Growing Bitcoin buzz: In-person Bitcoin exchanges make a splash in Berlin

Published time: August 24, 2013 16:58. Supporters of Bitcoin spent Saturday engaging in personal exchanges in Berlin, taking place in a mobile art space which supports the cryptocurrency. Its official recognition by the German state earlier this month is only aiding its expansion.

Bitcoin first burst onto the global scene in 2008 and has since been gaining rapid momentum. Germany is fast becoming a hotbed of exchanges, with August 16 marking its official recognition by the country under the term “Rechnungseinheiten,” which roughly translates to “units of account.”

“It’s a real step towards it becoming a universally, accepted, legitimate other option to state-issued currencies,” said RT’s Peter Oliver in Berlin. In some places in the German capital, people even use the parallel currency to pay for simple commodities such as food and drink. Numerous small online merchants also accept it.

Bitcoin Exchange Berlin hosted their third meeting on Saturday at the city’s Platoon Kunsthalle (Platoon Art Hall) to launch a European hub where people can both buy and sell a selection of products using Bitcoin and buy and sell the currency itself in a stock-exchange type climate.

“We’ve got many innovative people here from all over the world, coming together," Aaron Koenig, founder of Bitcoin Exchange Berlin, told RT. "Berlin has always been a place to try out new things. Did you know that the computer was invented in Berlin? So I think that it’s just natural that Bitcoin is very strong here.” - Read more here: http://rt.com/news/bitcoin-exchange-berlin-currency-941