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I would first like to preface this by saying that it is a relatively advanced discussion of bitcoin. If you do not understand the basics of what bitcoin is, then it will likely not make much sense to you. For the absolute basics on the bitcoin currency app, feel free to read my Bitcoin: Getting Started thread. If you understand everything in there and want to research and move to the next level, this post will provide my initial thoughts and then this thread will hopefully develop from there. Explaining a New Technology Using Bad, Old Terms It is one of the banes of any new technology that you have to explain it in terms of something that already exists. As many of you have figured out by the terms used around bitcoin, about none of them actually apply to bitcoin. For instance, bitcoin is not a coin. You don’t have a wallet full of coins. You don’t even send coins really. Bitcoin is a store of value that is cryptographically embedded on a distributed ledger. This ledger uses Proof-of-Work (POW) to verify and confirm transactions. Bitcoin is just numbers that move around on the ledger. They can only be spent when a mathematical signature says the coin is now located at a new place in the ledger. Simple, right? Not at all! Bitcoin makes no sense to people who are new to the idea. Even using “old” terms, bitcoin is still confusing and leads to many people criticizing it according to old standards which do not apply to bitcoin. It makes things very difficult to explain. Thus, all of these old terms that do not apply exactly need to be used in order to analogize bitcoin with our existing ideas about money. The TWO Meanings of Bitcoin This brings me to the bitcoin name itself. The truth is that Bitcoin the network is just a distributed proof-of work protocol. On top of this, we have the application called bitcoin that is used as a exchange of value system. What This Means Bitcoin the network will very quickly have a lot built on top of it. Think about the internet. You have TCP/IP as the base protocol. On top of this, you have built the HTTP protocol. On top of this, you have many browsers that you use which bring these complexities to the "user" level. On top of this, you have the various apps and plug-ins which bring things down to an "individualized" level. Bitcoin is exactly the same. In fact, several years from now, very few will know what bitcoin is but they will use it- or a derivative- every day (similar to how few know what TCP/IP is, but use it every day). The Next Layer There are a few companies popping up that are trying to build the next layer. Mastercoin is one that is just starting. It would allow titles of property, assets, stocks, bonds, etc to have registered ownership titles in a distributed system. It would also allow anyone to make their own “coins” for a project or for themselves in order to parse out value, or stake in a project or company. I am not aware of others, but I am sure that a few may exist and the next couple years will see a lot of development in this area. Beyond That There are many places where bitcoin could go, but in time there will be many layers of apps on top of the system that the technical knowledge you currently need to use bitcoin will be silly and obsolete for the average user. Things will become second-nature and basic exchanges will happen instantly without much thought. Advantages of Bitcoin Revisited Thus, besides the many, many advantages of lessened counterparty risk and lessened third party risk and lessened overhead and lessened centralization and increased anonymity and more that bitcoin the current realization of bitcoin the currency provides, these things can be applied in the future to all assets, transactions, interactions and more. The limits are only in the imaginations of entrepreneurs as to where bitcoin can go. This post as a bit shorter as I do not know as much about the topic as it is new, and that it introduces a lot of new topics and ideas even to people who are potentially familiar with bitcoin the currency. If you have any questions, trouble, additions, or edits, feel free to ask them and I will try to respond as best I can. Also, if you want to see another post or topic about bitcoin, you can PM me or add it below and I will research or put something together- especially if I think others would benefit from the post. Thanks for reading!

Over a year ago I read this letter at my therapist office and I cried my guts out. I realized what I missed all my life, what my parents didn't give me: Love. This letter helped me to realize that good parents and happy (normal) childhood do exist even if they possibly are 1% of the population but knowing that their numbers will increase in the future brings me joy. With a forum like this one, Stefan Molyneux and many authors who encourage people to know their histories and take their childhood dramas seriously so each one of us can stop the cycle of violence on the self and on others and especially stop violating kids. The letter is in French titled "Une belle enfance" I translated it and tried to keep its essence. Enjoy! The letter hello mrs alice MILLER, I'm very happy to write to you, now I finished reading your book "open your eyes to our own history" The Truth Will Se You Free, that I was advised by my neighbor, who read you and at one of our great discussions on children he insisted that I read your book. I am a facilitator in prevention in the field of addiction, legal or illegal drugs, this is the first time I read a book of my life and have no regrets because you encouraged me to continue to read what you write is so true. I am fortunate to have had an uncommon education , my parents raised me like you advise in your writings and I recognized myself in the history of President Gorbachev, I am very happy I did never experienced violence and yet I guess with the stupid things I was doing, other parents would have been extremely violent, I have the proof around me, you're right we must communicate to educate children, never hit them. I'll give you a concrete example. when I was 6 years old my parents one day went to a family party which was 6 km from our suburban neighborhood (Paris) seine saint denis 93, I knew where my parents were gone and knew the way because we often went to this family with my parents, I recorded in my head the way out of habit, so I proposed to my eldest sister of two years to reach both my parents at the party by foot. My sister told me okay, we took the path and went through the main streets, many cars driving fast, a very dangerous road, we arrived safely. Our parents watching us stunned believing that we had arrived to them through someone in my family who have accompanied us. my mother asked us very quietly not to traumatize us and with a smile, how did you come? we answered her by walking! my parents looked at each other and told us you are very smart! I felt myself at that moment, a big boy and they never blamed me or my sister, now I know their heart was pounding for fear of losing us, I can tell you hundreds of stories like this, or the times they feared for me, they had a patient behavior and full of love even in unspoken words, when in the street I was attracted to bad things it always came to my mind a oral agreement unconsciously my parents and I had taken, I would have never broken that oral agreement for anything in the world., I should write a book in tribute to my parents. All my life I've wanted to work in an office near doctors, I like the atmosphere of waiting rooms, I love the humankind because my parents gave me a lot of love, I say easily I LOVE YOU I know what love is I have always received it since my birth July 21, 1969 the day Neil Amstrong put his foot on the moon planet, my parents taught me to wish well to the other person and not the contrary to teach us to not to be racist, my parents told us when you meet a black person know that you have met luck. today in my humanitarian work I everyday meet stakeholders, psychiatrists, or social workers and can even tell you mrs Miller, what you are talking about in your book is true I see it with my own eyes and I detected for a very long time, you have reassured me I felt alone in the world realizing this, stakeholders are sometimes very sick, they only think of their name at the top of the poster or to have the largest lineup to have additional money from specialized agencies they want to make patients addicted to their institution, it is too easy to play with people who have problems and manipulate them stakeholders do not want to care for them and prefer to stay in power. I have no degree and got out of school after two years of training in mechanics at 16, I got a passion for music, at 15 I was attracted by the dj mixes, I trained myself to become dj alone by myself, fortunately for me because my friends at the same time were plunging their noses into heroin, I am 39 years old I'm happy in my own skin. in my work as a facilitator of prevention I bring my knowledge that is not found in the books of Freud and Lacan, autodidact I drew from great thinkers of psychiatry, with time and thinking I created a another form of approach, gentleness, patience, empathy and listening allows me for over 20 years as a professional humanitarian, to help people in trouble, and have never known except if amnesia, any violence from the people that I meet every day. My school is the street because the school of the republic (France) I tried to forget it since the kindergarten after a spanking pants down in public, I did not do anything I was calm and respectful Fortunately I met helping witnesses throughout my life the first ones were my parents. I thank you and support you until the last breath in your fight ... fraternally MRS MILLER. alice Source http://www.alice-miller.com/courrier_fr.php?lang=fr&nid=2362&grp=1108 I hope you enjoyed this beautiful letter Lens