Meanwhile in Las Vegas.....

[evoorhees]

This conference is a huge success.
I can't count how many VC company execs and decision makers at various payment companies I spoke with today.
I set up more blockchain.info mobile wallets than I can count, and gave each person 0.01 BTC to get them started seeing how easy it was to use.
Everyone was super interested and were brainstorming ideas on how they can use Bitcoin in their current business model.

I am sure lots of new products will come into existence thanks to this conference.

Does that sign say Bain Capital? Like Mitt Romney's company?

It's Bain Capital Ventures - the VC arm of Bain. We met with one of their guys yesterday morning for breakfast. Really cool guy, excited about Bitcoin. He now has a Bitcoin on his phone

[BitMonkey]

Your snowflakes are forming a snowball friends.

[smoothie]

Watch out...just a few huge players need to take a modest interest in bitcoin and it can explode.

[evoorhees]

Bad ass presentation IMO:

https://twitter.com/ErikVoorhees/status/260775296268111872

Erik Voorhees ‏@ErikVoorhees
Sending $20,000 instantly from China to US via #Bitcoin at #PaymentsForum. True innovation! #FZB #spon http://feedzebirds.com/pu90i


Erik Voorhees ‏@ErikVoorhees
Presenting today at Payments Innovation Day. We'll be sending $20,000 from China to a mobile phone on stage instantly. pic.twitter.com/WPpY1k0N


awesome.  Sending $20k from China to a mobile right on the stage.  In the Aria.  Absolutely bad ass bitcoin gospel preaching IMO.  These cats are on the front lines, directly showing other important humans this technology, directly contributing to greater world-wide understanding of bitcoin.

hats off indeed.  

Actually this was not at the Aria.

Charlie/Roger/Me did Money2020 Conference on Monday (at the Aria in Vegas) and then Charlie and I flew Monday night to Phoenix for ATM & Prepaid debit conference. Today (Tuesday) we gave our presentation here in Phoenix and did the $20,000k transfer stunt with the help of our friend Yifu

Since we had to leave Money2020 two days early, we flew Ira to represent us there last night and Jesse Powell and Julian Tosh are also there to help (and Mr. Micon came by to say hello yesterday, very cool to meet him). So we've got both huge conferences covered with Bitcoin propaganda this week

[evoorhees]

Also this is pretty awesome... so before our presentation this morning here in Phoenix, the moderator of the talks came up to us and said, "hey you guys are AWESOME, I'm a BIG fan of Bitcoin. I have to pretend to be impartial but you guys are already my favorites."

The audience is right now voting for the winner of these presentations. There were about 10 who presented... I'm really hoping we win!  I mean come on, we just sent $20k across the pacific ocean from China instantly with no fees and sent it to a mobile phone on stage.

[Akka]

Well (Community), lets not overreact. (I know it hard)

BitInstant, congratulations to what you have done there.

Spreading awareness about Bitcoin is one good thing for the Community.

For you it's most important, that you have shown presence and have made some business contacts.

There are few things so important in the business you are in than knowing the right people and it seems you have made a major step to accomplish that.

Also, by going to http://money2020.com/ and looking on all the companies, I just noticed what a cool logo you have. Nice.

I wish you great success, if anyone really deserves to get filthy rich with his BTC business, it's you guys.

[Serenata]

Great news guys! Congrats!

[Rassah]

I'm getting the sense that, at least right now, Bitinstant is more important to advancing Bitcoin than the Bitcoin Foundation...

[Tuxavant]

charlie is the vice chairman of the bitcoin foundation.

[niko]

Wow! I never realized until now just how crowded the playfield is. Look at the ocean of logos and descriptions... From a quick look it seems that the only really innovative and disruptive technology is Bitcoin. Others are just rehashing the same-old, with a grain of innovation here-and-there. I feel good!

[evoorhees]

Hopefully everyone realizes that it will take numerous Bitcoin companies working numerous shows over months and years to build the reputation that Bitcoin needs. Fortunately, there are many amazing people who are ideologically (and financially) motivated to do this all over the world. At first it is an uphill battle for us... and eventually it will be an uphill battle for them.

