The Week In Bitcoin - Mar 28 through Apr 03, 2011

Sunday, Apr 3rd, 2011

• BitcoinAnalyst (previously reported under s3052)’s twitter status update.
  The following was reported following a burst of selling that brought the BTC/USD down to $0.61 at at one point:
  ”BTC/USD in correction. Possible downward acceleration toward longterm trendline.”
  - http://twitter.com/#!/BitcoinAnalyst/status/54768119146758145
• New feature: Bitcoin Watch add News feed for headlines
  Manually curated news feed.
  - http://bitcoinwatch.com/headlines.html
• New feature: Witcoin adds RSS and Atom feeds
  Example: http://witcoin.com/rss is the RSS feed for the main page: http://witcoin.com
  - http://meta.witcoin.com/p/901/atom-amp-rss-feeds
• New market exchange: Bitcoin2Cash
  BTC/USD only.  Funds may be deposited by mailing in cash. Funds may be withdrawn as cash mailed to you.
  - http://www.bitcoin2cash.com
  - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin2Cash
• Article / Blog post:
  Could Bitcoin be the global online currency? by Matthew Stone, memeburn
  “It is a sign of how much revolutionary potential still lies in the innovative use of the internet.”
  - http://memeburn.com/2011/04/could-bitcoin-be-the-global-online-currency
• Additions to Bitcoin Trade wiki page:
  - Lacie’s Wuala Secure Online Storage, pay for service w/bitcoins
  - AirVPN, 3 month subscriptions payable using bitcoins
  The list had many additions over the past weeks:
  - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade
• New site: Bitcoin Classifieds
  Free to post online classified ads.
  - http://www.bitcoinclassifieds.net
  - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Classifieds
• Article / Blog post:
  Bitcoin, The Future of Money is Decentralized by Geraldine Juárez in ALT1040 (Spanish)
  From the article’s comments section (courtesy Google Translate):
  “Is not this system somewhat discriminatory and exclusionary? Access to the network is gradually universalized, but the hardware will never be equal.”
  - http://alt1040.com/2011/04/bitcoin-el-futuro-del-dinero-es-descentralizado
• s3052’s market analysis “special review”
  Long term: ”The 200 day moving average coincides with the longterm rising uptrend line.”
  Short term: “If this rally forecast and the wave count are correct, next short term  targets for BTC/USD are $0.95, $1.00, $1.10.”
  - http://bit.ly/hGATXH
• Article / Blog post:
  Bitcoin and Fractional Reserve Banking by webisteme
  “There is a distinct possiblity that Bitcoin could ultimately become a reserve currency, used by financial institutions to settle payments between each other.”
  - http://www.webisteme.com/blog/?p=192

Saturday, Apr 2nd, 2011

• Liberty Reserve service outage gets extended through the weekend.
  “The issue is purely technical and poses no risk to your funds or personal data.”
  - http://blog.libertyreserve.com/2011/04/outage-update.html
• Bitcoin mining pool BitPenny closes.
  The operator of Bitcoin’s first “fixed-rate” pool sustained “continued and unsustainable losses” and was forced to discontinue service indefinitely.
  - http://www.bitcoinminer.com/post/4304120696
• Article / Blog post:
  A post titled BitCoin by Ben McGinnes on his Organised Adversary blog.
  “BitCoin has the potential to gain more than just a handful of computer geek users.”
  - http://www.adversary.org/wp/?p=243

Friday, Apr 1st, 2011

• Article / Blog post:
  A few ways to set yourself up for Bitcoin tips by Rory B on The Daily Bitcoin
  Covers YouTipIt and MyBitcoin’s “Make a Payment” SCI payment page.
  - http://thedailybitcoin.blogspot.com/2011/04/few-ways-to-set-yourself-up-for-bitcoin.html
• CoinPal service (for buying bitcoins) adjusts limits.
  After a short interruption, CoinPal resumes service with lower limits for new customers in response to recent activity.
  - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2555.msg77400#msg77400
• Liberty Reserve service outage.
  “is experiencing technical difficulties and will return as soon as […]”
  - http://blog.libertyreserve.com/2011/03/liberty-reserve-downtime-update.html
  The video posted on YouTube (which has since been removed) claiming LR has been hacked appears to be a hoax, as the on-screen login dates that showed in the video were from 2010.
• Article / Blog post:
  The BitCoin Project by Brendan Burge, on ATM Marketplace
  “I think that this group of savvy entrepreneurs and talented open-source coders could very well be inventing the currency of tomorrow.”
  - http://www.atmmarketplace.com/blog/5586/-The-BitCoin-Project
• Presentation:
  Monetising Game Play on Social Network Sites presented by Jon Matonis at KPMG eGaming Summit.
  “Monetary properties and features emulate the physical gaming chips in a real-world casino.”
  - http://themonetaryfuture.blogspot.com/2011/03/monetising-game-play-on-social-network.html
  - http://www.slideshare.net/jonmatonis/monetising-game-play-on-social-network-sites

