[http://www.bitvoat.com/]

http://www.bitvoat.com/

Dogecoin giveaway going on here

Is there a listing of people or groups of people that have investments in Bitcoin in multiple fields.   We are an unregulated decentralized entity here, so I know there is no regulation for such thing, and there is definitely nothing wrong with a person wanting to invest fully in Bitcoin, so then of course investing in many aspects of it only seems natural for overall growth of just Bitcoin itself.  However, I still would like to know if there is a list out there of this.  For example, off the top of my head, 

the founder (Flexcoin) https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=21002 runs with Flexcoin, the Bitcoin Bank http://www.flexcoin.com/
also runs with http://www.tribbleagency.com/

genjix https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1931 runs with Intersango, https://intersango.com/
He also runs with https://bitcoinmedia.com

I already forget what Mt Gox has bought, I remember MtGoxLive of course, there was Bitomat, but I thought there were others too.

I always kind of noticed the exchanges stuff, but I was just wondering if there is anyone from the Mining Pools that is involved in other facets of Bitcoin?   Same with directory listing sites?   If you own a Bitcoin store, are you also involved in something else completely?

[How I became a Bitcoin trader]

Just read an article that had the writer reply to some comments made post article, found it interesting.  Here is the full article first.

How I became a Bitcoin trader
By Matthew DeBord

Readers of DeBord Report will know that I've become embroiled in a controversy/experiment involving Bitcoin, the cyber- or crypto-currency that's captured the hearts and minds of some passionate supporters in the technology world. In response to some commenters on the posts I've written so far, I decided to buy and trade some Bitcoin, just to see how it would go.

I suppose I could call this "Bitcoin Challenge" to parallel the "Bike Challenge" I'm also currently engaged in.

There are some superficial similarities. I haven't ridden a bike anywhere in more than a decade. I've also never traded currencies — or much of anything else.

However, my sideline career trading BTC is off to a decent start. I don't know why, but the price of Bitcoin has been headed up of late. Because this is just an experiment and not an attempt to make real money, a few weeks back I purchased $10 of Bitcoin. I bought BTC at $3.90 and, a few minutes ago, sold it at $5.40.

I wound up making $3.70, roughly, on the trade, after the fee charged by Mt. Gox, a Bitcoin exchange. I had to make the trade because I'd set a conservative 20-percent return objective and an optimistic 25-percent objective. A return of 37.5 percent meant that I'd beaten my optimistic goal by more than 10 percent. Just for some perspective, the total real return in the S&P 500 since the 1950s is only 7 percent.

Also, as you can see, I picked the $10 amount initially because it makes it easy for me to do the math.

What I'll do now is wait until the price either falls to my previous 25-percent goal and reinvest the original $10; or if the price keeps going up, I'll bank the original $10 and invest the $3.70. This will enable me to devise a sort of long-short position — I don't know if you can trade BTC short on Mt. Gox — by putting my profit at risk and letting the $10 sit around waiting for the price to fall to jump in.

I welcome anyone who wants to pick this strategy apart to do so because I have no idea what I'm doing...for now!

http://www.scpr.org/blogs/economy/2012/01/04/4168/how-i-became-bitcoin-trader/


After the article someone made the comment, "You are acting like a day trader in a volatile market.  This will be the way of BTC for a while until distribution is wider and assessments of its value is better understood."   to which Matt replied

This is actually why I'm doing this. I'm trying to prove -- to myself -- that BTC is actually something you trade rather than something you use to buy stuff. An instrument, not a currency. However, I've just gotten started and have some other tricks in mind. Thanks for your comment.

I do not know this guy or his history, but it seems if you want to start making money with Bitcoin with a guy who claims he has no idea what he is doing for now, Matt is your man.

By Adrianne Jeffries

Bitcoiners are always griping that the e-currency needs more users, not more publicity. The intersection of Bitcoin and porn, however, is likely to bring both. But the question is a logical one: if Silk Road brought Bitcoin into use by letting people buy drugs and other useful things semi-anonymously, perhaps taboo-but-legal sites could do the same. “Bitcoin won’t be popular until porn sites start accepting it as a discrete alternative to credit cards, which are a huge barrier to entry I think for many of their potential customers,” writes one user over on Reddit http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/o97xa/as_usual_porn_will_be_the_driving_force_of_a_new/ . Another pointed out that porn sites have been early adopters of technology before: “Porn used SD video cameras like the Sony VX1000 that proved small chip video was good enough for the small screen. The VCR, the DVD all owe their success, at least partially, to porn.”

