Ahead of Switzerland’s gold referendum this weekend, Citibank has a released a report publicly criticizing both the metal and Bitcoin – with some content being so embarrassing it could be satire.
Friday, November 28, 2014
Pure Gold: Citibank Report says Bitcoin is Fiat Currency
Ahead of Switzerland’s gold referendum this weekend, Citibank has a released a report publicly criticizing both the metal and Bitcoin – with some content being so embarrassing it could be satire.
First Global Credit CEO, Gavin Smith: ‘The Blockchain has the Potential to Take the Stock Exchange to the Next Level’
CoinTelegraph reached out to First Global Credit CEO, Gavin Smith, who recently contributed his own Op-Ed piece about Anonymity vs. Privacy, to get his thoughts on the advantages of trading with bitco
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Bitcoin Foundation’s #TeamHal Fundraiser is Disingenuous (Op-Ed)
The Bitcoin Foundation has announced a fundraiser to give 25 bitcoins to “an organization that is doing great work in finding a cure for ALS.” Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—also known as Lou Geh
Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong: Remittance, Micro Transactions Will Be Areas of Focus in 2015
As CoinTelegraph has reported many times, it’s been a busy autumn for Coinbase. Earlier in November, we had a chance to sit down with Brian Armstrong, the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, to get his th
The Ultimate Bitcoin Black Friday Guide
Want to enjoy lavish Black Friday discounts with Bitcoin without the lines, camping out for several days, and the risk of violence?
American Red Cross Now Accepts BTC and Taking Part in 'Bitcoin Black Friday'
The American Red Cross is partnering with leading Bitcoin payment solutions provider BitPay to enable donations in the digital currency. The humanitarian organization said it will be participating in
Is Tim Swanson Right That Bitcoin Hoarding Is Bad?
Numbers blogger Tim Swanson recently used Bitcoin blockchain data graphs generated by John Ratcliff to declare that 70% of existing bitcoins have not been spent in six months.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
ZDNet’s Ken Hess Attacks Bitcoin as ‘Illegal’
The breaking news on Reddit today is an article by Ken Hess, “reporter” for ZDNet. The Reddit community seems to be in panic mode about Hess’s report that the United States Senate is poised to make Bi
We are happy to announce, just in time for Giving Tuesday, that the Ronald McDonald House of the Capital Region is the first charity in Upstate NY to accept Bitcoin donations!
PRESS RELEASE – 11/20/14
Albany, New York - Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Capital Region is making history by heading down technology lane and becoming the first local charity in Upstate New York to accept Bitcoin donations. They will partner with Bitcoin processing giant BitPay to handle their transactions, and the NY Bitcoin Group will help them get started.
“We are very excited to have our local Ronald McDonald House be the first chapter in the United States to start accepting a digital currency for donations. Bitcoin gives us the ability to send a nickel, a dime, or any other denomination, without the charity getting charged a fee, as they would using with other payment networks,” said Paul Paterakis, a member of the NY Bitcoin Group.
Elizabeth Ploshay of BitPay added, “In other words, through BitPay, they get 100% of the donation, as they would with cash, but unlike with cash, they can now receive donations from anywhere in the world, instantly.” BitPay is the lead global Bitcoin payment processor making donation functionality possible.
Currently, a few other charitable organizations in the United States and around the world accept Bitcoin, including the United Way and Greenpeace USA.
Paterakis said, “This will go down as a historic moment for Ronald McDonald House in Albany. People can be afraid to be the first when it comes to change, but sometimes the first to act are the most rewarded. I believe that will be the case here. The Bitcoin community is generous and I personally plan on matching up to $500 in Bitcoin donations to show my support. Any time I have a quarter or two sitting in my digital wallet, I’ll send it over.”
ABOUT THE COMPANIES
NY Bitcoin Group (http://ift.tt/1HGEvdt) was founded in June 2014 by Bitcoin enthusiasts from different industry sectors. Their goal is to promote Bitcoin and educate businesses within the Capital Region on setting up Bitcoin as a form of payment.
BitPay (www.bitpay.com) is the largest global Bitcoin payment service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. BitPay provides payment processing services for more than 40,000 businesses and processed over $100 million USD worth of Bitcoin transactions in 2013. In 2014, BitPay started processing $1 million USD daily.
Blackwave Labs Is Using Blackcoin To Develop Tools For Protesting 2.0
With protests exploding around the world, mesh networks are becoming an increasingly used tool. Blackwave Labs thinks cryptocurrencies can help and they are building the tools to bring about Protestin
Bitcoin Volatility: Are Alt Coins Taming the Beast?
Looking at charts showing the price of bitcoin over time is like looking at a child’s crude attempt to draw the world’s craziest roller-coaster. It has certainly been a wild ride for the brave few early adopters with the courage to hold a significant portion of their money in btc.
