Introduction

[ORGANISER] Andreas Antonopoulos! [Applause] [ANDREAS] It is such a huge pleasure to be here today. This is such a great community. Everyone here welcomed me with such warmth and open arms, so thank you! Thank you so much for having me here tonight.

Regulatory legitimacy

I would like to talk about a couple important issues [regarding] regulatory legitimacy. The cryptocurrency space can achieve compliance with the payment card industry (PCI) standard... and Sarbanes-Oxley's Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). [We can incorporate] 'Know-Your-Customer' (KYC) and the anti-money laundering (AML) rules, which will allow us to achieve legitimacy with bankers and [gain] our position on the world stage... as a trusted, legitimate currency. [Laughter] [Applause] Eh, fuck that! [Laughter [Applause] No, I don't want to talk about that. Who wants to talk about that? [That stuff] is ridiculous. We don't need any legitimacy. We are having fun. We deal with more serious issues. There are a lot of serious people in Wall Street: dour faced, boring, soulless, parasitic people... wearing suits and ties. Guess what? They stole trillions of dollars and got away with it. Who needs their legitimacy?

The other six billion

[Applause] I want to talk about things that are warm to my heart. Some of you may have heard the talks I have given recently, about currency as a language. Has anyone here heard some of those talks? Not many people, great. It will all sound brand new to you, a great opportunity for me to repeat myself. What I care about is charity and the other six billion. There are a billion people in this world who have access to bank accounts without currency controls, that can transmit money in international markets and access deep pools of liquid credit for loans. [That is] us, the rich people of the Western world. Then there is the other six billion people worn all around the world who have limited bank accounts... or no bank accounts at all. People who live on $1 per day if they are lucky. People who have no access to international markets, no access to international finance, no access to loans. No access to opportunity. I would like to think that I am a really smart guy who got here because of efforts I made throughout my life, but we all know that is bullshit. I got here through an accident of birth, which put me in a white middle-class society of the developed nation of Greece. As a child of professional, educated parents, I was swimming with current all the way. There are hundreds of thousands of people smarter than me, dying of diphtheria somewhere in the world. I care about what we could do with cryptocurrencies to bring economic development and inclusion. [I care about] bringing the other six billion [people] into a world economy without borders, political corruption, and massive theft by parasitic banks. [Applause] And it starts with charity at a very basic level. This community [speaks about] charity more than any other cryptocurrency community. Thank you so much for leading the way and [being] an example of what we can do with cryptocurrency, when we think [about] doing good. That is what is amazing about this community.

We have achieved some amazing things in the Bitcoin space through charity

Bitcoin has a lot of charity too. We have achieved some amazing things in the Bitcoin space [through charity]. About a month and a half ago, Newsweek destroyed the life of an innocent old man called Dorian Nakamoto, by saying that he was the creator of this currency. I started a fundraiser; within six hours, we raised more than thirty bitcoin for Dorian, Nakamoto. Now, we have raised almost fifty bitcoin to help this man put his life together [again]. At the same time, Sean's Outpost, one of my favourite major charities, distributed sixty-five thousand meals... for the homeless of Pensacola, Florida in the last year. [They] tapped into Bitcoin and used it to raise money from people all around the world. If people care, they can now send money anywhere in the world to support the charity of their choice. [Applause] When there was a typhoon in the Philippines, Fr33aid raised money and set over $5,000 within a day. [The money went] right on the ground where it mattered, where it could make a difference in people's lives... without having to worry about regulations, [slow] wire transfers, or giving Western Union a 20% cut. All of these charities take [bitcoin as] a currency and turning it into a force for good.

We have the opportunity to subvert and improve some of the most exploited markets in the world

