The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin Page #8

guidance on virtual currencies,

there's still a lot of uncertainty

surrounding their outlook

on the future

of bitcoin regulation.

Straight ahead and in the

big fishbowl-looking...

okay, great.

( BEEPING )

I'm not gonna say

we're gonna have

every answer

for you today,

but I mean...

- ( SNAPPING FINGERS )

- ASHLEY:
Oh yeah.

( LAUGHS )

DANIEL:

Jennifer shasky calvery came onboard

as fincen's

director last year.

During her career,

she spent 15 years

at the department

of justice

where she specialized

in fighting money laundering

and organized crime.

Virtual currencies

have been on my radar

for a while,

even prior to coming

to this position,

because of,

unfortunately, the abuse

of some of them.

Bitcoin,

on the other hand,

is one that really

didn't come on my radar

probably until

I arrived at fincen.

Depending on

who you speak to,

the issuance

of our guidance was

either the best thing

that ever happened to bitcoin

or the worst thing that

ever happened to bitcoin.

Some accusing us

of trying to kill bitcoin

and others saying that

it somehow legitimized it.

Of course, neither of those

things I think is probably true.

And certainly neither of

those things was our intent.

One of the clear lines is

that if you're a consumer

who's using bitcoins

to buy goods and services,

the guidance

doesn't pertain to you.

We're focused more

on the places where we think

we have risks

to the U.S. financial system

from money laundering

and terrorist financing.

And I think

that might be kind of...

a lot of the bitcoin community

has a little bit of a fear

that bitcoin

may be characterized

in a way so as to tie it to some

bad actor ruining it for everyone,

when a lot of people that

are interested in bitcoin,

including myself, see it as just

this technology that we don't...

really don't wanna

see it falling

into the wrong

categorization

with all the potential

that's there.

Sure. So that innovation

around bitcoin

and the virtual economy

is really one of the more

interesting aspects,

I think, of this story...

the idea that

it can be used

to potentially serve

the unbanked out there,

just to provide

some really new services

that are convenient

for consumers.

The flip side of it

though

is that to be a part

of the financial system...

the U.S. financial system,

the global financial system...

also comes

with some responsibilities.

And those

responsibilities include

not allowing

your institution to be used

by criminals

and by terrorists.

DANIEL:

There's always been a concern

that the government might try

to stamp out bitcoin.

But perhaps they see the risk

of being left behind.

In may 2013,

the biggest gathering to-date

of bitcoin enthusiasts

and entrepreneurs

happened in San Jose,

California.

LINDSAY HOLLAND:

We're at bitcoin 2013.

It's the inaugural conference

of the bitcoin foundation.

ROGER VER:
Bitcoin is worldwide

and the vast majority of people

haven't even heard

of bitcoin yet.

It's more powerful

than every computer

on the top-500 list

combined.

It's an awfully

big world,

an awful lot of

things could happen.

Really, we've been

on a roller-coaster ride

and I expect, at least

for the next few years,

we're gonna remain

on a roller-coaster ride.

I happen to enjoy

roller coasters.

- I think they're fun.

- ( APPLAUSE )

DANIEL:

Just a few weeks earlier

Cameron and Tyler winklevoss,

known for their involvement

in Facebook,

announce that

they own a 1% stake

of all bitcoins

in existence.

Worth around $11 million.

- How's it going? How are you?

- Nice to meet you.

DANIEL:

They also made a $1.5 million investment

in Charlie's company,

bitinstant.

We started looking

seriously at it

at the end

of last summer

and started purchasing

around that time.

I think a light bulb just

went off and we said, "wow.

The implication of this

could be enormous.

TYLER:
If everyone in the world

could have a bitcoin address,

everyone in the world could

be banked fairly quickly.

And when you consider that,

it's a very powerful idea.

And bitcoin can

make that happen.

We're going

all over the world.

We're going

to the u.K.

We're going to Australia.

We're going to...

we're already in Russia.

We're going

to South America.

We're already

in Brazil now.

You can buy bitcoin

at any of our locations.

DANIEL:
It's fun to think that

satoshi might be here too.

I always wonder

if somebody is...

if someone here

somewhere is...

Yes. I was planning... -

...Standing in the corner going...

( BOTH LAUGH )

What would he do?

What talks would he

be attending, you know?

TRACE MAYER:
We're seeing the

bitcoin players in the market

meeting with

the venture capitalists

and they're all

beginning to posture

and that's

very exciting,

because

it means that

there's gonna be

a lot more

infrastructure

built out,

and lot more money

flowing into the space,

and it's really gonna be

a big bull market for bitcoin.

DANIEL:

One of the companies best known for making

bitcoin accessible for commerce

is Atlanta-based bitpay.

They are pioneers

in bitcoin

and provide a service

that enables merchants

to accept

bitcoin payments

without dealing

with its complexities.

We've grown about

a factor of 10

since the beginning

of the year.

We were doing about half

a million dollars a month...

- Yeah.

- ...Around the turn of the year,

and now we're doing

about $5 million a month.

This is people using bitcoins

to buy real goods and services.

They're not day trading.

They're not exchanging.

They're actually

buying things.

I'm confident that bitcoin is

the most important invention

in the entire history

of the world since the Internet.

DANIEL:

Roger ver is an investor

in several

early bitcoin companies,

including bitpay.

His passion and enthusiasm

has earned him

the nickname "bitcoin Jesus."

VER:

It is going to change everything.

And all of you here

in this room

you're at the very

very forefront of that.

( CHEERS, APPLAUSE )

DANIEL:

Roger lives in Tokyo

but travels the earth,

spreading the good word of bitcoin.

VER:
The last couple of

days we've been setting up

a business per day to accept

bitcoin here in the bay area.

Today's business

is going to be

this super kyo-po

Korean supermarket.

So for you... you accept

credit cards right now?

- Right. - The credit card companies are

charging you 2% or 3%?

- Right.

- For bitcoin, you can do the same thing,

but they'll

only charge you 1%

and you'll still get dollars

in your bank account.

If you want,

you can choose to split

some of the payments

that you receive

into bitcoins

and then some into dollars

in whatever ratio you want,

so you can keep 99% in dollars

and 1% in bitcoin or 99%

in bitcoin and 1% in dollars.

- Okay.

- However you want. You can decide that.

DANIEL:

Roger is describing the service

provided by bitpay.

They take the volatility

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes