08.31
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Interviews include Buttercoin, Gavin Andresen, Patrick Murck (general counsel, Bitcoin Foundation), and Dan Friedberg (lawyer).
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Tampilkan postingan dengan label Conference. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Conference. Tampilkan semua postingan
Sabtu, 25 Mei 2013
Selasa, 21 Mei 2013
The Bitcoin Trader Goes to San Jose!
Wow, what a weekend. To be honest, I wasn't sure exactly what (or when) I was going to write about the conference, because it really was a personal experience more than anything else.
That being said, IT WAS A HELLUVA WEEKEND!!
I didn't take any notes, at all. Except for the couple-dozen tweets I sent out over the course of three days (hope you were following!), and the dozen-or-so business cards I collected, I'm relying strictly on memory here.
People I met in real life for the first time:
- Arthur Britto, a long-time Skype friend and confidant and developer for OpenCoin: what an upstanding individual, just as I expected. Ripple's lucky to have him.
- My co-blogger, Hazek. We sat at the same table for 10 minutes, talking amongst the group, before we even realized who the other person was. He's my co-blogger FFS! I blame the name tags that had the uncanny ability to flip over to the blank side (note for next year's organizers, print double-sided name tags!)
- Jon Holmquist formerly of Coinabul and now of BitcoinStore: fortunately he didn't turn up for the poker game on Sunday, because apparently he would've wiped the floor with us. We tried to get him to say something bad about Roger Ver, but he refused! =)
- Brian Santos: just like he is online, super-passionate, energetic, and charismatic. Once I saw UpTweet on an iPad Mini, I was convinced that he was on to something. Thanks for getting the BBA together for lunch, and damn the staff for not giving us tables!
- Blaine-the-guy-that-let-me-sell-him-BTC-for-cash: I showed up to the conference with $7 USD, a bunch of BTC, and a credit card. While we were waiting for Dan the Comedian to begin his performance (I thought he was hilarious, by the way), Blaine sold me $20 for BTC, which gave me enough money for tips and other incidental expenses. We met up again at the Bitcoin Fund after-party on Saturday and had a great chat about all things Bitcoin.
- David Schwartz, chief cryptographer for OpenCoin. Probably the smartest guy I've ever met, and more importantly, he's able to articulate his brilliant ideas in such a way that we can all understand them. I spent an hour or two hanging out in front of the Ripple booth and he could easily handle any question thrown at him. I can't say I'm surprised, after reading his posts on the forums or in Reddit (JoelKatz is his handle).
- Alex Kravets and Vinnie Falco, a couple of huge Ripple enthusiasts (we had a lot to talk about).
- The Tropos guys, Jon, Mark, Andrew, Eric, as well as Carl, all on the bleeding edge of finance, and I think they know it.
- Jesse from Kraken (and Ogrr): We didn't get to chat much (thanks for the nachos!), but you could definitely feel the vibe that him and his team was putting off that entire weekend; they know they're on to something big.
- A couple of the people behind Satoshi Square in NYC (sorry I forgot your names!), who recently found themselves in the media spotlight after holding an open-air Bitcoin exchange in New York
- Jerry, a guy who works in the construction business, and just wanted to know what this Bitcoin thing was all about.
- Frederic from Hong Kong: thank you for listening to my drunken Ripple promoting.
- Ludvig, known for the various funds and passthroughs that he manages. I bought my first Casascius coin from him. We go way back, so I was glad to meet him in real life for the first time. I don't think he was old enough to drink the Satoshinis.
- James of VPS: super-nice guy who unfortunately got caught in between his investors and a disgraceful company called Butterfly Labs. I truly believe he has his investors' best-interests in mind.
- Gavin Andresen: introduced myself to him in the elevator for five seconds (damn those were some fast elevators at the Marriott!). Thanked him for his contributions and dedication.
- Athony Di Iorio and the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada: I went to the first Canadian Bitcoin meet-up after the conference ended on Saturday and I met up with some fellow Canadians who were in San Jose. Unfortunately I let myself get dragged away to talk business with another group, but there was an excellent turn-out and I had some fruitful conversations with my fellow countrymen!
