Skip to main content

CARTES examines the pros and cons of Bitcoin

Money is changing. Despite some widely-publicised recent problems, the Bitcoin system is now worth around €7 billion ($8.9 billion) and other ‘crypto-currencies’ such as Ripple are gaining momentum. The success of these pioneers shows that customers are increasingly ready to consider payment systems that are different from traditional dollars, euros and yen.
November 3, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Money is changing. Despite some widely-publicised recent problems, the Bitcoin system is now worth around €7 billion ($8.9 billion) and other ‘crypto-currencies’ such as Ripple are gaining momentum.

The success of these pioneers shows that customers are increasingly ready to consider payment systems that are different from traditional dollars, euros and yen. But how mature are these new systems? Are they near the point at which ordinary consumers, not just those interested in technology, will start to use them? Will governments allow them to become parallel currencies? What are the dangers of criminals using them to hide their financial transactions? The importance of crypto-currencies is discussed in several presentations throughout today. A panel discussion, ‘The future of Bitcoin’, will consider whether governments may step in to regulate the Bitcoin universe. If they do so, will that remove the anonymous nature of transactions? Chaired by Windsor Holden, research director at Juniper Research, the session will include Eric Larcheveque, CEO of La Maison du Bitcoin and Pierre Noizat, COO and co-founder of Paymium. Sessions throughout the day will look at the benefits of Bitcoin and other crypto- currencies. In one of the most intriguing of these, Richard Perry, vice-president sales, Europe, Middle East and Africa for Biocatch, will tell the audience ‘How to become a successful Bitcoin thief’. Speakers will also consider ‘The future of cash’ and ‘The new generation of digital wallets’. Traditional methods of payment will not disappear quickly, however. And industry experts will also give advice on how legacy service providers can benefit from the new payment methods by completing and integrating services for merchants and buyers using the new systems.

‘Wallets, Bitcoins, new means of payments’,
9:30 - 17:00 Room 2

Related Content

  • ITS America Annual Meeting - setting the scene
    May 1, 2012
    Gloria J. Jeff, District of Columbia Department of Transportation, and one of the co-chairs of the 2012 Annual Meeting Organizing Committee, sets the scene on what will be this year’s most important event for the ITS industry.
  • Positive incentives an alternative to road user charging?
    February 1, 2012
    The Netherlands has been looking at incentivising rush-hour avoidance. The intention is to better understand road users' motivations and find alternatives to congestion charging. Something significant needs to happen if we are to adequately address the traffic congestion and other issues caused by the ever-rising numbers of vehicles on our roads. Congestion or distance-based charging is seen as one way of managing demand and raising revenue for improvements to transport infrastructure. However, charging is
  • Investment and innovation the future of ITS
    January 31, 2012
    Cisco's Paul Brubaker, former administrator of the US Department of Transportation's (USDOT's) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), takes a look at how the ITS sector is starting to attract the attention of major corporations and what this will mean for intelligent transportation in the coming years
  • Cost benefit analysis ‘can’t be carried out with a cookbook’
    June 25, 2018
    There is far more to working out the worth of a project than simply filling in a few headings on a spreadsheet. David Crawford surveys some recent thinking from the US and Canada. Cost benefit analysis (CBA) “can’t be carried out with a cookbook”, warns US analyst Professor Robert J Brent. “ You can’t just get out a spreadsheet and fill in the data for all the headings. Each transport CBA should have something that is distinctive, in terms of location (for example, for a rural area), types of user