Houston Bitcoin Embassy Opens

Houston, we have a problem. We need more cutting edge tech entrepreneurs.

Luckily there’s a new space in Houston, Texas, built just for that, provided by Cryptospaces, which is backed by bitcoin consulting company, FinalHash. Located at 6907 Almeda Rd., the Houston Bitcoin Embassy is an incubator/ coworking space dedicated to tech startups. There are also plans to install a bitcoin ATM in the facility by the end of April.

The Embassy is home to the Texas Coinitiative, a non-profit organization that promotes the use of Bitcoin in Texas.

The Coinitiative mission statement reads:

“We believe that our growing community will help to shape progress in this field. Come network with traders, entrepreneurs and innovators working in one of the most interesting sociological and technological innovations in recent times.”

The Texas Coinitiative hosts several meetups — at least one meet-up each week — including the Houston Bitcoin meetup, an Ethereum meetup and an upcoming Houston Bit Business meetup: a meeting place specifically designed for Bitcoin entrepreneurs.

The Texas Coinitiative invites speakers once or twice a month and is always looking for new speakers. Some of the speakers they’ve recently hosted include Bitcoin Core developer, Peter Todd; Changetip CEO, Nick Sullivan; and Ziftr CEO, Bob Wilkins.

“The city of Houston is still very early in adoption phases in terms of Bitcoin,” says Adam Richard, president and co-founder of the Texas Coinitiative. “There aren’t many merchants that accept bitcoin here. We want to help grow that.”

The Embassy is also spearheading an educational project led by Jay Campuzano of Yo Soy Bitcoin , a series of educational video courses on Bitcoin for beginners in both English and Spanish.

In order to grow, the Texas Coinitiative is looking for sponsors.

“The help from sponsors,” says Richard, “will be used for anything from food and drinks for events to printing of educational materials; all for the purpose of education and inspiring others to become more involved in the Houston Bitcoin ecosystem.”

The Houston Bitcoin Embassy currently has vacancies for anyone interested in an incubation/ coworking space.

The Texas Coinitiative will have a booth at tomorrow’s upcoming Texas Bitcoin Conference. It encourages attendees to visit the booth and talk to any of its representatives there.

“We want to put Houston on the map in the Bitcoin space,” says Richard. “Houston has a lot going on that people don’t realize. There are currently 12 local Bitcoin startups in the city.”

The Houston Bitcoin Embassy is open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information about the Houston Bitcoin Embassy, visit their website, send them an email, or sign up to attend the Houston Bitcoin meetup at meetup.com.

March 28, 2015 at 09:22PM

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Bitrefill and Celery Make Bitcoin Remittances Easy: A Conversation With CEO Sergej Kotliar

Bitcoin airtime merchant, Bitrefill, has partnered with New York-based Bitcoin exchange Celery to enable bitcoin remittances of phone minutes to more than 100 countries – without the sender ever having to touch the digital currency.

“The integration uses all of the benefits of Bitcoin but hides the complexities from the user, just uses Bitcoin as settlement rails,” said Celery CEO IIya Subkhankulov.

The process does not require a user to buy bitcoin or handle the digital currency. Airtime purchases made from Celery’s exchange take the money straight from the person’s bank account, similar to the process of buying bitcoin.

In addition, Bitrefill is eliminating fees for airtime remittances to India. The U.S.-India corridor contributes largely to the $70 billion worth of remittances that flow into the Asian country each year.

A Proven Model

Ismail Ahmed, founder and CEO of WorldRemit, told Mobile World Live in 2014, that informal airtime remittances could make nearly half of the $40 billion worth of remittances that flow into Africa each year.

Ahmed made that comment shortly after raising $40 million from Accel Partners and others in a Series A Round, so his money transfer company could pursue airtime and other remittance services.

Airtime remittances are particularly valuable for people sending amounts of money worth under $20. According to TransferTo‘s CEO Eric Barbier, that’s the “sweet spot” for the unconventional money transfer. Remittance companies charge too much to make remittances of such a small amount possible, but airtime services’ low fees make it a viable option.

In many parts of the world, airtime minutes are not only serving as an informal money transfer system, but also as actual money. According to the Economist , in places such as Haiti, Zimbabwe and Egypt, airtime minutes are used to buy things such as gasoline, water and electricity.

According to Hannes Van Rensburg, Visa’s head of their sub-Saharan Africa division, airtime as money is particularly popular in countries where rigid regulatory schemes have made it very difficult for banks to offer new kinds of electronic money.

