With no banks or international payment systems currently servicing the 3.8 million residents living in secessionist territories of eastern Ukraine, Bitcoin transfers remain one of the few options.
Friday, April 10, 2015
Kiev’s Economic Blockade Boosts Bitcoin Usage in Separatist East
With no banks or international payment systems currently servicing the 3.8 million residents living in secessionist territories of eastern Ukraine, Bitcoin transfers remain one of the few options.
eBay and PayPal Confirm Upcoming Separation, Support for Bitcoin Payments
In September 2014, eBay announced plans to separate eBay and PayPal. In a recent SEC filing, eBay confirmed that a newly formed corporation named PayPal Holdings, Inc. (“PayPal”) will take over the businesses that make up eBay’s payments segment. eBay, the existing publicly traded corporation, will continue to operate its marketplaces business.
The separation, which will provide current eBay stockholders with equity ownership in both eBay and PayPal, will be effected by means of a pro rata distribution of 100 percent of the outstanding shares of PayPal common stock to holders of eBay common stock.
“As two distinct publicly traded corporations, eBay and PayPal will be better positioned to capitalize on significant growth opportunities and focus their resources on their respective businesses and strategic priorities,” reads the eBay announcement. “As independent companies, we expect eBay and PayPal will be sharper and stronger, and more focused and competitive as leading, standalone companies in their respective markets. eBay and PayPal also will benefit from additional flexibility and agility to pursue new market and partnership opportunities.”
“Following the distribution of all of the outstanding shares of PayPal common stock by eBay Inc. to its stockholders, PayPal will be an independent, publicly traded company focused on making money work better for people and businesses around the world,” says Daniel H. Schulman, President and CEO-Designee of PayPal Holdings. “The access to and movement of money is an important market that affects the lives of almost everyone. Our mission is to increase our relevance for consumers, merchants, friends and family to access and move their money anywhere in the world, anytime, on any platform and through any device (e.g., mobile, tablets, personal computers or wearables).”
In the SEC filing, eBay and PayPal confirm that merchants with a standard PayPal account also can integrate with Braintree to begin accepting bitcoin payments.
Payment processor Braintree, which was acquired by eBay for USD $800 million in September 2013, will be part of PayPal Holdings under the new structure. Braintree permits merchants to accept bitcoin payments seamlessly in partnership with Coinbase, allowing their customers to pay with bitcoin instantly and securely on any device without manually transferring bitcoin or scanning QR codes. The Braintree bitcoin payments service, currently in public beta, has zero transaction fees on the first $1 million in bitcoin sales and a 1 percent fee for cashing out bitcoin to a bank account.
“Sell your products and services in the currency of your choice and let your customers pay with Bitcoin,” reads Braintree’s invitation to its clients. “We take care of the conversion, transfer, and transaction reporting that fits in with your existing Braintree workflow. Bitcoin transactions are confirmed in less than a few seconds, eliminating chargebacks, which reduces your exposure to online fraud.”
Besides bitcoin, PayPal allows merchants to accept Apple Pay and Venmo payments via Braintree.
The separation of eBay and PayPal, which will take place in 2015 (no exact date is given in the SEC filing) will allow the two companies to more effectively pursue distinct operating priorities and strategies and opportunities for long-term growth and profitability. In particular, PayPal’s management will be able to focus exclusively on its payments business, and enjoy “increased flexibility to pursue new partnership and strategic opportunities that may have previously been unavailable for strategic or other reasons.”
It seems likely that the increased flexibility and exclusive focus on online payments could result in PayPal taking a more active role in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
XAPO Partners with Online Gaming Company CEVO; Holds $21,000 Giveaway
Bitcoin company Xapo announced a partnership with e-sports company CEVO and bitcoin-based gaming service Leet to provide a seamless, bitcoin-enabled competitive gaming experience to players.
“We believe that gaming presents one of Bitcoin’s most exciting growth opportunities, as fast, inexpensive and secure bitcoin payments have the potential to open the global gaming community to players who lack access to a bank account or credit card,” notes the XAPO announcement. “CEVO users will now be able to earn and challenge their friends for bitcoins across some of the world’s most popular games.”
Founded in December of 2004 with the intention to transform competitive online gaming into a professional sport, CEVO (“Cyber Evolution”) hosts free and pay-to-play tournaments across a variety of AAA games such as Counter-Strike, a first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation, League of Legends and Team Fortress 2. Most CEVO e-sporting tournaments are based on the latest game in the Counter-Strike franchise, the online tactical first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (abbreviated as CS:GO). Leet also offers CS:GO and League of Legends tournaments.
