In 2017, the latest rocket-ship trend hit bitcoin: the "coin offering," in which startups create their own currencies. With more than $1 billion raised, it has all the makings of a mania, but beneath the hype lies a powerful idea. Can "programmable money" be used to create new incentives within economic systems? Can one kind of code - software - replace another kind of code - law? We'll discuss the idea's pros and cons, with a focus on bitcoin's own bitter power struggle over this very idea.

[Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.]