http://www.wsj.com/video/bitcoin-might-matter-more-than-you-think/895A3CAF-99EF-4EBD-BD5A-2D1A04B61713.html

Bitcoin Might Matter More Than You Think

1/23/2015 1:25PM

Paul Vigna and Michael Casey discuss their new book "The Age of Cryptocurrency" as well as the mystique and challenges facing Bitcoin and the virtual currency business. Photo: AP.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

one is Bitcoin and who isn't macro mode so ... well the answer such questions are answered in this new ... book the age of cryptocurrency by Michael E Spalding and Michael J Casey thank you foreign much of a month or two that are on and on like this is filth of the book and pull this is your will for us to the hotel let's tie with the fuss question pull what these bitcoin ... bitcoin is is really simply it's it's it's software that allows for the monetary system to operate that allows people to sin values and trade online digitally without the need for an intermediary for a bank ... debts are the one sentence answer what it is what it means is something we can spend hours or three hundred and fifty pages ... but that's really what he eats it so it's not like this its a aam it's a it's a cryptocurrency which gets to that the type of your book it's a it's a ... digital currency that's not created by governments ... became the was designed by cycle ... my tomato ... and about the ironwoman or ignore it ... that is that they take advantage of it ... aam tells more about about him and how the stock going back into that I wish I could tell you it was we don't know that I mean it with its by all ... reports he's at it over for somebody who knows a lot about the science of of recruiting information ... to watch will pull one tomato was that went into could create a system of polls that it's a system them in the Kingdom in here is is that the thing it is a diesel power to sometimes get too confused it's Chile is one ... but but the big point is this the system in that system require ... the kind of stuff that did not Komodo was of a scene very good at which was billing ... a whole set of mathematical says that the rules in place that would dictate the idea ... of the participants in the system and I'm told this when either the comments of the wheel well and tail ... but John's pizza ... was in full explain why is it because the ISIS's won't get that absolutely well you know attention but it is is because it seems they came out of nowhere billion didn't really is a process of of twenty some odd years people working on the psyche of digital currencies trying to build the systems ... out what happened in twenty ten though was after the close wanted a very small group of people who were juiciest amusing online ... but there really is trading back and forth with each other one of them a Florida programmer decided to do a little stunned Bray said ... on the support of TV anyone ten thousand bitcoins the deal by me to pieces you want to show they could use it for money ... I've got another program in the UK weekly snorkel Papa John's in Florida ... and they delivered pieces to his house that will confuse why there is that the doing this but they did it ... at that point ... that was the first time anyone actually used it to do something ... I'm people realize that you might actually have something here and after that it ... took off with the Wildcats of golf but not with them because I might add on right ... now worth about two point I think you're a m to one million dollars so it was a bit of the nice the most expensive pizza of the board so we called going back ... after the public on the ten episodes and ... had some hiccups along the way I'm with pots of those place for the hick ups was Mankoff what is Mount Gox more the handcuffs synagogues is one of the number of exchanges where rather than ... dictating bitcoins but trading with each other roles by ... I'm mining the coaches on the way to get them you can buy them with all this old bull with some of the currency ... and that so that that's was ... what happened on Cook's was oh so we believe that they they were hacked ... what we do know is that ... six hundred thousand bitcoins sovereign order of about forty million dollars with at the time ... a year ago ... next ... the explanation that Babcock HSAs Gibbons is a new spice utopia ... I was the day when asked ... what is that mean it means that the wallets of the corners so that these ... these that it is the software applications to which you manage you'll be core holdings ... was hacked by some money outside and lost ... whether that's exact what happened people don't know that the bottom line is ... those call these witnessing as result of the company was effectively bankrupted and put out of this is not a lot of good sign ago people very wired about the ... viability of Baker and it was so bought it also has some big bowl with them that the most is not necessarily Mongol but the court itself because its anonymous is involved in in the truck transaction goaled strut transactions ... amass both Ortiz Robert Boyd as well ... before we move on any any futher why does this class I mean this is they have something that was invented in a small legal tender any wow it could be used as money but so can say show us ... all ... one reason I think it matters ... really does serve cast ... new light on the existing system we have ... an IV one of these is the hardest for people to get past is this idea that ... you could have a money that is not backed by a government ... data it's it's it's a very deep clean green theme in our subconscious that that money comes from the government ... this system and looked on in ... this system its small experimental but it does work I mean this is a functioning system that is out there right now ... it is the first time you've seen where you can have a system of money of exchanging values of reporting values of public space ... that is not backed by the government if it is still experimental ... but anyway what what's on the gas tax ... might this was an off the hook and I'm told I needed that by taking the drug habit and the other big misconception that you can't hack the corners of the most important thing is the system the underlying system ... to contact that the business of art and are is what matters is because with that system the capacity exchange value in an efficient way ... as being ... it really was adorable ... you come back to the rising of the book is Rudolph of course this was your first book of Micah aam ... takes up ... a monumental effort that goes for writing book I've wanted wanted to eat already ... throw punches yeahh ... that ... all told the it services and Buddhist ... or as I come from the IRA stalkers DEL DEL course that kind of background so ... maybe he was that would calm me down to the Digitimes Orchestra and when you have to agree with ... Paul Pena Michael Casey the age of cryptocurrency I'm Simon Constable ... that's that ...