Why You Should Pay Attention to Bitcoin, with Brad Templeton | Big Think
Why You Should Pay Attention to Bitcoin, with Brad Templeton
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Tech pioneer Brad Templeton calls Bitcoin just one example of how exponential technology is redefining finance. Understanding these changes in advance is a major advantage for individuals and businesses that want to stay a step (or 100 steps) ahead of their peers. And Singularity University’s 2015 Exponential Finance conference, happening June 2 and 3 in New York City, brings together some of the top future-focused entrepreneurs in every field: from finance, to law, to computing, to medicine, to share their discoveries and insights into what’s coming next, and how to turn it to your advantage. Tickets are going fast. Use the code BIGTHINK500 to lock in your
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BRAD TEMPLETON:
Brad Templeton is the Track Chair for Computing at Singularity University, developer of and commentator on self-driving cars, software architect, board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, internet entrepreneur, futurist lecturer, writer and observer of cyberspace issues, hobby photographer, and an artist.
Templeton has been a consultant on Google’s team designing a driverless car and lectures and blogs about the emerging technology of automated transportation. He is also noted as a speaker and writer covering copyright law and political and social issues related to computing and networks. He is a director of the futurist Foresight Nanotech Institute, a think tank and public interest organization focused on transformative future technologies.
Templeton was founder, publisher and software architect at ClariNet Communications Corp., which in the 1990s became the first internet-based business, creating an electronic newspaper. He has been active in the computer network community since 1979, participated in the building and growth of USENET from its earliest days, and in 1987 founded and edited a special USENET conference devoted to comedy.
Templeton has been involved in the development of important pieces of software including VisiCalc, the world’s first computer spreadsheet, and Stuffit for archiving and compressing computer files.
In 1996, ClariNet joined the ACLU and others in opposing the Communications Decency Act, part of the Telecom bill passed during Clinton Administration. The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the plaintiffs and ruled that the Act violated the First Amendment in seeking to impose anti-indecency standards on the internet.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Brad Templeton: So what Bitcoin creates is a ledger that needs no bank. And that’s actually pretty important because if you think about what is a bank, at least as far as the money transfer and the checking and savings, not the loan part, but the financial, the moving money part of a bank, it’s really — it’s a secure ledger. The bank does not just have a little file that says your account has $3,000 in it. They insist that when you write something, they make a note in their ledger that $1,000 is transferred from your account into someone else’s account and so on and that’s important to make it secure. Well, what the designers of Bitcoin created was a way to make a ledger that’s secure and that everyone can trust, but that no one owns or controls. And this allows people to have money that can be free of the influence of governments, which is both bad if you’re a government and great if you don’t like what governments do with their monetary policies. It lets the policy be set by consensus and software. So Bitcoin basically has found a way to always know what the majority thinks, and by always knowing what the majority thinks, you get something you hope you can trust.
While the only thing people use Bitcoin for today is effectively to write checks that transfer title in some Bitcoins to another person or another secret numbered account because it’s designed to be public in what you do, but private in terms of who’s doing it. It actually becomes possible to do things like write a contract and say “I transfer one Bitcoin to you if the following is true.” And so now the contracts are enforced without courts, without any other third party. So the ability for people to just play with that and innovate with that that’s really exciting and that’s why you want to pay attention to Bitcoin….
To read the transcript, please go to https://bigthink.com/videos/brad-templeton-bitcoin-exponential-finance
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November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
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@Elliot_Pizzaguy
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Remember the ONLY ones that hate BITCOIN are the ones that don't OWN ANY , FACT . The naysayers ….. I say GO….. BITCOIN ….GO .
@taiwanlin8304
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
This system gives me financial freedom,100% interest a month
#MMMGlobal #MMMExtra #Bitcoin #Bitcoins #BTC #BitcoinReview #BitcoinNews
@CongoAnalyse
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
There is a heavy investigation on bitcoin and the nature of those who push to use it.
@codediporpal
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Blockchain is an interesting innovation, but most serious people have figured out that bitcoin "mining" is a natural monopoly due to economies of scale, so it will eventually become untrustworthy. Not to mention is is an increasingly absurd waste of computing resources and electricity as miners have to have to compete for that once per 10 minute reward.
@chaitu981
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Hey
@t-72k16
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
As of right now, Bitcoin dominates the niche market of anonymous online transactions.
@WILSON.1
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
The real reason why you want to pay attention to Bitcoin relates to the governments increasing involvement in banks. The basic cheapness of transactions with Bitcoin is another obvious reason to pay attention to it.
