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Bitcoin Latest Price: $286.92, down 0.6% (viaCoinDesk)

Crossing Our Desk:

- Bitcoin's growth may indeed be happening at a faster pace than the growth of the Internet back in the 1990s, which has insiders all abuzz, but the cryptocurrency is still to most people an inchoate, confusing concept, assuming they don't just dismiss it outright. To address that, a small group of insiders gathered in the New Hampshire hills in July with the goal of producing a comprehensive assessment of where bitcoin is, where it may go, and what might prevent it from getting there.

Consumers Research is a Washington, D.C.-based trade group whose leaders -- Executive Director Joe Colangelo and Director of Operations Kyle Burgess -- have taken a keen interest in bitcoin. They organized the three-day trip to Bretton Woods, sight of the famous conference after World War II ended, with the idea of getting away from the drumbeat of the world, to a quiet place where they could concentrate.

Now's a good time to assess bitcoin. The price of the cryptocurrency has been more stable this year than at any point in its short history. Since the NYSE and other financial players invested in Coinbase in January, there's been a marked change in tone on Wall Street toward the technology. At the same time, while the trading market for bitcoin continues to expand, public adoption has slowed down. Bitcoin's had a hard time lodging itself in the public mind past the techies and libertarians who were initially and naturally drawn to it.