BITCOIN NEWS EVRYDAY! From multiple sources.

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$113 Million ‘Mt Gox’ bitcoins may be moving through blockchain

 PJ Delaney  09/03/2014


Movements from Mt Gox? Since Mt Gox spectacularly applied for bankruptcy protection, leaving an estimated half a billion dollars of a hole behind it, there have been people asking a number of questions.

What exactly was happening?
Where did the missing bitcoins go?
Can they ever be recovered?
Many people have been trying to trace transactions to and from Mt Gox  in order to get answers to these questions. It is alleged that Mark Karpeles, on June 23rd 2011, when Mt Gox was still soaring, set out to demonstrate that Mt Gox actually owned a large numbers of coins. He sent 424242.42424242 bitcoins to a specific address, believed to begin with 1eHhgW6vquBY, and the transaction was soon verified. Soon after this some other transactions took place. Shortly after this the amount in the wallet was split into two separate wallets with one getting 50k and the other 500k. It is alleged that small quantities of bitcoins were sent to the 50k wallet up until March 7th (no coins were withdrawn until that date) and then the 50k bitcoins were sent  to another address as part of a number of transactions totalling 180k bitcoins ($113,000, 000!) This address has now began splitting the bitcoins into smaller quantities. It cannot be verified, at this moment in time, that the 50k wallet is owned by Mt Gox but if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it may well turn out to be a duck.

The role of the Bitcoin Foundation: Perhaps there are quantities of bitcoins still remaining in Mt Gox’s control, as the above transactions would seem to suggest, perhaps there are some bitcoins that have been deleted or stolen (misplaced seems a bit funny!) and perhaps it is time to ask if the is a role here for the bitcoin foundation? perhaps they may have a function to approve the deletion of specific quantities of bitcoins and the issuing of new coins to bring the number of coins up to the correct quantity that is agreed to have been in circulation. It might require thinking on their behalf outside of the box but there we go.

Now that large quantities of bitcoins are beginning to move on the blockchain it is appropriate to ask ourselves what it is that we know about Mt Gox and whether it is time to re-examine the facts in light of, what appears to be, the new information. The leaked Mt Gox policy document that was doing the rounds recently claimed that 2000 bitcoins were held in a ‘hot wallet’ and stated that all the coins in ‘cold storage’ had been wiped out. The fact that it took Mt Gox potentially years to realise that 744,408 bitcoins had been wiped, 6% of the world supply, worth around $370 million dollars is staggering. There is a need to analyse and dissect the facts surrounding what happened, if not to recover the bitcoins, then at least to avoid a recurrance. There is, in my opinion, a role for the Bitcoin Foundation, in facilitating this.

I would like to suggest that going forward Caveat Emptor should not be an acceptable defence in cases of what is at least mis-management.

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AMD et Nvidia innovent, le futur du minage Scrypt passe-t-il par les GPUs?

 Guillaume Moulin  10/03/2014

For many years , AMD and Nvidia do battle on the front of PC graphics cards . But for two years , the terms of war have changed. The advent of the first software to undermine the Bitcoin via GPUs then the explosion of mining of currencies Scrypt algorithm caused unexpected Tub, including AMD , favorite minors.

The mining historically AMD

AMD GPU
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/AMD_volcanic_islands.jpg

AMD is the undisputed winner when talking about the mining of digital currencies and this is especially true since the advent of Litecoin and its algorithm based on Scrypt clones. The memory architecture of its graphics chips allows a speed of mining , or hahshrate , far higher flea Nvidia equivalent price .
Thus, if two cards medium ranges with a roughly equivalent price is opposed , the results in terms of hashrate on Scrypt currencies are unequivocal: Nvidia GTX 760 can reach a hashrate 140 to 160 per second as Kilohashs ATI offers R270X 420-470 Kilohashs per second three times being at the same time 15 % cheaper on average. The difference is even more enlightening on the top models .

A double-edged success for AMD

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ferme-minage-4.jpg

But what is a benefit for the miners quickly turned into puzzles for AMD . The company, located behind Nvidia in terms of sales for years, and had directed his plan of attack to regain leadership in the market for video games cards . However, because of the excellent results of its graphics cards for mining , miners around the world flocked to the HD 7000 and R9 models and have led countless shortages , particularly in North America and Australia. Consequence prices have exploded.

mining firm
An extreme example of what can be blasting through GPUs
Source: litecointalk
AMD cards were sold and up to twice their RRP . Today , the R9 290 Radeon card acclaimed by minors is 350 € in France , is not traded for less than $ 600 in the U.S. or € 436 .
The United States is by far the No. 1 market , both in terms of sales of gaming equipment or blasting in terms of digital currencies, the problem size for AMD , shared the excellent sales of its immediate cards and potentially devastating effects they could cause long-term , many gamers turning to Nvidia GPUs for their purchases . Because if the latest forms of AMD chips are competitive with their competitors Nvidia their recommended prices , this is not the case at all with prices increased by 40% to 100 %

This is one reason why AMD released this week a new model of graphics card : R9 280 , taken from the ancient model HD7950 , a former favorite of minors. Given descriptions published in the last days, we can still wonder about the AMD strategy that seems to have taken effective architecture of 7950 , with the only flaw in terms of mining , higher consumption . Stay tuned.

Reply with Nvidia Maxwell

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/nvidia-logo.png

The coming months should keep us in suspense . Both manufacturers seem about to deliver solutions that could be very interesting for the mining of crypto- currencies.
nvidia logo
Nvidia chopping first with the first model of its new architecture Maxwell . The GTX 750 Ti Gefore has surprised the community by offering a performance far removed from those of his predecessors based on the Kepler architecture. It competes head- and AMD solutions in terms of pure hashrate . Thus the Nvidia card allows , according to preliminary tests Tom's Hardware and Forbes, to get about 280 per second Kilohashs version 2 Gb . Its competitor from AMD , the 260X R7 caps , according to Tom's Hardware to 206Khs/sec . The 40% gain in performance of mining is not offset by the higher price of about 20%.

In addition, it does not just return to the level in terms of pure speed. It differs widely in terms of consumption, given that a minor must look closely . So if the 260X requires 130W at full load , the 750 Ti simply ... 60 Watts .
Icing on the cake, the Nvidia solution heated much less (56 ° C according to the Forbes study ) and is very quiet , much more than its competitor .

A comparison of PC Perspective as well summarizes the performance of the newest Nvidia . While 260X capped a hash / watt ratio of 2.22 , the 750 Ti amounts to 4.38 and even 4.9 when overclocked .

Nvidia has made ​​great strides in terms of memory and speed of its application to this kind of exercise . Furthermore the company has managed to do so while reducing the thermal footprint, fuel consumption and noise .
With the arrival in the weeks to come , the middle and high-end cards based on Maxwell architecture, Nvidia promises even more impressive energy performance . The Santa Clara firm therefore seems set to win handily the next round and the cards could steal the limelight from their competitors in terms of mining .

AMD and HBM technology

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/HynixproGraphic3.gif

But within a few months, these efforts may be futile in light of recent statements AMD . The Californian company is thus associated with Hynix, one of the world leaders in the manufacture of semiconductors, to develop 3D memory modules for the next generation of its graphics chipsets series called "Pirate Islands" .

Hynix HBM comparison
Hynix promises to improve memory modules through HBM technology
This innovation is the stack of memory dies on top of each other and to connect with connectors through their silicon. Instead of reducing the space of memory modules on a single plane to allow faster access to information, it enlarges the contrary this space " 3D " which will increase throughput and storage volume, and therefore the bandwidth while significantly reducing energy consumption.

