Coinbase Announces Pricing in ‘Bits’ and Bitcoin Buyback Option

inShar

 

 

Bitcoin payment processor Coinbase is now enabling merchants to display the cost of their goods and services in smaller denominations of bitcoins – “bits”.
The San Francisco-based company, which has so far raised funding totalling $31.7m, explained that using bits means prices can be displayed using two decimal places, which consumers are already used to.

Currently, a single bitcoin is divided into eight decimal places, with each unit known as a “Satoshi”. One bit (or µBTC) is worth 100 Satoshis, so something worth $1 can be priced at 1,700 bits rather than 0.0017 BTC.

New buyback feature

The company has also announced the launch of a “repurchase” feature, which enables users to immediately top up their bitcoin wallets after they make a purchase in the digital currency.
Once placing an order via the checkout page of a site that uses Coinbase as its bitcoin payment processor, users can click a “Repurchase” button and refill their wallet directly from their bank account. Previously, users had to navigate to the main site’s “Buy” page in order to add more bitcoins to their wallets.
A walk-through of the process can be found on the Coinbase blog.

Earlier this week, the company endorsed an unofficial Coinbase bitcoin wallet that was launched on the Apple App Store.
Developed by AirBnB developer and bitcoin enthusiast Andrew Vilcsak, the open-source app was give a thumbs-up by Coinbase on Friday:
The app allows users to send and receive bitcoins, view their transaction history and balance, and otherwise manage their Coinbase account.


source : http://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-announces-pricing-bits-bitcoin-buyback-option/

Read more ...

U.S. Marshal Auction Speculated to Affect Bitcoin Value

Ever since the dawn of digital currency, value has heavily relied on the headlines. Is there good news in the papers? Great, it sounds like a good time to buy and raise the price. Did something horrific happen suddenly? Sell, sell, sell and get out of the market before the value crashes into oblivion. The “death of Bitcoin” is surely to be upon us soon!
It can be proven time and time again through various examples. Unfortunately, the best examples are based on sells from bad news: Mt. Gox, China Bans, etc. However, market manipulation is alive and well across all digital currencies; even Bitcoin. With the recent dip in value, the question remains: Is this due to the United States government?

CCN

Recently, news spread that the United States planned to auction off nearly 30,000 confiscated Bitcoin by the FBI from the infamous Silk Road, a deep web community for buying and selling drugs. Almost immediately, the value of Bitcoin dropped $60 as the sell walls poured in.
Wealthy patrons have already begun to take notice, as was leaked by the United States governments through an email stating the personal information about everyone who had inquired about the auction. While the market has fluctuated in the past few days, there is a sense in the Bitcoin community that potential investors are pushing the value downward in order to attain cheap coins.

While this hypothesis can’t be proven due the Bitcoin’s anonymity features, it can be speculated. The price has hovered around $600 for days, and has shown no indication of rising. Traders can easily speculate, with reasonable suspicion, that current Bitcoin investors looking to make headlines may buy more Bitcoin at a cheaper price from the United States.
With the recent leak of information about potential bidders being released, it’s no secret that the Bitcoin community provides a public relations frenzy. While a Yelp investor was interested in the auction, the company got a load of attention from the community. In the past, companies like Overstock.com and Gyft.com has seen phenomenal gains in attention since their announcement to accept Bitcoin. At this point, Bitcoin faces a challenge of whether or not to be used as currency, or a marketing ploy.
“Mark my words. These will sell at least market price,” a trader on Reddit’s own /r/BitcoinMarkets commented. This sentiment provides a basis for speculation from a majority of the Bitcoin community. The price may be pushed down due to the desire to buy cheap coins.
Of course, this is always a threat to digital currency. Pump and dump schemes are so frequent that they’re taught and traded upon, but when you involve very interested parties looking for ways to capitalize on Bitcoin in the public spotlight that leads to a very different market game. Now the pump and dump schemers have the large investors looking for press on their side.
Now obviously this is not something that can’t be proven for most companies. However, companies like SecondMarket have fully expressed intent to participate in the auctions through email. On June 20, 2014, SecondMarket sent out this email:

