Post by Featherlite on May 8, 2013 16:26:34 GMT -5
Ashton Kutcher speaking at a TechCrunch Disrupt NY recently said this...
May 1st 2013
By: Cadie Thompson
Technology Editor, CNBC.com
Ashton Kutcher Bites Into 'Bitcoin Revolution'
The "bitcoin revolution" is here, and it offers an investing opportunity, Ashton Kutcher tells the TechCrunch Disrupt conference Wednesday.
"I think bitcoins are obviously becoming more and more relevant," said the actor, who is also founder of the A-Grade venture firm.
"The fact that people are hacking bitcoins really hard, it almost hearkens back to when banks first started and they didn't have safe safes and people were going into the banks and just robbing money out of the safe. It actually validates the value of the money itself," he said. "I think the fact that you can buy drugs and ammo with it is actually (a) validator of the currency itself."
But there's also huge potential for the technology behind the decentralized currency, Kutcher said.
Bitcoin is a digital currency that is open source and has no central authority. Transactions and minting of bitcoins is maintained by the users in the bit coin network. (Learn More: CNBC Explains Bitcoin)
"The bigger thing with bitcoin is not bitcoin itself, but what does that decentralized technology really do?" Kutcher said.
For example, Kutcher said that the same technology could be used for cybersecurity.
Because of cyberthreats, governments are trying to regulate the Internet in a way that does not keep users anonymous. By using the same technology as bitcoin, people could anonymously monitor each other on the Internet for criminal behavior and this civic participation would help eliminate government intrusion, Kutcher said.
"The notion that we could civically monitor each other in an anonymous way actually keeps the anonymity of the Internet. We don't have to worry about big brother," Kutcher said. "The same infrastructure that built out bitcoin could be used in the security industry for mass good."
May 1st 2013
By: Cadie Thompson
Technology Editor, CNBC.com
Ashton Kutcher Bites Into 'Bitcoin Revolution'
The "bitcoin revolution" is here, and it offers an investing opportunity, Ashton Kutcher tells the TechCrunch Disrupt conference Wednesday.
"I think bitcoins are obviously becoming more and more relevant," said the actor, who is also founder of the A-Grade venture firm.
"The fact that people are hacking bitcoins really hard, it almost hearkens back to when banks first started and they didn't have safe safes and people were going into the banks and just robbing money out of the safe. It actually validates the value of the money itself," he said. "I think the fact that you can buy drugs and ammo with it is actually (a) validator of the currency itself."
But there's also huge potential for the technology behind the decentralized currency, Kutcher said.
Bitcoin is a digital currency that is open source and has no central authority. Transactions and minting of bitcoins is maintained by the users in the bit coin network. (Learn More: CNBC Explains Bitcoin)
"The bigger thing with bitcoin is not bitcoin itself, but what does that decentralized technology really do?" Kutcher said.
For example, Kutcher said that the same technology could be used for cybersecurity.
Because of cyberthreats, governments are trying to regulate the Internet in a way that does not keep users anonymous. By using the same technology as bitcoin, people could anonymously monitor each other on the Internet for criminal behavior and this civic participation would help eliminate government intrusion, Kutcher said.
"The notion that we could civically monitor each other in an anonymous way actually keeps the anonymity of the Internet. We don't have to worry about big brother," Kutcher said. "The same infrastructure that built out bitcoin could be used in the security industry for mass good."