international status of bitcoin that has been this is if the american government for example orders bitcoin to suspend all of peroration in iran do you think that would be possible would be quiet and have to comply with that well there be nobody who could enforce that there is you know queen of software so nobody can tell software what to do except software the code itself and the code doesn't allow for that kind of control but mr murray i think over the past few months i mean we heard a lot of news about using various cetera surveillance techniques by the n.s.a. and you know a lot of tech companies who i suppose also use all sorts of very secure product alls to spy on the rest of the world so at least on the theoretical level there should be a possibility of there for some many people to fuse there's certainly a possibility for enforcement if you were to. break through sanctions in the us it's the office of foreign asset control that manages that list if you are providing a service that allows people to circumvent ofac sanctions. then there's certainly an unfortunate case that could be mad

the bitcoin is a new aspect class. it is built in, you can second value back and forth without the need for any intermediary, and it's also a store of value. i heard you announce that the price of bitcoin was up over 6 hundred dollars. just before i walked on to stage, it is now up to almost 8 hundred dollars. but i would also say that people are recognizing that bitcoin is its own payment system in that, finally, the third aspect, it's a currency. gold, cash, stocks, commodities, characteristics. >> great conversation about asset classes and why you should have different ones. marco good to see you. thank you very much. >> thank you. >>> all right. it's not bitcoins but real dollars that jpmorgan is reportedly shelling out to provide relief to homeowners. it is set to pay 4 billion dollars to help homeowners lower monthly mortgage payments. this 4 billion dollars in consumer relief is part of the reported 14 billion dollars deal. the larger settlement may be announced as early as tuesday. >>> five years after the bott

international status of bitcoin has been this is if the american government for example orders bitcoin to suspend all of the ration in iran do you think that would be possible would have to comply with that well they would be nobody who could enforce that there is you know queen of software so nobody can tell software what to do except software the code itself and the code doesn't allow for that kind of control but mr murphy i think over the past few a few months i mean we heard a lot of news about using various cetera surveillance techniques by the n.s.a. and you know a lot of tech companies who i suppose also use all sorts of very secure a protocol to spy on the rest of the world so at least on the theoretical level there should be a possibility of there for some many people to fuse there's certainly a possibility for enforcement if you were to. break through sanctions in the us it's the office of foreign asset control manages that list if you were providing a service that allowed people to circumvent ofac sanctions. then there's certainly an unfortunate case that could be made again

one was a bitcoin savings and trust which ran a pyramid scheme in bitcoins. we also had the hacking of a bitcoin exchange called bitfloor, and as it was reported 24,000 bitcopies were stolen, and we had instawallet, a provider hacked losing 35,000 bitcoins. these are not small-dollar items given the value of the individual coins, but if maybe you could paint a little of a picture for us. how does this all work? i mean, if there is a public ledger that is keeping track of who owns what, then how does one actually steal a bitcoin? >> all right. in terms of breaking the code and the really powerful crypttologists out there, i don't know the answer to that. i don't know if there's anyone out there who could break the code. it's been represented to us that it's a strong as end cringes as exists out there, and so it seems quite safe from that stand point. .. it's as strong as exists that's out there. to tell you the truth, i don't know what type of cryptology that's used. in terms of the scheme that you mentioned, whether it's a pyramid scheme or hacking, probl pro

one was a bitcoin savings and trust which ran a pyramid scheme in bitcoins. we also had the hacking of a bitcoin exchange called bit floor. and as it was reported, 24,000 bitcoins were stolen.2 and we had instawallet, a wallet provider that was hacked and ed. they lost 35,000 bitcoins. these are not small dollar items given the value of the individual coins. but maybe to paint a little bit of a picture for us, how does this all work? if there is a public ledger that is keeping track of who owns what, then how does one actually steal a bitcoin? >> all right. so in terms of breaking the code and the really powerful cryptologists that are out eally there, i just don't know the answer to that. i don't know if there is anyone out there that can break the code. it has certainly been represented to us at fincen that it's as strong as encryption as exists out there. so it seems quite safe from that standpoint. >> this is primeit number trap door cryptology? >> to tell you the truth i don't know the type of cryptology that's used. but i'd be happy to take that back an