It’s not that it hasn’t been tried: Wetcoin.co.cc launched back in July, an “adult-orientated website” that charged small amounts of BTC for downloads and required no registration. (The site is now defunct.) Cam4.com was another experiment, now defunct, which allowed users to tip amateur girls with proprietary “tokens,” which could be bought on the secondary market at xxxcoin.com (defunct https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=24913.0 ), for Bitcoins.

The blog Bitcoin Porn is a Tumblr with information about Bitcoin interspersed with porn. There are no purchases possible, but you can support the site with a BTC donation. There is an associated podcast as well as a Twitter https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Porn .

There is the argument that the fledgling currency should try to associate itself with more acceptable ecommerce https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=38107.0 like bit-strawberries rather than be thought of as the medium of exchange for drugs and porn. But needless to say, if Bitcoiners could get enough adult sites to accept Bitcoin, the e-currency would gain access to a massive audience. “That was actually the idea I had in mind when I bought titcoins.com, but I haven’t had any time to bring it to fruition,” another Bitcoin-Redditor commented.

http://www.betabeat.com/2012/01/09/titcoins-what-porn-can-do-for-bitcoin/

Just checking out the news and seen this The article brings a good point regarding services offered.  So far the only adult material I have seen offered with ladies on cams or even ladies offering themselves, seems to be shot down in some ways.   Very surprised the bitcams thread wasn't mentioned 

/r/Bitcoin does not appreciate this offer 

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/nmo4r/merry_holiday_rbitcoin_1_free_litecoin_or/

Holiday spirit and all that shit, plus I can't think of something fun online for people to do, so screw it, just give me either one Litecoin address or one Solidcoin address and I will present you with an Alternate Currency to check out, but.. you may only choose one!

Litecoin client at http://litecoin.org/

Solidcoin client at http://solidcoin.info/

One per person, keep it clean or make fun of anything that isn't Bitcoin, I don't care. I'll check back on this later tonight.

If anyone is a Newbie and can't reply here, sign up on reddit and post there.  The offer is now open up to Bitcointalk

I was reading things in the archive.org thread but was wondering in a general way is cashing out all donated funds not a necessary thing to ensure that a certain set rate is established when people donate their Bitcoin?

I guess it could be up to each organization, but is this something that all of you who are approaching these places making sure they really understand this point.  I know the market has been steady as of recent, but that means shit, and I'd hate for a bunch of people to "loose faith" in Bitcoin or even just in helping causes because whatever said cause did not realize what they were given was worth $3000 today, and $300 the next minute.

Sorry again for not replying in the archive.org thread, but I thought this would apply to more if people are checking the blockexplorer and showing they are sitting on Bitcoin, making it pretty valueless unless they at the very least exchange it for that fiat right away.   Sorry for all you hardcore that wish for all donated funds to be spent directly back in Bitcoin, I say one step at a time and make sure no one feels like they got ripped off because of ignorance.

http://www.thecharitysearch.org/about

Someone do it quickly before people hear about this site

Is there not enough tools available where this site could easily be cloned, and if not, improved?  I see many Bitcoin charity sites, or at least I think I have, maybe there isn't that much, but it seems people are always doing things for good causes for Bitcoin, in attempts of course to help promote Bitcoin as well.

Someone take this and run with it please, I am not going to do anything with this, just seems like a good enough set it and forget it site, where the only real bother would probably be the initial set up.

[from the not-quite dept]

from the not-quite dept

Back in April, just as Bitcoin was starting to get some mainstream attention, I questioned its ability to succeed long term. Too much about it felt like a fad, and there seemed to be significant questions about it. However, over the next few months, as the price of Bitcoins rose quickly, and there was more and more interest in it, I wondered if perhaps my natural skepticism got the best of me. Of course, since then, the Bitcoin market has come way back down, and the concept has definitely lost a lot of its "shiny new thing" appeal.