I encourage everyone to keep designing, building, experimenting, networking, and making connections in all the myriad ways that have been occurring over the past year or so.

It's working.

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

Wow! I never realized until now just how crowded the playfield is. Look at the ocean of logos and descriptions... From a quick look it seems that the only really innovative and disruptive technology is Bitcoin. Others are just rehashing the same-old, with a grain of innovation here-and-there. I feel good!

I feel like I'm a high school student sitting in a 4th grade class.

All of these companies are trying to solve problems that are causes by the problems in the old rails systems.
So essentially, they are just adding layers and middlemen and painting over to create solutions to the problems caused by the crappy monetary and fiscal system we currently have. However, they are not even seeing the inherit problem which is what Bitcoin solves!

[smoothie]

Wow! I never realized until now just how crowded the playfield is. Look at the ocean of logos and descriptions... From a quick look it seems that the only really innovative and disruptive technology is Bitcoin. Others are just rehashing the same-old, with a grain of innovation here-and-there. I feel good!

I feel like I'm a high school student sitting in a 4th grade class.

All of these companies are trying to solve problems that are causes by the problems in the old rails systems.
So essentially, they are just adding layers and middlemen and painting over to create solutions to the problems caused by the crappy monetary and fiscal system we currently have. However, they are not even seeing the inherit problem which is what Bitcoin solves!

They will in due time.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

The Bitcoin booth would be overflowing if only LadyBytes were there. And if the lady from Butterflylabs assembly line simply hung around the PayPal booth donning an I accept PayPal button. Something to think about come CES time which, by the way, is just around the corner.

Great work, guys.

~Bruno K~

[smoothie]

The Bitcoin booth would be overflowing if only LadyBytes were there. And if the lady from Butterflylabs assembly line simply hung around the PayPal booth donning an I accept PayPal button. Something to think about come CES time which, by the way, is just around the corner.

Great work, guys.

~Bruno K~

exactly they need some girls up in that booth, plus they could spread the word of bitcoins to the hookers of vegas.

But but but...it's all the pimps that have all the money. See all them pimps at the show?

[bb113]

This conference is a huge success.
I can't count how many VC company execs and decision makers at various payment companies I spoke with today.
I set up more blockchain.info mobile wallets than I can count, and gave each person 0.01 BTC to get them started seeing how easy it was to use.
Everyone was super interested and were brainstorming ideas on how they can use Bitcoin in their current business model.

I am sure lots of new products will come into existence thanks to this conference.

Does that sign say Bain Capital? Like Mitt Romney's company?

Yup, they actually took us to breakfast yesterday morning.

The president of Bain Capital Ventures has the blockchain app and loves Bitcoin!

Odds are, between this and the extortion letter, Romney knows something about Bitcoin.

During the first debate (sorry don't want to search out the timestamps):

Regulation is essential. You can’t have a free market work if you don’t have regulation. As a businessperson, I had to have — I need to know the regulations. I needed them there. You couldn’t have people opening up banks in their — in their garage and making loans. I mean, you have to have regulations so that you can have an economy work. Every free economy has good regulation. At the same time, regulation can become excessive.

-Mitt Romney

It made me think he was anti-bitcoin

[SgtSpike]

This conference is a huge success.
I can't count how many VC company execs and decision makers at various payment companies I spoke with today.
I set up more blockchain.info mobile wallets than I can count, and gave each person 0.01 BTC to get them started seeing how easy it was to use.
Everyone was super interested and were brainstorming ideas on how they can use Bitcoin in their current business model.

I am sure lots of new products will come into existence thanks to this conference.

Does that sign say Bain Capital? Like Mitt Romney's company?

Yup, they actually took us to breakfast yesterday morning.

The president of Bain Capital Ventures has the blockchain app and loves Bitcoin!

Odds are, between this and the extortion letter, Romney knows something about Bitcoin.

