Me and couple of people are on chat. Pd working fine for us.

Would be to easy if that is not possible, wouldn't be ?   Martingale was made for live casinos where u do couple bets and u are done. It cant work in long run.

Yap in to much bets that will happen. That is why martingale don't work, and casinos still do .

Mexico’s First Bitcoin ATMs Will Also Deal in Altcoins
Nermin Hajdarbegovic | Published on March 17, 2014 at 16:26 GMT | Altcoins, Bitcoin ATM, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Technology

The Mexican border town of Tijuana is to see the launch of two digital currency-toting ATMs today, and with an interesting twist – in addition to the expected provision of bitcoin, the ATMs will support litecoin and dogecoin too.

Tijuana is a popular spot for US tourists, including many geeky and potentially bitcoin-friendly college kids who venture south of the border to let their hair down. What happens in Tijuana stays in Tijuana, they say, apart from some less than legal ‘souvenirs’ that sometimes find their way back to the US.

The company launching the ATMs is called Bitcoin42, and it says that one of the units will accept US dollars and the other Mexican pesos, so it is clear much of the target audience is expected to show up with greenbacks.

Bitcoin42 says these aren’t just the first bitcoin ATMs in Mexico, they are the first units in the whole of Latin America. However, there is still no word on the actual ATM hardware they are planning to employ.

Social contribution

“Our main objective is a positive contribution to the potential of all living beings to develop, today and in the future. Our business model focuses on cultural, social, ecological, and economical projects that aim to tackle challenges in our society by developing creative solutions,” the company said. It added:

“Ethical and social responsibility is important to us. We are inspired by the Institute for Social Banking and the Economy for the Common Good, which received larger popularity since the banking crisis.”

Bitcoin42 is putting its money where its mouth is: the company will be giving 10% of all profits generated by the ATMs to non-profit associations in Tijuana. Customers will even be able to choose the cause they wish to donate to.

Bitcoin42 is also advocating the use of cyprocurrencies by non-profit organisations, as it believes cryptocurrencies can help non-profits reduce their administration costs and move funds in faster, with more transparency:

“Through this, anybody can become a [truly] independent auditor, since one can provide information to verify balances and transactions, and also allow the public to see how much in donations has been received and where it went.”

Dog lovers

The company did not say why it chose to add dogecoin and litecoin to the list of supported currencies, but in a forum post one of the team members said dogecoin was proposed by the developer of the ATM – and that Bitcoin42 also “really likes dogs”.

Dogecoin was never envisioned as a serious digital currency and as a result it doesn’t get much attention from cryptocurrency businesses or investors, although there is a large and vibrant community behind it.

Last month a team of dogecoin lovers set up a DIY dogecoin ATM at the CoinFest digital currency festival in Vancouver, Canada.

MetroDeal, the Philippines’ Top Daily Deals Site, Now Accepts Bitcoin
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 17, 2014 at 15:11 GMT | Asia, Merchants, News

Asia-based daily deals giant MetroDeal, the number two e-commerce website in the Philippines according to Alexa rankings, is now accepting bitcoin for its discount vouchers and coupons.

Founded in early 2011, MetroDeal has seen a meteoric rise in popularity among the Philippines’ 33 million active Internet users. It achieved annual revenue of $18m in 2012, and was projected to top $20m in revenue in 2013.

MetroDeal follows a template similar to US-based daily deal giants such as Groupon and LivingSocial. Deals run for a limited time and offer consumers deep discounts from a wide range of merchants.

The company trails only Rocket Internet-funded startup Lazada, which recently raised $250m in its Series E round, in overall site visitation among commerce websites.

MetroDeal is accepting bitcoin through a partnership with Coins.ph, a bitcoin exchange and bitcoin merchant directory provider serving the Philippines.

Founded by Ralph Wunsch, a former marketing manager at Austria-based discounts site Daily Deal, MetroDeal was reportedly designed from a public computer at a local McDonald’s franchise before quickly taking off.

Checkout process

To purchase with bitcoin on MetroDeal, buyers first choose their desired deal and select “Buy Now!”

Screen Shot 2014-03-17 at 10.12.13 AM

Buyers must then log in with Facebook or with an email account before picking a payment method. Available options include credit and debit cards, bank deposits and bitcoin.

After selecting the bitcoin option, buyers simply scan the QR code and send payment to complete their purchase.

Screen Shot 2014-03-17 at 10.19.35 AM

Bitcoin in Philippines

The news of MetroDeal’s acceptance comes in the wake of a warning from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines, to its consumers about the use of digital currencies.

BSP listed a number of concerns about the use of digital currencies, including their high volatility and lack of consumer protections, as well as the absence of regulation imposed on businesses servicing the emerging sector, in its statements.

Though the local community is small, the Philippines holds substantial untapped potential for bitcoin.

One of the largest potential use cases for bitcoin in the Philippines remains in the remittance market. In 2013, the country’s international workers sent nearly $14bn to family members back home, often paying a substantial price through the traditional financial system for doing so.

Given MetroDeal’s size, it could prove effective at raising awareness for bitcoin and its potential in the country.

Dorian Nakamoto Hires Lawyer, Denies Knowledge of Bitcoin
Dan Palmer | Published on March 17, 2014 at 11:24 GMT | Bitcoin protocol, News

Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto
It’s hard not to feel sorry for Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, recently ‘exposed’ by Newsweek as the creator of bitcoin.

Whether or nor he is the genius behind the ubiquitous cryptocurrency, it is obvious that he is a private man who shies away from the intrusion of the public eye.

In the latest chapter of the saga, Nakamoto has said in a statement issued through his recently hired lawyer, LA-based Ethan Kirschner, that he “did not create, invent or otherwise work on bitcoin”.

‘Unfamiliar’ with bitcoin

“I unconditionally deny the Newsweek report,” Nakamoto said, adding that:

“I am writing this statement to clear my name.”

The statement was initially published by Reuters blogger, Felix Salmon on his Twitter feed, and Kirschner has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is genuine. Nakamoto stated that, until February, he had not heard of bitcoin, and it was his son who first told him about the cryptocurrency.

In an interview with Associated Press soon after the Newsweek article, he claimed he “called the technology ‘bitcom’ [as he was] still unfamiliar with the term”.

Hard times

According to the statement, life has not been easy for Nakamoto – an American citizen living in Temple City, California.