From: bitcoinauction@secondmarket.com
Subject: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – Opportunity to Participate in US Marshals Bitcoin Auction via SecondMarket
Body: As you may be aware, the U.S. Marshals Service is planning to auction off approximately 30,000 bitcoins. SecondMarket intends on participating in this auction and is allowing qualified customers to submit orders for aggregation into bids to be submitted by SecondMarket in the auction process. Participation through SecondMarket will generally be simpler than direct participation in the auction:
Smaller minimum bid size ($50k versus ~3,000 bitcoin blocks)
Lower upfront capital commitment (bid amount versus $200k deposit plus proof of funds)
Support for multiple bids at different bid prices with smaller minimum sizes
Private participation in the auction (bidder identity will not be revealed to the U.S. Marshals office)
Open to non-US investors
Full details and instructions can be accessed on the SecondMarket platform. To learn more and to participate, create an account on the SecondMarket auction portal. If you already have an account, simply log into the SecondMarket auction portal. Please note that an account on the SecondMarket portal is separate from the New Account Profile (NAP) that you may have filled out with us in the past.
The order deadline will be Thursday, June 26 at 12pm ET by which time all submissions must be complete including receipt of wire payments for bid amounts. All orders in place as of Thursday, June 26 at 12pm ET will be deemed fully binding and irrevocable.
Please note that ten percent of all auction fees received by SecondMarket from successful syndicate participants in the auction will be donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization supportive of bitcoin and more broadly dedicated to promoting technology, innovation and the protection of rights in the digital world.
Best regards,
SecondMarket and the Bitcoin Investment Trust

“This screams that SecondMarket wants to buy them all, in my opinion,” another trader said, “or maybe they’re trying to judge interest.”
With so many potential investors looking to step foot into Bitcoin in the public light, value is an important thing to look at. Investors of this caliber aren’t stupid. They want to get the most out of their money. In fact, most of them are looking for these Bitcoins to go below market price. The lower the market price, the lower the coins sell for.
If a company or investor wanted to make a serious decision to get into Bitcoin, they wouldn’t buy them through an auction by the United States. They’d learn the process and go through an exchange, unless they were looking to get the coins for cheap along with valuable press coverage. This leads some to believe that they understand the Bitcoin process.
This upcoming auction is speculated to either keep the price at $600, or drop it even lower the benefit investors. It’s advised that you pay attention to the news, and watch who is looking to invest. Each investor may have ulterior motives that may affect the price.
Disclaimer: I do hold Bitcoin, but am not an investor in the upcoming auction.
Photo from Flickr.

source : http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/u-s-marshal-auction-speculated-affect-bitcoin-value/2014/06/21

Read more ...

The 14 Weirdest Things You Can Buy With Bitcoin

 

 

Bitcoin’s value as a payment protocol is hard to deny.
The digital currency offers merchants a number of benefits over traditional fiat and credit card transactions, and for consumers, making payments with bitcoin is secure and convenient.
Even with those benefits, however, there was a time when it was nearly impossible to use your bitcoins to buy anything practical. One of the very first real-world purchases made with bitcoin was in 2010, when a computer programmer paid 10,000 BTC (around $6m USD at today’s market price) for two pizzas from Papa John’s.
Luckily for everybody, companies like BitPay and Coinbase have made it a breeze for businesses small and large to integrate bitcoin as a payment option for their goods and services.
As a result, there are considerably more options today when it comes to spending your beloved bitcoins. While everyone has their own taste, some of the things that can be bought with the digital currency are just downright bizarre.
Here are the 14 weirdest things you can buy with bitcoin:

1. A motorized unicycle

Price: $1,795
For those like myself, who never had quite enough balance to maneuver a unicycle, this self-balancing motorized model would surely be useful.

2. Adult Canadian Mammoth tusks

bitpremier.com

Price: $175,000

Purchasing these ivory tusks from the extinct woolly mammoth species with bitcoin would be a great way to bring things full circle between the past and the future, but only if you’ve got about 290 BTC to spare at today’s market price.

3. A Venus flytrap plant

predatoryplants.com

Price: $8.99

Who hasn’t always wanted a carnivorous plant growing in their garden? At under $10, these venus flytraps are a catch!

