Interview: Andreas M. Antonopoulos | It´s great idea to monetize content creators
Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a speaker, an educator, and one of the world’s most respected Bitcoin entrepreneurs and blockchain experts. Andreas is author of books like Mastering Bitcoin, The Internet of Money and Mastering Ethereum.
In our interview, we were also interested in his view on social networks on a blockchain, such as Steemit.
Hello Andreas, thank you for joining our interview. Let’s go straight ahead. What do you think could be the biggest threat for Bitcoin?
I think the biggest weakness that Bitcoin has, is that the base layer blockchain is insufficiently private. It does not have strong enough privacy and anonymity guarantees. If you are trying to build a currency on top, that threatens the currency’s fungibility.
What is fungibility?
In a system of money, it is important that you are not able to distinguish between units.
Imagine if I am holding a 1000 Czech crown paper bill and go to a store. And I want to buy something with this paper bill and the storekeeper will tell me: “Do you have any other 1000 Czech crown bill?”. I could ask why.
"I don't know. The serial number starts in a number four and I don't like that. I want a bill with a serial number that doesn't start in a four. Do you have another?" They can't do that. In fact, it is illegal to do that. They must accept my 1000 Czech crown bill as being the same as any other. They can't even say, "The corners are a bit creased. This bill is only worth 950 Czech crowns."
But why is it a problem?
If you had that kind of situation with Bitcoin, it would be a problem. You might receive Bitcoin from someone who received it from another person, and that person received it from someone, who stole it from Mt. Gox. Then some exchanges can say, that they don’t want this Bitcoin and they may even shut down your account. That might be a big problem.
Do you see it already happening, the problem with some Bitcoins being different?
No, not at the moment. I don’t think we´re seeing significant signs of that, although there are some cases where people pay extra for Bitcoin who is newly mined versus Bitcoin that has history. But its not really significant threat at the moment.
Do you think fiat onramps and offramps can be a problem? Because here in Czech, most banks don’t allow people sending money to crypto exchanges. If governments tight up KYC and AML policies, then they can make for an average person more difficult to reach their own financial independence.
I do think that the onramps and offramps are the only place, where governance can play pressure. That’s the common place for them to play pressure and it’s the only place where banks can exercise anticompetitive behavior and governments are allowing them to do that.
But for me, I think, crypto is something that should be seen more as a currency unless an investment, so I would like to see more people earn crypto by producing their labor, services or products rather than buy crypto on exchange for fiat.
And I think the more governances and banks put pressure on onramps and offramps, then more likely people are to use their labor to get crypto and also stay in crypto instead of switching back and forth.
What is your opinion on social networks on blockchain like Steemit, while they might be censorship resistant in some way?
It´s great idea to monetize content creators, and also to own your own data.
But I am skeptical to them having separate chains to do that. Because they are problems with using utility tokens. They can have limited liquidity; they can have problems with maintaining high level of security and some other issues.
Is cashless society potential problem in a future? It gives governments and banks more power over people.
Cashless society is fascist society! It will be a problem, crypto can solve it. Every government, which will force people to stop using physical money and using only electronic money has fascist behavior.
Is it a privacy problem?
Yes, of course. You can see that freedom is decreasing all around the world.
So, would you say it’s a paranoia to accumulate private coins and use CoinJoins?
It´s not a paranoia. We need our freedom; we need our privacy.
Is deflationary character of Bitcoin a problem? While the value will be increasing over time, people will not use Bitcoin, they will only HODL, right? Well, it can still be just store of value and the transfer of value can be solved with different cryptocurrencies.
I think deflationary system is not a problem. It prevents wasting money for unwanted plastic stuff. It can make people more safe money than wasting it for stupid things.
I like to use Bitcoin. Actually, I use it every day. I pay for goods. I pay for a coffee. I pay to my employees. I really like to use peer-to-peer digital currencies in my daily life.
What are your next steps, do you plan to write another book? What will be about?
I will publish my next book in August this year, I don’t want to say more before it. Wait for it, it will be very soon.
Are you planning to visit the Czech Republic again? Do you like the idea of Paralelní Polis – a place where you can pay with crypto only?
