This week, the Commonwealth Virtual Currencies Working Group made up of Australia, Barbados, Kenya, Nigeria, Singapore and Tonga, together with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, concluded a three-day conference in London with a consensus: “Member states should consider the applicability of their existing legal frameworks to...
Monday, August 31, 2015
Barclays to Begin Offering Bitcoin Payments for Customers, Beginning with Charities
Barclays is about to become the first mainstream bank to openly and directly support bitcoin transactions, The Sunday Times reports. The Daily Mail echoed the news for its huge readership.
Barclays has been experimenting with Bitcoin and working with digital currency start-ups for some time. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley European...
Ukraine May Soon Legalize Bitcoin
Ukraine may soon legalize Bitcoin. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) is seriously looking into the possibilities of implementing Bitcoin’s technology into the financial system according to Ukraine...
AUG 31 DIGEST: Barclays to Enable Charitable Bitcoin Donations; BTC Businesses Prepare for Next 'Stress Test'
Barclays announced that it will allow people to make donations to charities in bitcoin; bitcoin exchanges and wallet companies are developing strategies to deal with the CoinWallet's upcoming “stre...
Gok!llo: Kickstarter & Indiegogo ‘No Longer Suitable for Modern Crowdfunding’
CoinTelegraph spoke with Ram Budime, the Business Development Manager of Gok!llo, a new bitcoin-powered crowfunding platform, on their innovative approach to crowndfundi...
Sunday, August 30, 2015
FinTech Digest: Bitcoin Transactions In Cuba, The Debut Of Coin 2.0, Coinbase Tests New Service In Europe
The U.S. and Cuba transact in bitcoin, Coin (the all-in-one credit card) has revealed the second iteration of its card, Coinbase allows users to purchase bitcoin with debit and credit cards, and mo...
Bitmain Announces Launch of Next-Generation Antminer S7 Bitcoin Miner
Bitmain, the Bitcoin mining ASIC provider, Sunday announced the release of its next-generation Bitcoin miner, the Antminer S7, using the recently announced BM1385 ASIC.
The company argues that “this machine is not only our most efficient ever, using less than half the energy per gigahash of the S5, but it is also our most powerful miner...
BitPay: ‘Silicon Valley is Becoming a Bitcoin Hub’
Bitpay Chief Commercial Officer Sonny Singh led a discussion about bitcoin, the importance of the block chain technology to banks and the rapid growth in VC investmen...
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Bitcoin Block Battle: Top Corporations Support BIP 101 as Debate Rages On
The battle rages on within the Bitcoin community on how to move forward with potential hard fork changes designed to accommodate larger block size...
Andreas Antonopoulos Thinks Bitcoin ATMs Need to Be Completely Redesigned
Mastering Bitcoin Author Andreas Antonopoulos recently gave at talk at Harvard’s i-lab, spending much of his time in front of a small audience describing the various issues with Bitcoin as a brand. He noted many problems with the terminology[add link to bitcoin terminology is broken and wrong piece] used in Bitcoin, and he also focused on...
BIP 100 Support Grows; 21% Attack Worries Remain
Many major mining pools and firms including KnCMiner, Bitfury, f2pool, BTCChina and 21 Inc. have begun to publicly support Jeff Garzik’s BIP 100, by dedicating a huge part of their hashing power to ...
Friday, August 28, 2015
Coinbase Launches Instant Exchange to Help Users Avoid Bitcoin Volatility
Coinbase users can now send bitcoin payments without being exposed to the digital currency’s volatility.
Users with a fiat wallet (must be verified in order to get it) allows use of Bitcoin’s global payment network without being exposed to the price of the digital currency. Coinbase’s Instant Exchange deducts an equal amount to the bitcoin the user wants to send, effectively exchanging the two. The service is similar to one offered...
Bitcoin Market Aimed at College Students, CoinBase Bitcoin Give Away
The San Francisco-based bitcoin wallet provider has successfully given away free bitcoin to more than 20,000 college students.
CyptoCoins News reported that any student signing up for Coinbase would receive $10 worth of bitcoin. Students were required to verify enrollment by signing up with an email domain ending in “edu.”
At the time...
CardCash Adds Bitcoin Payments for Gift Cards at Thousands of US Retail Stores
CardCash, an American online company that buys and sells discounted gift cards from thousands of national retailers, has begun to accept bitcoin payments. CardCash joins companies like Gyft and Fold that provide ways for Bitcoin users to interact with the massive gift card industry.
“We saw that bitcoin was getting a lot of traction...
Investors Weight Bitcoin’s Prospects as Fear Levels Rise Across Global Markets
As weak economic data from China hit asset prices globally, Bitcoin Magazine spoke to a number of experts to assess the impact on the price of bitcoin.
Since its introduction in 2009, soon after the outbreak of the Great Recession, bitcoin has been championed as a more reliable store of long-term value than fiat money given bitcoin’s capped...
