'Inside Bitcoins' conference accepts bitcoins

People who want to attend the Inside Bitcoins conference in New York City next month will have the option of paying their registration fees with bitcoins. Show organizers also say that everyone attending the show will also receive a paper wallet with 0.01 bitcoin (around $1.09 as of today's trading) to get "hands-on experience with virtual currency."

WebMediaBrands runs the mediabistro.com blog network; InsideNetwork.com, which covers Facebook, social gaming and mobile apps; and SemanticWeb.com, a blog about big data and semantic technologies.

"Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are gaining acceptance worldwide, yet there is great confusion by commercial organizations, governments and entrepreneurs about the bitcoin ecosystem and its future," said Alan M. Meckler, chairman and CEO of WebMediaBrands. The goal of the Inside Bitcoins conference, he added, is to "clarify the present and future utilization of virtual currencies."

Scheduled for July 30th at the New Yorker's offices, Inside Bitcoins will feature talks by Charlie Shrem, CEO of the BitInstant fund transfer service; Anthony Gallippi, CEO of payment service provider BitPay; Christian Dumontet, co-founder and CEO of the bitcoin-accepting food delivery service Foodler; and Alan Safahi, founder and CEO of the cash transaction network ZipZap.

Scheduled sessions include "Bulding Bitcoin into the Core Architecture of the Web", "Gold 2.0: The VC Take on Bitcoin", "Bitcoin and Freedom of Speech" and "Legal and Regulatory Issues Facing Virtual Currency Businesses."