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State of Bitcoin Q2 2014. Should Ecommerce Merchants Accept Bitcoin? Bitcoin, the best known of several virtual payment currencies, has made inroads into mainstream commerce, including brick-and-mortar retailers. Some ecommerce sites are already accepting Bitcoin and if you are considering joining this group, here are some things you should know. While Bitcoin is the best-known virtual or digital currency, others exist. Litecoin, Worldcoin, and Dogecoin are also virtual currencies that are gaining traction. See “10 Bitcoin-like Cryptocurrencies” for more providers. How Virtual Currency Works Consumers buy digital currency from several online exchanges using credit cards or wire transfers. Bitcoin purports to offer customers greater privacy because users do not have to provide personal credit card information. China, which has a very active Bitcoin market, recently banned local financial institutions from dealing with Bitcoins, causing the market to lose half its value.

What Merchants Accept Bitcoin? Benefits of Accepting Digital Currencies Disadvantages. The Philosophers' Mail. Bitcoin and the Three Laws of Robotics. By Stan Larimer, President, Invictus Innovations, Inc. You may not have considered it, but Bitcoin can be viewed as an unmanned company – or a Distributed Autonomous Corporation (DAC) if you prefer. Unlike passive currencies, Bitcoin derives much of its tangible value by performing a trustworthy confidential fiduciary service. Essentially, it keeps private books for customer “checking” accounts and will transfer credits between accounts upon receipt of a properly signed “check”. Aren’t these some of the same private services for which Swiss banks were once famous – back when privacy was something they could really offer? Isn’t Bitcoin more like a bygone Swiss Bank than a commodity or a colorful piece of paper?

Would a DAC metaphor fit Bitcoin even better than its current coin metaphor? Distributed Autonomous Corporations (DAC) run without any human involvement under the control of an incorruptible set of business rules. Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics Steely-Eyed Geek(Homo Technosapien) Wall Street Doesn't Understand Bitcoin Yet, But It Will [eBay Inc] They've been laughed to scorn by left and right wing economists, caricatured as the perpetrators (or victims, take your pick) of a global Pyramid scheme, written off, ridiculed, and all-around snobbed to death by Wall Street. Yet, for all the articles that have appeared in the mainstream media, comparatively few have actually engaged the Bitcoin community itself in the conversation.

I believe that's a mistake. What I've discovered over the past 5 days or so I've spent on /r/Bitcoin is not a basket of naive, ideologically fueled freshmen that detractors like Gideon Samid airily dismiss as "The Bitcoin Delusion", but a diffuse, sophisticated and above all ambitious sub-culture that is capable -through raw programming prowess, if nothing else - of changing the way people think about money.

Impressed by this author? Follow and be the first to know when they publish. Follow Kyle Spencer (973 followers) Long/short equity, special situations, contrarian, research analyst New! Bitcoin: The Cryptoanarchists’ Answer to Cash. Illustration: Harry Campbell There's nothing like a dollar bill for paying a stripper. Anonymous, yet highly personal—wherever you use it, that dollar will fit the occasion. Purveyors of Internet smut, after years of hiding charges on credit cards, or just giving it away for free, recently found their own version of the dollar—a new digital currency called Bitcoin. You’ll know it when you see it (strippers who accept tips in bitcoins advertise their account addresses right on their bodies).

In the long run, a system like this, which restores privacy to electronic payments, could do more than just put the sneak back into the peek. You may have heard about Bitcoin last year, when the digital currency was briefly a major media story and speculators rushed to cash in on the rising value of bitcoins. The dream of an anonymous, independent digital currency—one where privacy is maintained for buyers and sellers—long predates Bitcoin. Air Guitars and Bitcoin Regulation. By Jon Matonis No one really sends or receives bitcoin. They merely transfer their ownership and specific control rights to the block chain on the giant public ledger in the cloud. It's like an air guitar. The bitcoin itself exists because we all say that it exists. The same can be said of bitcoin's exchange value – it has value because we all say that it has value. Now, to the exchanges. Regulatory Bias With Some in the Bitcoin Community "We are working with the government to make sure indeed the long arm of the government can reach Bitcoin .

