The site report "The site is down for maintanence. We will be back soon." And I've seen reports that the exchange has been hit with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack? - http://www.bitmarket.euAny more info, or an ETA on when the service might be accessible again? [Edit: New post on it here: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7126.0 ] |
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Sunday, May 8th, 2011- First monthly BitLotto winner receives winnings
The 1 BTC lotto wager paid out 128 BTC. Lottery winner(s) receives 99% of all wagers placed. The winning entry is picked based on the sender’s address. All wagers and the payout are fully auditable in the block chain. Next draw is June 1st. Wagers should only be placed when using the bitcoin client. Wagers from an eWallet (MyBitcoin, Mt. Gox, etc.) cannot win.
- http://www.bitlotto.com
- http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitLotto - DeepBit pool temporarily reaches critical 50% threshold
“This specific situation is why Bitcoin payments are not considered ‘confirmed’ until enough subsequent blocks have been solved such that there is effectively no chance that that a double spend attempt would be successful.”
- http://www.bitcoinminer.com/post/5328668205 - Work begins on BitFN (Bitcoin Freenet) project
BitFn will transport BitCoin (blockchain, TXes and seeds) over Freenet and other like services. The project’s coordinator, da2ce7, has been fundraising since December. The 800 BTC bounty will cover initial development though additional funds will likely be needed.
- http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7181.0 - New Exchange: MeuBitcoin (Brazil)
Fixed-rate exchange (price related to BTC/USD market rate). Payments are sent and received through, MoIP (Money over IP) which transacts using the bank wire network.
- http://www.meubitcoin.com.br
- http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/MeuBitcoin - Withdrawal limit at Mt. Gox for those in the EU can now be raised
“People who live in europe and have nationality of a country located in europe can have their daily withdrawal limit (both in EUR and BTC) increased up to 50k$ by providing the required proofs.”
- http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/5307524313
Saturday, May 7th, 2011- The “What is Bitcoin?” video on YouTube crosses 50,000 views
Most of the bounty awarded to the video’s creator is still held in the Bitcoin Marketing Fund for promotion of bitcoin.
Viewer demographics shows uneven exposure between gender (i.e., mostly male) and between location + language (mostly English-speaking countries).
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjo
- http://www.weusecoins.com/fund.php - Update on Plato’s #BitcoinRoadTrip: New Orleans
The map shows Plato taking a more southernly route than initially planned, with the latest update came from New Orleans where #bitcoin-otc veteran EvanR resides. Plato is going cross country and spends only bitcoins, even if that means traveling with a full can of gas to be able to make it to the next available merchant or bitcoiner who’ll exchange fuel for bitcoins.
Incidentally, Plato checked in late Saturday to report the discovery that yet another parity milestone has been met — this time the BTC/PBR.
- http://bit.ly/j2YNQn (map w/markers and routes)
- http://twitter.com/therealplato - Service at Mt. Gox exchange is restored following DDoS attack
The week-long distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack has sporadically affected the exchange, including times where the sevice was completely inaccessible. The network defenses to protect against future DDoS attacks are in place though now any future attacks will likely be different and require additional adjustment and fine tuning. - Alert from @BitcoinStatus:
Lots of “low priority” transactions are getting queued up. The latest Bitcoin Client, v0.3.21, has handling to detect transactions that will likely be delayed unless a fee payment is included.
- http://twitter.com/bitcoinstatus - Bitcoin Economy Snapshot:
1 BTC = $3.59 USD, Size: 6.13M BTC, Last 24h: 0.23M BTC in 3.8K trx, Difficulty: 109.7K, Forum posts/day: 1,161, Nodes: 1.4K
- http://twitter.com/bitcoineconomy - Press: Vancouver’s The Georgia Straight weekly
Bitcoin virtual currency challenges world’s centralized monetary systems by
Bitcoin community member Scott Nelson is among those interviewed:
“Nelson’s motivation […] stems from what he said is his ‘deep dissatisfaction with the banking industry and the way it operates’”.