Even places such as Kenya, where mobile money such as M-Pesa is extremely popular, airtime as money has found a use case. Airtime minutes’ relatively stable price serves as a better store of value than the Kenyan shilling, causing people to hold airtime minutes rather than shillings.

Bitcoin’s UX Problem

A lot has been said about how non-user-friendly bitcoin can be, but according to Bitrefill CEO and co-founder, Sergej Kotliar, it’s really bad. During an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, Kotliar said users in many countries remain confused how to use bitcoin when paying for Bitrefill’s service.

“They had to be walked, step by step, through the process,” he said.

The partnership with Celery will allow users to take advantage of Bitrefill’s cheaper rates and convenience, while never having to touch the rather confusing digital currency.

After signing in, Celery users will see a “Phone Refill” feature toward the bottom of the screen. The user then chooses the amount he or she wants and clicks “Purchase.” The same amount is deducted from the customer’s bank account by Celery, which sends the order for airtime minutes to Bitrefill. The recipient receives the airtime a few seconds later.

But overcoming Bitcoin’s UX problem is just one of the steps the company is taking to reach its grander goal.

“We want to connect the worlds of prepaid and bitcoin. For bitcoin to be used by developing countries, they need to be able to spend it,” said Kotliar. “You can’t exchange bitcoin easily in the developing world, but you can spend airtime easily.”

Full-Fledged Startup

“As Westerners, we didn’t realize how much of the world used prepaid phones. It’s actually the way the majority of the world receives their phone minutes and data,” said Kotliar.

Bitrefill launched in October as a side product for its two co-founders, Kotliar and Aleksandra Derikonja. But a month after launching the service, the company received a lot of interest from the press and, subsequently, from users.

That provoked Kotliar and Derikonja to think more deeply about the prospects of bitcoin in the prepaid airtime industry. After researching the industry more, they discovered that a bitcoin-powered airtime service could solve issues of convenience, price and more.

Bitrefill is headquartered in San Mateo, California, as part of the Bitcoin startup accelerator program Boost VC. They are using the opportunity to further develop their business and to network with other Bitcoin companies.

In the upcoming year, the company will be signing deals with exchanges in Europe and then other parts of the globe. They wish to bring the same “bitcoin-in-the-background experience” to more countries around the world.

The Bitcoin airtime merchant also will be releasing an API that will allow any Bitcoin business to integrate Bitrefill into its website.

March 27, 2015 at 05:19PM

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The Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) Goes Live with Ticker GBTC

A few weeks ago Bitcoin Magazine reported that the Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) was about to become the first publicly traded Bitcoin fund. On Thursday, the BIT received formal approval for listing on the OTC Markets Group’s OTCQX exchange. The fund is listed with the symbol GBTC, and trading is expected to begin early next week.

Barry Silbert announced on Twitter that the BIT fund is live and waiting for eligible shareholders to deposit their shares and sell.

The BIT is the first product from Silbert’s new Grayscale Investments, a digital-asset management firm being launched concurrently by his Digital Currency Group. The Wall Street Journal notes that the BIT is the latest addition to the growing number of bitcoin trading platforms that aim to expand bitcoin investments beyond the volatile spot exchanges and attract a new class of investors.

Each share of BIT is worth approximately one-tenth of a bitcoin. Holders of BIT shares won’t hold bitcoin in their names, but they will hold shares of the fund, which itself holds bitcoin. Since the value of BIT shares will fluctuate with the exchange rate of bitcoin, the fund will be a convenient investment vehicle linked to bitcoin – in particular, investors will be able to short the fund and profit from drops in the price of bitcoin. The availability of traded funds linked to bitcoin and investment vehicles such as options, futures and other derivatives is expected to contribute to stabilizing the value of bitcoin.

The BIT skipped the lengthy SEC registration process by taking a shortcut approved by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Without SEC registration, the BIT can’t formally be considered as an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), but other funds are seeking SEC approval for listing on the NYSE or Nasdaq. The Winklevoss twins are planning a Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF, which will be available to investors on NASDAQ with the ticker COIN.

The BIT will open bitcoin investing up to the wider world of capital markets and traditional investors who prefer not to trade bitcoin as currency because they are scared by bitcoin’s wild price swings.