" -- Jeff Garzik , Bitcoin Developer "Regulation would allow the proper authorities to find and charge those who use bitcoins for illegal activities. " -- Amir Taaki , Co-founder of Bitcoin Consultancy "Norman is pushing to bring Bitcoin away from its roots and closer to a traditional currency — he is reaching out to regulators, looking to get legislation to oversee the system. " -- CNBC on Donald Norman , Co-founder of Bitcoin Consultancy Wrong. On Life and Liberty - Erik Voorhees: Bitcoin - The Libertarian Introduction. ***Originally published in Freedom's Phoenix Magazine - April 13, 2012***Republish, copy, and distribute at will.

What it is, how it's used, and why you should care. Erik Voorhees - April 11, 2012 "When a state currency is challenged, the state itself is challenged, and market forces move swiftly around sickly, depreciating inhibitors. " · Introduction · What is Bitcoin? · How does it work? · Why is Bitcoin valuable? · No really, WHY is Bitcoin valuable? · How does one obtain it? · Being careful with money · What can one do with it? · Bitcoin vs. . · Bitcoin and Disruption · Useful Resources Introduction There has been much talk about Bitcoin within libertarian and economic circles.

Like all powerful tools, it's important for those interested in using Bitcoin to spend some time engaging in the due diligence of education. The basics of Bitcoin are all covered here, ranging from a light technical overview to due diligence to monetary economics and theory. What is Bitcoin? How does it work? Bitcoin is a money platform with many APIs. Bitcoin is much more than just a digital currency. It is a protocol, a network, a currency and a transaction language. Most of all, though, it is an application programming interface (API) for money.

Nowadays, bathroom scales and fridges have APIs, so why not money? Traditional money does have APIs, but they are closed. You can program the merchant API of the VISA network if you are a trusted merchant. In a traditional financial network, trust is achieved through a complex web of regulations, fraud detection, and accreditation — but most of all exclusion.

On the Bitcoin network, you can programmatically check your balance, or the balance of any Bitcoin wallet. Of course, not everyone wants to open a bank or invent a new financial service. The Bitcoin network offers three distinct APIs. Beyond the M–of–N model, the scripting language can specify validation conditions that have nothing to do with keys. Of course, Bitcoin’s APIs don’t end there. Bitcoin Can’t Be Stopped, But Can It Be Spoiled? The decentralized private digital currency Bitcoin has made enormous strides in public attention, respect, and value in the past few months. It has grown from an obsession of tech-geek libertarians to a staple of financial news and a subject of great interest to government financial regulators . Maybe its good fortune lately can be attributed to bank unrest in Cyprus , or maybe it’s just an idea whose time has come.

A largely anonymous method of online payment that doesn’t require intermediaries and that can’t be overinflated in quantity by governments—with the side advantage of zooming up in value (and the disadvantage of zooming down again )—seems a good fit for the Internet age. Bitcoin’s anonymity, as most people can’t resist mentioning, also makes it a natural choice for buying illegal things over the Internet, a fact that led Rep. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to condemn it as merely a tool for money laundering . The Genesis Block | The Case For A Bitcoin Credit Union - The Genesis Block. Prediction for a future event: “The Spike” « Real Virtual Currency. Lately the Bitcoin price hasn’t been moving much, at least by Bitcoin standards, and has provided a nice respite from the price parroting that we witnessed in the last big run-up.

In it’s place has flourished renewed exploration and discussion regarding the technology itself, how it can be incorporated, implemented, and improved. But don’t think for a minute that Bitcoin is going to plateau long-term around the $100+ mark. Observing the last two years, we can see that Bitcoin has two basic modes: steady-as-she-goes, and have-you-seen-my-beachball-bonkers. From late 2011 until early 2012, Bitcoin would sit still for months at a single price, occasionally ratcheting up or down depending on the news (i.e. “WordPress now accepts Bitcoin,” or “Bitcoin Savings and Trust is a Ponzi Scheme.”) It can do it! The catch is that Bitcoin only likes to chill out when nobody seems to be looking. It is essentially a reverse correction, an upside-down bubble pop. What do you think? Like this: Economists wrestle with Bitcoin's 'narrative problem' #Bitcoin2013. Amazon’s new “Coins” are gimmicky, said panelists in a session on the economics of Bitcoin at the Bitcoin 2013 conference in San Jose on Saturday.

