Why should we care about Bitcoin?

for us as designers of systems that create, enable, and mediate arrangements of people and things. For example, a distributed, secure infrastructure like this enables decentralized business logic, leading to the creation of " smart " or " self-executing " contracts [5], which are represented as cryptographically encoded " boxes " that unlock only if certain conditions are met. No person or institution need be involved to mediate and manage the transaction. Consider a service like IFTTT, which allows us to create conditional if this then that–style " recipes " such as " If I upload a picture to Flickr, then also post it to my Facebook page " [6]. Mechanisms like these can be put in place to verify your assets or check for conditions before a transaction can be completed. Every time a condition is met, such as some agreed-on action is taken, the result is automatically and irrevocably executed. Examples could be that money moves from my account to yours, you gain entry to my house through my digital lock, you gain access to legal documents, your stocks are sold… and so on. If you die, your death certificate is communicated to a management system through a pre-established protocol, resulting in any assets you have bequeathed being distributed to your heirs according to your will. No intervention from lawyers. Betting who will win the next World Cup? The score can be the trigger condition for the execution of the contract, the exchange of the wager. The new world of the Internet of Things could also be the new world of smart contracts. Wanting to pay for that new camera? No need for an intermediary marketplace—the transaction-completion trigger could B itcoin Accepted, " said the sign at the makeshift lemonade stand, staffed by a serious tween. " Really? " " Yes, " she said. " Will cash do? " She shrugged as I handed her $2, two classic greenbacks. " It's changing the world, " she said. " Bitcoin. " I had not set out that morning thinking I would soon be discussing a disruptive cryptocurrency with an entrepreneurial tween. Until that conversation, Bitcoin to me had been geekery tinged with stories that belong in novels: Bitcoin equalled mystery, money, and monkey business. Why? Three reasons: (1) Like bees to a honey pot, Bitcoin enticed screen-focused crypto-geeks to pay attention—some even left their dwellings to walk on the …