this week, everything you want to know about the blockchain, why is everybody talking about it and what does it do? and what's with crypto currency like bitcoin. brad garlinghouse has all of the answers, a david versus goliath story if david were a guy with a truck. a three man internet company takes on giants like comcast. our reporters from fortune and mit technology reviews martin jooils, this week on "press here."

good morning, everyone, i'm scott mcgrew. this is a ledger. i bought it at office depot for five bucks. you can make an argument this is one of the most important inventions in public history. public ledgers help people keep track of who owned what property. important in the growth of colonial america and as far back as egyptians, they allowed banks and businesses to offer credit and make payments. today ledgers are on the computers and there's a new computerized ledger that captured everybody's attention, called the blockchain. i cannot show you the blockchain because it's inside computers but all it is is a ledger, who has paid what to whom. what keeps it honest, there are copies of that laedger on computers all over. the change is reflected in ledgers all over the world. brad garlinghouse runs ripple.

martin jiles with m.i.t. technology review. how did i do? is that what the blockchain is? >> you did a really nice job. >> so lots of people have heard of this. they know it's important, why is it important? >> i think the novelty with blockchain enables is two parties to transact without the use of a central counter party. historically many industries that are built around having a central counterparty, ripple is focussed on a payment problem and sent tral counterpart is an igs constitution. when i make a global network, it goes from bank to bank to bank. if i can do that on a point to point basis, it improves efficiency and cost and speed, transparency to the transaction. there's a lot of benefits by using this technology. ripple has focused on applying that to the cross border payments, going global. there's a lot of these cases for blockchain. >> you set up a situation where

a mexican company wants to buy something from a korean company. they don't have to do it through a bank in either country. they -- you've created the direct -- >> what we actually do, at its core, midwestern guy, my mom asks what do i do for a living? we ripple sell software to banks. it happens to be it's blockchain technology but simplistically, we sell to banks to allow their customers to take advantage of blockchain. >> so i understand where it would be advantageous from a consumer perspective, but why would banks want this? >> it's a great question. about 99.9% of banks pay a very small number of bank really the global money center banks. banks like citi bank make billions by sitting on top of the global payments. so most banks, 99.9% of banks say wait a minute, right now i'm beholden to this chain and i get taxed by this chain and my customer doesn't get their

payment there for days and it cost them a whole bunch of money to get there. wait a minute. i can do that differently and not pay them, not pay my competitor in some ways. they love that. >> what about some me as an individual, where is blockchain going to affect me in my life? where am i going to benefit from it? lower banks fees is great but what other areas. >> we're focused on the payment piece and will impact the consumer through a better banking experience, payment experience. there are other things that if you think about that point about central counterparties, who rg are the biggest -- >> can i get rid of dmv? will that happen? blockchain driver's license. >> introduced and ledgers way back when of tracking property usage, there's lots of examples. >> no realtors. >> you think about title insurance today when you buy a property that's very expensive and it's verifying that you

actually own what you think i own. >> how would that play out in a world of a blockchain if all title and assets were written to a blockchain unchangeable, that was accessible from anywhere, how would that change? in that sense, there's a central counterparty now distributed and it's called assets of titles, that's not something ripple is focused on. like the early days of the internet it is becoming vertical specific. ripple is a payment company and happen to use blockchain. there's other blockchain companies focused on other verticals. i think all boats will rise. >> a number of companies have added blockchain to the name of their company because it seems to be so hot. not every blockchain company appears to be a blockchain company. >> it's -- reminiscent of us who have been around the valley around 20 years and this happened with the add dot com to your company and your valuation went up. >> a lot of companies are adding

it but from your every day consumer perspective, there's a marketing hurdle there. why should i as a consumer trust the blockchain more than i should trust an experian? >> experian is a loaded one. >> for sure. >> the dynamics around blockchain and cryptotography around block chain, the bounty to hack that is so high. it's constantly under test. to date there have been compromises of end point and hacking that occurred around end point but blockchain technology so far demonstrated a very robustness around security and authentication and ripple as an example never had nothing happen to this. >> can we talk about money? i love talking about money. is -- there's a bunch of sort of cryptocurrencies that have blockchain underneath them. >> bitcoin is the obvious one.

