The document provides a comprehensive introduction to Bitcoin, explaining its nature as a decentralized currency and payment network, alongside its operational principles. It discusses Bitcoin's advantages, including lower transaction fees and secure transactions through a public ledger, while addressing misconceptions and varied perspectives on its value and future. The text also outlines Bitcoin's history, technical details, and potential applications for local economies and beyond, emphasizing its role as a revolutionary payment medium.

1. Bitcoin 101
the currency, the network, the community

2. About Me
By day, I run Earthsite, a web
agency for sustainable brands
By night, I’m a Bitcoin
enthusiast
JoeyShepp.com

3. Disclaimer
This lecture is not a pitch to invest
in bitcoin
This information is intended for
informational purposes only
I am not a licensed financial
advisor and this is not investment
advice
That said, I do hope to inspire you
to get involved in the Bitcoin
community

4. Roadmap
What is Bitcoin and how does it
work?
The currency, the network, the
platform.
How do you use Bitcoin?
For businesses and individuals.
What’s next for Bitcoin?
The next generation of the Internet.
Discussion:
How can Bitcoin be used for local
economies?

5. Some
Perspective

6. First, came the Computer
Who would want
a computer in
their home?
What would you
do with it?

7. Then, came the Internet
Let anybody publish?
It would be total
anarchy!
Email anybody in the
world?

8. Now Bitcoin
Innovations in the science of
cryptology has lead new
ways of connecting people
in a decentralized network.
The foundations of Bitcoin
technology is laying the
groundwork for a truly
equitable global governance
platform.
“The Internet of Money”

9. What is Bitcoin?

10. What is Money?
A medium of exchange
A unit of account
A store of value: Stable supply,
durable, securable, stable
value
Also… widely accepted,
recognizable, fungible,
divisible, transportable,
transferable, hard to
counterfeit

11. What is Bitcoin?

12. Bitcoin Popularity
Google Trends and Search Volume

13. Bitcoin Perspectives
“Bitcoin is a technological
tour de force.
~ Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder
“Bitcoin is the beginning of
something great: a currency
without a government, something
necessary and imperative.”
~Nassim Taleb, Scholar
“Bitcoin is Evil”
~ Paul Krugman, Economist
“A virtual currency scheme”
~ European Central Bank
“I think [each Bitcoin] could
be easily worth $100,000
Chris Dixon, VC with
Andressen Horowitz
"Disruptive to our economy”,
“Ban Bitcoin”, “Well, maybe
it’s ok after all.”
US

14. “It may not be the
perfect global currency
of the future yet, but
it’s the pioneer of a
global currency.”
~ Sir Richard Branson
Business magnate and investor
Virgin Galactic
Accepts Bitcoin

15. GreenBank Capital Inc.
First Public Company to Invest in Bitcoin
!
“I believe that Bitcoin is in the early stages of becoming a revolutionary
payment medium, and GreenBank intends to be actively involved as a bitcoin
incubator and investor.”
!
Danny Wettreich
CEO of GreenBank

16. Flourishing Startup
Ecosystem

17. So, what is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a decentralized payment
network and new kind of currency
based on cryptographic innovations.

18. How Bitcoin Works
Bitcoins are generated by anyone with a
Bitcoin Mining application. A certain
amount of work is required for each block
to be mined.
The total amount of Bitcoins is
predictable and limited.
Bitcoins are stored in a digital wallet,
similar to online banking.
Transactions are verified by Miners and
permanently and anonymously stored on
the network.
Bitcoin software is Open Source, meaning
anybody can review the code. https://bitcoin.org/en/how-it-works

19. Bitcoin Advantages
Delivered person to person
without a bank
Much lower fees in
transferring money
Can be used in any country
Account cannot be frozen
No prerequisites or
arbitrary limits

20. What does Bitcoin
look like?
A 256 bit number of 64
characters (your wallet
password)
Wallets can be stored as an
encrypted file on your
computer or a hidden SD Card
Online Cloud Storage (requires
you trust a company to hold)
Cold Storage (store offline to
reduce risk of hack)
QR Codes & Paper Notes
Brain-Wallets (Memorization)
Soon: Swipe Cards and Phones
1CC3X2gu58d6wXUWMffpuzN9JAfTUWu4Kj

21. The Bitcoin Blockchain
A distributed asset ledger shared by all
participating in the Bitcoin protocol
(Currently near 10,000 “nodes”)
A full copy of a block chain contains
every transaction ever executed
With this information, one can find
out how much value belonged to each
address at any point in history
The Genesis Block was the very first
block that started the Blockchain we
have today.
The Bitcoin Blockchain is currently
16.6gb in size and contains almost
$10B USD in value.
Animated Visualization

22. Deflationary Currency
Bitcoin is programmed to have a fixed number of bitcoin
(21m) that will ever exist and a fixed rate of releasing
those bitcoin: 25 bitcoin created every 10 minutes.
Predictable and stable.
The theory is that bitcoin will only gain in value over
time because of the limited supply and increasing
adoption. The last 5 years have proved this albeit a rocky
climb.
We are used to a world where a Dollar can’t buy what it
used to. Infact the US Dollar in inflated over 2275% since
1900. InflationData.com
Argentina’s currency currently loses 30% of value per
year, a decision made by the central bank. - Wall Street
Journal
What would a world look like where saving bitcoin made
you money rather than loosing it?

