5 Replies to “Currency and Bitcoin (Bailey McKenna)”
Bailey,
Right off the bat, I was very intrigued by your topic. A few years ago, my older brother had an obsession with Bitcoin and thought it was going to be the next big thing, and he purchased I think equivalent to about $100 in American dollars. However, since then, I really have not heard about it from him. I expected it to take off more than it has so far. However, we will see what happens in the future!
I liked how you started the story about the trade and bartering in Mesopotamia and the need for a standard such as grains for tokens arose. I also enjoyed that you mentioned the rise of counterfeit money at the same time of the rise of currency. In addition, the values such as privacy are very important to our society today and Bitcoin helps to reflect those values. Currency is such a big part of lives today, has been in the past, and I predict will be in the future, but will maybe be more electronic. Good job!
I think that your topic is incredibly interesting, and that you did a really good job with it. I liked how you started with the fact that trade used to be conducted through the barter system. And, almost as soon as coins were created as currency, counterfeiting techniques were developed. Since money is basically whatever we as a society decide it to be. I liked how you talked about the connotations of the fact that we have moved away from the gold standard. Since money is essentially whatever we collectively decide it to be, this seems to have given society more freedom. I’ve never thought about it before, but it makes sense that electronic currency and PayPal would have developed as a result of newer ways of thinking about money. I don’t really have much constructive criticism since I think you did really well. I do think that you maybe could have explained Bitcoin a little bit longer, but I realize that you had a lot of information to fit in over a finite amount of slides. Overall, I really enjoyed learning about this!
I liked how right away you explained the approach you were going to take in your slidecast: it is logical and makes it easy for viewers to follow. I never really thought about the concept that coin-makers cut off the edges to save materials for new coins, I thought that was pretty cool. Another concept I never really thought about until I saw your presentation was the fact that people have been counterfeiting money for so long. After each development people make in money, they probably believe it will be harder for people to counterfeit, yet history seems to prove that they always find a way. This presentation makes you think about money as a technology, which I don’t believe people usually see. I liked how you tied the values embedded in the Bitcoin technology back to society today. I don’t really have any suggestions for you, the topic was very interesting!
I’m struggling to put into words my criticism, but I’m going to give it my best shot, especially since no one else has attempted to critique you yet.
I felt like there wasn’t a whole lot of substance beyond what you were saying. It felt more like you were giving a history of, rather than a contextualization of bitcoin. You had a single slide about the value of privacy, but in it, you really just assumed people would understand, rather than actually talking about it. You did something similar when talking about PayPal too. It also took to over the halfway mark for you to even reach the technology of bitcoin itself; the build up was informative, at times it was contextual to bitcoin with respect to the counterfeiting parts, but it was a lot of just straight history, which I know is necessary, but I feel there was too much of it. When you did get around to talking about bitcoin, it was a lot about how it works mixed with empty context. Our whole class we talked about patrons, systems, and values, but I think those are the aspects where your slidecast lacked the most.
Overall it was a good and informative slidecast. Your intro was unique and served as a good hook. Although I said there might have been too much of it, the history starting in Mesopotamia and mentions of early counterfeiting was interesting to hear about. I also enjoyed the discussion on what gives money value. Good work.
Great slidecast overall. I really liked your introduction. Your enthusiasm really helps to get the listener excited about your topic. I also enjoyed your extensive build up to modern day currency. You had a very focused approach, that gave a clear history of currency from the beginning to modern day. Starting with the first methods of counterfeiting technology was a good way to set up the historical context. It was also a good decision to format your slidecast in a way where you would describe a new type of currency and then follow up with a way that it could be abused and counterfeited. I also thought that you did well describing how the values of bitcoin fit well into today’s society. Privacy has become a core value in today’s world and bitcoin fits right into that. The only critique I have is that you spent so much time describing how we got to the bitcoin that you were only able to briefly discuss it. However, you only had 6:40 to discuss a lot of information, so it’s understandable that you had to prioritize some information. Other than that, this was an excellent presentation, well done!
