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Can new features and technologies in Hive's HTML5 wallet help address consumer pain points?

Seedcoin-incubated startups announced a bundle of upgrades at the latest Inside Bitcoins conference in Hong Kong. Seedcoin is a bitcoin startup incubator, meaning it lifts up a variety of promising companies in the cryptocurrency space. It announced the selection of  round 1 startups it decided to fund earlier this year. They include BTC.sx, Hive, and […]

The post Seedcoin Startups BTC.sx, Hive, and mexBT Impress at Inside Bitcoins appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

A new service offered by vericoin enables users to make payments to any bitcoin address.

A new service offered by vericoin enables users to make payments to any bitcoin address.

Dogecoin was supposed to be the kinder face of Bitcoin.

Created on a lark in response to the internet's bizarre meme imagining what a Shiba Inu would sound like if it could talk, the cryptocurrency now has a reputation for sponsoring uplifting causes like sending athletes from developing countries to the Olympics. 

But in recent weeks, three prominent Dogecoiners announced they were leaving cryptocurrency's community: Dogecoin co-creator Jackson Palmer, as well as Ben Doernberg and Eric Nakagawa, two heads of the Dogecoin Foundation that also disbanded. 

The departures coincided with the rise of a company called Moolah, a digital currency exchange specializing in Dogecoin. Moolah is perhaps best known for leading the successful campaign to sponsor a NASCAR driver. Its founder, Alex Green, has given away many of his Dogecoin holdings to help promote the currency. 

Last month, Doernberg published a post expressing fears over Moolah's business practices. He was mainly concerned about the lack of consumer protections Dogecoiners who were investing in the firm seemed to be incurring; Moolah ended up raising nearly $500,000. In response, Moolah called Doernberg "toxic" and called for his resignation from the Bitcoin foundation. 

In recent days, a new issue has arisen over the trademarking of "Doge" and "Dogecoin." A company called Ultra PRO, which makes protective coverings for valuables, sought to trademark the "Doge" meme, causing alarm within the Dogecoin community that a third party would have rights over Dogecoin projects. Palmer, the Dogecoin co-creator, attempted to assuage the community's concerns, explaining he'd reached out to Ultra PRO and came away convinced the firm would not try to stop Dogecoin folks from using the trademark. 

Moolah continued to hold that Ultra Pro should not be trusted with the trademark, and that Palmer was guilty by association. That was the final straw for Palmer, who in his comment on reddit announcing his departure this week said reddit's Dogecoin community had become "sadly cult-like." 

Meanwhile, Dogecoin has faced technical dilemmas. The cryptocurrency was programmed in such a way that the limit on how many Dogecoins can ever be created could be reached by the end of the year. The incentives required for people to turn their computers into "miners" to confirm transactions have thus become less enticing, making the Dogecoin network more vulnerable to a malicious actor executing a 51℅ attack.

All this has taken an immense toll on Dogecoin growth. The number of visitors to the Dogecoin reddit page — the cryptocurrency's defacto homebase — has fallen from around 45,000 uniques a day to fewer than 20,000. Meanwhile, the price of Dogecoin has fallen 25% in the past 30 days and 40% in the past 90, according to Coinmarketcap. 

Dogecoin holdouts now largely accept Moolah's prominence. A new Dogecoin Foundation began to form a month ago with Palmer's blessing, and its new leaders say they are unfazed by Moolah's stature in the Dogecoin world. "Moolah was one of the first businesses to give our community a shot," a new foundation member who goes by "Goodshibe" told BI. "In a decentralized community, the strongest personalities tend to rise to the top. There's been a false dichotomy created, that our coin can *only* be fun and worthless or valuable and 'serious'."

But everyone seems to agree that the good natured tone the community once prided itself on has evaporated.

SEE ALSO: What Is Dogecoin?

Join the conversation about this story »

Dogecoin was supposed to be the kinder face of Bitcoin.

Created on a lark in response to the internet's bizarre meme imagining what a Shiba Inu would sound like if it could talk, the cryptocurrency now has a reputation for sponsoring uplifting causes like sending athletes from developing countries to the Olympics. 