23. Satoshi Nakamoto
Anonymous person or group of people
who designed the original Bitcoin and
goes by the pseudonym Satoshi
Nakamoto.
Released the ground-breaking White
Paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer
Electronic Cash System” in 2008.
The smaller unit of Bitcoin,
1/100,000,000 has been named
“Satoshi” in homage.
Likely has a lot of Bitcoin, maybe
1,624,250 Bitcoin, or close to a $1
Billion USD.

24. Bitcoin History
2008
• Bitcoin.org registered by “Satoshi Nakamoto”
• “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” paper posted October
• Bitcoin projected registered at Sourceforge
2009
• Satoshi mines “genesis block” of 50 BTC – January
• Bitcoin v0.1 released on cryptography@metzdowd.com and Usenet
• First bitcoin transaction, #bitcoin-dev on Freenode, v0.2 released
2010
• First offline transaction: 10K BTC for two pizzas
• v0.3 announced, Slashdotted, Mt Gox founded – July
• First specialized GPU hash miners and pooled mining operations
2011
• Bitcoin takes parity with US dollar.
• $31 top of first "bubble", followed by the first price drop
• Dec: $2, minimum after few months
2012 • Dec: $13, slowly rising for a year
2013
• Silk Road busted, arrests for money laundering.
• November: Bitcoin breaks $1,000 in second bubble
• December 2013: Price crashes to $600
2014
• Price fell following the shutdown of MTGOX
• Price continued to fall due to a false report regarding Bitcoin ban in China
• Now (April) stabilizing at $450

25. What gives Bitcoin value?
• Intrinsic Values
• No or low transaction fees
• Anonymous, if you want
• Public Ledger (Blockchain)
• Platform for future Apps
• Adoption and Demand
• Limited Supply (21m)
• Deflationary Currency
Current Bitcoin
Price
~$500.00
USD (August 2014)
Current Market
Capitalization
$7
Billion USD
Estimated
Network Value
$400
Billion USD
(Winklevoss)

26. Bitcoin Legal Status
Samples from April, 2014
United States:
Tax as Property
China:
Bank Restrictions
Germany:
Private Money
Wikipedia
Thailand:
Illegal…
Australia:
Legal, Tax Guidelines
Brazil:
Tax as Property

27. Using Bitcoin

28. Bitcoin Uses
Store Value Transact Move Money
Limited Supply Lower Fees No or Low Fees
Compared to Gold
60,000+ Businesses
Accepting
International
Remittances
More Fungible Pseudonymous Pseudonymous
No Storage Costs No Chargebacks
Circumvent
Government Control

29. Business Benefits
Accepting is free and requires
no approval
Can be converted immediately
into local currency
No chargebacks
No or low processing fees
Open to a global market
Trackable for easy and
transparent reporting
Support the growth of a
“people’s money”

30. Bitcoin Wallets
More secure, but more technical Requires trust, but easier

31. Buy Bitcoin
Currently, the easiest way to buy bitcoin is through Coinbase.
Coinbase is San Francisco based, supported by $25m in VC funding and makes the
process as easy as online banking.
You simply setup an account and verify your bank can support direct transfer of
funds.
Then you can purchase bitcoin for the now current exchange rate.
Coinbase also works as an online wallet to safely store your bitcoin.
In the coming year technologies will advance to make it easier to you to manage
your own bitcoin and not have to trust a company. Until then, I trust Coinbase
with my coin.

32. Bitcoin Exchanges
Exchange currency for
Bitcoin and Bitcoin for
currency.
Usually local to nations
and currencies.
Requires connecting a
local bank account to
transfer money to.
Requires trusting
exchange to transact on
your behalf

33. Support Local Businesses
coinmap.org provides a map of
local businesses that accept
bitcoin.
yelp.com just announced that
businesses can report if they
accept bitcoin.
Bitcoin ATMs are popping up
everywhere and will soon make it
easy to exchange bitcoin for local
currency where ever you are.

34. Donations
Scientific Research: Einsteinium
altecoin is dedicated to raising
funding for cutting edge scientific
research worldwide
Natural Disaster: 13 bitcoin ($6,000+)
donated in bitcoin
Tips: Tip small fractions of bitcoin for
good comments or content
Political Campaigns: Federal
Elections Commission just ruled to
allow $100 or less in bitcoin value.