Nakamoto has a background in engineering and does “have the ability to program”, he said, but he has not been able to find steady work in the field for over 10 years – instead taking assignments as a “labourer, polltaker and substitute teacher”.

Apparently, he discontinued his internet service in 2013, “due to severe financial stress”. This is all at odds with what you would expect from a man who is said to hold $400m in bitcoins from his early mining efforts.

Furthermore, Nakamoto is trying to recover from prostate surgery undertaken in October 2012 and a stroke he suffered in October 2013, he stated.

Closing the statement, Nakamoto thanked people around the world “who have offered me their support” and asks for his privacy to be respected. “This will be our last public statement on this matter,” he says.


What we know about bitcoin’s creator

The Bitcoin protocol was published in a paper via the Cryptography Mailing List in November 2008 – with the author named as Satoshi Nakamoto.

The same person then released the first version of the bitcoin software client in 2009, and participated with others on the project via mailing lists, until he finally began to fade from the community toward the end of 2010.

The last anyone heard from him was in the spring of 2011, when he said that he had “moved on to other things”.

Since the Newsweek article, an account supposedly linked to the inventor of bitcoin was used to post to the P2P Foundation’s Ning page, stating: “I am not Dorian Nakamoto”.

If indeed this anonymous individual is the real creator of bitcoin, the publication of irrefutable evidence to the fact would quickly put the issue to rest, and allow the beleaguered Californian some peace and quiet.

Bitstamp Got $10m From Fortress-Linked Hedge Fund Last Year: Bloomberg
Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on March 17, 2014 at 10:56 GMT | Bitstamp, Companies, Exchanges, News

Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp received $10m in hedge fund investment last year, according to a new Bloomberg report.

The money came from Pantera Capital Management LP, “the hedge fund that manages money for Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG) executives”, Bloomberg said. If true, it would be one of the largest single investments in a bitcoin-related business to date.

Bitstamp has been a huge beneficiary of the collapse of Mt. Gox, multiplying its share of dollar trades by up to 50% since February. It now has at least 35% of the total bitcoin trade market share, according to bitcoincharts.

Tahoe gathering

Pantera’s path to investment was led by founder Dan Morehead, who took about 30 bitcoin entrepreneurs to Lake Tahoe in October last year to discuss his vision, among them Bitstamp CEO Nejc Kodric. Soon after that, Pantera formed a $147m fund called Pantera Bitcoin Advisors and a principal at Fortress, Michael Novogratz, called Morehead “our man when it comes to bitcoin”.

When CoinDesk asked Kodric whether Bloomberg’s report was accurate, he merely said: “No comment”.

Bloomberg’s story highlighted the incredible potential of this and future link-ups between Wall Street and Silicon Valley, as expertise in finance met technological excellence. Funds like Pantera’s had the power to lift bitcoin businesses from startup obscurity into the big time.

“Finance people are now recognizing the force multiplier of combining their deep knowledge of finance with new, possibly game-changing technologies,” said Chris Larsen, CEO of Ripple Labs.

Pantera also contributed a portion of Ripple Labs’ recent $9m funding round, along with Google and Lightspeed Ventures.

Pantera hasn’t commented on this week’s revelations, made by three people who knew of the deal, and the new fund has stayed quiet about other intentions and big deals.

New attraction

Bitcoin startups, taking a lead from Silicon Valley startups, have appealed more to tech venture capitalists and corporations for their big break. They will probably in future pay extra attention to very deep-pocketed Wall Street players. Wall Street, in turn, will demand a new breed of financially-focused and compliance-willing management teams to match its own involvement.

“A group like that should be able to deliver the kinds of relationships that startups need. I’d take Pantera over a lot of other firms,” said Brock Pierce, a California VC.

Bitstamp is UK-registered but reportedly has most operations in Slovenia. It was founded in 2011 by Kodric and Damijan Merlak. Since then it has established a reputation for stability and good management, and has an advantage in its location in the European Union with its integrated money transfer system.

It has always been compliant with financial regulations and users must have verified identification, something that has become more or less standard at bitcoin exchanges around the world, especially the current crop of new startups in Asia.

Texas Regulators Warn About Risks of ‘Trendy’ Digital Currencies
Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on March 17, 2014 at 10:03 GMT | News, Regulation, US & Canada

Regulators in Texas have warned digital currencies like bitcoin are volatile and probably more suited to young people than retirees, the Dallas Morning News has reported.

Describing digital currencies as “very, very trendy” right now, Joseph Rotunda, director of enforcement at the Texas State Securities Board, said that all the “buzz” around digital currencies had led people to look only at the positives and not the risks.

Rotunda said it wasn’t just about bitcoin, but the myriad other digital currencies popping up every week that presented a risk to investors.

“There’s more of them in production right now, in development. It’s a real fertile ground,” he said. He admitted such investments could prove useful, but only for younger people and not those looking for future security.

“An investment tied to digital currencies may be suitable for someone in their 20s, in their 30s. When you’re talking about a retiree’s nest egg, that may not be something they’d want to subject to this type of a risk.”

Risks for unaware investors

Such warnings from government regulators have become fairly commonplace in recent months.

“In many ways, digital currencies operate as ‘online cash,’ only this type of currency is extremely volatile and can disappear the same way your money disappears when you lose your wallet,” said John Morgan, Texas securities commissioner.

Rotunda also pointed out that trust remains a huge issue in the unregulated space, in the security systems and infrastructure, accounting practices and overall business models of those providing digital currency services.

The level of anonymity digital currencies provide users also created risks, he said, adding:

“That makes it hard from a regulatory standpoint to regulate those transactions, but it also fosters an environment that caters to money laundering to conceal transactions to all sorts of situations where a promoter could be playing with investors’ money without their knowledge.”

Late last week, the Texas State Securities Board also warned energy firm Balanced Energy LLC with a cease and desist letter against getting involved in bitcoin, saying the company had not fully disclosed the risks of bitcoin to its investors, especially those associated with wild value swings.

Shavers ‘Ponzi’ case update

Yip also referred to Texas’ own Trendon T Shavers, who gained notoriety last July when he managed to raise 700,000 BTC at his company Bitcoin Savings and Trust (BTCST). The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) described the operation as a bitcoin Ponzi scheme.

Shavers, incidentally, denied his was a Ponzi scheme and was actually never charged with any criminal offence. He did not accept any currency other than bitcoin, he said, and appeared not to keep any useful records of his transactions.