- http://bit.ly/jIB6zB
Friday, May 6th, 2011- Due to time constraints, no entries were made for Friday. Items missed are included in Saturday’s post.
Thursday, May 5th, 2011- Lingering site access problems for Mt. Gox (Service mostly restored)
Fine tuning actions continue to keep the site operational after it was moved to a network which provides DDoS defenses. Sporadic problems accessing the site were reported though heavy trading on the site returned.
- http://www.mtgox.com - U.K. Money Transmitter - TransferWise (GBP to EUR)
Person-to-person transfer from U.K. to EUR recipient. Currency converts at mid-market rate.
- http://transferwise.com
- http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/TransferWise - LinuxCoin - Bootable flash media image with client and miner
A lightweight Debian-based OS which includes in the image everything that is necessary to run as a Bitcoin client and everything needed to get started mining on ATI hardware.
- http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/LinuxCoin - Recent additions to Bitcoin Merchant Directory / Trade wiki article:
- Free Software Foundation (FSF) (donations):
- http://my.fsf.org/donate
]There are numerous other recent additions
- http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade - s3052’s Bitcoin Market Technical Analysis
“Prices are in nomansland after the big rally to $4.15.”
Long term: “Rally”
Short term: “Pausing. Correction down seems more likely.”
- http://bit.ly/kPH8Ix - Fixed-rate exchange BitLex resumes with new website address
The exchange enables trades between bitcoins and Linden dollars (L$). L$ are used in the Second Life virtual world. When BitLex first started trading less than a year ago, 1 BTC would only buy L$0.667. Today 1 BTC buys about L$900.
- http://www.bitlex.org
The ability to buy using bitcoins has been helpful as Linden Labs, Second Life’s operator, has found it difficult to integrate with various payment systems globally:
- http://bit.ly/kTh4jt
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011]Wednesday, May 4th, 2011- New software: Zen Cart Bitcoin Payment Module
A payment module that interacts with bitcoind for Zen Cart ecommerce.
- http://github.com/jalder/Zen-Cart-Bitcoin-Payment-Module
- http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Zen_Cart_Bitcoin_Payment_Module - DDoS protections in place at Mt. Gox
The service is now running on a network that has defenses that protect the exchange from distributed denial-of-service attacks — something that has disrupted service for the previous four days. The attacks have continued in the hours since the service went live under the new protections, however the attack no longer was having any noticable impact on the service. - Mt. Gox exchange says “Dwolla Accepted Here”
Instant funding method. $0.25 per transaction. Per-transaction amounts up to $5K USD for personal accounts and $10K USD for business accounts. Dwolla is an ACH based payment network.
- http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/5185875167
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011- Article / Blog post:
PayPal Freezes Accounts of Two Bitcoin Exchangers by Jon Matonis in The Monetary Future
“The real surprise here is that, at least according to PayPal, bitcoin is now a currency.”
“What I find most difficult to believe is how so many people continue to support a system that has repeatedly demonstrated that it knows better than you do when it comes to how to spend your own money.”
- http://bit.ly/kufMst - Article / Blog post:
The Dark Side of Emerging Payments, and What to Do About It by JJ Hornblass in the Bank Innovation blog
“Increasingly, people are using virtual dollars to pay for things.”
“These purveyors require no registration with the government, no license, are free to set whatever terms they want. [This] is of concern as the population of ventures ‘printing’ digital dollars expands.”
- http://www.bankinnovation.net/profiles/blogs/the-dark-side-of-emerging
- http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7134.0 - Another Bitcoin exchange gets attacked: Bitmarket.eu
The operator of the BitMarket.eu exchange has had taken the site offline, temporarily, following a network attack. [Update: the service was restored after a few hours.]
- http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7126.0 - Mt. Gox’s DDoS Day 4: Access to Bitcoin’s leading exchange remains intermittent at best
The Mt. Gox exchange has not yet completed the move to a network that has DDoS defenses and as a result has been getting pummeled by network attacks, according to the service’s operator. The distributed denial-of-service attacks began on Saturday, though they have proceeded at differing levels since. There are periods of time where access is acceptable while other times there is no service. The BTC/USD exchange rate has stayed within a relatively narrow range on Mt. Gox and on other exchanges — currently around $3.40 USD.
