Get Ready to Accept BitcoinPayments for your Events

Article by Michelle BrunoEventTechBrief.com

Alan Meckler believes that by 2016, one hundredpercent of trade shows and conferences willaccept bitcoins as payment for attendeeregistrations, booth space rentals, and otherservices. As an Internet media pioneer and thecurrent Chairman and CEO of MecklerMedia (theorganizer of the Inside Bitcoins global series ofconferences and expos), he is either very biasedin his opinion or on the cusp of something big.

Bitcoin is an open-source, peer-to-peer software platform thatfacilitates the exchange of digital currency (known as bitcoins).

There is no bank or other intermediary required to transactpayments in bitcoins.

The transactions are low cost, highly secure, irreversible,globally accessible, and extremely transparent.

The value of a bitcoin fluctuates daily and prices are reportedby a number of sources including Google, Yahoo, Bing, andBloomberg.

In the 1990s, he developed the Internet World and Virtual RealityWorld conferences bolstered by the print publications of the samename.

In the same decade, as CEO of Mecklermedia, he createdMecklerWeb, an “Internet-based corporate communication andmarketing system” and acquired a number of websites focused ontechnology content.

Meckler is no stranger to Internet-based businessesand events.

The mechanics for event organizers to accept bitcoin are simple,Meckler explains. Third-party merchant services companies—similarto those that accept credit card payments—can be utilized to set upbitcoin payments. “It doesn’t take much to set it up and there is verylittle risk. If you don’t want to hold on to [the bitcoin], you can sell it,” he adds.

The potential for bitcoin payments for events (and all businesses) isenormous, Meckler believes. “I think it’s going to be huge in a numberof ways not just as a currency, but as a peer-to-peer software. It’s saferthan any other transaction method because the buyer and the sellerhave no middleman. You can also plot through the block chain and it’salmost impossible to have fraud,” he explains.

No middleman

BUYER SELLER

For Inside Bitcoins, ten to fifteen percent of registrants have paid inthe online currency, as well as some exhibitors. Because bitcoinscan be traded, i.e. bought and sold just like stocks, Meckler’scompany can sell any portion of the bitcoins they receive at anytime.

Whatever amount it retains can beused to pay for show services fromcompanies that acceptsuch payments—and more and more companies are doing do every day,Meckler says.

While there is a downside to accepting bitcoin—the valuefluctuates, there is a chance that governments will legislateagainst them, and the concept is still in the experimentalstages—there are signs that the “cryptocurrency” is gainingtraction.

While there is a downside to accepting bitcoin—the valuefluctuates, there is a chance that governments will legislateagainst them, and the concept is still in the experimentalstages—there are signs that the “cryptocurrency” is gainingtraction.

Accepting bitcoins as paymentrequires a different mindsetthan a typical event organizerhas. For example,MecklerMedia is currentlyholding about 300 bitcoins.With the average price paid ataround $200 each, one bitcoinis worth approximately $400 intoday’s market.

“It’s like buying a stock. Youhave to say to yourself, ‘am I

a long-term holder or do Icash in now.’ In five years,

bitcoin will either beworthless or worth about

$100,000 per bitcoin. I’m notbetting the ranch."

- Alan Meckler

As in the past, Meckler believes he is in theearly stages of a huge business opportunityfor event organizers and businesses. “I wasearly in the Internet space and I canremember in 1995 that the last thingsomeone would do is give out their SocialSecurity Number or send money overInternet. I don’t have to tell you where weare today. History doesn’t necessarilyrepeat itself, but it rhymes. This is the closestthing to the beginnings of the Internet thatI’ve ever seen.”

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