equal now in bitcoin that's that's a huge benchmark has been achieved the adoption rate for bitcoin issimilar to the i phone ok so this is just exploding it's one of the fastest adopted technologies in the history of technology the i phone being previously the most quickly adopted technology in history this looks like it's going to eclipse the i phone and yet you still have even the mainstream business press like business insider henry blodget company and with joe wiesenthal you know they are like ants i've been going they want to even open their minds a slight cracked and think about what the implications of this other just no no no is it just because they are wed to the old way of thinking and they're about to become a blitter a bit by bit coin and we'll never hear about them in five years or is this just a learning curve they have to go through when the. especially in libertarian movement the whole goal. is it's like e-mail when e-mail came along cursed was regular mail or telegrams or phone calls were kids maybe. the early adopters of you know realize this is going to be the way ev

now are you mentioned that there is no central authority to bitcoin. when we talk about people in many countries are very critical of the financial authorities of their governments but in many of those countries those institutions have at least some sounds of responsibility i'm am maybe not always but. they do care responsibility for the actions and for the value of their currency in bitcoin as he said there is no central authority so is there all to mentally any sounds of responsibility of there well it certainly is an experiment and again that's why i say that it we're still in the very early stages of it so we don't know how it will shape it may end up being the most useful purpose for big coin isn't as a traditional currency it may be that it's more as a commodity or an asset class like gold a safe store of value some people think of bitcoin as gold two point zero so it may be that the useful purpose for big corn is a little bit different in five years than what we envision today and of course there are the nonfinancial uses of big coin in the prot

equal now in bitcoin that's that's a huge benchmark that's been achieved the adoption rate for bitcoinis similar to the i phone ok so this is just exploding it's one of the fastest adopted technologies in the history of technology the i phone being previously the most quickly adopted technology in history this looks like it's going to eclipse the i phone and you still have even the mainstream business press like business insider henry blodget company and with joe wiesenthal you know they are like anti big going they won't even open their minds there's a slight crack to think about what the implications of the south are just no no no is it just because they are wed to the old way of thinking and they're about to become a blip or a bit by bit coin and we'll never hear about them in five years or is it just a learning curve they have to go through. especially look at her move the whole go to court arguments it's like. when e-mail came along cursed was regular mail we're told grounds for phone calls we have a case maybe. the early adopters of realize this is going to be the way everybody c

very quickly is that it is very very difficult to invest large dollar amounts of bitcoin you've got a wired body foreign exchanges you've got to deal with a very volatile market and so what we did was we incubated a big investment vehicle and really what it is is it's like a private spite or gold g.l.d. where it essentially is raising money on second market and will trade on second market and we handle all of the hard work of sourcing large amounts of bitcoin we had a look at the security the safe keeping it's authored by ian why and so the whole idea is to open up the court investing to a much greater broader group of investors all right so basically it's like an exchange traded fund which is based on bitcoin but it's not exactly an exchange traded fund because i believe it's only open to a credit investor so you avoid that regulatory hurdle correct right we were able to launch this in about six months new e.c.f. could take years to get approved by the f.c.c. and at some point down the road it might make sense for this to be the public market but for now it's only open to sophistic

banks think of bitcoin it's going to take off around the world and think ultimately the u.s. will fall behind if policymakers and regulators don't take a fairly kind of balance accommodative approach. now barry the big boys come around at an interesting time in history it's come out at a roughly the same time as the edward snowden n.s.a. reveals at the same time that kim dotcom had a spectacular run in with the copyright cartel the m.p.a. his mansion in new zealand is quite a spectacular story and then big coin and all of these things have one common theme that theme being encryption now as you've stated you're a long time investor in the technology space you follow it quite clearly can you talk a little bit about how encryption itself is defining this currency why that's important and maybe why we see echoes of it in other parts of the culture that might validate big points existence bearing i think the history of decline i would break into kind of five chapters and i think we're in chapter number three right now chapter number one was early hackers people playing around the