[Update: Service fully restored.]
Monday, May 2nd, 2011Have a news tip, suggestion or comment? http://www.bitcoinnews.com/submitCurrent week (updated throughout each day): http://www.bitcoinnews.com ( RSS) ( mobile) ( email) Previous summaries: http://www.bitcoinnews.com/archive Follow on Twitter: @BitcoinNewsEach day I will post a reply with the previous day's summary, and will update this specific post to include each daily summary as well. [/list]
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Squareup looks like it might be pretty awesome, just in general. At first glance at least.
Wrt Bitcoin, it could be excellent for face-to-face transactions. Swipe the card, wait for the money to clear, use your phone to send the bitcoins. Though, I can't imagine how there would be a significant amount of business for someone selling bitcoin in the streets like that.
Since a chargeback against a credit card transaction is easy, I don't know that this would be an option for selling bitcoin "in the streets", though I suppose for friends and family it might be suitable. 2.75%. No different than using PayPal, except that PayPal has the "personal / gift" option where no fees are incurred by the recipient. AmEx's Serve is another credit-card + ACH based payment network similar to PayPal, and for now (through August, 2011) they charge no fees to either the sender or the recipient. Again, if you trust that you won't get charged back, these all work fine for person-to-person payment methods. http://squareup.com http://gopayment.com http://serve.com http://dwolla.comThere's a good list of options being built here: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7069.0Exchanging in and out of bitcoins for each transaction certainly gets to be expensive though. |
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Always interesting to see different POS concepts. I just wish they would explain the technical details a bit more on their website. What I gather: Some Fig Card central server mediates between the merchant and the smartphone, which - as far as I can tell - needs to be connected to the Internet at the time of the sale.
That requirement would be an issue for some. Personally, I wouldn't want to have to connect to a wi-fi network each time I want to make a payment -- especially a wi-fi netowrk I don't have any reason to trust. I can't see any reason why they wouldn't want to use the phone's data service instead. It is already established and plenty fast enough for the small amount of data required for a POS transaction. I'm just not clear on how the app knows in which merchant store the phone currently is. The presentation claims that the phone is not on WiFi, so how else can it tell at what store it is?
I believe Dwolla is using the phone's GPS for knowing the list of merchants nearby: http://www.dwolla.org/help/what-is-dwolla-spots/That's why I suspect the USB device for the merchant's POS is a wi-fi stick that simply operates as an SSID beacon that the mobile sees so that payment to the correct merchant is ensured. The mobile need not ever connect to to the wi-fi, it just grabs the list of SSIDs from after doing a scan. But they could be doing anything, who knows. |
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Poll needs another option:
_ When they start charging for inactive / $0 balance accounts.
Not closing it doesn't mean I use it much.
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A correction:
> n: An early version of this story said that Fig Card uses text messaging (SMS) technology. Fig Card uses WiFi functionality.
I couldn't find the details on how the wi-fi is used. Will the mobile connect to the merchant's wi-fi, maybe ad-hoc mode or something?
Or maybe the usb dongle simply provides a wi-fi beacon so the mobile app knows which merchant(s) you are near?
I wonder what PayPal saw in this making it worth buying.
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Isn't a market depth graph already available at mtgox, and a few other websites? I guess I fail to see what this one offers over the other graphs. This chart allows me to zoom in just for the range that I'm interested in ... i.e., "how much supply is there for the next $150 worth of buying", for instance. |
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What's the official word on Dwolla then? Is it officially sanctioned under their TOS to trade vs. Bitcoin? If so, they would be a good option, for U.S. users only of course.
Do I need to register and verify a bank account?