A Closer Look at BIP100: The Block Size Proposal Bitcoin Miners are Rallying Behind
The block-size limit debate has taken a turn now that some of Bitcoin’s biggest mining pools are publicly endorsing BIP 100 (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 100) instead of backing a Bitcoin XT blockchain fork. So far, F2Pool, BTCChina, BitFury, KnCMiner, 21 Inc. and several smaller pools have come out in support of this alternative proposal....
Bitcoin Businesses Take Steps to Prepare for CoinWallet’s September Stress Test
CoinWallet.eu, the U.K.-based Bitcoin mining and wallet business has said it will be running another “stress test” in early September to test the Bitcoin network, according to International Business Times.
The company told the international journal that this round of “test” or “spam” attacks “will likely render most standard wallet software...
AUG 28 DIGEST: Major Mining Pools Support BIP100; Tree Signatures Proposed by Blockstream's Pieter Wuille
Bitcoin mining pools BTCChina, BitFury, KnCMiner and 21 Inc. are now publicly backing Core developer Jeff Garzik's BIP100 block size limit proposal, and more top stories for August 2...
Life Inside a Bitcoin Mine: Interview with Genesis Mining’s Marco Streng
CoinTelegraph spoke with Genesis Mining head Marco Streng on the current state of the mining industry, the Life Inside a Bitcoin Mine project that aims to make cloud mining transparent, and how he s...
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Case Announces September 21 Shipping Date for Bitcoin Hardware Wallets
Bitcoin wallet manufacturer Case Inc. has concluded the final phase of testing and announced that the company will begin shipping its hardware wallets on September 21.
“Appropriation of parts is complete and the manufacturing process is nearing its end. Everyone at Case is eager to get our device in the hands of our customers who have patiently...
Leading Bitcoin Startups Integrate Vogogo’s Risk Management Platform
This week, Vogogo announced in its second-quarter financial statements that leading Bitcoin companies, including BitPay, ChangeTip, Genesis Global Trading and Zinger, have integrated Vogogo’s risk management/compliance products onto their platforms.
Vogogo’s services include customer verification, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism...
Princeton University and Coursera Launch Free Online Course on Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies
A Princeton University free online course on “Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies” will be offered by Coursera beginning September 4, 2015.
Coursera is an online education platform for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which partners with top universities and organizations worldwide, to offer courses online for anyone to take for...
World’s First Blockchain-Based Startup Marketplace Set to Launch by Funderbeam
Data intelligence provider Funderbeam is set to launch the world’s first blockchain based investment trading platform over the next few months, through a partnership with colored coins developer Chr...
AUG 27 DIGEST: Patrick Byrne Brings Bitcoin Tech to Wall St. with $30M Deal; California Seeks to Avoid a Repeat BitLicense Exodus
California is working to stop businesses from moving out of the state in its version of the BitLicense; Patrick Byrne signs US$30M deal to bridge the gap between Bitcoin technology and Wall Street; ...
The Gox Effect: Japan Slowly Turning Against Bitcoin Exchanges (Op-Ed)
Bitcoin and Japan have had an interesting and strained relationship over the last three year...
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Tim Draper Speaks on Global Equity Turmoil: “I Expect People to Run to Bitcoin the Way They Do to Gold.”
It has been a rollercoaster of a ride for global equity investors over the past few days. Besides the month-long slide in the Chinese markets, the Dow plummeted from approximately 16,459 on August 21st to 15,446 on the 24th.
When the going gets tough, investors have historically flocked toward assets that are considered safer, including...
Bitcoin Interest Grows in India From Cross-Border Payments and Corporate Support
Tech giants including Microsoft and IBM have been supporting Bitcoin startups, conferences, accelerators and developers in India. The efforts of these companies are beginning to pay off, as India has seen a gradual increase in the number of developers and freelancers in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
“There is lot of interest from freelancers in...
Blockstream’s Pieter Wuille Proposes Tree Signatures for Improved and Flexible Multisig Bitcoin Transactions
In June, Bitcoin Magazine reported that Blockstream launched Sidechain Elements, a sidechain development framework with open source code, including an experimental sidechain for developers dubbed Elements Alpha. Now, in the first technical post to appear on the Blockstream blog after the announcement of Sidechain Elements, Blockstream...
Interpol Trains Police Officers to Use Cryptocurrency and the Darknet
INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation has recently completed a specialized training to identify the methods and strategies used to avoid detection on the Darknet, which often use non-standard commu...
AUG 26 DIGEST: Big Mining Pools Oppose Bitcoin XT Fork; Tor Vulnerability Suspends BTC Black Market Operations
A significant chunk of mining pools has taken a fierce stand against Bitcoin XT; the largest currently operating bitcoin black market has decided to halt operations due to a Tor de-anonymizing vulne...
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Announcing The Nov 8 – 11 Mobile Payments Exchange
Three days of focused, structured business development and information exchange about the state of mobile payments.