Without going into technical details , more than the promise of this new technology that let dreamer. AMD and Hynix and support the integration of HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) in the next-generation GPUs . This name, HBM , refers to a standard which should be operational in 2015 and compelled the modules at a speed of 128 GB / s where DDR5 currently used on the GPU maxes out at 28 GB / s. The stacking technology already exists , the challenge for both companies is to integrate a graphics chip solution , the latter being composed of more complex diseases .

In the end, Hynix promises improved by 65% ​​while maintaining a significant decrease in consumption up to 40 % performance.
However, no date card availability has not yet been formalized by the two companies.

What face Scrypt for mining in 2014 ?

Finally, a question remains : what have the two historic rivals do ?
AMD understands that high performance mining could cause a potentially devastating perverse in his quest for leadership in the gaming. In contrast, Nvidia must envy the phenomenal sales of its competitor for several months , although its stockouts have also brought players into its fold .

With his future solution based on HBM , some observers think that AMD could share and offer both gaming solutions and ASICs oriented mining solutions. This could be a strategy for the California company , especially for publications it a few weeks ago , the technical specifications of the first projects for ASICs Scrypt currencies , having left the specs generally circumspect minors, if not doubtful . But to date , no report suggests this possibility.

Dedicated ASICs specialized companies , innovations from AMD and Nvidia, likely developments algorithms , the world of mining Scrypt will complicate the As of the year 2014.
While many miners were preparing to disconnect their graphics cards and think of new solutions , it is possible that the mining of currencies Scrypt by means techie goes on for many months.
It now should keep an eye to the outputs of different solutions to come to know what is the most effective way .

 

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As an aside, and following the article before yesterday , it appears that the ultimatum Two-Bit Idiot was only the wind. The blogger has posted a new article in which he claims to have renounced publish his presentation announced today.
I wrote before yesterday :

Reading the words of TBI is difficult to imagine that the accusations could not be based on evidence .

I 'm probably wrong and , as he himself admits , TBI has in fact never intended to publish the elements he claims always hold . He also claims that the charges he brought are "100% true " .
Difficult to give any credence now blindly to these claims.
Mea culpa for this article I wrote thinking , in light of your offensive and resolutely determined by TBI employee , he could not possibly be trying to stir the wind. It was in fact the case .

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Ebay Prepares To Accept Bitcoin With Patent

 Tom Boice  10/03/2014


Ebay, the internet’s largest auction house and marketplace, filed a patent in 2011 which was accepted and has now become of interest as it mentions Bitcoin, titled “System And Method For Managing Transactions In A Digital Marketplace,” that enables them to process transactions involving digital currencies, such as Bitcoin.

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ebay-patent-bitcoin-300x147.png

The patent application includes the following description of a process that would reference an exchange rate in order to exchange currencies:

…determining whether the transaction request is a request for currency exchange; and based on the transaction request being a request for currency exchange, accessing an exchange rate and completing the transaction requesting based on the exchange rate [...] wherein at least one currency being exchanged comprises a currency issued by a private entity.

Going on later to describe what seems to be a process for actually functioning as an exchange:

The currency module is configured to manage exchange of digital currency.  Accordingly, the currency module allows a user to trade one form of currency for another form of currency. In one embodiment, one of the forms of currency being traded is cash. The digital currency may be used to pay for real-world financial obligations (e.g., bills) as well as for virtual-world obligations.

As such, the currency module enables marketplace financial services to be provided via the networked system.  The currency module may maintain or access an exchange rate for conversion between two forms of currency and perform the conversion based on the exchange rate

The patent then describes how the exchanging function would be used to purchase from Ebay, or elsewhere:

 The payment system allows users to accumulate value (e.g., in a commercial currency, such as the U.S. dollar, or a proprietary currency, such as points, miles, or other forms of currency provide by a private entity) in their accounts, and then later to redeem the accumulated value for products (e.g., goods or services)  that are made available via the publication system or elsewhere on the [internet].

The actual language says, “…elsewhere on the network 104″ but network 104 is earlier defined as “E.G. the internet, wireless networks[...].”

Options

While this patent seems to be a straight forward way to incorporate privately issued currencies (like reward points, which it references numerous times) with Ebay, it leaves the door open to processing cryptocurrencies as the patent references “digital currencies” in its exchange section.

Of course, Ebay owns internet payment processor PayPal, whose CEO John Donahue has stated interest in Bitcoin previously when speaking to The Wallstreet Journal.

Should Ebay or PayPal move forward with Bitcoin soon, they will be among just a couple of large publicly-traded companies that have incorporated the protocol.  Overstock.com has bragged of its success accepting Bitcoin; however, they process payments through Coinbase.

How exactly Bitcoin will fit the structures of Ebay and PayPal remains to be seen, but this patent is a clear indication that the companies do not intend to be left out of the cryptocurrency discussion.

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Debunking the Deflationary Bitcoin Argument

 Thomas Seneca  10/03/2014


It seems every day we hear the deflationary argument, not only from publications such as Business Week, but even from proponents of Bitcoin.  Let’s state it clearly:

The Deflationary Argument:

Bitcoin is not inflationary because the supply is limited to 21 million coins.  Therefore, people want to hold it and won’t spend.  When no one spends this reduces the demand for products and services.  This ultimately harms the productivity of the economy leading to a worsening of economic conditions.  Therefore, Bitcoin is bad, and we should discourage its use or make it illegal.

Normally, I just dismiss poor reasoning because it is simply the nature of people in our current society to be caught up in fallacious nonsensical memes.  Sometimes, however, poor reasoning occurs with such fervor, and so frequently that it deserves attention.  This is the case with the deflationary argument as it has been accepted by nearly everyone including some Bitcoin proponents who often lament its truth.  In fact, the deflationary argument depends on utterly false, preposterous, and nonsensical fallacies.

The deflationary argument was invented by bankers some time back, even before Bitcoin existed, to justify printing that causes inflation.  The printing amounts to counterfeiting, and the printed currency is used to pay the elites who keep some, and use the rest to do terrible things like drone attack innocent populations, or pay for state sponsored propaganda programs.   (See Washington’s Blog)  Therefore, I plan to deflate the deflationary argument, once and for all, so at least, hopefully, we won’t have to hear it from those that support Bitcoin.

Let’s get on to the fallacies of the deflationary argument:

The first fallacy is the fallacy of equivocation.  That’s when a word switches meaning in the middle of an argument.  Calling a sudden and drastic increase in bitcoin value ‘deflation’ is simply a false characterization.  It is not ‘deflation’ if you buy Palladium, and it goes up 50%.  The fact is that there are speculators who are investing in Bitcoin as an investment based on its future potential as a transactional currency.   It is not exactly ‘deflation’ if Bitcoin value increases as it is being adopted, rather it is the coming to correct market value of a transactional currency.

The next fallacy is that those who hold Bitcoins won’t spend them.  Let’s note that the same reasoning can be applied to people who do not hold Bitcoins:  By the argument if you own dollars you should quickly convert them to Bitcoins, and then save them.  But the same people who make the deflationary argument also say Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme or a poor investment.  Now, which is it a poor investment or a good one?  Are they arguing that it is a good one?  That surely contradicts 90% of the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) that the same publications endlessly spew.  They are talking out of both sides of their mouth.

Let’s just assume it is not a Ponzi scheme.  By the deflationary argument, we should all buy more and more bitcoins since it is always deflationary, right?  But not everyone can do this or Bitcoin would go to near infinity, but it doesn’t.