Wired is running a detailed article on "The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin," which is a worthwhile read. Of course, it seems to be premised on the idea that Bitcoin is more or less dead -- a fad that came and went. Indeed, my initial post on Bitcoin questioned whether it would just be a fad. I still think it's likely... but I'm wondering if the big flare up over the past few months might be good for Bitcoin in the long run. Lots of speculators came and went, and Bitcoin gets to be ignored once more. Might that create a space to allow for a more sustainable ecosystem to be built, while the speculators and swindlers have moved on? Maybe. I'm still thinking that Bitcoin is most likely a fad that will die out. But sometimes a big flame out early on is a good way to obscure work that comes out of the ashes.

If I had to guess (and it's purely a guess), I'd say that the real legacy of Bitcoin may be in how it paved a path. The more interesting area to watch might not be what happens to Bitcoin specifically, but what the next attempt at such a currency brings around. There are lots of smart people looking at what happened to Bitcoin, and someone's going to come up with a better mousetrap.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111128/03295016910/rise-fall-bitcoin-is-it-really-over-yet.shtml

--

My interests in both SolidCoin and then LiteCoin, and also just checking out the other coins leads me to somewhat believe that end paragraph.   I once thought that the Bitcoin developers don't listen enough or whatever, but with such large numbers, you really can't please everyone, the ability to improve on the current client gets harder unless you have one all powerful ruling factor that can save the day like SolidCoin or if you have enough people helping another open source project like Litecoin.  I won't even touch on Namecoin, as I am not personally a fan, but I would be lying if I said I didn't respect how long it has lasted for being the coin with a dual purpose and for the fact that it did try to add features and differentiate itself from Bitcoin enough where I could see people using Namecoin who have no interest in any of these other currencies.

The dream of having Wikipedia run off the electricity of the users donating it to ensure things are kept ad free, and the only time you'd be paying to use the site, is obviously when you are on it.    There was Bitcoinplus.   KRAD miner I think.   The great Bitp.it pool started out with that.   With the difficulty the way it is, is attempting to find any amount of true usability for an online Bitcoin miner over?

Do people feel that this type of technology will only be abused? 

[http://www.venusianarts.com/]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/lljb1/mystery_the_pickup_artist_now_accepts_bitcoins/

Hi everyone. Over at Venusian Arts we've taken notice of your new "Bitcoin" currency.

The $30 price point, reached earlier this year, was a little bit concerning to us, but now it seems to have leveled out, so I went ahead and added "Buy Now with Bitcoin" links to our sales pages for our ebook and our dvd set. (Hopefully the wild swings in BTC price are done, since our interest is in using it as a currency, not as an investment vehicle.)

http://www.venusianarts.com/


If this works out, then I'm going to add "Bitcoin Buy Now" links for our seminars and live trainings as well. Thank you all for your efforts in bringing us a payment processor for the future, since everyone knows that merchant accounts suck balls.

Bitcoin.
Get womens.
Join the revolution.


Bit Pay is doing awesome things for Bitcoin, unless Mystery approached them himself, then I respect him even more, if that is possible.

I am looking and seeing Operation Fabulous as the best option so far.   I pull 2000 uniques a month doing nearly no updates, triple that page views, with my top month having 58000 uniques and 13000 views, but I was doing updates more often then.   Should I just ask to see if someone wants to buy ad space directly?  I would honestly like to support the use of btc ad services like Operation Fabulous if they are working well and I am able to track stats.

[now I feel again that I'm on the track of another innovation of Bitcoin mining, which will be DDoS resistant yet easy to use and with steady payouts like normal share based pools.]

.. I spent insane amount of time and energy in inventing and running my pool and I don't want to simply disappear, because I really believe in long-term Bitcoin success (small note: people, don't get scared with current panic on market, it's just an oposite of July's insane price peak). I "invented" (maybe it's better to say "realized") first really usable and widely used Bitcoin pool ever and now I feel again that I'm on the track of another innovation of Bitcoin mining, which will be DDoS resistant yet easy to use and with steady payouts like normal share based pools.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1976.msg584181#msg584181

[svs.01.2 Bitcoin]

I cannot copy and paste this whole text, as it is a lot of reading, but highly interesting at the very least.    Written by the man Plato who traveled the US with Bitcoin

The full text can be found here, http://codepad.org/k0gRMK5W below is some of the intro to brief on that and then Bitcoin related parts.  I suggest checking out the full thing, I have drank no cool aid nor do I deny new ideas, just read it and found it interesting with Bitcoin as a part of it.