But in recent weeks, three prominent Dogecoiners announced they were leaving cryptocurrency's community: Dogecoin co-creator Jackson Palmer, as well as Ben Doernberg and Eric Nakagawa, two heads of the Dogecoin Foundation that also disbanded. 

The departures coincided with the rise of a company called Moolah, a digital currency exchange specializing in Dogecoin. Moolah is perhaps best known for leading the successful campaign to sponsor a NASCAR driver. Its founder, Alex Green, has given away many of his Dogecoin holdings to help promote the currency. 

Last month, Doernberg published a post expressing fears over Moolah's business practices. He was mainly concerned about the lack of consumer protections Dogecoiners who were investing in the firm seemed to be incurring; Moolah ended up raising nearly $500,000. In response, Moolah called Doernberg "toxic" and called for his resignation from the Bitcoin foundation. 

In recent days, a new issue has arisen over the trademarking of "Doge" and "Dogecoin." A company called Ultra PRO, which makes protective coverings for valuables, sought to trademark the "Doge" meme, causing alarm within the Dogecoin community that a third party would have rights over Dogecoin projects. Palmer, the Dogecoin co-creator, attempted to assuage the community's concerns, explaining he'd reached out to Ultra PRO and came away convinced the firm would not try to stop Dogecoin folks from using the trademark. 

Moolah continued to hold that Ultra Pro should not be trusted with the trademark, and that Palmer was guilty by association. That was the final straw for Palmer, who in his comment on reddit announcing his departure this week said reddit's Dogecoin community had become "sadly cult-like." 

Meanwhile, Dogecoin has faced technical dilemmas. The cryptocurrency was programmed in such a way that the limit on how many Dogecoins can ever be created could be reached by the end of the year. The incentives required for people to turn their computers into "miners" to confirm transactions have thus become less enticing, making the Dogecoin network more vulnerable to a malicious actor executing a 51℅ attack.

All this has taken an immense toll on Dogecoin growth. The number of visitors to the Dogecoin reddit page — the cryptocurrency's defacto homebase — has fallen from around 45,000 uniques a day to fewer than 20,000. Meanwhile, the price of Dogecoin has fallen 25% in the past 30 days and 40% in the past 90, according to Coinmarketcap. 

Dogecoin holdouts now largely accept Moolah's prominence. A new Dogecoin Foundation began to form a month ago with Palmer's blessing, and its new leaders say they are unfazed by Moolah's stature in the Dogecoin world. "Moolah was one of the first businesses to give our community a shot," a new foundation member who goes by "Goodshibe" told BI. "In a decentralized community, the strongest personalities tend to rise to the top. There's been a false dichotomy created, that our coin can *only* be fun and worthless or valuable and 'serious'."

But everyone seems to agree that the good natured tone the community once prided itself on has evaporated.

SEE ALSO: What Is Dogecoin?

Join the conversation about this story »

CoinDesk provides a visual recap of the recent Inside Bitcoins conference held in Hong Kong.

A Marine Corps pilot who landed his crippled jet on a specially built ‘stool’, has described the incredible landing on the deck of the USS Bataan.

Triple-A rated Temasek Holdings has been asking staff to get hands on with bitcoin, says its chairman.

 Cryptocurrencies are much interesting. While bitcoin churns along like some sort of cyber juggernaut, there are a number of smaller currencies created, mostly off-the-cuff, by programmers and hackers. Dogecoin – pronounced dozhe, like the ancient Ventian dukes – is one of those currencies. Read More

 Cryptocurrencies are much interesting. While bitcoin churns along like some sort of cyber juggernaut, there are a number of smaller currencies created, mostly off-the-cuff, by programmers and hackers. Dogecoin – pronounced dozhe, like the ancient Ventian dukes – is one of those currencies. Read More

Italy's daily newspaper il Giornale has started accepting bitcoin for subscriptions to its premium PDF edition.

Good call.

In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès says that what was once the world's largest Bitcoin exchange should probably have hired more security, revealing that there were physical break-ins at the firm's Tokyo office. 

Those would be in addition to the online hack that drained the company of hundreds of thousands of Bitcoin.

