On Bitcoin » Inside Bitcoins NYC

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

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Building Bitcoin into the Core Architecture of the Web – Inside Bitcoins NYC

On Bitcoin — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 18:15:09 +0000

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How to get Bitcoin into the hands of 2.4 billion people not using it today

Bitcoin has plenty of room to grow. With a market cap of roughly $1 billion USD, Bitcoin represents but a fraction of the United States’ $16.3 trillion USD money supply. Manu Sporny, founder of Digital Bazaar, is one of the people actively seeking to close the gap.

At the Inside Bitcoins NYC conference, Manu Sporny shared his answer to accelerate growth and provided a vision of adding 2.4 billion people to the Bitcoin ecosystem within the next five years.

Where might one find a market that large that can be on-boarded that quickly? To Sporny, the answer lies in the 2.4 billion people with access to the web and in the sheer global dominance of four popular web browsers: IE, Safari, Firefox and Chrome.

The challenge that naturally follows is how to integrate Bitcoin into the browser. Sporny is tackling this challenge by pushing for new W3C standards for the browser that will allow for more simplified transactions over the web.

The argument is that exchanging funds over the Web is far more complicated than it needs to be. While we can exchange massive quantities of data nearly instantaneously, financial transactions are slowed due to the speed of old money, credit card numbers, waiting for block chain verifications, PCI compliance and the like.

Exploring a Bitcoin Web Payments Solution

Sporny articulated two paths to easier and faster financial transactions.

The first is PaySwarm, a currency-agnostic standard for Web Payments. PaySwarm, being commercialized through a system called Meritora, is the first open, universal standard for payments on the Web, allowing users to execute zero-click payments of USD, Euro, Bitcoins or any other currency of their choosing.

The second option described by Sporny is the WebPayment API, another standard for browser-based payments being developed by Mozilla. The API would enable one-click purchase directly from the browser.

Sporny is very bullish on Bitcoin and with the potential creation of new W3C standards that will spur Bitcoin use, it’s now “time for entrepreneurs to get in on the ground floor.”

Authored by Michael Smouha and Ronan Murphy, Contributors to On Bitcoin

CC image by jurvetson

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Finding Business Model Opportunities in Bitcoin – Inside Bitcoins NYC

On Bitcoin — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 17:43:43 +0000

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Trends to watch and how to think about Bitcoin as a business

At the Inside Bitcoins NYC conference, Coinsetter CEO Jaron Lukasiewicz spoke to a packed crowd. His message: the current financial system is outdated and relies on critically dated infrastructure. He believes that “people involved in Bitcoin [are saying] this is not acceptable anymore.”

Exploring the current financial system he points to three to five fund transfer times under ACH payments and drawing experience from his previous startup in ticketing, companies paying over 40% of revenues out in credit card fees. Basically, in 2013, it is still exceptionally difficult to send money to a friend and this is leading to a customer revolution.

Today, he proposes, Bitcoin is the dominant virtual currency. Not simply in terms of transactions and value, but based on awareness – including awareness outside current users of the market. The first mover advantage is significant and Mr. Lukasiewicz asks us to spend time thinking about how it has the potential to become an “IP address for money.”

Coinsetter is a leveraged forex trading platform, focused on active traders. Originally he questioned the number of exchanges being set up at the moment and why there isn’t an original business model. On reflection he thinks this is actually important. The more liquidity that comes into the Bitcoin system, the better. It will draw more users; innovation and a greater focus on customers. The latter being a key concern for Mr. Lukasiewicz, there is “room for a lot more exchanges to come online, but it is important to focus on a particular customer.”

Bitcoin Companies Working with Government and Banks

Focusing on the themes that will lead to business opportunities, he has concerns about government regulation and how banks will interact with Bitcoin. One of his theories is that anonymous financial transfer systems will not be easily integrated into the current banking system. Know Your Customer concerns and regulations will be a significant hurdle, along with security for institutions with large holdings. When challenged on these points during Q&A, Mr. Lukasiewicz clarifies that he sees this as layers added on top of the current system, rather than a change to current Bitcoin protocols – apparently to the great relief of the audience.

In conclusion, he sees the best opportunities for those companies that firstly, concentrate on Bitcoin as a payments protocol, and secondly, have a strong focus on having a strong customer proposition and delivering an appealing experience.

Authored by Michael Smouha and Ronan Murphy, Contributors to On Bitcoin

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