Re: [projectvrm] Bitcoin privacy and big data

Jim,

I used bitcoin a year ago to pay for a VPN service.. just to try out  
an anon payment.. since it was the first place i'd seen that took  
bitcoin.

privateinternetaccess.com is the site, if you want to look up what  
they do.. they have very responsive chat if you want to ask them  
questions.

Like you.. I immediately realized that this could very much support  
personal data control and VRM services that put the user at center..
but until it's more mainstream, it's a curiosity to most.. but  
definitely good to build on and try out to see.

Additionally, I recommend you read the little bit attached below.. as  
Paul Krugman thinks bitcoin will be in recession as they reach the  
leveling off point and there are no more to mint:

mary

FROM THE DAVE FARBER LIST April 7:
Creating more money does not inherently result in "an unpredictable  
and unstable system." Krugman has been correctly predicting this for  
almost four years now:

> Let me add, for the 1.6 trillionth time, **we are in a liquidity  
> trap**. And in such circumstances a rise in the monetary base does  
> not lead to inflation.


        http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/way-off-base/

This was not true in 1930s America, the last two decades in Japan, and  
the US since 2008:

        http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/send-in-the-cranks/

Krugman has talked a bit about Bitcoin directly:

> Bear in mind that dollar prices have been relatively stable over the  
> past few years ? yes, some deflation in 2008-2009, then some  
> inflation as commodity prices rebounded, but overall consumer prices  
> are only slightly higher than they were three years ago. What that  
> means is that if you measure prices in Bitcoins, they have plunged;  
> the Bitcoin economy has in effect experienced massive deflation.
>
> And because of that, there has been an incentive to hoard the  
> virtual currency rather than spending it. The actual value of  
> transactions in Bitcoins has fallen rather than rising. In effect,  
> real gross Bitcoin product has fallen sharply.
>
> So to the extent that the experiment tells us anything about  
> monetary regimes, it reinforces the case against anything like a new  
> gold standard ? because it shows just how vulnerable such a standard  
> would be to money-hoarding, deflation, and depression.

        http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/07/golden-cyberfetters/

The price had gone been less than US$ 5 in May 2011, gone up to  US$  
30 in June 2011, and back to to under $10/unit in September 2011. It  
chugged along under or around $10 for most of 2012, and is now  
skyrocketing. Which would mean massive deflation if you're using  
Bitcoin as a currency base at its present (April 2013) value, would it  
not?

The apparent "unpredictable and unstable system" label seems to apply  
not to so-called "fiat currencies", but rather to Bitcoin.

As Bill Gross and PIMCO (the world?s largest bond investor) learned to  
their detriment, it can be costly to bet against to be against Krugman:

http://sfchuato.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/not-a-good-idea-to-bet-against-paul-krugman/

I've been following Paul Krugman's weblog since a little before the  
meltdown, and he's been calling things quite accurately for all of  
those 5-6 years. Certainly not perfectly, but much better than the  
folks talking about mass inflation, austerity hawks, debt haters (who  
weren't haters when Bush was jacking up spending, which Krugman was  
against).

If someone has a better model than Keynesianism and IS/LM, I haven't  
found them. Krugman (and others) understand this model and are  
worthing listening to more than just about any other set of economists  
out there.


EOM


Quoting Jim Bursch 
<
 >:

> Has anyone here been following the Bitcoin story?
>
> I've been studying Bitcoin for the last week, and it strikes me as  
> having tremendous potential to be a fantastic tool for people to  
> take control of their personal data.
>
> I tend to think that the biggest threat to autonomy on the web is  
> dependence on credit card banking, and the attendant  
> identity/privacy issues that go with it. The promise of Bitcoin is  
> that it can enable truly anonymous financial transactions, and  
> effectively cut the nuts off of big data.
>
> I am in the process of converting MyMindshare to be denominated in  
> Bitcoin and coming to appreciate more and more its benefits.
>
> I encourage us to look past the speculative hype that is currently  
> enveloping Bitcoin and take a serious look at what its implications  
> are for vendor relationship management -- specifically the amount of  
> control it gives to us people on the other side of the vendor  
> relationships.
>
> --
> Jim Bursch
> 310-869-5340
>
>  
> http://mymindshare.com
> @jimbursch