Day one of the Inside Bitcoins Conference turned out to be a massive success; with 1,000+ attendees showing up to view the 45 various exhibits and over 30 speakers. The conference began with keynote speaker Jeremy Allaire, Founder and CEO of Circle, who spoke on the steps that Bitcoin must take to continue its maturation as a currency. Around 10:00am the exhibit showroom opened up with many prominent Bitcoin companies present such as Bitpay, Cloudhashing, Armory, eGifter, and Coinsetter. One feature that is unique to the Inside Bitcoins Conference was its Bitcoin Trading Café. This special area in the middle of the exhibit area offered a place for attendees to buy and sell Bitcoins without any middlemen or fees. The afternoon session was keynoted by Nic Carey of Blockchain.info, who spoke on various Bitcoin stories from around the globe and some of his personal experiences from 2013. In my opinion, the best panel of the days was Moving Bitcoin Forward: Bringing Trust, Legitimacy, and Transparency to the Market. During this discussion, World Bitcoin Network host and panelist member James D’Angelo made an excellent analogy: “Flight is a very good analogy for creating a currency. Bitcoin has achieved flight for cryptocurrency. We are now hovering just above the trees.” Overall, I am very much looking forward to the second day of the Inside Bitcoins NYC Conference and hope you all enjoy my live stream updates.