“Over the past three or four months, a handful of banks have started to experiment,” said Silbert. “Some of them are experimenting around trading, some around using the blockchain for settlement, and some are interested in deploying capital as investors.”

The Grayscale website notes that digital currencies are poised to radically transform our financial system, but it won’t happen overnight.

“At Grayscale, we believe investors deserve an established, trusted, and accountable partner that can help them navigate the gray areas of digital currency investing,” the website says. “That’s why we are building transparent, familiar investment products that facilitate access to this burgeoning asset class, and provide the springboard to invest in the new digital currency-powered ‘internet of money.’”

“The hope within the bitcoin community is that BIT and future publicly traded bitcoin investment vehicles will improve liquidity and thus help smooth out some of the price volatility that has plagued bitcoin in its early years,” notes PandoDaily. “The fact that BIT is also now a regulated entity should help calm the (justified) fears of many prospective bitcoin investors. A more stable bitcoin market is seen as being a necessary pre-condition for widespread adoption as a payment vehicle.”

Image via Grayscale Investments.

March 27, 2015 at 03:29PM

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Neteller Adds Bitcoin Funding to Prepaid Mastercards

In a surprise move, e-wallet provider and payment processor Neteller quietly started to accept bitcoin deposits at zero fees. Neteller customers will now be able to top up their accounts by exchanging Bitcoin into one of the currencies offered by Neteller.

Neteller, owned and operated by publicly traded British global payments company Optimal Payments PLC, is used by millions of consumers in more than 200 countries and especially popular in the foreign exhange and online gambling sectors.

This announcement follows the entering into of an agreement between Optimal Payments and Bitcoin payment processor BitPay.

“We recognize the important role that cryptocurrencies play in the future of payments,” said Optimal Payments President and CEO Joel Leonoff, “and we look forward to working with BitPay as the acceptance rate grows.”

“Neteller has recognized the growing strategic importance of bitcoin,” notes the BitPay website, “and we will be working with them to help further drive mainstream adoption of bitcoin.” Sonny Singh, BitPay’s chief operating officer, added that the relationship with Optimal Payments will help BitPay to drive merchant acceptance on a global scale.

A few days ago, Optimal Payments announced the forthcoming acquisition of the biggest Neteller competitor Skrill (formerly Moneybookers.) It seems therefore likely that bitcoin deposit options may be added to Skrill as well in the coming months.

Neteller, which is listed as an “Authorised Electronic Money Institution” with the U.K. government’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is headquartered in the Isle of Man, a leading Bitcoin hub poised to attract digital fintech businesses, entrepreneurs and developers. The recent announcement of new Bitcoin-friendly regulations in the Isle of Man may have contributed to Neteller reversing its previous choice to block digital currency activities.

Besides paying the merchants that accept Neteller payments directly from their accounts, Neteller users have a prepaid “Net+” MasterCard that can be recharged from the wallet and used to pay all merchants that accept MasterCard, and withdraw cash from ATMs.

Two features of Neteller bitcoin deposits seem especially important.

First, Neteller is accepted by nearly all online gambling operators. Therefore, nearly all online gambling operators are able to accept bitcoin payments via Neteller. Unfortunately for gamblers based in America, current U.S. regulations against online gambling prevent Neteller from offering the service to customers based in the United States.

“All serviced countries except the United States can deposit with Bitcoin,” notes the Neteller website.

Second, all Neteller users now can link a prepaid Net+ MasterCard to their Neteller accounts, with the option to deposit bitcoin to recharge the card. In other words, Bitcoin users are suddenly able to withdraw their funds from all ATMs that accept MasterCard (read: nearly all ATMs) and pay all merchants that accept MasterCard (read: nearly all merchants), online or at points of sale. Optimal Payments’ upcoming acquisition Skrill also is a provider of prepaid debit cards.

Prepaid debit cards that can be recharged with bitcoin deposits, and therefore permit bitcoin payments anywhere, are becoming commonplace. In Australia, the CoinJar Swipe card permits spending bitcoin at most merchants and withdrawing bitcoin as cash at most ATMs. In Germany, holders of a Fidor Bank “Smart Giro Account” can sell bitcoin to other account holders, have the money instantly credited to their account, and spend or withdraw their money with their Fidor credit card, which in practice is equivalent to a card that can be recharged with bitcoin.

With the acquisition of Skrill, Neteller will be the biggest competitor of leading payment processor PayPal, which has already begun experimenting with Bitcoin.

