Coin News

Not everyone gets a regular, stable paycheck.

There's a long article in the New York Times Magazine on Even, the startup that tries to help workers with volatile incomes by smoothing out their paychecks. The idea is to average out the amount that a user has coming in, then distribute it in regular chunks. If they get paid more one week, that goes into a savings account. If they take in less, Even either pays them out of their own savings account or extends credit interest free.

This could be invaluable for people who work irregular schedules, but it will only work if the users are actually making enough money to cover their bills.

Anand Giridharadas writes in the NYT Mag: 

For Even to thrive, it will probably need to avoid the truly needy: those who don’t have enough ever, not merely right now. Picking winners also means picking — and spurning — losers. Even’s purpose is hardly to change the distribution of wealth in society. It is simply to redistribute one person’s own limited wealth across time. People in Silicon Valley may believe there’s an app for everything. That’s their hammer. But improving the lot of the poor will require other tools, including an old one the valley often wants to wish away: politics.

It's a step forward, but not much of a solution.

SEE ALSO: Bitcoin is starting to march toward the mainstream

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Bitcoin is growing up. 

I was briefly at the Inside Bitcoins conference in New York on Tuesday. The broad takeaway was that the cryptocurrency community is moving away from its origins in political ideology, specifically cryptoanarchy, and starting to think about how to promote Bitcoin into the mainstream. 

Bitcoin as a currency has been falling out of favor.

But Bitcoin as a mechanism by which to transfer money is in. The buzzwords are "regulation," "settlements," and "Wall Street."

Bitcoin is nowhere near mainstream acceptance, but the people who are looking at its long-term future are starting to think about how it's going to get there. 

Regulation, such as the New York Department of Financial Services's BitLicense project, is a start. Companies are wary of how it might restrict their businesses, but there's a recognition that regulation confers legitimacy. Six different talks and panels at the conference mentioned regulation in their summaries.

At Tuesday's keynote speech, Wall Street Journal reporter and author of "The Age of Cryptocurrency," Paul Vigna, told the room that Wall Street's interest has been piqued. "There's an effort to learn what it is. What are the pros, what are the cons, and how they can use it," he said. There have been small investments here and there, perhaps most notably the new bitcoin startup headed by former JPMorgan commodities head Blythe Masters.

Bitcoin still has a long way to go before it's a mainstream concept, not least because its adoption has been overwhelmingly male, but it is starting to look like it might actually go somewhere.

SEE ALSO: One big reason Bitcoin is going nowhere

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NeuCoin, the highly advertised “2nd Generation Peercoin Fork,” has seen a lot of attention lately, particularly from investors. Within the first eight hours of its pre-sale launch, 50 million of the 100 million NeuCoins being offered to the public were sold, raising more than 2,000 BTC. In more interesting news, NeuCoin’s backers decided to reduce […]

The post NeuCoin Presale Raising More Than 2,000 Bitcoins appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

NeuCoin, the highly advertised “2nd Generation Peercoin Fork,” has seen a lot of attention lately, particularly from investors. Within the first eight hours of its pre-sale launch, 50 million of the 100 million NeuCoins being offered to the public were sold, raising more than 2,000 BTC. In more interesting news, NeuCoin’s backers decided to reduce […]

The post NeuCoin Presale Raising More Than 2,000 Bitcoins appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Bitcoin price is maintaining the same level trajectory it held at the time of yesterday’s analysis. The market has entered a consolidative phase, and there are two potential paths for price: one is up, and the other is, well… CoinCompetition invited participants in the upcoming trading competition to test drive the new CoinArch demo platform […]

The post Bitcoin Price Holding Steady Below Long-Term Support appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Bitcoin Shop and Spondoolies-Tech have signed a deal that would find the two companies merging in a move that could impact bitcoin mining.

At 2:00 pm ET, the Fed will release its latest policy statement, in which it is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged.

The big part of the statement, however, will be the Fed's language on the economic outlook, which will be closely watched by markets after the worse-than-expected GDP report we got this morning that showed the US economy grew at just a 0.2% rate in the first quarter. 

In his morning comment to traders, Wall Street legend Art Cashin of UBS said that traders need to stay alert, as the Fed certainly appears to be headed towards a rate hike. 

Cashin zeroes in on Fed vice chair Stanley Fisher, who he believes is the most important FOMC member aside from chair Yellen, noting that Fisher has made clear, in Cashin's view, that the Fed will raise rates this year. 

Here's Cashin:

Is The Fed Into Game Theory Or at Least Game Playing? – Some of us think that this FOMC meeting may be more about strategy than it normally is. And, this strategy may be more of the "does he know that I know what he knows type" than simply about rate strategy.

We all know the FOMC is made up of various levels of hawks and doves. We also all know that the voting members of this particular FOMC are more dovish than any recent group.

We think that the key, however, may be the vice chairman, Mr. Stanley Fischer. He is highly respected broadly but perhaps even more so on the FOMC. He literally taught Ben Bernanke and served as Chairman of the Bank of Israel.

Our readings of Mr. Fischer's speeches and writings lead us to conclude that he believes in several things. First, is that being at zero is potentially a dangerous thing, particularly if economic, or even geo-political situations change. Secondly, he believes the Fed has been too transparent and had handheld the markets virtually every step of the way. He believes it is very, very important to raise rates this year.

Yet, the rest of the FOMC is a good deal more hesitant. They hear the likes of Dalio, Gundlach and Druckenmiller warn of repeating the "error of 1937", when many contend that Fed tightening to destroying a fledgling recovery. Some share those same fears.