If you want to get at the real inner workings of this fallacy, it is that the argument ignores the fact that Bitcoin trades at market value.  The definition of market value means that the price is in an equilibrium where the most genius minds cannot determine whether to sell Bitcoins for dollars or buy Bitcoins with dollars.  So the fallacy ignores the fact that Bitcoin tends to market value, and once at that point, it is no more attractive to hold than any currency, even, hard to believe, the dollar.

Another fallacy used in the deflationary argument is that savings is bad, and inflation is good.  Well, just pretend you had not been lied to over and over.  Now read again: “Savings is bad, and inflation is good.”  Yes, that’s right the statement is utter nonsense.  Common sense dictates that Savings is Good, and Inflation is Bad.  Remember when the Japanese had a good economy and lots of savings?  Savings allows a people to accumulate capital, to build, to make, to become controllers of their own destiny.  Some see savings as disruptive; instead, they want to convince the ignorant population that savings are bad.  That way the population can be better controlled.  When the population has no savings, they will no longer threaten the corporate monopolistic fascist systems.

Ask yourself:  What economy is based on little or no savings?  Yes, that’s right, a subsistence economy, an economy where you are always one paycheck away from starvation.   Such economies are ideal for the total control of dependent populations, but do they really serve the economic interests of anyone other than the super elites?

The elites may want us to live in a ‘service economy’, but I think most people would prefer services and monthly expenses to be a small portion of the economy not the entire model.   If Bitcoin allowed a population to save money that would be a good thing not a bad thing.  It could only be a bad thing in the eyes of mega corporate banker criminals that want us subject to their economic models of artificial scarcity and control.

Let’s make a useful example and go back to a time when shells and beads were used for trading.  Surely when gold was first introduced the bead makers tried to convince the ignorant population that gold was no substitute for beads.  But it turned out that Gold had structural advantages.  It did not matter what anyone thought.  Gold was destined to be a more powerful currency than shells or beads.

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Cowrie-Shells-African-Ring-Money-Ancient-Gold-Money-700-300x199.jpg

Cowrie Shells, African Ring Money, Ancient Gold Money 700
Ancient gold money was an improvement over cowrie shells
Compared to beads, gold was deflationary.  Gold had limited supply, but for beads the supply had no clear limits.  Therefore, gold represented a deflationary currency.  In fact, an entire tribe might not be able to trade all their shells or beads for one tiny gold coin.  It turns out the deflationary aspect of gold was endlessly better for the economic affairs of man.  Consider bead economies versus gold based economies.  The advantages of using gold as a currency allowed for trade to become more efficient.  If some tribe continued to trade beads, then they could no longer compete in any economy.

A very important point to understand is that Bitcoin just like gold represents a form of technological advancement.  Even if the bankers and media convince the population otherwise it simply won’t matter.  It would be the same as convincing a population to continue using shells as currency.   So we can sit back and watch the media hyperventilate and get red faced as Bitcoin continues to be adopted even by people they thought they had inoculated against it.

Why do you think we are still in the battle?  We would have lost long ago had we just invented some new currency that was not printed against, but instead we have a new discovery.  The elites may use FUD, or endless hit pieces, they may even successfully ‘inoculate’ the population against Bitcoin, but it won’t work.  They cannot understand it because they are so arrogant and corrupt, but the advantage is Bitcoin.  That’s why we can say: “the world against Bitcoin, advantage Bitcoin”.  So as the elites spread their fallacies, and FUD, we can relax knowing it is like saying the internet won’t work, or the tides don’t come in.  When the tide comes in the population, no matter whether they believed the propaganda or not, will get in their boats and sail.

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Activist Takes Old-School Approach to Bitcoin Promotion
Danny Bradbury (@dannybradbury) | Published on March 11, 2014 at 05:34 GMT | Lifestyle, News

There are plenty of videos and infographics online explaining what bitcoin is and how it works, but now, a bitcoin activist in the US is planning an old school approach to promoting it. Activist bitcoin-focused marketing agency Bitcoin Bigfoot plans to distribute 100,000 promotional packs to activists around the country. But why?

Paper wallets aside, bitcoin is an aggressively digital phenomenon. Coins are mined, not printed, and they are spent only by sending transactions across the decentralised electronic network. Yet Curtis Fenimore, who together with colleague Jake Tital founded Bitcoin Bigfoot this year, wants to engage new users using a trifold brochure.

“The Internet has a huge reach, but it still doesn’t reach everything,” Fenimore says. “There’s still very much a need for face to face communication and physical promotional materials. YouTube videos alone can’t do it. If that was the cue, adoption would be beyond the roof.”

Fenimore will target new bitcoin users; those who have heard of it but don’t really understand it, and don’t know how to get involved. The project was inspired by several meetings he had with such people, which would invariably end with them asking him how to get a wallet, followed by him scribbling URLs on the back of a napkin. There had to be a better way, he decided.

A grassroots effort

The brochure includes information about how to get and spend bitcoin, including links to large retailers who are now taking it. He will distribute it via regional bitcoin activists who ask for the leaflets in bulk. The brochures will include spaces for those activists to list local merchants taking bitcoin, in an attempt to spark grassroots support for the digital currency.

He has raised around 26 bitcoins, which he says should be enough to finish the design, printing, and distribution of the coins. A self-proclaimed “bitcoin believer”, Fenimore is paying for as much of the project is possible directly in bitcoin. Only the postage will have to be paid in fiat, as sadly, Uncle Sam has elected not to take bitcoin payments for processing the mail.

“The Internet has a huge reach, but it still doesn't reach everything.”

Distribution starts on April 1, and will run for 90 days, but this won’t be the only production run. He will already be thinking about an update to the leaflet before the distribution phase ends, he says, because the bitcoin situation is changing so quickly. There will already be new merchants who should be included, for example. He hopes to have distributed 500,000 of the leaflets by the end of the year.

He hopes that by that time, bitcoin will have become mainstream and “boring” enough that at least one of the three major delivery companies in the US will be taking payment in it, enabling him to make the whole process fiat-free.

It’s clear that any more has high hopes for bitcoin, but then, he comes from a solidly libertarian background. He was an organiser of the Porcupine Freedom Festival, affiliated with the New Hampshire-based Free State Project, a libertarian-driven movement to gather 20,000 people in the state and create a society promoting limited government.

Fenimore’s approach to bitcoin newbies differs from, say, Gareth MacLeod’s Tinkercoin, which focuses on selling them bitcoins for a 25% markup. But Bitcoin Bigfoot will eventually be a for-profit concern, he hopes. He will begin selling bitcoin merchandise and promotional materials, producing it for clients at competitive rates.

“The niche we’ll carve out is bitcoin supporters and activists. Being known as the company that supports you guys,” he says. “If you have an idea of how we can help you and you can’t do it on your own and it benefits others, then we’ll try to make it available to everyone.”

Until then, however, he’s relying on sponsors, and currently has 18 of them. CoinReport.net, Coinapult, expresscoin, DirectPool.net, LocalBitcoins.com, BIPS, KryptoKit, BitGo, Crypto Communications, and CoinMKT have thrown him some bit coins, as have Let’s Talk Bitcoin, CheapAir, Bitcoiniacs, CoinTrader.net, Bitcoin Buzz, Coinosphere, Coinality, and Bitcoin Magazine.

“Bitcoin represents a paradigm shift on so many levels. We’re living in the future and bitcoin is a taste of that,” Fenimore says. “I don’t need to list for you all the benefits of it but all of those things are pointing towards a brighter tomorrow in which the value of what we use to trade is based on consensus and market rates.”

