beautiful old world hotel in moscow than a book called the door which i think is in hungary and that was an experience with the unfolding friendship and tragedy of this life together befriending an elderly woman. trying. trying to sprinkle in literature with things that are more entertaining and allow me to think about other things that fo all that is at stake with our country. >> joining us now is naomi blackwell who is bitcoin girl. [laughter] >> apparently that's me. many, many years ago i got

involved with bitcoin i love i love the idea of competing currency and i started a series making educational videos about bitcoin and the music video i did a cover of uptown girl and its stock there is nothing i could do to shake it but that's okay i am happy to be associated with bitcoin anyway. >>host: you have written a children's book about bitcoin which we will get to but why such a fan of t3? >> i fell in love with that i love the idea that private sector coming up with money with competing currency. we have a monopoly we have seen no innovation forever. so now somebody comes along to create a a currency for the digital age a digital currency for like a global currency a global currency for global

marketplace that is a revolution so to me it has been a fascinating journey i go to a lot of conferences in the block chain space i work full time talking about block chain and bitcoin than the more i realize this is a revolution for people and a freedom revolution because i don't think there have been bigger steps taken towards freedom in the last 100 years and bitcoin because they can get back financial autonomy don't need permission to make purchases or to have a bank account you no longer have need permission to make choices about your life a currency that the government doesn't have control and that is exciting especially for countries with people leaving the country or people starving in the streets.

>>host: is there a downside? >> for sure. there is a downside a downside to any sort of technology is how people use it so obviously anywhere you will have people use it for their own means people that want to make purchases anonymously but keep in mind bitcoin is a tiny a tiny tiny fraction of the money laundering sites the dark marketplace with the vast majority and you don't see many people condemning buon't see may people condemning but also for those everyday people. >>host: what is a block chain? >> it is underpinning bitcoin but it makes it possible to have

digital access that cannot be reproduced. think about it like a magic ledger system when one person write something down then it appears that all of these different ledgers all over the world. so what happens with all of the the problem of people making mistakes. if you have all of these people that verify what you put down is correct then simultaneously all over the world it cannot be erased you can put information down that no one can get rid of. it is it is a really great resource applied to all different types of sectors. >>host: how many different types of bitcoin are there? >> there are many digital currencies. >>host: bitcoin is a brand? >> it is the original crypto currency that they created from

block chain now people have used the same block chain to create other crypto currencies. >>host: is bitcoin a generic word? >> it is used as a generic word but it should not be but a lot of people use it as a substitute tuesday crypto currency when we say the bitcoin revolution is a block chain or digital currency revolution because exciting things are coming out not just with bitcoin but lots of really cool things done in the space. >>host: so how many crypto currencies are developed or out there? >> it is very hard to know because it is easy for people to create their own and they use the technology in other ways other than currency. so there are thousands at least out there but with money you need a network people don't use

these as money unless you have a lot of people using them there are some pretty dumb at ones like the cash bitcoin cash so there are some people go to that are very exciting but then there are sad ones some of those are disingenuously you have to be careful out there. it is a marketplace at the moment there is very little regulation so that every individual has to take responsibility because this is a brand-new territory. it is important for people to do their due diligence and don't just jump in with everything that they have. i really encourage everyone who asks questions to do your research if you don't feel you understand it enough then it's

not for everyone you don't have to get involved but if you do and want to understand it is a very exciting a very exciting rope and i encourage people to peek their curiosity and see what's out there because it is an exciting landscape. >> is that threat to at threat to the sovereignty of nationstates? >> it could be not as white was created look at the white paper there is blasting back and forth in email threads why it was created and it was created as a way to take apart the government control of money because of the bailouts and government bailing out big banks and people were disillusioned what is the government doing with our money? we lose 2% of our money every year with inflation anyway if it is in the bank thinking it's safe it really isn't so you have a little a little less of that value.

some people are angry at the system when we should be and they in they should be taking responsibility. so somebody came up with this idea about this white paper we don't know the real identity. >> do you have suspicions? be mike i think we have suspicions but i really don't like to say anything i think it's important the anonymous stature remains because we idolize people people & monopod the stall and create focal points and just having someone who wants to remain anonymous this will give you freedom is a tool and protect your money more than a government is protecting your money. >>host: in your children's book, is fred the big bad government??

>> you could make that analogy. but bitcoin was more about normalizing. that was at a time a time nobody was talking about it anytime you didn't hear anything it was about money laundering or a drug deal. those of the are the times those ever come up. i live in new york now but i'd go back to australia and people would say i have i have never heard of bitcoin. so this children's book was a way to normalize the word of that everyday vernacular. just to say this is something you can use in your everyday life you don't need to understand how it works but just know that it's there and the tools for understanding how it works but getting people talking

about it he can use the money to get away i think it's a good place to introduce people from a young age. >>host: here is the book cover. who is your writing partner? >> an amazing artist from new york but he has the longest running comic strip in australia very predominant in australia so we had a lot of fun putting this together. >>host: thank you for joining us on booktv. >> thank you for having me. [inaudible conversations]