Bitcoin: What’s Current in Currency Jenni Rehfield 2013-01-16 http://www.casino.org/blog/bitcoin-whats-current-in-currency/We all remember the joys of amassing colored paper faux dollars, tiny red plastic hotels and little green houses while playing the game of Monopoly as kids; now a decentralized digital currency called Bitcoin has brought that game to life with a peer-to-peer form of money that is rapidly gaining acceptance as a practical way to handle internet transactions ... Will Bitcoins become the way American poker players can finally relax and get back to online play without having to worry about asset seizures by the Feds? Maybe, and maybe not. The currency has some strong proponents, and others who see it as a ticking financial time bomb. ... It offers some risks and some potential rewards, but mostly it offers a new adventure in financial interchanges that is likely to change how business is done on the internet for many years to come. And with an estimated $4 to 6 billion U.S. gaming market at stake, you can bet that Bitcoin will be going all in for the American online poker dollar. |
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BitcoinStore Plans to Take On the World of Online Electronics Retail with BTC Kyt Dotson 2013-01-15 http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/01/15/bitcoinstore-plans-to-take-on-the-world-of-online-electronics-retail-with-btc/... The idea behind the project is to not just provide electronic goods for BTC but also to show the market that it’s possible to make good money trading physical goods with the cryptocurrency. In fact, due to his connections with suppliers and distributors he is able to bring prices to BitcoinStore that will rival even Amazon and NewEgg in prices. ... In order to stay afloat, BitcoinStore will need to take a large number of orders a day. The challenge will be more than just getting the servers to handle that many orders—but also to get enough influence and interest in the Bitcoin community as possible to bring in customers. ... |
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Article not specifically about Bitcoin, but about investment/industry in China and developments at CES in las vegas. Quoted snippet is the relevant section. Chinese whispers 2013-01-11 http://www.telecoms.com/68052/chinese-whispers-3/... Also looking for a loophole is the US gambling community, which is constantly running into trouble with complex US laws that prevent businesses from knowingly accepting money transfers for internet gambling purposes. Digital currency Bitcoin is being heralded as a solution, because it’s a decentralised peer to peer transfer technology, those involved can avoid using US banks. Bitcoin has attracted both good and bad press and falls into grey areas of legislation in many cases. A researcher called GamblingCompliance estimates the value of the US online gambling market at between $4bn and $6bn, and when the government cracked down on online gambling sites in 2011, gamblers in the US had more than $100m in online accounts frozen. The government is still working on reimbursements now. One of the reasons Bitcoin is appealing in this case is because the coins are actually stored on the user’s own computer, making it incredibly difficult for the Feds to seize it. ... |
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Friday Funding Roundup Nick Clayton 2013-01-11 http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2013/01/11/friday-funding-roundup-7/... More intriguing is the angel investment in the Bitcoin virtual currency exchange BitPay. ... BitPay represents a potentially far more intriguing and innovative payment platform than the likes of Paymill. It has announced an investment of $510,000 led by Shakil Khan, Barry Silbert, Jimmy Furland and Roger Ver to help it try to become the PayPal of the virtual currency Bitcoin, as TechCrunch expains. "What makes Bitcoin so interesting is that it flies in the face of payment models that we’re used to today; it’s a push model rather than a pull one. When you give a website your credit card and billing information to buy something, the company is pulling money out of your account. Giving up that personal information isn’t the safest thing, and Bitcoin allows you to “push” the money to a company to buy something. This means that no personally identifiable information goes with it, making eventual identity theft and fraud nearly impossible during the transaction." Of course, that lack of personally identifiable information is attractive to people operating on the darker side of the Internet. But the same could be said of cash in the physical world. What BitPay does is similar to Stripe, Paymill or Paypal in offering back-end processing of payments. "BitPay accepts Bitcoin and then puts “real” money into the bank accounts of businesses. Basically, there’s no worry on the end of merchants, because they end up getting paid the way that they’re used to. The difference is that a small business in Kansas City can now accept a payment from Indonesia for goods and services, which was nearly impossible before." |
