We reported last week that conservative radio talk show host Glenn Beck said he would “absolutely invest in bitcoin.” Although he has made some mistakes in fully understanding the peer-to-peer decentralized virtual currency, Beck seems quite interested in learning more about bitcoin.
Beck hosted a discussion panel to clarify the concept behind cryptocurrencies – panel members included Jeffrey Tucker of CEO of Liberty.me, Elizabeth Ploshay of the Bitcoin Foundation, and Kristov Atlas, author of Anonymous Bitcoin. The talk began with a video entitled “What is Bitcoin?”
Tucker noted that bitcoin’s value is generated because it is a currency as well as a payment system. “That’s a little strange,” he stated. “We’re used to thinking of those things as separate. We think of dollars, and then we think of Paypal or [Visa], Mastercard. Within Bitcoin, they’re both united. Payment system and the currency are one single thing.”
The former Mises Institute editor, who delivered a speech outlining how bitcoin connects with Austrian Economics, explained that the United States “dollar is old technology” and that bitcoin was produced in the free market without any government involvement or controls.
Ploshay expanded upon that by arguing that bitcoin helps people all over the world “who can’t depend on governments, or even banks, protecting their funds.”
Beck, who conceded that he still doesn’t entirely grasp bitcoin, said that he’s counting on technology to allow the planet to remain free without heading into the direction of authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
“America’s either going to go into authoritarianism — the world is — or it’s going to be freer than it ever has been. And I’m counting on technology to empower people like they’ve never been [before],” Beck said. “It’s almost like looking at Edison and going, ‘I just saw this light bulb and I don’t know how it works yet, but I think if it works, it’s going to be huge.’”