The SEC filed a civil complaint against him at the beginning of this month, posting a transcript of Shavers’ interview online, in which he referred to his scheme as merely one of lending and bitcoin value speculation based on the fluctuating price at Mt. Gox in early 2013.

OKCoin Raises $10 Million to Become China’s ‘Largest Exchange’
Marc van der Chijs (@chijs) | Published on March 16, 2014 at 16:34 GMT | Asia, Exchanges, Investors, News

OKCoin, the exchange claiming to be China’s largest by trading volume, has announced a $10m Series A funding round.

The investment round was led by Ceyuan, one of China’s earliest venture capital firms, followed by Mandra Capital, VenturesLab and numerous high-profile angel investors.

Despite the nation’s recent crackdown on cryptocurrencies, it seems Chinese venture capitalists are still bullish on bitcoin exchanges and the currency itself.

Bitcoin in China

Back in November 2013, the focus of the bitcoin community was on China – the world’s hub for bitcoin trading. At that time, BTC China was the biggest exchange in the world, having managed to raise a $5m Series A funding round from Lightspeed Venture Partners (Snapchat, Nest). There were even rumours that a bigger round was in the works for the young company.

However, things change quickly. After the Chinese government began regulating bitcoin in December, trade volume plummeted and the world’s top exchange was no longer Chinese.

Local exchanges came up with creative solutions for customers to continue to buy and sell bitcoin, and players like Huobi and OKCoin claimed to pass BTC China in their daily trade volume, although these figures have been the subject of much dispute.

OKCoin has grown rapidly over the past few weeks and is now the biggest Chinese exchange, according to its CEO Star Xu. He claims the exchange’s current daily trade volume is approximately 50,000 bitcoins per day.

Interestingly, on top of that, the exchange allegedly trades 5 million litecoins per day. The company claims that at its peak it reached over 300,000 bitcoin and 13 million litecoin trades.

Future growth

Mr Feng Bo, founder and partner at Ceyuan, commented that he has a tremendous amount of confidence in the future of bitcoin and the continued growth of OKCoin:

“We are delighted to invest in the pioneer of China’s bitcoin exchanges; given the company’s leadership under Star Xu and his team, we know there is much more good news ahead.”

Ceyuan is a well-known fund with investments in successful Chinese companies like Qihoo 360 (NASDAQ: QIHU), Light in the Box (NASDAQ: LITB), UC Web and VANCL – among others.

Interestingly, Silicon Valley investor Tim Draper was involved in the round, as a partner of VenturesLab. He and his son Adam remain active in bitcoin-related investments, mainly via Adam’s Boost.vc incubator where Tim is a mentor. Tim also invested in OKCoin’s angel round.

OKCoin overseas

The investment in OKCoin will be used to expand the team, fund product research and development, further security enhancements, but also to expand OKCoin’s operations beyond China.

This a different strategy from the other Chinese exchanges and it may prove to be a smart move, given the current regulations in the state.

Mark Mai, VentureLab’s China partner, stated that as the regulatory environment in regions such as Singapore, the US and Hong Kong becomes clearer, it will open up opportunities for OKCoin to operate in geographies where it can offer maximized safety and protection for OKCoin clients.

Mai said that the growth of virtual currency is inevitable, and that many countries are coming to terms with the fact that they have to regulate these currencies, because their citizens are using them regardless.

He added that OKCoin welcomes oversight because he believes it will help the company to serve its customers better, allowing them to open up regulated bank and trading accounts so it can engage in third-party clearance and settlement.

All eyes will be on OKCoin’s global expansion in these uncertain times. Will the exchange make it as a large player outside China? Only time will tell.

Japanese Megabank Mizuho Now an Official Defendant in Mt. Gox Lawsuits
Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on March 16, 2014 at 14:43 GMT | Companies, Exchanges, Law, Mt. Gox, News

Mizuho, one of Japan’s three largest banks and the banking partner of now-bankrupt bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, has been named as a defendant in two class action lawsuits stemming from the exchange’s insolvency.

Reuters reported that the megabank was named as a defendant in the existing US lawsuit in which Mt. Gox is accused of defrauding customers, and a Canadian class action lawsuit blaming Gox for a security breach that allowed hackers to steal an alarming 800,000+ bitcoins.

It is still not known for sure what happened to Mt. Gox’s bitcoins, whether they have been lost, stolen or remain “temporarily unavailable“.

Speculation continued over the weekend as observers noted the exchange’s API was still being used to move bitcoins around, sometimes in very similar amounts.

The amended US suit also added Mark Karpeles’ second-in-command Gonzague Gay-Bouchery and Mt. Gox’s original founder and shareholder Jed McCaleb as defendants.

Providing services

In both legal cases, it was Mizuho’s position as Mt. Gox’s banker that prompted the actions. The bank held large amounts of fiat currency for the exchange and its customers, and the US complaint made by Illinois resident Gregory Greene said “Mizuho profited from the fraud” by doing so.

The suit says Mizuho should have segregated Mt. Gox’s funds from those of the exchange’s customers, and that by continuing to provide banking services it actually inflated consumer losses.

A leaked recording, released to the Internet, reportedly shows a Mizuho manager asking Karpeles to close Gox’s account with the bank due to compliance and other concerns. Despite the manager warning the bank would close the account forcibly if necessary, Karpeles did not cooperate.

Problems for other bitcoin businesses

Holding banks so liable could cause companies in other countries to become even more reluctant to become involved with bitcoin businesses, something that’s presented a problem for startups over the past year or so.

Some, including ordinary customers, have found their business denied and others their accounts shut down without much explanation, apparently for being involved with bitcoin-related business.

Despite CEO Karpeles’ Japanese language press conference, public apology and the company’s Japanese legal statements posted since to its website, 99% of Mt. Gox’s customers are not Japanese and those involved in lawsuits overseas could see Mizuho as a potentially lucrative avenue for reimbursement.

Bankruptcy proceedings in the US are preventing further action against Mt. Gox in Japan, but do not protect Japanese parent company Tibanne, its CEO Karpeles or its Gox’s US-based subsidiary Mt. Gox, Inc.

Seeing Through Regulation, Banking on Bitcoin, and a Sheer Art Attack
John Law (@scotonomist) | Published on March 16, 2014 at 12:05 GMT | Analysis, News

Welcome to the CoinDesk Weekly Review 16th March 2014 – a regular look at the hottest, most thought-provoking and most controversial events in the world of digital currency through the eyes of scepticism and wonder.

