Introduction I talk a lot about Bitcoin but a few people I know from outside of the Bitcoin space have asked me why I don’t talk about other uses of “blockchain technology” and other cryptocurrencies. For the former, I already addressed the blockchain case in a previous article. I may write something longer or moreContinue reading “Cryptocurrencies Beyond Bitcoin?”
Author Archives: Ben de Waal
Understanding Opportunity Cost and Bitcoin
Opportunity Cost In life, you make choices. For nearly every choice you make, there are both positives and negatives to each alternative as well as unknowns that are potential positives or negatives. Consider for example that you are offered a new job in another country. You may choose to take the job, or you mayContinue reading “Understanding Opportunity Cost and Bitcoin”
What is Intrinsic Value?
In November of 2018, I wrote an article titled “Bitcoin: Honest Money”. There, I made several claims and comments about intrinsic value. When I wrote it, I told myself I needed to write more about the concept since I felt I missed out a lot that needed to be said. Several people have pointed outContinue reading “What is Intrinsic Value?”
Knowledge and Belief
For the majority of my life, I had a difficult time with the distinction between “knowledge” and “belief”. It seemed to me for a long time that they were simply two words for roughly the same thing. Both – more or less – refer to the conviction that a mental model matches objective reality. I’veContinue reading “Knowledge and Belief”
“Mansplaining”
Trigger Warning(s) Primary: In this article, I briefly talk about rape and I don’t shy away from descriptive terms. If this is likely to upset you, please skip the paragraph that starts with the sentence “Now, a real case”. To maintain a balance between reader comfort and sensitivity to those who may find this disturbingContinue reading ““Mansplaining””
A socratic investigation of entities and emergent properties with a brief descent in to madness
Have you ever thought about something as being “more than the sum of its parts”? If so, you’ve probably – knowingly or unknowingly – considered the concept of emergent properties. Emergent properties are those properties of a collective system that are not held by any of the members of that system alone. A commonly citedContinue reading “A socratic investigation of entities and emergent properties with a brief descent in to madness”
Interview with a Bitcoiner
Preamble In November of 2019, my employer decided to create an interview with me to be published on the company website. We did this in the form of questions from our Head of Corporate Communications which I then wrote detailed answers for. My answers were heavily edited, chopped up, and reduced in scope along withContinue reading “Interview with a Bitcoiner”
“Virtual Currencies” according to the EBA
In July of 2014, the European Banking Association (EBA) published EBA/Op/2014/08, “EBA opinion on ‘virtual currencies’“. This was intended as a general guideline for the management of systems like Bitcoin and other systems that fall under the general concept of cryptocurrency or virtual currency. The guidelines are not universally adopted but the definition of aContinue reading ““Virtual Currencies” according to the EBA”
A Primer on Money
Money is a Communication Tool It’s often very difficult to explain to people what Bitcoin is. The main reason for this is that the answer is deceptively simple but highlights a larger problem. The answer is that Bitcoin is money and the problem that it highlights is that most people have no idea what moneyContinue reading “A Primer on Money”
The Bitcoin Block Size Debate
What is the Block Size Debate? Bitcoin uses a blockchain. This is a data structure that records blocks of transactions in a special way that – combined with the proof-of-work security mechanism – ensures that it’s essentially impossible to go back and change transactions in the past, enabling scarcity in a digital good without requiringContinue reading “The Bitcoin Block Size Debate”
Thoughts on anything and everything 