"If anyone wants to start a Bitcoin exchange, I would say, 'Be sure to have 24-hour security guards,'" Karpelès says.

Security of digital currency holdings remains a major stumbling block toward Bitcoin adoption — over $600 million-worth of Bitcoins have been stolen over the cryptocurrency's lifetime, and there continue to be seemingly monthly reports of hacks and thefts of other alternative digital currencies. While many of these are the result of the assets being held in "hot" or online, and thus hackable, wallets, Karpelès admissions shows that the safety of cold wallets cannot be guaranteed.     

Karpelès also tells the Journal he is concerned by a proposal from Sunlot Holdings, a firm run by Bitcoin investor and former child actors Brock Pierce, about using customer funds to restart the exchange.

"Remaining customer money should not be touched," he said.

We wrote about that plan earlier this year. 

Click here to read the full interview »

Join the conversation about this story »

Consumer Bitcoin mining site CloudHashing has announced a mining contract giveaway for people all over the world. The giveaway allows one winner a lucky break in the world of Bitcoin mining. At the end of the giveaway, CloudHashing will be awarding one Silver bitcoin mining contract to a lucky Facebook user. The 165 Gigahash, 12 […]

The post CloudHashing $999 Mining Contract Giveaway appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

The financial corporation has examined the possible effects of the US government's auction of 29,656 bitcoins later today.

Users of Bloomberg terminals can now track bitcoin pricing data from itBit, including USD, EUR and SGD trading pairs.

Good morning! Here's what you need to know:

French Bank Mega-Settlement Coming. "BNP Paribas is set to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay an $8.9 billion penalty to state and federal authorities, according to people briefed on the case," report DealBook's Ben Protess and Jessica Silver-Greenberg. "The move would be the culmination of a widespread investigation into the French bank for transferring billions of dollars on behalf of Sudan and other countries blacklisted by the United States. The plea deal, which authorities hope to announce on Monday, will include a statement of facts that outlines how France’s largest bank hid the names of Sudanese clients when processing transactions through its American operations, according to the people briefed on the case who spoke on condition of anonymity."

Barclays Is Losing Business. The British banking giant is feeling the aftermath of the NY Attorney General's lawsuit against it and its dark pool. "Investors and brokers cut ties with the stock-trading venue run by Barclays  PLC, disconnecting from one of Wall Street's biggest so-called dark pools as the firm battles allegations of fraud and misleading its customers," report the WSJ's Bradley Hope and Scott Patterson. "Broker-dealers, including Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Royal Bank of Canada, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. and Investment Technology Group Inc. removed connections to the dark pool, called Barclays LX, from their routing systems on Thursday, according to people familiar with the decisions."

Japanese Households Slammed By Abe Tax Hike. Japan's household spending plunged by 8.0% in May as a new consumption tax hike went into effect. This was much worse than the 2.3% decline expected by economists. Meanwhile, Japan's unemployment rate declined to a 16-year low of 3.5%.

France Is Miserable. GDP was unchanged or 0.0% year-over-year in Q1. "In one line: Miserable first quarter in France," said Pantheon Macroeconomics' Claus Vistesen. "The only real positive aspect in the report is that household income is growing steadily, but this is mainly driven by lower taxes which cannot provide lasting support to income growth."

Eurozone Sentiment Is Deteriorating. The Eurozone's economic confidence index unexpectedly fell to 102.0 in June from 102.7 in May. Economists were expecting an increase to 103.0. "The drop in the June sentiment reading from the European Commission was notable relative to the consensus, but it was not completely unexpected if we factor in the poor survey releases this week from France and Germany," said Vistesen. "All the sub-components of the EC survey weakened in June with especially business climate and industrial confidence weakening noticeably, but the services sector remained a bright spot, though, increasing above the consensus forecast."

