Showing posts with label bitcoin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bitcoin. Show all posts

Sunday, March 22, 2015

WHEN THE DOLLAR COLLAPSES, WHICH IS BETTER MONEY, GOLD OR BITCOIN?

By  Evander Smart

us dollarI’ll trust that you as the reader is educated enough to know the U.S. Dollar is on it’s last legs as the Global Reserve Currency. I’ve certainly written about the shaky financial situation of the U.S. enough, and there is no shortage of information online about the subject. The U.S. Government has started selling MRAPs to every backwoods county in the U.S. for pennies on the dollar, just because. They know what’s going on, and when the Dollar falls, the stuff will definitely hit the fan nationwide, and those machines will be used.
The Police State is being bred to be bigger, stronger, and more authoritarian. Unethical, immoral laws are being written and passed under the cover of hundreds of pages of legalese to take citizen’s rights and reverse the covenant the once great nation aspired to live up to. If you don’t see what’s happening, it’s on you, at this point. The future is not being hidden from you. 90% of the puzzle has been completed. If you don’t know, its only because you really just don’t want to know.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Bitcoin: The Benevolent Virus (Op-Ed)

By Travis Patron

BitcoinBitcoin is a virus spreading with no cure. It transmits itself through the ideas of others and travels via digital networks of information. Eating up the processing power of computer systems and decaying the roots of analog money, Bitcoin is the spread of a benevolent virus.
The ALS ice-bucket challenge is a prime example how an idea can spread virally, and enabled by digital information. Every participant becomes involved by being referred by a previous one, and they themselves refer two more in turn, creating viral growth of the idea. The driving factor behind this viral growth is the implanting of an idea of the host, from there it can often come to consume the participant.
A cancer which develops in the body grows by way of turning existing cells into deadly cancer cells. Every patient who has ever dealt with cancer before knows that once that growth of cancer reaches a particular point, there is no hope of a recovery. The cancer will take its course and there is very little the host can do to combat it. Eventually, this cancer grows so large that it self-destructs as it effectively kills the very environment, which had allowed it to thrive.

Bitcoin Startup 21 Announces $116 Million All-Star Backing

By 

Stealth bitcoin startup 21 Inc, formerly 21e6, has announced new information about its funding history, staff members and investors, revealing it has raised $116m in fundraising over multiple rounds.
pile of moneyIn a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, 21 CEO Matthew Pauker indicated that Andreessen Horowitz, Data Collective, Khosla Ventures, RRE Ventures and Yuan Capital are among the firms that have participated in the company’s funding rounds.
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston; eBay co-founder Jeff Skoll; Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi; PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Max Levchin; and Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus have also invested in the startup.

Bitcoin Venture Capital Funding on Pace for $1 Billion in 2015

By  

NEW YORK (InsideBitcoins) — With the recent venture funding announcement from secretive bitcoin startup 21 Inc., the bitcoin industry is now on pace to eclipse the $1 billion mark for 2015. This would be a massive improvement over the final numbers from 2014, and each passing year has shown exceptional growth in funding for bitcoin companies since 2012. In addition to the $116 million raised by 21, Coinbase also announced a funding round of $75 million in January, which included investments from the New York Stock Exchange, BBVA, USAA Bank, and many other respected institutions in the financial industry.
Bitcoin Venture Capital Funding by Year
21 breaks Coinbase’s record
21’s $116 million in venture capital funding is the most ever by a company in the digital currency space, and it breaks a record set by Coinbase earlier this year. There is a steep drop off in funding totals when compared the rest of the rounds that have been in announced in 2015, although KnCMiner was able to raise $15 million for their mining-centric business model. Although 21 has been able to raise a remarkable amount of money for their upcoming commercial operations, the exact nature of their business is still unknown to the general public at this point in time.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Bank of England: Digital Currencies Could Revolutionise Payments

By 


bank-of-englandA combination of digital currencies and mobile technology may reshape the payments landscape, according to a new Bank of England research report.
The One Bank Research Agenda investigates issues beyond the UK central bank's traditional scope to decipher how monetary policy interacts with developments such as climate change and increasing life spans.
Mark Carney, the Bank’s Governor, summarised today's launch of the Agenda saying:
"Economies are complex, dynamic and constantly evolving systems that are underpinned by social interactions and behavioral change, shaped by fundamental forces like technology and globalization and supported – or at times disrupted – by finance."
Click here to read more

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Should Businesses Accept Bitcoin?

