Bitcoin conference stops accepting Bitcoin over processing costs
Tickets for the conference cost 拢740, but Bitcoin fans may not be able to buy one as their money is tied into the cryptocurrency.
Thursday 11 January 2018 13:51, UK
A conference dedicated to Bitcoin has stopped accepting the cryptocurrency in payment for tickets because of difficulties in processing payments.
The cost of processing Bitcoin payments has been its main drawback as a medium of exchange, especially compared to the transaction speeds and costs of cash (free and instant) and credit cards (often also free and practically instant).
These issues have prompted the organisers of the North American Bitcoin Conference to be held in Miami next week to announce they would no longer be exchanging tickets for any cryptocurrency.
The conference announced that "due to network congestion and manual processing, we have closed ticket payments using cryptocurrencies" just a week before the conference opened.
"We have, and always will, accept cryptocurrencies for our conferences, up to fourteen days before the event," the organisers said.
"However, due to the manual inputting of data in our ticketing platforms when paid in cryptocurrencies, we decided to shut down bitcoin payments for last minute sales due to print deadlines."
Stating that things would hopefully be better next year when "global adoption [of cryptopcurrencies] becomes reality", the conference organisers called for "more unity in the community about scaling" - allowing Bitcoin to grow by improving the processing speeds and transaction costs.
Last minute tickets for the conference are selling for $1,000 (£740), but some of Bitcoin's most devoted fans may not have that much cash to hand after placing it all into the cryptocurrency.
A single Bitcoin is currently valued at exactly £10,000 after a record year in 2017 when it increased in value more than 2,000% between its record low and high.