Is Bitcoin Really a Thing?

Featured Guests:

Sean Snaith - Director, UCF Institute for Economic Competitiveness

Honghui Chen - Director, Master of Science (M.S.) FinTech Initiative at UCF

Jim Balaschak - Principal, Deanja, LLC

Mike O'Donnell - Executive Director, UCF Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Alexander Golding - Founder and CEO, HelpedHope; Bitcoin Investor

David Metcalf - Senior Researcher and Director, Mixed Emerging Technology Integration Lab (METIL), Institute for Simulation & Training

Jim Adamczyk - Senior Executive VP / CLO, Fairwinds Credit Union

Episode Transcription:

Paul Jarley:                         This episode has bank robbers, bitcoin, blockchain, and bacon. Maybe those are the four Bs of Fintech? As it turns out, not all of them are a thing.

Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, "Is this really a thing?" Onto our show.

Paul Jarley:                         I have a murky past. I paid my way through graduate school by teaching macro and micro economics to inmates in a federal penitentiary. How I got that gig is a story for another day. Suffice to say, it's not easy to get into a facility like that. Most of my students were drug dealers, counterfeiters, or tax evaders. My best student was a bank robber.

Paul Jarley:                         When I first heard of bitcoin and its alleged underworld origins I thought, "Yeah. Government's gonna shut that down right away. It's not going to be a thing." Some South American countries like Bolivia and Ecuador have shut down bitcoin; many countries in the Muslim world have too.

Paul Jarley:                         Countries like China have made it difficult to trade, others like India and Canada have safeguards that keep it out of its banking system. But, here in the United States bitcoin is legal. Why? To answer that question I went to my resident hater of all government regulation.

Paul Jarley:                         Well, that's a little harsh. He's the director of the UCF Institute of Economic Competitiveness, Dr. Sean Snaith.

Paul Jarley:                         Hey, Sean. Got a couple of questions for you.

Sean Snaith:                       All right.

Paul Jarley:                         Sean is one of the most recognized people at UCF and his office is just down the hall from mine.

Paul Jarley:                         Why are cryptocurrencies like bitcoin legal? Doesn't government have a monopoly on money production?

Sean Snaith:                       They do. The thing is, with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies they really haven't infringed greatly on the role of money as the medium of exchange that is official government money.

Paul Jarley:                         It's not really legal tender is what you're telling me?

Sean Snaith:                       No. I can't be forced to accept bitcoin in payment. Now, if I was willing to, then we do see transactions where bitcoins functioning as the medium of exchange. But, it's not widespread and that's why I think the government is not sort of clamping down on bitcoin in a forceful way.

Sean Snaith:                       It's not taking revenue away from the government that the government accumulates by being able to create money, which is a significant amount.

Paul Jarley:                         But, what about using bitcoin on a day-to-day basis?

Honghui Chen:                  From the time it started,