This is a manual for subversives. It explains how we can build a context to work
and play in as we subvert the First Realm and replace it with the Second Realm.

The First Realm is our world today. It is a world of borders and boundaries, of
rules and regulations - a world ruled by authority. The Second Realm is the
world that will replace it. This is our chance to turn the Powers That Be into
the Powers That Were - it's up to us to make sure that we build a utopia instead
of a dystopia.

Subverse is the context for subversion. It is a place for teaching and learning,
a place for trading, and a place to take action.

svs.toc
svs.00     Plato's Introduction
svs.00.1     Thoughts on authority
svs.00.2     Why we need Subverse
svs.00.3     What needs to happen now
svs.01     Prereqs
svs.01.1     Crypto and PGP/gpg
svs.01.2     Bitcoin
svs.01.3     Blockchains
svs.01.4     Trust Networks
svs.02     The Subverse
svs.02.1     Architecture
svs.02.2     Global Web of Trust
svs.02.3     Semantic web markup language
svs.03     Subvert.me
svs.03.1     Agorist marketplace
svs.03.2     Subversive wiki
svs.03.3     Local community blockchains
svs.03.4     Trust based social media
svs.03.5     Games Room
svs.04     How You Can Help
svs.04.1     Be a part of the Bitcoin Cabal!
svs.04.2     Donate Bitcoins
svs.04.3     Spread the word
svs.04.4     Join us on IRC
svs.04.5     Let's make TEDxSubverse
svs.04.6     Help get Plato an apartment
svs.05     Coding Projects

svs.01.2     Bitcoin
Bitcoin is internet cash. Anyone can send and receive bitcoins without
registering or giving up any personal information. Transactions clear within
minutes, and are permanent. There is a fee structure to reward users who
maintain the network but (as of 7/2011) these fees are negligible. The network
is totally decentralized; many users cooperatively maintain the Bitcoin
blockchain to keep everyone honest. It's difficult or impossible to cheat the
network without possessing 51% of the processing power of the network. This is
already quite a task; Bitcoin is the largest distributed computing project to
date.


svs.01.3     Blockchains
Bitcoin uses a "blockchain" model to store transaction records. Everyone has a
copy of this blockchain - it's basically a distributed database, containing a
single chain of plaintext "blocks". These blocks contain transaction data for
the time period when the block was generated. Each block includes a hash of the
previous block inside itself, to prove that the block is part of the same chain
and was generated at a later time. The blocks include a solution to a
proof-of-work problem, so users can't submit fake blocks at their whim.


svs.01.4     Trust Networks
Using GPG, it's possible to build a network of pseudonymous users who trust each
other without ever meeting face to face. #bitcoin-otc on Freenode
(www.bitcoin-otc.com) has an implementation by nanotube. Users rate each other
after transactions, and the data is publically available for other users to see.
As more trades happen and more users participate, the trust information becomes
more reliable.

Today, we look at a new and mysterious online currency called "bitcoin." Since its launch in 2009, it’s prompted many to imagine an alternative reality. In it, the economic establishment no longer controls the flow of money around the world. The currency is the brainchild of "Satoshi Nakamoto," who claims to be a 36-year-old Japanese computer programmer. Satoshi's real name and identity, however, remain unknown. Individuals can use the currency to buy a surprisingly wide range of products online -- from beef jerky to hotel rooms to illicit drugs. And in a little over two and a half years, its founder has managed to create nearly thirty-five million dollars of value.

In this week’s issue of the New Yorker, contributor Joshua Davis investigated bitcoin in “The Crypto-Currency.” He tells us about his search for the elusive genius behind this phenomenon, and what this currency says about our age of economic struggle.

Download or stream at http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2011-10-11/online-currency-bitcoin-glimpse-economic-future-93046

Very cool, not even my 'type' of music, but the song is nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYqqS7aTBVQ

You can download the song from here http://www.hellomaxmin.com/alpaca-socks/

Found via Bitcoin Media's Twitter Feed https://twitter.com/#!/bitcoinmedia/status/122846076591013888

In 2009, a programmer who called himself "Satoshi Nakamoto" created bitcoin. The virtual currency took off, but Satoshi's identity has remained a mystery.