ok we'll have a good interview with barry silbert very sober in a second market talking about bitcoin states. in the future. on the show with all the technology keeping the moscow metro rolling . ways in the oil industry and the dream team of robots to places too dangerous for humans. should enfold the latest news and innovations here and say you know. we've. covered. right. first strike. and i think that you're. an army corps. instrument. i know c.n.n. the m s n b c news have taken some slightly but the fact is i admire their commitment to cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate oh. that was funny but it's closer to the truth and might think. it's because one full attention and the mainstream media works side by side the joke is actually on here the kind of come. at our team we have a different press the fellow because the news of the world just is not this funny i'm not laughing dammit i'm not. good. at that. i got a sense of the jokes that will handle the stuff that i've got to. welcome back to the kaiser report imax keyser time now to go to new

discouraging the bitcoin from being centered here? >>. >> i think what we gain is our continued replation as being ths country where into va tors start new businesses. and something we would want to continue. i think the great challenge for the regulators are to encouragew innovation wherever we can and put smart regulation in place that tries to deal with risks, very real risks about which we need to be concerned but mine miezing burden. >> >> i think we've all got a lot more questions for you, but we understand a vote will be held around 5 sclok. so we want to make sure we get to the second panel. i want to thank you both for your testimony. >> thank you for the opportunity. >> i'll turn to senator merkleyt >> because of the time, i'm going to start introducing as r? you come up,so feel free to tak your seats, quickly. i'll start with paul smoltzer. he's the president of bits. in this role, he led bit's work, in promoting the safety and soundness through best practices and successful strategies for developing secure infrastructures,

are, 8, 18, or 38 bitcoin -- bitcoin-like innovations out there in the wings.i mentioned in the ledger earlier that tracks all the transactions. he is right that the identities involved in the transactions, those participants are rejected by cryptography. this is why bitcoin is so close to being anonymous is a medium of exchange. almost as good as cash when it comes to protecting your privacy . but it is not anonymous in that all the transactions are tracked on this ledger. that is crucial with this issue of double spending. in other words how do you stop someone from turning the 20 bitcoin into 40 bitcoin because they are good at computer coding? this is the answer, you have this enormous ledger tracking the transactions so that once a bitcoin is spent, not only can you see that it has been spent, but everyone in the network and see it has been spent. this is part of the power and magic and ruler of bitcoin is the crypto currency of the future. host: we are running out of time, quickly, who started bitcoin? guest: nobody knows. to me this is another ingredient

ok we'll have a good interview with barry silbert very sober in a second market talking about bitcoin states. again if we take up your personal example of the government topping your phones and you know you see them later on to be yours leader you know some governments cannot afford to do that. you know again some prominent journalism so again some has a state i remember thinking at the time and i discovered all this is that we're tapping my phone to this country in consequential. nation. demo spin tapping houses about telephones. back in the day barack obama was elected because he was deemed to be the very end to sis of george w. bush now instead of seeing differences between the two presidents we were reminded about what both have in common particularly flagging poll numbers for us on this program we ask is obama serving bush's fourth term. welcome back to the kaiser report imax keyser time now to go to new york city and speak with barry silbert founder of second market online marketplace for buying and selling illiquid assets such as restricted securities in public companies and on

it can be the other two elements that bitcoin addressed. so i would say in order to address the excesses that we are seeing with virtual currencies,a where it is being used by s beig criminals and terrorists and iml money launderers today.s we do know that the anonymity part of it, let's let that go. the whole point should be to anm keep that middle man out of it if that's what the virtual currency. we have had lots of people talk about the value that a virtual currency could have. keep the middle man out of it.v. we do have the technology today to make it possible that there g is not a record with personally identifiable information for others to see. s but it is something that is p retained by the two parties involved in the transaction. finally, bitcoin has caused system of its own problems because it has this commodity aspect to it.le and you could design and some of the other virtual currencies out there have been specifically o designed to avoid the boom and s bust cycle that we've heard sigt about today.d those are the three points,

