The Bitcoin Finance 2014 Conference and Expo, which took place in Dublin, discussed bitcoin and main topics relating to the digital currency.
The first day of the Bitcoin Finance 2014 Conference and Expo (Bitfin) started on July 3rd in Dublin. The event was dedicated to bicoin and the world of digital currency.
Day one began with the speech of Circle CEO and founder Jeremy Allaire, who spoke about the potential of virtual money to change traditional financial system.
Bitfin 2014, the two-day conference was held at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) and included more than 300 people.
The morning session of the first day featured presentations targeted at providing basic information about the digital currencies. The titles included ‘Common Questions About Bitcoin’, ‘Introduction to Bitcoin’, ‘the Economics of Bitcoin’.
Gareth Murphy, director of markets supervision at the Central Bank of Ireland, gave his speech in the afternoon and spoke about the possible innovations bitcoin could bring. He also discussed the negative side of using the cryptocurrency.
Further speakers involved members of the finance committee of the States of Alderney, the UK Digital Currency Association, the Government of the Isle of Man and Circle representatives.
The panel members spoke about the bitcoin regulation and how it should be developed.
Among other panelists are Grace Caffyn, CoinDesk sub-editor, Karl Gray of StartJoin, Nic Cary of Blockchain, Simon Dixon of BankToTheFuture.com and Christina Gorlick of CloudHashing.
Day one was closed with the speech from Colm Lyon of Realex. He discussed that development of bitcoin will increase competition in the current payments market and will improve services for customers.
Day two of the conference was opened by Greg Brockman, CEO of Stripe. In his speech he noted that the main reason people do not use bitcoin is the lack of trust and protection.
Steve Beauregard, founder of GoCoin, said he thinks bitcoin traders have to encourage its customers to use the digital currency by providing special offers and discounts.
The later discussion featured BitPesa‘s Amy Ludlum, Blockchain‘s Nic Cary, Ocean Bank’s Oleg Pokrovsky, BTC China‘s Bobby Lee and Bitonic’s Pieterjan Goppel. Cary said that all bitcoin resources in English should be translated into other languages, thus increasing the awareness of the public.
The panel discussion called ‘Exchanges and Onramps’ was focused on the topic of localization. The debate also covered the usability of fiat and bitcoin exchanges. The speakers included BTC China CEO Bobby Lee, Bit4Coin co-founder Dolf Diederichsen and CurrencyFair CEO Brett Myers.
The ‘Bitcoin Adoption by Banks’ panel discussion members talked about the recent ECB’s announcement that banks should avoid using bitcoin until it is totally regulated.
The final discussion featured co-founder of BitAngels Michael Terpin, The Kaiser Report host Max Keiser, Stripe’s Greg Brockman, Hailo’s Jay Bregman and others.
Keiser said that inadequacies of the current banking system facilitate the growth of the virtual currency.
The conference rounded off with Bregman who answered the questions about his plans relating to bitcoin. He said that for Hailo integrating bitcoin is a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’.
Polina is an undergraduate student at Belarusian State Economic University (BSEU) where she is studying at the faculty of International Business Communication for a degree specializing in Intercultural Communication. In her spare time she enjoys drawing, music and travelling.
