The Lawfare Podcast: Nick Weaver on Why You Should Sell Your Bitcoin
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2016
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we have on Nick Weaver the show. Nick's a regular Lawfare contributor, senior staff researcher at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California, and as you’ll see, quite the Bitcoin skeptic. Nick walks Ben through what exactly Bitcoin is, answering whether the platform is a financial opportunity of historical proportions, the massive criminal problem law enforcement officials have suggested, or something else entirely—a waste of your money. Nick also outlines some of the design flaws he sees in Bitcoin and why those flaws, which many in the Bitcoin community view as important features, will actually lead to the platform’s downfall. It’s a discussion of Ponzi schemes, the benefits of the blockchain, and the future of international currency transactions.
It’s the Lawfare Podcast Episode #152: Nick Weaver on Why You Should Sell Your Bitcoin.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.5 | To access an ad-free version of the LawFair podcast, become a material supporter of LawFair |
| 0:11.2 | at patreon.com slash lawfair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash lawfair. |
| 0:18.3 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, lawfair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:30.1 | The Bitcoin community is very vulnerable to Ponzi schemes. |
| 0:35.0 | Now you can argue that Bitcoin itself is a Ponzi scheme, but the investment in Ponzi and |
| 0:41.7 | Ponzi-like schemes is staggering. |
| 0:44.7 | So a few years back, 7% of all Bitcoin at the time, that invested into a single Ponzi |
| 0:52.2 | scheme run by a guy out of Texas. |
| 0:55.4 | He was running the online moniker of the Bitcoin savings and trust, formerly known as Pirate |
| 1:02.3 | Savings and Trust, and the only thing people knew about him was his moniker pirate at |
| 1:09.0 | 40. |
| 1:10.4 | In fact, at the time when some people were vocally going, hey guys, this is a Ponzi scheme. |
| 1:17.6 | The editor of Bitcoin magazine conducted $100,000 worth of bets. |
| 1:25.3 | In money he did not have that this was not a Ponzi scheme. |
| 1:31.3 | Two weeks later, Hitfolder is a Ponzi scheme. |
| 1:34.3 | I'm Cody Poplin and this is the LawFair podcast January 9, 2016. |
| 1:41.9 | That was Nick Weaver, regular LawFair contributor, senior staff researcher at the International |
| 1:46.6 | Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California, and as you'll see in this show, Bitcoin |
| 1:51.8 | Skeptic. |
... |
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