New York's Inside Bitcoins conference approaches

The past couple of months have seen some relatively large-scale bitcoin events take place in California and London, but now it's the turn of New York.

On 30th July, the Inside Bitcoins event will take place at the New Yorker on 8th Avenue. If you're signing up, use CoinDesk's discount code BCCD20 at checkout for 20% off.

Kicking off with registration from 8:15am–9:00am, the one-day conference will feature a number of prominent speakers from the bitcoin community.

Stewart Quealy, of the event's organisers Mediabistro, said: "Our Inside Bitcoins event brings together the leading stakeholders and thought leaders in the bitcoin space including entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists, developers, lawyers and regulators to share knowledge and chart the future of the virtual currency.

"Attendees will walk away with first-hand insight into the latest news, analysis, demographics, regulatory issues and investment strategies in the bitcoin and crypto-currency space."

Charlie Shrem, vice chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation and CEO of BitInstant, is opening the conference with a talk entitled 'Bitcoin and the future of currency'. He will be followed by Jaron Lukasiewicz who will discuss the 'FinTech business trends that will make people money'.

Other speakers at the event will include James (Jim) White, director of tax issues at the US government accountability office (GAO); Marc Hochstein, executive editor of American Banker; Anthony Gallippi, co-founder and CEO of BitPay; and Shakil Khan, founder of CoinDesk, which is sponsoring the conference.

Quealy said this type of event is important because it provides a "unique forum for industry experts and innovators to assess the opportunities and risks that are quickly emerging across the virtual currency landscape and alternative payments community".

He believes that the hottest topic on the day will be legal and regulatory issues facing those in the digital currency space. There will be a panel discussion on this topic at 1:30pm, featuring the GAO's Jim White.

"The GAO recently issued a seminal report looking at tax compliance issues and the use of virtual currencies, including bitcoin, that was done under Jim’s leadership," Quealy explained.

He believes the panel discussion on 'Bitcoin and Freedom of Speech' with Trevor Timm, co-founder and executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation will also draw considerable interest.

Quealy explained: "This panel will explore how peer-to-peer currencies like bitcoin can help journalists, publishers, whistle-blowers and politically disfavoured groups resist or circumvent authoritarian measures.

"Given all the recent media hype surrounding Edward Snowden and the rumoured use of bitcoins to fund his getaway, this panel promises to be a spirited discussion."

Those who register for the event and purchase a conference pass before 30th July will pay $399 as opposed to the on-site price of $599. CoinDesk readers can get a 20% discount on the early bird price by entering the code BCCD20 at the checkout.

CoinDesk will be reporting from the conference, so keep checking back here and our Twitter page on the day for regular articles and updates.

To follow the conference on Twitter, look for tweets including the hastag #BitcoinConf.

Full Conference Schedule

8:15–9:00 – Registration Opens and Continental Breakfast in Exhibit Hall

9:00–9:30 – Morning Keynote: Bitcoin and The Future of Currency

- Charlie Shrem, Vice Chairman at Bitcoinfoundation.org, CEO of BitInstant

9:30–10:00 – FinTech Business Trends That Will Make People Money

- Jaron Lukasiewicz, CEO at Coinsetter

10:00–10:30 – Morning Break in Exhibit Hall

10:30–11:00 – Building Bitcoin into the Core Architecture of the Web

Manu Sporny, CEO at Digital Bazaar

11:00–11:45 – Gold 2.0. The VC Take on Bitcoin

- Phineas Barnes, Partner at First Round Capital

- Thompson Clark, Editor at Agora Financial

- Tuur Demeester, Author at MacroTrends

- Abelardo (A.B.) Mendez, Director at Capital Markets, Knight Capital Group/PE Source

- Brock Pierce, Executive Chairman at Playzino and Managing Director at Clearstone Global Gaming Fund

- Drew Little, Founder at The Illuminated Ventures Project LLC (The IllVP), Producia (moderator)

11:45–12:30 – Bitcoin and Freedom of Speech

- Marc Hochstein, Executive Editor at American Banker

- Jonathan Mohan, Founder at BitcoinNYC

- Stephanie Murphy, PhDTalk radio host of Let's Talk Bitcoin!

- Alan Safahi, Founder and CEO at ZipZap, Inc

- Michael Terpin, Co-founder of BitAngels and CEO at SocialRadius

- Trevor Timm, Co-founder and Executive Director at Freedom of the Press Foundation

12:30­–1:30 ­– Lunch Break

1:30–2:15 – Legal and Regulatory Issues Facing Virtual Currency Businesses

- Jerry Brito, Senior Research Fellow at Mercatus Center, George Mason University

- Jacob S. Farber, Senior Counsel at Perkins Coie LLP

- Chris Larsen, CEO and Co-founder at OpenCoin

- Greg Schvey, Managing Editor at The Genesis Block

- James White, Director of Tax Issues at U.S. Government Accountability Office

- Ryan Singer, President and COO at Tradehill (moderator)

2:15–2:45 – Bitcoin Boom: The Business Adoption of Bitcoin

- Anthony Gallippi, Co-founder and CEO at BitPay

2:45–3:15 – Afternoon Break in Exhibit Hall

3:15–3:45 – Gaining Currency: Opportunities in Bitcoin

- Alan Safahi, Founder and CEO at ZipZap, Inc

3:45–4:15 – Bitcoins Case Study: A Positive Step Towards Truly Frictionless Commerce

- Christian Dumontet, Co-founder and CEO at Foodler

4:15–4:35 – Bitcoin Best Practices: Reshaping the Payment Landscape

- Maria Sparagis, President at DirectPayNet

4:35–5:05 – Youtube is Broken: Rethinking Content Monetization with Bitcoin

- Adam B. Levine, Editor-in-Chief at Let's Talk Bitcoin!

5:05–5:25 – Fireside Chat: The Future of Online Transactions

- Shakil Khan, Head of Special Projects at Spotify and Founder at CoinDesk

5:30–6:30 – Networking Reception in Exhibit Hall