CS:GO players join either the Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist team and attempt to complete objectives or eliminate the enemy team. Players purchase weapons and equipment at the beginning of every round, and winners receive compensation after the game ends. CS:GO is extremely realistic and addictive to hordes of adrenaline-filled online gamers who enough energy (and money) in the game to justify the label “e-sport.”
Upcoming Virtual Reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift, are expected to be able to provide even more realistic 360-degree immersion in online games, will further increase the appeal of e-sports.
“Over the last several months Xapo has invested substantial resources in trying to better understand how Bitcoin can be used to improve a game’s engagement, retention and monetization,” says XAPO’s Director of Business Development Fernando Gouveia. “As part of that effort, we have been developing new APIs that allow game developers to easily build in-game functionality for managing bitcoin deposits, withdrawals and transactions.”
“Do you play @CounterStrikeGO?” – asks Gouveia on Twitter. “Well now you can play against your friends for #bitcoin with @xapo, @cevo and @leetgg! “
XAPO recently partnered with multiuser Minecraft server BitQuest to explore the potential of bitcoin in online games and virtual worlds. BitQuest leverages the Xapo API and the open-ended feature set of the massively popular Minecraft game to create a compelling online gaming experience with an easy-to-use internal economy based on bitcoin.
“Bitcoin is the best candidate to be the official currency of virtual worlds and BitQuest, making it beyond gambling, using it to fuel virtual societies for fun and connecting people together, is a leap forward in the direction we want to see Bitcoin in gaming,” chief BitQuest developer Cristián Gonzáles told CoinDesk.
BitQuest has “serious gaming,” including a virtual architecture contest. That’s but a first example of converging virtual reality and blockchain technology, and shows how bitcoin can be a solid foundation for the in-game economies of social games such as Second Life and forthcoming virtual worlds such as “Second Life successor” High Fidelity.
Meanwhile, CEVO is giving away $21,000 in bitcoin to new users who open a CEVO account and link it to their XAPO bitcoin wallet.
Bitcoin for Freelancers: Popular Billing Service Hiveage Adds Bitcoin
Operating a small business with Bitcoin just got a bit easier. Online billing service Hiveage has announced its integration with Bitcoin wallet and exchange Coinbase, allowing its 45,000-plus small business and freelance clients around the world to invoice and accept payments in bitcoin.
“Bitcoin is quickly becoming a useful way of transferring value, and it’s been highly demanded over the past few months by our users,” says Hiveage founder and CEO, Lankitha Wimalarathna.
The company started receiving requests to add bitcoin support in June 2014, citing high transaction fees charged by other payment methods as the main reason.
“Many of the customers who wrote to us were already accepting payments in bitcoin,” said Prabhath Sirisena, co-founder and creative director of Hiveage. “Our new integration with Coinbase allows them accept direct bitcoin payments on their digital invoices sent via Hiveage. This makes it easier for them to keep track of their business finances, regardless of the currency.”
Hiveage offers clients the ability to send invoices and estimates, accept payments online, track time and expenses, manage teams and view detailed reports. While invoicing is a free service, other features are offered at an additional cost.
Connecting a Coinbase account and adding bitcoin as a payment and invoicing option will cost users $1.95 per month.
With clients in more than 140 countries worldwide already, Hiveage is planning a major push into the EU market, beginning with the Netherlands and Germany. Adding new payment services options, including bitcoin, is an important part of their global expansion strategy.
“Coinbase has a very strong position in the U.S., and they’re actively expanding in Europe,” said Sirisena. “This aligns well with our plans, too: The majority of our customers are from the U.S., but this year we’re focusing on making Hiveage an attractive option for the European market, where 20 percent of our customers come from.”
The company decided to focus on Amsterdam as a starting point after attending the Uprise Startup Festival in March. Amsterdam is also known to be a hub of Bitcoin activity, boasting an active meet-up community and Embassy. It was also the host of the Bitcoin 2014 conference last May, and will host Bitcoinference 2015 this May.
“There’s no shortage of great startups looking to share their experiences,” said Sirisena. “I’m really looking forward to seeing how people react to us and learning how we can make their billing workflows easier.”
