Tonight on sixteen by nine bitcoins are transferred directly from person to
person via the net without going through a bank or clearinghouse the Bitcoin
revolution this is going to change the world a brand new currency with no government
control no president no king in this world can stop a Bitcoin transaction and
then not criminally responsible it's like being caught in a tide or in the
ocean you know you're you're in something that's bigger and stronger
than you are controversy in the justice system a killer is a killer is a killer mentally
ill or not and families caught in the middle then taking a free ride from my
earliest memories I remember I've always been fascinated freight trains
I've been feeling that before this train leaves someone's gonna come and kick me
out here's Carolyn Jarvis good evening and welcome to sixteen by nine as the
dollar in the Euro continued their slow path to recovery
some people are trading in their money for a currency that is already booming
it's called Bitcoin and it's the currency of the
internet invented five years ago by an anonymous programmer Bitcoin has no
government tied to it no delay when sending money and few if any transaction
fees and while many people still may not consider Bitcoin real money it's making
some people really rich it has been the scene of many uprisings
Berlin a city both elegant and defiant at its heart lies a neighborhood called
Kreutz burg the most radical of all it's a kind of revolutionary area people here
are looking for alternatives to existing systems it is here from behind his bar
that York Platzer leads a modern-day rebellion against the current financial
system and the governments that control
it it's a digital money that can be transferred at almost no cost in split
seconds around the globe from human to human what he's talking about is Bitcoin
an online currency that is taking off that is 0.03 53 Bitcoin please
bitcoin is different than anything you're used to the dollar the yen the
euro currencies are traditionally connected to governments and to banks
but not Bitcoin that's what makes it so
appealing to the radical in York I'm
blown up residence no King in this world
can stop a Bitcoin transaction
governments accustomed to paper money
protected by Bank rules are struggling
trying to figure out what to do about
this new virtual currency built for the
Internet age some countries have made it
illegal others are trying to regulate it
and just this month the United States
held Senate hearings into Bitcoin
Bitcoin should not be regulated one
cannot be regulated and governments
should just take the fingers off
Bitcoin Aaron Koenig is a libertarian
who's very public about his view of
governments and their banks we need a
different monetary system and Bitcoin
can be it he blames them for the world's
financial woes the current monetary
system is a big fraud it's a big Ponzi
scheme all these financial crises we've
been through it's all very much linked
to the monetary system that we have
which is a very bad and and even the
system and while he doesn't believe in
banks he does believe in Bitcoin I'm
happy not to have my money in the bag
because I don't trust banks rather have
my money in gold silver real-estate
Bitcoin because that's safe Germany is
the only country that's given Bitcoin
the official stamp of approval deeming
it private money so here and about two
dozen shops that accept it you can use
Bitcoin just like you use a euro
your ex bar was the first to accept
Bitcoin and has become a gathering place
for believers we are from Holland we
made a decision to make a road trip to
Berlin I want to spend some bitcoins and
because they are one of the places to be
at the moment York is absolutely certain
Bitcoin will eventually be used
everywhere I am as confident about that
as I was 25 years ago about email when
everybody told me your who is ever going
to send these funny computer-to-computer
messages that's got no future bitcoin
has been around since 2008 when this
email was sent out to a group of techies
it talked about a new electronic cash
system and it was offered by Satoshi
Nakamoto a person or group of people who
remain a mystery
the premise of Bitcoin can be tricky to
explain Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency
virtual money that exists in cyberspace
what is Bitcoin bitcoin is the first
decentralized digital currency while
government's make new money by printing
more at the mint bitcoins are mined
not unlike gold except here a
supercomputer or even a computer whiz
mines new bitcoins by cracking a complex
code unique to each Bitcoin with Bitcoin
miners use special software to solve
math problems and are issued a certain
number of bitcoins in exchange when a
code is cracked the person who owns the
computer now has a new Bitcoin and like
a lump of gold they can sell it or use
it to buy things bitcoins are
transferred directly from person to
person via the net without going through
a bank or clearinghouse and again like
gold the number of Bitcoin is finite
capped at 21 million
we wanted to try out Bitcoin so equipped
with a digital wallet that we downloaded
onto a smartphone we gave it a shot
the process is relatively simple that's
my wallet with my code our phone scans a
code and bitcoins instantly go from our
digital wallet to the stores and you've
received point zero one five seven to
victim to me yes unlike a debit card the
transaction doesn't go through a bank
and unlike a credit card there were
almost no fees you can really compare to
the Internet in the early 90s not that
many people used it and when you try to
explain it to somebody will everybody
say who it's that it's just for computer
freaks I heard it all before
hello Aaron kunuk is so convinced
Bitcoin is the way the future that he's
running a Bitcoin exchange this may not
look like a typical trading floor but it
works the same way people meet to buy
and sell Bitcoin a hundred years would
be point seven nine but Bitcoin has
another very different kind of believer
than anti-government libertarians at the
epicenter of capitalism in downtown
Manhattan we caught up with the
speculators the problem being a Bitcoin
company right now is they want to invest
too much money Jaron Lukas evich Charlie
Shrem
and David Johnston think of them as the
new generation of dot-com millionaires
every major venture capital firm in the
country is looking to invest in our
company and they're very serious about
many companies in the space
all three created Bitcoin startups and
reap the rewards of investing early when