And companies issue their own currency simply as a ploy to hold onto customers’ unspent value, they said. Panelists also discussed such issues as taxation and academia’s low interest in Bitcoin. Governments will pay more attention to Bitcoin as time goes on, predicted Yoni Assia, CEO of the social investment network eToro. “Governments won’t give up taxation so easily,” Assia said. In addition to Assia, panelists included Tuur Demeester, who writes the financial newsletter MacroTrends; Peter Surda, a software developer who runs the blog Economics of Bitcoin ; and Garrick Hileman, an academic who researches parallel and alternative currencies and is finishing his PhD at the London School of Economics.

Following are some highlights of Saturday’s panel discussion: Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Hileman: The real question is why this hasn’t happened already. The Genesis Block | Guide to Bitcoin Conference 2013 - San Jose - The Genesis Block. Digg digg The bitcoin community is about to get a lot more connected – Bitcoin Conference 2013 is 2 days away. The global and decentralized nature of bitcoin inherently makes meeting in person less necessary than most business ventures. This conference will be a great way to reconnect face-to-face and see what the rest of the community is doing. Bitcoin 2013 is organized by The Bitcoin Foundation , and will be taking place May 17-19 in San Jose, California.

Although there is a $300 entrance fee to attend in person, all of the presentations will be recorded and broadcast after the conference is completed. The two days of presentations and panels is packed with over 60 speakers ranging from Venture Capitalists to technology and regulatory experts. Each track is focused on a specific field: Tech, Business, Legal, or the Lightning Room (a rapid-fire mix of all topics). Presentation: State of the Union (Saturday 10:15) Presentation: Off-chain Transactions (Saturday 2:45) Give me that old bitcoin religion. By Adam L. Penenberg On May 15, 2013 No one person is in control of bitcoin. No central banker, no governing or regulatory bodies, and there is no mechanism to suddenly manipulate money supply.

That’s the point, of course. Satoshi Nakamoto, its pseudonymous creator whose image is represented in the artwork above, called it a peer-to-peer electronic cash system designed “to allow online payments to be sent from one party to another without going though a financial institution.” Unlike American coins, which are forged at the US Mint, and dollar notes – they’re printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing – bitcoin creation is decidedly democratic and completely virtual: Anyone who has made the effort to learn can “mine” the currency, trading valuable labor and resources in the form of expertise, processing power, energy, and time.

As with all currencies, bitcoin relies on trust, the economic lubricant that makes transactions possible. [Image: dailydot.com] Bitcoin Price 2013: Could Bitcoin Destroy Government Control Of Currency? As Bitcoin gains wider acceptance, monetary officials will face increasing competition both directly from Bitcoin and from the way in which Bitcoin tears down the barriers between the fiats themselves. Functionally, Bitcoin is very much like cash. But instead of a leather wallet, Bitcoins are stored on hardware like smartphones, laptops, or servers in the cloud. Unlike fiat money, no central authority controls the supply of Bitcoins. The currency is governed by an open source code which dictates the rules governing the currency. This decentralized architecture and freedom from third-party intermediaries is what insulates the system from unilateral control; it's also what makes it problematic for governments to regulate it and open to competition.

Argentina has a storied history of monetary dysfunction. Sadly, history is repeating itself. Argentines, well versed in peso-crisis management, have started dumping the currency. Jeff Fong. The Bitcoin Buzz and How Young Entrepreneurs are Cashing in. Skip Advertisement This ad will close in 15 seconds... Young Entrepreneurs Today's Most Read 9 Proven Ways to Get People to Take You Seriously 4 Intangibles That Drive CEOs What It Takes to Go From Dead Broke to 6 Figures in 6 Months The Mentality of a Successful Career 4 Big Challenges That Startups Face These Siblings Are Cooking Up America's First Meatless Butcher Shop Kim Lachance Shandrow 3 min read News and Articles About Young Entrepreneurs Failure 6 Stories of Super Successes Who Overcame Failure They're perfect examples of why failure should never stop you from following your vision.

