The Bitcoin Bubble and the Future of Currency — Money & Banking. A few days ago, the value of all the bitcoins in the world blew past $1 billion for the first time ever. That’s an impressive achievement, for a purely virtual currency backed by no central bank or other authority. It’s also temporary: we’re in the middle of a bitcoin bubble right now, and it’s only a matter of time before the bubble bursts. There are a couple of reasons why the bubble is sure to burst.
The first is just that it’s a bubble, and any chart which looks like the one at the top of this post is bound to end in tears at some point. But there’s a deeper reason, too — which is that bitcoins are an uncomfortable combination of commodity and currency. The commodity value of bitcoins is rooted in their currency value, but the more of a commodity they become, the less useful they are as a currency.
Still, it’s worth taking a look behind the bitcoin bubble, because there are fascinating implications for anybody who cares about payments, or currencies, or trust. But is that a good idea? Open Startup... why bitcoin? Crowdfunding, Micropayments and Publishers. ©Naveen Jamal I was reading an article in Fast Company about the launch of Emphas.is and came across an aspect about the model that I really hadn’t thought much about – the role and opportunity for publishers.
Publishers, too, if they take a shine to a project on the site, can secure first publication rights by funding up to 50% of the project. Publishers also, of course, have to pay a negotiated fee for the photographer’s work. It’ll be interesting to see what stories get picked up by large publications. I’m sure it’ll happen sooner than later, but what I find more interesting is the possibility that publications could evolve the crowdfunding model and use it to fund their own projects. Emphas.is, Kickstarter and the rest are primarily funding platforms but each has a publishing component built in as well (blogs) which make them content destinations as well. The Evolution of the Platforms Crowdfunding platforms are still very new. Flattr and Social Micropayments Watch Closely and Experiment. Can Flattr Plus Twitter Make Micropayments a Reality? Dwolla. Ben Milne founded Dwolla There's a tiny 12-person startup churning out of Des Moines, Iowa. Dwolla was founded by 28-year-old Ben Milne; it's an innovative online payment system that sidesteps credit cards completely.
Milne has no finance background, yet his little operation is moving between $30 and $50 million per month; it's on track to move more than $350 million in the next year. Unlike PayPal, Dwolla doesn't take a percentage of the transaction. It only asks for $0.25 whether it's moving $1 or $1,000. We interviewed Milne about how he is building a credit card killer and Square rival from the middle of the nation where VCs and press are scarce. BI: We hear you're making credit card companies angry. Ben Milne: Ultimately we're trying to build the next Visa, not the next PayPal. Dwolla started out of my old company. So I thought, 'how do I get paid through a website without paying credit card fees? ' That was three years ago, so we've been working on the project for a really long time. Wokai - Microfinance in China. Micropayment - BC$ MobileTV Wiki. Bitcoin. Flattr. SXSW 2011: Flattr w/Thingiverse, Readability, Demotix: Rewarding Creators and Crowdfunding Yesterday, those of us already participating in Flattr‘s social micropayment/micro-donation service to reward fellow Thingiversians for the awesome things they design or make received an “Important service announcement” from Flattr that may change the future of flattry.
From May 1st we no longer require users to flattr others before they can be flattrd. Or in other words, it’s not mandatory to add money to your account to have an active Flattr button. For those of you new to Flattr, the model in the past has been that you had to “pay” to get “paid”. Speaking of Flattr and Thingiverse, the SXSW 2011 panel discussion “Flattr w/Thingiverse, Readability, Demotix: Rewarding Creators and Crowdfunding” that included Thingiverse.com/MakerBot.com web warrior Marty McGuire has been recently posted as an audio podcast on the panel’s page on the SXSW site (just below the panel description). Kachingle - Social cents for the Open Web. Flattr - Social micropayments.