Chemical Giant Disappoints. DuPont cut its outlook for earnings on Thursday afternoon. "The revised outlook in Agriculture reflects lower than expected corn seed sales and higher than expected seed inventory write-downs," said management. "Given favorable soybean economics, soybean sales volumes in North America are higher than expected. However, the higher soybean volume will not fully offset the decline in corn volume, especially given the transition under way in the company's soybean lineup to newer, higher performing products. The company believes this is a short-term negative trend, and there will be strong demand for its next generation soybean products. The revised outlook also reflects lower than expected crop protection herbicide sales, largely due to weather." Management expects to earn $4.00 to $4.10 per share, which is below analysts' expectation for $4.30 per share.

Nike Did It. Nike reported quarterly revenue of $7.43 billion and earnings of $0.78 per share, beating analysts' expectations for $7.34 billion and $0.75, respectively. Worldwide orders were up 12%, which was a bit higher than the 11.7% expected. Global Football, or soccer, jumped 21% in fiscal 2014 to $2.3 billion as fans stocked up ahead of the World Cup.

Markets Are In The Red. U.S. futures are negative with Dow futures down 25 points and S&P 500 futures down 4.2 points. Europe is mixed, with Britain's FTSE 100 up 0.1%, France's CAC 40 flat, Germany's DAX flat, and Spain's IBEX down 0.1%.

American Sentiment. The final June University of Michigan confidence report will be published at 9:55 a.m. ET. Economists estimate this measure of sentiment improved to 82.0 in June from 81.2 in May. This "would reflect equity markets, which have moved higher and experienced a modest reduction in volatility relative to May, as well as gasoline prices, which have largely moved sideways after increasing through the first quarter," said Barclays economists. "A rise in consumer confidence would also be in line with recent steadily improving labor market indicators such as initial jobless claims."

No, Those Mt.Gox Bitcoins Aren't Coming Back. The WSJ's Takashi Mochizuki and Eleanor Warnock have an interview with Mark Karpelis, CEO of the Tokyo-based exchange that lost around 850,000 bitcoins to hackers. "Mr. Karpelès said in addition to hacking attacks taking advantage of a system weakness called transaction malleability, there were physical break-ins at the company's offices and that at least one former employee pilfered electronic data," they reported. Here's Karpelès: "If anyone wants to start a bitcoin exchange, I would say, 'Be sure to have 24-hour security guards.'"

***

BONUS: Ever heard of the Internet of Things? Because it's going to be huge. Check out this slide from Deutsche Bank's recent House View Presentation breaking it down.

Join the conversation about this story »

HashTrader is a new community forum by GAWMiners brought into being to give everyone a place to hang out, share and talk about mining and crypto currencies. There are several different facets to HashTrader beyond that as well. HashTrader was created due to the need for there to be a community where people new to mining […]

The post HashTrader Bitcoin Forum Review appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Has the Bitcoin Value bubble burst? Looking at the most recent prices, we seem readier for a gentle nosedive than a new rollercoaster ride to the top. The outlook for altcoins is down as well: Litecoin, Peercoin and your beloved Dogecoin are all in a steady slide to the drain of the currency world. But […]

The post Four Charts That Suggest Bitcoin Value Could Be At 10,000 USD Next Year appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Has the Bitcoin Value bubble burst? Looking at the most recent prices, we seem readier for a gentle nosedive than a new rollercoaster ride to the top. The outlook for altcoins is down as well: Litecoin, Peercoin and your beloved Dogecoin are all in a steady slide to the drain of the currency world. But […]

The post Four Charts That Suggest Bitcoin Value Could Be At 10,000 USD Next Year appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Has the Bitcoin Value bubble burst? Looking at the most recent prices, we seem readier for a gentle nosedive than a new rollercoaster ride to the top. The outlook for altcoins is down as well: Litecoin, Peercoin and your beloved Dogecoin are all in a steady slide to the drain of the currency world. But […]

The post Four Charts That Suggest Bitcoin Value Could Be At 10,000 USD Next Year appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Has the Bitcoin Value bubble burst? Looking at the most recent prices, we seem readier for a gentle nosedive than a new rollercoaster ride to the top. The outlook for altcoins is down as well: Litecoin, Peercoin and your beloved Dogecoin are all in a steady slide to the drain of the currency world. But […]

The post Four Charts That Suggest Bitcoin Value Could Be At 10,000 USD Next Year appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.