Your host … John Law.

Regulation issues

money-bags

Mysteries in bitcoinland don’t stay mysteries for long.

Take the world record transaction, which was noted in the block chain last November, when nearly 200,000 bitcoins hit a single wallet. Who was behind it? Turns out it was Bitstamp, which has just released details of an audit that confirms the transaction.

Why publish an audit when you don’t have to? It’s time for more transparency, says Bitstamp, and an industry that takes responsibility for itself.

Meanwhile, the extent of the transparency inherent in the system is becoming clearer. At the first academic conference dedicated to cryptocurrency analysis – held in Bermuda, unlike every academic conference John Law has been to – a fascinating paper was published that attempted to show how much digital dosh the Dread Pirate Roberts had garnered during his stint at the helm of Silk Road (squillions) and how many the FBI seized (about a fifth of that). Which is a fairly detailed audit of the affairs of an outfit running in total secrecy – Silk Road, silly, not the FBI.

John Law is not on the libertarian arm of the bitcoin booster brigade, and thinks that decent regulation worldwide will be essential to help the cybercurrency reach its potential to really shake things up.

Like cash, this won’t preclude unregulated activity, but while the Wild West is all very well in the movies it’s not a patch on living in the actual 21st century. But, as Google’s director of ideas Jared Cohen pointed out this week, while regulation’s been talked about for years there’s a real lack of new ideas.

More transparency is certainly one way to build confidence in the bitcoin ecosystem. But as the protocol is inherently transparent, regulation could largely consist of mandating access methods to information that identified company transactions.

If you want to have the protection of the regulator, then sign up to its disclosure regulations. Bitcoin, being a brand-new industry and one with everything to prove, is at a phase where the players should eagerly accept this.

It’s paradoxical but true that openness is often more secure than secrecy. If you don’t rely on people not finding things out, you’ve got nothing to lose if they do.

By adopting a radical approach to regulation based on what may seem an unhealthy degree of disclosure about their systems and activities, bitcoin companies could well end up more trustworthy than existing financial institutions – after all, how well has all that traditional corporate secrecy worked of late, and for whose benefit?

John Law has long been a fan of compulsory systems audits for companies, where their software gets a thorough going-over by independent analysts; not a problem for companies starting with that in mind, but how many banks would pass?

Regulators and industry members alike should recognise there’s a one-off chance here to create a truly innovative and effective environment, suited to the realities of the digital millennium. It could drag the rest of the financial industry along with it.

Taking it personally

banker

The aftershocks of the failure of Mt. Gox continue to exercise the commentators, but the real world has moved on. In particular, the continuing problems in Ukraine, where the Russians seem to have forgotten that invading neighbouring countries stopped ending well some time ago, have led to a run on the banks in Crimea. The banks have responded by putting limits in cash withdrawals, which has increased customer confidence about as much as you’d expect.

“Wouldn’t happen with bitcoin,” one tweeter suggested. That’s true enough: in fact, would you even need a bank account?

The personal current account – PCA, in banking parlance – is a cornerstone of retail banking, In the UK, banks make about 30% of their revenue from PCAs more than from credit cards and savings combined, but in a 2008 report, the Office of Fair Trading noted that the PCA market wasn’t being run in the consumers’ best interest. Not much has changed since.

Charges and fees weren’t transparent, and customers had little idea how their accounts actually worked. Without that sort of knowledge, nobody was changing accounts, and thus with no competition the banks were and are free to do what they liked. Which, mostly, is help themselves. According to the OFT, banks made around £160 a year per current account – a nice trick with other people’s money.

Which is money you rarely actually see. Come payday, your employer asks the bank which has all of its money to send some of it to the bank that has all yours. Much the same sort of thing happens when you pay a bill. Unless you go to a cashpoint and withdraw a fistful of twenties, the banks have all the money all the time.

Bitcoin wallets could change that. The reason PCAs are such a good idea is that they’re gateways to all sorts of financial services such as bill paying, mortgages, insurance, credit cards and so on. Without a bank account, it’s very difficult to get at these. But – in that fabulous fantasy future where bitcoin is as ubiquitous as the Internet – bitcoin and software can do all that just as securely and reliably as a PCA.

Like real wallets, you can’t run a bitcoin wallet in overdraft. And it won’t pay you interest when you’re in credit, but then, overdrafts are terrible forms of credit and you won’t get much by way of interest from your PCA. So, why go to a bank for your daily financials?

In fact, there’s a more interesting question: why doesn’t the bank come to you? PCAs provide the banking system with a huge cash float that is an intimate part of its capitalisation, which is why you can’t get your cash out quickly from a Crimean cashpoint at the moment. But if bitcoin triggers a much slower but harder to control run on the banks, it need not be a disaster for them, yet it could be very good for us.

Your current account is worth £160 a year to them. Very well, let them pay for the privilege. They can run your bitcoin wallet for you, letting it count towards their liquidity much as PCAs do now, but on the understanding that you can click your fingers and get it back whenever you like – with all the direct debits, etc, intact.

That would put competition back into the system, much as number portability has kept the mobile phone companies … well, honest is clearly the wrong word, so let’s say nervous. Banks could offer services such as credit, or even actual cash, but would have to be a lot more transparent about how it all works. They might not like that, but it would make them better companies to deal with.

It would also finally put the old anecdote to bed – the letter from a bank manager to a perennially overdrawn customer that starts: “Dear Sir. It may have escaped your attention that the nature of our relationship is that you bank with us, not vice-versa.”

Art for art’s sake, bitcoin for God’s sake

Florence, Italy Mona Lisa mime

It’s not just academics who are getting it together on bitcoin – the first art exhibition on a bitcoin theme took place this week in San Francisco. The pieces were, as so often at such events, good solid contemporary stuff that manage a degree of wit, but doesn’t tent the boxers. John Law, who has been known to wave his walking-stick in disgust at modern artists for not being nearly adventurous enough, has some suggestions for future projects.

1. The Angels Of The West: A pair of statues, some 500 metres tall, of the Winklevoss Twins, in a heroic Soviet style, one pointing to the sky, the other gazing firmly upwards with hands on hips. Entirely hollow and coated in iron pyrites, this work will symbolise the power of bitcoin to create image unrelated to actual gravity. The inside can be divided into floors and used for affordable housing in the Bay Area, while the twins’ substantial self-esteem should provide funding for the construction.