March 26, 2015 at 05:15PM

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Designers Compete to Create Global Cryptocurrency Brand

by Jacob Donnelly on March 26, 2015 { }

Many people know the symbol of Bitcoin. Many people might know the symbol of Litecoin. Even fewer know the symbol of a Dogecoin. There are hundreds of cryptocurrencies that have been developed, but what’s the symbol for “cryptocurrency?”

Brand Me Crypto, a design contest sponsored by Vogogo and Cryptsy, is hoping that one concise brand can be created that will epitomize the true brand of cryptocurrency.

“I found myself and our designers struggling to visually articulate cryptocurrency as a whole without inundating our designs with 5+ more coins just to communicate the overarching cryptocurrency conversation and message,” said Chantel Meeley, head of marketing and creative at Vogogo.

But it wasn’t as simple as just hiring a design firm to come up with a few different concepts. It was important that Brand Me Crypto kept true to the culture that has sprung up from cryptocurrencies. As it says on its website, it needed to be “designed by the people, for the people.”

The two companies joined forces and launched the Brand Me Crypto initiative on October 28, 2014, inviting designers from around the world to submit their concepts. At the end of the contest, designers from 89 countries across five continents had submitted their ideas of what the brand should be.

The contest is now in its final stages. Five designs are being voted on from around the world. Anyone is eligible to vote on the design. More than 7,000 votes have been tallied, and voting ends on March 31, 2015 at 11:59 MDT.

The winner will receive $10,000 in USD or the cryptocurrency of their choosing as well as recognition on open creative licensing rights.

“I am excited to see that the final brand the world population selects and looking forward to having one visual identity that represents this new currency,” Meeley said.

Cast your vote today at brandmecrypto.com.

March 26, 2015 at 04:42PM

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The Future of the BitGive Foundation: Great Potential Amid Uncertainty

Over the past three days, Bitcoin Magazine has featured stories about the BitGive Foundation; how it began and the work that it has done with charities including Save the Children, The Water Project and Medic Mobile. Its founder and sole full-time staffer, Connie Gallippi, has helped the organization grow to become the first registered tax-exempt bitcoin charity, spreading the word about Bitcoin’s potential for positive change in the world.

“We’ve continuously put out great efforts,” says Gallippi, “and we have a lot of supporters who like our work. The community has been looking for ways to improve its image and reach a mainstream audience. It would be great if we could leverage what we are already doing to accomplish this goal. Our work is making a direct impact today in ways that a mainstream audience can appreciate and relate to.”

Looking forward, the BitGive Foundation has two immediate fundraising goals: its current campaign with Medic Mobile, and support for the Foundation’s own long-term viability.

Medic Mobile is an open-source platform that supports health workers in remote communities of the developing world, using mobile technology.

“Medic Mobile has a mission that connects with our Bitcoin audience,” says Gallippi. “They are giving out thousands of mobile phones in 21 developing and Third World countries to support healthcare.”

Each phone is given to a community health worker who volunteers to take care of approximately 30-50 people in a remote village. It takes hours and days for some to walk to and from the closest doctor or hospital to exchange information.

Using the phones, along with Medic Mobile’s free, open-source platforms, health workers can communicate directly with doctors, saving them from having to walk for days and the dangers that come with it. They can also register pregnancies, track disease, keep vital supplies stocked and literally save lives in the case of emergencies.

Aside from the obvious importance of Medic Mobile’s work in health care, Gallippi saw the potential for building a network of cell phones in remote parts of the world. Early conversations were about hopes that the long-term effect of the phone distribution might also allow for the creation of hubs for bitcoin transactions, bringing financial and remittance services to the unbanked populations as well.

The foundation’s second — and perhaps most pressing — campaign is to raise enough money to keep itself going so that it can continue to take on more projects in the future.

“Right now, I’m the only employee,” says Gallippi, “and the runway is very short for me to be able to stay on full-time.”

Since the inception of the BitGive Foundation in 2013, there has been support from some key founding donors, including BitPay, Perkins Coie, Jeff Garzik, and Roger Ver, to name a few. As the two-year anniversary of BitGive approaches this June, Gallippi will be wrapping up the Founding Donors campaign.

“At the beginning, there was great support,” says Gallippi. “Then the price of bitcoin dropped and things have been pretty slow.”

She is hoping that more companies and individuals will want to take advantage of the opportunity to become founding donors, who will be recognized in perpetuity for their contributions to build the first Bitcoin philanthropic organization, before the end of the campaign.

