Once An Underground Currency, Bitcoin Emerges As 'A New Way To Track Information'
November 9, 2017 Terry Gross 
https://www.npr.org/2017/11/09/563050434/once-an-underground-currenc...
https://ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2017/11/20171109_fa_01....



The digital currency's value has gone from zero to $120 billion in nine years. Digital Gold author
Nathaniel Popper says major banks are looking into the possibilities of its decentralized network.

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. There's so much I have to learn each day in preparation for
interviews that when I don't absolutely have to know something, I sometimes give myself permission
not to learn about it. And that's been my attitude toward bitcoin until now. Or, to put it another
way, when both Bjork and Microsoft are accepting bitcoin, it's time. 

So we're going to talk about what bitcoin is and how it's used in the underground and legit
marketplaces, how it's become a vehicle for investors and how big banks are starting to copy it. 

My guest, Nathaniel Popper, is a technology reporter for The New York Times who's been covering
digital currency. A couple of years ago he wrote a book about bitcoin called "Digital Gold."
Nathaniel Popper, welcome to FRESH AIR.