HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

Erik Voorhees: Governments Can't Stop Bitcoin 'Despite All Their Guns and Weapons’

Views:899
@ReasonVids

The ShapeShift founder and early pioneer in the space talks about why bitcoin poses an existential threat to fiat money.
-------------------
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/ReasonTV?subconfirmation=1
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.
----------------
Few figures in the bitcoin community are as controversial and visionary as Erik Voorhees, founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift.

Back when cryptocurrency was in its infancy and its conferences included lectures delivered to empty rooms, Voorhees was helping to popularize bitcoin's unique attributes with an unregulated online casino called SatoshiDice.

After he sold SatoshiDice, Voorhees was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and was fined $50,000, observing that the investigators didn't seem to understand bitcoin. "As much as I hated government before," he recalled, "then I was like, 'man, this is what these people do, go around ruining innocent people's lives.'"

The son of libertarian businessman and writer Jacques Voorhees, he discovered bitcoin in 2011 while living in New Hampshire as a member of the Free State Project. Voorhees was employee number three at BitInstant, an early exchange backed by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and whose founder, Charlie Shrem, ultimately went to prison on charges of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

Unlike bitcoin maximalists, who insist that bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency with any viable future, Voorhees maintains that other coins do serve a purpose.

In 2017, as fees on the network were climbing, he controversially backed an unsuccessful attempt to scale up bitcoin's ability to process transactions, which critics said would have weakened the network's security and decentralized structure.

At the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, Voorhees talked to Reason about the immense growth not just in the market caps of cryptocurrencies but in their economic and cultural legitimacy, the ways they challenge central banks and political power, why he believes in multiple coins, and continuing innovation in digital currency.

Photos: Dennis Brack/Danita Delimont Photography, Newscom; Photos of Erik Voorhees Courtesy of Charlie Shrem; Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin With Sheet of $1 Bills, Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

Music: "On the Way" by Ian Post, Artlist

Shot by Noor Greene; additional graphics by Meredith Bragg and Paul Detrick; intro edited by Noor Greene; interview edited by Ian Keyser; hosted and narrated by Nick Gillespie

libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
,
erik voorhees
,
bitcoin
,
cryptocurrency
,
shapeshift
,
satoshidice
    Thumbnail for The Deeply Flawed Studies Behind the Eviction Moratoriums15:11
    The Deeply Flawed Studies Behind the Eviction Moratoriums
    ReasonVids
    948 views
    Thumbnail for Jiggle girls0:13
    Jiggle girls
    AmericanMuskrat
    127 views
    Thumbnail for Rand Paul: Republicans Can Only Win if "They Become More Live and Let Live"12:27
    Rand Paul: Republicans Can Only Win if "They Become More Live and Let Live"
    ReasonVids
    866 views
    Thumbnail for Senator In The Woods Comments on 2020 Election1:29
    Senator In The Woods Comments on 2020 Election
    bestofupgoat
    379 views
    Thumbnail for Silicon Valley's Ultimate Diversity Problem Is Ideological10:27
    Silicon Valley's Ultimate Diversity Problem Is Ideological
    ReasonVids
    884 views
    Thumbnail for Cutting Back City Hall: Reason Foundation's Adrian Moore and Julian Morris48:16
    Cutting Back City Hall: Reason Foundation's Adrian Moore and Julian Morris
    ReasonVids
    796 views
    Thumbnail for Matt Welch  on McCain and Campaign Finance Reform1:57
    Matt Welch on McCain and Campaign Finance Reform
    ReasonVids
    840 views
    Thumbnail for Simpsons - They're probably watching us right now.0:14
    Simpsons - They're probably watching us right now.
    clips
    783 views
    Thumbnail for How to Grow A City in Honduras, Part III: The Skeptics6:17
    How to Grow A City in Honduras, Part III: The Skeptics
    ReasonVids
    952 views
    Thumbnail for Deviant's Episode 1: Pump Me Up | MisterMetokur12:07
    Deviant's Episode 1: Pump Me Up | MisterMetokur
    bitchute_topics
    911 views
    Thumbnail for Has Anti-Racism Become as Harmful as Racism? John McWhorter vs. Nikhil Singh1:48:15
    Has Anti-Racism Become as Harmful as Racism? John McWhorter vs. Nikhil Singh
    ReasonVids
    706 views
    Thumbnail for Sure looks like France is having a civil war0:45
    Sure looks like France is having a civil war
    AbsolutelyIris
    673 views
    Thumbnail for A Nice Detail in Halo Infinite | Tomahawk0:31
    A Nice Detail in Halo Infinite | Tomahawk
    invidious
    218 views
    Thumbnail for Old school boxing not that gayass rolling on the ground crap and btw 'This ain't America'!?0:53
    Old school boxing not that gayass rolling on the ground crap and btw 'This ain't America'!?
    bestofsaidit
    915 views
    Thumbnail for Stossel: Hurricane Reconstruction4:52
    Stossel: Hurricane Reconstruction
    ReasonVids
    853 views
    Thumbnail for Mom gets pranked on April 1st2:11
    Mom gets pranked on April 1st
    bestofupgoat
    438 views
    Thumbnail for Gramies3:39
    Gramies
    bestofvid8
    473 views
    Thumbnail for You guys wanna carpool?1:36
    You guys wanna carpool?
    AOUisgay
    530 views
    Thumbnail for Chinese Dissident Ai Weiwei Explores the Tragedy of the Refugee Crisis3:31
    Chinese Dissident Ai Weiwei Explores the Tragedy of the Refugee Crisis
    ReasonVids
    939 views
    Thumbnail for Finding Mr. Righteous: Lisa De Pasquale on Dating Conservative Men4:53
    Finding Mr. Righteous: Lisa De Pasquale on Dating Conservative Men
    ReasonVids
    832 views
    Thumbnail for Obama's Foreign Policy Approval Plummets, Americans Oppose Unilateral Syria Intervention3:43
    Obama's Foreign Policy Approval Plummets, Americans Oppose Unilateral Syria Intervention
    ReasonVids
    1019 views
    Thumbnail for Build More Housing! San Francisco's YIMBY Movement Has a Plan to Solve the City's Housing Crisis8:32
    Build More Housing! San Francisco's YIMBY Movement Has a Plan to Solve the City's Housing Crisis
    ReasonVids
    925 views
    Thumbnail for Prop 21: Why Californians don't need a car tax to save their state parks7:36
    Prop 21: Why Californians don't need a car tax to save their state parks
    ReasonVids
    767 views
    Thumbnail for James Payne on Six Political Illusions4:39
    James Payne on Six Political Illusions
    ReasonVids
    850 views
    Thumbnail for Tranny Fantasizes about Getting a Uterus So it Can Abort the Baby1:02
    Tranny Fantasizes about Getting a Uterus So it Can Abort the Baby
    allAheadFull
    674 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
,
erik voorhees
,
bitcoin
,
cryptocurrency
,
shapeshift
,
satoshidice
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle