Andreas M. Antonopoulos, author of “Mastering Bitcoin” and permanent host of the Let’s Talk Bitcoin podcast, did an IamAmA (I am X Ask me Anything) on Reddit. The questions ranged widely and rested heavily Bitcoin as a technology and a cultural phenomenon.

Antonopoulos lasted a few hours but soon became exhausted from the dialogue, however he did say that he’d be willing to answer further questions directed at his Twitter account @aantonop.

For those who don’t have the time to go through the entire thread and find Antonopoulos’s answers, here’s a few that stood out to our editors.

Bitcoin as a transformative technology

granatheus asks: The internet has changed the world profoundly. Do you believe, as is often said, that bitcoin holds a similar promise of change and disruption?

Antonopoulos: Not only will bitcoin have a huge impact, it will also fundamentally transform the Internet and fuel its impact even more. Money on the Internet means new ways to fund Internet infrastructure, content and innovation.

naturalfruitjelly asks: You often make comparisons of Bitcoin to the early days of the Internet, or other great inventions like the car, or electricity; What will be the event or moment that shifts people’s perspectives on Bitcoin?

Antonopoulos: Similar to those other technologies, public acceptance was neither automatic nor immediate. In fact, most people regarded each of those (electricity, autos, Internet) as weird, dangerous and unimportant for a decade or more.

Time and continued innovation/evolution is what makes technologies mainstream. Bitcoin has enormous innovation and evolution. All it needs to become mainstream is time.

escapevelo asks: What do you think about the idea that digital goods like music, video games, e-books, or even event tickets can be stored in cryptocurrencies allowing them to be easily traded on the Internet. There is at least $100 billion in digital goods wealth locked in centralized systems like iTunes or Amazon. Wouldn’t benefit the consumer if they could unlock this wealth?

Antonopoulos: Bitcoin and blockchain-based applications can offer a much better way of allocating resources and trading virtual goods. I see bitcoin as fuel for Internet content creators. It’s one of the biggest potential markets for this technology.

Bitcoin and scalability

peoplma asks: I wanted to ask your thoughts on the scalability issues surrounding bitcoin, is it a problem that needs to be addressed sooner, or later? (See link for full question text.)

Antonopoulos: There are many competing proposals to address scalability. For the most part I don’t think scale is an issue right now, though it might become an issue quite quickly.

Bitcoin’s consensus algorithm requires a very conservative approach to change, so I certainly think it is best to solve problems when they are actually problems and not before. Optimization and scaling should be done much later in the lifecycle of a technology, right now we’re in the experimentation stage.

However, it is important to continue to research possible optimizations and make sure that no design limitations are introduced.

Bitcoin and de-centralization

pinhead26 asks: In your opinion, how important is decentralization to the future of Bitcoin? Is it in your top 10 concerns about Bitcoin? What could lead to “bad” centralization, what do we need to do to prevent that and what are the trade-offs in ensuring Bitcoin stays decentralized?

Antonopoulos: De-centralization is one of the prevailing geopolitical and technological themes of this century. The fight for de-centralization of control and information is playing out on the Internet in every country in the world. It is, in my opinion, the most important fight as it will determine the freedom (or lack of) for billions of people. We are heading in a good direction overall. We have replaced kings, despots and tyrants with institutions. Now we are replacing many institutions with protocols and networks, empowering individuals. But those who benefit from centralized control over power will not sit idly by while we take away their power. They use fear and violence to exert control and deepen their power structures. They fool us into submitting to unearned authority and give up our rights and freedoms by exploiting security fears. Bitcoin is only part of the puzzle, but it is a very powerful part.

Egon_1 asks: What is your view on the centralization of bitcoin mining?

Antonopoulos: It ebbs and flows. I don’t see it as a problem, I trust the market to dynamically adapt. The consensus algorithm creates a set of incentives that reward good actors and punish bad actors. So far, it is working better than anyone expected.

Non-reversible transactions

JustStopDude asks: As a small business owner, what is the major selling point for bitcoin over the traditional banking means I currently have? Were I to use bitcoin, how do I overcome the major issue of non-reversible charges?

Antonopoulos: Non-reversible charges can be addressed in a number of ways. I recently did a presentation in Sydney Australia where I talked about using automated escrow with multi-signature addresses and time-locked transactions to achieve simple consumer protection and chargebacks on the bitcoin protocol. It’s programmable money, the possibilities are endless.

Bitcoin and regulation

goldsteinteach asks: Why is less regulation better? (See question link for full question.)

Antonopoulos: Bitcoin is regulated by math. Banks are regulated by committees that are either completely powerless or entirely “captured” by those they regulate. The NY Fed which is supposed to regulate the banks had its press releases written by Goldman Sachs. This is a fact, not a conspiracy theory. Regulations didn’t stop the great depression, didn’t stop the mortgage fraud and didn’t result in any serious punishment (other than fines smaller than the profits).

I trust in dynamically adapting mathematical regulation, as implemented in a de-centralized consensus algorithm that can’t be captured by special interests. That is not “unregulated”. That is regulated by the participants in the system and math, rather than unelected bureaucrats who serve the interests of the few at the expense of their supposed constituents.

How Antonopoulos secures his bitcoins

etsolow asks: How do you secure your personal stash of bitcoins?

Antonopoulos: Offline generated paper wallets and hardware wallets (testing Trezor and Ledger currently). Paper wallets and hardware wallets, for 99.99 percent of my bitcoin. Less than 0.001 percent is ever online (mostly on a Mycelium mobile wallet on my phone).

Image credit: Andreas M. Antonopoulos Twitter profile picture, https://twitter.com/aantonop/; and photo credit: scottks1 via photopin cc; and photo credit: flickr user zcopley