Bitcoin will take center stage at the 22nd SXSW Interactive Festival, March 13 to 17 in Austin, Texas, an annual showcase and brainstorming conference for emerging technology.

Bitcoin at SXSW 2015 will present a full day of bitcoin-related content on March 16 as part of Startup Village and as an official SXSW event. Bitcoin at SXSW 2015 will use one of the world’s most exciting technology conferences to connect bitcoin innovators with a large, mainstream tech crowd. The 2015 event features five days of presentations and panels from leaders in emerging technology.

Bitcoin at SXSW 2015 sessions will be at SXSWi’s Startup Village, the hub of entrepreneur-related programming at SXSW Interactive, located in the Hilton Downtown Austin, directly across from the Austin Convention Center.

A pivotal time for bitcoin

The conference comes at a pivotal time for bitcoin as organizations such as Dell, PayPal, Expedia, Dish, Intuit, Stripe, and Microsoft have started accepting bitcoin payments.

While bitcoin has grown since its inception a few years ago, it is still in an early adopter stage and faces numerous challenges. For the average consumer, questions about bitcoin include: How does bitcoin work? Is it secure? How can its volatility be explained? Bitcoin’s biggest challenges, according to many, is to establish its infrastructure and to determine what it will take to make bitcoin a mainstream consumer activity.

Venture capitalists, tech magazines and industry leaders have characterized bitcoin as a global currency enabling new types of payments. Visionaries have described the bitcoin block chain as a decentralized infrastructure. Many have compared bitcoin’s current ecosystem to the early days of the Internet.

Five sessions not to miss

Bitcoin at SXSW 2015 will be a series of five sessions held at the Hilton Austin, Austin Grand

Ballroom Salon G, 6th Floor, on Monday, March 16. The schedule is as follows:

Session 1: What is Bitcoin? (9:30 AM – 10:30 AM)

Nic Cary (CEO and co-founder of Blockchain), Stephen Pair (CEO and co-founder of BitPay), Will O’Brien (CEO and co-founder of BitGo), and Tatiana Moroz (founder of Crypto Media Hub).

Session 2: Bitcoin 2.0 (11:00 AM – 12:00 PM)

Charlie Lee (creator of Litecoin and engineering manager of Coinbase), Jed McCaleb (co-

founder of Stellar Development Foundation) and Constance Choi (principal of Seven

Advisory).

Session 3: A Future with Bitcoin (12:30 PM – 1:30 PM)

Tina Hui (CEO and founder of Follow the Coin), Dan Elitzer (founding president of MIT Bitcoin

Club), and Jake Benson (CEO and founder of LibraTax).

Session 4: Impact on Developing World (3:30 PM – 4:30 PM)

Connie Gallippi (executive director and founder of BitGive Foundation), Jonathan Zobro (co-founder at 37coins), Sebastian Serrano (CEO and co-founder at BitPagos), and Sean Percival (venture partner at 500 Startups).

Session 5: Real World Applications (5:00 PM – 6:00 PM)

Adam Ludwin (founder of Chain.com), Nick Sullivan (CEO and founder of ChangeTip), Vinny

Lingham (CEO and co-founder of Gyft), and Adam Draper (CEO and founder of Boost VC).

Bitcoin at SXSW 2015 is sponsored by BitPay.com, Gyft.com, LibraTax.com, ChangeTip.com, and Chain.com. For more information on speakers, sessions, and sponsors, visit www.BitcoinAustin2015.com.

A wealth of technology activity

In addition to the sessions and networking, SWSX Interactive events include the 18th Annual SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards, SXSW Accelerator, the SXSW Gaming Expo, the SXSW Trade Show, SXSW Create, the Digital Creative Job Market, cross-industry conversations with attendees from SXSW Film and SXSW Music.

SXSW Interactive 2015 sponsors include Miller Lite, Esurance, AT&T, IFC, Mazda, Monster Energy, McDonald’s, Philips, Capital One, and The Austin Chronicle.