- Ed of BitBrew: First there was Alpaca Socks, then there was BitBrew. It was awesome to meet one of the "old school" Bitcoiners at the after-party. He said, "everyone knows the Bitcoin Trader!" Unfortunately, not really, but thanks for making me feel like a celebrity for half a second.
- All the crazy guys who were at the poker game on Sunday, including Mike, who's like the George Clooney of Marriott rewards programs.
- Adam Harding of BIPS: Another awesome Canadian and great guy. You probably saw him working his booth for most of the weekend.
- Vitalik Buterin: the almost super-human writer for the Bitcoin Magazine, copies of which I saw in people's hands all weekend.
- Henry Brade: the Finnish Bitcoin juggernaut that often commented on my blog posts over the last couple of years. Like everyone I met at the conference, an enthusiastic, intelligent, and driven individual that will make (even more) of a name for himself in the Bitcoin sphere.
And the list goes on and on; my apologies to anyone I didn't mention. To those of you who gave presentations or sat on panels that I didn't get to meet up with, it was just as awesome to see you guys in the flesh, promoting the future of payments.
Like I said at the beginning of the post, for me the conference was an intensely personal experience. It wasn't about the booths or the presentations, but the people, and finally making the leap from virtual to tangible.
That being said, IT WAS A HELLUVA WEEKEND!!
I didn't take any notes, at all. Except for the couple-dozen tweets I sent out over the course of three days (hope you were following!), and the dozen-or-so business cards I collected, I'm relying strictly on memory here.
People I met in real life for the first time:
- Arthur Britto, a long-time Skype friend and confidant and developer for OpenCoin: what an upstanding individual, just as I expected. Ripple's lucky to have him.
- My co-blogger, Hazek. We sat at the same table for 10 minutes, talking amongst the group, before we even realized who the other person was. He's my co-blogger FFS! I blame the name tags that had the uncanny ability to flip over to the blank side (note for next year's organizers, print double-sided name tags!)
- Jon Holmquist formerly of Coinabul and now of BitcoinStore: fortunately he didn't turn up for the poker game on Sunday, because apparently he would've wiped the floor with us. We tried to get him to say something bad about Roger Ver, but he refused! =)
- Brian Santos: just like he is online, super-passionate, energetic, and charismatic. Once I saw UpTweet on an iPad Mini, I was convinced that he was on to something. Thanks for getting the BBA together for lunch, and damn the staff for not giving us tables!
- Blaine-the-guy-that-let-me-sell-him-BTC-for-cash: I showed up to the conference with $7 USD, a bunch of BTC, and a credit card. While we were waiting for Dan the Comedian to begin his performance (I thought he was hilarious, by the way), Blaine sold me $20 for BTC, which gave me enough money for tips and other incidental expenses. We met up again at the Bitcoin Fund after-party on Saturday and had a great chat about all things Bitcoin.
 |
| Dan Nainan warms up the crowd on Friday evening. |
- Alex Kravets and Vinnie Falco, a couple of huge Ripple enthusiasts (we had a lot to talk about).
- The Tropos guys, Jon, Mark, Andrew, Eric, as well as Carl, all on the bleeding edge of finance, and I think they know it.
- Jesse from Kraken (and Ogrr): We didn't get to chat much (thanks for the nachos!), but you could definitely feel the vibe that him and his team was putting off that entire weekend; they know they're on to something big.
- A couple of the people behind Satoshi Square in NYC (sorry I forgot your names!), who recently found themselves in the media spotlight after holding an open-air Bitcoin exchange in New York
- Jerry, a guy who works in the construction business, and just wanted to know what this Bitcoin thing was all about.
- Frederic from Hong Kong: thank you for listening to my drunken Ripple promoting.
- Ludvig, known for the various funds and passthroughs that he manages. I bought my first Casascius coin from him. We go way back, so I was glad to meet him in real life for the first time. I don't think he was old enough to drink the Satoshinis.
 |
| Thanks to Satoshi Dice, we all had a good buzz on. |
- Gavin Andresen: introduced myself to him in the elevator for five seconds (damn those were some fast elevators at the Marriott!). Thanked him for his contributions and dedication.