Since its earliest days, predicting the price of bitcoin next week, let alone next month or year, has largely been a fool’s game. Whilst 10% plus swings in a day would be exceptional events for any other currency or asset, it’s virtually the norm in the cryptocurrency world, and much larger fluctuations have not exactly been uncommon. This tendency for the price to change radically in a short space of time is known in financial circles as ‘volatility’. Something with a very stable price which doesn’t change much is said to have low volatility, whereas something like bitcoin is said to have high volatility.
Although day traders may revel in high volatility, as these price swings are where they make their money, it’s generally not seen as a good thing for everyone else. Personally, I have always thought that this high volatility is one of the main barriers to mass adoption of bitcoin by the general public. The average man or woman on the street simply isn’t going to want to convert any significant part of their wages into bitcoin if there is such a high risk that their value could so easily drop dramatically overnight. With rent and bills to pay, kids to feed and clothe, and so little extra cash, most people simply can’t take a risk like that with their money, even if they may want to. Of course there are services which aim to combat this by allowing people to ‘lock in’ a certain fiat value of bitcoin in their wallet, having a balance of say $400 worth of BTC instead of a balance of 1 BTC. But although these services may help more people to use bitcoin, they do little to increase the number of people who own bitcoin and in any case they take away some of the natural benefits of cryptocurrency as you have to trust your coins to a centralized financial service provider and, of course, they stop you benefiting from any increases in price over time, just the same as they ameliorate any risk from any sudden falls.
Volatility is also a problem for most businesses which may want to work with bitcoin. With fixed costs in fiat and a volatile bitcoin price most businesses must avoid holding any coins. As a result of this, retailers, for example, must sell their coins instantly as soon as their customers pay with them – which again reduces the number of people holding coins. Some commentators have even speculated that this sell-off by retailers has been partly responsible for this year’s price decline.
Fortunately, it does seem that volatility is decreasing over time. For example, this chart, which shows volatility calculated using a 30-day rolling window, appears to show a long term down trend since 2010:
Source: http://btcvol.info/
There are some good reasons to think that this will continue. One reason may be that as more time passes people have a clearer idea of what they think each coin should be worth, and are more confident in their valuation. In other words, as we get more and more information about the use of bitcoin, uncertainty gradually decreases, taking volatility with it. But this can only take us so far. Ultimately it is unlikely that the price will be as stable as the fiat currencies of today, because there is nothing behind the price of bitcoin – as people have often said, there are no fundamentals ‘backing’ the price.
The answer to the question of what a bitcoin is worth is the same as the question of what a dollar is worth (if we consider it to be a currency, to be used for buying things). The answer is, simply, it is worth whatever you can buy with it. If you can buy a loaf of bread for a dollar then the value of a dollar = 1 loaf of bread. Of course dollars aren’t valued exclusively in bread – the value is equal to anything which can be bought for a dollar. This may sound like I’m pointlessly stating the obvious, but this is a major part of the inertia behind the value of any currency which can be freely traded. That’s because if the value of a dollar changes against other currencies, without there being a corresponding change in the fundamentals of the US econonomy and how it interacts with the global economy, then everything priced in dollars is effectively ‘the wrong price’. If the dollar is too cheap then, unless everyone re-prices everything they sell, American products are all too cheap, and the world buys dollars to buy the products, but if the dollar is too expensive then people stop paying for American products and services so demand for the dollar declines and the price must fall. What that means is that the value of the dollar should only fluctuate with the fundamentals of the US economy, and any additional volatility coming from traders should be dampened by underlying economic forces. This is an oversimplification of course, because politicians and bankers routinely engage in practices which distort the markets (google ‘petrodollar’ for the most infamous example), but the general principle is sound and this remains a significant part of the way foreign currency markets work.
These powerful forces, which dampen a currency’s volatility, can only operate if products or services are actually priced in that currency, otherwise nothing could ever end up being ‘the wrong price’. One big reason why bitcoin is so volatile compared to, say, the dollar, or the euro, is therefore the fact that very few things are actually priced in dollars. This is becomes a vicious circle: businesses can’t price their products in BTC because of the volatility, so they price them in dollars and simply use Bitcoin as a payment solution, which in turn contributes to that same volatility.
In many ways this is a real shame, because the use of national fiat currencies by internationalized internet businesses with customers all over the world often doesn’t make much sense. Our use of these national currencies is a very real drag on the growth of successful businesses and digital currency could well be the answer. One of the great advantages of Bitcoin is that it is fundamentally an international currency, independent of national government – the Esperanto of money. The use of Bitcoin for international pricing could, therefore, one day be one of its biggest growth drivers. But for that to happen, the vicious circle needs to be broken, and volatility needs to give way to steady price growth.
Although very few things are priced in bitcoin at the moment (even the Bitcoin Foundation prices its memberships in USD) there are some things. In particular other crypto currencies, or ‘alt coins’, and tokens issued as part of crowd-funding initiatives. In many cases these things can only be bought with BTC, and as a result an increase or decrease in price is measured in BTC.