you first bought Bitcoin how much was it
worth 35 17 14 dollars and fifty six
cents and how much is it worth today
GOx I saw this morning at two hundred
and it's in 190 that's incredible yeah
it's just the beginning since we
recorded that interview in October
Bitcoin has multiplied more than
fivefold in price cracking the one
thousand dollar mark for one Bitcoin so
there are still millionaires to be made
absolutely billionaires to be made
perhaps the first billionaires to be
made will be the Winklevoss twins of
Facebook Fame who reportedly owned one
percent of all Bitcoin today Charlie
Shrem co owns a bar he bought with
Bitcoin pays his rent with Bitcoin and
he along with Jaron and David hope their
companies will drive Bitcoin into the
mainstream something that can be used
for someone in their everyday life the
soccer mom the grandmas
that's when bitcoins can really be
valuable that's what we're all trying to
do to people who say this isn't real
money you say what the dollar is a real
money speculators are the largest group
of Bitcoin owners by far credited with
skyrocketing bitcoins value but some of
the same things that attracts
speculators are drawing in another group
breaking news tonight a mysterious
Marketplace's the FBI has seized control
of the Silk Road it's like cocaine and
heroin and it's making Bitcoin
front-page news next a cyber currency
and its criminal connection it often can
become a haven for money launderers
terrorists narco terrorists etc it's
been called the Amazon of illegal goods
an underground web site with ads for
drugs guns even hitman for hire it went
by the name Silk Road and it only dealt
in Bitcoin its Silk Road black tar
heroin to crack cocaine records a
illegal business on the web when the FBI
shut it down in October it made
headlines they called it the most
sophisticated criminal Marketplace on
the Internet Haven for money launderers
terrorists narco terrorist etc
sophisticated because Bitcoin a new
cyber currency provides a veil of
anonymity to its users and according to
the FBI in the two and a half years Silk
Road was running more than a billion
dollars worth of illegal goods was
pumped through the site Bitcoin is
tainted by the company of keeps Duncan
Stewart is a tech trend analyst the fact
that Bitcoin has certain attributes that
are unusually well-suited to illegal
activities means that it tends to
attract those elements who wish to do
illegal things while the alleged
mastermind of Silk Road denies all
charges
police warn he won't be the only one
who's caught already another illegal
bazaar has sprung up in Silk Roads place
it's called black market reloaded and on
it we found ads for this ak-47 grenades
and cocaine and again it only accepts
Bitcoin you think people are gonna be
prosecuted for using Bitcoin in Canada I
think they will be prosecuted for using
Bitcoin either for actual illegal
activities drugs violence weapons or for
making a million dollars trading Bitcoin
and not reporting that to the tax person
but there is another obstacle for
Bitcoin as big as the FBI and the RCMP
the banks in both Canada and the US
they are leery of Bitcoin I've been
kicked out of every major man I can't
have an account at chase Citibank
Wells Fargo because I'm in Bitcoin
Charlie Shrem created a company to make
Bitcoin more user-friendly one Bank
flowed me out and said the reason we
can't work with you as we simply see you
as a competitor to us like me that's why
we can't Bank English fact that was yeah
like have a nice day so what am I
supposed to do in that case in Canada
some Bitcoin startups have received
letters like this one closing down their
accounts when we ask the bank's about
their position on Bitcoin no one would
explain but security expert Michael
berkland has a theory the way that the
Bitcoin technology works
you don't need banks you can be your own
bank it's gotta be a scary notion if
you're one of the major five banks in
Canada you're taking business away from
the bank it definitely is a sea change
could the bank's shut down Bitcoin no
they can make it difficult to use and
they can make it difficult to go back
and forth between traditional currencies
and Bitcoin but there's nothing that a
bank can do to shut down Bitcoin the rub
for banks is that in the cyber world you
won't need a checking or savings account
people will be able to keep their money
in an electronic wallet so giving this
new technology
what will the bank's look like in 20
years time hi I'm Mike how's it going
and I your Carolyn how's it going people
can be their own banks and if there's a
sign that time is near this could be it
so say we want to do 120 dollars this is
gonna get you point five four three
eight Bitcoin the world's first and so
far only Bitcoin ATM it went live just
last month in Vancouver and did a
hundred thousand dollars worth of
transactions in the first week alone the
company's co-founder Mitchell Demeter
we're gonna be spreading those out
across Canada
probably hitting the major cities
Calgary Toronto Montreal in Ottawa
currency expert Arvin Jan doesn't buy it
he says bitcoin is unreliable and too
much of a mystery it's being issued by
an algorithm on computer but who's
deciding that who decides how many
dollars are issued who has control over
that and that part gives me a bit of a
fear that it has the potential to become
a Ponzi scheme he says the money we have
now works because it's backed by
institutions and norms like regular
elections and taxes the fact that these
are currencies issued by a system that
is working according to known rules and
it is working it's likely to continue
working for the foreseeable future
without government rules or a framework
bitcoin is only regulated by the free
market if you ask me what's going to be
the value of Bitcoin in one year I would
say somewhere between twenty and two
thousand dollars a bubble is not a
stable situation it's in the long run
very unhealthy for the economies and
who's to say there won't be another
digital currency in a month what
prevents somebody else one coming up and
saying my algorithm is even better than
the Bitcoin algorithm if somebody better
comes along there goes the value of
Bitcoin still the excitement for Bitcoin
hasn't waned the currency continues to
grow and for the true believers it is
the future this is going to change the
world I see it as only a matter of time
before this technology gets adopted
everywhere in my lifetime definitely in
your lifetime we'll be right back
you
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