- Athony Di Iorio and the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada: I went to the first Canadian Bitcoin meet-up after the conference ended on Saturday and I met up with some fellow Canadians who were in San Jose. Unfortunately I let myself get dragged away to talk business with another group, but there was an excellent turn-out and I had some fruitful conversations with my fellow countrymen!
- Ed of BitBrew: First there was Alpaca Socks, then there was BitBrew. It was awesome to meet one of the "old school" Bitcoiners at the after-party. He said, "everyone knows the Bitcoin Trader!" Unfortunately, not really, but thanks for making me feel like a celebrity for half a second.
- All the crazy guys who were at the poker game on Sunday, including Mike, who's like the George Clooney of Marriott rewards programs.
- Adam Harding of BIPS: Another awesome Canadian and great guy. You probably saw him working his booth for most of the weekend.
- Vitalik Buterin: the almost super-human writer for the Bitcoin Magazine, copies of which I saw in people's hands all weekend.
- Henry Brade: the Finnish Bitcoin juggernaut that often commented on my blog posts over the last couple of years. Like everyone I met at the conference, an enthusiastic, intelligent, and driven individual that will make (even more) of a name for himself in the Bitcoin sphere.
And the list goes on and on; my apologies to anyone I didn't mention. To those of you who gave presentations or sat on panels that I didn't get to meet up with, it was just as awesome to see you guys in the flesh, promoting the future of payments.
Like I said at the beginning of the post, for me the conference was an intensely personal experience. It wasn't about the booths or the presentations, but the people, and finally making the leap from virtual to tangible.
Minggu, 05 Mei 2013
Ripple is now a Tsunami!
Just like that, Ripple's market cap now exceeds that of Bitcoin. There are a lot of people asking just what the heck is going on, and of course, trying to figure out if this is just another digital currency bubble.
Taking into consideration the total number of Ripples (XRP), that is, 100 billion, and the current exchange rate of approximately 70 XRP/USD, the XRP market cap is $1.43 billion USD. Bitcoin's market cap is currently $1.30 billion USD.
Clearly the XRP exchange rate has been influenced by the limited supply of XRP. The question is, how many are actually "floating" and how many have been locked away by OpenCoin and the founders?
We do know that the founders have retained 20 billion XRP, and that OpenCoin controls 80 billion XRP. Of that 80 billion, 50 billion are being "given away," though how that is happening is a bit of an unknown. It's likely that giveaways like the one we saw on the bitcointalk.org forum are the exception and not the rule. OpenCoin is probably paying developers in large lots of XRP to help build Ripple's infrastructure and applications.
Six days ago, someone put together a spreadsheet that lists all non-zero Ripple accounts and their XRP holdings. From this list, we can make some educated guesses:
There are 99.25 billion XRP in the top 55 accounts, with the smallest one holding 40 million XRP. These are likely OpenCoin holdings or those of major investors. We can safely assume that none of these coins are in circulation.
There are another 17 accounts with exactly 10 million XRP that, again, are not likely in circulation. That brings the total number of "institutionally held" XRP to 99.42 billion.
The total number of XRP that are actually being bought and sold right now is therefore in the 500 million range. At 70 XRP to the USD, they would be worth just over $7 million USD, a realistic estimate of how much fiat and BTC has been deposited into Ripple.
Account number nine on the spreadsheet is of great interest, as it appears as one of the nine billion XRP accounts, but one that has been drawn down by 1.421 billion XRP. What is this account being used for? Perhaps for actual giveaways, or for selling Ripples to re-sellers such as BitStamp or xrptrader.com.
Sources tell me that, in the same vein as what has been happening with Bitcoin, Chinese investors have shown great interest in Ripple, and are responsible for a non-trivial fraction of the recent rise in XRP valuation.
So what is Ripple actually worth? As a protocol, it has Bitcoin beat hands down. Remember that most merchants do not accept Bitcoin directly, instead, they use services like BitPay to instantly convert Bitcoins to fiat. A good portion of Bitcoin's utility is as a protocol, not as a store of value. We will probably see much of Bitcoin's protocol-driven business move into Ripple as additional gateways, like the soon-to-be open Kraken, come online. If Ripple's "Federation Protocol" gains traction, we could very easily see a market cap in excess of $10 billion USD within a year.
