Friday, October 23, 2015

Bitcoin and the Block Chain in Uruguay

It has been a long time since I've posted on this blog. Much has happened, many books have been written, and the changes in our world are accelerating to a crescendo.

Catch my interview for an overview.
http://www.smashwords.com/interview/AllanWallace

As a special treat, here is a 1000 word report on bitcoin, the Block Chain, the world, and your opportunity.

"Our massively interconnected yet fiercely independent future will favour prepared (your responsibility) and adaptive (your opportunity) minds."
Allan R. Wallace



Bitcoin Uruguay

- or -

*
One Thousand Words *
in both English and Spanish,
on the benefits and potential,
of bitcoin and its Block Chain,
for Uruguay and the whole world.


By
Allan R. Wallace
Who in 2003 started a
no charge online university,
Bastiat Free University,
to enable college level learning,
for anyone, worldwide.

BFuniv
No degrees.
BFuniv had cheap readily available books,
outlines, assignments, and tests.

Thousands attended online.

By 2012 better university courses were available
and the attacks subsided.
Many big universities started offering free courses.
Bastiat Free University closed having contributed
to its purpose.

For your future, learning is more important than education.

Now something as important as the free learning
offered by BFuniv has become available.
Bitcoin is freeing finance from easily hacked central controls,
giving control of your life to you.




Copyright 2015
Allan R. Wallace
Self published

Use as you wish with non commercial purpose.
Give credit to the author.
Uruguay Block Chain
October 2015

Uruguay is optimally situated to be a center for the worldwide Financial Technology (Fintech) revolution. A further advantage is Uruguay has not yet fully declared its position on the block chain technologies that are creatively disrupting currency and commodity markets. Like those countries that were able to skip expensive telephone land lines and go directly to cellular technologies, this may be a blessing.

Uruguay has an opportunity to be a world leader in several emerging communication and finance spaces.

  • To be of value to merchants and their local and tourist customers by more deeply satisfying currency exchange needs,

  • To enable and promote borderless smart contracts,

  • And to utilize existing and new free trade zones to accommodate Fintech start up, expanding, and relocating businesses.
All of this is possible due to the block chain technology that is now changing trade and remittance while updating and disintermediating financial instrument and even real property transfers.

While big banks plan to use the block chain as a cost saving and more accurate ledger, their captive systems are still vulnerable to in-house embezzlement. A fully distributed system, with its first use being the bitcoin network, has already created a much safer system for users.

As computers proliferated developers created software that was easier to use. So too are creative entrepreneurs working to make bitcoin enabled finance easily accessible to all -- worldwide.


Regulation does need to be applied to any company holding customer bitcoins or the encryption keys for their customer's accounts. Know Your Customer (KYC) rules will have to be applied to conversion of large amounts of bitcoin to national currencies.

Here is the the opportunity for Uruguay. While in most instances bitcoin is a currency secured by a permanent ledger backed by mathematics and a distributed proof system; bitcoin has also been ruled by major USA agencies as property (IRS) or a commodity (CFTC).

For Uruguay, with a national banking and cambio system already prepared for KYC requirements, exchange between bitcoin and dollars, Uruguay pesos, Argentine pesos, Brazilian real, Euros, etc, should be a rather simple addition. In Uruguay free trade zones, bitcoin could be treated as a commodity, thereby simplifying the needs of start-up and expanding companies in the Fintech space.

This year such bitcoin/block-chain start ups are expected to receive a billion USA dollars in Venture Capitalist (VC) funding. Large organizations like Bank Of America and Bank Of England are developing in house teams to oversee their block chain implementation efforts.

Impediments are showing up in some areas, ie: New York State is applying onerous regulations that have promising companies leaving to find new homes. Most states and countries are welcoming or at least not fighting a losing battle against the future.

Employment for technologists in the block chain sector is expanding quickly.

An additional benefit to Uruguay is that people trapped in countries with troubled currencies can use bitcoin to receive remittances from family members without huge fees, and can securely record bitcoins on the block chain to retrieve the bitcoins or their value later from within forward looking countries.

