Alright, are you all ready for this one today?

Prepare to expand your thought process on what Bitcoin and technology is all about because we’re going to be covering a man named Amir Taaki.

Amir Taaki is a 30 year old who has done a lot with his life so far.

For example, in his early 20s, Amir was drawn to the Free Software Movement and created a number of different video games.
A few years down the road Amir found himself earning a living through playing poker professionally. It was through this online gambling that led him to Bitcoin.
This is where Amir is different, unlike most people who learn about Bitcoin, right off the bat, Amir decided to create a Bitcoin exchange. He continued to contribute to the Bitcoin project and even created the Bitcoin Improvement Proposals, or BIPs, which is now Bitcoin’s standardization procedure. Amir also was involved with developing an anonymous wallet designed for Bitcoin and also an anonymous marketplace which eventually was turned into the project, OpenBazaar.

Amir was interviewed in 2014 by Max Keiser and it was pretty evident right from the start that this guy has many thoughts on the socio-political aspects of human nature.

Despite Max’s best efforts to get him to speak about his DarkWallet project, Amir was pretty set on diving way deeper. Once again I’m going to include a link down below so you can check out this interview, it begins around the 12:25 mark.
In this interview Amir explains how Bitcoin is not an improved payment system, that instead what it represents is much more than this, it is global, uncensored and decentralized. He also reminds us that anonymity is vital for free speech.

As Amir continues his passionate speech, he makes some great statements about human behavior regarding technology and our evolution of using tools that can equip people with the ability to live free.
He makes it a point to emphasize that despite some people wanting to label Bitcoin as politically neutral, we cannot separate the socio-political rhetoric from the technology, no technology is politically neutral.

He then goes ahead and says some visually intriguing statements about what separates man from the animals is that unlike the animals who are satisfied with moving through the landscape, man shapes the landscape.

Technology is the tool we use to live, “…that we can use to construct the world as we want through empowering the values we want to see happen.”

As if those thoughts weren’t enough, he ends with the reminder that there is no final victory, there may be individual battles, but it is very much about the process.

Now that interview took place in 2014, since then he’s done a lot more than help develop anonymous bitcoin wallets, he has definitely led a life that has stayed true to his beliefs.

After that interview with the Keiser Report, Amir had joined the rebels to fight ISIS for three and a half months in Syria in 2015.
More recently he has set in motion his plans to establish a school with the aim of training “ideological hackers”.
It looks like Amir is still living up to his reputation of having a more radical view on politics matched with impressive technological skills.

However the media may choose to portray this man, or however “radical” he evolves, the points that he made in that interview are important for all of us to not only consider, but seriously think on and discuss with those in our lives.

Additional Reading/Sources:

Amir Taaki
Interview with Max Keiser
Amir Taaki Now