4. Sriracha-bacon flavored lollipops

lollyphile.com

Price: $24 for 12 lollipops

Most everybody loves sriracha and bacon, but combining the two flavors? And putting them in a lollipop? These suckers sound pretty irresistible.

5. An interactive ferrofluid sculpture

Price: $199
Even after watching the informational video, I’m still not certain I fully understand what’s going on with this ferrofluid sculpture. Regardless, I’m intrigued, and the iron-enhanced device seems fun to play with!

6. Red Trinidad scorpion jelly

pexpeppers.com

Price: $6

Some people search near and far for their fix of the hottest chilli peppers on the Scoville scale. I’m not sure where this Trinidad Scorpion Jelly ranks according to this system, but by the sound of it I would guess pretty high.

7. The very first Apple Macintosh model – 128k

bitpremier.com

Price: $5,430

Now that Apple is finally coming around to the idea of digital currencies, perhaps one nostalgic bitcoiner will spring for the very first model Macintosh that Apple released back in 1984.

8. Celtic cross tarot reading cards

mytarotreading.org

Price: $15

We’ve all tried our hand at predicting the price trends for bitcoin and other digital currencies. Maybe these tarot cards can offer sage insight that us mortals are simply overlooking?

9. A Robo 3-D printer

robo3dprinter.com

Price: $799

While a 3-D printer may not be “weird” per se, this Robo3D printer could surely print out some strange objects. I’ll leave that up to the buyer’s imagination.

10. A doge sweatshirt

belovedshirts.com

Price: $59

Wow. This doge sweatshirt really makes a statement. Many prints, all over.

11. A handmade bitcoin plush pillow

craftsquatch.com

Price: $29

Some may want to show their love of digital currencies without sporting a doge sweatshirt, and for those people there is a handmade bitcoin plush pillow just waiting to be snuggled up with.

12. Spokester bicycle noisemakers

Price: $7.99
Of course, we all remember the old card-and-clothespin trick to make our bicycles sound intimidatingly loud as kids. Now, someone has actually tapped into the market and made a product that removes the need for all of that work!

13. A profitable Yukon gold mine

bitpremier.com

Price: $2m

There’s still a ton of speculation over which is the better investment: gold or bitcoin. This already-profitable gold mine in Canada would be the perfect investment for a super-rich bitcoiner hoping to diversify his or her portfolio.

14. Alpaca socks

grasshillalpacas.com

Price: $20

Alpacas and bitcoin have a long history together. Yes, you read that right. The llama-like animal has been dubbed the unofficial mascot of bitcoin, and these alpaca socks have become one of the quintessential items that can be bought with the digital currency


source : http://www.coindesk.com/14-weirdest-things-can-buy-bitcoin/

Read more ...

Russia to Clarify Bitcoin Policy in Forthcoming Task Force Report

inSha

Russian financial authorities appear to be close to clarifying their stance on bitcoin with the announcement of a forthcoming paper to by published by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body set up to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a Russian-language news source, is reporting that the paper will mark the conclusion of research conducted by anti-money laundering (AML) and terrorist financing officials at the FATF and other agencies within Russia and around the world, including the US and UK.
The FATF paper is being spearheaded by the International Training and Methodology Center of Financial Monitoring, a division within Russian financial regulatory body, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation (Rosfinmonitoring).
The media outlet said that project manager Eugene Volovik spoke about the initiative during a meeting of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) in Moscow. There, he explained the current climate and the need for tighter controls within Russia on what he called unchecked digital currency movement.
Volovik also acknowledged the transformative role that digital currencies may very well play long term, saying:

“Just as e-mail today has replaced the usual post offices and telegraph came to replace SMS and popular services such as Skype or Whyber [...] radical changes [could] begin with virtual currency.”

Paper to focus on money laundering

Volovik stated that the paper will outline the challenges digital currencies pose to domestic AML and terrorist financing personnel, and he added that such an effort is important for the potential of digital currencies to be fully employed.
By targeting the illicit uses of bitcoin technology, government regulators can support the development of a more mature digital currency ecosystem.
However, Volovik reiterated that despite these promises, Russian regulators remain committed to preventing digital currencies from being used to support criminal acts, which he said remains an outsized problem.