During the first debate (sorry don't want to search out the timestamps):

Regulation is essential. You can’t have a free market work if you don’t have regulation. As a businessperson, I had to have — I need to know the regulations. I needed them there. You couldn’t have people opening up banks in their — in their garage and making loans. I mean, you have to have regulations so that you can have an economy work. Every free economy has good regulation. At the same time, regulation can become excessive.

-Mitt Romney

It made me think he was anti-bitcoin

But think about it.  Why does he say that?

Bitcoin is a perfect example.  What has happened to many of the unregulated banks and trusts and investment opportunities here?  They've turned out to be scams, or at the very least, not very honest about their money management.  Lots of people have lost a lot of money investing in these "banks", and a variety of other "business opportunities".

I don't like the idea of regulation, and I don't like the idea of protecting people from themselves.  I think part of intelligence and learning is being able to decipher the good from the bad, and that includes learning what investments are good and what investments are bad.  Heck, I've made a couple of bad choices with Bitcoin that have lost me significant portions of funds, but I have learned from that, and am now smarter because of it.  I won't make the same mistake twice.

One could argue that regulation would allow for users to not have to even think about their investments, and I think that's the goal entirely, but for me personally, I would rather have the option to research and make prudent investments wherever I see fit, not just where the government thinks is a safe place.

All of that said, I agree with Mitt that at least some level of regulation is necessary to prevent people from getting scammed left and right, because some people just don't learn.  And I don't see any reason why Bitcoin can't work with regulation, either.

[C10H15N]

It made me think he was anti-bitcoin

But today is an entirely different day!  

[hazek]

This conference is a huge success.
I can't count how many VC company execs and decision makers at various payment companies I spoke with today.
I set up more blockchain.info mobile wallets than I can count, and gave each person 0.01 BTC to get them started seeing how easy it was to use.
Everyone was super interested and were brainstorming ideas on how they can use Bitcoin in their current business model.

I am sure lots of new products will come into existence thanks to this conference.

Does that sign say Bain Capital? Like Mitt Romney's company?

Yup, they actually took us to breakfast yesterday morning.

The president of Bain Capital Ventures has the blockchain app and loves Bitcoin!

Odds are, between this and the extortion letter, Romney knows something about Bitcoin.

During the first debate (sorry don't want to search out the timestamps):

Regulation is essential. You can’t have a free market work if you don’t have regulation. As a businessperson, I had to have — I need to know the regulations. I needed them there. You couldn’t have people opening up banks in their — in their garage and making loans. I mean, you have to have regulations so that you can have an economy work. Every free economy has good regulation. At the same time, regulation can become excessive.

-Mitt Romney

It made me think he was anti-bitcoin

But think about it.  Why does he say that?

Bitcoin is a perfect example.  What has happened to many of the unregulated banks and trusts and investment opportunities here?  They've turned out to be scams, or at the very least, not very honest about their money management.  Lots of people have lost a lot of money investing in these "banks", and a variety of other "business opportunities".

There's nothing wrong with regulations as long as they come strictly from the consumers i.e. the free market. Most of the scams in the Bitcoin world can be blamed on two factors IMO: 1) people are used to be taken care of by the nanny state with their FDIC insurance and whatnot so they first need to learn how to look after their finances but also 2) some of the services are not using all the tools that are available for scam prevention such as identification or DRO contracts because there is this small gang of thugs that would like to hurt most of them if they could find them.

This isn't a failure of freedom or lack of government regulation, it's a failure of learned complacency and a mafia terrorizing the consumers.

Oh and let's not pretend regulations prevent scams because we all know there are plenty of those far far more massive scams in the by the government mafia regulated world too.

[paraipan]

...

I feel like I'm a high school student sitting in a 4th grade class.

All of these companies are trying to solve problems that are causes by the problems in the old rails systems.
So essentially, they are just adding layers and middlemen and painting over to create solutions to the problems caused by the crappy monetary and fiscal system we currently have. However, they are not even seeing the inherit problem which is what Bitcoin solves!

Quoted for awesomeness