Thursday, Mar 31st, 2011

• Article / Blog post:
  Bitcoin: An Anarcho-currency on Anarchist Discussion Forums
  - http://flag.blackened.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=76826
• Bitcoin Economy Snapshot:
  1 BTC = $0.79 USD, Size: 5.80M BTC, Last 24h: 0.16M BTC in 2.1K trx, Difficulty: 69.0K, Forum posts/day: 786, Nodes: 1.6K
  - http://twitter.com/bitcoineconomy
• Podcast:
  Bad Philosophy podcast, Episode 88: Some People Talking About Bitcoin
  Interviewed is Darrell Duane of Bitcoin Bonus.
  “You’ll just have a larger than usual group of computer geeks controlling the system. […] It’s not going to be usable except for an elite group.”
  - http://bit.ly/g63Wr1
• s3052’s Bitcoin Market Analysis
  Longterm: “RALLY.”
  Short-term: “Bitcoin is in a sideways pattern, unless $0.80 (upside) or $0.70 (downside)  are cleared.”
  - http://bit.ly/hV2V0N
• Article / Blog post:
  Microtransactions in the Internet Economy and Bitcoin by Vitalik Buterin
  “Sending someone bitcoin, even if the recipient is not part of the same proprietary ecosystem as you, is a simple process that barely takes half a minute.”
  - http://bitcoinweekly.com/articles/microtransactions-in-the-internet-economy-and-bitcoin
• Bitcoin principal Gavin Andresen will be on EconTalk next Monday.
  The Library of Economics and Liberty has a weekly podcasts show, hosted by Russel Roberts. EconTalk was voted Best Podcast in the 2008 Weblog Award.
  Recent guests included George Will, Tyler Cowen, and Kevin Kelly.
  - http://www.econtalk.org/archives.html#date
• MyBitcoin - new messaging system for customer support.
  Communications with the eWallet and shopping cart API provider can now be made directly thanks to a new messaging system.
  - https://www.mybitcoin.com/contact-us.php

Wednesday, Mar 30th, 2011

• Press: Hacker News
  - Bitcoin, a service and the micro-micro-economy (w/ link to article on Witcoin)
  -   http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2386392
  - BitCoins - a real, alternative currency with a market? (w/ link to Bitcoin Charts)
  -   http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2375430
  It is always interesting to see the comments on HN to learn how the community of techies are now responding with better questions and have a better understanding of what Bitcoin is (in comparison to just a few weeks ago):
  -   http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=220070
• Bitcoin Central exchange, service restored.
  ”upgrade the bitcoin daemon for the site by the end of the week, so this shouldn’t happen again.”
  - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4228.msg75858#msg75858
  - https://bitcoin-central.net
• Article / Blog post:
  BitCoin: digital money for a world without banks in Manzana Mecánica (Spanish)
  “BitCoin was created under the following premise: Is it possible to have money and trade, without the need for banks?” (quote from the article, using Google Translate)
  - http://bit.ly/fJm8tc
• Article / Blog post:
  Can The Cloud Print Money? by Ray DePena
  “Could one or more SpotCloud compute instances (currently starting at $0.001 cent an hour) compute enough hashes per second of BitCoin’s algorithm to produce a net positive financial gain, in effect printing money?”
  - http://raydepena.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/can-the-cloud-print-money
• Article / Blog post:
  Bowling for Bitcoins – Meet the Trader, Episode 04, by Spencer of The Bitcoin Bulletin
  “I am a fan of Reddit and also StackOverflow and have allowed their influence to help shape witcoin.  My focus with witcoin is not to compete with existing sites, although there is some overlap [… and instead am] focusing on making it easy for users to profit from their content.”
  - http://www.bitcoinbulletin.com/2011/03/29/bowling-for-bitcoins-meet-the-trader-04
• Article / Blog post:
  Bitcoin - A Virtual Currency by Jason of 404 Tech Support
  ”Since Bitcoin is a new currency that plays by new rules, Bitcoin gets scrutinized far more than today’s paper and coin currency.”
  - http://www.404techsupport.com/2011/03/30/bitcoin-a-virtual-currency

Tuesday, Mar 29th, 2011

[skipped]