Bailey,
Right off the bat, I was very intrigued by your topic. A few years ago, my older brother had an obsession with Bitcoin and thought it was going to be the next big thing, and he purchased I think equivalent to about $100 in American dollars. However, since then, I really have not heard about it from him. I expected it to take off more than it has so far. However, we will see what happens in the future!
I liked how you started the story about the trade and bartering in Mesopotamia and the need for a standard such as grains for tokens arose. I also enjoyed that you mentioned the rise of counterfeit money at the same time of the rise of currency. In addition, the values such as privacy are very important to our society today and Bitcoin helps to reflect those values. Currency is such a big part of lives today, has been in the past, and I predict will be in the future, but will maybe be more electronic. Good job!
Bailey,
I think that your topic is incredibly interesting, and that you did a really good job with it. I liked how you started with the fact that trade used to be conducted through the barter system. And, almost as soon as coins were created as currency, counterfeiting techniques were developed. Since money is basically whatever we as a society decide it to be. I liked how you talked about the connotations of the fact that we have moved away from the gold standard. Since money is essentially whatever we collectively decide it to be, this seems to have given society more freedom. I’ve never thought about it before, but it makes sense that electronic currency and PayPal would have developed as a result of newer ways of thinking about money. I don’t really have much constructive criticism since I think you did really well. I do think that you maybe could have explained Bitcoin a little bit longer, but I realize that you had a lot of information to fit in over a finite amount of slides. Overall, I really enjoyed learning about this!
I liked how right away you explained the approach you were going to take in your slidecast: it is logical and makes it easy for viewers to follow. I never really thought about the concept that coin-makers cut off the edges to save materials for new coins, I thought that was pretty cool. Another concept I never really thought about until I saw your presentation was the fact that people have been counterfeiting money for so long. After each development people make in money, they probably believe it will be harder for people to counterfeit, yet history seems to prove that they always find a way. This presentation makes you think about money as a technology, which I don’t believe people usually see. I liked how you tied the values embedded in the Bitcoin technology back to society today. I don’t really have any suggestions for you, the topic was very interesting!
I’m struggling to put into words my criticism, but I’m going to give it my best shot, especially since no one else has attempted to critique you yet.
I felt like there wasn’t a whole lot of substance beyond what you were saying. It felt more like you were giving a history of, rather than a contextualization of bitcoin. You had a single slide about the value of privacy, but in it, you really just assumed people would understand, rather than actually talking about it. You did something similar when talking about PayPal too. It also took to over the halfway mark for you to even reach the technology of bitcoin itself; the build up was informative, at times it was contextual to bitcoin with respect to the counterfeiting parts, but it was a lot of just straight history, which I know is necessary, but I feel there was too much of it. When you did get around to talking about bitcoin, it was a lot about how it works mixed with empty context. Our whole class we talked about patrons, systems, and values, but I think those are the aspects where your slidecast lacked the most.
Overall it was a good and informative slidecast. Your intro was unique and served as a good hook. Although I said there might have been too much of it, the history starting in Mesopotamia and mentions of early counterfeiting was interesting to hear about. I also enjoyed the discussion on what gives money value. Good work.
Bailey:
Great slidecast overall. I really liked your introduction. Your enthusiasm really helps to get the listener excited about your topic. I also enjoyed your extensive build up to modern day currency. You had a very focused approach, that gave a clear history of currency from the beginning to modern day. Starting with the first methods of counterfeiting technology was a good way to set up the historical context. It was also a good decision to format your slidecast in a way where you would describe a new type of currency and then follow up with a way that it could be abused and counterfeited. I also thought that you did well describing how the values of bitcoin fit well into today’s society. Privacy has become a core value in today’s world and bitcoin fits right into that. The only critique I have is that you spent so much time describing how we got to the bitcoin that you were only able to briefly discuss it. However, you only had 6:40 to discuss a lot of information, so it’s understandable that you had to prioritize some information. Other than that, this was an excellent presentation, well done!