Alt coins don’t always have the best reputation amongst Bitcoin purists. They may be seen as reducing Bitcoin’s network effect before it has even had a chance to hit the big time by competing unnecessarily. They harbour many scams and often fail, leaving their supporters out of pocket and perhaps disillusioned with the whole idea of cryptocurrency. But it may be that they are actually providing Bitcoin with the most valuable service possible: they may be the beginning of a newly emerging economy priced in BTC.
Despite a slow down in the number of new alt coins being launched, this is still a growth area, too. With projects springing up every day to introduce novel uses of the blockchain using tokens that are sold for bitcoin, there is an ever growing number of things whose price or value must change whenever the bitcoin price changes if they are to avoind being ‘the wrong price’. For example, Patrick Byrne’s Medici is seeking to build a legally compliant stock market on top of the Bitcoin protocol using the Counterparty protocol (which itself hasn’t always been popular with Bitcoiners). In the future it may not only be new coins and small software projects which are priced in BTC, but also large international businesses such as Overstock. And what could be more natural than a company doing business with Bitcoin, whose success is at least partially linked to the success of Bitcoin, being valued in bitcoin?
Alt coins, then, may just be the foundation and beginning of a new economy in which Bitcoin is not just a payment technology, but a transnational unit of value – the first truly international currency.
Uncoinventional Activist Journalist, Derrick Broze, Powered by Bitcoin
Bitcoin has become a powerful tool for independent activist journalists. In the past, news writers and correspondents would compete for limited professional opportunities with large media networks. The message was highly centralized and filtered from the top.
As technology has evolved, it has empowered mass coverage of anti-establishment opinions. The Internet has allowed anyone with a message to have a voice and Bitcoin has allowed anyone with a dream to fund it.
As news coverage opportunities arise, indie media personalities can crowdfund an on-location trip with bitcoin and buy a plane ticket through CheapAir almost instantaneously. This removes the need for a large network to cover travel costs, which helps to create a de-centralized source for unfiltered news.
Never before has documenting the realities of the world been so simple for the independent journalist.
Meet Derrick Broze, a bitcoin powered independent activist journalist.
I was introduced to Derrick at a Houston, Texas End the Fed rally. I was instantly captivated by his warm energy and profound life perspective, so I began to follow his social media channels.
Over the years his activism became his journalism and he began to travel the country covering and creating unique media events. He was first introduced to bitcoin about two years ago, and began accepting the cryptocurrency as payment for his stories on The Liberty Beat.
He typically spends his bitcoin on plane tickets to get to his next news story, but Derrick doesn’t only fly. He also spent several months riding his bike across the country, documenting sustainable communities and like minded groups of people that he crossed paths with along the way.
This powerfully creative individual founded his own multimedia operation, The Conscious Resistance Network, and a local activist group, The Houston Free Thinkers. He also writes for Tony Stiles, Ben Swann, The Liberty Beat, The Anti Media, and more!
Catherine Bleish: When did you become aware of bitcoin?
Derrick Broze: Around 2012 is the first time I started hearing about BTC.
What was your first bitcoin transaction?
My first bitcoin transaction was getting paid for writing for The Liberty Beat!
When did you become a journalist?
Around 2012 my activism started to become journalism. Since then I have had many opportunities to write and gather news.
What sort of topics do you like to cover?
I like to focus on Indigenous Movements, grassroots activism, [and] National Security, and I have a long-term hobby of trying to finish the work of some of the journalists who have died under mysterious circumstances. Of course I also like writing about bitcoin and the ways that technology can free humanity.
What publications do you write for?
I write for TheLibertyBeat.com, BenSwann.com, TonyStiles.com, theAntiMedia.org, Earth We Are One, and ConnexionW magazine in Houston.
Have you used bitcoin to travel for your journalism?
Yes! I have received investments in my journalism through BTC!
What bitcoin services do you prefer? (Wallets, plane tickets, etc..)
I love being able to buy plane tickets with bitcoin.
Where do you spend your bitcoin?
Most of my bitcoin has gone towards plane tickets but I have also paid for some homemade soaps at Jackalope Fest in Arizona.
How do you bring bitcoin into your life?
I write!
What major writing projects do you have in the works?
I am working with John Vibes on a book titled “The Conscious Resistance: Reflections on Anarchy and Spirituality”. The book will explore the synthesis of various spiritual beliefs and anarchist, libertarian, and voluntaryist philosophy.
How can people follow you?
You can find me on Facebook and http://ift.tt/1354Tfr. All my writing can be found at http://ift.tt/1yXk8Tl
Donation Addresses
Paypal: dbroze@thehoustonfreethinkers.com
BTC: 1LVATadEVsd4X4wf9k2W1Xv2SKn5q57s1M
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