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Bitcoin ATM Company Refused Account by Bank of Ireland
Kadhim Shubber (@kadhimshubber) | Published on March 11, 2014 at 10:08 GMT | Bitcoin ATM, Companies, Europe, News, Regulation

Ireland’s first bitcoin ATM company suffered a setback yesterday as the Bank of Ireland rejected their application for a bank account.

In addition, the Dublin cafe where Ireland’s first ATM was due to be installed pulled out citing “complications” in hosting the machine.

BitVendo, an Irish bitcoin ATM provider, had intended to launch their first ATM at Hippety’s Café this week, but have now relocated to a nearby electronics store GSM Solutions, where they had been testing the machine. BitVendo’s CEO Megan Dolan said:

“We were only informed as we tried to install the machine. We were told staffing became a concern, it came as a massive shock to us, with no prior notice. We think there is a lot more to it, but can’t expand.”

The sudden change of plan came alongside another blow as the Bank of Ireland told BitVendo they would not allow them to open an account due to “the nature of your business”. Dolan clarified:

“[The bank] informed me that: ‘Your account application has been rejected due to the nature of your business. We’re not comfortable with it.’”

Up the ladder

Dolan says their business advisor at the Bank of Ireland claimed instructions came from on high.

Alan Donohoe of the Irish Bitcoin Foundation, who has been working with Dolan, corroborated BitVendo’s version of events, claiming the business advisor said: “The people above me are rejecting the application due to the nature of [the] business.”

Donohoe said it was the first time he had encountered an Irish bank rejecting a business because it was involved with bitcoin and called on Irish banks to embrace, not reject bitcoin:

“We urge banks in Irelands to consider the future and how bitcoin can help the economy. Its not about competing with government currency, its about the technology and how it can spur growth.”

In tweets to BitVendo, the Allied Irish Banks, one of the “big four” in Ireland, said that in contrast to the Bank of Ireland they do allow bitcoin businesses to open accounts:



Dolan confirmed that the company would attempt to open an account with AIB sometime today.

CoinDesk is monitoring this developing story, and will post updates as they become known.

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Big Fish Games to Integrate Bitcoin Payments on all Titles
Nermin Hajdarbegovic | Published on March 11, 2014 at 11:01 GMT | Bitcoin Gambling, Merchants, News

Big Fish Games has teamed up with Coinbase to bring bitcoin payments to its extensive line-up of casual games.

This small, private company is a relatively big player in the casual gaming arena and is the publisher of the Mystery Case franchise and Big Fish Casino, along with over 3,000 casual games from more than 500 developers.

Although the company isn’t as big as Zynga, it serves over 1,500,000 downloads a day and it has 700 employees.

Big Fish allows users to try the games before they make the purchase and many of its games allow traders to buy and sell virtual items.

Cutting costs

While it may be smaller than Zynga, the bitcoin rollout announced by Big Fish is quite a bit more comprehensive.

Zynga limited bitcoin support to FarmVille 2 and a few other titles, while Big Fish plans to allow bitcoin payments for all 3,000 titles in its portfolio. Furthermore, consumers will be able to make in-game purchases with bitcoin.

This is what sets it apart from Zynga, as the rollout is not a test run, reports Venture Beat. Zynga also opted for BitPay over Coinbase as its payment processor of choice.

Big Fish Games’ founder and Chief Executive Officer Paul Thelen pointed out that about 8% of the company’s gross revenue is eaten up by transaction fees.

The integration of bitcoin payments is aimed to bring this figure down, as Coinbase demands no fee on the first $1m of transactions, and just 1% thereafter.

The fees are clearly a big deal, as the company generates half of its revenue through its e-commerce system. Big Fish netted $266m of revenue last year.

Enthusiastic employee

Oddly enough, it appears that the company’s decision to look into bitcoin came about after a single employee started advocating for it. One of the company’s engineers is apparently a bitcoin enthusiast and it appears that he made a rather good case for the digital currency.

As far as in-game purchases go, the rollout will apparently be limited to Big Fish Casino and a couple of other games for the time being. However, all the company’s games will be available for purchase with bitcoin.

Interestingly, the company considered reinvesting the savings into bitcoin-related projects, but it eventually decided to stick to its core business and keep churning out casual games.

Using bitcoin for purchases is relatively simple, and Big Fish has provided a step-by-step video guide on YouTube too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PWGE2MtaaVc

[MICRO]

Huobi CEO Addresses ‘Fake’ Trading Volume Rumours
Rui Ma (@ruima) | Published on March 11, 2014 at 12:08 GMT | Asia, Exchanges, News

Rui Ma is an early-stage investor in technology companies with the global accelerator program and seed fund 500 Startups. Residing in Beijing, she is an active member of China’s bitcoin community.

Some bitcoiners might still remember when BTC China was the dominant bitcoin exchange in China. Well, those days are long gone.

These days, newer exchanges Huobi and OKcoin regularly top the charts for trading volume. Monday, for example, their 24-hour volumes are at 106,942 and 126,973 respectively, third-place CHBTC is at 35,349, while BTC China lags far behind at 4,344.

Huobi, in particular, has garnered more international attention than OKcoin, perhaps due to its inclusion on the Bitcoinity.com charts and the grumblings that OKcoin juiced its trading data (an accusation that has been levied at Huobi as well).

Last Friday afternoon, I caught up with Leon (Lin) Li, the CEO and founder of Huobi, for some insight into why he thinks his platform has so quickly ascended the ranks of the Chinese exchanges, and to discuss his future plans for the company.

Huobi is a well-known name in China and Li is often interviewed there, but due to the fact that neither he nor his co-founder are particularly fluent in English, they are rarely featured in Western media, save for a few correspondences that he’s had with reporters over email.



Though I was introduced to Li a few months back, when the company was raising angel funding, Friday was my first time meeting him face-to-face. Li attended Tongji University as an undergraduate and Tsinghua University for his Masters, graduating sometime in 2007.

Both are top universities in China, with the latter being consistently the top-ranked engineering university in the country and the alma mater of a large number of influential Chinese internet entrepreneurs. His concentration was in electronics automation. He then worked for a few years in Oracle’s R&D department in China, and met co-founder Jun Du through friends.

Jun worked at Discuz!, an internet forum software company that was acquired by Tencent in 2010. Before starting Huobi, Li had taken a stab at both the social networking and group-buying business models, but, Huobi, it seems, is his first real venture of note. Li first got into bitcoin in mid-2011, but didn’t think of doing any business there until 2013.

He began development early that year, and raised angel funding from notable Chinese angel investment fund Zhen Fund (headed by celebrity superangel Xu Xiaoping) in Q3. Zhen Fund led the round, and was joined by Discuz! founder Zhikang Dai, who is now the General Manager of Tencent’s e-commerce business line.

They are also due to announce a large Series A funding, which Li tacitly acknowledged to be true, but refused to give any more details.

Trade volume questions

I immediately asked Li about the volume of bitcoin trades that are made on his exchange, which has been written about before and has been openly questioned by many in the community, both domestic and overseas.

Similar to previous conversations, he emphatically denied any faking of trading data, and noted once again that the zero-transaction fee structure of his platform makes it pointless to compare trading volumes against his competitors, particularly those who still charge a fee.

When I asked him to estimate how much the lack of fees might distort the trading volume, he said that he could easily see a “5-times increase” in trades because high-frequency traders can make profits off of much narrower spreads.

Instead of just volume, Li believes that customers should evaluate exchanges based on their liquidity, depth, and the size of the company. At least these are the metrics that he is measuring Huobi against competitors:

“We have been able to excel on all of these fronts, and coupled with our focus on marketing and customer service, we think that we will continue to give our competition a good run for their money.”