That's where the potential strategy comes in. If Vice Chair Fischer can get the FOMC to issue a statement hinting that liftoff is imminent, or even near, they can watch how the markets react. If the reaction looks too negative, they can explain that the markets misunderstood and that no rate hike is near.

If the Fed in fact, actually raised rates and the reaction was disastrous, it could be disastrous to Fed credibility and cripple its effectiveness.

Therefore, the best strategy is to lead the markets to believe that liftoff is proximate, and then gauge how the markets react to that assumption. That's what we are guessing Mr. Fischer hopes to achieve. Let's see how the game evolves.

...

Consensus – Today obviously is Fed day. They have had a 65% bias to the upside after the mandatory 20 minutes of wild zigzag trading on the statement. GDP could set tone, especially if it looks weak enough to handcuff the Fed. Bulls need to push S&P above 2123 or risk momentum swing. Stick with the drill – stay wary, alert, and very, very nimble.

And Business Insider, of course, will have complete coverage and analysis of the statement when it drops.

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Investors are increasing the pressure to acquire shares of the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) with a bid for 5,000 at $35 per share by the Maxim Group. Self-described as a full-service investment bank and wealth management firm, Maxim has taken the most aggressive approach as of yet to get investors in GBTC to sell their shares. In the beginning of April, trading began for shares of the Bitcoin Investment Trust, one of the products rolled out by Barry Silbert’s new Grayscale Investments. Despite the fact that trading was possible, none have been executed. The rules put forth by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) stated that only those who have held shares in BIT for longer than a year will […]

The post Maxim Group Bids $1.7M for GBTC Shares appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Coinbase announced the expansion of Coinbase services to the United Kingdom, including the ability to trade bitcoin on the Coinbase Exchange and to buy/sell bitcoin with British pounds (GBP) using the Coinbase Wallet, and the addition of BTC/GBP and BTC/EUR currency pairs on Coinbase Exchange for U.K. users. Besides the United Kingdom, Coinbase services are also available to other European Union residents. The move brings Coinbase into the competitive British market, which co-founder Fred Ehrsam argues is buoyed by the forward-looking attitude of U.K. regulators toward Bitcoin, as well as other financial technology innovations, The Guardian reports. “The payments regulators and the Treasury are taking a very balanced view of bitcoin,” said Ehrsam. “They’re really taking their time to understand […]

The post Coinbase Expands its Services to United Kingdom appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin Shop, one of the first Bitcoin companies quoted on the U.S. stock market, announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent to merge with Israeli Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer Spondoolies-Tech. The Letter of Intent follows last week’s announcement that Bitcoin Shop raised $2.3 million in a venture capital funding round. Bitcoin Shop, quoted on the OTC Market with the ticker BTCS, is based in Arlington, Virginia. Besides operating an e-commerce store which accepts a variety of digital currencies and offering a multi-signature wallet with bank-grade security, the company is the lead investor in Bitcoin ATM manufacturer Coin Outlet, and runs bitcoin mining operations in a new 83,000-square-foot facility. The new mining facility is expected to handle more than […]

The post Bitcoin Shop (BTCS) to Merge with Spondoolies-Tech to Create a Publicly Traded Bitcoin Mining Company appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Sweden's Nasdaq exchange has approved a bitcoin-based exchange traded note, enabling people to invest in bitcoin without having to hold it themselves.

After our story about KnCMiner facing class action lawsuits, several readers wrote in to thank us and share their stories as well. We expected to receive some comment back from KnCMiner regarding the claims being made against them by more than two dozen clients representing several dozen thousands of dollars. We never did. However, today […]

The post KnCMiner Launches XBT Provider, Bitcoin Tracker One appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

GBTC is the listed stock for the Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) that many people in and outside the bitcoin sector have been eagerly waiting for. The other day it was brought to the attention of r/bitcoin that bids for GBTC shares are starting to get a little bit more serious. GBTC shares trade at the […]

The post Buy Orders in the Millions for Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Bitcoin custodian Elliptic has been shortlisted to compete for a $500,000 prize in the Startup Challenge Finale at SWIFT’s Sibos conference.

Sexual depictions have existed in the form of rock art since prehistoric times. From the controversial French impressionist painting by Édouard Manet, Olympia, which was a picture of a prostitute, to today’s celebrity leaked porn videos, pornography has long been controversial and in demand. Thanks to Bitcoinpornsites.net, audiences of porn can now watch porn without […]

The post BitcoinPornSites.Net Lets You View Porn Anonymously appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Global remittance giant Western Union is reportedly working on a pilot program with decentralized payment protocol provider Ripple Labs.

Coinbase, a leading Bitcoin payment processor and the first licensed Bitcoin exchange in the US, opened an exchange and online bitcoin wallet service in the UK on Tuesday. Coinbase enters one of the financial capitals of the world in the UK as the San Francisco-based company now allows people to transfer from GBP into bitcoins […]

The post Coinbase Across The Pond: Bitcoin Exchange Opens In UK appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Bitcoin Max Profit markets itself as a place where people can get Cloud Mining, whereby users pay funds for ‘hash power’ in a mining pool and earn returns over time. They also claim they use trading bots and provide daily payouts for customers. Their prices range from $400 (Bronze), $4000 (Silver) and $6000 (Gold). There […]

The post Scam Alert – Bitcoin Max Profit appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

 About six months after they initially crossed the pond, Coinbase is finally landing in the United Kingdom. They’re the Bitcoin wallet and platform backed with more than $100 million from DFJ, NYSE and Andreessen Horowitz and that has attracted north of 2.7 million consumer accounts. With the expansion, they’re bringing both the exchange and their consumer wallet to the British market. Read More

Bitcoin wallet, exchange and merchant services provider Coinbase has launched in the UK.