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Bombing BitTorrent and File-Sharing Websites Back to the Stone Age 2013-01-10 http://torrentfreak.com/bombing-bittorrent-and-file-sharing-websites-back-to-the-stone-age-130110/... Founded in late 2004, TorrentBytes has its next server bill due at the end of January but thanks to a PayPal withdrawal has no way to collect money from users to pay it. Not even Bitcoins will work according to an admin. “Bitcoin is not an option. We can pay next to nothing with it and there seems to be no ‘certain’ way to convert it to something we can use,” he says. ... |
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BitPay Receives $510,000 in Funding Round to Advance Bitcoin Processing Kyt Dotson 2013-01-09 http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/01/09/bitpay-receives-510000-in-funding-round-to-feed-into-bitcoin-processing/... We’ve seen discussions of this currency popping up in unexpected places and even in circles normally dedicated to high finance. It’s been a long game for Bitcoin, even as the media and world slowly begins to notice the usefulness of cryptocurrencies. Service providers such as BitPay bring us one step closer to having a science fiction like economy where people can easily pay one another just with their mobile devices. ... |
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Newsgroup Reviews Blog Hitnews Accepts Bitcoin Payments 2013-01-09 http://www.ngrblog.com/hitnews-bitcoin/A couple months ago we noticed that a newly launched service, Bitusenet, was focusing on Bitcoin Usenet payments. Now it looks like Hitnews has joined in as well. While Bitusenet only offers Bitcoin, Hitnews has a number of other payment options including iDeal, bank transfer and credit card. Hitnews is the first established Usenet provider we’ve seen add Bitcoin payments. It will be interesting to see if other companies join in as well ... You can see from the hitnews signup page that they're using BitPay. This is interesting in the light of the recent closure of newzbin2 - stating: "..no, Bitcoin isn’t credible as it’s just too hard for 90% of people" https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128412.0Presumably hitnews doesn't carry the binary newsgroups and 'pirated' content which the newzbin2 provided access (search facilities?) to. That an established usenet provider is accepting Bitcoins so soon after the newzbin2 shutdown, shows just how shortsighted the newzbin2 operators were with their "bitcoin isn't credible" statement. |
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BitPay closes $510,000 funding round 2013-01-09 http://www.finextra.com/News/FullStory.aspx?newsitemid=24418... Seed investors backing the service include SecondMarket founder Barry Silbert, and Spotify investor Shakil Khan. Roger Ver, who has invested in a number of Bitcoin-connected ventures, paid his share of the funding in the digital currency. |
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Happy Birthday Bitcoin Pierluigi Paganini 2013-01-07 http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/11585/intelligence/happy-birthday-bitcoin.html... On this day Bitcoin turns 4 years old. As any 4 year old will tell you this has been a wild ride. From a little know digital currency to today’s acceptance into the legal banks and marketplace this little currency that could has shocked world leaders, stunned banking officials all over the world trading and is today in the $13.5-USD range. Richard Amores and I first came across this when we were covering Wikileak problems and writing our first book – The Deep Dark Web – the cyber underweb we’re finding this new currency and using it because it was working and had no government ties. ... We hope to help you learn what is happening with this new currency we cover -Who uses this currency -What are the financial aspects – Governments, Business, Merchants and Criminals. In all we hope to guide you with some of the questions you have. This book will be an invaluable resource for cyber security professionals, financial policy-makers, business experts, lawyers, merchants, scholars, and researchers, this book provides a comprehensive research from a International cyber security perspective, technical, and financial implications of the new digital virtual currencies. The Deep Dark Web Book Released by paganinip on October 21st, 2012 http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/9607/cyber-crime/the-deep-dark-web-book-released.htmlDo you believe that making money in Deep Web is just a criminal prerogative? Wrong, the authors show you how things works in the hidden economy and which are the future perspectives of is digital currency, the Bitcoin.