But that is only the beginning. We have the opportunity to subvert and improve some of the most exploited markets in the world. The first one I care about a lot is the international remittances market. Every year, poor people in the developed world who are migrants and have jobs as itinerant workers... [They are mostly] Mexicans here in the United States; Indians in different places like Dubai, for construction... They send money home to their families abroad. $500 billion [in total] primarily goes to four countries: Mexico, the Philippines, Indonesia, and India. That $500 billion is a lot more than what we in the developed world send in terms of financial aid. Approximately $175 billion has been sent by our governments to the developing world. Guess where that money goes? [Financial aid] from our government goes to the top of their governments... and then trickles down. Only about 5% actually reaches the people in need because the rest is taken through corruption. Meanwhile, out of the $500 billion sent through remittances, $75 billion is collected as fees... by companies like Western Union. They charge anywhere from 5% to more than 25% on the money that people are sending home to their families. That is $75 billion [taken] out of the pockets of the poorest people on this planet. We can change that. We can change that right now. Cryptocurrencies enable flows of money from the developed nations to the developing world, to give back that $75 billion to the people who need it most. If you take that money [back] and put it in the pockets of the poorest people in the world, specifically the pockets of women who run the finances in their communities, [receiving] money from their husbands and family members abroad, they will convert every single dollar... [into improving] water [access], sanitation, education, and healthcare. They have an immediate impact that reaches very far in their own community. That is how we change the world. That is what we can do with cryptocurrencies. That is what I care about.

Old-fashioned way to look at currency

[Applause] One of the questions I have been thinking about for the last year is, how do altcoins behave against each other? Whether they are in competition or not. The underlying question is one of scarcity. A lot of people think other coins compete directly with bitcoin, and if there are too many coins, that dilutes the value and digital scarcity created by bitcoin. I think that is a very old fashioned way to look at currency. We think of currency that way because... Throughout our lives, we have grown up in a world... of national sovereign currencies that exist in a monopolistic zero-sum game. Winning for my currency and my nation is a zero-sum game against [another nation's] currency. All these currencies exhibit a [geo-political] monopoly. If I live in the United States, I am born into U.S. dollars. I don't have a choice. I must pay my taxes in U.S. dollars, and that is the currency I will use [while I'm there].

Currency is now a choice

Well, [some of] that is no longer the case. [Because of Bitcoin], currency is now a choice. With these digital currencies created by individuals, we can now choose any currency we want to interact with. In making that choice, we also choose our community and the currency which best represents our values. [That choice] is more powerful than any vote in the world. Let's think about what it means to choose a currency and how that currency derives value. We need to re-think the word. Currency used to be defined by the authority of the sovereign who created it. The sovereign who created the currency would put the force and monopoly of the state behind it... to give it value, and that is what gave currency value in the old world. In this world, a cryptocurrency with a funny dog [as its mascot] has value. Why? Because it has value to you. You give it value by using that currency. What happens in ten or fifteen years as cryptocurrencies become more widespread? How do you look at value in a world where anybody can create a currency? What does it mean if, someday, you [travel to] a rural environment in Africa, which is predominantly using two currencies: one has a funny dog, and the other has an old white woman named Elizabeth. Well, I can tell you something. The people in that village probably don't know who Elizabeth is. They will certainly have no clue what the hell that dog is and why its eyes look like that. [Laughter] What they do know: you could use either one of these currencies to buy six eggs. That is all that matters. If a currency is useful as a means of exchange, then that currency has value. You can have a thousand economists write a thousand PhD papers that tell you exactly why it's not a currency. But if you can buy six eggs, then it is a currency and nothing else matters. What is the fundamental difference between currencies if they have monetary value at the point of purchase? If they can be used to exchange for goods and services by people in a community who will use that currency? Well, one of the currencies has a predictable, deterministic, fixed monetary supply. The other currency has an old white lady on the front. That is the only difference. They sure as hell didn't pick that currency and they don't know why Elizabeth is on it. Maybe she won a popularity contest. Well, so did the dog.

We now live in a world where currency acquires value through its use

[Laughter] We now live in the world where currency acquires value through its use. If you can transact internationally with a currency, the only thing that matters is how many people use it, and how they use that currency. If they use that currency, that gives it value, by definition. How do we survive in that kind of world where value is determined purely by adoption, not by a sovereign. Not by the regulations that back it, but by the algorithms that run it. Not by trust in the central authority with the ability to print as much money as it wants, who hands that money over at 0% interest to the biggest banks, in trickle-down economics. By algorithms that are predictable, deterministic, and remove uncertainty. By algorithms that allow us to see how the currency will develop over time. In that world, adoption is the only thing that matters. We don't know how to live in that world. That world hasn't come yet, but I think it is coming and coming fast. I think the idea of [only having 180 national] currencies will seem quaint in a couple of decades. In fact, until recently, I thought we would only have a couple hundred altcoins, and I changed my mind. Guess what? I am often wrong. But when I get new facts, I form new opinions, because the old opinions don't fit the facts anymore. As I saw the explosion of alternative currencies, which in itself is a somewhat patronizing [term]... As I saw the development of altcoins, I realized that we will not just have hundreds of currencies. Let's do a quick poll. How many of you think that, in a decade, we will have hundreds of coins? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? All right, now we are having a conversation. What does it mean to live in the world with hundreds of thousands or millions of currencies? The key realization came when I saw a website that allowed me to build a cryptocurrency... by entering a name and monetary policy from a drop-down box in a web form, and [clicking] 'submit.' You needed to pay about $50 to do that, but I guarantee that by the end of the year, you will be able to do that for free.

