How Milton Friedman Predicted Bitcoin In 1999Long before Bitcoin ever existed, the notion was proposed by the U.S.'s most famous free-market economist.

Bitcoinis widely embraced by the libertarian community, mostly because the digital currency isn't tied to any single government, nor is it that heavily regulated. (Well, at least not yet. Give it time.)

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the idea behind Bitcoin was endorsed years ago by Milton Friedman, the shaman of modern free-market economics.

In a 1999 interview suddenly making the rounds on YouTube, Friedman talks about the then-nascent internet, saying he thinks it will be one of "the major forces reducing the role of government."

That remains to be seen, but he then mused over the idea of a web currency that sounds awfully familiar to today's beloved, misunderstood and evolving Bitcoin...