I love Paralelní Polis in Prague. I have been there several times.
I don’t have plan this year to visit the Czech Republic, but next year I would like to come.
Thank you for your time, Andreas!
You can follow work of Andreas through his Twitter account or YouTube Channel, where he is spreading his thoughts and explanatory information.
Interviews such as this one you can find in webpage blockchainfo.cz.
And a few questions for you, I would love if you spread your word down below this article:
What is your opinion about the cashless society?
What do you think of Bitcoin with privacy on a base layer? Do you think it’s necessary?
Do you agree with Andreas on his opinion about Steemit and other social media on the blockchain?
Great @blockchainfo
Andreas has clearly a big name within crypto and blockchain industry and he probably enjoyes more trust than anyone I know.
Could I watch this interview somewhere or did you contact him via text?
Thx for sharing. Upvote on the way.
I really respect Andreas, however my impression is that he is holding on to concept of bitcoin and other crypto as new form of currency.
My strong believe is that crypto will have a future mostly as a digital store of value. STO and tokens providing some ownership are the future. And reality is that there will be only less and less privacy within crypto space.
Seriously great read. Upvoted already.
Yours
Piotr
Hi @crypto.piotr,
thank you for your reply. This was an audio call, so its not possible to see it anywhere on YouTube or something like that, maybe next time :)
Andreas is really helpful person with great passion for cryptocurrencies and its technology. I also think that Bitcoin will be a store of value in the future, but lets see what will happen, maybe 2nd or 3nd layer solution can be the form of currency based on Bitcoin - who knows. Maybe Lightning network in some different way can be the solution - this is still early to say.
Thanks for stopping by
@crypto.pior: While there may be less privacy with crypto, it will still be possible (for example through mixing with different coins to break traceable links). But the idea of working within the cryptoverse and not offramping to fiat would reduce the touch points accessible to governments. It becomes in essence a barter system where you trade your goods and services for another’s. I had a friend that owned an upholstery shop. A good portion of his business was through barter. While it has its limitations, it is completely untaxed and invisible to the government.
The concerns about ’utility’ tokens used as payments to creators are valid. Crypto, in general, is not widely accepted for every day expenses, and where it is accepted, it is mostly only bitcoin. Until functional cross-chain distributed exchanges (DEX) are ubiquitous, or the goods and services creators desire are readily available in the coin they earn, their payments are more for status than for wealth (and I’m a steem believer!). It can get there, but it’s not quite there yet.
As to the cashless society, I largely live in that mode already because of its convenience. However, if we are FORCED to live that way, then I agree that only bad will come of it! We totally need alternative means of exchanging value that is not completely controlled by a single entity. You will see old fashioned barter come back in a big way just to avoid the constraints and limitations such a restriction would impose.
I am no economist, just a pragmatist. I believe in crypto for many reasons, but it has to useful to the everyday person (even they are not even aware they are using it!) before it will truly change the world. I believe it will happen, just not sure how or when. Projects like steem are what will get us there as they evolve.
Late thank you for your reply @jdkennedy
ps.
Would you mind sharing with me what's your impression so far after latest forks? One week after hf21 and hf21 has been introduced?
ps.
Check out my latest publication..
It brought some real emotions. I've been downvoted by over half million SP (attack of few accounts), however I also received solid support and few strong upvotes and now I will be enjoying the biggest genuine payout in my lifetime ;)
Yours, Piotr
@crypto.piotr: The first impression I had about the HFs was the immediate need for the second HF. I’m familiar with unexpected issues when a project goes live on the operational system. No matter how hard you try, it’s very difficult to get the dev and test environments to faithfully replicate operations. But it is unusual to see an issue big enough to require a full rev number change so soon out of the gate. I recognize that distributed systems like Steem are still a very new construct that the devs are still coming to grips with, so I’m pretty tolerant of the hiccups. Similarly, they are doing this on a shoestring budget with development and test environments that are probably still in development themselves, another reason for being patient. Note that these comments are made with no direct exposure to the codebase (haven’t had time to go spelunking through the project GitHub yet :).
