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From The Fortune 50 To Decentralized Autonomous Corporations – Blake Anderson On The State Of Bitcoin

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:44 PM
Justin OConnell
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:44 PM

blake_andersonAs an MIT educated computer science and economics entrepreneur, Blake Anderson has managed multiple information technology projects with a focus on infrastructural and math-based security for Fortune 50 corporations.

Having completed more than 200 enterprise-scale information projects, his work in security has provided millions of end users with the means to secure the most valuable data on Earth. He has also resided in Austria while researching 3D tangible assembly automation

Among Blake’s interest are individualism, capitalism, economics and motivating himself as well as others.

While working for a Fortune 25 bank as an ITPM for encryption and cryptographic services, Blake first learned about Bitcoin. After reading the white paper, Blake quit his job for Bitcoin.

Blake recently moved to San Francisco, from St. Paul, Minnesota, to further the development of Bitcoin and its ecosystem.

What is your experience in cryptography?

I worked for math based security project management at a Fortune 50 bank and was exposed to state of the art security practices/standards/functions. New standards were not being quickly implemented to an effective operational level. The problems with implementing said technologies were not with the department in which I worked but the fundamentally insecure ways in which money and banking work. I predicted the JP Morgan Chase hack and continue to believe that it was much more severe than they are willing to admit. My experience in cryptography is that it keeps getting better but isn’t able to be implemented correctly in most legacy situations.

Why did you first believe Bitcoin was bad?

When I first heard about it I was told that it was “digital money” and I laughed stating, “I would just copy it over and over”. After reading Satoshi’s paper I realized that it could be “recreated” or “forked” but not really copied, just like a person couldn’t be copied with their previous experiences, etc. I also realized the significance of the improvement in communication fault tolerance to a literally transcendent extent. I believe that this realization is something that many, even within the Bitcoin community, have yet to fully comprehend.

As a specialist in math-based security, what drew you towards Bitcoin?

I was drawn to Bitcoin because it is such a simple and elegant implementation of the full risk management potential brought to bear by modern cryptographic functions.

Why do you focus on stimulating and engaging the right brain when it comes to explaining Bitcoin? What does it mean to do this?

The right brain is known for creativity, most emotions, the long view and spatial awareness. Sometimes people call dreamers, artists and creative types “right brain”. The left brain is good at sequence, mathematics, rational order and literal, formal thinking. Since many of the more expert scientists in the Bitcoin space generally explain Bitcoin from a left brain perspective, I try to ensure that the right brain gets covered, too.

When speaking to someone about something as important as the science behind Bitcoin, it is key to engage their creative and macro thought centers. There is far too much objective, linear, rational left brain information to compare to the various numeric metrics of Bitcoin for the average person to be interested in even going down the path of that thought process. This means that it is good to illustrate “why” we are currently here as humanity and “why” Bitcoin technology can ameliorate many of the less ideal parts of that situation.

What is a “left-brain understanding of how metrically effective [Bitcoin] in computer science truly is”?

If someone were running a scam, it would be important to focus on right brain appeals and to avoid the mechanics of how the scam works. With Bitcoin, things couldn’t be different. Figuring out exactly how the Bitcoin system works reinforces the philosophical axioms assumed in right brain descriptions of “why” Bitcoin is. A left brain perspective will note the deflationary monetary policy and block halvings, along with the BIPs and code which make the guts of the software.

Could you explain your recent Bitcoin price prediction: “Short of a national currency collapse shored up by ‪#‎Bitcoin‬, prices to remain low or sinking until block halving in 2016. Adjust $ horizons.”

Bitcoin is deflationary in that there are 21 million bitcoins which will be made at a slowing rate, roughly cutting production in half every four years until the year 2140. This means that right now Bitcoin is more inflationary than it will be at any further time in history. The number of bitcoins being created right now, about every 15 minutes, is 25BTC, which means that lots of people need to be buying bitcoins for the price to stay the same and even more to increase. So Bitcoin being ephemerally inflationary in a macro-deflationary situation is an investment opportunity that many should be excited about. Bitcoin is like a sponge which fills up with value and gets wrung out every four years to massive profits to those who pay attention to the monetary/distribution programming of the system.

What was  your experience of the Silk Road trial?

The trial has been a heartbreaking bastardization of justice in virtually every way possible. From the extreme corruption of the agents creating crimes for which to try Ross, to the court’s inability to even fake a trial conducted in fairness with respect to the constitution.

Ross’s mother asked me in person, from a parent to a parent, to help with the complex computer data information being thrust on the family at extreme short notice. This data was supposed to be gone through to “construct a defense.” It was really a virtually “take these and prove he didn’t do it,” guilty until proven innocent situation.

I agreed to do everything within my power to help but was unable to do so after my lawyer and business partners illustrated the risk to me personally at assisting the defense in a federal investigation. I was very angry but given pause when I was told that the US federal government convicts at a rate of 98%.

A conviction rate like that means that things are being done outside the law on all sides to ensure that the system can handle all of the laws which have been created by the corpulent state. Once it came out that Ross was essentially framed completely by criminally motivated agents, I remembered being stunned that the maximally worst case scenario imagined by my attorney was so accurate.

What is at stake?

Everything is at stake, it always has been, always will be. Freedom doesn’t work when nobody cares and with each part apathy comes one part despair. In our age of such rapid change, specificity and open communication, doing the right thing matters more than ever. History is not an old wise man scribbling in a dusty tome with a quill dipped in ink. History is the result of what we contribute to the market and to the internet. History is now the ideas that you were brave enough to develop and share with the world. What the world will become is at stake and the only person to ever blame for the kind of world you live in is yourself.

What are you working on these days?

I’m working on cutting the scammers out of Bitcoin and calling out those who sell token substrates and fractional reserve systems as “Bitcoin.”  I’ve been blocked on social media by famous venture capitalists and even their capital firms for pointing out the incontrovertible untenability of their business models.

It’s a thankless job calling out scammers but it seems to have become a part of what I do. I’m also doing this through a DAC bank which will provide interest rates through arbitrage so that we can have banks with the same kind of immutable accountability that Bitcoin has achieved. At this point, it’s looking like the DAC software will not be operational until after the next block halving in mid-2017.

Are there any projects in particular you are excited about?

I’m very excited about ProTip as I am good friends with Chris Ellis and he really understands Bitcoin and decentralization. He is a thought leader committed to figuring out the consequences of various system configurations and how to ensure that those consequences are positive. He is like the Bobby Fischer of information science theory.

I’m also excited about AirBitz because Paul Puey is another thought leader who really understands the difference between the old systems and why neo-decentralized systems are better. Both of these projects are for the good of humanity and ProTip operates only on donations for now, so I implore people to donate to both. Donating to your politican won’t make a moticum of difference to the future but donating to these projects, even just a little, will.