Tag Archives: Charlie Shrem
Inside Bitcoins NYC Recap – Bitcoin Future is Bright, But Uncertain
Bitcoin Conference Speakers Share Mixed Views on the Future, But Optimism on Work Underway
“Bitcoin looks like Facebook today, but so did Friendster in its day.” — Brock Pierce, Managing Director of Clearstone Global
The Inside Bitcoins NYC conference dealt with a broad swath of topics from business models and profitability concerns to how Bitcoin can be an enabler of social freedoms.
And yet, much of the speaker focus and audience concern surrounded how Bitcoin can become more mainstream, how will it interact with or change the current infrastructure, and what (and who) will be the winning business model.
While there were discussions by the VC panel (Gold 2.0) and the keynote speaker, Charlie Shrem, on altcoins and other fiat currencies, the overwhelming consensus is that Bitcoin will be the dominant currency in the space.
As Brock Pierce, Managing Director of Clearstone Global, cautions “is Bitcoin Friendster, Myspace or Facebook? It looks like Facebook today, but so did Friendster in its day.”
Looking at the state of the Bitcoin community today, many of the companies are still nascent – a number of the represented firms have had recent shutdowns/relaunches or are soon to launch private betas. There continues to be a strong interest in education about legal and regulatory issues, today particular emphasized by the interest in the overview of major legal topics by Jacob S. Farber, Senior Counsel at Perkins Coie LLP.
Also represented on the post-lunch panel was James White, Director Tax Issues for the US Government Accountability Office, demonstrating how the government is taking a more active interest in the space.
Overall, the conference explored the major topics that entrepreneurs and potential financial investors are grappling with. Among the motivations discussed by Anthony Gallippi, Co-Founder and CEO of BitPay (site), is the reduction of credit card payment fraud (estimated at $100 billion per year) and ability to accept payments from a much larger international consumer base.
Stephanie Murphy, from Let’s Talk Bitcoin, and Alan Safahi, founder and CEO of ZipZap, see the value in enabling freedom of speech through transactions outside the control of governments or without third-parties recording personal information.
However, for Bitcoin to become a mainstream monetary transfer mechanism, a number of issues need to be addressed, such as the noted legal uncertainties or the evolution of the current legacy infrastructure discussed by Maria Sparagis, President of DirectPayNet.
Ultimately, the major questions of adoption, future direction and industry winners continue to be hashed out.
Authored by Michael Smouha and Ronan Murphy, Contributors to On Bitcoin
Read other articles from the conference:
- Inside Bitcoins NYC Keynote: Is Bitcoin the New Financial Order?
- Finding Business Model Opportunities in Bitcoin – Inside Bitcoins NYC
- Building Bitcoin into the Core Architecture of the Web – Inside Bitcoins NYC
Inside Bitcoins NYC Keynote: Is Bitcoin the New Financial Order?
Charlie Shrem Calls Bitcoin the Currency of the Future, Wants to Grow the Bitcoin Ecosystem
In his morning keynote at the Inside Bitcoins conference in New York City, 23 year-old Charlie Shrem described Bitcoin as spurring a paradigm shift in the financial sector. Shrem is Vice Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation and CEO of BitInstant.
The growth of Bitcoin—the digital currency that allows for feeless and instantly settled transactions–is directly related to wider acceptance by traditional retailers, assuring the security of transactions and combatting some of the less than favorable press that Bitcoin has garnered.
However, the growth of Bitcoin is also dependent on entrepreneurs like Charlie. Once laughed out of every venture capitalist’s office in New York City, Charlie Shrem convinced his mother to take out her life savings in order to start BitInstant, which solved the problem of “how do you buy bitcoins?” Today, as a result of Shrem’s efforts, you can walk into any 7/11 and buy Bitcoin in addition to your daily coffee or Slurpee. Later the famous, or infamous, Winklevoss twins invested in the startup.
Shrem’s latest endeavor is named Bitcoin Wireless, whose aim is to allow for the exchange of mobile airtime minutes as a currency (reminiscent of the virtues of mobile transaction pioneer M-Pesa).
Another innovation cited by Shrem in his talk was that of the Harvey brothers out of New Hampshire, who are launching the first Bitcoin ATM network; the ATM’s will allow for virtually instant cash-for-bitcoin exchanges.
With so much optimism and innovation surrounding Bitcoin, Charlie Shrem was quick to also point out some less rosy realities. Bitcoin has reputational issues to address; while these are due to Bitcoin’s “early days” when the currency’s environment was akin to the “Wild Wild West” and have been amplified by some members of the media, these issues are very real.
Next, is the issue of how Bitcoin might play with respect to traditional banks and financial institutions. In his talk, Shrem was hopeful that Bitcoin would one day be harmoniously incorporated into the traditional banking system, co-existing alongside credit cards, cheques and other more traditional instruments of financial transactions.
On the net, does Bitcoin’s future look bright? According to Shrem, “Bitcoin is doing to the world what Email did to snail mail.”
Authored by Michael Smouha and Ronan Murphy, Contributors to On Bitcoin
Conference photo tweeted by @saumvaish
