I finally understand crytocurrenc(ies) in almost perfect detail. Imo, the real benefit to people will be when they organize to fund something that typical business and banks won't fund because there is no profit in it. We are the 99% right? There are say 4 billion people around the world that live in poverty or near poverty. Imagine that these 4 billion people organized themselves autonomously and wanted to solve their own problems. For example, say they wanted to solve the water problems of some super poor country in Africa where millions of children die from bad water each year. So, how do they pledge money without being defrauded? They want to pledge say $100 for the cause. That means that together would be able to fund a project to bring clean water with funds totaling $400 billion dollars, or a large percentage of the GDP of many nations. Lots of abled workers would be knocking on our collective doors to solve the problem. This is possible today. How would they do it? Through Kickstarter (or the future version of it): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assurance_contract It is not the cryptocurrency that is important here, it is the notion of the blockchain/ sidechains that is important so that people can trust each other that have never met each other.
So instead of Occupy Wall Street, these people should be thinking about blockchains and assurance contract implementers to change the system. Decentralization is key. Hierarchies are bad (when you include greedy immature unenlightened human beings). Distributed is good, until we become enlightened.
I'm just thinking out loud here but if a site like Kickstarter is the conduit for decentralized currency collection and distribution of crowdsourced funds, doesn't that just make Kickstarter a new-era mega bank?
http://freebeacon.com/national-secu...net-cellphone-telephone-service-across-state/ Every tech has it's inherent problems and weak points. The obvious work around in the sliced cable instance is satellites. We're entering the largest paradigm shift in human history. Nothing will go untouched. Prolly another 15 yrs. before the dust settles and the resultant reality feeds the rest of the century. The blockchain model will indeed be the transaction/ accounting mechanism. It's a modern twist on a system the Arabs and Asians used for millennia for trade accounts. A banker, node, would lend or receive funds, keep accounts. Another banker, node, thousands of miles distant would do the same , Once a yr. or so the system of nodes would meet and, compare books and settle up. It was a wetware concept of a blockchain. The extant greed mongering, control freak combo of banks/ government, elites will fight to the death to keep the rest of us enslaved. It will be catastrophic for many.