As to the impact of the changes made by the HFs, I don’t really have an opinion, mostly because I was just beginning to get a feel for using steem and have not fully digested the nuances of it yet (I’ve only been on it since early July).
Nonetheless, the discussions I have read suggest that the changes are moving the system more towards how I thought it already was - a place where the posts were meant to be more meaningful than ”what I had for lunch today” with the value determined by upvotes of the community. A bit idealistic I realize now, but not far from what I believe is the intended goal.
With respect to your other post, I experienced a form of that when I posted a couple of short stories I had also gotten published on 365tomorrows.com. An anti-plagiarism bot called out the copies, but because they are now in the other site’s archives, I could not meet proof criteria. At first I was upset, but now I better understand the purpose of qualifying the legitimacy of a post, especially by a new account.
All of that is to say I think you are right to point out the abuses on both sides of fence. It’s important to confront those who truly are abusing the system for their personal gain while not substantially contributing to the community (admittedly a very subjective standard). It is also important to do that without, at some point, damaging an innocent, well intentioned contributor.
I am still learning the significance of these issues and posts like yours are helping me get there, even if some may take exception some of your thoughts.
Cheers!
I think the BTC era is coming to an end. Too much bad was happening with this cryptocurrency. BTC has been used in many illegal transactions, including the payment for child pornography on the darknet. No one would like to be associated with this by having old Bitcoins. In addition, what BTC is now has little to do with the true assumptions of Bitcoin from the 2008 White Paper. I advise you to be seriously interested in BSV and realize that cryptocurrencies that promote anonymity will simply be banned by governments over time. If governments allow Bitcoin, it's only in the form of BSV. If you think Craig Wright is a cheat and madman, it's your business. It's a matter of time when he meet Trump and BSV will becomes the only legal Bitcoin. In a year, you will remember these words. I exchange STEEM for BSV. It's the only way to save your crypto. I will return to STEEM in the future.
Thank you for your opinion, it´s not easy to predict the future. I think there will be more blockchains, who will be successful, not just one. And I hope STEEM will be one of them.
Hi @astromaniak
I'm sorry for such a late reply. I took few days off since HF21 and HF22 were happening lately and I'm only catching up with comments right now.
Do you really believe that BTC era is over? Most people I know seem to believe otherwise.
ps.
I noticed that you're from Poland. So am I. Any chance I could DM you? Do you use telegram or discord?
(zauwazylem czytajac wlasnie Twoj artykul "Dlaczego prawo ma znaczenie [tłumaczenie PL]" ze naprawde jestes mega na anty do tematu obecnej decentralizacji. Ciekawe.
ps.
Check out my latest publication..
It brought some real emotions. I've been downvoted by over half million SP (attack of few accounts), however I also received solid support and few strong upvotes and now I will be enjoying the biggest genuine payout in my lifetime ;)
Yours
Piotr
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I agree with the great master. We still have problems to overcome. I just learned that it's a place that used coins. I'd love to see this place.
Thank you for your reaction, there will be still some issues, but I hope mostly they will be solved.
I have been listening to him for years. And definitely, he is emphasizing privacy mechanism for Bitcoin and Lightning. Nice job.
Yes, he is very passionate speaker, I like to listen him too.
Yes, he is very
Passionate speaker, I like
To listen him too.
- blockchainfo
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
Hello @blockchainfo friend, best regards from Venezuel.
I barely have a year and a half within this platform and little by little I am learning more and more and with this type of reading and its different interactions with other users I continue to learn from their comments.
definitely cryptos have a future and I share what Andrea says, I would particularly like to be able to pay everything with digital currencies, however in my country that is limited.
Regarding the layers to which they interact, I must say that I am trying to understand the explanation better, so I must investigate about it since it caused me much more curiosity.
Your friend Jose lanz
Hello, thank you for your comment. Enjoy crypto land :)
Dear @blockchainfo
What do you think about the community without cash? I think that can not be dammed anymore, we begin to enter that era.
What do you think about Bitcoin with privacy at the bottom layer? I think there is no need, regulations need to be adjusted. Do you think that's necessary? I don't think it's necessary, because privacy coins already exist, like one of them being a pioneer is monero.