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Bitcoin: Today and Tomorrow Chandler Karadsheh 2013-01-08 http://www.oodaloop.com/business/opportunity/2013/01/08/bitcoin-today-and-tomorrow/... The Bitcoin endeavor is intriguing but, ultimately, unpractical. It is reasonable to expect that BTC usage will increase a moderate amount, especially among experienced Internet users. It is not, however, reasonable to assume that large amounts of people will suddenly or even slowly change from a tangible currency to a digital one. ... Conceptual barriers aside, it is unlikely that the government will continue to allow BTC’s to operate on networks that facilitate the trade of illicit materials. ... Criminal applications of protected BTC networks fall directly under national security concerns and will justify action from the government. Analysts expect that the government will either force some form of regulation on BTC or attempt to shut it down. ... Conclusion BTC will continue as a unique Internet phenomenon but its longevity is uncertain. For now, traditional monies still have the trust and familiarity that BTC would have to earn in order to supplant them. Assuredly, BTC’s have introduced a popular concept and done a good job in addressing evolving currency solutions. Nonetheless, it is doubtful that BTC’s will prompt any quick or permanent changes in mass currency usage. |
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Calgary entrepreneur hopes to take gamblers to ‘Infiniti’ and beyond Jeremy Nolais 2013-01-08 http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/501302/calgary-entrepreneur-hopes-to-take-gamblers-to-infiniti-and-beyond/... Infiniti Poker has already garnered plenty of media attention in the U.S. — Forbes published an opinion article over the weekend _ specifically for its planned use of Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that exists only online. Some online gambling proponents, including Hajduk, see the technology as a method to skirt strict Internet laws south of the border. ... |
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A non-Matonis Forbes mention. (just 1 bitcoin mention) |
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Tyler – an overview, and interview with Anonymous 2013-01-08 http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/30103/tyler-an-overview-and-interview-with-anonymous/... So what is being developed is a complete, secure and anonymous distributed social network, where individual members of the public can whistleblow securely, network with fellows anonymously, and feel safe from surveillance: it is, says Smith, “a fully encrypted social network owned by its participants and not a single organization.” Features will include all of the standard social network functionality, including VoIP, Wall, Forums, Chat, Microblog, and Blog. Credibility will be monitored by support of Whuffie features; and internal ecommerce through support for Bitcoin wallets. ... |
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If information is king, data is good currency Jules Quartly 2013-01-09 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2013-01/09/content_16097259.htm... Which brings us to the Bitcoin alternative, a digital currency that works without banks or governments manipulating its value ... Even so there are many arguments against the currency (deflation-stagflation) that are too involved to go into here and I'm no economist. From a practical standpoint, you can get Bitcoins but you can't buy a pastry with them down the road. Major companies like Apple and Paypal are not fans of Bitcoin and it has fluctuated wildly in value, so it's obviously not ready for the big time. ... However, it is essentially just another kind of token, like shells or cash, but more in tune with this digital century. Getting rid of exchange controls, financial middlemen and bits of printed paper sounds like progress to me. And since I'm essentially paying for many goods in some virtual sphere already, it's not a huge leap to join the Bitcoin revolution or something like it. My thinking is that since information is king, then data does seem like a good currency. But I wouldn't put my money on it yet. |
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Online payment processor coming to Atlanta Arielle Kass 203-01-07 http://www.ajc.com/news/business/online-payment-processor-coming-to-atlanta/nTppZ/Entire text: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution A small processor of Internet-only currency is moving to Atlanta. BitPay, which processes the online Bitcoin currency, has just two employees, but plans to hire several developers as it builds out its business. CEO Tony Gallippi said BitPay processes the bulk of Bitcoin sales, including to web sites like WordPress. The Bitcoin currency floats against other currencies; one Bitcoin was worth about $13.55 Monday. The founders of the year-old payments company are both graduates of Georgia Tech. Gallippi said the move, which comes with $510,000 in funding, was in part to take advantage of Atlanta’s reputation as a hub for payment processing. “These companies see activity going on,” said Tino Mantella, the president and CEO of the Technology Association of Georgia. “I think they’re in the right spot for this.” Georgia has more than 90 financial technology companies with 25,000 employees here. |
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Bitcoin Merchant Processor Raises Seed Capital A group of angel investors including SecondMarket founder Barry Silbert has invested $510,000 in BitPay, a firm that processes payments for merchants in the digital currency Bitcoin. Chris Cumming 2013-01-07 http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/178_5/bitcoin-merchant-processor-raises-seed-capital-1055661-1.htmlBitPay says it plans to use the new capital to move its headquarters to Atlanta from Orlando and to hire up to five new employees. ... BitPay's seed-capital investors also include Shakil Khan, who helped launch the tech startup Spotify. Roger Ver, who has backed several Bitcoin startups, made his investment in BitPay entirely in bitcoins, the firm says. ... |
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Ed and Ethan Show 40 with Chris Ferreira and Charlie Shrem 2013-01-06 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVHond-XHK4Audio Bitcoin discussion begins at about the 2Hr mark. ... After we talk to Chris, we talk to Charlie Shrem, CEO of Bit Instant, a company that facilitates the exchange of bitcoins. We get a more in depth explanation of how bitcoin works and what sort of a future bitcoin may have. How could the government shut down bitcoin if it wanted to, how can the rules that govern the currency be changed and will we always have bitccoin around? This and more on bitcoin when we chat with Charlie. ... |
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Bitcoin-based gambling to expand in 2013 Peer-to-peer currency could bring online poker back to the United States. Timothy B Lee 2013-01-04 http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/bitcoin-based-gambling-to-expand-in-2013/... This month, at least one company hopes to introduce Bitcoin-based poker. The move could help to re-open online poker to American gamblers in the face of vigorous efforts by the US government to shut down online poker sites that serve Americans. ... If Bitcoin-based poker catches on, it could further increase demand for the cryptocurrency. ... |
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