Why no fees?

So what is the reasoning behind Huobi’s commitment to a policy of “zero transaction fees, forever” on the platform?

“Zero transaction fees is the future,” Li said. According to him, the freemium business model is the new norm of the twenty-first century, and no industry, not even financial services, is safe from its disruption.

In fact, he says that there are now traditional securities brokers in China who have launched no-fee services, such as this one by Tencent and Sinolink Securities, and he predicts that in three years, the no-fees model will become the norm.

Basically, Li thinks that a platform will need to make its revenues from value-added services rather than trading, which he sees as a basic service and a commodity that should be free for consumers.

He was emphatic that even as Huobi expands internationally, they will continue to offer free trades. Speaking of international expansion, Li thinks that Huobi will be ready to launch into overseas markets sometime in the second half of this year, probably beginning with support for the US dollar markets.

Prior to this he will be focused on vertical expansion, and is gearing up to launch several of those value-added products he believes are the key to his business model. He’s ready to partner with bitcoin-related services that might benefit from being on his platform, and even offers to invest in promising startups as a strategic investor, either in bitcoin or fiat.

Office visit

When I visited Huobi’s office, in the Shangdi area of Beijing’s Haidian district near tech giants Baidu and Lenovo, Li had just come back from a visit with senior bankers who also lecture at the PBC School of Finance at Tsinghua University, the premier institute of learning for China’s policy bankers.

The team was also getting ready to move into its new offices (just from one wing of the enormous office complex to another) as it had quickly grown to over 50 employees. Huobi prides itself on customer service – and now boasts over 20 customer service personnel.

When I asked Li how he was securing the Huobi platform against hackers and other attackers, he said that the team is extremely focused on security and is constantly monitoring potential loopholes in its systems.

He has third-party cybersecurity firms under contract, such as some of the ones listed here, constantly evaluating for potential breaches. Li says he would rather sacrifice some speed for better safety, as in the case of duplicate deposit and withdrawal requests, which the system automatically will prompt for human/manual verification. He also gets internal audits of their books at noon on a daily basis, weekends included, to make sure “everything balances.”

And of course, he only has 2% of Huobi’s funds in its ‘hot wallet’ and 98% in cold storage.

While this might mean that it might take longer for some users to retrieve bitcoins, Li would rather be safe than sorry. Li told me that things have “definitely cooled down” from the height of the bitcoin fervor in China in November 2013.

While he didn’t divulge the exact number, he did say that new user registrations are one-third of what they were four months ago. When I asked him what he thought the government’s future policies on bitcoin might be, he gave a laugh and said:

“You and I both know there is no point in guessing. The government will do what it will do, and it is impossible to predict. And you see too that other countries are also taking this wait-and-see approach.”

I would have to agree with him. There is no telling where the Chinese government will go with regards to cryptocurrencies, and at least for Huobi, whose ambitions reach far beyond Chinese borders, it may not matter that much.

[MICRO]

DC Veterans Jim Harper and Amy Weiss Join Bitcoin Foundation
Nermin Hajdarbegovic | Published on March 11, 2014 at 13:00 GMT | Bitcoin Foundation, Companies, Events, News

The Bitcoin Foundation has added two new high-profile members and experienced political operators to its team: Jim Harper and Amy Weiss.

Harper has been director of information policy studies for the libertarian Cato Institute for almost a decade, while Weiss is a former White House Deputy Press Secretary. She currently runs strategic communications firm Weiss Public Affairs.

Jim Harper will be the foundation’s new Global Policy Counsel and he will work to identify political impediments to bitcoin adoption. Harper has plenty of experience in the field, as he served as counsel to various committees in the US House of Representatives and the Senate.

During his time in Washington DC, he provided counsel on PayPal, VeriSign and other companies in the payments space. Jon Matonis, Bitcoin Foundation’s executive director said:

“Bitcoin is rapidly maturing and we are actively building out a world-class team of highly experienced professionals. Jim’s experience with Cato and past experience with PayPal in addition to Amy’s experience with the United Nations Foundation and the White House are invaluable to our efforts around the world and in DC.”

Building a voice

Harper said the Bitcoin Foundation is already a credible voice in Washington DC. He believes he can build on the foundation’s success and improve global financial inclusion and strengthen financial privacy for law-abiding consumers.

“The consensus policy that the foundation has produced – maximizing the benefits of Bitcoin while managing the risks – is something we’ll work to see governments around the world adopt,” he added.

Amy Weiss will join the foundation’s public affairs team and assist global communications and media efforts. In addition to her White House job under the Clinton administration, Weiss also worked for the Recording Industry Association of America, the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Campaign. “Bitcoin will soon be recognized as one of the most important economic and social innovations of our times,” said Weiss, adding:

“The Bitcoin protocol is poised to do for international commerce and financial services what the World Wide Web did for communications. Working with the Bitcoin Foundation during this exciting and formative time is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Weiss also served as the communications director at the Democratic National Committee and a press secretary for the Clinton/Gore campaign in 1992.

Interestingly, the Clinton administration was instrumental in the popularisation of another ground-breaking technology two decades ago. The administration worked to enact no-nonsense legislation which paved the way for the internet boom in the late nineties.

Bill Clinton was the first US President to send an email, while Al Gore became the subject of many a joke for his statements regarding internet legislation, which were used to imply that Gore claimed credit for creating the internet.

Gore is no longer active in politics, and it remains to be seen which US politicians will champion bitcoin’s cause on the road ahead.

[MICRO]

MultiBit Bitcoin Wallet Leapfrogs Coinbase to Reach 1.5 Million Downloads
Nermin Hajdarbegovic | Published on March 11, 2014 at 15:21 GMT | News, Wallets

Bitcoin wallet provider MultiBit has passed an important milestone – its one millionth download.

In fact, since nobody was actually keeping track, their one-million milestone came and went without anyone noticing and the current figure is much higher.

When the MultiBit team was recently asked how many downloads had occurred since launch, they crunched a few numbers to reveal that the wallet had in fact been downloaded a total of 1,517,000 times since April 2011.

“The figures have been adjusted down to take into account various DoS attacks and are based on the overall bandwidth attributed to the various installers rather than an arbitrary hit count, which is quite misleading,” the team pointed out.

MultiBit also said that it does not have records from the early days when it was only used by the bitcoinj mailing list. However, the team believes that the download figures for this period were below 100 per month.

Version 2.0

The MultiBit development team is currently working hard on the next version of the wallet app, dubbed MultiBit HD.

MultiBit HD is designed for mainstream bitcoin users across the world, but there is still no word on the launch date, or which new features are to be integrated.

MultiBit is one of the few bitcoin wallets to feature support for multiple languages and, in its latest release, it supports more than 35.

The wallet is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and is free to use – although it is ‘donation ware’, with  the team suggesting a donation of 0.01 BTC from those who find it useful.

Ahead of the competition

Oddly enough, with 1.5m downloads, MultiBit seems to have shifted significantly more wallets than Blockchain.info and Coinbase, which both recently announced the passing of their one-million wallet milestones.

Both MultiBit and Blockchain.info saw a massive spike in the number of downloads in the second half of 2013.

Blockchain started the year with fewer than 100,000 wallets and ended it with about a million. MultiBit’s monthly download chart speaks for itself.