Monday, Mar 28th, 2011

• New blog: The Daily Bitcoin.
  - http://thedailybitcoin.blogspot.com
  - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5050.0
• Article / Blog post:
  Bitcoin: It’s Not Too Late To Send Me Money by Ironwolf
  ”I’ve spent the past several days in complete and utter geek awe over its beauty and simplicity. Bitcoin is real money.”
  - http://ironwolf.dangerousgames.com/blog/archives/1063
• Article / Blog Post:
  Bitcoin continues to grow by Chris Double
  “If you bought bitcoins around the time of my last post you would have paid about $0.06 USD per bitcoin.”
  - http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/2011/03/26/bitcoin-continues-to-grow.html
• Bitcoin Economy Snapshot:
  1 BTC = $0.81 USD, Size: 5.78M BTC, Last 24h: 0.16M BTC in 3.5K trx, Difficulty: 69.0K, Forum posts/day: 547, Nodes: 1.7K.
  http://twitter.com/#!/bitcoineconomy
• American Express joins the P2P payments industry with Serve.
  Highlights:
  - Add and withdraw funds using a linked bank account (ACH). A Point of Sale “prepaid card” can be used at an ATM, at merchants including use as “cash back” transactions.
  - Add funds using credit card and debit card, 2.9% fee + $0.30.
  - Receive from and send payments to other Serve users.
  - U.S. customers and banks only for now.
  Summary: “About the only advantage over PayPal is that they’ve waived fees for adding funds using a credit card until September.”
  - http://www.serve.com
  - http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/4165831078

Got a news tip, suggestion or comment?
  http://www.bitcoinnews.com/submit

Current week (updated throughout each day):
  http://www.bitcoinnews.com  (RSS)

Previous summaries:
  http://www.bitcoinnews.com/archive  Follow on Twitter: @BitcoinNews

Each day I will post a reply with the previous day's summary, and will update this specific post to include each daily summary as well.

Re: The Week In Bitcoin - Mar 28 through Apr 03, 2011.

Thursday, Mar 31st, 2011

• Article / Blog post:
  Bitcoin: An Anarcho-currency on Anarchist Discussion Forums
  - http://flag.blackened.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=76826
• Bitcoin Economy Snapshot:
  1 BTC = $0.79 USD, Size: 5.80M BTC, Last 24h: 0.16M BTC in 2.1K trx, Difficulty: 69.0K, Forum posts/day: 786, Nodes: 1.6K
  - http://twitter.com/bitcoineconomy
• Podcast:
  Bad Philosophy podcast, Episode 88: Some People Talking About Bitcoin
  Interviewed is Darrell Duane of Bitcoin Bonus.
  “You’ll just have a larger than usual group of computer geeks controlling the system. […] It’s not going to be usable except for an elite group.”
  - http://bit.ly/g63Wr1
• s3052’s Bitcoin Market Analysis
  Longterm: “RALLY.”
  Short-term: “Bitcoin is in a sideways pattern, unless $0.80 (upside) or $0.70 (downside)  are cleared.”
  - http://bit.ly/hV2V0N
• Article / Blog post:
  Microtransactions in the Internet Economy and Bitcoin by Vitalik Buterin
  “Sending someone bitcoin, even if the recipient is not part of the same proprietary ecosystem as you, is a simple process that barely takes half a minute.”
  - http://bitcoinweekly.com/articles/microtransactions-in-the-internet-economy-and-bitcoin
• Bitcoin principal Gavin Andresen will be on EconTalk next Monday.
  The Library of Economics and Liberty has a weekly podcasts show, hosted by Russel Roberts. EconTalk was voted Best Podcast in the 2008 Weblog Award.
  Recent guests included George Will, Tyler Cowen, and Kevin Kelly.
  - http://www.econtalk.org/archives.html#date
• MyBitcoin - new messaging system for customer support.
  Communications with the eWallet and shopping cart API provider can now be made directly thanks to a new messaging system.
  - https://www.mybitcoin.com/contact-us.php

Got a news tip, suggestion or comment?
  http://www.bitcoinnews.com/submit

Current week (updated throughout each day):
  http://www.bitcoinnews.com   (RSS) (mobile)

Previous weekly summaries:
  http://www.bitcoinnews.com/archive  Follow on Twitter: @BitcoinNews

Re: The Week In Bitcoin - Mar 28 through Apr 03, 2011.

Saturday, Apr 2nd, 2011

• Liberty Reserve service outage gets extended through the weekend.
  “The issue is purely technical and poses no risk to your funds or personal data.”
  - http://blog.libertyreserve.com/2011/04/outage-update.html
• Bitcoin mining pool BitPenny closes.
  The operator of Bitcoin’s first “fixed-rate” pool sustained “continued and unsustainable losses” and was forced to discontinue service indefinitely.
  - http://www.bitcoinminer.com/post/4304120696
• Article / Blog post:
  A post titled BitCoin by Ben McGinnes on his Organised Adversary blog.
  “BitCoin has the potential to gain more than just a handful of computer geek users.”
  - http://www.adversary.org/wp/?p=243

Got a news tip, suggestion or comment?
  http://www.bitcoinnews.com/submit

Current week (updated throughout each day):
  http://www.bitcoinnews.com   (RSS) (mobile)

Previous weekly summaries:
  http://www.bitcoinnews.com/archive  Follow on Twitter: @BitcoinNews

Ah ha, this and assorted retweets goes in some way towards explaining the spike on my little website last week.  Maybe I should post on this topic more often.

Thanks for the plug.