In both Argentina and Brazil, bitcoin is a growing means of exchange and savings. In Greece and Cypress bitcoin is becoming popular as the banking system has become exploitive of the average citizen and poor. This usage of bitcoin as a store of value will increase, as trust in block chain math rather than often hacked third parties with mass central data storage, will expand as the technology continues to prove itself and early-days volatility continues to diminish.

The use of bitcoin in restaurants and at merchants world wide is expanding. One quality and secure 'bitcoin wallet,' by Airbitz (http://airbitz.co), includes a useful directory showing local establishments already accepting bitcoin -- alas, none yet (October 2015) in Uruguay. There are those who travel the world using only bitcoin accessed on their mobile phones as currency. Some corporations pay expatriated employees with bitcoin to avoid delays with attendant exchange risks. If an individual or company has or receives bitcoin in Uruguay, and it is easy to spend or exchange, that should also help our economy.

To receive money transfers in minutes rather than days or weeks, for pennies rather than U$S, and with no chance of hacker or law-fare interruptions is a great benefit. Bitcoin will become the new standard.

When internal combustion engines and electricity first started to displace steam, the existing steam engines were more powerful and dependable. Change came slowly at first, then all at once.

We don't need better steam engines in finance, we need a new monetary power source. The block chain offers that next engine technology.

Change is now happening in what we consider money. The mono-polar international dependency on the unbacked USA Dollar is breaking apart. Other countries are already developing parallel or interdependent relationships for trade and exchange. Better steam engines so to speak. The U$S retains power and dependability. That will change slowly at first, then all at once.

Uruguay can once again position itself as a world leader in freedom implementation, to the benefit of our country and people. We can empower a developing technology. We can support embryonic change that will benefit all peoples.

Bitcoin is a Bretton Woods Agreement style financial realignment made by distributed, open source technologies.

As tokens of value displaced barter, then paper receipts displaced physical gold, and eventually national digital currencies displaced commodity backed monies, so too will bitcoin displace the current, incoherent, international monetary system. Changes happen in the modern monetary system two or three times a century, this one is overdue.

I am willing to sit down and discuss this opportunity.

As I am a business generalist, specific questions may best be answered by computer programmers, IT security specialists,,or authors like Andreas M. Antonopoulos who has experience in both these fields.

Bitcoin is monies first anti-fragile implementation.

Allan R. Wallace
http://cyberhug.me

Canadian Senate learns about bitcoin (video):

A precis on the Bretton Woods Agreement:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system
Bitcoin Uruguay
O
*Mil Palabras*
en español y en inglés,
sobre los beneficios y el potencial
de Bitcoin y su Cadena de Bloques
para Uruguay y el resto del mundo
por Allan R.Wallace
quien iniciara la universidad gratuita online en 2003,
Bastiat Free University,
para hacer posible un aprendizaje universitario parejo
para todos, alrededor del mundo.

BFuniv
Sin grados
BF tenía libros de precio reducido y fácil acceso,
pautas, tareas y pruebas.
Miles asistieron a clase online

Para 2012 hubo mejores cursos universitarios disponibles
y los ataques de las universidades establecidas disminuyeron.
Muchas universidades importantes comenzaron a ofrecer cursos gratuitos.
La universidad Bastiat cerró luego de contribuir a su propósito.

Para su futuro, el aprendizaje es más importante que la educación.

Ahora, algo tan importante como el aprendizaje gratuito está disponible
La liberación de la financiación de los controles centrales fácilmente pirateados,
le ha dado control de su vida financiera.

15 de Octubre, 2015.
Cadena de bloques en Uruguay

Uruguay está óptimamente situado para ser el centro de la revolución mundial de la Tecnología Financiera (Fintech). Además, otra ventaja es que Uruguay aun no ha declarado completamente su posición en relación a la tecnología en la cadena de bloques que está afectando creativamente el mercado de valores y commodities. Al igual que aquellos países que pudieron saltearse las líneas de teléfono caras e ir directamente a la tecnología celular, esto puede ser un beneficio.

