At the inaugural Bitcoin Fair, an evening of bitcoin evangelizing held this month in a packed-to-capacity Japantown ramen joint in San Francisco, the absence of one

thing stood out.

"I invited lots of women," bemoaned the event host, QuickCoin co-founder Nathan Lands.

They apparently had not accepted.

Sarah Blincoe, founder of the Santa Cruz startup Bitcoin Beauties, wants to address this problem in the bitcoin community, one plainly obvious to anyone who has eve

attended a bitcoin conference, Meetup, or even scrolled through bitcoin forums on the Web.

Part of her strategy is to appeal to women through their own beauty. Her logic: Helping women feel beautiful might also help them dive into the emerging digital currency.

"For me to feel empowered and beautiful in a community is really important," said Blincoe, 26.

The company's slogan is "Beauty, Brains, Bitcoin." Its logo is a sketch of two voluptuous, nude women, posing pin-up style beside the stylized bitcoin "B."

The company website, yet to be completed, is now a photo collage of women, some topless, silhouetted against a beach sunset. Blincoe refers to members as "our

beauties."

Why Bitcoin?

Why would I chose to invest my career and time in Bitcoin? When I first learned about Bitcoin in January of 2013, my initial reaction was, “this must be some sort of project that only software developers can connect with.” However, I soon realized that Bitcoin was not just for coders and individuals who have a strong grasp of cryptography, but it is a movement towards decentralized solutions to so many centralized problems we face in society today.

When I delved into the Bitcoin space, I learned some key things. Bitcoin is not just a currency but a political, economic and social movement towards freedom. Bitcoin represents a decentralized solution to many centralized problems in the world today. Bitcoin is a platform for the promotion of freedom and further technological development. So, in short, Bitcoin is not just a technology but a transformative tool and opportunity to change the world.

Most importantly, Bitcoin is a unifier. The Bitcoin currency brings together the best of technological advancement, ingenuity, individual responsibility and most importantly limited government principles. What comes to mind first when one thinks about a digital, decentralized currency? For myself, it is the unifying reach Bitcoin has around the world and back. Who would have thought that Satoshi Nakamoto’s initial white paper from October 2008 would spark a revolution of unification, ingenuity and cross cultural, cross race, cross political, cross faith, and cross ideological lines.  After first learning about Bitcoin I initially could not wrap my mind around the idea that I could send money from my cell phone to my relatives in Norway, friends in Washington, DC or my family in New Jersey with just the scan of a QR code. Bitcoin leads us to embrace a world of interconnectedness where we are prompted to and benefit much from learning from people around the world who may be different on paper from us but share a common desire for economic liberty, ingenuity and freedom of speech.

 I came across your website, as I have been following the Bitcoin Botswana group and stories quite closely and saw the pictures of the Bitcoin Botswana meetup.

I thought I would share my story with you too!

I also stumbled across bitcoin last year in October, when my husband started going to the Bitcoin Meetups in Cape Town. He came back from the first meeting and told me there were only three of them at the meetup! Today there are over 100 registered on the Bitcoin Cape Town group. I then started researching bitcoin and realized I really liked the idea of crypto-currencies because of the low fees associated with the transactions and people in Third World countries such as South Africa, really needed something cheaper than Western Union transfers, PayPal (with its high cost when trying to get your money into a South African bank), and even credit cards fees. I started a new company in November 2013, called Bitcoin Payments, as a BitPay Affiliate in South Africa, assisting merchants to accept bitcoin on their website. We have had a very positive response from people and interest in bitcoin is rapidly growing as information becomes available on the positive aspects of using bitcoin. Our company also helps people to settle into local bank accounts into local currency at only 1% transaction fee. MUCH LOWER THAN ANY OTHER  PAYMENT METHOD.

We are hoping, that bitcoin becomes a regular payment method in the near future and that large retailers in South Africa start accepting bitcoin on their websites!

Kind Regards Sonya

Visit  Sonya website for more information:  http://bitcoinpayments.co.za/

I'm not sure when I became an anarchist, but it's safe to say it was by the time I began the Anarcho-capitalism Blog in 2009.
 
It was that anarchism which drew me to bitcoin. My love for unfettered markets and a deep distrust of central banking had me writing a few articles here and there about this new digital currency. But it wasn't until Jeffrey Tucker literally gave me some bitcoin via a Facebook video chat and told me to spend it, that I dipped my toe into those waters myself.