the people whose need is high enough that they will take a tremendous leap of faith through... the very difficult user experience leap to [acquire] bitcoin, where for them it is a matter of life and death.
[Where the traditional financial system] affects their ability to generate wealth for their children. [Often], that is every single taxi driver you meet. Ask them, "How do you send money home?" "How much does it cost you?" Then you teach them about Bitcoin. Every immigrant you meet, teach them about Bitcoin.
Help them set up a wallet; give them some bitcoin. Once enough people learn about [Bitcoin], [especially] in places where [it takes a lot] of effort to use money, in Venezuela, Argentina, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, increasingly Greece and Cyprus, where people are... under currency controls and hyperinflation... To wire money to their family, it costs [the average] immigrant worker about 15-25% of their income.
Think about the power of sending your family 20% percent more money every week, just by finding this crazy-sounding technology that no one has ever heard of. Help those people. Everyone in this room is an ambassador for Bitcoin by confounding the messages from the media. The media says that Bitcoin is only used by terrorists, pedophiles, drug dealers, and pornographers.
By a show of hands, how many of you in this room are not one of those things? [Laughter] When the media sells that message, but the average person goes out and meets someone using bitcoin... [as a] dentist, interior designer, architect, or taxi driver, they will [think], 'Hang on a second.' 'I thought y'all were terrorists?' You break the opinion. They will also ask, "Didn't Bitcoin die three months ago?" "Wasn't the CEO arrested in Japan?" [Laughter] "I thought I read something about that." So, confound expectations.
Be an ambassador. Teach people how to use it. Give them a small amount of bitcoin. Don't explain, help them experience it.
And we will move forward.