Remember that Ripple's key investors have connections to PayPal and Dwolla, and will want to bring them on as Ripple Gateways. Such a move would boost Ripple's valuation well into the stratosphere, leaving Bitcoin behind as a beta-version afterthought.
Expect to see some interesting discussion, debate, and hopefully some big revelations at this year's Ripple... err... Bitcoin Conference in San Jose in two weeks. With the drama surrounding CoinBase and MtGox, and the explosion of interest in Ripple, the timing couldn't be better.
Taking into consideration the total number of Ripples (XRP), that is, 100 billion, and the current exchange rate of approximately 70 XRP/USD, the XRP market cap is $1.43 billion USD. Bitcoin's market cap is currently $1.30 billion USD.
Clearly the XRP exchange rate has been influenced by the limited supply of XRP. The question is, how many are actually "floating" and how many have been locked away by OpenCoin and the founders?
We do know that the founders have retained 20 billion XRP, and that OpenCoin controls 80 billion XRP. Of that 80 billion, 50 billion are being "given away," though how that is happening is a bit of an unknown. It's likely that giveaways like the one we saw on the bitcointalk.org forum are the exception and not the rule. OpenCoin is probably paying developers in large lots of XRP to help build Ripple's infrastructure and applications.
Six days ago, someone put together a spreadsheet that lists all non-zero Ripple accounts and their XRP holdings. From this list, we can make some educated guesses:
There are 99.25 billion XRP in the top 55 accounts, with the smallest one holding 40 million XRP. These are likely OpenCoin holdings or those of major investors. We can safely assume that none of these coins are in circulation.
There are another 17 accounts with exactly 10 million XRP that, again, are not likely in circulation. That brings the total number of "institutionally held" XRP to 99.42 billion.
The total number of XRP that are actually being bought and sold right now is therefore in the 500 million range. At 70 XRP to the USD, they would be worth just over $7 million USD, a realistic estimate of how much fiat and BTC has been deposited into Ripple.
Account number nine on the spreadsheet is of great interest, as it appears as one of the nine billion XRP accounts, but one that has been drawn down by 1.421 billion XRP. What is this account being used for? Perhaps for actual giveaways, or for selling Ripples to re-sellers such as BitStamp or xrptrader.com.
Sources tell me that, in the same vein as what has been happening with Bitcoin, Chinese investors have shown great interest in Ripple, and are responsible for a non-trivial fraction of the recent rise in XRP valuation.
So what is Ripple actually worth? As a protocol, it has Bitcoin beat hands down. Remember that most merchants do not accept Bitcoin directly, instead, they use services like BitPay to instantly convert Bitcoins to fiat. A good portion of Bitcoin's utility is as a protocol, not as a store of value. We will probably see much of Bitcoin's protocol-driven business move into Ripple as additional gateways, like the soon-to-be open Kraken, come online. If Ripple's "Federation Protocol" gains traction, we could very easily see a market cap in excess of $10 billion USD within a year.
Remember that Ripple's key investors have connections to PayPal and Dwolla, and will want to bring them on as Ripple Gateways. Such a move would boost Ripple's valuation well into the stratosphere, leaving Bitcoin behind as a beta-version afterthought.
Expect to see some interesting discussion, debate, and hopefully some big revelations at this year's Ripple... err... Bitcoin Conference in San Jose in two weeks. With the drama surrounding CoinBase and MtGox, and the explosion of interest in Ripple, the timing couldn't be better.
Minggu, 04 Maret 2012
10 Exciting Things About Bitcoin - Right Now
1) The success of Bitmit - Bitcoin's eBay. Over 550 listings and growing rapidly.
2) The boom happening over at Silk Road. While I don't condone the illegal applications of Bitcoin, the site's success if further proof that Bitcoin is a technology that fills a gap.
3) The appeal and rapid growth of Ogrr.com, which is bringing in hundreds of new users each month and expanding exponentially.
4) Mt.Gox is about to launch "e-commerce solutions" this week.
5) Recent discussions regarding making Bitcoin truly anonymous.
6) The upcoming completion and launch of Bitcoin.com by the good folks at Tradehill (currently down).
7) The popularity of coinworker.com.
8) The announcement of the upcoming Bitcoin Conference in London.
