Bitcoin Plaza: January 2015

Saturday, January 31, 2015

5 Reasons to Drop Coinbase Like a Hot Potato (Op-Ed)

Coinbase used to be great. You signed up with an email address, bought bitcoins with dollars, or sold bitcoins for dollars. It was pretty simple. I recommended their service to literally every person

'Dirty' Bitcoins, Murder-for-Hire Plots Surface in Silk Road Trial (Week 3)

The Silk Road trial is heating up as sittings have entered the third week. Most importantly, the first hints of an alleged murder-for-hire plot are now surfacing, while the Federal prosecutors have ad

Google Now App Offers Coinbase Support for Android Users

Google has added Coinbase support to their Google Now app, enabling Android users to receive updates about Bitcoin price fluctuations and other information about their Coinbase accounts in a card via

Friday, January 30, 2015

The Bitcoin Super Bowl Betting Guide

In the United States, the Super Bowl might as well be a de facto gambling holiday. According to the American Gaming Association almost US$4 billion will be gambled on this Sunday’s game between the Ne

'Lower Bitcoin Prices are More in Favor for Bad Actors and Ponzi Schemes’

Genesis Mining has grown quickly amidst a rapidly-expanding cloudmining market in to become one of the scrypt mining leaders in 2014.

Rumors Swirling around Robocoin’s Hardware Exit, Major Restructure

Network issues at Robocoin, which affected its BTM network yesterday, have led to rumors of more serious problems with the company, it has emerged.

Bitcoin Top News WrapUp: Silk Road Trial, ISIS, Cointerra Bankruptcy and more

CoinTelegraph’s news roundup for Thursday, January 29.

The ‘Age of Cryptocurrency’ Book: Two Outsiders Look In at Bitcoin and Digital Money

Adam B. Levine calls “The Age of Cryptocurrency” by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey “a very positive book about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.”

Gatecoin Launches Bitcoin Exchange with ‘Segregated Bank Accounts’

Honk-Kong based Gatecoin Limited launches new Bitcoin exchange with "bank-grade security measures," including segregated client bank accounts, multi-signature cold storage, as well as continuous monit

Reddit Suddenly Drops Redditcoin, Fires Chief Developer

Former BitPay engineer Ryan X. Charles, until yesterday a chief developer of Reddit’s Redditcoin cryptocurrency, has been let go from his position amid a U-turn by the resource.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Dread Pirate Roberts: Imprisonment vs. Innovation (Op-Ed)

A young man named Ross Ulbricht sits on trial facing life in prison. His alleged crime: building and running a website, which enabled anonymous trade of all kinds of goods, particularly illegal ones.

Cointerra Files for Bankruptcy With Up to 999 Creditors Owed

Mining computer designer and cloud mining operation Cointerra files for bankruptcy, leaving debts up to 50 million USD and potentially 999 creditors unpaid. The Bitcoin mining sector is now in dire st

Israeli Paper Ties Bitcoin to ISIS, Again (Op-Ed)

Israeli web analyst claims that Islamic State is continuing to use Bitcoin as a means of funding. But the evidence he quotes is not enough to point at a trend as the amount mentioned was only 5 BTC. T

Wednesday's Top News: Bitcoin Giveaway, 'Risk Free' Wallet, Venture Capital and More

Alleged theft attempt, BTC giveaway, Amsterdam hackathon, upcoming Bitcoin Fun Fair, and other events in CoinTelegraph’s news roundup for Wednesday, January 28

Consumer Alert: Coinbase Exchange ‘Not Regulated or Licensed’ in California, NY

Coinbase, which announced earlier this week it had launched the first regulated Bitcoin exchange in several states and territories of America, including California and New York, seems to be lacking re

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Nitrogen Sports Will Have Live Betting For SuperBowl, Blackjack Also Launches

Nitrogen Sports is working on a live betting platform. While that is not launching yet, they will be offering live betting for the Super Bowl. Blackjack has also launched on the site, making it the se

Artist Open-Sources Work for Bitcoin; IP Advocates Stumped

In a move that has left intellectual “property” (IP) advocates completely dumbfounded, artist and redditor obilex recently released not one, but eight high-resolution original works of art on Reddit.

