Virtual currency stays strong despite bankruptcies, gyrating rates
By Craig Timberg, WP
Future generations of Bitcoin billionaires may someday look back on 2014 with knowing smiles. Here was a year when thefts spread, exchanges collapsed, rates gyrated like a teenager’s moods. And yet the buying of bitcoins showed no signs of abating.
The past week was particularly extreme. The apparent suicide of an American business executive in Singapore was investigated for possible ties to her Bitcoin investments. A California man fingered as the currency’s mysterious inventor reacted to his sudden fame by asking that journalists buy him lunch. After finishing his meal at a sushi restaurant, he went on to deny any role whatsoever in Bitcoin.
Perhaps the most surprising development was that the virtual currency, despite wild fluctuations in value, continued to weather the mayhem. As the humans involved in the adventure looked increasingly vulnerable, Bitcoin looked comparatively solid, trading nearly 10 percent higher Saturday than a week before. Each bitcoin is worth more than $600 in recent trading.
“Bitcoin works really well,” said Matthew Green, a Johns Hopkins University cryptographer who is working to develop a different virtual currency. “All this craziness around Bitcoin isn’t around Bitcoin itself. It’s around the people.”
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Sunday, March 9, 2014
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Why Bitcoin Is Here To Stay
With the recent implosion of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox and the publication of a questionable story about the indentity of bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin has stayed in the headlines these past few weeks. And while some commentators and skeptics have been quick to pronounce its demise at every turn, the value of the cryptocurrency has hovered between $600-700 a coin through it all.
Reason TV interviewed Mercatus Center policy analyst and bitcoin expert Jerry Brito in April 2013, and he predicted a long, lasting future for the technology.
Read more...
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Always use caution -- Scams abound!
A Wisconsin man has lost $150,000 after attempting to exchange a stash of digital currency bitcoins for physical bitcoin tokens with a British scam artist. Jamie Russell, 34, was attempting to secure money he had made investing in bitcoin when a unit of the digital currency was trading for $5 (it’s trading today for well over $800 per bitcoin). He contacted a British man through the website bitcointalk.org and arranged to send him 201.7 virtual bitcoins in exchange for 190 physical bitcoin tokens. These tokens do exist, and are typically physical “coins” loaded with the encrypted digital currency. When the British man did not send him the physical tokens and cut off communication, Russell reported the theft to U.K. authorities, TwinCities.com reports. Russell does not expect to get his money back, even if the person who stole from him is prosecuted. Despite the fraud, Russell remains a bitcoin proponent. ”Everything I’ve done in the bitcoin realm has been with my eyes wide open,” he said
Read more: Bitcoin Scam Costs Wisconsin Man Jamie Russell $150,000 | TIME.com
Monday, February 3, 2014
USPS May Find Unlikely Savior In Bitcoin
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg News’ Megan Hughes reports on the possibility of a Bitcoin exchange joining the financial services offered by the United States Postal Service on Bloomberg Television’s “In The Loop.”
Bitcoin Volatility and the New Normal
In recent weeks, something interesting has happened to the price of bitcoins: It hasn't changed very much. In December, Bitcoin prices gyrated wildly, but since the start of the year it's gradually gotten less volatile.
Bitcoin's declining volatility is part of a recurring cycle the Bitcoin economy has experienced repeatedly over the past three years. It starts when a wave of publicity attracts new Bitcoin speculators and pushes Bitcoin prices to unprecedented highs. That creates an unsustainable price bubble. The bubble pops, leading to plummeting prices and high volatility. But then the price gradually stabilizes, settling on a "new normal" price.
This pattern suggests that the extreme price volatility that has bedeviled Bitcoin since its inception is likely to prove a temporary phenomenon. Bitcoin prices become volatile when a wave of media attention attracts a swarm of new users. As the Bitcoin economy grows and matures, these growing pains will become less frequent and less severe.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Gaming with Bitcoin
Liberty Games in the UK has introduced tech that allow pool tables and now arcade games to be paid for via Bitcoin!
New tech embracing Bitcoin means that it's gaining traction towards acceptance in mainstream markets.
http://www.libertygames.co.uk
Tiger Direct Processes $500,000 in Bitcoin Payments
If you're a member, you already know that in this half million in sales, there are likely to be a very large number of people who were misinformed/flat out duped into purchases of inferior Bitcoin mining equipment by Tiger Direct. While the equipment shown/sold on their Bitcoin page CAN be used to mine Bitcoin, it's far better put to use in other ways as we discuss with our members.
On Thursday, January 23, 2014, Tiger Direct announced they would start accepting bitcoin as an alternative payment method. While Tiger Direct isn’t the first major online retailer to start accepting bitcoins, they are the first major online electronics retailer to do so.
The Tiger Direct website offers over 200,000 products and is a popular shopping destination for PC users. According to Steven Leeds, the marketing chief at Tiger Direct, “With individuals building their own high-powered PCs with parts offered on our site to mine Bitcoins, it’s a logical fit.”
Tiger Direct has already started utilizing this acceptance as an opportunity to market their Bitcoin mining catalog. Tiger Direct has also partnered with AMD in order to offer a variety of mining-friendly graphic cards.
Since their Thursday announcement, Tiger Direct has processed more than $500,000 in Bitcoin payments. These total was spent on over 2500 separate orders. According to Tiger Direct, $250,000 of that was processed in the first 17 hours following their announcement. Overall, the company processes approximately $2 billion in purchases each year.