Uruguay tiene una oportunidad de ser líder mundial en varios espacios emergentes de comunicación y finanzas:

  • Para ser valioso para comerciantes y sus clientes locales así como extranjeros, satisfaciendo las necesidades de cambio de moneda más profundamente,

  • Para permitir y promover “contratos inteligentes” (smart contracts) sin fronteras,

  • Y para utilizar zonas francas existentes y a crearse, para acomodar el lanzamiento de Fintech, expandiendo y reubicando emprendimientos.
Todo esto es posible debido a la tecnología de la cadena de bloques que está cambiando la actividad comercial y los envíos de dinero, al renovar el instrumento financiero sin intermediarios y hasta verdaderas transferencias de propiedades.

Mientras que los bancos importantes planean usar la cadena de bloques como medio de ahorro y un libro de contabilidad más exacto, sus sistemas cautivos aun son vulnerables a la malversación interna. Un sistema distribuido ampliamente, con su primer uso como red de bitcoin, ya ha creado un sistema mucho más seguro para los usuarios.


A medida que las computadoras proliferaron, los desarrolladores crearon un software de más fácil uso, de esa manera también los emprendedores creativos están trabajando para hacer bitcoin accesible para todos,--en el mundo.

Es necesario que se aplique regulación a toda compañía que tenga bitcoins de clientes o las claves de cifrado para las cuentas de sus clientes. Las reglas de “conozca a su cliente” (KYC) deberán ser aplicadas para la conversión de grandes cantidades de bitcoin a la moneda local.

Y aquí está la oportunidad para Uruguay. Mientras que en la mayoría de los casos bitcoin es una moneda garantizada por un libro de contabilidad permanente respaldado por las matemáticas y un sistema de prueba distribuida; bitcoin también ha sido regida por las más importantes agencias de EEUU como propiedad (IRS) o como commodity (CFTC).

Para Uruguay, con una banca nacional y un sistema cambiario ya pronto, según los requisitos de KYC, el cambio de bitcoins a dólares americanos, pesos uruguayos, pesos argentinos, al Real Brasileño, Euros, etc, debería ser una adición bastante simple. En las zonas francas de Uruguay bitcoin podría tratarse como commodity y así simplificar las necesidades de los nuevos emprendimientos y compañías en expansión en el espacio Fintech. Este año se espera que los nuevos emprendimientos de bitcoin/cadena de bloques reciban mil millones de dólares americanos en fondos de capital de riesgo (VC). Las grandes organizaciones como el Bank Of America y Bank Of England están desarrollando equipos internos para supervisar sus esfuerzos.

Mientras que surgen algunos impedimentos en algunas áreas tales como el estado de New York, donde se aplican onerosas regulaciones que llevan a compañías prometedoras a buscar nueva ubicación, otros estados y países están dando la bienvenida o por lo menos no están luchando una batalla perdida contra el futuro.

El empleo para los tecnólogos en el sector de la cadena de bloques se está expandiendo rápidamente.

Un beneficio adicional para Uruguay es que aquellas personas atrapadas en países con monedas problemáticas pueden usar bitcoin para recibir envíos de dinero de familiares sin pagar altos costos, y pueden registrar bitcoins en la cadena de bloques para recuperar los bitcoins o su valor, de países progresistas.

Tanto en Argentina como en Brasil, bitcoin es un medio creciente de cambio y ahorros. En Grecia y Chipre bitcoin se está haciendo popular en momentos en que el sistema bancario se ha convertido en explotador del ciudadano medio y pobre. Este uso de bitcoin como almacenamiento de valor se incrementará ya que la confianza en las matemáticas de la cadena de bloques en lugar de grupos terceros frecuentemente pirateados con almacenamiento de información central de las masas, se expandirá al tiempo que la tecnología continúa demostrando su valía y la volatilidad de los comienzos continúa disipándose.

El uso de bitcoin en restaurantes y por comerciantes en todo el mundo está en expansión. “Una billetera bitcoin de calidad”, (One quality 'bitcoin wallet,' by Airbitz (http://airbitz.co)), incluye una práctica guía que muestra estableci- mientos locales que ya aceptan bitcoin – ay!, ninguno en Uruguay aun (Octubre, 2015). Están aquellos que viajan por el mundo usando solamente bitcoin como divisa, con acceso en sus teléfonos celulares. Algunas corpora- ciones pagan a sus empleados expatriados con bitcoin para evitar demoras con los riesgos de cambio concomitantes. Si un particular o una compañía tiene o recibe bitcoin en Uruguay, y este es fácil de gastar o intercambiar, ello ayudaría a nuestra economía.

