John Mardlin of Coin Forest, and Gareth MacLeod of Tinkercoin's presentation on why Bitcoin is important, and explain the concepts of the proof of work, and block chain technology that make it revolutionary. Regardless of what happens to Bitcoin Itself, crypto currencies are here to stay, and will have immense and unforeseen impacts in the near future.

1. Bitcoin Level 2

3. “We believe Bitcoin can become a major
means of payment for e-commerce and
may emerge as a serious competitor to
traditional money transfer providers. As a
medium of exchange, Bitcoin has clear
potential for growth, in our view.”
- Bank of America Report, Dec. 5, 2013

4. The point: Bitcoin lets us build a
better financial system

5. Primary Characteristics
● Peer-to-peer
● Decentralized
● Open Source

6. Bitcoin makes it better
● Remittances
● Escape bad currencies
● Microtransactions

7. The Technology of Bitcoin

8. The Blockchain
● A global log of every bitcoin transaction that
ever takes place
● Bitcoins exist only as account balances in
the blockchain
● Adding a transaction to the blockchain is the
action of sending that money

10. The Network
● Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer network
● You join the network by running a program
called a Bitcoin Client
● The computers in the network relay
transactions to each other and build the
blockchain

11. Transactions
● To send bitcoins, your client announces the
transaction over the network
● The nodes that hear it verify it and then
repeat it to their neighbours

12. Transactions
● Transactions are composed of inputs and
outputs
● The inputs to a transaction are the outputs
from a previous transaction
● “Owning bitcoins” is having the key which
allows you to spend an output

13. Transactions

14. This is a big Breakthrough
● The entire network is able to come to an
agreement
● Malicious entities in the network cannot do
evil

15. Bitcoin Ecosystem

17. Places you can spend Bitcoin
20,000+ online retailers, including:

18. It’s easy to accept Bitcoins online
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19. Ways to get Bitcoins
● Exchanges: CaVirtex, Bitstamp
● Brokerages: Coinbase, Tinkercoin
● In person sales: Localbitcoins, DVLB

20. Bitcoin and Governments
Three case studies

21. United States
● March 2013 FinCen guidance document is
very harsh on Bitcoin businesses
● June 2013, Regulators cease-and-desist the
nonprofit Bitcoin Foundation for unlicensed
money transmission

22. United States
● October 2013, FBI Investigation shuts down
Silk Road and arrests it’s owner on charges
of drug trafficking and money laundering.
● Important: the indictment acknowledged his
use of Bitcoin, but did not condemn it except
the purposes for which he used it

23. United States
“There are plenty of opportunities for
digital currencies to operate within
existing laws and regulations.”
- U.S Secret Service, November 2013
● FEC says Bitcoin can be accepted as political
donations

24. China
● December 2013, Companies can’t price
products in Bitcoin or buy or sell Bitcoin
● Private use and ownership of Bitcoins is
perfectly legal

25. Canada
● Canada has the most liberal Bitcoin
regulation in the world

26. Canada
“Your [exchange] is not, at this time,
engaged as a Money Services Business in
Canada.”
- Letter from FinTRAC to the operator of a
Canadian exchange

27. Bitcoin is not finished

28. Engineering Hurdles
● Scale Bitcoin from 1 transaction per second
to 1000s per second
● The Blockchain and Tragedy of the
Commons
● Increase privacy while not encouraging
illegal use

29. Adoption Hurdles
● It’s still too hard for many people to use
● Missing killer-application for Bitcoin in the
first world
● Price volatility makes people nervous to hold
bitcoins

30. What are the downsides to Bitcoin?
● Deflationary monetary policy
● Anonymous, but not
● Difficult to regulate and tax

31. Crazy ideas
● contracts inside the blockchain
● blockchain as copyright protection
● Alternative cryptocurrency explosion

33. Mining Pool Network Share