[MICRO]

Mt. Gox’s Chapter 15 Bankruptcy Won’t Stop US Class Action, Lawyer Says
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 11, 2014 at 15:50 GMT | Exchanges, Law, Mt. Gox, News, Regulation

A US bankruptcy judge in Dallas, Texas, granted Mt. Gox’s request for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection on 10th March, a move that will partly shield the troubled Japan-based bitcoin exchange’s assets from creditors and block at least two lawsuits against the business.

While this may seem like a setback for those hoping to recoup lost funds from the exchange, Edelson law firm partner Chris Dore has suggested that the ruling only protects Mt. Gox KK, its Japan-based entity, from further action, not all of its associated legal entities.

Dore, whose firm is representing the US class action case against Mt. Gox, told CoinDesk the move does not cover other Mt. Gox entities such as Tibanne, its parent company; MtGox, Inc., its US entity; and CEO Mark Karpeles.

Dore said he will seek to move litigation forward against these defendants on behalf of his clients.

Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in Japan on 28th February, citing outstanding debt of ¥6.5bn ($63.6m). The most recent US filing listed $37.7m in assets and $63.9m in liabilities.

Baker & McKenzie, the law firm representing Mt. Gox in the US, did not offer comment on the developments.

Mt. Gox mounts a defense

In sworn statements at the courthouse on Monday, Karpeles maintained that issues with the Bitcoin protocol contributed to the demise of his company. The comment is similar to past claims made by the CEO, ones which were roundly denounced by notable members of the bitcoin community.

Said Karpeles:

“The facts known to date indicate that it was caused or related to a flaw in the software algorithm that underlies Bitcoin, and ‘hacking’ attacks of one or more persons.”

The statement suggests that bitcoin’s transaction malleability could be a continued line of defense for Mt. Gox as it looks to ward off criminal accusations.

Federal probe

Bloomberg reports that Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are allegedly currently investigating whether Mt. Gox and its associated legal entities may have committed any wrongdoing during the shutdown of the company.

The media outlet indicated that a representative for Bharara would not comment on the investigation.

A temporary restraining order hearing against Tibanne, Mt. Gox Inc. and Karpeles will be held today, according to Dore.

The next hearing in the developing case is set to take place on 1st April, when Mt. Gox will seek to extend its protection until its bankruptcy in Japan is resolved.

[MICRO]

MtGoxRecovery.com Seeks Reparation From Fallen Exchange
Tom Sharkey | Published on March 11, 2014 at 16:39 GMT | Law, Mt. Gox, News

The backlash from Mt. Gox’s recent bankruptcy filings is now at full throttle, and a new website is building a case against the Japanese exchange with the goal of ultimately filing a lawsuit to recover damages.

MtGoxRecovery.com has gathered information from over 1,600 customers who have lost funds in the aftermath of Mt. Gox filing for bankruptcy in both Japan and more recently in the US.

The website suggests that Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles’ “completely irresponsible actions” have left many of the exchange’s customers with considerable losses, and MtGoxRecovery.com hopes to recover these funds with the help of a Japanese law firm.

Widespread losses

In addition to the 850,000 bitcoins that have gone missing from Mt. Gox, Karpeles revealed the company has more than $60m in outstanding debt owed to creditors and customers.

At one time the industry’s most popular exchange, Mt. Gox undoubtedly held a considerable number of bitcoins, and when the exchange halted withdrawals back in February, many worried that their funds would be forever tied up on Mt. Gox.

Message boards across the Internet have served as unofficial support groups for victims of Mt. Gox’s apparent insolvency. On reddit, an entire subreddit (r/mtgoxinsolvency) dedicated to following the downfall of Mt. Gox has garnered over 200 subscribers, many of whom have reported significant bitcoin losses on the exchange.

One thread dedicated to sharing “horror stories” from Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy was filled with anecdotes of loss:

Mt Gox losses insolvency bankruptcy

Seeking justice

MtGoxRecovery.com was created by tech entrepreneur and Bitcoin Foundation lifetime member Olivier Janssens, who claims to have personally lost more than $5m as a result of Mt. Gox’s questionable operations.

Janssens said he spoke directly with Karpeles in the months before Mt. Gox halted transactions and filed for bankruptcy, and stated in no uncertain terms that he believes Karpeles has acted criminally:

“Mark knew I was a major stakeholder in the bitcoin community, and we discussed solutions for three hours to try to resolve this. At that time he kept telling me he could only send me a very limited amount per month, due to anti-money laundering issues. Obviously, this was a lie.”

One of the major concerns that Mt. Gox customers have consistently voiced is about the exchange’s lack of transparency in its operations, particularly in recent weeks when Mt. Gox halted transactions and eventually filed for bankruptcy.

Janssen pointed to the recent speculation surrounding the movement of $113m around the block chain and how many believe this money is linked with or even owned by Mt. Gox as evidence of Karpeles’ unethical obfuscation of information.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Janssen said:

“It’s very concerning to see assets moving [throughout the block chain] during civil rehabilitation. The legality of it is questionable to say the least, and it should not be done without clear communication to the creditors. Being completely transparent at this point is essential, and this is something that has been lacking at Mt. Gox since the beginning. People should not be given any false hope, nor should extra uncertainty be added.”

Building a case

Together with its lawyers in Japan, MtGoxRecovery.com claims it will file a lawsuit that will “try to recover as much as possible, and additionally press criminal charges against Mark Karpeles personally.”

Janssen says that the website has gathered a substantial amount of information from users that have signed up as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and in cases where the information is critically important, they plan to pass their case along to the police as well.

One area of focus for MtGoxRecovery.com and its users is Japanese bankruptcy law. Janssens plans to offer a public information session on the subject this week for users who have signed up on the website.

The time and date of this session is yet to be announced, but considering the large number of people who have lost bitcoin on Mt. Gox, the demand for more information is clearly substantial.

Disclaimer: It has not been ascertained that any fraudulent activity was involved in the Mt. Gox collapse. CEO Mark Karpeles has admitted only to losing bitcoins stored at the company via theft. 

[MICRO]

US Securities Regulator FINRA Warns of Bitcoin’s Investment Risks
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 11, 2014 at 16:57 GMT | Investors, News, Regulation, US & Canada

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the largest independent regulator in the US, issued an investor alert about bitcoin on 11th March, calling the digital currency “more than a bit risky” as part of a new warning to consumers and investors.

FINRA said the alert aims to raise awareness about the downsides of bitcoin investments in light of the recent high-profile struggles of bitcoin business.

Read the release:

“FINRA is issuing this alert to caution investors that buying and using digital currency such as bitcoin carry risks. Speculative trading in bitcoins carries significant risk. There is also the risk of fraud related to companies claiming to offer bitcoin payment platforms and other bitcoin-related products and services.”

In particular, the released noted the recent troubles of Japan-based exchange Mt. Gox and Imogo Mobile Technologies, which was suspended by the SEC following its introduction of a bitcoin payment platform in January.

Hacking, volatility top FINRA’s listed risks

FINRA detailed what it referred to as the “numerous risks” associated with buying, selling and using bitcoin, including that bitcoin is not legal tender in the US.

The agency further emphasized how bitcoin is susceptible to fraud, saying:

“Platforms that buy and sell bitcoins can be hacked, and some have failed. In addition, like the platforms themselves, digital wallets can be hacked. As a result, consumers can – and have – lost money.”

Additional comments covered how bitcoin exchanges are volatile and could close at any time, and that bitcoin transactions, by nature of their design, are not reversible like other popular forms of payment.

FINRA solicits tips and information

The announcements follows other notable statements from US policymakers, who have been increasingly outspoken about digital currencies, including US Senator Joe Manchin, top Alabama securities regulator Joe Borg and Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, as well as their intent to follow their progress.

