This Week On The TechCrunch Bitcoin Podcast: Russia And Presidential Dreams

http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/15/this-week-on-the-techcrunch-bitcoin-podcast-russia-and-presidential-dreams/

I'm glad to see that they are still covering Bitcoin after Verizon bought them.

Nowadays when I meet bitcoin skeptics I'm not even trying to tell them that bitcoin is good. I'm telling them (except for my family and close friends) about bitcoin short selling "if you think it's not a good idea you can make money off that".

My father is considering getting a few BTC, but he's hesitant, because he doesn't fully understand it. He's not really tech-savvy and I think investment vehicles like GBTC are better suited for people like him for investment.

Maybe I could get him to use a platform like Coinbase or Circle.

Maybe they will allow you to use 10,000x leverage if you have 10 million USD in your account. Trading platforms could lose money if they are offering that.

The good thing is that they got in very early so it didn't really hurt them when Bitinstant shut down.

They should've funded a different company. These guys (Ver, Voorhees, Shrem,...) did a really bad job.

Good luck with that.


I'm pretty sure OKCoin allows US members too.


That just means that you have lower deposit and withdrawal limits, but if you're only moving BTC in and out it's probably enough for most people here: 1000 BTC per day for level 1.

This company wants you to tip musicians... in bitcoin

http://fortune.com/2015/05/13/this-company-wants-you-to-tip-musicians-in-bitcoin/

TL;DR: ChangeTip just added SoundCloud support.

App creator urges Hong Kong's coffee lovers to wake up to bitcoin

The value of bitcoin may have slumped, but one US start-up is betting on the digital currency after developing an app for Hong Kong's coffee drinkers that will allow them to pay at Starbucks with it.

The app, called Fold, is offering a 20 per cent discount to customers paying in bitcoin at the coffee chain. Starbucks is the first major global retailer where bitcoin can be used in-store.

The app works through stored-value payment cards such as Octopus, which can be synced with the user's account on the app.

Matt Luongo, founder and chief executive of the firm that built the app, said he hoped it would provide a turning point after bitcoin's troubled past.

"I hope [working with Starbucks] helps raise awareness. Bitcoin needs to erase its past," Luongo said. "People see it as a scam and speculation, but I'm looking forward to showing them how to get cheaper groceries."

Luongo said the Starbucks discount was a bid to "drive more usage" because "bitcoin is difficult to use" without an incentive.

Michael Chau Chiu-lung, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong's faculty of business and economics, said any move to allow bitcoin to be spent was "helpful".

"This app is more of a help for the merchants in my view, but giving a discount is certainly a good way to attract more people to use bitcoin," he said. "Such incentives may encourage customers to overcome the hurdle of using bitcoin."

He said the jury was out on "whether consumers are willing to adopt it".

Hundreds of delegates are expected to attend Hong Kong's second bitcoin conference today and tomorrow in Wan Chai, despite the value of the currency slumping to US$242 a piece, down from US$1,242 at its height.

Since bitcoin emerged, it has allegedly been used for illegal drug purchases and money laundering.

In Hong Kong, some 150 people reported they had been defrauded by local trading platform MyCoin, saying they had lost of total of HK$100 million.

Fold is able to offer the Starbucks discount by buying US dollars from unwanted Starbuck Cards - the coffee chain's own stored-value payment card - at a low price and passing on the savings to bitcoin users.

Leonhard Weese, president of the Bitcoin Association Hong Kong, said: "The Fold app is a great demonstration of how smooth it is to pay with bitcoin. I'm sure other retailers are watching closely, and we will see more of this soon."

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Source: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1796021/app-creator-urges-hong-kongs-coffee-lovers-wake-bitcoin

Do you just buy some new accounts every other week to increase it?

I'm not getting paid enough for the time I'm wasting here.

Yep, at 0.01-0.04% per day it's definitely not worth it.

There are already several websites mirroring bitcointalk and calling it bitcointalk.xyz should make it quite easy to detect for those who are monitoring the traffic. I think I would use a foreign (non-chinese) company if I tried to bypass the "Great Firewall of China" to avoid getting arrested for doing that.

Flight booking:

expedia.com (only works for Expedia U.S.) and cheapair.com (worldwide)

Registering TLDs:

Namecheap.com


Namecheap is widely known. No idea about domains4bitcoins.

That's good to know. I actually don't know too much about Sudan, but it seems your legal system is based on Sharia law. Did you learn English in Sudan?


It's not really a 'trick', it's just how international business works. There are agreements to avoid double taxation between many countries and as a company you normally have a VAT ID.

Maybe you should start a Bitcoin business then. You already know about Bitcoin and you have no competitors in your area so far.