October 1st, 2013 – San Diego, California While crypto currencies have been around for several years now, they have yet to establish themselves as a viable alternative to traditional currencies for most transactions; including digital ones. The main reason for this is that acceptance of Bitcoins and other crypto currencies are sporadic which inherently limits their demand. Merchant involvement is further discouraged as the perceived value becomes relatively volatile due to this deficiency of legitimate sources of demand. However, the scene is slowly changing with the emergence of vertically integrated markets that embrace digital crypto currencies such as Bitcoin. A perfect example of one of these is the open source 3D printing market. Open source fused filament fabrication (FFF) has increased in popularity at around the same pace as digital currencies over the past several years. While these two markets are completely independent of each other in function, the cultural impetus, which has made them successful, shares a common thread.
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