Para recibir transferencias de dinero en minutos, en lugar de días o semanas, pagando centésimos en lugar de U$S, y sin peligro de piratería o interrupcio- nes por tarifas legales. Este es un gran beneficio. Bitcoin se convertirá en el nuevo estándar.

Cuando los motores de combustión interna y la electricidad comenzaron a sustituir al vapor, los motores a vapor existentes eran más poderosos y dependientes. El cambio se produjo lentamente al principio, luego todo junto.

No necesitamos mejores motores en finanzas, necesitamos una nueva fuente de poder monetaria. La cadena de bloques ofrece esa nueva tecnología de motores.

El cambio se está produciendo en estos momentos, en lo que consideramos dinero. La dependencia unipolar internacional del dólar americano sin respaldo se está haciendo trizas. Otros países ya están desarrollando relaciones paralelas o interdependientes para los negocios y cambio de dinero. Mejores motores de vapor, por decirlo de alguna manera. El dólar americano mantiene poder y confianza. Eso cambiará lentamente al comien- zo, luego abruptamente.

Uruguay puede una vez más posicionarse como líder mundial en la imple- mentación de libertad, para el beneficio de nuestro país y nuestra gente. Podemos conferirle poder a una tecnología en desarrollo. Podemos apoyar un cambio embrionario que beneficiará a todos.

Bitcoin es una reordenación financiera al estilo del Acuerdo de Bretton Woods, hecha por tecnología de fuentes abiertas distribuidas.

De la misma manera en que muestras de valor reemplazaron el trueque, luego el papel reemplazó al oro, y finalmente las concurrencias digitales nacionales reemplazaron al dinero respaldado por commodities, bitcoin reemplazará al actual sistema monetario internacional incoherente. Los cambios en el siste- ma monetario tienen lugar dos o tres veces en un siglo, éste está retrasado.

Estoy deseoso de sentarme a discutir esta oportunidad.

Debido a que soy un generalista en negocios, las preguntas específicas pueden ser mejor respondidas por programadores de computadoras, especialistas en seguridad de TI o autores tales como Andreas M. Antonopoulos, quien tiene experiencia en ambos campos.

Bitcoin es la primera implementación indestructible de dinero.


Allan R. Wallace

El senado canadiense se informa acerca de bitcoin (video):

Un resumen sobre el Acuerdo Bretton Woods:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Government Finance Change



"Away with the whims of governmental administrators, their socialized projects, their centralization, their tariffs, their government schools, their state religions, their free credit, their bank monopolies, their regulations, their restrictions, their equalization by taxation, and their pious moralizations!

And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works."


Claude Frédéric Bastiat 1801-1850



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Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Twilight Zone Economics; four indicators of collapse

If what you read in the press seems surreal, if each item reported is isolated from each other item like trees considered separately from their forest, if chicken heads are commenting on television while their bodies run around in thoughtless panic ...

You have entered the
Economic Twilight Zone.

  • Twilight calls to mind:
  1. the end of visibility
  2. Vampire Regulations
  3. emerging phantasmagoria
  4. a one way trip
There is other twilight imagery that could be called up, but the primary issue is the last. It has been pointed out that governments have sucked so much blood from their citizens that it will take generations to rebuild a healthy victim stock. This is an error.

The parasites have killed their victims, there will be no third or fourth generation to bleed. All that remains is for the nation states to not waken after this sickly nightmare reaches its conclusion.

Is there a solution? Or at least a dim candle we can light against the encroaching phantoms playing at the edge of our vision? The funky music has started, the first commercials are selling the pleasures of whistling while walking past the tombstones of failed governments. The show is about to start -- your life is a twilight zone script.

There is the start of a solution; we can rethink our thinking. We can probably not stop politicians from destroying the world. We can however write a sequel by planning what sort of world we will rebuild once this long night of destruction has passed. There is a better world management system than
our current win-kill philosophy will allow.

For survivors: Interactions in our social world are related. It is not a single oil spill, a dozen or two individual wars, separate tragedies and triumphs by the score -- our world is one interrelated system. Our social perception systems are obsolete.

Twilight Zone Economics has us camped exposed at the edge of a forest of protection, dismayed by the shadows cast by individual trees. We can enter the forest, and discover the trees are ourselves. It is we as individuals striving in competition for the sun that may allow economic ecosystem survival or re-creation.

Passing beyond Twilight Zone Economics.


How 'bouts a fictional hacker escape?

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Friday, March 05, 2010

DRM busted again - Bad Investments (click this title for DRM free works)

Boing Boing gave space to the debate on digital copyright. There is logic, emotion, idiocy, and infantile weeping - and that describes the folks that bothered putting expensive and always ineffectiveDRM controls on the buyers of products they sell.

Boing Boing also printed the code used to break the unstoppable DRM by Ubisoft. AC2, Assassin's creed 2, is now a free willy. Normal buyers rights have been restored to purchasers that know how to insert the code.

Copyright on digital media never works - never.

Yet companies spend millions, and waste developers that could create products to please customers, on trying to frustrate customers. Sometimes the Million dollar DRM protections take minutes to break -- this unbreakable DRM took less than a day. And they will do it again - how do you explain such idiotic investments to your stockholders? "We want to teach the nameless hoards a lesson."

And you call yourself business people? Or worse you call yourself gamers and create a game you can't win? Save money - invent and play Tic-Tac-Toe.

"Strange Game Professor. The only way to win is to not play." about nuclear war, from the movie War Games

imagine book publishers (they are working on their own ways to go out of business) trying to:

get all libraries closed

create books that self destruct unless they read your fingerprint.

file punitive law suits if you let a friend read part of *your* book

Throw you in jail if you sell or buy a used book.

And waisting millions inventing new chastity belts for lock smith's girlfriends. Locks that use antique skeleton keys.

The best part of the comment debate on Digital Rights Management comes from Cory Doctorow. For those of you unfamiliar with Doctorow, he is a best selling author, and also publishes all of his books online in many downloadable formats. Very good books. Free Downloads. And he still sells many traditionally published and marketed copies.

Cory gets it - and he's quoted it somewhere. The vast majority of book readers know only a few authors, and buy few books. An author's enemy is not the copy machine, or lending libraries, or friends passing books to friends. An author's enemy is obscurity.

Here is Cory's comment answering a prior childish comment rant:

First of all, the reason people stop at stop signs has nothing to do with the law. That's just a dumb thing to say. 99% of the time, people could *not* stop at stop-signs and not get arrested. The reason people stop at stop signs is that stopping at stop signs is a reasonable social contract.

As to being nice to old people: if you believe that the reason people are nice to old people is that the law compels them to:

a) You are making reference to a nonexistent law

b) You are possibly a sociopath

The reason people are nice to old people is that people are generally nice to one another.

DRM has no connection with preventing piracy. Pirates download the DRM-cracked versions. DRM on music is there to reduce the rights that you get in copyright -- the right to play your music on a competitor's device, the right to sell or give away your music, and so on. These rights are enshrined in law, but DRM is a loophole to copyright law, since breaking DRM is prohibited even for people who are making otherwise lawful uses.

The reason people break DRM is that is makes unreasonable, unilateral incursions on your property rights: your right to lawfully enjoy the products you purchase, in lawful ways. The reason I celebrate breaks to DRM is that they show:

1. That the technical hypothesis that DRM will prevent piracy is ridiculous

2. That the public has the capacity to reassert its rights under law and practice and restore the reasonable social contract between creators and audiences.

You tell 'em Cory!

If you are thinking, "I'll bet you wouldn't say that if it was your art, art you had created, others were using without permission."

Read
Hackers End Game - Complicit Simplicity. That's my book, a hacker's novel, all free, all online. Use it, copy it, send it to your friends. There are at least three prequels, and a dozen or two stories of minor characters you can use, or make movies, paintings, or games from Complicit Simplicity. Make it yours.