Bitcoin Being Given Away To College Students, Again

Montreal's Bitcoin Embassy will be giving bitcoin to 600 Students attending McGill University, also in Montreal. The amount is significantly lower, compared to the MIT project, down to 30 mBTC or roug

Amsterdam Bitcoin Hackathon Winner Discovers Way To Remove Confirmations

If bitcoin is meant to be the perfect money for the internet, one important property seems to be lacking: instant, secure, and trustless transactions. But the winning team of the first ever Amsterdam

How Bitcoin Will Achieve Mass Acceptance (Op-Ed)

What will be the impetus of Bitcoin mass acceptance? There are basically three schools of thought on this topic, Merchant Adoption, Third World Unbanked, and Wall Street Investment.

Greece’s New Finance Minister: Bitcoin ‘Highly Problematic Currency’

The Finance Minister of Greece’s new radical left-wing government, while at the center of anti-austerity financial policy, is in no way optimistic about Bitcoin, it has emerged.

Chinese Exchange Suffers 1,000 BTC Loss in Uncertain Service Compromise

Reports are emerging of Chinese Bitcoin exchange 796 mistakenly losing 1000BTC of customer funds in a botched customer service request.

World's Biggest Consumer-Oriented Bitcoin Event Coming to Stockholm

Bitcoin Fun Fair is not your typical Bitcoin meetup or conference event where businesses and experts talk, “network” and exchange business cards.

‘Forcing Bitcoin into the Regulated Environment’: Interview with Digital Securities Exchange

In the wake of Coinbase unveiling the US’s first licensed Bitcoin exchange, across the water in the UK, another operation is adopting a different, but no less official, approach.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

LazyCoins to Preview The Killer Bitcoin App LazyPay at BitcoinExpo 2015 London

London, January 24, 2015 — LazyCoins demoed their killer Bitcoin app LazyPay at the BitcoinExpo 2015 in London last weekend. The company has spent months carefully and quietly planning to take the app public. Including running the payment and merchant services app through testing with a security firm. And holding Q&As in order to perfect their software and get everything right before debuting to the world.

The free conference ran from January 24–25 at the Central Foundation Boys’ School on Cowper Street, London. LazyCoins Founder and CEO Danial Daychopan calls London, “a great place for bitcoin businesses and entrepreneurs.”

Daychopan began his talk at the conference on the importance of security. He stressed this is the number one focus for both their exchange and their merchant services app, to guarantee “rock solid security” for their users.

LazyCoins announced the beta version of their new exchange six months ago in July, but they chose not to go public right away in order to learn from and avoid the mistakes of other exchanges. They launch in direct competition with similar-service industry leaders BitPay and Coinbase.

The goal with the LazyPay app is to make Bitcoin use a part of everyday life, increasing its volume of use in the in-person merchant market, getting more people to use digital currencies as a form of payment, rather than just as a speculative investment tool.

Their secure mobile wallet and user-friendly merchant app aim to make doing business in digital currencies simple and safe for both merchants and customers. The aim is to “make buying and selling goods as easy with bitcoin as it is with cash and credit cards—only faster, safer and more convenient.”

The average person needs to be able to find more places to spend bitcoin, they don’t know how to obtain it, and transactions seem too complex. Lack of education among retailers and the lack of an easy-to-use, trusted merchant platform are also problems.

LazyCoins and LazyPay are designed to fix such issues, with security at the top of their priorities. Cold storage wallets and two-factor authentication for accounts, fingerprint access for the app, and multi signature keys are just some of the many features. And a policy of crediting a merchant account on the day of their transactions, by the exact amount that the user pays, will eliminate the risk of price fluctuations.

They are on a mission to sign up merchants and educate them on the benefits and ease of accepting Bitcoin. The app is free, offers zero-transaction fees, daily direct payments to bank accounts and no chargebacks. LazyPay will demonstrate how credits cards are slower, riskier and more expensive in comparison. Operating the app will be intuitive for the non-tech person; easier than using a cash register or credit card point-of-sale terminal.

