Bitcoin backers work to make it mainstream

When Bitcoin emerged five years ago, it was the payment system many
geeks and enthusiasts had dreamed of: an international, decentralized,
anonymous, and transparent virtual currency that could potentially
replace inefficient traditional ones.

(Forbes) As investor Andy Kessler recently wrote in
the Wall Street Journal, Bitcoin participation requires “a certain
faith in the benevolence of strangers.” But instead, the general public
is ambivalent at best about the virtual currency, while
many Bitcoin-related startups fight an uphill battle to convince the
world that it is at least comparable to its established counterparts, if
not better. Some retailers are pro-Bitcoin as well. Overstock.com and
TigerDirect now accept it as payment.

And three weeks ago, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famous for having been portrayed in the movie The Social Network, disclosed that they would list a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund on the Nasdaq. The Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust aims to make investing in bitcoins as easy as buying shares of a public company.

The Winklevoss twins, who have themselves been Bitcoin investors for
some time, are also bullish on the future of the digital currency and
believe there should be easier ways to invest in it. They established
their fund for people who are eager to invest in the currency, but who
don’t want to actually own bitcoins. Their first-of-its-kind
exchange-traded fund can be bought and sold on the public markets like a
stock or an index fund. Previously, people interested in trading
bitcoins as an asset class had to store the currency themselves and take
on the risk that goes with that. The brothers were recently quoted
saying their business will remove “the friction of buying…while offering
similar investment attributes to direct ownership”.

Whether they rally Bitcoin adoption or not, they certainly remove some
longstanding obstacles to its viability as a consumer product. It’s
likely that in the coming months new services will continue to emerge
that aim to make Bitcoin mainstream.