I would like a shout out if you like it, but it's your choice. I've even put the back story, Complicity Universe online. Dig in, play, create, craft. explore.

I can see a value in patents for inventors, give them a year or so to profit from their invention before others make a profit improving it. If other's can't improve it, they have a Kleenex - a first mover advantage that will run for years.

But copyright?

Over 50 years ago Walt Disney drew a mouse. Walt's dead. The bloated and arrogant company that now manages the mouse is still making hundreds of millions from his creation. And effectively suing nurseries that have the audacity to paint cartoon characters on their walls. There's an idea. Proclaim you are the company the owns cave wall drawings and you want credit for every drawing since.

That's copyright. Oh you might have to add an extra line to the original Buffalo's tail every 50 years. But all drawings now belong to you - Pay up Picasso.

Now I'm starting to rant. Back on point - DRM as a concept shows its flaws in the mirror of reality. DRM as a business proposition should get all senior management fired.

For obsessively nursing the equivalent of:

"I'll show that English teacher, I'll missspeel a werd."

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Thursday, March 04, 2010

Don't Trust People That Wear Ties

The general rule is to not trust people who feel a need to wear ties, or white lab coats, or designer dresses to impress or fit in. This advice works on many levels.

If you trust someone because they are dressed up, or drive a BMW, it is easy to be fooled by con men. Putting on a tie and a suit is an easy way to fool fools. Some folks wearing ties may have integrity, but why take the chance. Talking heads selling financial advice wear ties - 'nuff said.

Ties are uncomfortable. If your performance and value are high enough you will be sought out even if all you wear is a toga or a kilt. A tie identifies you the same way a uniform with a name tag identifies you -- as part of the homogeneous heap of humble humanity. Wear a tie to show herd think rather than real thought, it's a symbol of the success of your coercive schooling.

Ties are required by bosses. If someone bends to the will of another so easily, they will bend in other ways too. That tie shows they are not after your best interests, but their own; by pleasing a third person -- not you.

Ties help people fit in with other tie wearers. If fitting in is so valuable to them, their advice and help will not vary from the crowd they hang with. Save time and frustration, read a magazine article and find what the crowd thinks. There is no need to seek advice from those with executive hair and business like pant suits - they all share common words and outlooks.

Every year tie wearing economists guess where the economy will be at the end of the year. Almost every year the economists guess wrong, and they are closer to each other's guess than to the real outcome. Don't consult one, read an economic summation, then ignore it. Observe life's ebb and flow, and think.

A red power tie does not show power, it shows weakness trying to camouflage itself. People that spent high school trying to impress the in-crowd now wear ties. The guys that wore pocket protectors in high school still wear them, and own their own companies. If a $5,000.00 suit and a $200.00 tie make you feel like you can conquer the world - you have deep insecurity issues.

Door to door salesmen know a No Solicitors sign means the occupants have no sales resistance. A person wearing a tie to show their power, has none. Politicians wear ties, to hide their corruption. That tie shows they are not after your best interests, but their own; by pleasing party bosses and special interests -- not you.

Leave the herd. Just like Native Americans used to stampeded entire buffalo herds over cliffs to gather a few pelts and some meat, so tie wearing politicians are stampeding their nations. It's better to be an elk wandering free in the mountains. You were trained to be part of the herd, but you don't have to follow the cow with the bell or the suit wearing a tie.

Lack of a tie is no guarantee of integrity, but the presence of a tie or equivalent displays mixed alliances.

You can be human. You can be an individual.

"Civilization's development has always been initiated by individuals balancing demands within their intimate groups against personal needs for independence and identity. Social engineers and planners always err at this point. What they endeavor is to convert humankind from small, intimate, flexible tribes to a collective with one mind (their mind of course).

They want to make all the complex human herds and packs of individuals into a single hive of drones. They have always failed, they will always fail; for outstanding individuals will continue to emerge - imagining and accomplishing exceptional goals - changing everything."
- Allan R. Wallace

I guess it might be okay to wear a tie to a funeral as a token of respect. But if you respect yourself, don't wear a tie while you yet live.

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