On top of all these features, the app will include a live, automatically updated map showing the locations of local Bitcoin merchants and businesses. It will offer NFC-enabled payments for super fast POS transactions, the ability to buy and sell bitcoin from the app and a direct in-app link to bank accounts. And the merchant will require no hardware and not be asked to sign contracts or make any commitments.

“We’re on a mission,” says Daychopan, “to spread the word and sign up as many merchants as we can. And London is our chosen starting point for this crypto-crusade… Then we can give those Silicon Valley lot a run for their (digital) money,” becoming “a dominant force in crypto.”

For more information:

blog.lazycoins.com

www.lazycoins.com

www.lazypay.co.uk

www.lazynews.tv

Monday, January 26, 2015

Coinding Launches Bitcoin Gaming Hackathon

Coinding is launching a hackathon contest that focuses on putting Bitcoin into gaming.

Blockchain AI: 5 Top Reasons the Blockchain will Deliver Friendly AI

In recent news, Elon Musk and Steven Hawking reportedly foresee a potentially dangerous future in the advancement of AI (artificial intelligence).

Can Cryptosigma do for Consumers What BitPay did for Bitcoin Merchants?

Singapore-based Bitcoin exchange Cryptosigma has developed multi-signature desktop and mobile wallets that are set to ease users’ fears common at this stage of development in cryptocurrency. Many cust

Latest DarkWallet Release Enables cash Withdrawals from Thousands of Spanish ATM's

DarkWallet is inching another step closer to its first beta version, as it has released its eighth and – probably - final alpha version this past week. Most notably, this newest edition of the anonymi

Bitcoin Price Analysis: Week of Jan 26 (Spotting a Trend Change)

Bitcoin Analysis from CoinTelegraph.

Coinbase’s Licensed Exchange Sends Price Rocketing, But At What Cost?

The price of a Bitcoin is trending upwards once again in light of an announcement by US-based processor Coinbase that it will launch the first licensed Bitcoin exchange today.

How to Get a Job in Bitcoin

So you want a job in Bitcoin? Or Dogecoin or Darkcoin or ATOMIC? Disclosure: as someone who has a job in cryptocurrency, I give you my congratulations. Joining the future sooner than later is a smart

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Exploring the Bitcoin Lifestyle on Our Six-Week Holiday Road Trip

This past Thanksgiving, our family put the Bitcoin-travel economy to the test. We spent three weeks living on bitcoin only, as we explored ten states in our family minivan.

Paymium to 'Consolidate Its Position As a European Leader' for 2015

Following this week's announcement of Paymium's partnership with leading POS payment terminals manufacturer Ingenico Group, Paymium CEO and co-founder Gonzague Grandval, said similar initiatives and p

Weekend Roundup: 75 Million Reasons Coinbase is Winning and Braintree’s BTC Payments Now Open in Beta

Bitcoin Weekend Roundup from CoinTelegraph.

CoIntellect at BitcoinExpo 2015, COO: ‘Cloud Hashing is the Foundation of the Cryptocurrency Industry’

Yesterday January 24 was the first day of BitcoinExpo 2015 in London. The mining sponsor of this free-to-attend event is CoIntellect, a cloud hashing (mining) service provider, which has seen its own

Saturday, January 24, 2015

ziftrCOIN's Presale Ends Today After Attracted Organic and VC Investments Totaling US$860,000, CT Competition to Win a Portion Still On!

ziftrCOIN enters the final few hours of a presale round that ends tonight at midnight GMT.

Reflections on 2014 and the People, Places and Companies Who Championed the Year

Earlier this month, CoinTelegraph readers voted to choose the people, places and companies who deserved the most recognition for their achievements in our 2014 Bitcoin Industry Awards. After the votes

2015 International Virtual Crypto Summit announced

Following the success of the 2014 Crypto Money Virtual Expo, a new international summit announced to bring together crypto enthusiasts, start-ups, and experts. Global attendance expected, and as Gener

USD Drops 12% Against Bitcoin: Is the Dollar Dying? (Op-Ed)

As predicted, 2015 has seen the continued fall in value of the currency that was supposed to fuel an advanced economy. In the last 3 days alone, it has lost 12% in value against Bitcoin.