Bitcoin press hits, notable sources

[payb.tc]

Sad to see an innovative Bitcoin venture like this struggling.  

How to start a casino and lose money.

like what? i couldn't see any reference or link in the article.

[julz]

Sad to see an innovative Bitcoin venture like this struggling.  

How to start a casino and lose money.

like what? i couldn't see any reference or link in the article.

Oh.. this is https://strikesapphire.com/ 

[julz]

Bitcoin Sneaks Into Popular TV Drama via The Good Wife

Kit Dotson
2012-01-18


http://siliconangle.com/blog/2012/01/18/bitcoin-sneaks-into-popular-tv-drama-via-the-good-wife/

It’s always a good sign when a particular underground innovation finds its way into popular media...

Awe Inspiring History of Bitcoin’s Development as an Unintended Music Video

Kit Dotson
2012-01-13

http://siliconangle.com/blog/2012/01/13/awe-inspiring-history-of-bitcoins-development-as-an-unintended-music-video/

[julz]

The future of payment for legal services - The Bitcoin?

Steve Lombardi
2012-01-19


http://www.theiowaedict.com/business---competition/the-future-of-payment-for-legal-services---the-bitcoin/


Would you accept payment for legal services in bitcoin? Should you? What is a bitcoin?
...

Let's say a client offers payment for legal services in bitcoin. You accept his payment and make the transaction by transferring his bitcoin to your digital wallet. You then use it to buy something you need to run your practice that is sold on the Internet. But how do you account for the transaction for income tax purposes? That's the part I don't understand and so lawyers will be pretty hesitant to venture into using bitcoin.

[julz]

This 'Law and ICT' blog post is particularly interesting in that the author mentions they only found out about bitcoin after seeing the recent Good Wife show

Bitcoins: Currency of the Future?

2012-01-19

http://lawandict.blogspot.com/2012/01/bitcoins-currency-of-future.html

At the end of the show, I was curious whether the concept of bitcoins was just a product of the minds of the writers or was based on reality.
After googling “what is bitcoin”, about seven million results came up.

[julz]

The point of this argument isn't particularly related to bitcoin - but like the previous 2 posts in this thread, shows that while the Good Wife bitcoin story might not have particularly appealed to most Good Wife fans - it seems to have put it on the radar of Law professionals.

Hearsay For Dummies: "The Good Wife" Episode "Bitcoin For Dummies" Badly Botches Hearsay Issue

2012-01-17
Colin Miller - Assistant professor of Law, John Marhall Law School (Chicago)

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2012/01/i-like-the-good-wifeive-written-about-it-on-this-blog-several-times-seehere-here-andhere-i-think-that-the-show-generall.html



I like "The Good Wife." I've written about it on this blog several times (see here, here, and here). I think that the show generally gets the law right more than most other legal shows. That certainly wasn't the case, though, with the show's most recent episode, "Bitcoin for Dummies," which contained the most egregious (non)application of the rule against hearsay that I've ever seen in a legal movie or TV show.

[julz]

Learn from the 7 business models that failed in 2011

Philippe De Ridder
2012-01-19

http://www.boardofinnovation.com/2012/01/19/learn-from-the-7-business-models-that-failed-in-2011/

Now we studied 7 business models that got shot in 2011! Discover the learnings from the business models of Southwest, Airbnb, Bitcoins, Netflix, Dexia, HiGear, Nokia, RIM, and Swoopo.

In their slideshow - Bitcoin is item number 2. They display the Wired price chart showing the 2011 bubble.

Today, at the start of 2012
Bitcoin is still recovering at Intensive Care

Let's hope this decentralized P2P currency is able to get well soon...

Also:  http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/19/failure-is-an-option-7-businesses-that-tanked-in-2011-slides/

discussion thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=60365.0

[Technomage]

Lots of articles. Good finds!

[julz]

Commerce Weekly: Slow in-app purchasers are worth the wait
Digging into in-app purchase data, Bitcoin draws attention outside tech, PayPal and HomeDepot expand point-of-sale trial.

