Hey Duke -

Just contact us at sales@bitgo.com; we can give some pointers and if you need help can probably provide that too.

Best,
Mike

http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/28/ben-davenport-bitgo/

Ben Davenport, One Of Facebook Messenger’s Creators, Joins Bitcoin Startup BitGo As CPO

"Ben Davenport, who co-founded the startup Beluga which Facebook acquired to build its Messenger app, just left the company after several years to dive into the world of bitcoin."

"He’s joining BitGo as a co-founder and chief product officer. BitGo is building a security-as-a-service platform for bitcoin. Last year, the startup launched a multi-signature wallet, which requires three keys to access. Other web-based wallets like Coinbase, store their bitcoin off the blockchain, or the public ledger of transactions, and manage a consumer’s private keys for them. Meanwhile, another web-based wallet startup called Blockchain lets users handle their own private keys directly."

"He’s been actively investing in the space for the last couple of years, so a role inside an up-and-coming bitcoin startup made sense. He’ll be overseeing BitGo’s product strategy and development."

http://www.moneyandtech.com/will-obrien-inside-bitcoins-ny/

"Perianne Boring caught up with Will O’Brien, CEO and co-founder of BitGo, to talk about their exciing new developments around multi-signature technology, including their new BitGo Enterprise solution for bitcoin businesses that features spending and velocity limits, user management services, and 24/7 monitoring services. Will also talked about BitGo’s new “cold key,” their answer to cold storage, which means one of the 3 keys generated for your BitGo wallet is generated offline, making it even harder for thieves to get access to your funds."

Thanks Gabriele for the endorsement! There is an inaccuracy about BitGo.


BitGo only ever sees 1 of the 3 keys in a multi-sig wallet. That key is generated on our servers and stored securely.

The user key and backup key, and the passcode, are never seen by BitGo. The user key is generated in the user’s browser and encrypted with a passcode. We recommend users create their own backup key as a “cold key” that is not seen in the user’s browser or on our servers.

Because of this design, BitGo can never access the bitcoins of its customers. BitGo is a security service and co-signer only.

We have been live since August 2013 and have performed extensive independent security audits.

To learn more, here are some resources:
1- Our whitepaper about multi-sig P2SH addresses at https://www.bitgo.com/p2sh_safe_address.
2- You may examine our client-side code at https://github.com/bitgo.
3- An endorsement by BitPay on their blog http://blog.bitpay.com/2014/04/07/bitcoin-wallets-and-decentralization.html.

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/04/08/bitbeat-rep-stockman-wants-irs-to-reconsider-bitcoin-decision/

- "Rep. Steve Stockman (R, Texas) was at the Inside Bitcoins conference in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, sharing a bill he plans to introduce in Congress asking the IRS to reconsider its decision earlier this month declaring bitcoin property for tax purposes."

-"Bitcoin is entering the “multi-sig” era. ... Now it appears that San Francisco-based wallet provider BitGo has won the race to deliver a mainstream multi-sig wallet. BitGo will generate three different keys for each wallet customer, one that’s attached to the live, online wallet and controlled by the owner, one that’s held in an encrypted format by BitGo, and a third that’s held offline in so-called “cold storage” by the owner. Two of the three keys will need to be signed to complete any transaction."

- MaidSafe is looking to do to the Internet what bitcoin is doing to money: decentralizing it. The startup unveiled a project at the conference that it’s been working on for eight years: Essentially, a new, decentralized Internet that offers cryptocurrency enthusiasts a new alt-coin, called safecoin, that is a feature of the system.

This is great!

Do you have an email subscriber list?

Have you tried BitGo (https://bitgo.com)? BitGo is a theft-resistant wallet that uses multi-sig built on P2SH. 3 keys issued, 2 required to sign any transaction. One key is stored with BitGo, one with the user, and one offline. Security of multi-sig with the ease of use of online/mobile access.

We've published a whitepaper (https://www.bitgo.com/p2sh_safe_address) on our tech and open-sourced a lot of components. Our tech was built by a team compiled of veterans in online security and digital currency.

In addition to the security of multi-sig, our platform enables additional protections like spending limits, network fraud detection, and whitelist addresses. This means that you could design a specific-use wallet that can has limits on how much can be spent in a day or where you could spend your funds. If a thief took your wallet/phone, they would be stopped by these protections and you could move your funds to a new wallet later on.

Please give BitGo a try and let us know what you think! https://bitgo.com
Learn more about BitGo at http://bitgoinc.com

I think the major financial services innovation will occur over the next 18 months (it's happening already), but stage 3 will last about 3 to 5 years. It will take time for adoption, regulatory clarity, and enough scale that other industries are ready to take on digital currency.

That said, as humans we have a hard time intuiting exponential curves. Things could move a lot faster than imagined.

 

thank you.

I appreciate your point. If the company is not being run properly, there is little one can do. We will learn more as the details of the potential theft or drain comes to light. If it turns out that bitcoins were being drained out of an wallet, multi-sig and BitGo's security platform could have prevented it.

For example, when you can create a BitGo wallet you may also set rules, such as:
- no transaction should be signed by BitGo above $X
- no transaction should be signed without some manual secondary approval
- only sign a transaction after a waiting period
- only sign transactions request from a whitelisted IP address.