>> and you have one. it seems to me this is kind of like -- it's speculation. these currencies are going up fast and coming down incredibly fast. what exactly is driving this right now other than pure speculation or is that it? >> i'm glad you xds this question, digital assets, includes bitcoin and xrp, lightcoin, that's an asset class that's $750 billion. that's a lot. >> it has no underlying value though. >> that's an interesting question. >> it does to him. >> clearly. >> it's an interesting question, i can make the same argument about gold. >> right. >> underlying value of gold from a real productivity use, it's very, very small. the actual kind of industrial use of gold is very small. when i talk about what ripple is doing and how we think about xrp, it's about utility. what problem are you solving? >> so you create this system in which banks can trade to each

other, using a ledger called the blockchain and xrp is the unit of monetary value that moves back and forth. i sell you a widget, i send me an xrp coin or something. is that -- have i got that right? >> basically. first product we would sell to the bank, connect directly. that actually doesn't -- that's us connecting directly. >> do we have to use xrp? >> no. >> why introduce that at all? because the value has gone up so much, you are now getting a lot of attention over your coin when it's the software that really is what you're trying to accomplish. >> xrp solves a revery important problem. the software works well if we have an existing bilateral relationship. if i park an account at yours and you have an account at mine, different currency, that works. that means you parked dormant capital at my bank and i've done the same. that's troublesome if it's in

peru or argentina with high inflation. the dorm nantcy of the capital butlsh. >> xrp, it moves all over the place. >> this allows you to do -- i have no longer have to prefund. >> but if i pay you something in xrp, it could go up 50% tomorrow. >> or down. >> or down. >> for a bank the way the bank will look at this, today out of 20 or $30 million sitting in other accounts, they have to have it there to make a appointment. you no longer have to have that. bring that 10 or $20 million back, working capital, do what you want with it. there's $27 trillion sitting in these accounts around the world. >> dormant, yes. >> what xrp allows, to funds liquidity in real time. you can take that back but now you can use xrp to get real dollars or pesos in real time. you no longer have to prefund the $27 trillion. the reason why xrp is unique, it settles in three seconds. i'm not taking risk on kind of volatility where bitcoin takes

hours -- we're about 1,000 times faster and cheaper than bitcoin to settle a transaction. people are realizing bitcoin is not going to be the kind of panecea of all things block chain we thought it would be. it's vertical specific. xrp is solving a payment problem and efficient to do that. >> hold that thought. we'll go to break and take a quick commercial. i'm not done with you yet. we'll be back in just a minute.

welcome back to "press here." >> okay, i still don't understand the fluctuations in value of the currency. how can that not impact ultimately what people do on your platform if they are using the currency? >> let me explain what really happens. if you're the bank of mccall and selling dollars and buying xrp and using that xrp and making it available as a global blockchain and selling and buying pesos, that hold transaction takes seconds. the volatility risk of that transaction is really short. and certainly you are seeing a lot of volatility right now. i think as this grows -- this is the earliest day as a new industry, as it solves real problem at scale, you'll see a lot of that come out. in the interim, you're seeing banks -- a few seconds but you're still saving them 100 basis points or 200 basis points

and rarely have volatility in a few seconds of that volatility. >> you've got some customers already i think american express, some financial institutions using the platform, using the ledger. is anybody using the currency as well, xrp? >> yes, we product -- we have a product called x rapid, makes liquidity available globally and usually it takes a while for a product type to get customers on it. we announced our first public customer in october, a payment company called quaulic and other payments also using xrp, and at the end of the day if you're solving a real problem, and you're improving fees and costs, people will lean into that because they are capitalists. >> i don't disagree with this. i have an issue, anyone can come along i have a cryptocurrency, scott coin, i launch it tomorrow and all of a sudden i just

created money out of nothing. >> martin, i totally agree with you. >> isn't there a limit? where does the bubble burst? >> i think it goes back to utility. i was an early person coming out saying i think a lot of these icos is fraud. >> when i issue coin and get money -- >> making money. >> creating money. >> initial coin offering and i think a lot of those are -- it's very fraudulent and sec has gotten more active and that is very good. i think if you have real utility, you're solving a real problem, then i can understand why you're going to create demand for that and it's useful. it has a purpose. a lot of these it's kind of -- they've had trouble raising capital so they are going to do an ico initial coin offering to solve the funding problem and look at it, i don't get it. >> you have -- you own xrp. >> right. >> in your wallet. >> i do personally own xrp. primarily i think it as the