2. Satoshis I – CXI: A room filled with a large bush, in which are hidden 111 teddy bears. Each of them has a tiny name badge pinned to their furry chests saying: “Hi! I’m Satoshi”. None of them invented bitcoin.

3. The Miner Lisa: A mysterious smile adorns the face of this chunky little robot, which seeks out the nearest power socket, plugs in and then just sits there. Over the next few weeks, the smile is slowly replaced by a frown, as of one straining at stool, while the robot gets hotter and hotter. Very occasionally, a bright copper ha’penny rolls down its trouser leg.

4. Fleur De Lie: A painting of Rene Magritte holding a tulip. Under it, in pink Comic Sans, is the phrase: “This is not a tulip.” The painting has a Raspberry Pi embedded in it, connected to the Internet via 3G and with its own bitcoin wallet and GPS receiver. If the painting isn’t constantly moved between cities and the bitcoin wallet increased in value, the Raspberry Pi ignites a set of explosives in the picture frame. Don’t get left holding the baby when the music stops!

Move over Banksy, Clear your schedule, Turner Prize committee. This isn’t just good art, it’s the Law.

John Law is an 18th Century Scottish entrepreneur, financial engineer and gambler. Having reformed the French economy, invented paper currency, state banks, the Mississippi Bubble and other ideas essential to modern economics, he took 300 years off in a small cottage outside Bude. He has returned to write for CoinDesk on the foibles of digital currency.

What the UK’s Tax Reversal Means for Bitcoin
Kadhim Shubber (@kadhimshubber) | Published on March 16, 2014 at 10:08 GMT | Analysis, Europe, Lifestyle, Regulation

The regular drumbeat of governments warnings on bitcoin continues apace. Last month, Israel, Vietnam and Cyprus joined the chorus.

However, in addition to this din (not entirely unwarranted many would argue) one government body has begun to undo its earlier mistakes in the bitcoin space.

The body in question is the UK’s tax authority, HMRC, which this month effectively recognised bitcoin as a currency after months of lobbying by London’s bitcoin community, led by members of the soon-to-launch UK Digital Currency Association.

But will HMRC’s decision turn the UK into a leading centre for new financial services based around bitcoin or should those arguing for greater government engagement be careful what they wish for?

A sensible approach?

The positive arguments are obvious. HMRC has flip-flopped around the issue for months, first saying bitcoins were ‘taxable vouchers’ in November 2013, meaning that any purchase of bitcoin would require a VAT payment of 20% of the value of the bitcoin. This is the equivalent of paying €100 in tax if you wanted to buy €500 for your holiday in Spain.

Not long after, at the start of December 2013, they began to backtrack, beginning discussions with bitcoiners and indicating that they might reconsider their earlier position. At the time, Elliptic CEO Tom Robinson said:

“The general feeling I got from [our meeting with HMRC] was that they don’t think VAT should be levied on the bitcoin value itself.”

The fact that this was just weeks after HMRC decided the exact opposite indicates their rather haphazard approach to the role of cryptocurrencies.

Firing the starting gun

In their guidance issued on 3rd March, HMRC stepped back from explicitly recognising bitcoin as a currency, but their approach effectively treats it like any other form of payment for tax purposes:

“In all instances, VAT will be due in the normal way from suppliers of any goods or services sold in exchange for Bitcoin or other similar cryptocurrency.”

For Richard Asquith, Head of Tax at the TMF Group, this creates a stable framework that will encourage bitcoin businesses to look at the UK as a base for their operations. Other countries are going to have to come to a decision about how to tax bitcoin, he says:

“It’s going to force tax authorities around Europe and particularly the US to make a decision about how to tax it. The UK has fired the starting gun.”

Few other countries have taken a similar approach. Germany previously classed bitcoin as “private money”, while Singapore has classed it as a good, rather than a currency, and Russia has gone as far as to say bitcoin transactions are illegal, although they have allegedly softened their stance somewhat.

“HMRC’s decision is quite forward thinking in terms of other countries,” says Asquith. “It gives it the proper recognition for how it’s used in day-to-day activities.”

How much is 20%?

But before everyone breaks out the champagne, it should be remembered that there’s a lot that the guidance doesn’t cover.

For one, HMRC deals with tax issues, so their advice doesn’t even touch on the question of how bitcoin businesses might be regulated, unlike the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), which recently announced they would begin regulating bitcoin exchanges.

Furthermore, the question of which exchange rate to use is still one that’s up for debate. HMRC merely says that merchants should use “sterling value of the cryptocurrency at the point the transaction takes place”, which is fine if you are using BitPay or Coinbase, merchant services that instantly convert bitcoin payments into fiat currency. However, if you are taking bitcoin from customers directly then you need to be careful, and consistent, about converting from bitcoin into sterling.

With the recent collapse of Mt. Gox and hacks of other exchanges, it would be dangerous for HMRC to pin their colours to any single bitcoin exchange, or even a group of exchanges says Richard Howlett, whose firm Selachii LLP is launching a lawsuit against Mt. Gox:

“If the government were to implicitly back an exchange, it could be disastrous. They’re not going to want people to think that ‘this is a safe place to trade my bitcoin’.”

Conversely, for fiat currencies HMRC currently publishes exchange rate figures from the Financial Times. As measures of the price of bitcoin become more established (for example, the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index), this should become less of an issue.

For now, merchants should choose a popular exchange and ensure they’re not moving around to get the best rate.

“You have to take the fair market value,” says Richard Asquith. “HMRC insist that you use the most popular exchanges and you stick to it.”

Giving bitcoin legitimacy

In a blog post published in response to HMRC’s guidance, Elliptic CEO Tom Robinson, who has arguably driven the change in policy, praised the tax authority, writing that they had taken “a thoughtful and logical approach” to cryptocurrencies.

At the same time, there doesn’t appear to be a consistent attitude towards bitcoin among the UK establishment. The Bank of England, for example, this week suggested that bitcoin is more like a commodity than a currency:

“Digital currencies … may have more conceptual similarities to commodities, such as gold, than money”

Aside from the practical implications, HMRC’s decision gives bitcoin a significant reputation boost. It’s even taxed like a currency, supporters in the UK can now say. Howlett agrees: “[HMRC is] acknowledging that this is something that’s here to stay.”

