December 2017: "Bitcoin Cash" Criticized For Branding Itself as Bitcoin

Lee stated: "A lot of newcomers are going to be misled by Bitcoin.com. This article is so full of lies and FUD...It is not morally and ethically correct to deliberately confuse newcomers in the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets."

20 April 2014: Interview of Dale Dickins

BCNA: Why should people watch the documentary? What are your favourite reviews of the film so far?

Dale: The documentary is designed for people who are new to cryptocurrencies, and are curious to know how they began. It answers the main question I've been asked, which is "who's behind it?". I'm amazed by how many people don't even know about OpenSource and I think it's important to share the fundamentals of how OS works. Considering it's the basis, the core of Bitcoin, I wanted to let people know that this is what separates cryptocurrencies from government or proprietary currencies, and that an alternative exists.
My favourite review is "lumpy gravy" which came from a film maker! Considering this was my very first attempt at making anything film-centric this feedback was appreciated. Watching the doco from his point of view I could see what he meant, and grow from it.

BCNA: In your opinion, what are the main characteristics of the bitcoin subculture/community?

Dale: Curiosity is a key characteristic for humanity, as children we see adults standing and want to know why they're doing something different. That's how we learned to roll, crawl, stand, talk and engage with each other. Enough people were curious about finding out how our current financial system was created and thought there was room for a system more appropriate to our circumstances, so they created an alternative that fits our current lifestyles, one created by computers for computers.
I liken the Bitcoin culture to the Christopher Columbi of the 21st century. As new laws and trade agreements are currently being negotiated between continents, and BRICS/AIIB gain power against western capitalist imperialism, I think it's no surprise that a frontier of developers has risen to challenge the existing economic monopoly.

BCNA: Bitcoin is a decentralized currency. Can you summarize the protocol of the network briefly?

Dale: I think sharing is the main ingredient for decentralisation, it's something that is inherent in our nature as human beings, something that naturally connects us and can't be taken away. Criminalising this behaviour by enforcing laws has shaped how we interact with each other, to our detriment. The discovery of cryptocurrency is bringing back a natural behaviour and getting us to question how we engage with each other, without a middleman. The birth of this protocol shows we're maturing as a society, we CAN trade peer to peer, we don't need an entity to oversee how we transact.

11 Nov 2014: Interview of Changpeng Zhao

BCNA: What are the countries you have lived in?

CZ: I was born in China, moved to Canada when I was a teenager. I went to high school in Vancouver, university in Montreal. Then, I went to Japan and worked in Tokyo for 4 years. After that, I moved to New York in 2001 and worked in Bloomberg for 4 years. Then I returned to Shanghai to run my own start up in 2005. In 2013, I left that startup to work full time in the bitcoin industry. Now I live in Tokyo.

BCNA: In short, What is blockchain.info? What is OKCoin.com?

CZ: Blockchain.info provides tools for users to track and analyze bitcoin transactions, as well as a popular bitcoin wallet. OKCoin.com is an online exchange where users can buy bitcoins (and Litecoin) with cash or sell bitcoin for cash. OKCoin also supports a few advanced features for serious traders, such as bitcoin futures, algorithm trading, etc.

BCNA: In your opinion, why (Australian) individuals and organisations should adopt bitcoin ?

CZ: Bitcoin has many advantages over traditional (fiat) currency. I won't list all of them here, but I can give you a couple examples where it might be useful.
Say I want to send you $100 AUD now. I will have to declare to the China banks where I got my money, who you are, why I am sending money outside of China, etc, lots of long forms to fill. It will take several days or weeks for the money to get to your bank account in Australia. And in the end, you will get probably get somewhere around $50, after all the banks take their charges. With bitcoins, I can send it to you in 3 seconds, no forms to fill, no approval from banks (or anyone else) required, and you will get $199.99 AUD!
Now, if someone want to send you $1 million dollars (say for a business transaction), the process with fiat currency is even worse. On the other end of the spectrum, if someone want to send you $0.1, it's not possible with the current banking system. If you could charge $0.1 every time an article is read on your site, you could earn $30,000 / month if your site had 300k page views per months, which is achievable for almost any news sites.
With bitcoins, these are all possible, and all just takes 3 seconds per transaction, with close to zero fees.
There are many many other advantages with bitcoins, but I will just leave it at the example above for now.

BCNA: Do you have any data that forecasting the prospect of bitcoin in the next 5 years?

CZ: I think adoption of bitcoins will only accelerate. While the price of bitcoins has declined somewhat in the past 6 months or so, we see increased number of users, as well as venture capital investments in this space. venture capital investment in 2012 was $2 million USD, in 2013, it was $96m, in 2014, we have seen $296 million so far.
One of the key difficulties with bitcoin adoption has been the current set of tools are too hard for an average person to use or understand. With more venture capital investments in the space, many startups are creating very innovative solutions to make bitcoin applications very easy to use.
OKCoin has also pushed out a new product suit OKLink.com, which will provide very secure and easy-to-use wallets and payment services for bitcoins.
We believe in 5 to 10 years, bitcoins, or more precisely crypto-currency, will be as widespread as the internet is today.

BCNA: What is the difference between the bitcoin regulation in Australian and other nations? In your opinions, which nations are more open to bitcoin?

CZ: My general impression is Australia is relatively open to bitcoins. On top of my head, many of the European countries are very friendly towards bitcoins, Singapore, Japan are pretty open as well, Brazil and Argentina in South America, Canada, and certain states in USA. http://bitlegal.io/ has a pretty good breakdown.

BCNA: what makes OkCoin stand out?

CZ: OKCoin is the best bitcoin exchange out there. We offer a few things other people don't have. For example, 24 hours customer support with a phone number to call. A slick mobile app that allows you to trade on the go. A exchange platform that is secure, stable and fast. Above all else, OKCoin has the best liquidity, which means you will get the best price for buy and sell.
I could go on for a while here too, but don't want to turn this into an OKCoin ad, which is very tempting, haha.

BCNA: OkCoin International is based in Singapore. It is close to Australia. What is OKCoin's plan with Australia?

CZ: Singapore is very friendly to bitcoins and encourages innovation in this space. This attracts people like us to Singapore. We want to get to Australia ASAP, and are hoping Australia's policies is equally friendly to bitcoins businesses. Innovation flourishes where it is encouraged.

The interview was completed online on 11 Nov 2014

24 Aug 2014: Awareness Campaign of Bitcoin

Bitcoin Club for Northern Australia (BCNA) was formed in June 2014. We have been running an awareness campaign internationally for Bitcoin since then. By last week, we sent introductory letters of Bitcoin to about 9000 organisations internationally. They are businesses in Far north Queensland (+1000), public libraries, and film studios etc.

BCNA website: http://BCNA.GoodEasy.info