Do you agree with Andreas about his opinion about Steemit and other social media on the blockchain? Regarding limited liquidity I agree, and in my opinion can be overcome with the burning program with various projects that are manifested in various forms.
Thank you @crypto.piotr to let me know for these cool articles.
best regards
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Thank you for your answers, great to have you here!
Awesome post, thanks
I thank you for stopping by!
Very interesting interview and will look forward to his new book.
If you like to have a more steem orientated interview, I love to tell you a bit about the crowdsale we just did in July/August with 150+ steemians who all want to grew the BEER token
The support of the community was mindblowing....
Hi, that would be great, surely. Is any chance to get in contact with you?
Sure, my discord is @detlev#4277 or drop me you preferred communication channel as encrypted memo.
. Reserved... for later to comment.
okay then ;-)
Great news @blockchainfo
I'm two years here on steemit community I still study this platform I know this steemit community of my friend on facebook she always post her small earning on this community that's why I interested of crypto like bitcoin ethreum and steem. And I'm very thankful of my social media friends until now I'm pursuing to learn on this platform.
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Great! Yes, it´s a great platform, definetely!
I have read in several parts about the possibility that some governments may ban the use of crypto coins. It's really worrying!
What can be done against it?
Using and purchasing it in some confidential way (crypto ATM etc.), surely.
Good interview! I'm waiting next 😋
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Wow - thank you :-) as this interview is kind of a "present" to the readers of blockchainfo.cz to it´s 1st birthday, it will be not easy to keep such a high bar and quality :) but I will try.
I would like to see Andrea Vs Peter Schiff!
Yes that would be even better than whatever I just saw. :)
I think we may be headed towards a cashless society - it would certainly be more convenient and less expensive to deal without cash. With that said, I believe the right to freely transact is right up there with the right to bear arms in the ability to prevent totalitarian governments from taking over civil liberties. My hope is that decentralized privacy oriented exchanges for crypto will help economies between countries operate more collaboratively and help prevent the problems that could result from the loss of cash.
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Yes, agree on that.
Hello @blockchainfo, society without cash can be understood as the control of governments and banks, but cryptography can give true freedom in the midst of this.
The monetization of content is something very good, steemit and other platforms show that it can be something very positive for the creators and also for the people who receive the content, now, in relation to privacy and those things, right now it is very difficult to find Some system that respects that.
Thank you, great article, very good interview.
Thank you, its a long-run journey to find the best solution and crypto is just at the early stage. Thanx for your comment.
Cryptos are great inventions but they can never replace fiats. They can be used as an alternatives of fiats but, they will never take place of fiats which are backed by powerful governments. Bitcoin and every other cryptos has privacy issue and as Andreas said "If you had that kind of situation with Bitcoin, it would be a problem. You might receive Bitcoin from someone who received it from another person, and that person received it from someone, who stole it from Mt. Gox. Then some exchanges can say, that they don’t want this Bitcoin and they may even shut down your account.", it is not likely that people may trust them wholly.
However, they are the single tool in the hands of ordinary people whose freedom is on stake.
It was a nice interview.
Thank you, you are right, governments will never want to loose all of their power.
I believe this to be mere speculation. In the case of fiat, the authorities trace back the stolen cash by repossessing the left over cash and the assets that have been bought by the offender using the stolen cash.
If the cash has been used to buy property the authorities go after the property and do not trace the cash so as to reposses the cash from an innocent seller of property to the offender. The law I am sure will apply the same principles when it comes to cryptocurrencies.
cc @crypto.piotr
Yes, but with UTXO its "easier" to trace that money (BTC) than paper notes. But let´s see the future.
The issue I am referring to is not about the difficulties of tracing; I am saying that generally the law doesn't allow recovery of money from innocent purchasers unless the purchasers were complicit in the illegal transaction.
Very cool interview. I always wanted to know Andreas thoughts on Steem. Of course, one could have said the same issues with Bitcoin (security, liquidity) when it first started. I wonder how he would feel about Steem once it becomes very liquid with a proven track record of security.
