In the early days of Bitcoin, a few idealistic individuals attempted to live entirely on the bitcoin currency. Nine years and an abundance of technological developments later, is an entirely closed-loop bitcoin economy possible, or even useful?
Join hosts Jonathan Mohan, Stephanie Murphy and Andreas M. Antonopoulos as they reflect on bitcoin’s evolution as a currency and commodity. In the early days, an era of retail adoption as merchants began to accept bitcoin from their customers seemed to point to a bright future for daily bitcoin use. The 2013 IRS addendum treating bitcoin as a commodity, rather than as a foreign currency, quickly made transactions a burden with onerous tax reporting requirements, dimming that retail bitcoin future.
In the time since, the crypto community has adopted a HODL mindset. Why spend bitcoin if it’s disinflationary in nature and will bring you more value in the future? Those idealistic individuals' dreams of bitcoin as a daily currency may no longer align with bitcoin's maturation.
Developments in layer 2 technology, like the Lightning Network, have allowed experiments in bitcoin as legal tender to be not only a possibility, but a pragmatic choice for governments like El Salvador’s. With news of Ukraine considering following in El Salvador’s footsteps, will clusters of closed-loop bitcoin life bloom around the world?
Do you have any questions or comments? Send us an email at adam@speakingofbitcoin.show
Today's show featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy and Jonathan Mohan. This episode was edited by Jonas, with music by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats. Our album art is based off a photo by Ishan_@seefromthesky on Unsplash, modified by Speaking of Bitcoin
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/originalltb/messageA Final Discussion
Update 6/19/2022
SOB #502 When the Referees Play Favorites (Part 1)
SOB #501 When More Is Less
SOB #500 Three Rules to Remember After Mailchimp Breach
SOB #503 The Check Engine Light and the Space Shuttle
SOB #499 New Lessons From the Island of Stone Bitcoins
SOB #498 Rights Versus Privileges in a Global Financial System
Quick SOB Update (More frequent episodes coming... now)
SOB #496 The Ups and Downs of Crypto Loans
SOB #497 A Brief Look at Bitcoin Maximalism
SOB # 495 First Practices Aren’t Best Practices
SOB #494 Bitcoin Security and a Rogue Power Plant
SOB #493 The Endowment Effect, HODLing and the Impossible Self-Appraisal
SOB #492 Can Stablecoins Survive?
SOB #491 The Jokes Wear Thin as Inflation Becomes Normal
SOB #490 Checking in on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network
SOB #489 Big Gaming Signals NFTS Are Closer to Mainstream
SOB #488 How Far We've Come (And How Much Stayed the Same)
SOB #487 If Facebook Can't Run A Global Currency, Who Could?
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