Currency is an emergent artifact of a social species

Then I realized that everybody will do it. At a very basic level, currency is a language. Currency is a means of expression. Currency is the language by which we communicate value to each other. Currency is an emergent artifact of a social species. Let me repeat that: currency is an emergent artifact of a social species. How do you know that? Observe five year-olds. Go into a primary school, watch how five-year-olds behave. They don't have currency, so they invent it. They invent currency as soon as they develop social bonds within a broad social environment. If you go into a primary school, you will see children trading cards, Pokémon, Tamagotchi, rubber bands, candy, cafeteria credits, whatever. It is not unlike a prison, in many ways. [Laughter] The only difference is, they don't allow them to have cigarettes. Otherwise, that would be the predominant currency. But they do allow them to have doughnuts; in many schools, that is the predominant currency. Currency emerges in social environments because it is used by individuals to express value, appreciation, to express popularity and strengthen social bonds, to create social experiences. That is what currency does. Trade is a social interaction. Currency is the language that allows us to have that social interaction. When children are able to create currency, that means everyone can create currency.

There will be coins of all types

There will be a JoeyCoin competing with MariaCoin in the primary school, in a battle of popularity. Yes, there will be. There will be BieberCoin and MetallicaCoin. You can see how old I am. [Laughter] Maybe AndreasCoin. I will pre-mine the hell out of it. There will be coins of all types, representing brands, corporations, your local mall, used as a loyalty card. There will be coins representing bands and silly memes. I am at a conference for one of those [right now]. It doesn't matter. All of these coins may or may not have [some value]. But realize that there is a big difference between monetary value and [other forms of value]. The vast majority of the tens of thousands of coins which may exist, will have no monetary value. You can try telling Joey that his coin doesn't have [monetary] value; it has value to Joey and his friends. It can be used to express popularity in a social market. It has value to the followers of [Justin] Bieber. In some cases, it may [be more valuable] than some of the national currencies out there, if he ever launches it. How do we live in the world where there are hundreds of thousands of coins, and most of them have no value?

Value does not derive from who created it, but only from who is using it

We disassociate value from authority. We understand that value does not derive from who created it, but only from who is using it. We already live in that world in terms of information. We used to [read] published opinion as being authoritative if it came from a publisher... with a giant printing press and a fancy name, like the New York Times. Then we [transitioned] to a world where everyone on the street could publish an opinion. We needed to revise our understanding of authority, because it no longer fit the facts. Sometimes, people from very esteemed institutions like the New York Times, such as "journalist" Judith Miller, lie about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq, [a lie which] kills hundreds of thousands of people. Sometimes, an Egyptian blogger, a nobody, tells the truth about the regime of Mubarak, because they are there. We live in a world where [value] comes from the content, not from the authority of the printing press. And now we just did that to currency. Currency gains [value] not because of who created it, but by who uses it. In a few decades, you might be surprised about which currency [achieved] monetary value status. It will be a very grey line. I think we will see currencies that suddenly erupt, capture the imagination of an entire community, and then acquire value. I have some bad news, the other way [this] could go. Some of these currencies will have monetary value and then fade into nothingness again. A bubbling cauldron full of currencies where some rise to the surface, and then sink down quickly. Some stay afloat [for the long term]. I think Bitcoin will be one of the powerful ones. I'm not sure about Dogecoin yet, but it is looking pretty promising. I think it is very interesting how this community demonstrated to the world what marketing can do, by having a positive and charitable spirit. That is the new world I think we will live in, within a couple of decades. It will be a very interesting world. That is what I wanted to talk about today, the role of currency as language and form of societal [expression]. Thank you so much! [Applause]