Farstuff: The Internet of Things Podcast

#9 • Bitcoin & The IoT

06.12.2014 - By Andreea Borcea & Charles WiltgenPlay

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Bitcoin can be used to pay for stuff, but it’s interesting for reasons that go way beyond that — and it may be especially interesting when applied to the Internet of Things. How interesting? We audaciously propose that Bitcoin will be central to the IoT.

Find out why in this episode, in which Charles and Andreea help contextualize bitcoin as it relates to the Internet of Things.

Topics

* What is bitcoin?

* It’s a currency, like cash

* Digital currency, a.k.a. crypto currency, a.k.a. smart cash

* Anonymous (not really)

* It’s a system

* No central authority, a.k.a. distributed, a.k.a. decentralized

* Invented by Satoshi Nakamoto

* At the center: The “blockchain”

* Currency is just one application of the underlying tech

* Bitcoin (mostly) solves: How to get a people who don’t trust each other to reach consensus

* We have not discovered the most interesting applications of underlying system

* The bitcoin mining gold rush is over

* Developers, entrepreneurs and investors are growing companies around the bitcoin ecosystem

* The technology behind bitcoin

* What is the blockchain?

* Bitcoin gives IoT devices their own wallets

* Why would things need their own wallet?

* Boom! Micropayments

* Why would things need to make tiny payments?

* How bitcoin will revolutionize money in developing countries

* Content monetization

* Security

* The most interesting uses of bitcoin have yet to be discovered

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