David Sims
2012-01-19

http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/01/in-app-purchase-bitcoin-paypal-home-depot.html


Bankers show interest in Bitcoin
Bitcoin is becoming increasingly mainstream — at least awareness of it, if not actual use
...

[rjk]

Commerce Weekly: Slow in-app purchasers are worth the wait
Digging into in-app purchase data, Bitcoin draws attention outside tech, PayPal and HomeDepot expand point-of-sale trial.

David Sims
2012-01-19

http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/01/in-app-purchase-bitcoin-paypal-home-depot.html


Bankers show interest in Bitcoin
Bitcoin is becoming increasingly mainstream — at least awareness of it, if not actual use
...

That site has a broken link that when fixed, goes to here: http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/177_10/bitcoin-digital-currency-bank-risks-1045734-1.html
Also an interesting article.

[payb.tc]

Commerce Weekly: Slow in-app purchasers are worth the wait
Digging into in-app purchase data, Bitcoin draws attention outside tech, PayPal and HomeDepot expand point-of-sale trial.

David Sims
2012-01-19

http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/01/in-app-purchase-bitcoin-paypal-home-depot.html


Bankers show interest in Bitcoin
Bitcoin is becoming increasingly mainstream — at least awareness of it, if not actual use
...

That site has a broken link that when fixed, goes to here: http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/177_10/bitcoin-digital-currency-bank-risks-1045734-1.html
Also an interesting article.

As Bitcoin acceptance grows, it could run afoul of federal laws prohibiting the creation of currency that competes with the U.S. dollar.

haha, look out Bank of Japan, the Yen is competing with the U.S. dollar... you're gonna be in big trouble.

[julz]

A rather glowing introductory article in ParisTech Review
(Paris Institute of Technology - "a research and higher education cluster of excellence, is composed of twelve French Grandes Ecoles (Engineering and Business Schools) that cover a sweeping spectrum in science, technology and management.
The high professor/students ratio, the wide range of scientific disciplines covered and the quality of research at ParisTech attract the best students and scientists.")

Bitcoin, a complementary currency Universal

Pierre Noizat
2012-01-20

http://www.paristechreview.com/2012/01/20/bitcoin-devise-complementaire-universelle/  (in French)

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.paristechreview.com%2F2012%2F01%2F20%2Fbitcoin-devise-complementaire-universelle

The Web has revolutionized the sharing and knowledge production; bitcoin transforms the social consensus of money creation, paving the way for a new economic freedom.

The concluding paragraph is an interesting comparison to the W3C.
Perhaps the proposed 'Bitcoin Foundation' will evolve into something like that
(https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=49841.0)

By analogy, it is interesting to note that the governance of the World Wide Web is an organization governed by a non-profit - W3C - composed of 300 members among the largest companies in the high technology sector. Clearly, any support from government to a member of the W3C can be compensated by the other if it is not for the public interest. If this principle successfully managed to control an area where technology is new production methods and knowledge sharing, it is hoped that a similar organization may also supervise the technical protocol bitcoin. This would allow bitcoin to preserve its integrity and innovation potential to hazards of macroeconomic measures.

[Boussac]

Here is the english version (much better than the Google automated translation): the newsletter is published in both English and French.

http://www.paristechreview.com/2012/01/20/bitcoin-universal-complementary-currency/

[LightRider]

Here is the english version (much better than the Google automated translation): the newsletter is published in both English and French.

http://www.paristechreview.com/2012/01/20/bitcoin-universal-complementary-currency/

Bitcoins are created ex nihilo, pretty much in the same way as dollars are created when a commercial bank lends money to someone who is buying a house.

Actually, bitcoins are created according to a set of rules, themselves based upon the laws of math, logic and thermodynamics. As Stephen Hawking would say, the fact that such rules exist implies that bitcoins would exist. Bank loans exist at the whim of the banker.

