Gallery: Bitcoin Industry Cuts Loose at Miami Conference

While this year’s edition of The North American Bitcoin Conference (TNABC) may not have taken place amidst a bullish news cycle, attendees proved the underlying enthusiasm of the ecosystem remains just as strong as bitcoin's technology.

Largely absent major announcements and missing a few speakers, the industry focused its discussion at the conference on hot topics such as security, regulation and user adoption – all of which were touched on by the assembled speakers over the course of the two-day conference in scenic Miami Beach, Florida.

A more informal affair, TNABC remains a biannual staple of the bitcoin conference calendar year, although one that largely draws industry professionals for entertainment and business purposes.

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New ChangeTip VP of product Dan Held, for example, indicated that he was present for both days in a bid to discover new insights for his bitcoin-powered tipping platform.

"We love to see what kind of demographic and user base attend and what people are interested in, seeing what people engage with," Held told CoinDesk.

Other attendees like bitcoin hardware wallet Ledger echoed these remarks.

“The conference is very important, because this is the occasion for us to meet with professionals and talk with customers,” CEO Eric Larchevêque said.

Though much of the action took place offstage, quite a few talks spurred discussion, perhaps most notably a regulation panel that was full of suggestions that 2015 might prove to be another year where bitcoin is in the headlines for the wrong reasons.

Elsewhere, much-anticipated crypto 2.0 project Factom made a string of announcements, including an impressive display of its blockchain for recordkeeping, while Tether announced a partnership with the world's largest USD/BTC exchange Bitfinex that will allow it to move fiat currencies with blockchain technology.

Even in the face of questions about the ecosystem and its underlying technology, there was much to celebrate, as six years later, the bitcoin network is still going strong by one measure – the sentiment of its always optimistic community.

For a complete recap of this year's TNABC, view our full reporting from day one and day two of the event.

Image via Joshua Dykgraaf for TNABC