Patrick Byrne Wired.com article (October 6, 2014)
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/overstock-com-assembles-coders-build-bitcoin-like-stock-market/...he’s committing between five and ten percent of Overstock’s cash flow—”single-digit millions”—to the company’s cryptosecurity project. “Building this—and being the company that owns this—can be more valuable than Overstock,” Byrne says. “It can be more valuable than Alibaba.”
“This could be as big or bigger than the internet,” Bryne says.
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The potential implications of this are simply MIND-BOGGLING!
Byrne hired the Counterparty developers, but I don't see where he explicitly says that he'll be using Counterparty (which would be a surprise to all those who just panic-bought XCP...lol).
I've listened to most of Byrne's YouTube videos from this year, and only a few months ago he said, "I'm looking to hire programmers who are familiar with blockchain technologies and turing complete programming languages; if you qualify, please get in contact with us" (which instantly made me think he was planning on using Ethereum to launch his cryptosecurities).
I personally think that the Counterparty guys got in contact with Patrick and NOT the other way around. Byrne was bascially inviting applicants, and I bet the XCP guys jumped at the opportunity.
Byrne DOES SAY that he wants his cryptosecurity platform to run on the Bitcoin blockchain as it is the most secure and time-tested...whether or not he will use Counterparty or some new software that his team builds, I'm not 100% sure.
(personally speaking...the Bitcoin blockchain is just too slow! ...hell, people get mad when a video takes 10 extra seconds to load)
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How this relates to ClearingHouse...I personally think this is extremely positive for XCH as Clearinghouse is basically a much faster and improved Counterparty. This is extreme VALIDATION and real world corporate PROOF that Clearinghouse is attempting to solve an extremely RELEVANT problem!
What I've learned from Patrick Byrne is that many of the clearinghouses in the US are using Fractional Reserve Securities (selling and lending equities that they DO NOT OWN) - this is their biggest technique of fraud, which is what Byrne is trying to fix!
It's very exciting to realize that we're in the ballgame, and these technologies can disrupt the big boys