9) Through no fault of their own, tens of thousands of Bitcoins were stolen from various high profile Bitcoin businesses. Why is this good news? Not a single user was impacted as the owners chose to absorb the losses. It was also the first time that a major hack or closure didn't impact Bitcoin's market value.
10) And the most exciting news of all: you can now tip cows for Bitcoins.
2) The boom happening over at Silk Road. While I don't condone the illegal applications of Bitcoin, the site's success if further proof that Bitcoin is a technology that fills a gap.
3) The appeal and rapid growth of Ogrr.com, which is bringing in hundreds of new users each month and expanding exponentially.
4) Mt.Gox is about to launch "e-commerce solutions" this week.
5) Recent discussions regarding making Bitcoin truly anonymous.
6) The upcoming completion and launch of Bitcoin.com by the good folks at Tradehill (currently down).
7) The popularity of coinworker.com.
8) The announcement of the upcoming Bitcoin Conference in London.
9) Through no fault of their own, tens of thousands of Bitcoins were stolen from various high profile Bitcoin businesses. Why is this good news? Not a single user was impacted as the owners chose to absorb the losses. It was also the first time that a major hack or closure didn't impact Bitcoin's market value.
10) And the most exciting news of all: you can now tip cows for Bitcoins.
Sabtu, 26 November 2011
Live from the European Bitcoin Conference
Watch an unofficial stream, here.
Rick Falkvinge: Bitcoin will not likely reach mass adoption until around 2019, based on the adoption rates of other technologies.
Max Keiser: We will leverage our media space with the goal of adding one million new Bitcoin users next year.
Rick Falkvinge: Bitcoin will not likely reach mass adoption until around 2019, based on the adoption rates of other technologies.
Max Keiser: We will leverage our media space with the goal of adding one million new Bitcoin users next year.
Kamis, 20 Oktober 2011
Most Bullish Move in Bitcoin Since the Bitcoin Conference on August 19th
Keeping a close eye on this one. Buying volume is huge. Haven't seen a move like this in two months.
UPDATE: Well, that was short-lived. Seems like these rally half-lives are getting shorter each time.
Jumat, 26 Agustus 2011
The Post-Conference Correction
First of all, welcome to the first entry in my Bitcoin Trading blog.
It's been an interesting week, both this one and last, as there was considerable excitement leading to the Bitcoin Conference hosted by Bruce Wagner in New York. After several weeks of price decline, the Bitcoin community finally found a reason to prop the price up after what could be described as a "crash" down to the $5 range. Unfortunately, the conference did not deliver on the anticipated media coverage, and within a couple of days, short-term speculators bailed on their purchases.
Today we've had some major price movement, touching a low of $7.64 from the nearly $12 high that was hit before the conference. Even though we're going into an infamous weekend, I do not believe we're going to go much lower - in fact, the low of $7.64 will hold through to Monday.
Media coverage this week was fairly sparse, except for the NPR story, which generated a significant spike on the 24th over at Google Insights for Search.
New memberships over at Bitcointalk.org have also been on the rise, in the 130-150 per day range for most of the week, higher than we've seen all month.
This week I sold part of my position at $9.40 and bought back in at $7.93. I am all BTC and no cash at the moment.
It's been an interesting week, both this one and last, as there was considerable excitement leading to the Bitcoin Conference hosted by Bruce Wagner in New York. After several weeks of price decline, the Bitcoin community finally found a reason to prop the price up after what could be described as a "crash" down to the $5 range. Unfortunately, the conference did not deliver on the anticipated media coverage, and within a couple of days, short-term speculators bailed on their purchases.
Today we've had some major price movement, touching a low of $7.64 from the nearly $12 high that was hit before the conference. Even though we're going into an infamous weekend, I do not believe we're going to go much lower - in fact, the low of $7.64 will hold through to Monday.
Media coverage this week was fairly sparse, except for the NPR story, which generated a significant spike on the 24th over at Google Insights for Search.
New memberships over at Bitcointalk.org have also been on the rise, in the 130-150 per day range for most of the week, higher than we've seen all month.
This week I sold part of my position at $9.40 and bought back in at $7.93. I am all BTC and no cash at the moment.