But if further government regulation is to follow, as Robinson’s post suggests, the next battle for bitcoin’s supporters is ensuring that it’s the “right” regulation. Indeed, getting bitcoiners to agree what regulation is welcome will likely be a challenge all in itself.

Why Regulation Could Help Bitcoin
Bob Swarup (@bobswarup) | Published on March 16, 2014 at 11:07 GMT | Analysis, Companies, Law, Regulation

A couple of weeks ago, we published a piece called ‘Why Regulating Bitcoin Won’t Work‘. Here Bob Swarup provides the counter argument, assessing what regulations could do for bitcoin. Bob has extensive global experience in financial markets, macroeconomics and regulation. He has also recently released his new book Money Mania: Booms, Panics, and Busts from Ancient Rome to the Great Meltdown.

Is it a commodity? Is it a currency? No, it’s bitcoin.

There is a touch of Messianic fervour about virtual currencies these days, most notably bitcoin.

Newsweek relaunched its print edition on 6th March, with an exclusive scoop on the unmasking of one Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of bitcoin, sparking a Keystone Cops farcical chase of reporters rushing to question him.

regulation-thumbs-up

A fortnight earlier, the Winklevoss twins (of Facebook fame) launched the Winkdex to track the price of bitcoin and talked of the market being as large as $400bn – some 50 times larger than the current valuation.

Meanwhile, countless firms now talk of taking bitcoins as payment, including Richard Branson for anyone wanting to hitch a spaceflight on Virgin Galactic; Bitcoin ATMs have mushroomed since the first launched in Vancouver, Canada, in November 2013; and an army of bitcoin miners are recreating the digital equivalent of the California Gold Rush.

Bitcoin supporters are everywhere right now, if a tad more defensive in the wake of Mt. Gox. They invoke – in sentiment at least – the arguments of the noted Austrian economist, Friedrich Hayek, who advocated a free market of competing denationalised currencies. Provide people with choice, Hayek held, and they would instinctively choose those currencies that retained their value best and were least subject to the whims of errant policymakers.

Certainly, in an era where trust in the traditional monetary system has been shaken, bitcoin’s limited supply and freedom from human interference are powerful assets. They have transformed what was an interesting intellectual experiment into a living economy. Today, over 100 virtual currencies – bitcoin, Ripple, Unobtanium, HoboNickels, iCoin and their tribe – are fighting it out in a market $10bn large and growing.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. None of this is enough to create a sustainable pervasive currency. The reason is simple: currencies that thrive do so because they are endorsed and, thereby, legitimised by the state.

Money and state

Money is a social construct. History shows us anything – wooden sticks, huge stones, coins, gold, boxes of detergent and now, bits of enigmatic computer code – can function as money.

Any meaning we attach is imparted through the polyglot of social interactions – status, social conformity and human behaviour – that money encodes. Without the trust born of these, no medium of exchange can exist. Even when two nations trade, the money exchanged needs to be credible and convertible, which is why they often use a reserve currency, such as the US dollar.

“The currencies that succeed are not those that circumvent the state, but rather those that are legitimised by the state.”

But for a currency to become widespread, lots of people need to accept it. That implies the presence of society and the overarching institutions it creates. In other words, it presupposes the existence of a dominant state that can influence the behaviour of individuals. The currencies that succeed, therefore, are not those that circumvent the state, but rather those that are legitimised by the state.

Once the state accepts said trinkets – digital or otherwise – and starts to regulate them, you also drive individuals to find new ways of acquiring this new medium. They now work for others, trade goods or services, and importantly, begin to use this new medium as a pervasive social hierarchy begins to emerge.

History demonstrates this time and time again. Most notably, in 1100, Henry I of England issued an edict that going forward, taxes could only be paid using tallies – humble wooden sticks. He also prescribed their form – rudimentary medieval regulation – stating that each tally was to be cleaved in half between debtor and creditor, with the sum of money represented by an abacus of carefully delineated notches.

The results were dramatic. Growing confidence created a natural demand. The need to acquire the sticks for taxes meant that transactions began to be done using them. For the next seven centuries, wood passed as proxy for money and the English even evolved a sophisticated system of government financing based around tallies.

The upside of regulation

Done intelligently, regulation can solve key problems that bitcoin is now facing in its efforts to become a proper currency.

First, regulation can create demand for bitcoins. By making them a means of paying taxes or closing major financial transactions, it provides legitimacy to the currency. That naturally diffuses knowledge, familiarity and demand for bitcoins across a wider swathe of people, breeding acceptance. This is essential. The majority of Americans today – 80% according to a recent poll by TheStreet.com – still have no idea what bitcoin is.

This increased demand in turn can help manage the volatile swings that typify bitcoin today. The currency’s volatility may be loved by speculators looking to claw profits, but businesses still file tax returns and accounts in dollars, euros and other mainstream currencies.

The need to convert back from bitcoins to these and maintain consistent margins means many will prioritise earnings stability over continual monitoring of fluctuating bitcoin prices. But as more people embrace bitcoin, the marketplace gains more liquidity, naturally dampening volatility and making bitcoin transactions more than a marketing gimmick.

Second, the rationale for regulation is always simple: markets may fail and cause financial crisis. This is not surprising – what we term financial markets are little more than a collective noun for the hopes, greed and fears of countless individuals jostling with each other in the continual pursuit of wealth (and status).

The widespread use of any currency, including bitcoin, is predicated on the assurance that it is ‘safe’. Thus, currencies are dependent on the qualitative metric of confidence for their long-term survival.

Fiat vs bitcoin

Bitcoin – more than most other currencies – runs the risk of ‘bank runs’. The limited quantum – a maximum of 21 million – is problematic for the needs of a wider economy that is structurally dependent on borrowing. If bitcoins gain wider acceptance, simple transactions involving exchange will soon give way to borrowing and lending in bitcoins.

This financialisation is an inevitable consequence of human innovation, as people seek to make money out of these contours of supply and demand. But given the limited number of bitcoins, there will inevitably also be bottlenecks as demand occasionally outstrips supply and people overextend themselves.

In the absence of externally imposed safeguards to instil social confidence, people are more likely to panic at the first whiff of trouble, creating a disorderly stampede that could irreparably harm bitcoin’s credibility in the eyes of consumers.

