Business Focus on Bitcoin

1st April 2014 - 3679 days ago

'Bitcoin' is the virtual global currency which will transform the monetary world. It is a very inexpensive way to handle payments and will transform businesses as payments are irreversible and secure, meaning that the cost of fraud is no longer pushed onto the shoulders of the merchants. In addition this method of payment means that the business does not carry the costs and responsibilities inherent with processing customer credit numbers and other sensitive information.

Peter Vessenes, Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation spoke exclusively to CSA about his work with Bitcoin and how he sees the future developing for both individuals and companies around the world.

What has been the key to the progress that you've made at Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a global phenomenon – and it's largely because of the intense support of its community. The technology has so much potential to make a huge global impact that it can be overwhelming at first. Millions of people use it, thousands work with it full-time in their jobs, and hundreds have quite literally dedicated their lives to improving it and getting it to work globally. I see it almost as a religion for many community members – they're why we have anything at all to talk about.

You have held C-level posts in a number of companies over the years, we'd love to know if they have all held the same level of excitement for you and what do you see as being your next project?

Exciting is a nice euphemism. In Bitcoin, we rate days and weeks on a scale that goes from 'crazy' to 'insane' to 'mind-numbing'. Adrenaline addiction is a real risk for anyone who makes this industry into a career. For myself, I hope to stick with Bitcoin over the next decade as it grows and matures. I'm particularly looking at how Bitcoin can fulfil its promise of global financial inclusion in poor parts of the world – the ability to instantly connect rural villagers to the global economy is here now; we just need to be able to bring it in an appropriate way.

You are currently Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation that's on track to be the global online currency of the future. Do you think it is possible to have robust enough technology that people and companies will come to trust?

The technology is actually really amazingly good right now. There is a long list of things that could be done to make it better, and the Foundation is trying to help with that, by funding developers, working to get more people involved in the project and so on. But overall, you can easily send millions of dollars (or 25 cents) anywhere in the world very safely and very quickly right now.

What we have as a community lacked so far is a simple way for consumers to assess the trustworthiness of either certain business owners or their underlying security implementations. These areas need a lot of work, and it's a tough problem. It's a problem that in general business we solve with an interlocking set of companies and social technologies, from insurance to technology audits, to reversible payments in case of bank fraud. Some of these solutions transfer to Bitcoin, others need to be rethought in light of the technology itself, and that is taking time to sort out.

You stress the importance of community being important for the future of Bitcoins, is this where your work with the Bitcoin Foundation and CoinLab is pivotal?

The Bitcoin community will continue on no matter what – it's hugely diverse, global, and doesn't really need the Foundation. On the other hand, there are key areas that I believe the Foundation can help the community, and that's my goal for it.

In particular, the Foundation is focused on protecting the right to transact – making sure everyone in the world is allowed to transact financially if they so choose. Bitcoin is so technical that there are quite complex attack vectors on it. Paying people to watch out for these and deal with problems that come up is at the heart of what we do.

What is the future of Bitcoin?

It's a fundamental human right to transact economically. Many people in the world don't experience this right now. Governments, poverty and poor banking systems can all combine to keep much of the developing world from being able to transact globally. Bitcoin can actually change this, it's a money system outside of political control and because it's just data, it can go anywhere the Internet can.

The possibility that a villager in a poor country with a highly inflationary currency could instead choose to be paid with globally accepted money is truly a revolution. I would love to see Bitcoin fulfil this promise.