Besides becoming a founding donor, there are plenty of ways for members of the Bitcoin community contribute to the BitGive Foundation.

1. Become a member. You’ll support the BitGive Foundation’s efforts to offer charitable gifts and campaigns to organizations around the world on behalf of the Bitcoin community. You’ll also receive a T-shirt, discounts on events and a tax receipt.


2. Direct your tips to BitGive. If you have an account with ChangeTip, you have the option to automatically redirect your tips to one of several charitable organizations.


3. Engage in the Amazon Smile program when you shop on io. A donation of 0.5% of your purchase amount will be directed to the charity of your choice (at no extra cost to the purchaser), and BitGive is registered with Amazon Smile. In addition, BitGive has also secured matching donations from Bitcoin organizations. For the next few weeks, all Smile donations through Purse.io will be matched by Chain.com; those matching amounts will be directed to BitGive.


4. Make a tax-deductible donation. Companies and individuals can offset taxable gains by making a tax-deductible donation to BitGive, a registered 501c3, using LibraTax to help optimize gains/losses and make donations go further.


5. Buy a T-shirt or make a one-time donation through the BitGive Foundation website.

Gallippi’s long-term goal is for the foundation to establish an endowment that will protect the organization’s ability to operate to its full potential.

“Right now, we can only support one campaign at a time,” says Gallippi. “But there is potential for things to grow if we have the resources. For now, we have to make our choices very strategically.”

“Our goal has been to establish a global presence, and we’re doing that,” she adds. “Our stated mission is to improve public health and the environment, and we’re providing a way for companies in the Bitcoin space to give back.”

March 24, 2015 at 11:25PM

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Anycoin Direct Expands to 14 New European Markets

Bitcoin brokerage Anycoin Direct has added TrustPay as a new payment option, opening the company to 14 new markets in Europe.

The deal enables the Netherlands-based brokerage to receive instant wire transfers from customers in markets such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary and others in the region.

Anycoin Direct provides brokerage services for bitcoin as well as altcoins including litecoin, darkcoin and dogecoin.

Co-founder Bram Ceelen told CoinDesk:

“With the addition of TrustPay, we now serve almost all the European market. Our goal is to make buying and selling bitcoin as easy as possible. To do this we work with as many local trusted payment methods as possible to make sure the buy process goes as smooth as possible.”

The move builds off previous efforts to grow in the European bitcoin market, after announcing its growth strategy last year. The company raised €500,000 as part of a seed round in January, a funding effort led by a private investor.

At the time, co-founder Lennert Vlemmings suggested that some of those funds would be used to adopt new payment methods for the platform.

TrustPay did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Eastern Europe image via Shutterstock

AnyCoin

March 23, 2015 at 07:30PM

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Bitreserve Expands to India and Mexico; Partners with Mexican Billionaire

Bitcoin bank Bitreserve , founded by CNET founder Halsey Minor in 2013, shields its customers from the volatility of bitcoin by instantly locking deposits to a fiat currency selected by the customer, for example the US dollar. If you make a deposit in bitcoin to Bitreserve, you don’t have to worry about volatility, because your bitcoin can be converted to dollars on-the-fly and appear as dollars in your balance. So Bitreserve users don’t lose money if the exchange rate of bitcoin goes down – if they have chosen to convert part of their holdings to, say, $1,000 USD, they will continue to have $1,000 USD in their account regardless of any fluctuations of bitcoin value.

Of course, the reverse is also true: if the exchange rate of bitcoin goes up, you don’t make money. But today risk-averse bitcoin users are scared of volatility and many fear that bitcoin will continue to dive as it has done in 2014. In the harsh reality of today’s economy, most individuals and small businesses must carefully manage their finances, and are unable to tolerate even a small degree of volatility.

“Bitreserve is on a mission to democratize the use of digital currency by protecting businesses and consumers from the risks inherent in the bitcoin model,” notes a Forbes review quoted on the Bitreserve website.

Bitreserve users can fund their accounts with bitcoin, and can choose to hold their funds as bitcoin or “bitcurrencies” permanently pegged to gold or to a growing list of fiat currencies, including dollars, euros, pounds, yen, and yuan. Users who choose to convert their bitcoin are still able to send bitcoin payments to other Bitreserve users or external bitcoin addresses, but their bitcoin holdings fluctuate with exchange rates, whereas their converted holdings stay stable.