[herzmeister]

Burger, Bier und Bitcoins - a short feature aired today by the big public-service German television broadcaster ZDF about Berlin's bar/restaurant room77 that accepts bitcoins. The feature concludes that Bitcoin won't be serious competition to dollars or euros because it's used by nerds only. phew 

- German thread

[giszmo]

Burger, Bier und Bitcoins - a short feature aired today by the big public-service German television broadcaster ZDF about Berlin's bar/restaurant room77 that accepts bitcoins. The feature concludes that Bitcoin won't be serious competition to dollars or euros because it's used by nerds only. phew 

- German thread

I've always wanted to know how long it takes me to transcript and translate 3.5 minutes of video. Too long. But here is the result:

German transcript:

Burger Bier soweit alles Standard in dieser Berliner Bar.
Aber eines braucht der Kunde hier nicht: Bargeld.
Denn in der Kneipe von Jörg Platzer kann man mit Bitcoins bezahlen, einer alternative Digitalwährung.
Kellner: "Das macht dann 15€. Umgerechnet in Bitcoins ... macht das ... 2.77Bitcoins."
Manuel: "Ich bezahl meinen Burger mit Bitcoins. Ich muss nicht mehr zur Bank gehen. Brauch kein Bargeld mehr und bezahl einfach mit dem Handy."
Bezahlen mit dem Handy oder dem Laptop. Ohne Banken oder Kreditkartenunternehmen.
Weltweit und überall.
Bitcoins, kein Geld zum Anfassen sondern virtuell. Basierend auf einer mathematischen Formel und in der Menge begrenzt auf 21Mio Stück.
Lädt der User die dazugehörige Software herunter, wird er Teil der Bitcoin-Community.
Er erhäldt eine digitale Geldbörse mit einem Verschlüsselungscode.
Nun kann er im Netz Bitcoins tauschen. Ganz klassisch gegen Währungen wie Euro oder Dollar oder gegen Waren und Dienstleistungen.
Noch ist die Gemeinde klein. Schätzungsweise 100.000 Menschen nutzen Bitcoins derzeit weltweit.
Zusammen mit anderen Pionieren hat Barbesitzer Jörg Platzer ein kleines Unternehmen gegründet.
Für sie ist die Digitalwährung ein großes globales Experiement mit Zukunftspotential.
Johann-Friedrich Gallas: "Man kann innerhalb von Sekunden von Deutschland nach China 1 Cent oder auch 1000€ schicken, ohne dass es dabei Reibungsverluste gibt durch klassische Drittanbieter wie Banken oder Zahlungsdienstleister. Bitcoin funktioniert von Person zu Person."
Denn alle Bitcoin Teilnehmer bilden ein Netzwerk. Wechseln Bitcoins den Besitzer, wird dies von einem speziellen, leistungsstarken Rechner im Netz überprüft, authorisiert und in einer öffentlichen Datei abgespeichert.
Die aktualisierte Datei wird dann an alle Teilnehmer verschickt.
Dadurch sind alle informiert, wieviele Bitcoins in Umlauf sind.
Das schließt Fälschungen und doppelte Verwendungen aus.
Für die selbsternannten Wirtschaftsreformer ist dieses dezentrale Verfahren das Entscheidende. Kein Staat, keine Zentralbank bestimmt.
Vielmehr vertrauen sie darauf, (Jörg Platzer:)"dass ganz viele Menschen sich ansehen können nach welchen Regeln diese Währung funktioniert.
Dass diese Regeln demokratisch von der Community ... festgelegt werden und in Quelltext und mathematische Algorithmen gegossen werden, die von keinem mehr willkürlich irgendwie geändert werden können.
Aber das System ist nur so ehrlich wie seine Nutzer. So haben einige ihre Bitcoins auch für illegale Waren ausgegeben und ohne staatliche Kontrolle sehen Kritiker die Wertstabilität des Geldes gefährdet, denn der Bitcoinkurs ist auch schonmal extrem abgestürzt. Haben Bitcoins wirklich das Potential zur Weltwährung?
Prof. Dr. Wim Kösters: "Wenn die Bitcoins sich als Weltwährung etablieren würden, dann würden sie dem $ und dem € und dem Yen Konkurrenz machen, aber Bitcoins sind ja eben nur für eine kleine Gemeinde bisher ein Geldersatz."
Auch wenn Barbesitzer Jörg Platzer nicht glaubt, dass Bitcoins Standarwährungen ersetzen wird, träumt er doch davon, dass es sich als alternatives Zahlungsmittel etabliert. Und zwar nicht nur im Internet sondern auch im realen Leben.