Not necessarily. While adding a bank is needed if you wish to unload or load your Dwolla account, you could still send and receive money from other Dwolla users without [registering any] financial institution. - http://www.dwolla.org/help/the-famous-faq-section/ |
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Sunday, May 1st, 2011- Press: Capital.BG (Weekly newspaper in Bulgaria)
Торент валута (Torrent Currency) by Andrian Georgiev
Assuming Google Translate did a fairly accurate job in translation, this was an article that gives a typical general overview of Bitcoin. What was interesting were the comments — sentiment by those who don’t yet understand Bitcoin is the same worldwide:
“Banks and government will strangle the idea.”
”Without a central guarantor of these they are very risky.”
- http://bit.ly/jwK81b (in Bulgarian) - New IRC channel, #bitcoin-pit (“business only” trading pit)
- http://wiki.bitcoin-otc.com/wiki/Bitcoin-pit
- http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#bitcoin-pit - Update on Plato’s #BitcoinRoadTrip (Alabama)
Tornadoes in Alabama have waylayed @TheRealPlato after his presentation on Bitcoin at UAH (Huntsville). He is assisting with the cleanup before continuing west on his cross-country journey. Over 100 BTC were donated to the Tornado relief fund.
- http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6752.msg101417#msg101417
- http://twitter.com/therealplato @TheRealPlato - Bitcoin’s leading exchange, Mt. Gox, resumes service after brief downtime
The DDoS attack that brought the service to its knees on Saturday evening, early Sunday had subsided “subsided a bit” so the service was brought back online after only a few hours of downtime. The BTC/USD market rate following the restart bounced around from as low as $2.50 and as high as $3.80 before settling towards the middle of that range.
The exchange still plans to move to a network that has improved DDoS protection.
- http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6931.0 - Press: The Washington Post (online and print edition [Saturday’s issue apparently … ?])
Imagining a world without the dollar by Barry Eichengreen
“There have already been some attempts to create a true electronic currency, such as Bitcoin.”
“Nothing would ensure that the electronic money you accumulate would hold its value, and nothing would prevent the operators of the platform from issuing more.” [The author was likely describing electronic currency in general and not Bitcoin, which has protections from that occurance, specifically.]
- http://wapo.st/lmhaww - Article / Blog post:
Could virtual currency become king in developing countries? by Brendan Burge on ATM Marketplace
“In developing countries [people] are making a living by performing ‘micro-tasks’ in the virtual economy.”
“PayPal, Google, BitCoin and others offer or soon will offer accounts that do not require traditional legacy backing from credit cards or other ‘hard currency’ accounts.”
- http://www.atmmarketplace.com/blog/5628 - First Bitcoin-related exchange to use a new variant of digital currency.
Though this editor originally believed this topic to be a hoax, there is apparently yet another currency using bitcoin technology being experimented with. Details are sketchy yet but this variant skips the gradual issuance of new currency and instead begins with all coins already minted and issued to a “bank”.
- http://exchange.surething.biz
Have a news tip, suggestion or comment? http://www.bitcoinnews.com/submitCurrent week (updated throughout each day): http://www.bitcoinnews.com ( RSS) ( mobile) ( email) Previous summaries: http://www.bitcoinnews.com/archive Follow on Twitter: @BitcoinNews
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But before i do that trying to look ahead on how to get the cash back in my hand after I sell the Bitcoins.
http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Selling_bitcoinsBut then i have to transfer from liberty reserve to yet another site before i can get it back in my paypal?
Since PayPal considers bitcoin an "ecurrency" (per mndrix from when they informed him his PayPal account was being shut down) and they are now enforcing the "no ecurrency" transactions, then converting from bitcoin to PayPal will be a little more difficult than when CoinCard was available. There are a number of individuals on the #bitcoin-otc marketplace who would love to buy your bitcoins from you (or your MTGUSD as well) and pay for the purchase using PayPal: - http://bitcoin-otc.com/vieworderbook.php?type=buy¬es=paypalTo assist you with that to know better the risk in accepting PayPal from someone is the OTC Web of Trust (WoT) ratings: - http://bitcoin-otc.com/trust.php Being in Australia, there's this offer: - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5967.0And there's also an IRC channel specifically for Australian Bitcoiners: #bitcoin-aus perhaps you can establish a trade in person? - http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#bitcoin-aus |
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Saturday, Apr 30th, 2011- Bitcoin’s leading exchange, Mt. Gox, retreats following DDoS attack
“Temporary shutdown” until the appropriate protections [are in place]”.
