If you're wondering about Bitcoin

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Bitcoin_logo.svg/1024px-Bitcoin_logo.svg.png

I've written quite a number of articles about the potential of digital currency, most of them for CoinDesk, but also for CFO. EETimes, and  EBN.

Find out why alpacas became an official mascot for Bitcoin and how the the “Casascius” got its name. You can even learn about the history of currency in real life and why metal and paper currency isn't practical on the final frontier.

The URL,which was first put up very long form was changed on my article. Here's the new one: http://ww2.cfo.com/it-value/2013/09/is-digital-currency-catching-on/http://

I took this picture at the Bitcoin Conference

on/ … #bitcoin #Ripple #CFO

Bitcoin: the stereotype, reality, and possibilities

Bitcoin wants to emerge from its somewhat shady reputation as a currency for folks with something to hide and become a useful tool for legitimate business. Some say it can even do more -- like alleviate poverty and disease in Third World countries. Read more in 

Bitcoin: A Stereotype & a Possibility

Don't leave earth without it

Whether it will be in just a matter of years or of decades, the possibility of regular people taking trips into space the same way they travel to the far reaches of the globe could become a reality within our lifetime. The question is: when you set off for such a trip, what do you pack along for money?
While previous generations may have packed travelers’ cheques, such paper relics just don’t seem to fit in with the space age. The only feasible solution to the problem of payments in, to, and from space, is a digital one. PayPal believes it will handle that problem with its introduction of PayPal Galactic.  But that answer raises a number of other questions. Read more here

Related post: http://writewaypro.blogspot.com/2013/05/star-trek-and-final-frontier-of-currency.html

How I ended up writing about alpacas is explained here

It's due to the connection made between them and Bitcoin.

So how did this less-than-obvious pairing begin? The Grass Hill Alpacas farm in Haydenville, Massachusetts is owned by Jim and Nancy Forster. It was their son, David Forster, who convinced them to accept bitcoins. Forster, who calls himself a “self-taught economist,” claims the distinction of being the first merchant to sell a product for bitcoins. 
Read more in 

Alpacas: the unofficial mascot of bitcoin?

Star Trek and the final frontier of currency

Yes, I did get paid to write about Star Trek, at least in terms of envisioning money in the future in works of science fiction. I also mention Star Wars and The Handmaid's Tale.

 Part of the geek appeal for Bitcoin users is that it is a real-life example of a concept often featured in science fiction or sci-fi-oriented computer games: an advanced, universally accepted form of currency.

Universally accepted forms of payments become essential in a society in which space travel enables humans – and other sentient beings – to hop from planet to planet inhabited by civilizations of all kinds. Read more in Is Bitcoin science fiction come to life?

Living the libertarian dream on the sea?

The #libertarian  connection of seasteaders and #bitcoin
Bitcoin represents more than a digital currency. For many adopters, it is a means of breaking free of government and financial institutions’ control over money.

The Seasteading Institute’s philosophy dovetails with the views Thiel espoused in an April 2009 essay for the Cato Institute, “The Education of a Liberatarian.” In that piece, he declares that libertarians must get beyond restrictive government systems by finding a place of their own:

“The critical question then becomes one of means, of how to escape not via politics but beyond it. Because there are no truly free places left in our world, I suspect that the mode for escape must involve some sort of new and hitherto untried process that leads us to some undiscovered country; and for this reason I have focused my efforts on new technologies that may create a new space for freedom.”

 Read more in Why do 'Seasteaders' Love Bitcoin?