USA: Industry leaders are predicting a drastic climb in mobile payments over the next four years. Researchers estimate that Mobile payment transactions will reach $800 billion by 2019, and that number will continue to grow....
Major Mining Pools Make a Stand Against Bitcoin XT Fork, Support for BIP 100 Grows
It has been little over a week since Mike Hearn and Gavin Andresen included Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 101 (BIP 101) into the alternative Bitcoin implementation Bitcoin XT. BIP 101 is designed to create a hard fork in the blockchain to allow for blocks of up to 8 megabytes, doubling every two years.
Despite a major uproar on forums,...
Gem CEO: Bitcoin Regulations are Trying to Fit a Round Peg in a Square Hole
Regulation has always been a contentious issue in the Bitcoin industry. Some members of the community wish to avoid any regulation at all costs, while others want to work closely with regulators to bring clarity to the space as soon as possible. A panel on Bitcoin regulation was recently featured at the American Banker Digital Currency Conference,...
AUG 25 DIGEST: 8 Leading Bitcoin Companies Pledge Support for BIP101; Bitcoin Exchange Rate Falls Below $200
BitPay, Blockchain.info, Circle, KnCMiner, Bitnet, Xapo, BitGo and itBit have agreed to implement Gavin Andresen’s BIP 101; F2Pool instead backs BIP100; the bitcoin exchange rate fell below US$200 a...
Stefan Thomas: 'One Day We Will Decentralize Ripple'
Ripple has never been a favorite in Bitcoin circles, although it has grabbed the attention of banks and remittance powerhouse Western Unio...
Global Stock Markets Plunge Up to 10%
In a show of volatility that only Bitcoin users and some third world countries are really used to, markets around the world have seen falls in price of up to 10% over Monday and early Tuesda...
Monday, August 24, 2015
Government, Central Bankers and Google Are Creating a ‘Fiat Mt. Gox’ (Op-Ed)
Mt. Gox. The collapse. The official story goes that it was hacked many times, starting in 201...
7 Leading Bitcoin Companies Pledge Support for BIP101 and Bigger Blocks
Leading bitcoin startups including BitPay, Blockchain.info, Circle, KnCMiner, Bitnet, Xapo and BitGo have come to a consensus to implement Gavin Andresen’s BIP 101, and to expand the current block size to 8 megabytes, after a long discussion with core developers, miners and the companies’ technical teams. A statement of their support was...
Kim DotCom: ‘China in Big Trouble. Buy Bitcoin Now’
Internet industry magnate and financial markets prognosticator Kim DotCom says now is the time to buy bitcoin in light of the Chinese stock market meltdown and a worsening outlook for the global eco...
Buy Bitcoins with Your Debit/Credit Card via New Coinbase Service
How to actually buy bitcoins is one of the most frustrating, trickiest, and most inconvenient parts of getting started with digital currenc...
AUG 24 DIGEST: Stanford Offers Bitcoin Course; Glidera Launches Non-Custodial Bitcoin Buying Service for Wallets
The Californian Stanford University School of Engineering will offer a new course on Bitcoin, Glidera has launched a service that allows wallets to use an API to buy and sell bitcoin directly, and m...
Bitcoin Price Analysis: $220 Must Hold (Week of Aug 24)
Bitcoin has been in a giant trading range all year. As the chart below shows, it’s been range bound between ~US$220 and ~US$30...
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Stripe Integrates Alipay; 500 Million New Potential Customers
Stripe, arguably one of the fastest growing fintech startup that allows users to accept payments through several different payment service providers has recently announced its support for Alipay, Ch...
David Seaman: ‘Stop Competing and Just Make Everything Interoperable’
CoinTelegraph caught up with independent journalist and podcast host David Seaman to talk about the Bitcoin blocksize debate, BitLicense exodus, altcoins and gaming, as well as what bitcoin needs to...
Saturday, August 22, 2015
E-Coin Founders Talk Bitcoin Debit Cards and 50% Monthly User Growth
CoinTelegraph spoke with E-coin founders Pavel Matveev and Dmitry Lazarichev about competition in the bitcoin debit card market, the importance of multi-sig security, and crowd investment with BnkTo...
FinTech Digest: 25 FinTech Unicorns Ranked; Andreessen Horowitz Adds New General Partner
Business Insider ranks 25 FinTech companies worth over US$1 billion; Bitnet and PAY.ON join forces and more top stories from this week in FinTec...
Friday, August 21, 2015
Everything You Need to Know about the Proposed Changes to the Bitcoin Block Size Cap
Bitcoin has entered into a new phase of its existence. Prominent developers Mike Hearn and Gavin Andresen have made changes to the alternative Bitcoin implementation Bitcoin XT, designed to fork Bitcoin’s blockchain in order to allow for bigger blocks.
Bitcoin users and – in particular – miners are, therefore, faced with a choice. Will they...
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