Coin News

Simon Fraser University (SFU) is now the first Canadian university to accept Bitcoin donations. The donations will go toward an SFU co-op project in India called Destiny Reflection. The project works to empower girls who are victims of human trafficking or happen to be vulnerable to the crime. Kicking off their announcement, SFU alumnus Scott […]

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Simon Fraser University became the first Canadian university to embrace bitcoin donations.

LocalBitcoins.com is a well-known and well-trusted Bitcoin trading website. Unlike many Bitcoin trading sites, however, LocalBitcoins isn’t a semi-automated trading exchange: on LocalBitcoins, the user personally finds a buyer or seller of bitcoins and communicates with them to complete a purchase. One method of sale on LocalBitcoins is PayPal. This tutorial aims to teach you […]

The post How to Buy Bitcoins on LocalBitcoins.com Using PayPal appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Christoph Cronimund examines the inner workings of a digital currency exchange to find out what moves bitcoin’s price.

 I’ve stopped writing about a few things recently, mostly because of fatigue. First, I’m not that interested in merchants accepting bitcoin – these little blips are primarily PR moves and little else and I just don’t get as wound up about mass adoption of BTC as the true believers. I’m also not interested in covering crowdfunded 3D printers. Same problem: fatigue… Read More

Prominent members of the South American bitcoin community assess which market is most likely become the region's cryptocurrency leader.

Storj has made waves in the name of complete decentralization of your cloud storage. As businesses and consumers alike are moving to the cloud, Storj provides an innovative means of solving the problem, “How do I keep my valuable information out of the wrong hands?” Winner of the Bitcoin Hackathon at this year’s Texas Bitcoin Conference, the company gives users the ability to not only secure their information using P2P technology and encryption, but users can also earn money for their extra hard drive space with Driveshare. Storj has also released a beta of their most recent application called Metadisk, giving you true ownership of every bit, byte, mega and gigabyte of your information. The company launched last month and […]

The post Storj Introduces Decentralized Cloud Storage appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

When it comes to adopting Bitcoin as money, it’s always been known that there are certain countries where adoption makes a lot more sense than it does in a place like the United States. There are nearly 200 fiat currencies in the world today, and it makes sense that Bitcoin would compete with the most unstable currencies […]

The post Bitcoin May Be Preferred to Venezuelan Bolivar’s 140% Inflation appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

My friend John Scianna, an active participant in the bitcoin community (and writer for Bitcoin Magazine), is working to attend Draper University and needs our help to fund his endeavor. He told me about his plan, and other than donating a few satoshis, I didn’t know how I could be of service to this fellow bitcoiner. Then I had a lightbulb moment: I’ll write about it. While putting together the questions below for John to anwswer, I realized how important it is for us as a community to support each other – because if we don’t, who will? Donation info is at the bottom of the page. 1. What is Draper University and why do you think you’d be good […]

The post John Scianna’s Draper University Campaign appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Just today, Thursday, August 28th, by paying with bitcoin you can buy one of the 25 discounted tickets for the Digital Currency Summit that will be in Andorra next September 17-19. Only for 2 BTC, instead of the regular price of 1190€, you can participate in this event and enjoy a wide range of talks organized in different categories like investment opportunities, regulation laws, banking, and workshops where speakers will be several of the best Bitcoin experts from around the world and in Europe like Jon Matonis, Marco Santori, Jan Kees de Jager, Constance Choi, Alberto Gómez Toribio and many more. To enjoy this great offer you must buy the ticket, today only, following the steps described in this page.

The post Discount Available For The Digital Currency Summit appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

BitPay is to provide Demandware with bitcoin integration for its e-commerce platform.

The “Bit Drop” to distribute Bitcoin to all islanders AUGUST 28, 2014 — Dominica is set to be the first nation to adopt Bitcoin following a successful collaboration between island officials, Coinapult, Aspen Assurance, Bitcoin Beauties and the College Cryptocurrency Network, who have partnered to deliver the project, officially titled The Bit Drop. The Bit Drop project will to send Bitcoin to every resident on Dominica, a Caribbean commonwealth island, via SMS texting. With a population of over 70,000, this project will create the world’s largest and highest density Bitcoin community. The Bit Drop is scheduled to take place on 14th March 2015 at 09:26 to coincide with Piday. To mark this unprecedented event The Bit Drop will be throwing […]

The post Dominica to Be the First Bitcoin Nation appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Coinbase has announced it is insured against the theft or loss of bitcoin, with cover via an established broker.

