Coin News

The Bitcoin price has undeniably been in a strong bear market these last two months. From an initial value of $800 at the end of January, the currency has seen a series of crashes. First, the price originally slipped from $800 down to about $730 after a combination of announcements, including Apple finally removing blockchain.info, the last standing bulwark of Bitcoin’s presence in the iPhone ecoosystem, rumors that Russia was banning Bitcoin, and initial reports that MtGox was halting withdrawals. Since then, the price dropped to $530 when the news about transaction malleability leaked, quickly picked back up once the community realized it was MtGox’s fault, and dropped again and again as the situation on MtGox grew progressively worse. The […]

The post Positive News: Another Roundup appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

An extremely optimistic American has filmed himself eating his hat after losing a bet on the BTC price.

CoinDesk's USD BPIs remained below $500 for most of Friday with no new news from China.

The Isle of Man's financial body has confirmed that bitcoin exchanges do not need a licence to operate.

Indications coming out of China can be seen as, nothing less than, frankly, negative. Bitcoin has for a long time been functioning, not only as a means of exchange but also as a store of value. The returns from 2013 clearly suggest that mainline investors, buoyed up by stories of spiralling returns, were crowding on-board. […]

The post Bitcoin and the Market: What’s next? appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Bitcoin continues on a wild ride in China where BTC China bitcoin exchange has emerged as one of the survivors, backed by a leading venture capital firm with Silicon Valley roots - Lightspeed China.

All the week's new bitcoin ATM installations, including some good news for Aussies.

Stripe, a popular online payments company has announced that it will soon support Bitcoin payments. This means that customers currently using Stripe’s payment tools to accept online credit card payments will also be able to accept payments using the continuously growing virtual currency. The company and its co-founders Patrick and John Collison look forward to being one of the first major online payment platforms to accept Bitcoin. Will others choose to do the same? For many, Stripe is an online payment platform that provides web and mobile payments that are built for developers. Companies currently using Stripe include Instacart, Rackspace, Dribble, Lyft, HubSpot and Foursquare to name a few. The announcement makes some think that competitors such as PayPal and […]

The post Stripe to Accept Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

All you need to know about national cryptocurrencies – a new trend in altcoin development.

In a new report, UBS indicated it sees bitcoin's technology as capable of reducing financial costs while improving security.

Amidst the storm that China’s supposed ban on Bitcoin brought, Swiss global financial outfit UBS released a paper on Bitcoin entitled Bitcoin and Banks: Problematic currency, interesting payment system. Interesting title to say the least. No threat whatsoever In a thirty-six page report, UBS takes an in-depth look at Bitcoin and how it affects today’s […]

The post Billion dollar firm UBS releases Bitcoin paper appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Earlier this month, Goldman analysts took aim at most of the main arguments for why Bitcoin would succeed. 

This morning, it's UBS' turn.

In a new note, a team led by analyst Derek De Vries douses Bitcoin's potential.

"Bitcoin faces economic, technical and regulatory challenges as a true currency," UBS says. "Bitcoin's speculation-driven volatility prevents it from being a stable store of value or unit of account, and its semi-fixed supply exacerbates volatility and deflationary pressure. As a means of exchange, it already consumes vast computing resources for relatively few transactions and faces scaling difficulties. Bitcoin also exists in something of a regulatory vacuum, or in some jurisdictions it is restricted or outright banned (e.g. in China, Russia) – which can be damaging to trust and sentiment."

While statements from the financial world have have ranged from restrained optimism to the strongly negative, even the most tepidly bullish have concerns. "No major bank is backing Bitcoin," they write. 

When asked about major Russian search engine Yandex's attempt to develop an e-commerce payment system, [Russia-based OAO Sberbank CEO German] Gref said that 'these experiments must end in one or two crashes.' Thus, while Bitcoin supporters have found an ally in Sberbank, the bank's support only appears to go as far as trying to prevent Russian governmental interference, and not actual involvement in Bitcoin operations.

Like Goldman, they are more upbeat about the concept — but add that a third party could separate Bitcoin from its own underlying technology.

"A bitcoin-like system could provide enhanced security and lower costs, by giving users direct control of their funds and the 'private key' which is used to ensure security through encryption. In principle, this kind of payment system could be developed and put into use by a third party – even a (possibly online-only) challenger bank that could appropriately handle deposits – which could potentially be a threat to existing banks."

Oh and they include this chart:

Bitcoin prices dipped below $500 this morning, nearly four months to the day after they hit $1,000. 