Recently Bitreserve announced the launch of two new bitcurrencies: the bitrupee (BitINR) and bitpeso (BitMXN), pegged to two key developing world currencies – the Indian rupia and the Mexican peso – now supported by Bitreserve’s cloud money system. Mexican Bitreserve customers will be able to hold their funds in Mexican pesos.

The most interesting part of the Bitreserve announcement is:

“The bitpeso is key to realizing the potential of our partnership with Bitreserve’s largest investor, Ricardo Salinas-Pliego, one of Mexico’s most admired entrepreneurs and the Chairman and CEO of Grupo Salinas, one of Latin America’s largest and fastest-growing business groups.”

Salinas-Pliego is the fourth richest person in Mexico behind Carlos Slim and the 168th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US $8 billion in March 2015.

Grupo Salinas, a group of companies with interests in telecommunications, media, financial services, and retail stores, is a pioneer in bringing basic financial services to the poor and working class through its retail and banking arm Grupo Elektra. According to the official website, Grupo Elektra, Latin America’s leading financial services company, is “focused on the base of the pyramid” – the large mass of Latin American financially disadvantaged citizens and migrant workers in the US. The Bitreserve announcement notes that:

“With over 2,600 retail outlets and bank branches throughout Latin America, Grupo Salinas will be a key partner in bringing the benefits of Bitreserve’s cloud money system to millions of Mexicans working in the US and hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses throughout Latin America.”

The wording of the announcement and the business model of Grupo Elektra imply that Bitreserve wants to grab a slice of the large market for remittances sent from migrant Mexican workers in the US back to their families in Mexico, in partnership with a major financial services company and community bank. The plan combines the faster and cheaper remittances permitted by Bitcoin with the convenience of using the national currency.

The announcement also reveals that Salinas-Pliego is now the main investor in Bitreserve, but the amount of his investment hasn’t been disclosed.

March 23, 2015 at 03:01PM

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Million Dollar Hackathon Returns to Austin, Texas

The Texas Bitcoin Association will present the Texas Bitcoin Conference March 27-29, a technological summit to showcase new developments that support Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and its proliferation.

The event will be held at Moody Theater, Home of “Austin City Limits Live,” in Texas’ capital city, and will spotlight the diversity of the Bitcoin community worldwide.

“The Texas Bitcoin Conference is focusing on the blockchain and the many ways Bitcoin can impact finance, business and government beyond just by being a better payment rail,” said Paul Snow, chairman of the Texas Bitcoin Conference.

Conference organizers are working with the College Crypto Network, Bitcoincollege.info, and BitcoinU to make the event appeal to students as well as seasoned developers, entrepreneurs, investors, industry leaders and enthusiasts.

“We are bringing voices new to the Bitcoin Community, like George Gilder author of ‘Wealth and Poverty;’ John Allen, adviser for the Festival of HOPE’ and IBM’s Sumabala P Nair, the architect of IBM’s Internet of Things architecture ADEPT,” said Steven Wilkinson, manager of the Texas Bitcoin Association.

Other prominent leaders in the Bitcoin community who will be speaking include James D’Angelo, founder and host of World Bitcoin Network; Bruce Fenton, founder of Bitcoin Association; former Texas Republican Rep. Steve Stockman’ Shawn Wilkinson, founder and lead developer of the Storj Project’ Steven Sprague, CEO of Rivetz; Charlie Shrem, co-founder and CEO of BitInstant; and Paul Snow, president of the Texas Bitcoin Association.

The conference will include the Bitcoin 2.0 Million Dollar Hackathon, where teams will compete for more than $1 million in prizes and contracts. Organizers will also release their call for papers that focus on greater technological information about Bitcoin.

“The 1st Texas Bitcoin Hackathon led the charge for developer participation in Bitcoin conferences, and served as a launching point for our platform. We look forward to the next one!” said Shawn Wilkinson, founder of Storj.

“The Texas Crypto 2.0 Hackathon is designed to empower the next generation of decentralized applications using blockchain technology to become reality,” added David Johnston, managing director of the Dapps Venture Fund.

Conference sponsors are Rivetz, GoCoin, Cryptocurrency Partners, Decentralized Applications Fund, Lighthouse Partners, Tally Capital, Digital Currency Council, Uber and Lyft.

Tickets and registration information can be found at http://ift.tt/18hNrY6.

March 23, 2015 at 02:32PM

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