bitcoin ecosystem. our membership is comprised of many of the top entrepreneurs and technologists working to make bitcoin a success. is to promote, protect, and standardize the use of distributed for use currencies. and free used currencies. there is no bitcoin company that manages or controls the software or its operation. the software is maintained by a community who volunteer open- source software volunteers -- who volunteer open-source software engineers. most basic level, bitcoin is an internet protocol. it is e-mail for money. operates a protocol decentralized store of value and opens a transparent payment network that is secure, efficient, and low-cost. the bitcoin network can operate without any third party intermediaries and is a highly innovative global financial system unto itself. in the near future the but coin -- the bitcoin protocol will facilitate the advance payment and additional nonfinancial services, like identity verification and property management. open heart is a tory systems lik

the most popular of which of course is bitcoin. while generations in nevada have mined for gold and silver, copper, today nevadans can now l mine for new virtual currenciess on their computer. while these virtual currencies a are not yet widely accepted, th number of users continue to grow. and we must recognize that these innovations decentralize digital payment systems. today i look forward to learning about the long-term viability and practicality of virtual ticy currencies. i also want to learn how various government regulators interact i with virtual currencies, which by their design are meant to ben independent, of course, of any government. i will end with this note. the internet is a new frontier of innovation. is new with every new internet-based technology i believe that members of congress should sh recognize we often don't knowoun what these new advancements wilw develop into. adv while we must ensure proper safeguards, it is my hope that c through hearings like this we nt can help maintain an environment that helps pro

i mean if i want to buy something with bitcoins and use bitcoins online and translate it to dollars, plus merchants online that accept bitcoin and they handle the conversion into dollar. you as a consumer, you have bitcoin, can you use it lots and lots of places right now or exchange it trade it or just hold onto. >> dennis what about that? you heard there's -- you said 20,000? >> over 20,000 merchants. >> 20,000 merchants who are accepting bitcoin. >> maria, first of all, congratulations. you didn't just break through the window. you created -- you broke it down destroyed the wall let people come in for women who wouldn't have been on television doing business. congratulations. you're going to be missed on cnbc. i've known you for a long time. >> thank you dennis. that's very kind of you. >> betting inggetting back to this a currency shouldn't move more than half a percent in the course of a day. to think you're going to be able to play for an automobile or anything with a currency that moves 400% is nonsense. perhaps two years from now, three years from now, who knows what, when it

number two, the a coin --bitcoin bitcoin ledger is a secured by is secured by cryptology.her it becomes the currency currenciesd or not, are heading in this direction of cryptographic security, because method ofs the safest for taking current sees from double spending or counterfeiting. exchanges are [indiscernible] -- host: the average person is getting pretty confused at this point. can you explain what michael is talking about there? guest: another way to think about it, if bitcoin fails for some reason, there will be -- if not already are, 8, 18, or 38 bitcoin-likeoi innovations out there in the wings. i mentioned in the ledger earlier that tracks all the transactions. he is right that the identities involved in the transactions, those participants are rejected by cryptography. is so closebitcoin to being anonymous is a medium of exchange. almost as good as cash when it comes to protecting your privacy . but it is not anonymous in that all the transactions are tracked on this ledger. that is crucial with this issue of double spending. in other words how do you stop som

this is a physical bitcoin. you know, the metal itself has no value but what is valuable is the private key under the hologram. like a plastic gift card. the value is not the plastic, it's the code under the scratch-off. this is a gift -- >> at $600, i can't take a gift but i appreciate that. >> we'll see you in washington tomorrow. axle, thank you for your thoughts. for a currency on the rise to a city on the decline, looking for escape go scapegoats, oakland, california, is claiming wall street sold them complicated financial securities bound to fail. scott cohn is in oakland with details in his "america city" series debuting this weekend. scott? >> reporter: day one of our trip across america to look at u.s. cities in critical condition, we're in oakland, california. one of hundreds of u.s. cities that made bad bets on wall street. wall street was selling these bets to cities back in the '90s. swap contracts that let cities lock in a fixed interest rate. interest rates back then were high and they've gone dow

