This month we are focussing on the much talked about and hyped Bitcoin phenomenon. But in good, old MiniBar fashion we are more interested in the technology and its potential for disruptive innovation than the media frenzy about stolen bitcoins etc..
In that vein the discussions will centre around the theme ‘Bitcoin might be a bad currency, but perhaps it is a great, open financial network that can disrupt the financial system”?
To help us with the event we have invited Paul Gordon from the London Bitcoin Meet-Up to be the co-curator. You can RSVP here.
Program:
Bitcoin 101
Long standing CoinScrum member, Darragh Browne will give us a brief overview describing how the Bitcoin protocol works and how the underlying technology has the potential to disrupt much more than legacy payment networks alone.
Cointouch
Chris Beach from Cointouch will present their platform that utilises users’ extended Facebook networks to allow them to advertise buy and sell orders for digital currencies with settlement based on the trust of their peers.
Satoshi Point
Jonathan Harrison will talk about the cash-to-bitcoin ATM’s that are now operating in London and other locations around the world, simplifying the often convoluted process of buying and selling digital currencies.
Tibdit
With digital currencies offering a potential mechanism for making making online micropayments viable at last, Iain Cresswell will take us through their Tibdit’s approach to tackling this perennial problem.
Cryptopay.me
Although the concept of Bitcoin and similar value-transfer protocols may offer us the ability to bypass financial intermediaries, the reality is that merchants want simple, safe and secure solutions for processing their payments. Cryptopay.me is a UK based digital currency processor that simplifies the task of accepting bitcoins, issuing receipts and converting revenue into the currency of the merchant’s choice should they wish to do so.
Dmitry Gunyashov will discuss the trials and tribulations of bringing his product to market in what is still a very grey regulatory environment.
XBTerminal
With the technology still being so raw, a whole host of applications and services will have to be layered on top of it if we are to see wide scale adoption of stateless alternative currencies.
Usability will need to match the options that we already have at hand so Aleks Nowak will present XBTerminal, a first-in-kind NFC enabled touch pad that makes spending bitcoins as easy as using your Oyster card.