By Bill Conerly

bitcoin v2

Bitcoin has strong opportunities for mainstream businesses, but it’s hard to understand from listening to techies explain it. Here is what a company’s management needs to know about Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a better way to do transactions. Forget about Bitcoin as an investment vehicle, or Bitcoin as a way to end the Federal Reserve. Its benefit to business comes from payments.
If your payments are occasional and in large amounts, don’t bother with Bitcoin. Let’s say that you’re Boeing. Once or twice a day someone sends you $100,000,000 for an airplane. Stick with your current practices.
However, say you run a coffee shop with an average ticket of six dollars, and nobody carries cash. You can collect an electronic payment with zero cost per transaction.
Say you’re a dentist who takes plastic. Occasionally someone disputes payment with his credit card issuer because his tooth is still hurting. Not only do you lose money, but you lose valuable time dealing with the dispute.

New Hampshire Lawmakers Debate Accepting Bitcoin for Tax Payments

By 

HearingThe New Hampshire state legislature held a pair of hearings earlier this month that focused on how the state could create a means for residents to pay taxes and fees using bitcoin.
Up for debate is a bill recently filed by state representative Eric Schleien that would open the door for the state to accept bitcoin. The bill is currently being weighed by the New Hampshire General Court Ways and Means Committee.
If passed, the bill would allow New Hampshire to partner with a bitcoin company to accept bitcoin payments and receive US dollars. Similar efforts are underway in states like Utah to explore or take the first steps toward some kind of digital currency acceptance.
The committee met on the 12th and 17th of February to hear testimony from a number of local bitcoin activists and politicians. Speakers included Schleien, former gubernatorial candidate Andrew Hemingway, Ziftr CEO Bob Wilkins, as well as other state residents speaking both in support of and against the bitcoin payments bill.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

5 Reasons Why I'd Still Use $5 Bitcoins (Op-Ed)

Bitcoin
By Amanda B. Johnson

Admittedly, I will lose a lot of purchasing power if the price of a bitcoin falls to US$5. Hell, I've already lost money in Bitcoin – I didn't really get interested in it until the fall of 2013. Yeah, I repeat: that fall of 2013, the famous run up to the US $1,000 bitcoin.
But even though I've lost money buying bitcoins, I feel like I've gained wealth.
How is that possible?
Well, I measure my wealth – primarily – by the quality of the hours in my day. And the simple fact is that Bitcoin has made my life simpler. Smoother. More conducive with the kind of person I want to be.
So here are the top five reasons that, even if Bitcoin plummets to US $5, I'll still happily get paid in it, save it, and spend it.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Kuala Lumpur Special Event: How to Make Passive Income with Virtual Currencies

Are you in Kuala Lumpur and want to learn more about virtual currencies?

If YES, don't miss this event for Bitclub Network.

Date : 13/Feb/15 8:30 pm - 11 pm

Venue :
KL International Hotel
78, Lorong Haji Hussein Dua Off Jalan Raja Muda Abd Aziz, Lorong Haji Hussein 2, Chow Kit, 50300 Kuala Lumpur

Ask for Russ Medlin and say you were referred by Norma Uriarte.


BitX Expands to Indonesia with Fixed-Price Bitcoin Exchange

By 

Jakarta IndonesiaEmerging market-focused bitcoin firm BitX has opened an office in Jakarta, Indonesia, bringing its services to a population of 252 million people in one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
In keeping with its other branches in places like Kenya and Malaysia, BitX Indonesia will recruit local staff to provide user support in a language and style familiar to the region's customers.
BitX's service in Indonesia will center around a market-price buy-sell exchange, which CEO Marcus Swanepoel framed as being the most suitable service for the market.
BitX expects most customers to access the service through its mobile apps for Android and iOS, launched last November.
Customers can use the apps not only to buy and sell bitcoin in Indonesian rupiah on BitX's local exchange, but also to sign up for new accounts and complete the 'know your customer' (KYC) registration process.