Russia undecided on bitcoin

Bitcoin has had a thus-far complicated history in Russia, owing to rumors that national financial authorities had initially banned the digital currency.
However, a later release from the Bank of Russia suggested that the bank was more focused on keeping bitcoin technology from supporting terrorist and criminal financing rather than simply outlawing it entirely.
According to Volovik, Russia belongs to a large group of countries that remain divided on bitcoin. Still, he added that an outright ban has not technically been put in place, as discussions are still ongoing about the future of digital currencies in Russia.
Notably, Rossiyskaya Gazeta followed up with an official from Rosfinmonitoring, who said that according to the country’s constitution, bitcoin is not a legal form of money.
Edit (20th June, 10am): This article previously stated that FATF was a Russian organisation, in fact it is international. This has now been corrected.

source : http://www.coindesk.com/russia-clarify-bitcoin-policy-task-force-report/

Read more ...

Thinktank: UK Should Privatise the Pound and Embrace Cryptocurrency

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has today released a report stating that the UK should privatise the pound and replace it with cryptocurrencies.
Founded in 1955, the London institute was described as the “most influential thinktank” in modern British history by journalist Andrew Marr. Its impact on public policy should not be underestimated.
The institute believes bitcoin will “open the floodgates to a tidal wave of private money,” but points out that digital currencies are quite a bit different than previous examples of private money. For example, due to its decentralised nature bitcoin cannot be easily shut down, so the institute thinks it is here to stay.

A bit-part player?

In the institute’s report, titled ‘New Private Monies – A Bit-Part Player?’ professor Kevin Dowd argues that the innovation behind non-conventional types of money, including digital currencies like bitcoin, has been fuelled by “mounting restrictions on financial freedom.”
Dowd believes states must allow a “level playing field” for private money and stop stifling competition between state-backed and private currencies. Central banks should welcome competition, as it will force them to offer greater choice and improved quality, argues Dowd, adding:

“A weakened ability to store value, growing restrictions on finance, oppressive taxes and a lack of financial privacy have resulted in growing frustration at state controlled money. The superior nature of private currencies combined with the financial freedom they offer has led to their increasing attraction.”

Dowd believes governments should stop favouring their own or any currency in particular and refrain from imposing regulations. He explained his pro-privatisation position in an interview with The Guardian:
“The natural analogy is with some of the old, bad, monopolies like British Gas or British Telecom. Telecom is a very good example: for a long time, we had a government monopoly, which stifled innovation, and the service was poor. Once that got opened up, competition opened, new innovation prospered, and we got all sorts of innovation that we couldn’t possibly anticipate, and we’re a lot better off for it.”

Four factors behind bitcoin’s success

Should the UK, or any other country, decide to ‘privatise’ its national currency and embrace competition from private monies, Dowd believes these new forms of money will by cryptocurrencies.
Although Dowd talks about bitcoin, he believes bitcoin is unlikely to replace the pound. The way it is designed, bitcoin is prone to bubble-bust cycles, hence Dowd expects it to fail in the long run.
However, the professor sees a silver lining: he expects bitcoin to be displaced by superior and more imaginative forms exchange.
Dowd outlines four reasons for bitcoin’s success:

• Low transaction costs associated with bitcoin
• Self-regulating nature of the bitcoin market, no sweeping regulation imposed by central banks
• High level of anonymity (or pseudo-anonymity) in an age when financial freedom is being eroded by governments
• Novelty factor – bitcoin can be used to facilitate trade in activities prohibited by the state

Dowd believes the market for private monies will continue to thrive as long as states try to restrict and prohibit various forms of commerce. Assaults on personal freedoms make alternative currencies and private money more attractive to wider circles of people.
Mark Littlewood, Director General at the Institute of Economic Affairs, thinks that a decision to embrace private monies rather than suppress them would have profound implications on personal freedom. He added:

“Bitcoin has proved widely successful as an alternative form of exchange and as way of restoring financial freedom. It is just the beginning however. Fierce demand for private money will drive innovation, creating a tidal wave of new and superior forms of exchange.”

source : http://www.coindesk.com/thinktank-uk-privatise-pound-embrace-cryptocurrency/

Read more ...