Physical Bitcoins Are Back: Finnish Exchange Targets Asian Market
Finish company Denarium, owner of the country’s largest exchange Bittiraha.fi and ATM network Bittimaatti, has announced an international rollout of “next generation” physical bitcoins.
Foldapp Lets You Pay with Bitcoin at Starbucks and Get 20% Off
Foldapp is a website that allows you to get 20% off Starbucks purchases by paying with Bitcoin. They are looking to expand to other retail companies that accept gift cards.
JP Morgan CEO: We Will Compete with Bitcoin Startups ‘Partnering Where It Makes Sense’
JP Morgan Chase & Co., the largest bank in America and one of the world's major provider of financial services, recently issued its 2014 annual report.
APR 10 DIGEST: New Jersey Set to Tax Bitcoin, Mobile Giant Orange Investing in Digital Currency
New Jersey has clarified the position of merchants accepting bitcoin as payment; mobile operator Orange is searching out digital currency start-ups in Silicon Valley; GAW mining sued for US$500,000 an
PayPal Confirms Bitcoin Acceptance Option at SEC Ahead of EBay Split
PayPal has formally indicated that its merchants may now begin accepting bitcoin as one of their integrated payment methods.
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Bandwidth for Bitcoin: BitMesh Displays Working Prototype
The elephant in the room of any discussion about the future of Internet is the mesh network. How can we bypass the faulty mega-ISP model, and network peer-to-peer (P2P) instead?
Liberty.me Hosts Third Big-Name Bitcoin Podcast, Announces 3 BTC Competition Winners
Knowledge-sharing network Liberty.me’s embracing of cryptocurrency continues today with the third of the service’s celebrity Bitcoin podcasts.
French Telecom Giant Orange to Invest in Bitcoin Startups
French telecom carrier Orange is looking to invest in Bitcoin startups in the coming months, Bloomberg reports. Orange (formerly France Telecom), one of the largest telecom firms worldwide, is now one of the first big international phone carriers to become interested in the technology behind the digital currency.
“There’s something intriguing in this technology, so we want to be there as early as possible,” said Georges Nahon, CEO of Orange Silicon Valley. “This could be a digital platform of the future.”
Orange Silicon Valley has been holding Bitcoin events at its offices in San Francisco and is talking to two Bitcoin companies, Nahon said. The group can directly invest $20,000 per startup and tap into the larger funds of Orange Digital Ventures, the venture capital arm of Orange, which plans to support 500 startups worldwide by 2020 as outlined in its “Essentials 2020” strategy plan.
The Bloomberg article notes that venture capital investments in digital currency startups hit an all-time quarterly high of $233.95 million in the first quarter of 2015.
It may seem odd that Orange is planning to invest in Silicon Valley startups when there is plenty of talent in France and throughout Europe, but Nahon is persuaded that Silicon Valley still has an edge when it comes to disruptive technology development.
“Here’s where the spark of digital innovation is located and how the communication ecosystem is rapidly evolving,” he wrote in February. “This is why Orange Silicon Valley is in the San Francisco Bay Area. We’re here to work with companies to actively participate in these disruptive innovations.”
According to Nahon, the digital payments space will begin to see a marriage of new tech with incumbent institutions, which will opt for acquiring smaller, more agile and mobile-based startups, reminiscent of when mobile advertising firms were rapidly purchased in the past two years.
The Bloomberg article reports that, according to Nahon, Bitcoin technology could be used to cheaply transfer money between different countries. Orange already has more than 12 million users for its money transfer service Orange Money in Africa and the Middle East, and is looking to expand the business.
But Nahon realizes that the blockchain technology can have far-reaching implications beyond money transfer.
“Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin will remain a popular topic, but the focus starting in 2015 will be the adoption of blockchain,” Nahon wrote in January. “Developers and companies will flock to the technology in pursuit of developing the ‘blockchain killer application.’ Innovation like this will have implications far beyond payments, as it’ll be a new way for us to trust each other more generally, and facilitate changes in how society exchanges things of value.”
He added that new sources of funding and support for tech startups will come from renewed accelerators and incubators.
A related initiative is Orange Fab, the startup accelerator for Orange. It’s a three-month program that works with exceptional startups that are changing how people connect and communicate. Those accepted into the Orange Fab program receive help from engineers and business analysts onsite at Orange Silicon Valley, and also from thought-leaders, industry experts and investors active in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area.
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