Hi Dan, thanx for your comment. Actually Andreas has his own account @aantonop, but he is not using it. Probably a combination of Twitter, YouTube and Patreon is good enough for him, at least for now - maybe he will enjoy some decentralized platform in the future. Yes, I am also curious for answers to these questions in some future.
"I think deflationary system is not a problem. It prevents wasting money for unwanted plastic stuff. It can make people more safe money than wasting it for stupid things." ...Tyler Durden - Fight Club
Besides that this is quite an interesting view on things. Those things mentioned are in some cases true just yet. I went for my bittrex account which I hadn't done since half a year or so and it was disabled. They need "verification". You will be totally traceable after that if you use those exchanges. Well, this is even better for gouvernments and banks, because they can trace all your financial behaviour, but not only once, but if they like they can read it out in the ever lasting blockchain. So the use of blockchain is not anonymus, it's the opposite that way.
What I fear mostly is, that someone programmed a reverse in the mechanism. I am not too good in cryptographic stuff to oversee it all. If there is anyone, please tell me.
Perhaps something not inherent to the code itself, but something I never may have thought about. Then this private and free monetary system bitcoin will fail after having much PR and they will come up with a institutional bankster coin regulated by the gov and this then will be the biblical mark of the beast. By the way I am hosting a new music contest :D
https://steemit.com/openmusic/@senzenfrenz/2nd-exclusive-steemit-open-music-contest-join-and-win-30-steem
Thank you, as I know, hashing algorithm SHA-256used by Bitcoin is very robust and not easy to break those days. I think if there will be some issues in the future, some fork of the code might occure, which will move Bitcoin to some higher level of security, like SHA-512 or some. So I am not worried about this anymore.
Thank for your comment anyways!
Heh, funny part with the Fight Club, yeah there was something like that - with "the fu..ing big television" 😄
Great job, great interview! Thanks @crypto.piotr for pointing this out in Dan's Sunday curation post!
Thank you for stopping by.
My pleasure! Interesting post! I followed you! Cheers!
Congratulations on my part because you interviewed one of my current heroes greetings from Venezuela
Thank you, I am glad we have the same heroes. :)
Cashless society, in my opinion, will still be an eventuality.
Because most people are conditioned to follow central authorities. It is a conditioning that is hundred of years old. When Facebook successfully implements its Libra coin, it will undoubted gain mainstream adoption faster than Bitcoin.
What I think is important is to continue to educate the public the differences between centralised and decentralised money. To undo the hundreds of years of conditioning is not so easy.
Yes, the education is so important here! But still there will be bunch of people who "doesn´t even care" about decentralization, that is a sad reality.
My parents included :)
It's okay. I have made my peace with it.
The important thing is solutions exist.
Whether people embrace them is a choice.
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Hi dear @blockchainfo.
For some detractors, society without money seeks to end people's financial freedom.
Cryptography is being used as a facade. But basically what you want is to eliminate or reduce physical money and promote the use of traceable electronic money.
So far the pseudonymous feature of BTC has helped protect certain identities. But this has led to money laundering and drug trafficking financing.
Recently we saw how the DEA captured and froze BTC accounts corresponding to three Chinese drug traffickers.
Your friend, Juan.
Hi Juan, thank you for your reply. Yes, the society without money is dangerous and that is why I hope crypto industry will improve much faster than before. Because it will be needed.
Bitcoin needs a bit more privacy. I agree with that. Monetizing content creation is great too. Government here is encouraging a cashless economy but fees are still quite high so people prefer using cash
Thank you for your answers, I totally agree with you.
I liked the interview, good informations thanks!
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Thank you, happy to hear that! 😉
thanks for sharing such an interesting interview andrea's opinion is very accurate
Thank you for your reaction
@blockchainfo, We need more Crypto Cities where we can spend only Crypto which will lead to proper education and inturn adoption too. In my opinion in near future we will going to see that.
Thank you for your reaction, you are right, we need to move a bit.
Welcome. 👍
Andreas is a one of the best credible voices out there for crypto and blockchain. always able to trust.