Follow My Vote attended the Inside Bitcoins conference, which took place October 5th-7th in Las Vegas, Nevada, to network and listen to keynote speeches from industry leaders. Some of the more memorable speeches were from Dan Larimer, Patrick Byrne, and Bobby Lee.

Dan Larimer, founder of BitShares, gave a keynote speech called “Bitcoin and Beyond”. In his speech, Larimer highlighted reasons why delegated proof of stake is likely the future of blockchain transaction processing and why BitShares uses it, as opposed to proof of work (which Bitcoin is based on). He urged the Bitcoin community to persuade the major mining pools that control the network to pivot to the proof of stake model to allow for decentralization, as proof of work is a method of the past that has proven to lead to centralization of the network, the antithesis of what Bitcoin was meant to be in the first place.

Larimer also introduced BitUSD, a market asset issued within the BitSharesX Decentralized Exchange, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar. By owning BitUSD, you can hold crypto-currency that is truly a currency and not equity. The price remains steady and does not experience the same volatile fluctuations that Bitcoin and other alt-coins experience. The same concept has been concept has been applied in countries such as Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, which have pegged their countries’ currencies to the U.S. dollar, except now BitUSD changes the game as it is the first stable blockchain based currency. In fact, by holding BitUSD, you can actually gain 5-10% interest on the value of your BitUSD, which is better than the average savings account you’d get from your bank, Larimer explained.

Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com gave his keynote titled “The Next Decentralized Frontier of Cryptosecurities,” during which he announced a partnership between Counterparty and Overstock. Byrne, an avid supporter of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies, hopes to establish a Bitcoin based stock market. This “New Wall Street,” as some have called it, would take out the middle men from the stock exchanges and make it easier for startups and other companies to issue their own stock. Although some question the partnership, being that it is based on Bitcoin (a proof of work blockchain model), most see it’s further validation for the crypto-currency industry as a whole. Regardless of the camp you are in (proof of work vs. proof of stake), it’s good to know that they will carry the bulk of the load and pave the way through bureaucratic regulations for others to follow, like the first snow plow to hit the streets after a huge snow storm. Read more on the partnership here.

Bobby Lee, CEO of BTC China and an active board member of the Bitcoin Foundation, gave a speech on the tremendous rise of the Bitcoin industry. His speech was very fascinating as he brought a perspective that is synonymous with many Bitcoin advocates in China.

In addition to the keynote speeches at the Inside Bitcoins conference, outside of the auditoriums, companies sponsored booths to showcase their products and services as they relate to Bitcoin and the crypto-currency industry as a whole. There was even a Bitcoin ATM at one of the booths, which was fascinating to see in person. We also talked to several individuals and investors who were very excited to find out there is a company working on blockchain based voting that has the potential to revolutionize they way elections are being hosted today.

When it was all said and done, Follow My Vote created some serious buzz at the conference with respect to the online open-source voting platform we’ve been working to develop. Hopefully the connections we’ve made at Inside Bitcoins will bring us that much closer to free and fair elections here in the United States and abroad.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…

unless the whole world hears about it!