company owns a lot of xrp -- insider says it's worth $9 billion. i have read that report. $9 billion, brad. >> blink if thats true. >> this is a dynamic where i think of the long term success. >> $9 billion. >> okay, so we've had both founders of paypal on, and we've had reed hoffman who sat in the chair and wozniak. i have done the calculations. you are on paper worth more than all of them combined. >> yeah, i am aware of those reports. i come back to -- i do think we're creating something very interesting. i was out here in 1997 in the birth of the internet. the movement happened around blockchain, around digital assets, it's very similar. you'll see lots of new cases. we're trying to build ripple into a company that endures -- >> i wish you so much luck and

we're not even listening to you because we're thinking, what would it be like to have $9 billion. >> i'm thinking scott coin, now. >> immediately. >> scott coin is going to be run on the actual physical ledger, right? >> really quickly -- hold on. >> three seconds. >> i know i've got to stick in one last question and are you going to be on coin base, the popular way of buying cryptocurrency and there's speculation we'll be able to buy -- you can buy xrp now but not easily. coin base? >> there's about 50 exchanges in the world that accept xrp today. listing xrp and having lots of liquidity, that's a very important priority for the business. we're actively working around the world to get xrp listed and liquid in lots of exchanges. $9 billion. that's amazing. >> garlinghouse, i have known you a great long time and up next, we have three guys in a

truck take on the most powerful companies in america when press here continues. monday - reaction to the golden

globes... the first award )s shw since the )me too ) movement began. and - overnight updates to the forecast... as i track what could be a strong storm early in the week. that )s monday on )today in the bay. ) 4:30 to 7. welcome back to "press here." chances are you get your internet from your cable company or phone company. that's almost certainly comcast or at&t but you don't have to. there are smaller providers like sonic, laying fiber in san francisco or tech ify, wiring up

homes in the east bay. smaller companies taking on those internet giants. we've invited one third of the techify company to join us, it's a three person company. brett, thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> a quick note that nbc is in turn owned by comcast. you knew that, right? >> yes. >> we say about comcast int internet, it is comcastic. >> i've heard that. >> all right, how -- this is like saying i'm going to take on american airlines. you don't take on comcast. >> it's ambitious, it is ambitious, yes. >> why do it? >> well, why not first off. the market is interesting. people don't like cable. they don't like dsl and services that they are receiving, it's a monoplis tick type of market and ripe for change. >> but it's a monopolistic

industry and how does a small player scale and make money? >> well, so the process is long, it's infrastructure project we're doing. how do we do it? we build fiber one step at a time. it's like building a big wall, one brick at a time you build out a neighborhood and sell it -- >> almost like a phone company would have first started, wire up mr. jones and from mr. jones go to ms. smith. >> do you have to get big? do you have to become a monodiagnomon monopartly sunny poly. >> i don't think we ever will be and we're doing well. >> i think it's great you're doing what you're doing, 56 million have access to only one broadband provider, that's outrageous. great stuff. secondly, i mean, you may be mad, it's really hard to do this. >> it's very hard. >> and it cost a lot to get local authorities to give you the permissions, right? >> right. >> that's often what the big guys have, the kind of grip. how have you found lobbying against them? >> what's interesting, you

mentioned the local municipalities, they haven't been as difficult as one might imagine. what's difficult for us is actually the fact that we have to go to our competitors and get access to the utility pole. so at&t in northern california manages the majority of the communications portion of the telephone poles. for me to go and put fiber down a street for customers to connect to, i have to string along a pole and that means i have to go to my competitor and go through that process. the process is expensive and time consumer and having to move and adjust their lines on the pole to make room for mine -- >> they have to let you on the pole. >> they do. >> you have to pay them. >> yes, they have to let you. 56 million? why is that? why do homes only have one choice? >> probably because it's a very expensive thing to do. >> there's a company that wired up the house. >> got there first. the more providers there are in a neighborhood, the harder it is for the next one that comes in to gain a large market share.

