In a bid to help Canadian citizen’s understand and embrace the new virtual currency, the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada launched nationwide last week. The Alliance, which was founded by Bitcoin entrepreneur Anthony Di Lorio, will be based in Toronto and aims to unite both Bitcoin users and businesses by providing resources and outreach services throughout Canada.
The Bitcoin Alliance of Canada offers free memberships and a paid two-tier model, with members receiving access to educational resources and a 10% discount on Bitcoin events. Premium membership is available for the BTC equivalent of $25 per year, with lifetime membership costing $125 in BTC.
While all paid members are eligible for voting rights, premium members will receive a 15% discount on events as well as being able to participate in forums and Q&A sessions with the Alliance board. Lifetime members will be able to take advantage of a 25% discount and will be rewarded with surprise promotions and benefits.
As well as launching their membership structure and official website, the Alliance has also revealed its calendar of events, which kicks off in April 2014 with the Bitcoin Expo 2014. Registration for the Expo opens in January, with confirmed speakers including DarkWallet developer and founder of Defense Distributed Cody Wilson, founder of the Bitcoin Education Project Charles Hoskinson, YBitcoin’s David Bailey and Rodolpho Novak of CoinKite.
One area where BitCoin has already seen particular growth is in online gambling. More and more internet based gambling sites sites are starting to offer Bitcoin as a form of currency to their players. Not only is this a convenient form of funding for customers, but it can also prove lucrative for the companies that are pioneering Bitcoin gambling.
In its January 2013 report, one of the largest Bitcoin gambling sites, SatoshiDice announced profits of ?33,310, which at the time was worth $596,231 and would be considerably more at today’s valuation. The organisation’s public finance statement of June 2013 reported a total of 372,712 bets were place d over a 30 day period, averaging out to around 12,424 bets per day.
According to Canadian slots site Slot-Machines.ca, Bitcoin is increasingly becoming the currency of choice for various forms of online gambling, including slots, sportsbetting, poker and casino games. As more users start to understand and adopt Bitcoin, the online gambling industry could see the use of the currency boom and extend into other industries even further.
The Bitcoin expo will be highlighting online gambling as one industry which has seen the advantages of using this virtual currency, and will be hoping by showcasing its advantages that other industries and verticals will also start adopting it as their primary currency method.