35. Retail Shopping
Buy “Gyft" Cards with Bitcoin to
shop at major retailers including
Target, Whole Foods, Amazon, CVS
and more.
http://www.gyft.com/bitcoin/

36. Merchant Services
No or low transaction fees
No chargebacks
No exchange rate risks
Easy setup
No minimums
International payments

37. The Future of
Bitcoin

38. Disruption
Category Disrupted Businesses Disrupted
Remittance Western Union
Digital Payment Paypal, Google, Apple, Amazon
Purchasing
VISA, Mastercard, American
Express, Discover
Donations Campaign Finance
Soon… Trusts, Property Transfer, Stocks

39. AltCoins
There are 20+ “altcoins” (alternative
bitcoin-inspired) with market caps over
$1 million USD.
Each vary their technology based on
offering different benefits and markets.
Because the technology is open source,
anybody can launch a new type of “coin”.
But the challenge is adoption and that is
where Bitcoin is winning.

40. Etherium
Decentralized Contracts
Ethereum can be used to codify,
decentralize, secure and trade just
about anything: voting, domain
names, financial exchanges,
crowdfunding, company governance,
contracts and agreements of most
kind, intellectual property, and even
smart property thanks to hardware
integration.
https://www.ethereum.org/
Crowd fund success:
Raised $14 million
and still going

41. DACs
Decentralized
Autonomous Communities
/ Corporations
A Distributed Autonomous
Community (DAC) is an
"entity" without any
central point of control,
with a certain agenda,
business plan, and
protocol.

42. MaidSafe
Decentralized Internet
The MaidSafe vision is to replace
today's existing server centric and
intrusive systems with a fully
distributed, safe, secure and
private network. A network with
no third party being able to
intercept, copy, steal, sell or
otherwise access the network’s
data.
http://maidsafe.net/ Crowd fund success:
Raised $7 million in 5 hours!

43. This Year
Investment Interest
Regulation Welcomed
Reliable Companies ??
Mainstream Adoption ??
Bitcoin ATMs (some)
Price Stabilizing ??

44. The Future
Redefining “local”
Developed world leap-frogs
traditional
banking
Integrated with
current payment
systems
DACs

45. Conclusion

46. Bitcoin Summary
Decentralized - No central authority, based on a
networked system
Anonymous - You control your identity
Transparent - Complete transaction history is
stored as a public ledger
Integrity - Transactions are verified by a
distributed network of miners and stored in a
distributed network of user nodes
Distributed - Network is supported by user’s
computers all around the world, cannot be shut
down without shutting down the Internet
Open - Anybody can participate without permission

47. A Human Currency
International Currency: Developing world can leapfrogs banks, and developed world
will unBank themselves.
Decentralized: No central bank or government.
Network Effect: The value of the network is greater than the sum of the individuals in
the network.
Deflationary: Because of the fixed number of bitcoin, value will grow over time. No
more printing money to get out of debt crisis.
Math Rules: Current Fiat currency is controlled by a central authority. Bitcoin is
controlled by consensus through equitable mathematical equations.
Beyond Currency: Bitcoin has currency features, but viewing it solely as a currency
ignores its more widespread application

48. Resources

49. Bitcoin Foundation
Bitcoin Foundation
standardizes, protects and
promotes the use of Bitcoin
cryptographic money for the
benefit of users worldwide.
Business and Individual
Memberships support Bitcoin
development.
https://bitcoinfoundation.org/

50. Bitcoin Meetup Groups
Local groups to meet
others interested in Bitcoin
Largest groups in: New
York, London, Tel Aviv-
Yafo, San Francisco,
Buenos Aires, Sunnyvale,
Toronto and Santa Monica.
http://bitcoin.meetup.com/

51. Let’s Talk Bitcoin
In late April 2013, Adam B. Levine
founded Let’s Talk Bitcoin! as a twice
weekly audio show along with co-hosts
Andreas M. Antonopoulos and
Stephanie Murphy, PhD.
It has now evolved into a content
network of talkshows about Bitcoin.
Highly recommended for Bitcoin
commentary and discussion.
You can subscribe via podcast for
free!
http://letstalkbitcoin.com/

52. Bitcoin News
CoinDesk: The Voice of Digital
Currency
NewsBTC: Bitcoin News Service
Bitcoin Magazine: Bitcoin News and
Culture

53. Bitcoin Discussion
Bitcoin Subreddit: Links and
Discussion on Bitcoin
Bitcoin Talk: Discussion forum
about all things Bitcoin.

54. Video Lectures
Khan Academy: Bitcoin Lectures
Udemy: Bitcoin or How I Learned to
Stop Worrying and Love Crypto
Oditorium University: Introduction to
Bitcoins

55. Permacredits
Permacredits are the first true asset-backed
decentralized cryptocurrency,
backed by permaculture.
When you buy Permacredits you are
buying a membership in a global
network of Eco resorts, Sustainable
living spaces, Permaculture farms,
Retreat centers, Eco Developments,
Permaculture Design Schools,
Vegetables, Apps, and more.
Buy them, sell them, trade them,
vote with them, get paid with them
http://permacredits.com/

56. Coinality
will work for coins
Coinality is a job board where
employers and job seekers can
connect for job opportunities that
pay in digital currencies such as
Bitcoin, Litecoin, and yes, even
Dogecoin.
Jobs range from one-time to full-time
and negotiations are handled
independently between the two
parties.
https://coinality.com/

57. Discussion
How could your business
use bitcoin?