Two authorities on Bitcoin will discuss the economic and societal opportunities of a world that embraces crypto-currencies during a presentation on March 31 at UNL.

UNL’s College of Business Administration will host “Bitcoin in the New Financial World” at 3:30 p.m. in Room 143 of the CBA Building, 1240 R St. UNL alumnus Greg Simon and David Mondrus, co-CEOs of Cryptowerks Inc., will lead the presentation, which is free and open to the public.

Bitcoin has gone from a little-known, little-understood technology to front-page news in the past year. Created in 2009, it is a popular virtual currency traded anonymously. Crypto-currencies like Bitcoin are not tied to any country or controlled by a central bank, but they can be cashed in for dollars and other official currencies.

The lecture will address how crypto-currencies will play an innovative role in the global economy.

“Bitcoin and crypto-currencies represent the most significant and potentially disruptive technological breakthrough since the Internet,” Simon said. “The advent of crypto-technology will bring with it robust innovation, economic efficiency, real economic growth and an overall competitive advantage to the U.S. and others who embrace it.”

Simon, a Lincoln native and graduate of Pius X High School, is a founding member of the Bitcoin Financial Association and the Nicaragua Bitcoin Foundation. After graduating from UNL with a bachelor’s degree of business administration in accounting, he worked in investment banking in Tokyo. He earned his MBA from Columbia Business School and returned to Japan to work for JP Morgan. His interest in crypto-currencies lies in the potential to peacefully disrupt centralized and hierarchical structures leading to a more fair and transparent society.

Mondrus also earned his MBA from Columbia and has more than 15 years of e-commerce experience. He has a bachelor’s degree in technology from State University of New York Empire State College. Mondrus writes for Bitcoin Magazine and is a founding member of the Bitcoin Financial Association.