Bitcoin convention brings out hope for digital currency's future

Donna Leinwand Leger | USA TODAY

LAS VEGAS – Even as the liquor flowed at a late night-party in a plush Las Vegas suite, chatter about the business of Bitcoin never flagged.

Among the overwhelmingly male crowd gathered in Las Vegas for only the second Bitcoin convention in the cyber-currency's history, the passion for the unregulated, computer-generated money is clear.

Bitcoin is already the 75th-most-valuable currency on earth, says David Johnston, CEO of Engine and executive director of BitAngels, an entrepreneur and angel investor group funding digital currency. Johnston expects Bitcoin to crack the top 10.

The enthusiasm is not unfounded. Since January, the value of one Bitcoin has soared from $13 to more than $1,000, creating instant millionaires among some of Bitcoin's earliest investors.

The new-found wealth has freed many of the programmers, techies, financial analysts and rocket scientists from their day jobs, allowing them to focus full time on creating the consumer applications, Bitcoin stores and security systems that they hope will vault Bitcoin into the mainstream.

More than 600 people registered for the Inside Bitcoins convention, up from a few hundred at the first Bitcoin conference last summer, says Alan Meckler, CEO of MediaBistro, the conference organizer. The number of exhibitors has jumped from three in July to 22 on Wednesday.

"It's the closest thing to the beginning of the Internet than I've ever seen," Meckler says.

The conference is still tiny and without the glamorous trappings of powerhouse conventions such as the Consumer Electronics Show, which attracts thousands of attendees with whiz-bang demonstrations and high-tech luminaries, including Bill Gates. They're wedged into a small hall, outnumbered by a firefighters convention and thousands of cowboys in town for an international rodeo competition.

The motley collection of Bitcoiners hail from the well-heeled of Wall Street, including J.P. Morgan and Visa, and the flannel and Google Glass-wearing grunge set from the West Coast.

There are hipsters in bell-bottom jeans and corduroy jackets. Former Washington, D.C., mayor Adrian Fenty is here. There are libertarians whose philosophy craves a decentralized, limited currency.

"One of the first things that attracted me is it's a currency for the world. It's not specific to any country and might be most useful in the developing world," says Justus Ranvier, 33, a Bitcoin blogger and activist from Austin, who spoke at the conference.

Ranvier wrote in Bitcoin Magazine that he "indefinitely suspended pursuit of an electrical engineering degree in order to promote Bitcoin adoption and work on various projects which help to develop the emerging Bitcoin economy."

Many Bitcoin businesses have sprung from the mind of serial entrepreneurs, clever techies such as George Burke who leveraged his Internet skills to create an eBook-swapping serve that works with Nook and Kindle, but is now moving on to a Bitcoin project.

There are seasoned investors who see potential in a cybercoin of the realm. Attorneys from the white shoe law firm Pillsbury are here to offer the intellectual property skills.

Jaron Lukasiewicz, CEO of Coinsetter, a foreign exchange trading platform for Bitcoin, and a former investment banker, says the market for Bitcoin is changing as the value increases. More traditional financial players on Wall Street and high-net-worth investors are showing interest, says Lukasiewicz, who also co-founded Ticketometer, an online ticket sales business.

Last week, Bank of America and the Central Bank of China both weighed in on opposite sides on the viability of Bitcoin. Chinese Bitcoin investors have driven up to 70% of the trading, he said.

"People are taking it a lot more seriously now," he said. "It's really become a real currency to a lot of people."

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