Check out the full UBS report here »

SEE ALSO: The CEO Of Reddit Dumped All Over Bitcoin Users

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In two weeks the crypto community will take Canada by storm at the Toronto Bitcoin Expo 2014. Organized by The Bitcoin Alliance of Canada, the conference will span three days, from April 11 to 13. Earlier today, Bitcoin Expo announced exhibitors, sponsors and conference highlights that attendees can look forward to at the first-ever event of its kind in Toronto. The Bitcoin Alliance of Canada aims to raise awareness of Bitcoin among Canadian consumers, merchants and policy makers. The organization has a strong focus on the adoption of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies throughout Canada, while also promoting Canadian participation in international partnerships and associations. The Toronto Bitcoin Expo 2014 serves as a vehicle to achieve these goals by supporting […]

The post What to Expect at the Toronto Bitcoin Expo appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

A new bitcoin investment fund, which will actively trade the bitcoin markets, will soon launch in London.

When I walked into Matt Branton’s downtown office in early March to talk about his Bitcoin-based content micropayments system Coinlock, he was shopping for plumbing equipment. At least that’s what it seemed like – he was on some obscure web store browsing valves, levers, tubing, t-joints, and whatnot (if you can guess, I know nothing about plumbing). This seemed odd for a Bitcoin developer. As it turns out, Branton was getting ready for Tampa’s Startup Bus 2014, which was to leave for South By Southwest just a few days after our meeting. He was browsing for tubes and valves because he was going to try and build something on the Startup Bus. He was trying to build something amazing. He […]

The post Smart Property is One Small Step Closer with Coincollectr Prototype appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Jackson Palmer tells CoinDesk why he founded dogecoin and why it is more appealing than bitcoin.

Rumors of a crackdown in China (and everything else) continues to depress Bitcoin.

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People at the center of Iceland’s tiny cryptocurrency, cryptography, and tech scenes are questioning the good intentions of Baldur Friggjar Odinsson, the pseudonymous creator of Auroracoin. The Litecoin-based coin has become the darling of Western media in recent days thanks to its free “Airdrop” distribution to Icelandic citizens on March 25th, and has been met with great enough demand that Coinmarketcap.com now ranks Auroracoin as the fourth largest cryptocurrency by capital volume. But Brennan Novak and Bjarni Einarsson, members of the Icelandic Pirate Party and developers of an open-source encrypted email project called Mailpile, have taken to venues including Reddit and Github to point out, in Novak’s words, “a handful of aspects to Auroracoin that are a little bit suspicious.” […]

The post Scrutinizing Auroracoin appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Stripe is a San Francisco-based web and mobile payments startup. The service advertises itself as being “built for developers,” since it provides numerous APIs to power commerce on a range of devices and platforms. Stripe also offers competitive pricing that is often cheaper than alternatives such as PayPal. Despite being relatively new to the online payments scene, […]

The post Stripe is Testing Bitcoin Support appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

PocketPOS looks to appeal to merchants by adding an easy-to-use, low-investment interface not offered by available processors.

The IRS released a technical notice on this week which definitively affirmed Bitcoin’s taxability in the United States and clarified how transactions involving Bitcoin and other so-called virtual currencies should be reported by US taxpayers. Notice 2014-21 declared that bitcoins should be treated as property, not as currency, echoing guidance provided by taxing authorities in most other western countries. Other matters addressed by this notice include the following: ·         Mined bitcoins are taxable as ordinary income at the time of receipt, not at the time of conversion to dollars. ·         Profits from Bitcoin mining carried on as a trade or business are subject to self-employment tax. ·         Bitcoins received as salary income are subject to withholding of federal income, Medicare […]

The post IRS Releases Bitcoin Guidance (And It Isn’t Good) appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

As usual confusion is surrounding the most recent news out of China.  Early Thursday it was reported by multiple media outlets that the PBOC had ordered banks to close the accounts of virtual currency exchanges.  At first many thought the news was just another false rumor for the purpose of depressing the market to allow […]

The post Bitcoin Markets Continue to Slide on PBOC News appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Bitcoin crashed below $500 during the opening of the Asian trading session this morning. This is the first time since early February, during the death throes of Mt.Gox (spit), that price action has seen these levels. CryptoCoinsNews will be running updates on the hour, along with analysis and commentary as the markets change.   Please […]

The post Why the Bitcoin Crash Below $500? appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.