Be Your Own Bank

John Light | @lightcoin | lightco.inBitcoin: Be Your Own Bank | @BitcoinBYOB | bitcoinbyob.com

What is Bitcoin?

“A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution…

What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.”

- Satoshi Nakamoto

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

Source: “What is Bitcoin? v2”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc2en3nHxA4

Bitcoin

● Decentralized (no “trusted third party”)

● Digital currency (“electronic cash”)

● Payment system (“peer-to-peer”)

Bitcoin Wallets

● Store, send, and receive bitcoin

● Use public addresses to receive, private key to spend

● Show address balances and transaction history

Mobile wallet apps

Source: www.bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

Desktop wallet apps

Hardware wallets

Acquiring Bitcoin

Easy ways to acquire bitcoin

● Earn bitcoin

● Buy bitcoin online

● Buy bitcoin in person

Earn bitcoin

● Sell goods and services for bitcoin - bitpay.com

● Sell through a bitcoin marketplace - openbazaar.org

● Find an employer who pays bitcoin - coinality.com

● Convert paychecks into bitcoin - bitwage.com

… and ask people to pay you back for lunch with bitcoin!

Buy bitcoin online

● Circle - www.circle.com

● Coinbase - www.coinbase.com

● itBit - www.itbit.com

… and other Bitlicense-compliant brokers/ exchanges.

Buy bitcoin in-person

● Local Bitcoins - localbitcoins.com

● Mycelium Local Trader - wallet.mycelium.com

● Bitcoin ATMs - coinatmradar.com

… and from people you know and trust who have bitcoin.

Bitcoin and Anonymity

● Bitcoin is not anonymous, it is pseudonymous

● All Bitcoin transactions are public and traceable

● It can be easy to link your identity to your addresses

● Breaking the link to your identity is difficult

Source: S. Nakamoto, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, 2008

● If the person/company who sold you bitcoins knows your ID

● If you buy something with bitcoin and give the seller your ID

● If you publish your bitcoin address(es) with an account linked to your ID

● If you send bitcoin to or receive bitcoin from an address linked to your ID

You can hurt your anonymity

Current:

● Wallet + Tor

● Cash purchases○ LocalBitcoins○ LocalTrader

○ Bitcoin ATMs

● JoinMarket Tumbler

Anonymity solutions

Future:

● CoinShuffle

● TumbleBit

● Lightning network

● Anonymous sidechains

More info

Anonymous Bitcoin by Kristov Atlas

www.anonymousbitcoinbook.com

Advanced Use

Multisignature addresses

● Require multiple keys to complete a transaction

● Control funds collectively to ensure accountability

● Protect against loss if minority of wallets are lost or hacked

e.g. CoPay

Source: https://bitpay.github.io/copay/

● Raise funds for a business or nonprofit

● “Kickstarter” without the middleman

● Transaction completes when a pre-set balance is reached

● Cancel any time before the transaction completes

e.g. Lighthouse

Crowdfunding

Source: J. Light, “Bitcoin: Be Your Own Bank”, 2015, (Lighthouse desktop app)

● Create new digital currencies

● Issue securities to raise funds for a business

● Track the ownership of property digitally

e.g. Coinprism

Note: this is experimental and probably illegal

Colored coins

Source: www.coinprism.com

● Register a domain name on the blockchain

● Link the domain name to an IP address and TLS cert

● Use the blockchain ID to log in to apps and websites

e.g. Blockstack

Decentralized DNS + PKI

Source: www.onename.com/lightcoin

Cool Bitcoin Apps

● Bitmarkets - www.bitmarkets.org

● OpenBazaar - www.openbazaar.org

● Bitsquare - www.bitsquare.io

● Blockstack - www.blockstack.org

● Coinprism - www.coinprism.com

● 21 - www.21.co

… and many more - go exploring!

Thanks for listening!

Questions?

John Light | @lightcoin | lightco.in

Bitcoin: Be Your Own Bank | @BitcoinBYOB | bitcoinbyob.com