watch. >> what is bitcoin?s a payment system that uses completely virtual money for online transactions. the digital currency is called a bitcoin. it's like cash for the internet, transferred between people via mobile app or a computer program. users request and send bitcoins to pay for goods and services. but the identities of users in the transaction are kept anonymous through complicated encryptions. unlike real money, bitcoin has no centralized bank or authority that runs the system. it operates on an open source platform that can be accessed by anyone and controlled by the people who use it and, ultimately, the power of supply and demand. which brings us to the value of a bitcoin. since its creation in 2009 it's fluctuated dramatically from pennies to over $800. >> yes, and actually since he did that, it went to $9 00 last night and has since pulled back. >> and then to $700. >> you got that now? bitcoin roller coaster hit new heights and depths in the last few days and continues to get a lot of attention

the use of bitcoin is not unregulated. bitcoin operators cork work in heavily regulated areas. banks, financial service companies, bitcoin also represents an opportunity for them to start innovating again. these institutions already have a deep understanding of the controls and risk management necessary to safely handle bitcoin transactions and secure consumer bitcoin accounts. instead, what we've seen is a chilling effect through the banking industry. as bitcoin companies try and gain bank accounts. the united states has a strong interest in maintaining its place as a global leader and developing cutting edge technology and spreading individual freedom and liberty around the world. the digital economy is poised to be a driver of significant job creation and economic growth. fostering the development of legit mall bitcoin in the u.s. is the best measure we can take to keep good actors in the system. applying consistent rules and regulations that encourage technological skpeer plen tags is criticiis critical to an entrepreneurial committee. for the digital economy in general and

he was discussing bitcoin. one of the folks hanging out, early investor offered $1,000 bit coins for one of his hand pies. he says i didn't say no. i got distracted and the individual walked off. that was a $250,000 mistake. silly me. based on yesterday's value that's a $700,000 mistake. that certainly would have been the most expensive pie in the history of human kind. this is absolutely fascinating. by the way, he did proceed to start accepting bit coins as a number of portland facilities have done using mobile app that converts from bitcoin to dollar and back and forth based on the most recent exchange rate. this is a functional, viable technology at this very moment. so with that, senator kirk. >> thank you. thank you for bringing us together on this bitcoin effort. i would say i've been worried about bitcoin some, because it's so complicated it could facilitate illegal activities or terrorist activities. >> thank you, senator kirk. i think that's obviously one of the focuses on the first panel. lets get to

let's find folks who know what bitcoin is. >> can you explain bitcoin? >> bitcoins?a famous drink? >> bitcoin? i'm not really familiar with the terminology. >> is that internet money? >> what do you folks know about bitcoin? you can whisper in my ear. bitcoin is a virtual currency used on the internet to take the place of the dollar. is that what you just said? what's worth more this hershey bar? >> candy. >> i pad or bitcoin. >> i would say a bitcoin. >> would you invest in bitcoin? >> sure. >> if it's going to bring me money. >> final question, fast money, fan or foe? >> i'm a fan. >> outstanding. love ya. >> i still have my jacket on. you have got to move out there in times square. >> especially mungs the plushies. >> it uses completely digital money and unlike real money, there is no centralized bank or authority that runs the stm. instead it operates on open source software. >> let me say this, it is a lot of fun to speculate with but an actual currency doesn't appreciate by 60 times its value. it's not that you can't do transactions but that very few people act

dollar-based bitcoins every day. i mean you see central banks all over the world who are, you know, debasing their currency so i think this is just a natural hedge and now, you know, as it catches on it's taken on more popularity. people are getting scared looking around in the world seeing that things being as they are with, you know in the early stages of a currency war and that kind of thing and it's just to me like a natural outgrowth. >> joe, what do you think? >> the idea of bitcoin gone from 100 to 280 is reckless to call that a natural hedge. nothing extraordinary is happening in financial market. this is just beanie babies and pogs and another bubble and might go on for a long time but there's no intrinsic value to it. what gives currency value is the fact that it's a legal tender. the fact that you have to use it. you have to use the u.s. dollar to pay your taxes and other transactions. >> right. >> this is just people having fun. people on the internet speculating. it could go to a thousand who knows. >> i

let's move on to bitcoin virtual currency. the value of each bitcoin hit a new high this week.hat's the value of one bitcoin. the beginning of the year the value was pegged at $13. is it going it keep on going up? charles, charles payne, not here today, but commented in the past, he does not think it's going to keep going up. look at this. >> this kind of stuff is scary. the volatility of it has been outrageous and you know, goes from 100 to 260 to 100, it's an interesting brainchild though for people around the world who are upset with fiat currency. stuart: i'm not going to put my real money in. charles: i've got to tell you so far. neither are you. charles: not yet. stuart: he's not going to put his money in, i'm not, but here is a guy who did. jeff berwick is with us, an early bitcoin investor and he that's that bitcoin is going to keep going straight up and did you tell me during the break, you did, repeat it for the viewers, i think it's going to a million dollars. >> i don't think it's going to go to a million dollars, but it has the definite potential to do that. stuart

. >> fast bitcoin. that's the wave of the future. >> okay cupid the dating site are now using bit coins. >> the second year in a row for the bitcoin black friday. >> it's going to be great. have a great thanksgiving. >> fast money starts right now. here is tonight's line up. the apple break out rallying to some of the highest levels of the year. wendy's ditching its pretzel bacon cheese burger. can they keep up sales without those buns? the young man with emphasis on young behind the bitcoin black friday will join us live coming up. let's get straight to our top story which is apple's quiet come back and a technical break out for the stock. it is rare where we will start a show two days in a row with the very same stock. yesterday we were flagging the important level it was reaching. new highs for 2013 at this point. so you said you became more optimist optimistic? >> yeah. >> you finally have apple get above one year ago level and that actually triggers a lot of momentum players to get into this. i loo

the bitcoin foundation works to standardize to protect and promote bitcoin. mr. murck is founder of engaged legal. his expertise extends across the legal and regulatory issues governing the use of bitcoin for economies and alternative payment systems. previously mr. murck worked in a business and legal affairs at the tech company as an attorney at the dc-based law firm and also is an international investigative journalist. our third witness is jeremy allaire. is it allaire? mr. allaire is the founder and ceo of circle internet to start a company focused on promoting mainstream adoption of currencies. serial interconnect entrepreneur mr. allaire serves as founder and ceo of. c-span: one of the largest on line video platforms in the united states. our final witness is jerry brito. mr. brito is a senior research fellow at the mercatus center at the george mason university and director of the technology policy program. mr. brito also serves as an adjunct professor of law at george mason university. his research focuses on technology, copyright and the regulatory proc

the use of bitcoin is not unregulated. bitcoin operators cork work in heavily regulated areas. banks, financial service companies, bitcoin also represents an opportunity for them to start innovating again. these institutions already have a deep understanding of the controls and risk management necessary to safely handle bitcoin transactions and secure consumer bitcoin accounts. instead, what we've seen is a chilling effect through the banking industry. as bitcoin companies try and gain bank accounts. the united states has a strong interest in maintaining its place as a global leader and developing cutting edge technology and spreading individual freedom and liberty around the world. the digital economy is poised to be a driver of significant job creation and economic growth. fostering the development of legit mall bitcoin in the u.s. is the best measure we can take to keep good actors in the system. applying consistent rules and regulations that encourage technological skpeer plen tags is criticiis critical to an entrepreneurial committee. for the digital economy in general and

been driving bitcoin lately.ople from wall street from their own personal money, managers and traders, etc. they are getting a lot of inquiries who say their clients want it. >> and going into the hearings on capital hill, there was worry abo about. >> it was not accuse tory. they were more educational in nature. this technology may have value. what it is yet we're not quite sure. >> there is going to be a bitcoin black friday. there are retailers out there who will be taking them. >> that chart -- >> the chart is definitely scary to look at. >> still it contains some value. >> exactly. >> we will keep the questions. >> here is the founder of bitcoin black friday. he will tell us how he is capitalizing on the bitcoin craze coming up. >>> also, we have been receiving a bunch of tweets about bitcoins and stories being opened on thanksgiving. we will highlight the doozies. we will be back in just a moment. to generate income? with fidelity's options platform, we've completely integrated every step of the process, ma

