Why Bitcoin Is Here to Stay
Fergus Hodgson, 9 November 2016 
Buenos Aires became Latin America’s bitcoin capital this past weekend — November 4-5 — with industry players in the region gathering for both business opportunities and a celebration of the cryptocurrency’s rise. Since we have not covered bitcoin before on the Gold Newsletter Podcast, I decided to interview three guests on the why, what, and how of bitcoin:
- Tone Vays (pictured on SoundCloud), a consultant and trader, explains bitcoin’s mechanics and price fluctuations.
- Michael Dupree of EasyBit explains the business applications and how he is making bitcoin usable with the world’s largest network of bitcoin ATMs.
- Juan Llanos, a compliance adviser and Coin Center contributor, explains the regulatory ramifications of this disruptive technology.
In particular, Dupree noted the difficulties of conducting his business across many jurisdictions, and singled out the United States as the worst: “with bitcoin they haven’t yet set up a simple framework that we can follow, so we’re usually left blindfolded, running around trying to pin the tail on the donkey.… There’s no framework in place for bitcoin companies to be compliant.”
Llanos says this cannot remain, and governments will fail to prohibit it, even if some are already trying: “The genie is out of the bottle.”
The 450 attendees came to Buenos Aires to party and pursue business prospects at the Latin American Bitcoin Conference. As a new technology, much of the bitcoin field is speculative but growing rapidly, and naturally there have been plenty of failures along the way. (Cecilia Olive)
Fergus Hodgson (@FergHodgson) is an economic consultant and Gold Newsletter‘s roving editor.