Bitcoin: a CryptoCurrency for a free Internet and a free society

Some info, linke and thoughts on Bitcoin: a CryptoCurrency for a free Internet and a free society: "I think Bitcoin is important. We must protect the Internet and the right to free speech, pseudonimity and anonimity online, and we need a untraceable anonymous currency. Of course I realize that Bitcoin can also be used by bad people to do bad things, but I am sure it will be mainly used by good people to do good things, and I think the benefits outweigh the dangers. All things considered, I prefer to live in a world with untraceable anonymous currency than in a world without."

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Donate Bitcoins to Pioneer One

It is good to see positive and powerful trends coming together. This morning I have written about Bitcoin, and now I just found out that Pioneer One is accepting donations in Bitcoin. I donated 6 Bitcoins so far.

Pioneer One is notable both for being funded purely through donations and for being the first TV series created for and released on BitTorrent networks. See the Pioneer One website and the Pioneer One page on VODO.net. VODO helps promote and distribute new creative works all over the world and enables those enjoying shared media to make donations to creators.

I am a big fan of Pioneer One and VODO.net. This is an alternative distribution model for creative content (film, music, literature, are, whatever) which, if we consumers support it, will end the traditional model. It works like this: creatorors produce something good, make it available as a free download, and those who like it donate something to permit creators making a living with their creative work.

Pioneer One (2 episodes so far, a third coming) has been made with a few tens of thousands of dollars instead of many tens of millions of dollars like major TV series. Of course it is not yet as good as major TV series, but I think it is solid and professional work, and the plot is interesting. If we support this and similar initiatives, the quality will become better and better and we will have plenty of legally downloadable and sharable content at a fraction of the cost. Donate something to Pioneer One now to participate in the people's media revolution.

Bitcoin: a CryptoCurrency for a free Internet

Bitcoin has been covered by the popular show Security Now on the TWiT network: Security Now 287: BitCoin CryptoCurrency.

I have posted to blip.tv an edited version of the video (the original has a CC license), with only the 45 min dedicated to Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency. Peer-to-peer (P2P) means that there is no central authority to issue new money or keep track of transactions. Instead, these tasks are managed collectively by the nodes of the network. Bitcoin has been created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto as one of the first implementations of a concept called cryptocurrency, which was first described in 1998 by Wei Dai on the cypherpunks mailing list. See also the Bitcoin page on Wikipedia.

I have been playing with Bitcoin for a couple of years and I have a few hundreds of Bitcoins (which have recently reached parity with the US dollar as reported by Slashdot). So far I have used it mainly to experiment, but recently I have purchased the first "real" service with Bitcoin. I really hope Bitcoin will be successful.

I think Bitcoin is important. We must protect the Internet and the right to free speech, pseudonimity and anonimity online, and we need a untraceable anonymous currency. Of course I realize that anonimity and cryptocurrencies can also be used by bad people to do bad things, but I think the benefits outweigh the dangers.