Have been a long time Bitcoin follower, but not active in the community. Today I have decided that the time has arrived to jump into the space and take off my lurker cape. The tipping point for me was the announcement of 21 Inc's development kit (the Bitcoin Computer). In this post my goal is to explain why.
Early in life I started considering myself a technologist. I spent my youth taking apart hardware, playing games, reading publications, dreaming about the future of technology and where it would take us. I dropped out of high school and opened my first business when I was 16. Since then I have founded companies, participated in a range of roles from entry level engineer to executive leadership, and in industries from gaming to energy.
I am 31 and the spirit is still going strong. In my free time you can find me hacking away on an Arduino project, coding something just because I thought it sounded fun, or learning about some new technology. My point is that I am passionate about technology. I fully believe its exponential nature is already freeing the world.
Bitcoin has been on my radar for some time and it has always given me an itch in the back of mind. This itch started when I first read the famous white paper. I have often wondered if this was a feeling the early pioneers of network technology had. However anytime I sat down to build something with Bitcoin I wouldn't get past brainstorming. My mind couldn't quite piece together the full puzzle. I am not discounting all the wonderful problem solvers currently working in the space, I am only speaking of myself. I felt like I had TCP in my hands but lacked the ingenuity to foresee the Internet.
With 21's announcement I first read through everything I could find on it. I waited a few hours, then sat down with a notepad. Finally the entire puzzle fit together for me. The potential to disrupt, demonetize, and dematerialize so many products/services/industries is mind warping.
I will give two easy examples:
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A missing link in the Internet of Things (IoT). We can already wire any device (from a light switch to a kettle to a full car) to the Internet using really cheap components (thanks to Moore's law). But one of the problems we have run into is how to get those devices to exchange with each other. For example, what if my daughter left the door open on the refrigerator and it wants to send me an SMS letting me know? If the fridge has a small amount of digital value (Bitcoin) it could easily pay any device that has a GSM connection (like a cell phone) to send the SMS. Society started with direct trade and later we decided on cash. Cash is for people, machines are going to need their own currency that makes sense to them.
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Developers and tinkerers currently have a massive barrier to entry with Bitcoin. Here is a simple scenario: Bob Tinker is building a prototype for a service and decides that the Bitcoin Blockchain would be a valuable tool for it, and for the right reasons he doesn't want to trust a third party API. First step is to get a full node running. For anyone that has done this you know it takes FOREVER to sync (think days). STRIKE ONE! Next he wants to try out his magic service but wait he needs some Bitcoin, he won't need much, just a few cents to pay transaction fees. In the US he would probably find his way to Coinbase. After giving them access to his bank account, probably a copy of his ID, social security number, and waiting for days (and praying it doesn't get "cancelled"). STRIKE TWO!. At some point Bob Tinker is going to throw his hands up and move on. Not only did the ecosystem miss out on Bob's mind hours, he is probably going to have a negative association next time Bitcoin comes up or a colleague asks about it. I hear variations of this scenario all the time. A device such as 21's development kit solves all of this out of the box, day one.
I have already ordered two of the development kits and some other parts for ideas spilling out of my mind. I can't wait to build and share and hopefully do my part to continue this explosion of techno evolution I am so grateful for being born into.
TL;DR: 21 Inc has given a powerful tool to the modern DIY innovator, and I know because I am one.
Submitted September 23, 2015 at 07:39AM by Justin_Guy http://ift.tt/1ivtTp3 Bitcoin
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