Monday, February 9, 2015

First Bitcoin Retail Store Opens in San Francisco

By Diana Ngo

Bitcoin
20Mission, a co-working space dedicated to art and technology creators, announced the launch of Nakamoto's electronics, the first Bitcoin retail store in San Francisco.

Located in the heart of San Francisco's Mission District, 20Mission is a co-working and co-living space, former home to several Bitcoin startups, including Blockchain.info, 37Coins, Tradehill, Piper Wallet, and Bitcoin marketplace,Purse.io.
Nakamoto's tech retail store follows the initial concept behind Purse.io, but in brick-and-mortar format, and aims to give more practical uses and applications for the digital currency on a local scale.
As of today, Nakamoto's electronics offers dozens of popular products, including Chromebooks, Amazon Kindles, Apple headphones, and Raspberry Pis. The outlet offers a minimum 10% discount off the Amazon price when paying with Bitcoin.
Andrew Lee, CEO of Purse.io commented on Nakamoto's launch:

Saturday, February 7, 2015

EX-CEO OF UBS & CREDIT SUISSE: BITCOIN GOOD BUY LONG-TERM

By Evander Smart

As an old banker myself, I’ve looked at Bitcoin’s financial implications for years and see endless potential. Could it all be the 21st century’s version of the “Tulip Mania” from the 17th century? This desperate dig by Bitcoin antagonists is still a slim possibility, but that feeble argument is starting to fade like the flower itself. Bitcoin is showing it’s influenced by law enforcement, e-commerce, Wall Street investment, technological advancement and much more.
Ex-CEO of UBS & Credit Suisse: Bitcoin Good Buy Long-TermAnd venture capital, from major players, is running into the hundreds of millions on a monthly basis. It is slowly starting to dawn on the movers and shakers that Bitcoin is not going anywhere, and its only a matter of time before it influences your industry directly. And market leaders the world over are speaking out on what digital currency means to the world in our increasingly digital future.
Bitcoin will have the most trouble entering an arena where fiat currency rules with an iron hand, like banking, since digital currency and fiat currency have a matter/anti-matter relationship. That doesn’t mean leading bankers can ignore it as irrelevant or non-influential. A major part of banking is capital investment in commodities, and few have the growth potential of Bitcoin. Bankers love money, and who says the money they desire has only to be fiat?

Click here to read more

Friday, February 6, 2015

Comparison Site Seeks to Boost Bitcoin Remittances in Latin America

By 

SearchA new price comparison site hopes to boost bitcoin remittances in Latin America by placing traditional and digital currency-based services side by side.
Mondome, which has already partnered with exchanges such as Bitso, MexBT and Ripio, has been designed to let people understand bitcoin's benefits by letting them to compare it with other existing payment methods.
Pelle Braendgaard, co-founder at Mondome, said:
“Bitcoin is clearly a great technology for remittances. However, for most people there are no alternatives to the two or three remittance companies you see signs for every day on the street.”
“If bitcoin is going to change this”, he added, “we need to first of all show normal, non-technical people in immigrant populations around the world the benefits there are.”

Wall Street and Silicon Valley Aren’t Investing in Bitcoin, They’re Investing in Bitcoin Business



By 

Wall Street
For years, speculative day-traders have been eagerly awaiting the day that Wall Street cash flows onto their favorite exchange. If a few Wall Street stock traders would come forth and spark the daily volume, maybe the markets would go up instead of down in 2015. When big power-players start placing buy orders, the moon will surely be within the grasp of anyone holding their coins for all that time.
MarketWatch recently published an article warning investors to keep bitcoin far off their radar due to security issues within the industry. They also touched on volatility, noting how the bitcoin price is highly unpredictable going into its sixth year of existence.
With all due respect, serious investors aren’t looking into bitcoin as a direct investment vehicle – they’re looking at the businesses supporting its infrastructure.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

How Bitcoin Will Achieve Mass Acceptance: Through Community (Op-Ed)

By Johan Lundqvist

BitcoinAccording to Bitcoinobituries.com, bitcoin has already been declared dead 40 times in its short life. This can't be seen as an impressive track-record for a piece of technology that's also widely regarded as a game-changing financial tool, one capable of altering the way we handle money forever.
This attitude, however, is a good demonstration of the greatest hindrance that digital currencies face today. It also points towards the solution of bitcoin’s problem with gaining mass acceptance. The disbelief shown by most of the traditional media, financial institutions, and governmental bodies, that bitcoin could be a viable force to alter the financial landscape, is for now the biggest hurdle in bitcoin's widespread implementation.
So far, the only time these pundits and social commentators have really come into contact with the nascent digital currency is when they hear about the Silk Road trial, Mt. Gox and the currency's infamous price swings.