@TiberianFiend
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Is Bitcoin even still a thing?
@gwwayner
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme; DUH!
@sciencoking
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
As a user of the system, my idea of "security" goes beyond cryptographic strength. Stealing a transaction is as easy as pasting your own wallet address over someone else's. Print a sticker with your QR code over that on a piece of paper or a wall, run a man-in-the-middle attack against someone's internet connection – the possibilities are limitless – and you can't even report it to an authority, because even if they cared, the money would be long gone.
In reality, the only motivations for using Bitcoin are the novelty value, or doing something shady. It is not faster than Paypal and the likes, it is not harder to rip you off, it is not harder to track your transactions, and unless you want to clog both your internet connection and your hard drive with literally gigabytes of junk data, you will end up entrusting your wealth to a third party after all.
It is a fascinating concept in the field of cryptography, but it is simply not suitable for use as a true currency.
@satirodelbasto
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
What if a conscious bank buys it ? 😮
@IvorThomas
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Keymo asked is it useless without smartphone. Are cars useless without roads rather than horse trails? Yes. It's called technology paradigm shift. Bitcoin and its Blockchain is a big one.
@enmanuelepericles1800
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Please, clueless tools, do not pay any attention to Bitcoin. I want to use your tears as lube in 10 years once you realize you missed The Boat.
@chestbuster1987
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
I'd pay attention to Bitcoin if it was on the sites and services I use but it is not. So it's hard to care about it.
@peeweemcmerm8100
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
As of 13:28 ET (approx) your Bitcoin is fucked.
Good luck.
@aWorldview
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Why does he say that contracts will be enforced witout courts?
You need a court in case of breach of contract.
How you pay has nothing to do with it.
@Dreadtothink
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Being free of government control and influence is not a good thing. Bitcoin allows easy, illegal transactions. Bitcoin is the life blood of the dark Internet.
@milesbeler3974
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Oh for the love of god can we please realize that bitcoin is not taking off, and is economically opposed by most countries?
@freetrailer4poor
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
gavin wants to increase the blocksize and there were talks of adding lost coins. One solar events and the internet is down for weeks
@AlexanderBollbach
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
exciting potential!
@blue_tetris
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Every currency deserves an equal vote!
@sethcaplan859
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
until someone finds a away to mine them in mass quantities (assuming they haven't already) then that no government thing become as problem
@EllipsisFeatHomer
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Bitcoin is really the future of currency in a world where 7 transactions per second is enough capacity
@TheCryptotariancom
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Well put, short and to the point.
@uhohhotdog
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Bitcoin is a scam.
@What_was_wrong_w_jst_our_names
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Bitcoin is old news…
@Long-do1vj
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Bitcoin price is dropping like a rock
@SalvableRuin
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
He just said that all Bitcoins are used for is transferring Bitcoins. You can make real world purchases with bit coins in some places. Here in Vancouver, Waves Coffee accepts Bitcoins. You can buy anything in the shop with your Bitcoins.
@EccentricSM
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
This would have been so edgy 4 years ago.
@alee0294
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
This currency will be linked with your nwo micro chip
@KeymoEmbryo
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Simple quesiton, feel free to answer everyone:
Is bitcoin "useless" if you don't have a smartphone?
Be honest now 😉
@DarkBioCloud
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
We all know bitcoin will never be wide spread until the banks accept it as legal currency but that is not going to happen because the banks are controlled by the governments that control currency. Maybe instead of trying to compete with governments in the currency market we should be trying to get governments to adopt bitcoin as their official currency. A new gameplan is needed if we ever want bitcoin to common place among the general public.
@Ranger_mcclure
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
quit trying to sell bitcoin to everyone………..
@itachiuchiha205
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
what did i just watch?
@GaidexVillerX13
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
okay see this.
@rserton
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Singularity University?
@Cornwall1888
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
We have been hearing about Bitcoin for ages, meanwhile the value of them continues to plummet.
Crypto currency is far too volatile.
@Ludguallon
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
<willing to address your bitcoin related Questions/Concerns.
@crackerMango
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
The concept of Bitcoin is great, but Bitcoin is not. It is very inefficient and consume way too much computeing power for every transaction.
@georgyorgy2
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
I remember a time when this channel was all about contemplating the universe and shit.
@chocola95
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Not expecting much more intelligent comments than that here regarding Bitcoin. Just surprised they actually talk about it in such a positive way here. That's awesome.
@vladoportos
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Self hacking auctions love bitcoin 😀
@chrisneto
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 am
Cyber-bartering.
Comments are closed.