The journalist Joshua Davis tries to track down Satoshi in an article (subscription req'd) in this week's New Yorker.

 
Whoever created bitcoin, it's clear that he (or she, or they) is/are a very clever coder with a deep understanding of cryptography.

An expert tells the New Yorker writer that someone with Satoshi's skills would probably be at Crypto2011, the most important cryptography conference. The writer also notes that Satoshi typically uses British (rather than American) spellings.

So he narrows the field to people from the UK at Crypto2011. He finds one compelling candidate: A guy named Michael Clear.

After I read the article this morning, I called Gavin Andresen, a programmer who has done a lot of work on bitcoin, and who we talked to at length when we did a bitcoin story earlier this year.

I asked Gavin if Michael Clear is Satoshi.

"I have no idea," Gavin told me. "It could be."

Clear was named the top computer-science undergrad at Trinity College in Dublin in 2008. He worked for Allied Irish Banks to improve its currency-trading software in 2009. Also that year, he co-wrote a paper on peer-to-peer technology. (Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer system.)

So Davis, the author of the New Yorker story, emails Clear.

"I like to keep a low profile," Clear replies. "I'm curious to know how you found me."

Davis eventually cuts to the chase:

Finally, I asked, "Are you Satoshi?"

He laughed, but didn't respond. There was an awkward silence.

"If you like, I'd be happy to review the design for you," he offered instead. "I could let you know what I think."

"Sure," I said hesitantly. "Do you need me to send you a link to the code?"

"I think I can find it," he said.

In the end, Clear says he's not the guy — but his denial leaves the door open just a crack:

"I'm not Satoshi," Clear said. "But even if I was I wouldn't tell you."

One other interesting detail: Clear says the bitcoin code is good, but there are some weaknesses. Users store their bitcoins in virtual wallets; the system should automatically provide encryption software to secure those virtual wallets, Clear says.

I didn't bring this detail up when I talked to Gavin today. But when I asked him about news from the bitcoin world, he told me that the latest version of the bitcoin software includes wallet encryption.

- From NPR http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/10/03/141011155/did-a-reporter-just-solve-the-bitcoin-mystery from /r/Bitcoin/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/kzmpj/did_a_reporter_just_solve_a_bitcoin_mystery/

[Is Digital Money the New Way to Buy Drugs?]

Shot at Bitcoin with the bolded part.  It does take things off Silk Road and more on a different way to pay a person directly for drugs.



Is Digital Money the New Way to Buy Drugs?

I'm not gonna name names, but someone just mentioned paying for weed with a Square account. It'd be equally easy to use Paypal, Venmo, Bitcoin (RIP) or any of the myriad mobile payment systems that allow you to send money from your phone.

I mean, think about it: As long as you don't put some idiotic note on your account like "drugs," virtual currency would be a really easy way for drug dealers to take one very dangerous aspect of trafficking out of the equation—as long as they took some precautions.

So have you ever bought drugs using a mobile payment system? Is this a really tired scheme that a innocent lad like me just hadn't ever heard of? Let us know in the poll.

Poll is on this page http://gizmodo.com/5845229/is-digital-money-the-new-way-to-buy-drugs

[Is There Something New Here?]

In the past we’ve reported a couple of attacks involving malware that turns affected systems into Bitcoin miners, and we also said that cybercriminals will increasingly do so in the future. Recently we encountered another malware –a familiar and known malware family — that turns the system into a Bitcoin miner.

TDL4 is a well known variant of the TDSS malware family known for evading detection by antivirus products by infecting affected systems’ boot sector. We’ve been monitoring developments related to TDSS, and earlier this year we saw TDL4 exhibit propagation routines through a worm component that Trend Micro detects as WORM_OTORUN.ASH.

In our research we found that recent variants of WORM_OTORUN.ASH contain code that attempts to participate in a Bitcoin pool, Deepbit.



The screenshot in Figure 1 shows some parameters that include “getwork”, which is a parameter to get a job from the mining pool. A job is a Bitcoin block header which the miner, (in this case the affected system) hashes in order to earn a Bitcoin share. In Bitcoin pools, users sign up and join a network of miners to work on the same jobs for faster payout.


