Bitcoin

US State Representative adopts Bitcoin donation system

"US State Representative Mark Warden has added a Bitcoin donation system to his campaign Website, marking the first use of the decentralised virtual currency system by a sitting incumbent politician. He says Bitcoin will allow online transactions that are not 'subject to the inflationary whims of the Federal Reserve or other central banks'. 'This is a cutting-edge technology that is market based, voluntary, and extremely innovative,' counters Warden. 'I have constituents and vendors who prefer this medium of exchange, so it's natural to want to respond to the marketplace.'" Continue reading →

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Y Combinator-backed Coinbase now selling over $1M Bitcoin per month

"Coinbase launched last year and aims to be 'the PayPal of Internet-only currency.' It helps merchants and consumers by providing a Bitcoin wallet and platform to make transactions easier, but the vast majority of its revenue comes from letting users buy and sell Bitcoins directly from Coinbase. It charges a one percent fee on top of each transaction. The company claims that it has seen huge growth in the past three months, after it started letting users buy and sell Bitcoin by connecting any U.S. bank account. The decentralized currency is currently trading at $22.66 per Bitcoin on Mt. Gox, the largest Bitcoin exchange." Continue reading →

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How to Order a Pizza With Bitcoins

"The aptly, albeit somewhat unimaginatively, named Pizzaforcoins.com makes it possible for anyone to place a pizza order and pay for it using Bitcoins. To place an order, enter your name and address. The site then redirects you to an online order menu that has various options and their respective prices (in BTC). Once a selection is made, Pizzaforcoins verifies that the payment has been made and an order is placed within 10 minutes. Orders can currently only be placed with Domino's Pizza, but the site's fine print indicates that they'll soon be adding Pizza Hut and Papa John's into the mix." Continue reading →

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Is The ECB Responsible For The Second Coming Of Bitcoin?

"Why the ECB suddenly felt threatened so much by Bitcoin, it felt an imperative to issue a 55 page paper decrying such electronic currencies we will never know. What we do know, however, courtesy of a reminder by Bloomberg's Max Raskin, is that since the publication of said paper, the value of Bitcoin as tracked by the Mtgox exchange, has soared some 40% in just under three months, from a 'fiat equivalent value' of $13 to a most recent closing price of $18.50, and has doubled in the past 12 months alone." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin’s Gains May Fuel Central Bank Concerns

"An increase in the value of bitcoin, the world’s largest online currency, may fuel concerns that virtual money could undermine the role of central banks. Bitcoin has more than doubled in the past 12 months, strengthening to $16.37 from $5.88, according to data from Mt. Gox, the world’s largest bitcoin exchange. Greater demand for virtual currencies could have a negative impact on the reputation of central banks, according to a report published by the European Central Bank in October last year. Since the report was released, bitcoin has risen more than 55 percent against the dollar and use of the currency has surged." Continue reading →

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Why Bitcoin is the banking industry’s newest, biggest threat

"Bitcoin’s big advantage is that it is essentially the cold, hard cash of the Internet. Instead of bills, Bitcoin’s software keeps a public ledger of every transaction among users. If a buyer and seller are running the software on their computers, they can directly exchange Bitcoins, anonymously and with no taxes or bank fees. Others can pay a company to process the payment. Bitcoin accounts are listed simply as a string of letters and numbers with no names attached, giving a level of anonymity impossible with debit and credit cards or even PayPal accounts." Continue reading →

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BitPay Surpasses 10,000 Bitcoin Merchant Transactions, Zero Cases of Payment Fraud

"The key benefit that companies are starting to realize with bitcoin is the fraud mitigation. With credit cards, one out of every 167 transactions turns out to be fraudulent for domestic orders, and for international orders the rate is one out of every 50 transactions (source: Cybersource 2012 Online Fraud Report). Every day, more companies are starting to see the value that bitcoin can bring to their business, whether it’s reducing risk, expanding international sales, or improving efficiency." Continue reading →

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The Case for the Bitcoin Cryptocurrency

"Bitcoin takes the basic theorem that anything that be done with a trusted authority can be done without a trusted authority and applies the theorem to the combined fields of cryptography and currency, which is now known as cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency that exists today. Bitcoin is a free open source peer-to-peer electronic cash system that is completely decentralized, without the need for a central server or trusted parties. Users hold the crypto keys to their own money and transact directly with each other, with the help of a P2P network to check for double-spending." Continue reading →

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BitPay Banks $510K In Investment To Become PayPal for Bitcoin, Already Has 2,100 Businesses On Board

"What makes Bitcoin so interesting is that it flies in the face of payment models that we’re used to today; it’s a push model rather than a pull one. When you give a website your credit card and billing information to buy something, the company is pulling money out of your account. Giving up that personal information isn’t the safest thing, and Bitcoin allows you to 'push' the money to a company to buy something. This means that no personally identifiable information goes with it, making eventual identity theft and fraud nearly impossible during the transaction." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin’s Potential Impact on the Global Gaming Industry

"Among the discussions Ver and Voorhees conducted at the Social Gaming Asia Summit was with one of Macau’s leading junket operators. While declining to identify the operator by name, Ver told GamblingCompliance that he and Voorhees had 'spent the whole day' discussing Bitcoin’s potential with the company, which was 'in the early process of setting it up so that all their customers can exchange to and from Bitcoins with the local currency in nine of the major casinos in Macau, including the Wynn, the Venetian and the MGM Grand.'" Continue reading →

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