Service will resume once a new server is operational on a network with defenses against further distributed denial-of-service attacks.
- http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6931.0 - Exchange Nanaimo Gold offers automated exchange between HD-Money and Bitcoin
HD-Money (HDM) is a private digital currency alternative along the same lines as Liberty Reserve and payments made are irreversible.
- http://www.nanaimogold.com/hdm_exchange.php - CoinPal exchange ends service following action by PayPal
CoinPal, the primary where PayPal could be used for payment of purchases of bitcoins has closed.
“PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy specifically states that the service may not be used for a money service business that performs currency exchange activities”.
- http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/5086167006 - Bitcoin service BitcoinLaundry.com reduces fee
The fee for the service to mix bitcoins with those from others has been reduced from 1% to 0.5%.
“Compared to the traditional financial systems this service might be the equivalent of moving funds through banks located in countries that have strict bank-secrecy laws.”
- http://bitcoinlaundry.com
- http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Laundry - Archive containing block chain (through block 120,000) released:
Minimizes delay for downloading transaction data when performing a first-time installation. 152MB download file contains all transactions since January 2009 when Bitcoin genesis block was created.
- http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/blockchain - United States: Virtual Currency -The Legal Issues Are A Reality by Kobus and Schurko of Marshall Dennehey law office.
“An issuer of virtual currency [might be considered] a “financial institution” for the purposes of the PATRIOT ACT by virtue of creating and managing customer virtual currency [eWallet] accounts.”
- http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/article.asp?articleid=130736
Have a news tip, suggestion or comment? http://www.bitcoinnews.com/submitCurrent week (updated throughout each day): http://www.bitcoinnews.com ( RSS) ( mobile) ( email) Previous summaries: http://www.bitcoinnews.com/archive Follow on Twitter: @BitcoinNews
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Hi! i want to write something bitcoin related One of the biggest unmet needs is for there to be more support for bitcoin on ecommerce / shopping cart solutions. Satchmo is one such "webshop". Uses Django (a framework for Python). Maybe offering to write a fork for it with Bitcoin support would be something you'ld be interested in? You might also consider posting with your availability on Bitcoiners: http://www.bitcoiners.org/post/Additionally, there is a Freelancers category on the Wiki: http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Freelancers |
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what's that? I have to buy libertymutual fun money through another site
I'm missing something. CoinCard was (and will be again, according to mndrix's plans) a method for selling your bitcoins (though no longer redeemed through PayPal). Are you confusing CoinPal (buying bitcoins, but sadly, now closed indefinitely) with CoinCard? |
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Two features that would be nice:
1.)
Would love to be able to adjust the width and height and have the image display those details.
For instance, when I'm considering buying, I care mostly about the next $200 of supply, not the next $100,000.
2.)
Periodic refresh (or w/websocked immediate refresh with each new datapoint :-) )
Great job with this!
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Are you going to be using just the text in green, or all of the text in that reply? Here's my concern: The concept of a block chain where each block is protected with a hash isn't what gets people hung up. The head scratcher to many is why it takes thousands of miners to come up with that one hash that is needed for the next block. The answer to that should be in the response for this waste of energy myth. Here's my attempt to answer: To ensure that transaction blocks are produced at specific target rate a technique known as a proof of work system was chosen. Miners perform work and as more capacity comes online the blocks are produced at a faster rate. An adjustment is made periodically such that the rate blocks are produce returns to the specified rate. There simply isn't a better solution that allows a decentralized network to generate blocks at a target rate without any cheating. |
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And it would be so nice if such trades could be done!
A can trade with B without knowing each other, and both only need to trust the referee C.
ClearCoin escrow has worked good enough for my purposes: http://www.clearcoin.com/ |
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The commission dropped to 0.5%.
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