Anyone in the U.S. downloading songs, which fetch .039 bitcoins or 45¢ each, risks violating U.S. sanctions. That doesn’t bother Rafigh, who’s studying computer engineering as well as playing music. “Bitcoin is so interesting for me,” Rafigh wrote in an e-mail. “I wish the culture of using digital money spreads all over the world, because it does not have any dependency on anything like politics.” Rafigh has translated some bitcoin software into Farsi for his friends. “I love Iran, and if bitcoin is good for me, it can be good for more Iranians like me.”

Switch Poker, the mobile poker operator, has launched Bitcoin-only poker tables at the request of players.

The site, which launched Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals last year, has set up ฿0.01/฿0.02 NLH 6-max meaning it’s the world’s first site to host both real-money and Bitcoin poker games.

A spokesperson for the company said, “It turns out that poker players like Bitcoin! We have had many requests for Bitcoin only tables so that players can play poker with their Bitcoins without needing to first convert them to Euro on the site and then back to Bitcoins to withdraw their winnings.

Yeah, but you do it in a really nice and professional way. I like how you quote the key parts but don't just copy/paste entire articles, and how you use consistent date-labeled subject lines. This is really a great thing for our community.

For all those people like me who cant go to a real party!
We are meeting in this Chatroom: http://de.tinychat.com/hangoutmaster
No registration needed. Open for all.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/100748061612454612677/events/clirp6psudf3ujh1s7cc933sgas

Over 60 confirmations! Sure the bigest Onlinehangout

There also a list on reddit which includes Partys in Bratislava, Munich and Berlin.

Is there a strong active Bitcoin local merchant community anywhere in NH? I know the last FSP meetup was hugely successful, but have there been any hotspots that are keeping up momentum year round?

Miners have dutifully generated just under half of the total Bitcoins that will ever be mined. But the mining industry is about to be thrown into turmoil due to two major changes expected to hit, entirely coincidentally, around the same time. One is the introduction of application-specific integrated circuits, or "ASICs," designed specifically to mine Bitcoins up to 1,000 times faster than current technology. The other is a deadline hard-coded into the Bitcoin software. When the total number of Bitcoins reaches 10.5 million in about one week, the block reward will suddenly be cut in half — a protection built into the currency in order to prevent inflation.

WordPress said it decided to start accepting Bitcoin because of its “role” as a universal currency. PayPal and a number of credit card companies actually restrict transactions in certain parts of the world due political circumstance, high criminal activity, and more.
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Currently, few legitimate businesses accept Bitcoin, which has primarily been used for black market (aka mostly illegal) transactions. And since banks aren’t involved with Bitcoin transactions, purchases don’t leave a “paper” trail for law enforcement agencies to track criminal activity.

U.S. federal government isn’t too fond of Bitcoin — and with good reason. A universal currency like Bitcoin could hypothetically destabilize a government’s capability to regular its finances. And if that happens, it could disrupt their authority.
But despite any negative connotation attached to Bitcoin in the past, WordPress’ intentions seem entirely pure.

“I think the technology is value-neutral,” WordPress creator and Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg told VentureBeat via email. “I’m sure many people use paper dollars and euros for bad things as well, but that doesn’t mean they’re intrinsically bad (or good).