The Future of Payments: Bitcoin 2013 Day Three

Some of the world's leading bitcoiners will be gathering in California later this month to discuss their favorite currency. "Bitcoin 2013: the Future of Payments" is set for May 17 - 19 at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose. (CoinDesk is a supporting sponsor and media partner for the event.) Expected to draw more than 500 bitcoin experts and entrepreneurs from across the globe, Bitcoin 2013 will feature talks and panel presentations from some of the top names in cryptocurrency and alternative economies, including Gavin Andresen, bitcoin's lead developer and chief scientist of the....

Results from the past do not offer guarantees for the future. It's the legal disclaimer that comes with every new financial brokerage account and trading promotion. And for good reason. Because results from the past, do not offer a guarantee for the future. Then again, history tends to repeat itself. Let's take a look at the two most recent Bitcoin bubbles: Bitcoin to USD - Jan 2013 to Oct 2013. Bitcoin to USD - Aug 2013 to Jul 2014. If you superimpose them over each other, a clear pattern emerges: Bitcoin to USD chart - April 2013 and December 2013 bubbles superimposed. The similarity....

The Two Bitcoin Conferences of 2013. After the first two successful Bitcoin conferences that took place in Prague in 2011 and London in 2012, it has been announced that there will in fact be two Bitcoin conferences taking place in 2013. The first, entitled "The Future of Payments", will take place in San Jose, California on May 17-19, and the second, named "unSYSTEM", will happen in Vienna on 1-3 November. The two conferences will be in a similar format to those run in 2011 and 2012; they will both take up a weekend, feature a number of speakers making presentations on topics either....

Q&A with Bountysource founder David Rappo included below. Bountysource, a funding platform for open-source software, has finally integrated bitcoin payments. The site allows open-source developers to earn money by completing jobs posted by 'backers' who offer 'bounties' - payments, in effect. Payment with bitcoin has been on the cards since at least March 2013, with the idea resurfacing at the start of this year. Bountysource founder David Rappo wrote in a blogpost: "Many of you have been requesting bitcoin support on Bountysource for a while, so we're thrilled to announce that it's now....

According to the Payments Council, cash transactions in the UK fell to 48% of overall payments last year, down from 52% in 2013. This comes as no surprise, given the international rise of popular social payment services such as Snapcash, Squarecash and Venmo, as well as the already mainstream use of Paypal to shop online. These services, along with debit cards and digital currency trade, have collectively overtaken payments in physical bills andcoins as of last year. It is expected that in about a decade cashless payments will account for £28.8 billion, as opposed to £12.7 billion in cash....