if you're the first one there, you have 100% or 50% roughly, the next one to come in will do the math, 32% give or take. the more -- it's harder for more and more -- >> forget the big guys that we all -- that comcast and at&t. why isn't google fiber bigger? >> probably because it's an expensive process to build fiber. >> it's google. >> i can't speak for google, of course, but they've said things about experiments and grew into other cities, i don't know what their plan is. building fiber is very expensive and process is really really difficult to get on poles. that drives up costs as well. i think google has ambitions in san jose that ultimately fell through and why, i don't think they've announced. >> you've become this debate over net neutrality, allowing large internet providers to block content. is that going to give you an advantage? can you go in and say we're the ones who aren't going to do

that? the bad guys comcast -- >> hey hey. >> sorry. bad guys -- >> that pay scott's paycheck, won't let you do this. >> i hope so and i think so. as a small independent isp, that's our plan to be net neutral and act like a common carrier. you want to access the internet through our connection, you can access and do whatever you want. now, i think that -- the answer to your question remains to be same because we don't know they are going to do. if they start doing things where they sell bundles, if you want social media, you have to pay and we're not doing that -- >> help me understand net neutrality from a company that decides to shape their traffic. why would you shape your traffic other than to make more money or is that the only reason? >> there's two reasons. one would be a technical reason if there's congestion on the network you might shape it -- >> that's allowed right? >> voice over ip is sensitive.

>> but to the net neutral on voip, you can't turn around and shape one voip system and not others. you can't pick content and say i want my voip to work well over my network but everybody else -- >> isn't the real issue if there's streaming on the video and doing it -- >> all the time. >> and the startup comes along and she can afford to pay. i'm a startup, what chance do i have? >> i think you don't have much of a chance and net neutrality helped solve that problem. >> brett woolum is taking on comcast. >> one step at a time. >> we wish you the best. back in just a minute.

welcome back to "press

here." martin giles of the mit review. what did you find as the silliest sort of silicon valley? what was dumb? >> so much to choose from. by the way years ago i worked at another publication where we had a wall of doom and pin money on which would fail fastest. i'm glad to see this is just as much of a sport in silicon valley. >> i would say squishero. >> the juice packs which turned out you could hack it and squeeze it out and it would have the same -- >> $700 or something like that. >> this guy has gone on to i read in the quts new york times, touting of water that comes out of the ground, spring water, which is like exactly what you can buy at the 7-eleven. just in a bottle. >> make your own water. >> it's raw water. >> pivoted to raw water. i think i would agree with you,

just based on the price, it started at 700 and dropped to 300 or something like that. martin, you enjoyed the robot. >> robot called a night scope and it sort of security robot and rolls around different places and has sensors but it actually drowned in an office building in d.c., it came to the steps and just keeled over and went into the water. >> a fountain. >> i think it was -- it's unbelievable, a previous year get it around run over a child. >> i remember that. >> people talk about robots replacing people, yes, up to a point but there's still a lot of things -- still has a job -- >> i did see there was video of boston dynamics, classically the one that you see kicked in the video and i have no idea whether it was kicking the robot. but you saw it, the one where they are doing the blocks and does a back flip. >> it's incredible. that is really -- showing there

is advances coming but we're still at the age where everyone says we're going to be replaced. hang on a moment, there are a lot of things robots can't do. >> as long as we're the ones laughing at the robots we're in good shape. >> the other thing that i just -- we talked with brad about this bitcoin thing. i just -- i can't understand how something that is not based on an inherent value that we agree on that moves all over the place could possibly -- now that said i did go on coin base. >> summed up silicon valley basically. >> in some ways, yes. i went on coin base and bought 100 bucks worth and i'm up to 160 or something like that. small time investor but i guess -- >> you'll catch up with brad soon. >> if you missed the beginning of the show, $9 billion this fellow has and i've known him for ten years. in cryptocurrency. thank you for being with us this

morning. that's our show for this weekend. thanks to my guest. you can see the beginning of this $9 billion man at press here.com. thank you for making us part of your sunday.

damian trujillo: hello, a"comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo, and today we celebrate los tres reyes magos, the three wise men. they're in our studio on your "comunidad del valle." male announcer: nbc bay area presents "comunidad del valle" with damian trujillo. damian: well, at first, we wanted to bring the story to you here on "comunidad del valle" once again, the exhibition of teotihuacan at the de young museum again is up and running. it's going to end soon, so we want to make sure that we get you all out there. here is our recent interview with one of the curators there at the museum. damian: it's called "teotihuacan: city of water, city of fire," the new exhibition at the de young museum in san francisco. with me on "comunidad del valle" is raquel garcia del real to fill us in. boy, you sent us some very fascinating pictures and images. describe what you're doing to take us to teotihuacan