What Bitcoin’s History Says About Its Future

Love Unchained? Please take this extremely brief survey to help us obtain more sponsors: https://survey.libsyn.com/unchained

Days after the SegWit2x fork was called off, Nathaniel Popper, New York Times tech reporter and author of the book Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money, put this latest suspenseful chapter in Bitcoin's history into context. He discusses why he thinks Bitcoin has become such a vicious, polarized community, why so many of the early Bitcoiners ended up becoming supporters of big blocks, and what could happen to Bitcoin now that new money is entering the system but transactions are expensive and often backlogged. We also dive into who Satoshi Nakamoto might be, whether there are any viable Bitcoin businesses other than ones buying and selling Bitcoin and where regulation of the space is likely to go.

Show notes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/11/14/what-bitcoins-history-says-about-its-future/

Digital Gold: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062362490/digital-gold

Nathaniel's story on ICOs: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/technology/how-floyd-mayweather-helped-two-young-guys-from-miami-get-rich.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fnathaniel-popper

His story on who Satoshi Nakamoto may be: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/business/decoding-the-enigma-of-satoshi-nakamoto-and-the-birth-of-bitcoin.html?_r=0

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices