The business of bitcoin conference in April

The business of bitcoin conference in April

Schedule Week of March 14

Date/Time: Tuesday March 14, 3:30PM
Where: ISTB4 496 (GSI small conference room)
What: Introductions will be made and discussions will be had about organizing the reading group. Then I'll give an introductory talk about Bitcoin&blockchain



Extra:  Through no fault of my own,  on Friday March 17 there will be a talk by Quinn DuPont at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society.  Cryptocurrencies, blockchain, decentralized autonomous organizations, free food.

Starting the ASU Bitcoin/BlockChain Reading Group

Bitcoin and blockchain have been much in the news lately.  Much of the reporting has been contradictory (see below). The technical foundation at the heart of bitcoin and the bitcoin blockchain are algorithms implemented in a suite of software written by Satoshi Nakamoto, the purportedly genius but definitely pseudonymous architect(s) of bitcoin. Yet these algorithms are designed to interface with economic/psycho-sociological forces such as "incentives" and "proof of work". The algorithms and software are documented in the manner of open source software projects, which is to say poorly. The validity of the economic and sociological assumptions that the software is designed to leverage are much less documented. Yet at $19 billion capitalization bitcoin has the potential to impact the economic system, trade, finance, crime, law and national security in ways that are controversial. The controversy reflects the poor understanding of what it really means.  We would like to invite you to engage in a community of interest in the form of a technical literature reading group on this subject. The model is to hold a weekly meeting. Each week we will have chosen some some one or few readings, and each reading will be focused most closely in an area of expertise of some particapant, who will explain the fine points of the article to the rest of us for fifteen minutes to an hour.  The meetings will be held weekly on Tuesdays from 3:30 to 4:30PM in the Global Security Initiative small conference room (ISTB4 496) starting on March 14 and running through the end of the semester. I have assembled a draft reading list here <https://sites.google.com/asu.edu/bitcoin-blockchain-resources/home>, send me  links you'd like to add, or contact me for edit permissions.

To quote or paraphrase from various headlines, websites, chatroom posts, articles and private discussions:
 *Bitcoin is a "cyptocurrency"
 *Bitcoin is an innovative payment network and a new kind of money
 *Bitcoin is not money to the IRS, but is money according to the EU
 *Bitcoin has a 19 billion dollar capitalization as of March 1, 2017
 *Bitcoin is illegal in many countries
 *Bitcoin is inherently secure.
 *Blockchain is a machine for creating trust.
 *Millions of dollars worth of bitcoin are stolen/hacked on a regular basis.
 *Bitcoin is completely transparent.
 *Bitcoin is anonymous.
 *Bitoin is not anonymous
 *Bitcoin is pseudonymous
 *Bitcoin is basically for criminals
 *Bitcoin is used for money laundering
 *Bitcoin technology helps law enforcement catch criminals
 *Bitcoin is used to finance terrorism
 *Bitcoin is not a “recognized” sovereign currency
 *Blockchain is a distributed database high byzantine fault tolerance.
 *Blockchain is the world's worst database
 *Blockchain is decentralized.
 *Bitcoin ultimately relies on a small core of highly skilled developers
 *Bitcoin is a complex sociotechnical system