Best Bitcoin Explanation So Far

Link here:  How the Bitcoin protocol actually works

by Michael Nielsen on December 6, 2013

In my self appointed role as an OpenSourceCoin miner I have done proof of work examination of Michael Nielsen's explanation of how Bitcoin works and enter my validation of the truth and accuracy of his conceptual explanation into the block chain.

It is the best narrative explanation that I have read so far.

I recommend it.

I extended the block chain of knowledge..

I am rewarding myself with 25 OpenSourceCoins.

I sent 12.5 OpenSourceCoins to Michael Nielsen with a serialized thank you.

He is a good guy.  Thinks good stuff and is generous with it.  In the world that he describes it is proper and just to thank him for his contribution.

Michael talks about Open Science at this TEDxWaterloo link 

This kind of guy is the reason that the technologically elite among us that generously contribute their extraordinary ability to the common good will put the tools (weapons) in the hands of the public to fight the counter-productive distribution of asymmetric financial, political or information power, in this world that feeds on society for its own special interest and advancement.

They follow in the block chain footsteps of  Sir Tim Berners-Lee.  Tim would say that he merely stands on shoulders of giants.  Metaphorically he got some OpenSourceCoin that someone gave him and sealed the truth of that block chain.  He passed on his reward to us in the amount of .000001 OpenSourceCoin each.  No good unless we spend it by passing it on in the blockchain of Open Source knowldege and enhance the total value of the medium as a result.  No value in hoarding it.  That is not what OpenSourceCoin is all about.  It is the other side that operate on the hoarding business model.

Michael puts the icing on the cake he has baked in describing the Bitcoin model:

"Can you get rich with Bitcoin? Well, maybe. Tim O’Reilly once said: “Money is like gas in the car – you need to pay attention or you’ll end up on the side of the road – but a well-lived life is not a tour of gas stations!” Much of the interest in Bitcoin comes from people whose life mission seems to be to find a really big gas station. I must admit I find this perplexing. What is, I believe, much more interesting and enjoyable is to think of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a way of enabling new forms of collective behaviour. That’s intellectually fascinating, offers marvellous creative possibilities, is socially valuable, and may just also put some money in the bank. But if money in the bank is your primary concern, then I believe that other strategies are much more likely to succeed. "

I am convinced that Bitcoin will appeal greatly to those with a strong social conscience that see money as a social media for the allocation of resources beyond the sole purpose of amassing large quantities of it.  It changes the nature of money so that it may become more of a tool for amassing to the commons the qualitative magnitude of quality of life and society.

Good job Michael Nielsen!

Well Done!  Looking forward to more.

His ending footnote gives rich food for thought:

"[1] In the United States the question “Is money a form of speech?” is an important legal question, because of the protection afforded speech under the US Constitution. In my (legally uninformed) opinion digital money may make this issue more complicated. As we’ll see, the Bitcoin protocol is really a way of standing up before the rest of the world (or at least the rest of the Bitcoin network) and avowing “I’m going to give such-and-such a number of bitcoins to so-and-so a person” in a way that’s extremely difficult to repudiate. At least naively, it looks more like speech than exchanging copper coins, say. "