Regulation will not prevent future bitcoin crises, but it can help manage their impact and minimise the disruption caused. This is critical. As humans, we have strong aversions to loss and uncertainty. Regulation provides an emotional salve that soothes our tail risk. It creates an abstract implicit trust that the economic infrastructure we are using is sound, with better behaviour enforced by the threat of sanction. Good regulation also focuses on transparency – an important component of allowing us to judge risks and make reasoned decisions.

Given regulation and the sanction of the state, bitcoin has a chance of progressing past its adolescence. Otherwise, it remains just another interesting economic experiment, confined to niche corners of the digiverse, much like cigarettes in prison or trading cards in the playground.

Yeah for sure . I will take away some and come up with what i think was post count that day.

That will be bit of problem. Coz i did write down my posts on 2nd March , when he said that next posts will be 0.0001 btc . Idk my post count on 27th.

So tomorrow we do what ? I need to pm stunna with my sign up post, and post counts ? Or i post here ?

What the UK’s Tax Reversal Means for Bitcoin
Kadhim Shubber (@kadhimshubber) | Published on March 16, 2014 at 10:08 GMT | Analysis, Europe, Lifestyle, News, Regulation

The regular drumbeat of governments warnings on bitcoin continues apace. Last month, Israel, Vietnam and Cyprus joined the chorus.

However, in addition to this din (not entirely unwarranted many would argue) one government body has begun to undo its earlier mistakes in the bitcoin space.

The body in question is the UK’s tax authority, HMRC, which this month effectively recognised bitcoin as a currency after months of lobbying by London’s bitcoin community, led by members of the soon-to-launch UK Digital Currency Association.

But will HMRC’s decision turn the UK into a leading centre for new financial services based around bitcoin or should those arguing for greater government engagement be careful what they wish for?

A sensible approach?

The positive arguments are obvious. HMRC has flip-flopped around the issue for months, first saying bitcoins were ‘taxable vouchers’ in November 2013, meaning that any purchase of bitcoin would require a VAT payment of 20% of the value of the bitcoin. This is the equivalent of paying €100 in tax if you wanted to buy €500 for your holiday in Spain.

Not long after, at the start of December 2013, they began to backtrack, beginning discussions with bitcoiners and indicating that they might reconsider their earlier position. At the time, Elliptic CEO Tom Robinson said:

“The general feeling I got from [our meeting with HMRC] was that they don’t think VAT should be levied on the bitcoin value itself.”

The fact that this was just weeks after HMRC decided the exact opposite indicates their rather haphazard approach to the role of cryptocurrencies.

Firing the starting gun

In their guidance issued on 3rd March, HMRC stepped back from explicitly recognising bitcoin as a currency, but their approach effectively treats it like any other form of payment for tax purposes:

“In all instances, VAT will be due in the normal way from suppliers of any goods or services sold in exchange for Bitcoin or other similar cryptocurrency.”

For Richard Asquith, Head of Tax at the TMF Group, this creates a stable framework that will encourage bitcoin businesses to look at the UK as a base for their operations. Other countries are going to have to come to a decision about how to tax bitcoin, he says:

“It’s going to force tax authorities around Europe and particularly the US to make a decision about how to tax it. The UK has fired the starting gun.”

Few other countries have taken a similar approach. Germany previously classed bitcoin as “private money”, while Singapore has classed it as a good, rather than a currency, and Russia has gone as far as to say bitcoin transactions are illegal, although they have allegedly softened their stance somewhat.

“HMRC’s decision is quite forward thinking in terms of other countries,” says Asquith. “It gives it the proper recognition for how it’s used in day-to-day activities.”

How much is 20%?

But before everyone breaks out the champagne, it should be remembered that there’s a lot that the guidance doesn’t cover.

For one, HMRC deals with tax issues, so their advice doesn’t even touch on the question of how bitcoin businesses might be regulated, unlike the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), which recently announced they would begin regulating bitcoin exchanges.

Furthermore, the question of which exchange rate to use is still one that’s up for debate. HMRC merely says that merchants should use “sterling value of the cryptocurrency at the point the transaction takes place”, which is fine if you are using BitPay or Coinbase, merchant services that instantly convert bitcoin payments into fiat currency. However, if you are taking bitcoin from customers directly then you need to be careful, and consistent, about converting from bitcoin into sterling.

With the recent collapse of Mt. Gox and hacks of other exchanges, it would be dangerous for HMRC to pin their colours to any single bitcoin exchange, or even a group of exchanges says Richard Howlett, whose firm Selachii LLP is launching a lawsuit against Mt. Gox:

“If the government were to implicitly back an exchange, it could be disastrous. They’re not going to want people to think that ‘this is a safe place to trade my bitcoin’.”

Conversely, for fiat currencies HMRC currently publishes exchange rate figures from the Financial Times. As measures of the price of bitcoin become more established (for example, the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index), this should become less of an issue.

For now, merchants should choose a popular exchange and ensure they’re not moving around to get the best rate.

“You have to take the fair market value,” says Richard Asquith. “HMRC insist that you use the most popular exchanges and you stick to it.”

Giving bitcoin legitimacy

In a blog post published in response to HMRC’s guidance, Elliptic CEO Tom Robinson, who has arguably driven the change in policy, praised the tax authority, writing that they had taken “a thoughtful and logical approach” to cryptocurrencies.

At the same time, there doesn’t appear to be a consistent attitude towards bitcoin among the UK establishment. The Bank of England, for example, this week suggested that bitcoin is more like a commodity than a currency:

“Digital currencies … may have more conceptual similarities to commodities, such as gold, than money”

Aside from the practical implications, HMRC’s decision gives bitcoin a significant reputation boost. It’s even taxed like a currency, supporters in the UK can now say. Howlett agrees: “[HMRC is] acknowledging that this is something that’s here to stay.”

But if further government regulation is to follow, as Robinson’s post suggests, the next battle for bitcoin’s supporters is ensuring that it’s the “right” regulation. Indeed, getting bitcoiners to agree what regulation is welcome will likely be a challenge all in itself.

Hehe hui... We see u

Well idea is to be only news. But as u can see since this thread have so many reads, it starting to attract spammers , so pls just report them.

How Bitcoin is Changing Everything
Ariel Deschapell | Published on March 15, 2014 at 12:50 GMT | Analysis

Perhaps the single most prominent, and telling, feature of bitcoin today is its massive controversy in the media. Not a single day goes by without an article or televised mention about its dangers, risks, and dubious mainstream appeal.