NEW PARTNERSHIP ALLOWS EUROPEAN BITCOIN MERCHANTS TO ACCEPT CREDIT AND DEBIT CARDS

By Gerrard Hartley

Vogogo is setting their sights on the European bitcoin market and all the untapped merchants it has to offer. By setting up a strategic business partnership with eMerchantPay, cryptocurrency merchants based in Europe can accept credit and debit card transactions from any customer in the world, as long as they utilize Vogogo and eMerchantPay. According to an official statement, the integration between eMerchantPay and Vogogo is well advanced, with Vogogo expecting a beta launch of their card processing later this month.

Vogogo and eMerchantPay Share Excitement for New Ventures

Vogogo CEO Geoff Gordon said of that the company is quite happy to make the announcement of their European expansion.

Bitcoin-Friendly Cannabis Vending Machines Make ‘Historic’ Debut in Seattle

BitcoinBy Allen Scott

Both bitcoin and cannabis history was made in Seattle as the first vending machines to dispense marijuana debuted Tuesday.
The machines, called ZaZZZ, whose first debut in Colorado was reported by CoinTelegraph back in April, 2014, are now being installed in medical marijuana dispensaries in Seattle, Washington. The units accept bitcoin by displaying a QR-code on its native touchscreen and are manufactured by American Green, a company which became the first publicly traded medical marijuana dispensary brand in the world, back in 2009.
President of American Green, Stephen Shearin, stated:
“This is an exciting time in Seattle’s cannabis community, and is representative of what can happen anywhere — laws permitting. ZaZZZ will simplify, track, and expedite the process in which marijuana users purchase their favorite products.”
Click here to read more

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Bitcoin Finds a Place Among the World’s Elite

By 

bitcoinMore famous for being a renegade alternative to a world currency, bitcoin has managed to find a more prominent role among the global elite at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The Alpine resort plays host to a slew of policymakers, economists, and central bankers every year. Topics usually include global growth, inequality, and climate change but the nascent industry of digital currencies has managed to eke out a place on this year’s agenda.
“From bucks to bitcoins,” is the title of the seminar due at Davos on a Friday afternoon. It explores how the mainstreaming of digital finance could disrupt financial services and transform consumer behavior. This is a far cry from last year, when the most notable mention of the cryptocurrrency was when it was openly criticized by Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon on CNBC.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Facebook, Spotify, Uber, Airbnb Can Now Accept Bitcoin after BitPay Deal

By Charlie Richards

Facebook, Spotify, and Airbnb are among thousands of merchants who may accept Bitcoin after Bitpay’s integration with giant payment processor Adyen.
BitPay
Payment processing giant Adyen has announced the integration of popular Bitcoin processing platform BitPay into its checkout services. Merchants using Ayden's services will now be able to accept Bitcoin through a single preference check without any further modification of their own site's back-end.

Making the announcement early on February 3 to the International Business Times, BitPay will be hoping to see conversions among some of Adyen's 3,500 merchants globally including, Groupon, Evernote, Facebook, Spotify, Uber, Vodafone, Booking.com, Yelp, AirBnB, KLM, Abercrombie & Fitch, Soundcloud, Ryanair, etc.
Speaking to CoinTelegraph at the ICE Totally Gaming Bitcoin conference in London, BitPay's CCO Sonny Singh explained:

BITCOIN TRADING VOLUME INCREASED FROM $15 BILLION TO $23 BILLION LAST YEAR

By Jonas Borchgrevink
Bitpay_Year_in_Review_Infographic
Bitpay just sent us their smoking fresh infographic summoning up the year 2014 for Bitcoin. While the most discussed topic was the bitcoin price, there were clearly a lot more happening in 2014.
One of the most intriguing facts is the astounding growth of the bitcoin trading volume. It has increased from $15 billion in 2013 to $23 billion in 2014, a whopping 57% increase. While the amount of active wallets have increased to 7.95 million.
Bitpay writes: