Crypto Crypto Crypto

This is the first part of a more technical talk where Andreas explores Bitcoin script, with examples from the 2nd edition of Mastering Bitcoin, focusing on the use of conditional statements, flow control, guard clauses and time locks. The examples will include advanced multi-signature scripts, hash time lock contracts and asymmetric revocable commitments. Then he answers questions about Bitcoin's quirky bugs, where Bitcoin differs from Ethereum at a scripting level, how SegWit works, how consensus rules change, and whether Bitcoin is more than just a currency. https://27bbdcj7ucmqdy9aztwsrzkkfi.hop.clickbank.net/

Can cryptocurrencies be used to support terrorist groups? First we'd have to displace their most important funding mechanisms, which are the US dollar and oil (some of which our governments gave to them directly). We live in a world where criminals use technology (money, telephones, shoes), but we don't ban those technologies just because criminals use them. Most of humanity will use them for food, sanitation, healthcare etc. It is a fake promise that we're going to stop terrorism by controlling everyone's money, because all it does is exclude billions of people from the global financial system. https://27bbdcj7ucmqdy9aztwsrzkkfi.hop.clickbank.net/

How should I prevent myself from being tempted to spend or sell my bitcion savings? Should I store my keys in a place that is far away or difficult to access? Should I give them to a trusted relative for safe-keeping? Should I use timelocks? Are there any good alternatives? https://27bbdcj7ucmqdy9aztwsrzkkfi.hop.clickbank.net/

Will traditional cybersecurity companies get involved in cryptocurrencies? Why should we transition to non-custodial models of security? Why is Bitcoin the Black Swan for a surveillance laden web?https://27bbdcj7ucmqdy9aztwsrzkkfi.hop.clickbank.net/

Many in the crypto community appreciate Bitcoin because it can not be inflated. However, in tough times governments use money as a tool to stimulate recovery. How would economic stimulus work in a hard money economy? How well does financial stimulus work now and what would be the crisis relief options in a hard money economy? https://27bbdcj7ucmqdy9aztwsrzkkfi.hop.clickbank.net/

Are smart contracts legally binding? How can tokens represent ownership of external assets? Are those transfers of titles recognised? Where are ether transactions stored when contract code is executed? How are state transitions validated? Will smart contracts work to the extent that people envision? Should we combine smart contracts with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), or is all of this tech still too immature? https://27bbdcj7ucmqdy9aztwsrzkkfi.hop.clickbank.net/

Is Bitcoin anonymous if exchanges and some wallets require identities? Should we assume that our identity information will be leaked if we use KYC-ed wallets? Besides buying, what is a reliable way to acquire bitcoin? How can I set up a wallet without providing identity? Do you still recommend using CoinJoins? Could they become illegal?

How do you determine the value of a salary in bitcoin? Does bitcoin work better as a medium of exchange or unit of account? Is bitcoin a reserve currency for other cryptocurrencies, as gold was for fiat?

How is Bitcoin software securely developed and delivered? What is Gitian? What happens if your client software is compromised and how is this prevented? How is consensus reached on new upgrades? What are the different consensus groups? How are developers compensated for their work? Are there other compatible Bitcoin clients available besides the Bitcoin Core reference client?

What are your thoughts on wealth distribution / concentration in Bitcoin? Addresses are not people! The majority of addresses are used anonymously / pseudo-anonymously, so clustering is very difficult. Exchanges or payment processors may be holding the funds of hundreds of thousands of people in only a few addresses; at the same time, a single person could be controlling thousands of addresses with very small amounts, or a single address may be a multi-sig that is controlled by more than one person.

Bitcoin Q&A: Facebook's Libra Blockchain Why is Facebook's Libra Blockchain neither a true cryptocurrency nor a threat to Bitcoin? What requirements and restrictions will GlobalCoin users have? Who will they compete against?

What cryptography *magic* makes mnemonic seed words work? How is randomness generated? Can seed words be imported into more than one wallet?

How many miners and/or pools are there? Can the distribution of miners be determined? Would mining pools be incentivised to merge? Is miner collusion through 51% attacks a present threat? Could they double-spend their coins? How are they impacted by replace-by-fee (RBF)?

How are hashes and transactions determined to be "valid" in Bitcoin? How are nodes determined to be "honest"? How much of this process is automated? Consensus is an agreement on what "valid" is.

Can we hope for backwards privacy on Bitcoin? Should privacy features be enabled by default? Why were Taproot, Graftroot, and Schnorr signatures combined as proposals? How do KYC exchanges ruin privacy and anonymity? Is it better to earn instead of buy?

Do passphrases protect against leaks or compromises of mnemonic seed words? Why are brain wallets usually insecure? Why should you not "roll your own crypto" and promote creative schemes that deviate from the standards (like BIP39), without at least getting peer review and testing from other developers, cryptographers, or security researchers?

I am confused by terminology in Bitcoin. Please explain the following terms: private / public keys, hash functions, elliptic curve, addresses, and signatures. How can you create an address offline? How does the Bitcoin network "find out" about the address?

What are the economics of mining pools? How much profit do they make? Is it possible that certain wallets are collaborating with mining pools to propagate there first?

What are SegWig Bech32 addresses? Do transactions using this address type have lower fees? Why do they have lower fees?

That DEX you're using, is it really a DEX (decentralized exchange)? Or is it more of a CEX (centralized exchange)? How decentralized are DEXs? Well, which part of it is decentralized? Does it enable peer-to-peer exchange? Is a business running it? Does it require KYC/AML? In this video Andreas discusses what a DEX actually is and reviews 5 criteria you can use to figure out how decentralized the exchange is that you're looking at.

peer to peer money in a historical context

What is the CVE-2018-17144 vulnerability in the Bitcoin Core client? How did such a critical bug happen? What should we do about it?

How do fees work when opening and closing Lightning channels, or when making payments? Can payments on the Lightning Network be censored by nodes?

For the non-technical, what is the Lightning Network? How does it function? In this video Andreas walks through what's happening on the Lightning Network, all in a non-technical fashion. From funding transactions, to channels, routing, fees, security and trustlessness, this clip will give you a good overview of what's happening!

When is the optimal time to "come out" as a bitcoin user? How do you operate a cryptocurrency or multi-currency business? What if the price of bitcoin "falls to zero"? When will bitcoin be ready as a day-to-day currency, rather than as a speculative investment? Why is earning bitcoin, instead of buying, better from an economic and privacy perspective?