Earlier, “Hashlet frenzy” occurred at the launch of GAWMiner’s Hashlet. A portion of the Shopify network went down from the massive surge in sales. GAWMiner now sells more in Bitcoin sales per day than Overstock does, much thanks to the Hashlet. GAWMiner’s CEO, Josh Garza, has previously made headlines with his purchase of BTC.com. He has also donated 100 […]

The post GAWMiners’ Hashlet Sells More in Bitcoin Sales Per Day than Overstock appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

This is a guest post by Max Wright Disclaimer: Max Wright owns both Bitcoin and BitSharesX. Wright’s critique of the security concerns of DPOS can be found at http://www.SuccessCouncil.com In August of 2014, in front of a small crowd at a regional Bitcoin event in Raleigh, North Carolina, a panel of arguably 6 of the brightest minds in Crypto were asked, “What is the most pressing issue facing Bitcoin today?” The unanimous answer: A more efficient consensus algorithm. For those of you who do not know, Bitcoin is secured by a consensus of “who owns what” by what is called a Proof of Work consensus algorithm. Satoshi understood that decentralization is the key to a disruptive technology in the field […]

The post Hot Cryptocurrency Trends: Delegated Proof of Stake appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The Israeli Bitcoin Association records its board meetings and publishes them online. Should other bitcoin groups follow suit?

Although the idea of using blockchain technology for more than just currency has been around for quite some time, there are still plenty of people out there who view Bitcoin and various altcoins as nothing more than a mirage. The criticism often received by most of these systems is that these systems could not possibly […]

The post Syscoin is Building a Crypto Economy appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Although the idea of using blockchain technology for more than just currency has been around for quite some time, there are still plenty of people out there who view Bitcoin and various altcoins as nothing more than a mirage. The criticism often received by most of these systems is that these systems could not possibly […]

The post Syscoin is Building a Crypto Economy appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Michael Connor

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin is catching on at U.S. online merchants including Overstock.com and Expedia, as customers use a digital currency that just a few years ago was virtually unknown but is now showing some staying power.

    Though sales paid for in bitcoin so far at vendors interviewed for this article have been a fraction of one percent, they expect that as acceptance grows, the online currency will one day be as ubiquitous as the internet.

    "Bitcoin isn't going anywhere; it's here to stay," said Michael Gulmann, vice president of global products at Expedia Inc. in Seattle, the largest online travel agent. "We want to be there from the beginning." Expedia started accepting bitcoin payments for hotel bookings on July 11.

    Until recently a niche alternative currency touted by a fervent group of followers, bitcoin has evolved into a software-based payment online system. Bitcoins are stored in a wallet with a unique identification number and companies like Coinbase and Blockchain can hold the currency for the user.

    When buying an item from a merchant's website, a customer simply clicks on the bitcoin option and a pop-in window appears where he can type in his wallet ID number.

Still, broad-based adoption of bitcoin is at least five years away because most consumers still prefer to use credit cards, analysts said.

    "Bitcoin is a new way of making payments, but it's not solving a problem that's broken," said George Peabody, payments consultant at Glenbrook Partners in Menlo Park, California. "Retail payments aren't broken."

    There are also worries about bitcoin's volatility: its price in U.S. dollars changes every day. On Wednesday, bitcoin was up 0.4 percent at $514.09.

    That risk is borne by the consumer and the bitcoin payment processor, such as Coinbase or Bitpay, not the retailer. The vendor doesn't hold the bitcoin and is paid in U.S. dollars. As soon as a customer pays in bitcoin, the digital currency goes to the payment processor and the processor immediately pays the merchant, for a fee of less than 1 percent.

    "We don't have to deal with the actual holding of the bitcoin: it's the payment processor that takes the currency risk for us," said Bernie Han, chief operating officer at Dish Network Corp, in Englewood, Colorado. "That's what makes it appealing for us and I guess for other merchants as well."

Dish, with about $14 billion in annual revenue, started accepting bitcoins in mid-August.

    Payment processors do some form of hedging though, said Gil Luria, a financial technology analyst at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. These entities would, for instance, sell bitcoins in the market to offset the ones they have processed and in their books, so they're not left with much exposure, Luria said.