Many in the mainstream seem set in their beliefs that bitcoin is a fad, or even worse a ponzi scheme, and is destined to fail. Yet when was the last time a ponzi scheme attracted global attention and prominent venture capital investment? Since when has a fad incited the simultaneous and largely hostile reactions of governments across the globe?

Why did other payment technologies like PayPal or Western Union apparently fail to meet the requirements to be discussed in virtually every central bank on the planet, yet cryptocurrency is being so thoroughly scrutinised? Ironically enough, the on-going debate about whether or not bitcoin is truly a valuable disruptive technology, is all the evidence you need that it is.

This is because bitcoin as a technology isn’t just challenging business models, or even an entire industry. Plenty of innovative outfits do that with much less flare. Bitcoin is challenging the financial infrastructure of the whole global economy, and even more, it is challenging entire generations of established political and economic theory that that infrastructure is built on.

Bitcoin’s exponential growth flouts all of the traditional monetary theory that is the mainstream ideology amongst academics and politicians today. Its very existence and growing success cannot be accounted for within these old paradigms.

It challenges not only the basis and underlying assumptions of the modern financial system, but calls into question the beliefs and even livelihood of so many politicians, economic advisors, and media pundits. That is why so many are so sceptical of it, and others even outright hostile.

Bitcoin the currency

As a currency, bitcoin is in many ways the antithesis of modern fiat currencies. It has grown exponentially in usage the last year, and all without being declared by any state or central bank as “legal tender”. That simple fact astonishes many in academia, who could never have guessed a currency could spontaneously form and organically grow within the modern free market.

It was something that was never even discussed theoretically, and is still taking time to sink in amidst the denials that bitcoin is here to stay.

Yet this occurrence is surprisingly not entirely without precedence. Bitcoin is not the only example of a homogenous “good” being adopted by a population as a currency, for nothing but its underlying natural value and universal appeal. We have a much older example of that: gold, more than 5,000 years ago.

Cryptocurrency is following the same path as precious metals in ancient civilization. Where gold was valued for its color, easy malleability, purity and its anti-corrosive properties, bitcoin is valued for it’s speed, decentralization, anonymity and ultra low transaction costs.

gold

Gold was discovered by practically every world civilization and became a good of such universal value it slowly became the de facto means of exchange (along with silver) across much of the planet, eventually culminating in the Classical Gold Standard. That is a span of dominance of thousands of years, compared with the 43 years of the global fiat system we have today.

History thus clearly shows that the idea of a currency deriving value primarily from the “backing” of some central state is nonsense.

For the vast majority of civilization, money was gold or silver, and both originated not as centrally issued currency that, as a result, magically had value, but as universally valued substances.

Bitcoin is fast becoming the first commodity since gold to become a widely accepted means of exchange without the need of a central authority backing it.

However unlike gold, Bitcoin is completely out of the reach of governments and can’t be regulated, centralized, or ultimately shut down and replaced with inflationary fiat money. For all its durability and timeless lustre, gold my pale to the longevity of a cryptocurrency system.

Reacting to Big Data

However Bitcoin is not just a currency that promises to eventually end the trend of patchwork national currencies that exist for the almost sole purpose of allowing governments to endlessly fund their own deficit spending.

When the Internet was growing in the 90s it promised a future in which everyone everywhere had access to all the knowledge in the world, a future where technology ultimately empowered the individual.

Indeed, this promise is coming closer and closer everyday as more people in underdeveloped countries have access to cheaper and cheaper smartphones and Internet access. However behind this positive outward development, the big players have long since been behind a much different trend.

“Businesses will hopefully creatively utilize the open source design of Bitcoin to provide entirely secure and anonymous end-to-end experiences.”

Google, Facebook, as well as many others, all keep meticulous track of user data for advertising and other purposes. On several occasions, the massive amounts of data collected by Internet service and telecommunications companies have been utilized by agencies such as the NSA, under morally questionable motives at best.

The result is a system that has evolved with the ability to track everything you do, like, go, and know, and then provide all of that data to one central authority you may or may not trust, all with little choice for the consumer. The Internet has recently been more reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984, rather than the future of individual empowerment that was promised.

Cryptocurrency is the first major technological advancement that, intentionally or not, is a massive reaction to the trend of Big Data. It is decentralized and anonymous by design, and it is these key features within the Bitcoin protocol itself that may be the key to weakening the hold of massive data collecting service companies like Google.

Already, all payments with Bitcoin are anonymous, which could allow users to opt out of advertising with anonymous micropayments. Yet many other cryptocurrencies such as Namecoin are attempting to take the protocol that enables this and use it to build other decentralized networks.

Among these can be email, domain names, and other such systems.

Decentralized applications

This is only the beginning however, businesses will hopefully creatively utilize the open source design of Bitcoin to provide entirely secure and anonymous end-to-end experiences. The possibilities for the emerging wave of decentralized applications are endless, and only time will tell what it does result in. As David Johnson, the $1m sponsor of the Austin Bitcoin Hackathon put it:

“[Decentralized applications] have the potential to become self-sustaining because they empower their stakeholders to invest in the development of the DA.

Because of that, it is conceivable that DAs for payments, social networking, and cloud computing may one day surpass the valuation of multinational corporations like Western Union, Visa, Facebook, Google, and Amazon that are are currently active in the space.”

At the very least, the ever-growing success of bitcoin thus far candidly illustrates that there is indeed a massive demand for anonymity online, one companies would be wise to take advantage of.

It’s far too tempting to compare bitcoin to PCs, the Internet, or even to gold 5,000 years ago. While it does possess similarities with many of these things, and comparing it to such landmark achievements underscores its importance, bitcoin is it’s own phenomena.

PCs may have had a huge amount of industry leaders shrugging it off or denouncing it entirely like bitcoin does now, but it never had whole governments attempting to shut down or regulate its use.

Precious metals may have been the first and last good to become universally adopted as a means of exchange, but this was a slow process that took centuries if not millennia, whereas the usage of cryptocurrencies has exploded in just a few short years.

While bitcoin may have many old conceptual roots, it is altogether new and powerful. It is ushering in a new paradigm in various aspects of society, and creating a new benchmark for future technological achievements to inevitably be compared to.

Bitcoin is changing everything, and if you aren’t on board, then you’re already a dinosaur.