Read more at Josic
Friday, January 31, 2014
Meltdown Comics Accepts Bitcoin
Meltdown Comics started taking the buzzworthy currency of the moment, Bitcoin, at its store on Thursday, joining the growing but still small in number ranks of physical stores that take bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a "cryptocurrency," essentially serving as digital currency that's protected by cryptography. It's been tied to illicit activities due to the ability to bypass traditional routes that could lead to transfers being tracked, but it's also been gaining some mainstream acceptance.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Bitcoin Center NYC
Where should a pioneer of digital currency open shop? Wall St of course!
Like many other locales around the world, residents of NYC can now take their digital currency to a real world location, Bitcoin Center NYC on Wall St, for buying and selling.
While it's always possible to meet someone one on one, having the ability to meet in a public forum where you can exchange and discuss bitcoins allows more people to learn about the cryptocurrency and how it can potentially impact our world.
Like many other locales around the world, residents of NYC can now take their digital currency to a real world location, Bitcoin Center NYC on Wall St, for buying and selling.
While it's always possible to meet someone one on one, having the ability to meet in a public forum where you can exchange and discuss bitcoins allows more people to learn about the cryptocurrency and how it can potentially impact our world.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Bitcoin can get you a ride to space!
Billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has revealed a handful of people have paid in bitcoin for their place on board the Virgin Galactic spaceship.
Back in November, Branson announced his commercial space flight venture Virgin Galactic was to accept payment in bitcoins and, just two months later, “six or seven” people have already paid for their tickets in the digital currency.
Earlier this month, Virgin Galactic took its SpaceShipTwo on its third test flight, with the craft reaching 71,000 feet – its highest yet.
SpaceShipTwo is a consumer-ready vehicle designed to fly to the edge of space. It is partly based on the technology of SpaceShipOne, the craft that completed the first manned private spaceflight in 2004.
Read more at CoinDesk
Bitcoin and Litecoin Top Sources of WikiLeaks Donations
Notorious nonprofit journalistic organization WikiLeaks revealed via Twitter on 24th January that the majority of its public funding now comes through bitcoin and litecoin donations.
The tweet included a link to its official donation page, which lists major mainstream channels like American Express, MasterCard and PayPal. The organisation also accepts traditional bank transfers and Visa as other payment options.
Read more at CoinDesk
Buying With the Bitcoin Crowd
East Side chiropractor Steven Schram isn't
your typical spine man. The intellectual adventurer has a Ph.D. in
chemistry and a passion for computer programming. But what really sets
him apart? The doctor is accepting Bitcoin, the nascent digital currency
backed by no government and recognized by few banks. It's a bit of a
risk, he admits. If the currency's value tumbles, he's out of luck.
On
the other hand, he hasn't had much opportunity for financial
derring-do. While he offers a 10% discount to patients who pay in
Bitcoin, no one has taken him up on the deal. "That's great," clients
say. "Now let me write you a check."
Most
folks still don't understand the currency, says Dr. Schram, who
envisions a brave new "Bitcoin economy." He's one of the prescient few
who got in early, before the value of a single coin zoomed to more than
$800. How early, and how much did he invest? Dr. Schram wouldn't say: "I
don't want it asked and I don't want it answered!"
Well,
I'm not afraid to disclose my own Bitcoin situation. I now own
one-eighth of one coin, worth roughly $93. And it wasn't easy to get my
paws on the thing.
There are scads of
websites swapping dollars for Bitcoin, but most look a little shady, or
have a wait period. I turned to Patrick Cheng, who hosts biweekly
Bitcoin workshops at his Chinatown videogame repair shop, xCubicle. He
invited me over so he could set me up.
Video Cards Drive First-Day Sales Surge For TigerDirect
If you're a member already, you already know why this headline isn't necessarily a good thing. That said... it still shows how big companies accepting Bitcoin can reach out to a huge new market of customers.
TigerDirect’s decision to begin accepting bitcoin payments has sparked “video card madness” at the online electronics dealer, brand manager Steven Leeds told CoinDesk.Read more at CoinDesk
“Every single video card has seen a more than 50 percent spike [in sales],” Leeds said.
Rounding out the top four items in terms of sales increases since the company’s 23rd January announcement were power units, tablets and Xbox units. Further, Leeds revealed that TigerDirect’s website has seen a 30% bump in traffic on the news.
The top selling item in the first day was the Sapphire Radeon R9 280X VAPOR-X, of which 30 units were sold. Leeds reported that one buyer bought nearly half – 14 – of these components.
As of press time, the item was out of stock on TigerDirect’s website.
The news that TigerDirect would accept bitcoin was perhaps the biggest announcement on a day that included reveals that Fancy and Naughty America would also add bitcoin to their lists of accepted payment methods.
Leeds attributed the success to the fact that it offers products that more directly appeal to the community, as well as its more measured approach in its launch.
App.net Launches Backer, A Bitcoin-Friendly Crowdfunding Engine
Amongst other things, Backer has two big standout features: developers can choose to accept payment via credit cards or Bitcoin (or both), and open source projects aren’t charged any fees. (If you keep your source locked down, however, there’s a 5% fee taken only if/when your campaign proves successful.)
Read more at Tech Crunch
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