    The only risk for the retailer is if the counterparty, or payment processor, doesn't fulfill its obligation. That risk is minimal, Luria said,

    "Coinbase and Bitpay are now well-funded start-ups and they have put a lot of resources behind security," Luria said. "You can consider them as secure counterparties, as opposed to a year ago, when they were very small."

    ADDING TO EARNINGS

    For some, it has become a beneficial situation for retailers, as they take advantage of lower transaction fees and sales from new customers. In at least one instance, bitcoin sales are expected to pad a company's bottom line, adding 4 cents a share to 2014 earnings at Salt Lake City-based online merchant Overstock.com, said chief executive officer Patrick Byrne.

    Overstock was the first U.S. company with annual sales of at least $1 billion to accept bitcoins. Soon after, other companies including computer maker Dell Inc, Dish, and Newegg Inc, an online retailer of computer hardware and software, began to accept payments in bitcoin.

    To date, there are about 63,000 merchants globally accepting bitcoin, estimates from data provider CoinDesk show. It forecasts that figure to rise to 100,000 by year-end.

    Overstock's Byrne estimated bitcoin sales of between $6 million and $8 million by the end of 2014, a fraction of the company's total revenue.

More importantly for Byrne, the bulk of bitcoin sales comes from new customers, who would otherwise not shop at Overstock if the website didn't offer bitcoin payments. Bitcoin owners tend to be high net-worth individuals and tech-savvy consumers.

    In a way, bitcoin has been used by retailers as a marketing strategy to bring some much-needed buzz to brands that may be struggling.

    "Every retailer knows that if they make some sort of announcement on bitcoin these days, they know it's going be picked up more broadly by the media, than if they decided to accept Discover cards," said Glenbrook's Peabody.

    One disadvantage from a consumer's point of view is that, in general, Bitcoin sales are final and irreversible. Still, there are some vendors that do return bitcoin payments for faulty products, said Adam White, director of business development and strategy at Coinbase, an online wallet company in San Francisco.

    SAVING ON TRANSACTION COSTS

    For retailers, the biggest benefit in accepting bitcoins is lower transaction costs. Coinbase and Bitpay, for instance, charge less than 1 percent per transaction. A credit card payment, in contrast, typically carries a 3 percent fee.

    Dell, which started accepting bitcoins in July, Dish, and Expedia all say their bitcoin revenue so far have exceeded their expectations. The three companies declined to give specific figures, but said bitcoin sales are modest relative to their overall revenues.

    "From the first day...we saw traffic at the site, it has been growing since," said Paul Walsh, chief information officer at Dell Commerce Services in Texas. He cited a recent single purchase in bitcoins of a server worth more than $50,000.

    At online travel agent Cheapair.com in Calabasas, California, bitcoin sales totaled $1.5 million so far since it started accepting them in November 2013, said CEO Jeff Klee. In July alone, bitcoin sales at the company jumped 20 percent.

    Data from BlockChain.info, a bitcoin wallet which stores the digital currency for customers, showed that over the last three months, there were between 50,000 and 75,000 bitcoin transactions a day on average, worth between $45 million and $85 million. That compares with U.S. retail sales of about $15 billion a day during July, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

    As of the end of June, bitcoin wallets, representing the number of users who have bitcoin accounts, have grown to 5.32 million, from 765,039 users a year ago, CoinDesk data show. It predicted that wallets would increase to 8 million by year-end.

    "I don't see too much risk for us right now on bitcoin," said Dish's Han. "We are not expecting bitcoin to revolutionize the way our customers handle their accounts, but based on what we have seen so far, there is no reason for us to change."

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Michael Connor. Editing by David Gaffen and John Pickering)

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New manufacturers of Bitcoin ASIC miners are coming out and usually CCN has already heard of them and written something or another. BitCrane surprised me by coming out with the BitCrane T-110 Bitcoin ASIC miner. Not only did they burst on the scene like that, causing people to email and message me asking if BitCrane was a scam or legit, […]

The post Review: BitCrane T-110 1.1 th/s Watercooled Bitcoin ASIC Miner appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Residents of the Caribbean nation of Dominica will receive free bitcoin as part of a new initiative from The Bit Drop.