Translation:

Burger, beer so far everything in this is standard in this Berlin bar.
But one thing the customer does not need: Cash.
For in the pub by Jörg Platzer you can pay with Bitcoins, an alternative digital currency.
Waiter: "That makes for 15 € Converted into Bitcoins ... makes ... 2.77Bitcoins."
Manuel: "I pay for my burger with Bitcoins. Don't need no cash anymore and pay easily with my phone."
Pay by mobile phone or laptop. Without banks or credit card companies.
Worldwide, anywhere.
Bitcoins, no money to touch but virtual money. Based on a mathematical formula and limited in the amount to 21 million units.
When the user downloads its software, he becomes part of the Bitcoin community.
He receives a digital wallet with a cryptographic code.
Now he can share in the Bitcoin network. Classically for currencies such as euros or dollars or in exchange for goods and services.
The community is still small. An estimated 100,000 people worldwide currently use Bitcoins.
Together with other pioneers bar owner Jörg Platzer has founded a small company.
For them the digital currency is a large global experiement with future potential.
Johann Friedrich Gallas: "You can send within seconds from Germany to China 1 cent or 1000 €, without friction losses through traditional third-parties such as banks or payment service providers. Bitcoin works peer to peer."
For all Bitcoin participants form a network. When Bitcoins swap ownership, this is checked, authorized and noted by a special, high-performance computer on the net and stored in a public file.
The updated file is then sent to all participants.
This means that all are aware of how many Bitcoins there are in circulation.
This prevents counterfeit and duplicate use.
For the self-appointed economic reformers this decentralized process is crucial. No state, no central bank decides.
Rather, they rely on (Platzer, Joerg:) "that very many people can look at the rules by which the currency runs.
That these rules are determined democratically by the community and poured into source code and mathematical algorithms that can not be changed arbitrarily.
But the system is only as honest as its users. Some have their Bitcoins also issued for illegal goods and without state control critics see the stability of money at risk because the Bitcoin rate already crashed extremely.
Do Bitcoins really have the potential for world currency?
Prof. Dr. Wim Kösters: "If the Bitcoins would be established as a world currency, then they would compete with the $ and the € and the Yen, but Bitcoins are here only for a small community so far a substitute for money."
Although bar owner Jörg Platzer does not believe that Bitcoins will replace standard currencies he still dreams of it, that it is establishing itself as an alternative means of payment. And not only on the Internet but also in real life.

[hazek]

Burger, Bier und Bitcoins - a short feature aired today by the big public-service German television broadcaster ZDF about Berlin's bar/restaurant room77 that accepts bitcoins. The feature concludes that Bitcoin won't be serious competition to dollars or euros because it's used by nerds only. phew 

- German thread

I thought that was really the most fair and good quality report on Bitcoin we can ever hope to get from the corporate media. They even explained the technical details almost completely accurate and yet fairly simplified.

[HostFat]

‘Cool, But a Hassle’: Bitcoin Tests Merchants’ Patience
http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/The-Good-Wife-Bitcoin-for-Dummies-1045987-1.html

[Koekiemonster]

www.anonyupload.com has been in the news a lot and already has 53000 facebook shares. Quite a lot of short bitcoinreferences in all of those articles about the site.

Eg. http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/security-it/anonyupload-faceless-group-steps-in-after-kim-dotcoms-arrest-20120124-1qewy.html

If the person behind this site actually delivers something this will influence Bitcoin.

[hazek]

www.anonyupload.com has been in the news a lot and already has 53000 facebook shares. Quite a lot of short bitcoinreferences in all of those articles about the site.

Eg. http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/security-it/anonyupload-faceless-group-steps-in-after-kim-dotcoms-arrest-20120124-1qewy.html

If the person behind this site actually delivers something this will influence Bitcoin.

This really looks like a scam. First they list all the reasons not to use a centralized service for uploads anymore but they go on to say "hey, but don't worry, use us, we're going to be different." and they even say they're not a scam which makes me think all the more that they are, lol.