As lofty as the bitcoin community’s planet-changing ambitions can be, the mainstream investment world is still focused on one thing: The bottom line. Trading volumes and prices can be manipulated; merchant acceptance and successful conferences can be little more than well-executed publicity. What counts, at least as far as Wall Street is concerned, is how…
To call Ben Davenport a “software engineer,” as he’s been credited on Facebook since 2011, is more than a bit misleading. There’s no question that he’s a gifted developer, as he was part of the teams that developed Google AdSense and MSN Explorer, but he’s better known in bitcoin circles as one of the angel…
Named after Mark Karpeles’s cat, Mt.Gox parent company Tibanne owned more than a shockingly insecure bitcoin exchange. The company also held the Japanese and European Union trademarks on the word “bitcoin,” as well as the now-quite-valuable bitcoins.com domain name. With all of Mt.Gox’s operations effectively dead, save for a sliver of hope by some that…
Last week, Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn and Richard Muirhead of Firestartr subjected U.K.-based bitcoin exchange Bitstamp to a proof-of-reserve audit. Bitstamp is widely thought to be the largest bitcoin exchange in the world in terms of trading volume, and is under increasing scrutiny from investors to verify its deposits as bitcoin gains mainstream attention. According…
Long before Mt.Gox revealed that lost hundreds of millions of dollars in customer funds due to bad coding, security issues and negligence, the Tokyo-based exchange was involved in another high-profile case with Seattle-based virtual-currency startup CoinLab. With a proposed plan to settle most of Mt.Gox’s bankruptcy debits working its way through the international legal system,…
Speaking on the Fox Business segment “Opening Bell”, Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne explained his long-term view for the virtual currency. During a discussion about the overall state of the online retail economy, host Maria Bartiromo asked Byrne “Where’s the money [in bitcoin]?” “Bitcoin is tiny at this point, but it’s growing about 25% a month,”…
Online financial-services provider Fidor Bank announced a new partnership with European bitcoin payment processor BIPS, further increasing it’s “peer-to-peer banking” network. Earlier this month, Fidor announced it would be integrating the decentralized, “currency agnostic” trustless exchange system developed by Ripple Labs, but the BIPS partnership is the first true cryptocurrency connection for the Germany-based bank….
The race to become the largest bitcoin ATM provider in Britain is heating up. Later this week, U.K.-based bitcoin startup SatoshiPoint will activate two new Robocoin ATMs in London. A third ATM is tentatively scheduled to be debuted on June 3rd in Bristol. The machines are currently connected to Bitstamp, and will charge a 5%…
Mainstream bitcoin adoption may be taking another step forward with the introduction of a Facebook-integrated bitcoin wallet app from San Francisco-based startup QuickCoin. The company’s “social wallet” system allows users to send and receive bitcoin easily, using Facebook’s popular API to remove any technological issues for users. Speaking with CoinDesk, QuickCoin co-founder Marshall Hayner explained…
Last week, not-quite alt-coin Ripple found itself facing an existential crisis when co-founder Jed McCaleb revealed he was planning to sell off his 9 billion XRP stash. The announcement caused a dramatic XRP price crash, halving Ripple’s currency value in less than a 24 hours. McCaleb’s planned cash-out also hinted at deeper problems behind the…