Bitcoin for Business

What is Bitcoin?

• Bitcoin accounts are online• Digital money

not something you can hold in your hand

It’s value is kept in an account or “wallet”

• The term “CRYTPOCURRENCY” is used to describe Bitcoin;it is a medium of exchangeusing computer algorithms (or cryptography)

to pay for and receive transactions

from customer to merchant,

or person to person.

How to Set up a Bitcoin Account

• Program software can be installed from bitcoin.org

• available for Windows, Mac, and Linux

• Set up your own BITCOIN WALLET

• Looks similar to a bank account, but you’re not connected to any bank

you’re connected to the bitcoin network

• Your bitcoin wallet is the money you have in a file on your computer,

Protected by a complex password you will set up

with at least 12 characters

Create a Bitcoin Wallet

• On your smartphone -- use in daily transactions with your unique QR code

• On your computer – online payments

How to Get Bitcoin

• Accept Bitcoin as a form of payment to your bitcoin wallet

• Buy them by “Mining”

• Buy them from a bitcoin exchange with a bank account or Paypal

My bitcoin wallet --- this is how it will look

CoinDesk Website for checking bitcoin trading values

A FEW THINGS ABOUT A BITCOIN TRANSACTION . . . . .

• Nobody logs on to a bank or credit card account.

• There may be a small transfer fee but no interest rates incurred.

• No banks were holding the money for a couple of days. Transfer is immediate.

• There are no bank holidays. Transactions are 24/7

• No tax authority saw the transaction or the money, but this has been under scrutiny, most recently by the state of New Jersey.

• No one knows about the transaction except the two accounts making the transaction.

• The Transaction is anonymous.

• Only encrypted digital signatures are used.

Benefits for Small Business

• Your accounts as well as the customer’s accounts are anonymous

• No social security #s, no personal financial information to be hacked

• Not tied to banks or credit cards

• transactions are irreversible and secure

• Responsibility for fraud protection is not responsibility of the merchant

• Alternative for online ordering and payments

Good News• Put a sign in the window!

• Purchase a point-of-sale terminal

• Several different companies offer terminals

• Coinkite -- example

• Keeps track or your transactions

News …

Bad News

• The value is unstable

• Could be regulated by governments and taxed

• Transactions can be slow – about 10 minutes

• If everyone in the world used bitcoin, the current version couldn’t handle that number of transactions

• MtGox, the main trading entity, could be hacked (and already has been)

• Bitcoin’s anonymity allows untraceable illegal transactions

Who is accepting bitcoins as payment?

• Wordpress to set up your

• Overstock.com, Amazon, Home Depot, CVS, Kmart, Sears

• Space travel with Richard Branson

• Ok Cupid dating site

• United Way for Donations

• More & more & more

• http://spendbitcoins.com/places