FINRA, likewise, suggested it will be monitoring events in the digital currency space.

The regulatory body ended the release by encouraging those who have been defrauded by a securities professional or firm to file a complaint with its representatives or to contact its support lines with tips and information

[MICRO]

Has Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff Adopted a Pro-Bitcoin Stance?
Roop Gill (@roopgill) | Published on March 11, 2014 at 17:42 GMT | Companies, Investors, News

Spencer Rascoff, CEO of online real estate database Zillow, has announced to his 20,290 Twitter followers that he is coming round to the idea of bitcoin.

The entrepreneur indicated yesterday that he was gearing up to embrace digital currencies.


A tweet today from the Harvard graduate confirmed he had taken the plunge and invested in some bitcoins:


Rascoff joins the growing league of executives who have implied their support of bitcoin, including Virgin Galactic’s Sir Richard Branson, ex-Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya, and most recently, Wikipedia’s co-founder Jimmy Wales.

Just yesterday, Wales tweeted about bitcoin and indicated that he would discuss bitcoin acceptance with board members.

While Rascoff may seem pro-bitcoin now, he appeared on Bloomberg TV last November openly criticising the cryptocurrecy. He said:

“I am sceptical of bitcoin. I just think there’s too much shadiness associated with the currency that’s not maintained by some sort of government or central bank. And I think it will blow up at some point, with some big scandal where someone loses 50, a 100 million dollars, and I don’t think it [bitcoin] is going to be here in five years.”

Jill Simmons, spokesperson for Zillow, told CoinDesk that while Rascoff may be expressing interest in bitcoin, this doesn’t necessarily mean his company is exploring bitcoin acceptance.

“Spencer’s decision to buy bitcoin was a personal one and doesn’t reflect any upcoming policies within Zillow,” she said.

Zillow’s growth

Zillow is a real estate marketplace helping homeowners, buyers and agents to find and share vital information about homes, real estate and mortgages. Founded in 2005, the Zillow website is one of the most-visited real-estate brands in the US.

Between 2005 and 2011, the company raised funding totalling $92.5m with investors including Technology Crossover Ventures and PAR Capital Management. Zillow began trading on NASDAQ Stock Market in July 2011, raising $4.13m in post IPO funding.

Rascoff was named one of America’s most powerful CEOs 40 and Under by Forbes magazine for the last two years. Before taking up his role at Zillow, he co-founded Hotwire.com, a discount travel website.

[MICRO]

New York Now Accepting Applications for Digital Currency Exchanges
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 11, 2014 at 18:26 GMT | Regulation, US & Canada

New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services, Benjamin M. Lawsky, has issued a public order that confirms the state is now accepting applications for digital currency exchanges.

Perhaps most notably, however, was that Lawsky indicated that these new businesses will be regulated under new New York regulation, which he committed to having in place by the end of the second quarter of 2014.

In his remarks, Lawsky struck his usual balance of at once recognizing the promise of digital currencies and stressing that related business activities need to be conducted in a responsible and lawful manner.

Wrote Lawsky in the release:

“The recent problems at Mt. Gox and other firms further demonstrate the urgent need for stronger oversight of virtual currency exchanges, including robust standards for consumer protection, cyber security, and anti-money laundering compliance.

Proposal guidelines

Lawsky also disclosed new information for those seeking to apply for a New York-based exchange, indicating that interested firms can now immediately submit proposals and applications. However, he noted that such submissions represent a formal commitment to the regulatory process.

Further, Lawsky suggested that New York will not be bound by commitments that prevent it from taking what he considered appropriate action to safeguard consumers during this process. Lawsky noted that its policies for digital currency exchanges could be later modified to enhance consumer protection, cybersecurity or anti-money laundering initiatives.

Said Lawsky:

“Turning a blind eye and failing to put in place guardrails for virtual currency firms while consumers use that product is simply not a tenable strategy for regulators.”

Approved applications will need to adhere to the regulatory framework New York plans to introduce later this year.

A long-awaited move

The move puts in motion an idea that first arose during the NYDFS bitcoin hearings in January. There, major digital currency investors made the case that New York should consider hosting such a business, both for its job creation benefits and because the industry was in need of more oversight, though this suggestion has not been without criticism.

The news also confirms what New York-based bitcoin business leaders had previously indicated, that they had been in talks with representatives of the state on the matter on efforts to work toward regulated exchanges.

[ponjava]

Apple VS Bitcoin

 Sara Navarro Medina  10/03/2014


Jobs was a control freak . Already at the time fought against Amazon and any other company that tried to implement their own payment systems. So , you know the story of Steve Jobs, Apple was expected to put an obstacles to cryptocurrency trendy, Bitcoin .

A few days ago came news sites in different alarms blowing up why Apple did not accept Bitcoins , speculated thousand reasons why Apple may be against .

Apple has removed all applications for Bitcoin Wallets of its iOS App Store. Therefore, all options for a transaction using Bitcoins have been removed from the apps for iPhone .
However, we must stress that applications related to Bitcoin transactions not involving itself through still appear in the App Store. Moreover, now number 242 and are mostly price indicators .

Normally Apple rejects any application that provides a payment mechanism that prevents the commission of Apple, although the reason is unclear .
Apple may not want to deal with legal problems involving a fairly opaque and controversial legal framework in many countries today.

Several arguments have been echoed by the networks:
It has been said that Apple wants to create its own currency , which is already up with possible name , iMoney , thereby eliminating any competition against other cryptocurrencies .
Or not interested in this alternative payment system because Apple can not make money through Bitcoin transactions . It is true that Apple takes 30% of in- app purchases , however , there are other applications such as Amazon and Square payments online credit card through manual data entry , which Apple does not take nothing .

The origin of all this speculation arises from the app Fancy , who has unleashed all these questions and possible reasons for the rejection of Bitcoin .
In January , Fancy began accepting payments Bitcoins in their catalogs.

bitcoin_apple_app_store_sara_navarro_medina
Fancy is not an app like Amazon , with millions of products to choose from.

However , it has a smaller selection of interesting products for your community .
Fancy wearing little more than a month accepting Bitcoins , the Android and iOS apps had been updated with Bitcoin payments , made ​​through Coinbase .
But after only a week after this update , Apple requested Fancy eliminate this payment system , by failing to comply with its regulations.

Apple is famous for the prohibition of certain things and follow a centralized system, it is not surprising not to support a decentralized technology like Bitcoin . Perhaps the criteria to centralize all their technology can take its toll in the future.

Well, at least Android seems to trouble accepting the possibility of transacting with Bitcoins and thanks to this operating system can continue to evolve watching these new payment methods .

[ponjava]

Bitcoin may soon arrive at Ebay
 Diana Ngo  10/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/bitcoin-ebay.jpg
The giant online sale recently completed an application for a patent called "System and Method for Management of Transactions in a Digital Environment Marchand , " consider leaving as eBay have created a Bitcoin transaction system .
A new ad that takes over several positive signals to digital currencies from eBay and its subsidiary PayPal as its CEO John Donahoe .

Bitcoin and eBay
eBay - bitcoini.com
 

eBay had mentioned in April 2013

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in April 2013, the CEO of eBay, John Donahoe, had admitted that the company was working on the integration of Bitcoin in his system. Also CEO of Paypal, it said it wanted to integrate its digital currency payment system :

This is a disruptive technology , then yes, we seriously consider Bitcoin . It should be possible ways to integrate with Paypal.

The integration of Bitcoin in the Paypal network would be an undeniable springboard for digital currency. This recognition would provide the necessary visibility and legitimacy in the acceptance of digital currency by the public process.

