Talk given to the Georgia Tech Bitcoin Club on Monday, April 3rd, 2017.

1. Bitcoin, the Blockchain, and
our Decentralized Future
James Walpole
bitpay.com

2. What is bitcoin?
Magic internet money? Nerd money?
Fake money? The future of money?
Hint: definitely not this stuff

3. A payment
method
Bitcoin functions like peer to
peer electronic cash.
It’s a digital cash or a digital
gold for the internet.

4. A payment
method
Transactions in Bitcoin are not
actually exchanging "coins".
They’re signing entries.

5. A network
Bitcoin miners: Specialized
computers that do the math
required to secure bitcoin
transactions.
These processes 1) process
entries and 2) generate new
bitcoin.

6. A ledger
Everyone running a node of
the Bitcoin protocol helps to
maintain a shared, distributed
ledger of transactions called a
“blockchain.”

7. Why does this
matter?
Bitcoin is money that can work
without any central party: no
one website, bank, company, or
government controls bitcoin.
That has its advantages.

8. Why does this
matter?
Bitcoin creates the first record
of history (and money) that is:
- Trustless
- Incorruptible
- Permanent

9. How does a payment work?

10. Above-ground
view
Bitcoin users transact using
applications called “bitcoin
wallets.”
Often this just involves
scanning a QR code and
clicking “send.”

11. Under the hood
A bitcoin user’s “public key” and
“private key” create and verify a
signature.
A signed transaction “message”
then broadcasts to the bitcoin
network for addition to the
ledger.

12. Let's try a payment.

13. Why is bitcoin useful?
Let’s talk about money.

14. Bitcoin changes
payments
Most of today's payment methods were
build pre-Internet.
- Credit card fraud and chargebacks
- Slow transfer times
- High fees
- International settlement limitation

15. Bitcoin changes
payments
Bitcoin was made for commerce on the
Internet.
- Universal transactions
- Secure transactions
- Low-cost payments
- Fast settlement times

16. What does bitcoin
mean for tech?
Where we’re going, we won’t
need centralized ledgers.

17. Bitcoin beyond
payments
- Authentication (BitAuth)
Bitcoin can change how we handle
authentication on the web.

18. Bitcoin beyond
payments
- Marketplaces (OpenBazaar)
- DNS Registrars (Namecoin)
- Healthcare (Gem)
Bitcoin and its distributed ledger can
disrupt any centralized ledger used
today.

19. What does this
mean for me?
The future is decentralized.
Here’s how you can start participating.

20. Step 1: Get a Wallet
- BitPay Wallet
- Copay Wallet
- Breadwallet
- Airbitz Wallet

21. Step 2: Get some
bitcoin
- Buy it
- Earn it
- Get it from a friend

22. Step 3: Use bitcoin to
buy something
Into gaming? Buy a game on
Steam. Buy gift cards with
Gyft, food on Takeaway, or
travel with Destinia.

23. Questions?
Get more bitcoin resources:
bitcoin.org