-- >> no, bitcoins do get created.here's some version of the fed out there related to servers, et cetera. >> right. there's 21 million that will be created for the next 100 years. about 11.9 million are out there right now. so, you have a predictable limited number of bitcoin that will be released into the wild. from that perspective you don't have the risk a government is going to debase the currency or destroy the currency. >> what kind of investor is buying and selling the investment trust -- >> it's very interesting. we're seeing three groups of investors. technology entrepreneurs who within their own businesses are adopting bitcoin. family offices are getting involved. they're taking a portion of their gold allocation and putting into bitcoin which is, again, a very risky investment. and then lastly, wall street professionals are starting to invest their personal money, which is a precursor to wall street coming into bitcoin in a big way. >> chinese, we can't be sure it's happening but it's intuitive. they're desp

got the bitcoin transact there's a merchant processors and then you've got these bitcoin wallets a peep this is where people store their bitcoins they've either acquired them through an exchange or they've mind them so you guys are you in a mere tacky over there at dark wallet. you've come up with a wallet that you feel is going to be a musician from any kind of prying eyes or it's a safer wall he's got what is a thin wall to describe what a thin wall it means fin means that basically another set of servers and of the block chain so our client wouldn't you want to have to wait for the entire block chain to download or blocks and to be downloaded every time between transactions you just do big point so we imagine a more fluid and basically you know kind of encapsulated user experience where you're not really there's no interference with processing of the outside you know rest of the protocol you're just doing because one and other servers are handling the rest the experience kind of under the hood a behind the scenes ok so this would take care of one problem i've heard about bitcoin is t

spying have done anything for bitcoin. well i have to point out that big queen is not anonymous that's not part of its design its people don't necessarily give their names when they do bitcoin transactions but the government can probably figure out who is doing the transaction or how are you going to get big coins after all unless you set up a big quantum mining computer which is how bitcoins are made you're going to get them by buying them from someone now if you are an ordinary person you way you could do that is by paying with a credit card to a company that will exchange. government currency for bitcoins well the credit card identifies you so when you get because in return the government can see who you are how safe is this system. yes please go ahead so now i believe that we need on the worldwide web a system for truly anonymous payment to a website but it's the payer is that has to be anonymous it doesn't have to be anonymous for which web site receive the payment so that's what i advocate setting up. we know the tec

he was discussing bitcoin. one of the folks hanging out, early investor offered $1,000 bit coins for one of his hand pies. he says i didn't say no. i got distracted and the individual walked off. that was a $250,000 mistake. silly me. based on yesterday's value that's a $700,000 mistake. that certainly would have been the most expensive pie in the history of human kind. this is absolutely fascinating. by the way, he did proceed to start accepting bit coins as a number of portland facilities have done using mobile app that converts from bitcoin to dollar and back and forth based on the most recent exchange rate. this is a functional, viable technology at this very moment. so with that, senator kirk. >> thank you. thank you for bringing us together on this bitcoin effort. i would say i've been worried about bitcoin some, because it's so complicated it could facilitate illegal activities or terrorist activities. >> thank you, senator kirk. i think that's obviously one of the focuses on the first panel. lets get to

there is an atm in vancouver were you can change money into bitcoins. richard branson says you can buy tickets on virgin galactic with bitcoins. the difference is it is not backed by any government or central bank. it is backed by this online ledger. >> the idea, five years ago one bitcoin was worth nothing. now it is just over $1000. >> any commodity can rise in value if people want to buy it. the way they are produced means they are harder to produce each time. and there will only ever be a finite amount of them. people are chasing after them, so by definition value is rising. there are other crypto- currencies as well. value is rising. is there a chance they could devalue? >> like any commodity where there is a bubble, if you like. it is the same kind of thing. talking up something. when the bottom falls out of the market, it could happen any time . some, andid buy unfortunately he sort them on that hard drive. >> and they are absolutely gone. they exist in a finite way, if you like. >> a cautionary tale. >> i know. >> do you think they will become m