 

Gradual integration

A few months after the announcement of his interest in Bitcoin , eBay changed its regulations to meet the many demands of its customers, and allow consumers to buy and sell virtual currency on the merchant site.

First applied in the United Kingdom and the United States February 10, 2014 , eBay now allows its consumers to acquire crypto -currency , under some simple and clear terms :

Virtual currencies must be listed in the format of Parts Classifieds in coins and paper> Virtual Currency . These requirements apply to the physical delivery , such as digital delivery . Examples of goods subject to this rule are Bitcoins , Litecoins and similar crypto- currencies.

Although eBay has always been pragmatic on the issue of Bitcoin , it now seems clear that teaches adopted a progressive approach to integrating digital currencies in its payment system .

 

First for auction listings

According to an article AmongTech.com , the form of the application for patent filled by eBay, mentions that the system would apply first to the auction listings . Without saying more , the data on the form stipulated anyway:

The currency unit is configured to manage the exchange of digital currencies . Consequently, the currency module allows a user to exchange one form of currency into another form .

Digital currency can be used to address [ real ] (eg invoices) financial obligations as well as obligations of the [ virtual world ] . The payment system allows users to accumulate value (eg a supranational currency such as the U.S. dollar , or a [ currency lucrative profit ] , such as loyalty points , Miles , and other forms of currency distributed by a private entity ) in their account for later purchase goods with the accumulated value [...] elsewhere on the network .

 

Integrate digital currency payment system Paypal online could encourage merchants Bitcoin as traders using Paypal, offer an additional means of payment, and allow them opportunities for significant growth.

[ponjava]

Funny Conan Sketch about Bitcoin

 David Parker  11/03/2014


watch video here

[ponjava]

Is mcxNOW turning into a wasteland of altcoins?

 David Parker  11/03/2014


mcxNOW used to be one of the hottest cryptocurrency exchange around until RealSolid, whose real name is a “hidden secret”, shut it down late fall of 2013 because he experienced too many customer problems. He decided that he would improve the exchange making sure it would not cause problems for his customers again when withdrawing or depositing different cryptocurrencies.

The Re-Launch of mcxNOW

When mcxNOW got back up after a long time left out in the cold, it immediately started to pick up where it had left with a total trade amount of above 1000 bitcoins. The fuel continued to burn when RealSolid decided to add MaxCoin to the exchange.

MaxCoin failure

MaxCoin, like most of the other coins that are launched with big endorsements, initially peaked then to have what’s called a slow death. Some altcoins manage to revamp their expectations by doing some major changes, but unless there is an economy built around the cryptocurrencies themselves, they won’t survive.
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Maxcoin-bitcoin-mcxnow-.png
Maxcoin bitcoin mcxnow
The Slowly Death of MaxCoin
The Failure of not adding Dogecoin

RealSolid has time after time told his users of mcxNOW that he would add Dogecoin soon. We even got confirmation after confirmation that “this week is it”. It is now clear to see that RealSolid has a major problem with following up on his promises, including running what we would call a business.

By not adding Dogecoin, one of the most traded altcoins out there, he shows a lack of understanding of basic market economics. It seems like he has given up on mcxNOW and what he wanted to make “the world’s greatest digital exchange”.

When he also sold 5000 of his remaining 10 000 mcxFEEs to sell, he told us that he would not sell his remaining 5000 mcxFEEs for a long time. However after a short period, his last batch was sold. RealSolid is either two or more people, or, well you get the math.

Will mcxNOW come to a halt?

After RealSolid cashed in many thousands of bitcoins on mcxFEEs, he could be suffering from greed and megalomania. This makes the small amount he now makes on his remaining mcxFEEs irrelevant and, therefore, mcxNOW irrelevant.

I would go so far to say that if you have any mcxFEE at mcxNOW now, I would seriously consider selling it for a loss just to get some value out of it and transfer the bitcoins out of the exchange.

If RealSolid doesn’t change his business ethics and methods, mcxNOW will not survive.

What do you think? Write in the comment field below.

[MICRO]

Dutch Streets Adopt Cryptocurrency, Become ‘Bitcoin Boulevard’
Jona Kallgren (@Jonakallgren) | Published on March 11, 2014 at 20:23 GMT | Events, Merchants, News

It is the home of the Dutch royals, a number of international war criminals and, seasonally, to masses of photo-taking tourists, but the Hague in the Netherlands will soon be a hotspot for bitcoin enthusiasts, too.

At 17:57 on 20th March – the precise start of spring in the Netherlands – all of the businesses along two canal-side streets in the city centre will start to accept bitcoin.

In all, nine restaurants and one art gallery will take part in the scheme.

Unofficially the two streets running along the canal – Bierkade and Groenewegje – will also change their name to ‘Bitcoin Boulevard’.

Bitcoin Boulevard
The streets along the canal will soon be known as “Bitcoin Boulevard”


Hard sell

The city of the Hague has been quick to jump on the project with the tourism office promoting the event and the city’s ‘Night Mayor’ – the official who looks after the city’s nighttime activities – due to make the first bitcoin purchase at one of the restaurants.

Hendrik Jan Hilbolling, one of the three organisers behind the project, says he had the idea for Bitcoin Boulevard after convincing his friend, who runs a restaurant on the street, to accept bitcoin for payments.

He discussed the idea with two other bitcoin enthusiasts, Peter Klasen and Henk van Tijen, at a bitcoin meetup. The three then set out to convince all the remaining restaurants to throw away their preconceived ideas, ignore the bad news spinning out of the Mt. Gox implosion and start accepting a cryptocurrency that some of them had not even heard of.

With some it was a hard sell, but one after the other the restaurant owners started seeing the advantages of bitcoin – such as the low transaction costs, the ease of payment for international guests and the promotional value.

As Hilbolling pointed out:

“In the end, who doesn’t want to be a part of a Bitcoin Boulevard?”


The canal may soon be thronged with bitcoiners
Bitcoin happy hour

Bitcoin enthusiasts won’t find it hard to spend their digital coins on the streets: there is a Michelin-star restaurant, a beer hall with more than 160 beers on offer, a café and a vegetarian restaurant.

The M Restaurant will also be holding a daily bitcoin ‘ happy hour’, when all guests paying with the digital currency will receive a discount.

People with a bit of extra bitcoin in their wallets can also buy photography, paintings and sculptures from internationally known contemporary artists at the art gallery West.

At this stage, the restaurants and the gallery will not be using a merchant service. Rather they will display the QR code of their wallet on the bar and do simple bitcoin transactions from wallet to wallet. Hilbolling said, however, that this might change as the project develops.

Initially the idea was to conduct a two-month trial, but the businesses have said that if things go well they continue with the Bitcoin Boulevard concept indefinitely.

‘Not just for nerds’

The three organisers, who all have day jobs in the software sector, said that they will themselves not make any profits from the project. Instead, it has been a way for them to spread the word about bitcoin, get to know other bitcoin enthusiasts, and introduce the digital currency to the general public.

Henk van Tijen explained:

“This event is is not just for nerds like ourselves, but for the regular moms and pops, kids and students. The purpose is to make it for a more broad audience.”

To boost bitcoin spending there will be a competition held for the person that spends the most crypto-coin on the street and for the restaurant that has taken the most bitcoin payments. Both winners will be displayed on the Netherlands’ largest advertising screen, which sits over a highway near the city.

So, if you want to have your mugshot on display to Dutch commuters, load up your digital wallet and book a trip to the Hague. Michelin-starred food and international beer await you.