Bitcoin podcast npr
By signing in, you agree to the Podcasts. I forgot my Subscriber password I forgot bitcoin podcast npr Podcaster password. Enter your email address and password which you'll use when logging into your Podcasts. Money makes the world go around, faster and faster every day. On NPR's Planet Money, you'll meet high rollers, brainy economists and regular folks -- all bitcoin podcast npr to make sense of our rapidly changing global economy.
Planet Money Podcast navigateright Episode. Bitcoin is a new kind of currency. But unlike, say, the bitcoin podcast npr or the yen, it's not backed by bitcoin podcast npr government. Also, you can't hold it in your hand or put it in your pocket; it exists only on computers. Bitcoin is supposed to be cash for the Internet age — anonymous money that anyone can use without using a credit card or going through a bank.
On today's Planet Money, try to get our hands on a few bitcoins, which turns out to be harder than it sounds. Why podcast with us?
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Indymedia Ireland star star star star star. INFO podcast star star star star star. Hispano Escucha star star star star star. Planet Money Podcast navigateright Episode Your browser does not support the audio element. We dig into some basic questions that come up when you're creating a new currency from scratch. And we buy lunch.
The digital currency bitcoin used to only be a big deal in small circles of libertarians, but has exploded over the last year. Some early investors are now trying to find bitcoins they lost. As the digital currency bitcoin has skyrocketed in value, many bitcoin podcast npr the early adopters have become millionaires - only if, that is, they can find their bitcoins.
Kenny Malone from our Planet Money team went on a virtual treasure hunt. Syl Turner heard about bitcoin about 10 years ago, and he figured, what the heck, got a couple of coins and bitcoin podcast npr saved them to what's known as bitcoin podcast npr digital wallet on his hard drive. You know, at the time I didn't think bitcoin was worth anything so I didn't laughterback anything up. To be fair, it wasn't worth anything at the time.
Turner had digital pennies and then let them fall between the digital couch cushions. And so Turner is standing in his attic, staring at a waist-high layer of junk, looking for a year-old hard drive. Jonathan Levin is co-founder of Chainalysis, a company that makes bitcoin analysis software, and the company did a study that found around 20 percent of all bitcoin is lost, out of circulation. And Levin says the confusing thing is bitcoin podcast npr, technically speaking, bitcoin can't be lost.
Blockchain - big word, sure, but here's a very non-technical way of understanding what it means. Imagine with me, if you will, a massive auditorium filled with bitcoin bookkeepers. Now, Jonathan wants to send me one bitcoin. He walks on stage in front of all these bookkeepers, steps up to a microphone, and he's like Hello, entire bitcoin universe. As all of your books show, I, Jonathan, have three bitcoins to my name. After Jonathan says this, all of these virtual ledger keepers sort of scribble this transaction down, deduct one bitcoin from Jonathan's account, increase Kenny's account by one, and that is a bitcoin transaction.
Nothing is really transferred. It's more like an instantaneous adjustment across a whole bunch of ledgers. When people talk about the blockchain, they're talking about this system where there is no central bookkeeper. Whatever bitcoins Syl Turner has, they're still there sitting in a kind of virtual vault, but bitcoin podcast npr has lost the key.
He's looking for an old hard drive with a super complicated password, and it's not up here. Bitcoin was created to be this decentralized currency. There's no federal reserve tweaking interest rates, there's no treasury department printing new money and there's no customer service line to call if you are Syl Turner.
But that lost bitcoin expert Jonathan Levin, he does have a phone number. So we have gathered here today bitcoin podcast npr try and resurrect Syl's lost bitcoin.
Turner explained how he knows he's got tens of thousands of dollars of bitcoins locked away, he just cannot find that hard drive with the digital bitcoin podcast npr with the private key.
Well, what we need to bitcoin podcast npr the needle in the haystack is even, like, a little bit of a key. What Levin is saying is that bitcoin private bitcoin podcast npr are designed to be un-guessable even by the most powerful computers we have right now.
But if Turner happened to write down part of this key at some point, there are companies that will use that information to help him break into his account. But, like lots and lots of other early bitcoin enthusiasts, Syl Turner did not write down any part of the key and has nothing to go on. I know this is going to be, like, my deathbed regret. I'm like, Bitcoin podcast npr should have backed up that wallet.
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Accuracy and availability may vary. Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player. Finding Your Lost Bitcoins The digital currency bitcoin used to only be a big deal in small circles of libertarians, but has exploded bitcoin podcast npr the last year.
Finding Your Lost Bitcoins. Facebook Twitter Flipboard Email. January 18, bitcoin podcast npr Heard on Morning Edition. So let's dig in. Yeah, we can start digging in. There's, like, a broken fog machine. Some kind of table saw thing, paper shredder, Game Boy Advance. Two TVs that are identical, Goldfish crackers box. While Turner rummages, we found an expert specifically in lost bitcoin.
What do people actually say? You can have bitcoins, and bitcoin is, like, the currency unit. So if I send you bitcoin, I send bitcoin to your account on the bitcoin blockchain. Of course, it would not be a name. It would be an anonymized account number. I would like everyone here to know that I am giving one bitcoin to Kenny. Syl Turner, still digging through his attic. I don't think Bitcoin podcast npr put it bitcoin podcast npr this one.
Can you guys all hear each other OK? So probably orsomewhere around there So that's where I'm at. So there are bitcoin bounty hunters out there. There are bitcoin bounty hunters out there. Unfortunately - unfortunately we can't actually help you out. What kind of things do you say to somebody in Syl's position? For the people that have lost their bitcoins, I say tough luck.