"Drake thinks that Bitcoin could eventually make banks as obsolete as telephone switchboard operators."
I like BitCoin, its fun to see an actual proof of concept implementation of something speculated on at the turn of the century, but please folks, go to the community college and take their micro/macro economics classes (or listen too one at a MOOC, or a classes online) and learn what Banks do, what is a currency, and what is an economy.
I obviously think it's a hyperbolic statement, but there is something genuinely new in Bitcoin that basic economic classes wouldn't talk about (namely, the ability to maintain a secure transaction log without trusted intermediaries) that can certainly perform a fundamental part of what financial services provide.
This is true, the idea of having a reliably secure digital token that you can pass around without reversibility or double spending is huge. But unforgeable tokens don't make a new economy, it just enables economic activity without the participation of licensed institutions (aka 'underground' or 'black' markets) across distance, and that is pretty cool. It replaces 'wiring' money and sidesteps currency conversion issues. In that regard BitCoin is revolutionary.
What's humorous is that many apps are just HTML5 webpages loaded in a "app" frame, so there's very very little difference.
That said, in the case of a Bitcoin wallet, Coinpunk is unique because it's implementation is primarily in client-side Javascript. Most of the wallet services either rely on server-side crypto, or native apps.
Because of that technological dependency, either the service controls your data, or the mobile app store controls the distribution of the app.
With Coinpunk, no one can control it. No one. It's yours and always will be.
I wonder how QR codes will work with a webapp.
I know iPhones can now upload images from camera roll, but does the API allow access to the camera stream for QR reads?
"Drake thinks that Bitcoin could eventually make banks as obsolete as telephone switchboard operators."
I like BitCoin, its fun to see an actual proof of concept implementation of something speculated on at the turn of the century, but please folks, go to the community college and take their micro/macro economics classes (or listen too one at a MOOC, or a classes online) and learn what Banks do, what is a currency, and what is an economy.