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Fouad Jeryes - Bitcoiner - The Digital Currency Revolution.
Warning! : 1-Revolutions take place around the world in multiple aspects of life. They
may be Cultural, Political or even technical. The choice is always ours either to participate
in these revolutions or simply be bi-standing observers.
2- the opportunity that I'll be addressing today is still very, very, very risky, but
it may be the largest opportunity we've seen since the dawn of the internet.
Let me tell you a story, after work one day I walked into our home living room and found
my father watching the news as usual, but I did not expect to to hear him say...
"FOUAD! Are you involved in this damn Butt-coin stuff?!"
Well...In reality I look a lot like my dad, but he looks nothing like this! Dad, it's
called "Bitcoin", not "Butt-Coin"! It's a digital currency, just like the Yen, Euro,
Dollar or Dinar. It has an exchange rate and at this moment it's worth about $650 per bitcoin.
It's divisible like a normal currency and so forth. The digital part means that it is
similar to email. Any two parties around the world can exchange bitcoins without any third
party to interfere with the transaction, such as a bank or exchange service. It happens
quickly and at a negligible fee. It is also cryptographic, which means that every bitcoin
has an encryption that prevents it from being counterfeit in any way. There will only be
21 million bitcoins in circulation as well, they are expected to become available in the
market by year 2140. Finally, it is open-source. This means that it is de-centralized in its
nature and anyone can contribute to developing, evolving, or growing the network and technology.
That's why this might be one of the most disruptive opportunities today. - So, Dad, What do you
think? "You confused the hell out of me! OK, so maybe
you look like me, but you're a smart aleck just like your mother - Simplify things a
little bit more for us!" Hey! First off, don't talk about my mother
that way, secondly, let me try to show you how bitcoin is applied in Europe, the US and
how it could be applied over here. Let's say that I want to got to a cafe on
Rainbow St. I always have trouble parking on that street, so I use the valet service,
but the bigger problem I always face is finding change on me to pay for valet services. I
would have pre-filled my electronic wallet with bitcoins and just walk into the cafe.
Now, my keychain has an NFC chip attached to it, all the valet guy has to do is bring
my keychain close to his mobile phone, and I immediately get notified by an alert on
my mobile phone. The alert prompts me to pay 0.0019 (1 Jordanian Dinar) to Mohammad Al-Helou
for valet services at Hello Cafe. I confirm the payment and bitcoins are transferred from
my electronic wallet to his. Now, i walk over to a table to order something
to drink. I open up the cafe's application and review the menu. I see that they have
a great looking milkshake that i'd like to order. I place the order through the app,
identify the table that I'm sitting at, which is #14 in this case, and I confirm the payment
and the transfer begins immediately. Then just like magic, without having to talk to
anyone, the milkshake arrives at my table. Now, when I'm done, there's no need to do
anything more. No need to pay a bill, split it or anything. The process is complete.
As I'm leaving the cafe, I notice a small ad for the King Hussein Cancer Foundation.
I'm feeling charitable and decide that I'd like to donate some money to the foundation.
All I would have to do is scan their wallet's address in the QR code on the add, assign
an amount that I would like to donate and the transfer is done. Without fees and quickly.
After walking out and waiting for my car to arrive, I get a call from my brother in the
states. I really miss that guy! Faris, hello! How are you? - "Hey man listen, I'm a college
student and I'm a little short on cash, can you help me out?" - Whatever happened to "hey
Fouad, how's life?"- "Just send them in Bitcoin" - Alright, so how much d you need? - "I need
about a $100" - Alright, I need to take care of my younger brother.
I open the bitcoin wallet app, assign $100 value in bitcoin and send it to his wallet
address where he can exchange it or keep them in bitcoin.
So, how do you like that dad? - "Wow! All this exists today?! But where did this currency
come from? Who started it? Who gives it value? Who runs it? There is no central management!"
These are the big questions on everyone's mind...Where did the value of bitcoin come
from? When you have two parties who want to engage in an exchange, there is something
called a "barter" agreement. So, if i have 5 chickens and wanted to exchange them for
a goat, as long as both parties agree that the value of good that they're exchanging
are equal, a successful transaction can take place. The same applies with fiat currencies
and bitcoin as well. Where did Bitcoin come from? The person or
group or party that started Bitcoin is anonymous. This fortifies the decentralization of the
Bitcoin economy. If we could identify the creator of this innovation, it would be very
easy for authorities to stop it from growing. The alias of the creator is "Satoshi Nakamoto",
he is the person that started mining the bitcoin currency, which is the process of producing
bitcoins. Just like a gold miner who spends a lot of effort extracting gold from a gold
mine and is given a salary or reward for his work, Bitcoin miners have computers with very
high processing capabilities working around the clock to process complex mathematical
equations to process bitcoin transactions on the network and are given a bitcoin reward
for their work. So, Have I convinced you yet dad?
"I think you're full of it man! I just saw a report on bitcoin a few minutes ago and
all of your numbers are wrong! Here, take a look!"
Alright, i actually saw that report dad, it was on a very popular Arabic TV channel that
states that every bitcoin was now worth $14,000 and that either 19 million units or 21 Billion
units of bitcoin were going to be issued in 2025. They also said that the market capitalization
of bitcoin was $19 Billion, whereas it is only between $8-9 Billion only.
Sadly it seems as though the "information revolution" hasn't arrived to the Arab world
just yet. There is a site called Blockchain.info today that has real time statistics, accounting
and accurate data around the bitcoin economy. It's absolutely transparent and open. Unlike
older times when news reports used to put out bogus information and have people believe
whatever they say, the power of the internet gives us the ability to get accurate data
at anytime. Especially with Bitcoin. -See how the world is changing dad!
"This is definitely worth exploring further my son!"
-Well, I'm happy to hear that dad, but let's take a look at this map here. This shows all
the bitcoin merchants and transactions around the world. Do you notice the empty piece of
land in the middle of it all? Yeah, that's us! Unfortunately, it seems that we know something
that the rest of the world doesn't here. My friends, we are asleep! Sadly this isn't the
first time either... the industrial revolution came and went, and we woke up as consumers
at the end of the century. It had an effect on our lives, economies, and even political
situation. Till when will we sleep? The internet and bitcoin has given us an opportunity to
catch up with the rest of the world. The best time to plant a tree was probably 50 years
ago, but the second best time to plant a tree is TODAY. We cannot allow ourselves to miss
out on these opportunities again. We must be risk takers. In Jordan we say that we lack
natural resources, and pride ourselves on human capital, but what are we to do when
compared to India or China? We can only differentiate by being adventurous, aggressive and take
risks. Open our minds to new ideas and adopt them.
Like when I warned you in the beginning of the talk, this just might be the opportunity
for us to be a part of the coming revolution. Thank You.