Based on Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ data, WORM_OTORUN.ASH’s distribution has expanded to other parts of the globe in the past few months. The Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ constantly analyzes data from the feedback of millions of customers around the world, including geographic distribution of malware. This allows us to monitor how widespread any particular malware is in real time, as well as determine other steps that can be taken to mitigate the threat.

For a clearer illustration, refer to Figure 2 below.



During our monitoring, we have observed as well that WORM_OTORUN.ASH’s command and control (C&C) servers were hosted by dubious Internet Service Providers (ISPs) located in Europe, particularly in Ukraine, Romania, and the Netherlands.

Is There Something New Here?

Not really. Cybercriminals will continue to find ways to monetize their malicious activities, and Bitcoin is just a new way for them to do so. Bitcoin has earned the attention of crooks for several reasons, one of which is the fact that Bitcoin is a direct source of income.

In addition, the concept of pooled mining complements the nature of botnets – multiple zombie PCs contribute to the generation of a Bitcoin block, and the reward will end up at the hands of cybercriminals – at the infected users’ expense.

This proves to be not very good news for victims, as Bitcoin-mining bots will probably eat up infected systems’ resources. On a more positive note, however, Bitcoin mining will compromise the covertness of a malware since the high CPU usage might lead the user to suspect system infection.

As seen in TDL4 and WORM_OTORUN.ASH, it wouldn’t surprise me if Bitcoin mining becomes a trend in today’s botnets. We might just encounter more BOTcoin miners in the near future.

http://blog.trendmicro.com/the-worm-tdl4-and-botcoin-miners/

http://www.tribbleagency.com/?p=8278

A report has been published showing a massive loss to the bitcoin economy.
Total Value of Entire Bitcoin Economy $36,126,021.96

A total figure of USD $1,060,609.29 per month must enter the bitcoin economy to keep the current value of USD $4.910228203451 per BTC

$245.51 worth of BTC are printed every 10 minutes by mining or $1,060,609.29 per month or $12,727,311.50 per year.

Bitcoins traded at nearly $35 at their peak with ~6,000,000 coins in circulation on June 9, 2011 the total Bitcoin economy was valued at $210,000,000.

Bitcoins are now trading at $4.910228203451 with 7357300.000000001 coins in circulation the total Bitcoin economy is now valued at $36,126,021.96

This represents a net loss of $209,999,964.00 from peak to this exact moment (updated in real time) of the entire bitcoin economy.

If Bitcoins were stable at their peak of $35 on June 9, 2011 , the bitcoin economy would be worth $257,505,500.00 rather than $36,126,021.96

From /r/Bitcoin http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/kt6sw/bitcoins_have_lost_210000000_since_july_9th_2011/

CoinLab got a full piece, congrats Doctor Nefario and all involved.

A group of Seattle entrepreneurs is forging ahead into the uncertain and intriguing world of Bitcoin with a new center for incubating projects and potential businesses involving the digital currency.

Called CoinLab, it’s the creation of Peter Vessenes, Mike Koss and Tihan Seale, housed inside the StartPad co-working space that Koss oversees in downtown Seattle. In addition to pursuing projects of their own, they’ve allocated funds for additional desks at StartPad in hopes of finding other entrepreneurs and developers interested in working alongside them on Bitcoin projects.

“There isn’t really anywhere that’s the ‘Place for Bitcoin,’ and that’s what we hope to be,” Vessenes said this week.

Vessenes and Koss have been kicking this idea around for a few months now, and had planned on pursuing the incubator in collaboration with a Bitcoin developer from China who goes by the name of Dr. Nefario. However, Nefario was prevented from entering the U.S. when he couldn’t convince customs agents at the Seattle airport that he could fund his planned two-month visit using Bitcoin.

CoinLab already has its first project, dubbed Bitsent, for sending Bitcoin via text message. Their sites promises “a lot more in the works.”

The volatility and complexity of the Bitcoin system  has generated plenty of skepticism, as reflected in this post by the NYT’s Paul Krugman earlier this month.

Read the rest of the article, with lots of links, at http://www.geekwire.com/2011/coinlab-center-bitcoin-projects-created-seattle