The Texas Bitcoin Conference has announced its schedule and speaker lineup for the event taking place March 27 to 29 at the Moody Theater in Austin. During the three-day event, attendees will gain insight into trends in decentralization and the future of Bitcoin.
Speakers
A number of industry thought-leaders will be making keynote presentations. They are economist and author George Gilder, former congressman Steve Stockman, and IBM business analytics and strategy architect Sumabala P Nair, who is a key member of IBM’s ADEPT project.
Texas Bitcoin Association president Paul Snow, who is in charge of the conference, said, “We are excited to showcase the vision of these true innovators at this year’s conference in the cryptocurrency-friendly State of Texas.”
Other speakers who will be present at the event include:
- Anthony Di lorio, co-founder of Ethereum and CEO of bitcoin wallet provider Kryptokit
- Bruce Fenton, founder and managing director of Atlantic Financial and founder of the Bitcoin Association
- David A. Johnston, managing director of the Dapps Fund
- Paul Snow, CEO of Factom (which advertises itself as “a data layer for the blockchain”) and president of the Texas Bitcoin Association
- Steve Sprague, founder and CEO of Rivetz, a company that produces software to use mobile devices as a second layer of security in online transactions
- Shawn Wilkinson, founder and lead developer of the Storj Project
Schedule
The conference’s preliminary agenda states that the conference will start with a kickoff event planned for 7pm on March 27.
On the 28th, registration will start at 8am, and the conference will be opened at 9am. BitGive Foundation founder Connie Gallippi, Jeremy Gardern of the College Cryptocurrency Network, and others will be speaking throughout the day. The Women’s Panel will be moderated by Catherine Bleish of the TheBitMom.com blog.
During the last day, the 29th, speakers such as Eric Bruntmeyer and Nicholas Courtois will make presentations. There will be a panel on regulation hosted by Carol Van Cleef, a partner at law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. Other topics for the day include Bitcoin taxation and accounting, and the cryptocurrency’s future in South America. At 5pm, the winners of the hackathon will be announced, and the conference will come to a close at 5:40pm.
$1M up for grabs
One highlight of the conference, which will be running for the second time this year, is the hackathon. It will include over 100 developers working in groups to build software based on the internet of things, the blockchain, and Bitcoin 2.0.
Last year’s hackathon gave rise to four bitcoin-related projects: decentralized storage technology Storj, decentralized ride-sharing app La Zooz, DERPA (also known as Tor Coin), and Block Auth.
The Dapps Fund will provide winners with $1 million in prizes, as it did last year, and event sponsor Rivetz will provide hardware to be used for encryption.
Other sponsors of the conference include GoCoin, Lighthouse Partners, and Tally Capital. Uber and Lyft will be providing new users with a free $20 credit to spend on transportation to the event.
Registration to the conference, available from Ticketbase, costs $150, and includes access to all presentations and the hackathon. Discounted entry is available to students for $75. Those who are only interested in attending the hackathon can enter for free by registering for a hackathon-only badge.
In 2014, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission stated that it is legal for licensed stores, restaurants, and bars to accept bitcoin payments for alcoholic drinks.
