Bitcoin had an interesting week with a two day conference ending yesterday in San Francisco and a Bitcoin conference in Chicago last weekend. Charles Allen, CEO of Bitcoin Shop spoke with Coin Desk in an interview published today. Bitcoin Shop is a publicly traded US bitcoin company that utilizes Amazon’s affiliate program to sell a wide selection of e-commerce products for bitcoin, litecoin and Dogecoin
Allen stated that Bitcoin is a misunderstood currency. To set the record straight about his bitcoin company Allen explained that it was launched last year by two engineers from NASA. When the website was activated in September there was nowhere to spend the bitcoin.
Allen joined in January and shifted the direction of the company. By February Bitcoin Shop was the main investor in GOCOin and recently invested in expresscoin. The purchase of expresscoin is the user friendly access online to get bitcoin and shop.
The first step was to not think about bitcoin but think in terms of e-commerce. Allen says that Bitcoin Shop is onto a first in the cryptocurrency transactional system. The first step is that if you open up a bitcoin wallet you must find an exchange or a payment processor. The different passwords and login requirements becomes a transactional hurdle to overcome. You now become a manager of an ecosystem of different providers.
Allen believes that Bitcoin Shop will create a unified solution so a consumer can do everything in one shop and exchange system. You can buy bitcoin and use the system as an e-commerce onramp.
According to Allen just under $2 million has been raised to put together a new website and work to integrate with its recently purchased expression a step forward in the ease of using bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. He believes that the competitive advantage for Bitcoin Shop is that it is the only public company in the market space.
Since Dell has announced it will accept bitcoin for payment, it is a driver in awareness to the consumer about bitcoin. Allen makes note that Bitcoin Shop has purchased BTCS.com and uses it as a ticker symbol which allows the company to rebrand in the future.
A change of mind toward bitcoin came from Benjamin Lawsky, Superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services. New York became the first state to propose comprehensive regulations governing virtual currencies in mid-July.
In a change of language from last March when Lawsky compared bitcoin to the “Wild West,” he now has a change of mind and heart. Lawsky now considers the advantages of bitcoin such as the technology’s ability to promote efficient, lower cost financial transactions. He recognized that workers in NYC would use wire services to send money across the sea and land to family and friends who are unable to access a traditional monetary bank system.
The cost of sending money via a wire transaction could cost one hundred dollars. Bitcoin provides for a small fee that bitcoin could be sent globally across borders.
California’s Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that classifies bitcoin and cryptocurrency as lawful money. As a leader in forward thinking and technology entrepreneurs, California places bitcoin into the world in a new status position.