Jayson DeMers Podcasts Top 25 Business Podcasts for Entrepreneurs Podcasts are as easy to use as old-school radio but as specialized as blogs. Murray Newlands Entrepreneurship Programs Saxbys and Drexel Team Up to Promote Entrepreneurship Saxby's founder Nick Bayer talks about the one-of-a-kind program and why he wishes there was one for himself years ago. Carly Okyle Presented by Young Entrepreneurs Laura Entis Fear. CoinMama: World’s First Service Allowing the Purchase of Bitcoins with PayPal. “I think these guys have finally cracked it with regard to easily and securely buying BTC’s & LTC’s – Great concept…..” – Derek N. A new website called CoinMama is the world’s first service allowing safe and easy purchase of the virtual currency Bitcoin. While Bitcoin, the new decentralized digital currency, is gaining more and more popularity, it is still relatively difficult to become the happy owner of a single digital coin.

The Bitcoin exchanges require account funding by processing international wire transfers to bank accounts in exotic countries, and additionally the process costs time, money, and offers zero protection. The other alternative is finding Bitcoin sellers online and paying them, hoping to get the desired digital coin. Needless to say, the anonymous nature of this digital currency attracts a lot of scammers and almost 1/3 of the transactions are frauds. CoinMama is aiming to change that reality: Goto their site here.

Bitcoin is not a real currency, just some 21st-century cowrie shells | Technology. Four years and $100 million later, Bitcoin’s mysterious creator remains anonymous. Meet the 22 Most Important People Behind Bitcoin. Global Rich List. PayPal president is fascinated by Bitcoin, says company is ‘thinking about’ including the virtual currency. Do You Want the Government Buying Your Data From Corporations? - Bruce Schneier. News: The Blog. Bitcoin. Bitcoin 2013: The Future of Payments - Panelists - Bitcoin 2013: The Future of PaymentsMay 17-19, 2013 - San Jose, CA. What Is Bitcoin and What Can I Do With It?

Bitcoin infographic. Bitcoin Mining in Plain English. Bitcoin Attacks in Plain English. How Washington Plans to Regulate Your Bitcoins. Bitcoin Crash Shows Why It's Not Really a Currency. Colas: Investors Should Consider Bitcoin. Bitcoin May Be the Global Economy's Last Safe Haven. Real money starts to pour into math-based currencies like bitcoin. Six reasons why Chinese people will drive the next bull market in bitcoin. Legendary VC Paul Graham Suspects Bitcoin Was Created by a Government. Here's Why Venture Capitalists Want To Make Bitcoin The 'Next Big Thing' Bitcoin Is Not Antisocial: A Rebuttal to Paul Krugman. Galileo on Bitcoins (English subtitles)

Bitcoin. Pay With Bits Wants To Be The Square For Bitcoin. Obama’s Fmr. Chief Economic Advisor On Bitcoin’s Usefulness: “Hahahaha. ROTFL” 9 reasons why Bitcoins are gaining popularity worldwide - 9 reasons why Bitcoins are gaining popularity worldwide. Fincen s New Regulations Are Choking Bitcoin Entrepreneurs. Investigations and observations - Home. BitCoin Daily. Milton Friedman, Land value tax and internet currencies. Author Jon Matonis. Billionaires Flee Havens as Trillions Pursued Offshore. Synthetic Commodity Money by George Selgin. Bitcoin: What Has Changed? | P2P Connects Us.

Bitcoin or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Crypto by Charles Hoskinson. Bitcoin vs. Ben Bernanke. Keiser Report: Magic of Bitcoin Gathering (E432) BitPay processes $1 million bitcoin order for Butterfly Labs - CoinDesk. T.