With those type of protections in place, even a manager who is not minding the store is protected.

https://medium.com/p/2d33cf85382b

By BitGo CEO, Will O'Brien.

"We are now entering the third stage, in which core financial infrastructure and services will be built by veteran entrepreneurs backed by institutional money, and in accordance with the regulatory framework of the United States and other nations. This stage will end with mainstream adoption of Bitcoin and consolidation of Bitcoin companies as large financial incumbents embrace digital currency."

"The fourth stage will begin when Bitcoin becomes a widespread medium of exchange and can be used to revolutionize industries outside of financial services, such as real estate, contracts, supply chain, and machine-to-machine commerce."

"The promise of Bitcoin is self-evident. The financial services industry has not seen much innovation over the last 50 years, and digital currency is poised to deliver 50 years worth of innovation in the next 18 months."

Hey guys -

I hope I'm not overdoing it, but I wanted to share something that I think is pretty cool.

If you've got bitcoin that you want to give to family and friends this holiday, the new BitGo Gifts may be of interest to you.

BitGo Gifts can securely send Bitcoin to anyone, even if they don't have a Bitcoin wallet yet. 

Here's how it works:
1. You enter the email of a gift recipient and choose an amount of Bitcoin to send.
2. We create a special Bitcoin address that only your recipient can access and give you the keys to deliver in person or electronically as a gift.
3. BitGo acts as a co-signer for the gift, meaning that nobody other than your recipient can claim the gift.

This is the world's first bitcoin gifting system where the bitcoin doesn't leave your possession until your recipient takes it. The bitcoin is stored in an address where you have 2 keys, and bitgo has one.  The recipient of the gift is given a key and bitgo is given instructions to co-sign for your recipient only.  As such, you or your recipient can claim the bitcoin, but nobody else can.

For more info, check out the Gift FAQ: https://bitgo.com/faq/gifts

Feedback is always welcome!  Give the gift of bitcoin this holiday!  It'll be a great conversation piece.

https://bitgo.com/

Best,
Mike

---
Mike Belshe
CEO
BitGo, Inc
mike@bitgo.com

You can invite your friends from within the addressbook.

https://bitgo.com/ is a trading platform with an address book and super secure multi-signature wallet.

This way you can get your first bitcoin now from people you know instead of waiting days for your bank account to connect to a service.

Also you can sell your bitcoin easily to your friends - so you'd essentially be doing business with bitcoin.

Comments welcome!

http://www.coindesk.com/founder-of-bitcoin-exchange-bitbox-on-compliance-banks-and-bitcoins-future/

Interview with Kinnard Hockenhull.

"Kinnard Hockenhull is the founder of BitBox, a US-based exchange and provider of bitcoin-related services. The company is FinCEN registered and BitBox was accepted into the most recent class at Boost VC, a venture capital firm and startup incubator located in downtown San Mateo, California."

Check it out!

www.bitgo.com (beta)

More features to be added soon!

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-09/13/digital-economy-task-force

"Thomson Reuters has teamed up with the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) to form the Digital Economy Task Force, which aims to address some of the risks surrounding digital currencies and the wider digital economy."

""This is a complex issue," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of ICMEC. "Technology has created a new digital economy, which is being used by some to produce and sell child pornography, and for trafficking and child exploitation. This is a serious problem that requires serious solutions. Our task force will offer balanced, effective solutions for policy makers, law enforcement, regulators and the public.""

"The Task Force will include the Bitcoin Foundation, The Tor Project, Trend Micro, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Cato Institute, The Brookings Institute, the US Agency for International Development and Vital Voices."

http://paymentweek.com/us-federal-election-commission-to-weigh-legality-of-bitcoin-donations/

"Money and politics tend to go hand-in-hand, but what if a donor chooses to give bitcoins instead of dollars? That’s the issue currently being explored by the Federal Election Commission, after a conservative political action fund asked for permission to give and receive bitcoins."

"The FEC has two months to decide on this issue, though it may extend its time of deliberation."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324747104579025292386030188.html

"The twins made headlines in July when they announced the creation of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, which would operate an exchange-traded fund dealing only in the virtual currency of bitcoins. Putting their profile and wealth behind bitcoin—which has attracted intense interest and criticism as a form of money that exists beyond the control of governments and central banks—represents a big risk. "You have to be willing to gamble a bit," says Tyler. "Entrepreneurs are a special breed. They make their own fate, but there's no safety net if it doesn't work out."

http://business.time.com/2013/09/12/coming-soon-to-america-bitcoin-atms/

"Bitcoins, the online currency built on cryptography and beloved by libertarians, could be available for purchase through specialized ATMs in the United States this year."

"At least two firms have plans to ship out Bitcoin ATMs to American cities in the coming months. Robocoin, the Las Vegas-based firm rolling out the world’s first Bitcoin ATMs in Canada this fall, plans to ship 12 to 15 of the units by the end of the year. “We are working on deals right now in the U.S. that should deliver in December or January. Los Angeles, Florida, NYC, Austin, to name a few,” Robocoin CEO Jordan Kelly told TIME in an email."