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Bitcoin use gaining some traction around Central Ohio
ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: August 28, 2014
When the world’s first decentralized currency was born in 2009, it was hailed by supporters as the Superman of the finance world.
Bitcoin was here to save us from regulation, wild market fluctuation and surveillance.
Supporters are still pretty excited about the currency as it works to change the face of personal finance as the world knows it.
“Bitcoin is to our financial system what the Internet was to telecommunications,” said Jad Mubaslat, co-founder of the OSU Bitcoin Student Group and owner of BitQuick. “Bitcoin is going to change the way people transact money and finally connect individuals to the global economy who never had access to any type of banking infrastructure in the past.”
Indeed, the global economy seems to be embracing the use of bitcoins, especially in developing countries, despite the digital currency’s still very volatile exchange rate, currently about $589/BTC.
But because Bitcoin facilitates almost instant transactions through peer-to-peer proceedings, and because each transaction is recorded in a public ledger but without revealing identity, the currency has developed a reputation for being quick and reliable but transparent and trustworthy.
“Bitcoin is changing the way people exchange things of value with each other,” said Alan Chalker, director of technology solutions at the Ohio Supercomputer Center, said. “Bitcoin’s advantage over other mechanisms such as cash, check or PayPal is due to the fact that it is nearly instantaneous on a global scale and has an extremely low processing cost.”
Chalker, who is also the faculty advisor for the OSU Bitcoin Group, said Bitcoin relies on some very sophisticated and computationally intense mathematical algorithms to run.
It is essentially open source software, which excludes it from ownership by any type of banking institution.
This is a good thing, Mubaslat says.
“Instead of governments ad corporations running the financial system, a program with consistent mathematical rules will. In this way, Bitcoin cannot be corrupted or destroyed. Just like the Internet, nobody owns Bitcoin, we all do.”
Recently, Forbes reported that consumers in emerging markets, like parts of Africa, are growing increasingly familiar with how Bitcoin works.
Despite the complex inner workings of the software, users don’t need much to be able to use it.
“Understanding the technicalities of how Bitcoin works isn’t as important to the everyday user, the same way that it’s not necessary to understand how TCP/IP protocol works in order to use the Internet,” said Mubaslat.
For these reasons, Mubaslat decided to start the Ohio State Bitcoin Group in December of last year.
“There was no reason not to evangelize this new technology,” he said.
Currently, the group’s efforts are centered around getting businesses on High Street to accept the cryptocurrency as a form of payment.
As of now, one business in Columbus accepts bitcoin, a barbershop called Backroom Barber.
But the group’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed, Mubaslat said.
“University officials have told us that ‘it’s not a matter of if, but when’ they’ll begin accepting bitcoin payments.”
As with any currency, though, Chalker said the potential for abuse exists.
“Bitcoin transactions are very much like cash transactions, in that they are inherently irreversible and anonymous,” said Chalker. “Much of the news regarding Bitcoin over the past few years has been the result of using it for illicit purposes or people being scammed while using it.”
The anonymous nature of Bitcoin has a become a magnet for online drug transactions and Mubaslat himself has had experience with online scamming.
“In May 2013 I encountered firsthand the dangers of Bitcoin as I was scammed out of 10 BTC and experienced the danger of not securing your accounts with 2 factor authentication,” said Mubaslat.
He used Mt. Gox, one of the largest online bitcoin exchanges, when his account was hacked and he lost the equivalent of thousands of dollars.
The experience did not cause Mubaslat to lose faith in bitcoin but it did highlight a need for secure, legitimate online services and a little self-education.
He set out to come up with a way to reduce the dangers of bitcoin while easing the process of actually using it and simultaneously fostering a trust within the cryptocurrency community.
Last summer, in an online forum, Mubaslat offered a user $300 for connectcoins.com, a platform that allowed users to buy and sell bitcoin through an escrow.
He bought the site and turned it into BitQuick, “and things have been moving quick ever since,” he says.
The site gained so much traction that he brought on his roommate and best friend, Chad Davis, as chief operating officer. TechColumbus heard about BitQuick earlier this year and now gives the guys assistance with business development and a strategic vision.
The accomplishments keep adding up for Mubaslat, but at the end of the day, he’s still a student and plans to graduate in the spring with a degree in biomedical engineering.
If BitQuick sees further success, he plans to stick with it after graduation.
“Ideally, bitcoin will become universally accepted ... I believe it will compliment the current monetary system well,” he said. “Bottom line though, I believe the concept of a decentralized digital currency is here to stay.”
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