I visited Los Angeles Bitcoin Incubator Bitropolis earlier this year, and I got to meet Steve Beauregard, the founder of GoCoin. While in his office in the scenic Santa Monica, CA, I had a few questions for him– and he was kind enough to answer them.
What is GoCoin and what do you guys do?
GoCoin is the first e-commerce checkout solution empowering merchants to accept multiple digital currencies like bitcoin, litecoin and dogecoin. We guarantee merchants receive the fiat value of every transaction, and give them the choice of taking all or partial settlement in coins.
What is your professional background?
I’m a serial entrepreneur with a knack for identifying emerging technologies.
In the early 90’s, I helped DIRECTV launch the first commercial satellite television service in the US and Latin America. A few years later, I launched a successful Enterprise Messaging and Collaboration practice and later became the first BlackBerry partner in the western US bringing mobile email to west coast law practices and entertainment industry giants.
After the Y2K craze, I launched REGARD, an Internet strategy firm with clients like Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Wells Fargo Bank, Countrywide, LIONSGATE Films, and a myriad of state & federal government agencies. We were early pioneers in offshore development, opening an office in Nagpur, India in 2003.
In 2007, I formed REGARD Venture Solutions, a software incubator to help early stage entrepreneurs reach venture viability.
I co-founded GoCoin in 2013, and for the last year, have been on a worldwide tour evangelizing the benefits of bitcoin and digital currency payments.
What are you currently occupied with?
At this stage, my primary activities are focused around global expansion. I’m dealing with contracts, fine tuning internal procedures, preparing for speaking engagements, and talking with prospective merchants. To put it in perspective, I’ve traveled over 130,000 miles since last September. I just returned from my latest speaking circuit for the iGaming Super Show, BitFin conference and CoinSummit.
What is your vision for GoCoin?
I see GoCoin playing a significant role in worldwide merchant adoption of digital currencies so people can reap the benefits of low cost, secure transactions. We believe in the ability to travel freely and instantly exchange value with anyone in the world connected to the Internet in a secure fashion without the need for a government-issued currency or intermediary of any kind.
“Bitcoin users need to think in terms of all of the situations they exchange value and encourage others to accept coins instead of cash”, concludes Steve. “It’s incumbent upon those of us in the know to teach and evangelize if we are going to bring about real change.”
GoCoin is ultimately contributing to the Bitcoin space by providing an e-commerce checkout solution that gives the merchant the option of choosing different cryptocurrencies; no other popular e-commerce checkout service currently provides this option. The future looks bright for GoCoin, as developers are creating new and innovative cryptocurrencies on a daily basis. Who knows what other choices they will provide for merchants? Only time will tell.
