For the first time since late April, the price of bitcoin has crossed the $500 dollar mark. Only two days ago, bitcoin was lingering in the same $420 to $450 range it had held for nearly four weeks, only to begin a dramatic climb on Tuesday. Unlike previous gains, there’s no obvious reason for increasing…
Bitcoin machines might just be popping up like wildflowers all across the U.K. later this year thanks to a new deal between bitcoin ATM maker Lamassu and newly formed distributor QuikBit. Based in the self-governing British dependency of the Isle of Man, QuikBit aims to build a network of ATM-like automated vending machines (AVMs) across…
Last week, much speculated-upon bitcoin startup Circle officially exited “stealth mode,” revealing for the first time what exactly the company’s business model is. As was generally expected, Circle’s plan is a variation on the concepts used by bitcoin service providers Coinbase and BitPay, facilitating payments and acting in many ways like a bitcoin bank. The…
As bitcoin ATMs begin to pop up in major cities across the globe, one entire continent is still untouched: Africa. If ZABitcoinATM’s plans pan out, however, this should be changing later this month. The company’s Lamassu-made ATM is scheduled to arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa, by the end of the week, and will be set…
Yesterday, Google’s Chrome team removed and automatically uninstalled popular browser-extension bitcoin wallet KryptoKit, leaving thousands of users without access to their bitcoins. Google cited vague “terms of service” violations as the cause, but otherwise provided no explanation for their actions. The developers quickly cried foul over the move, and within hours Google relented, restoring the…
After months of steeply declining prices in the wake of the Mt.Gox implosion and an increasingly restrictive environment in China, bitcoin prices have spent most of the last month hovering around $450. For many, this relative stability has been seen as a positive development, providing a window for new services to make plausible claims that…
As the line between plugin-based web apps and dedicated desktop programs blur, browser-powered plugins have become increasingly popular. One of the best known and most trusted of these is a Chrome extension called KryptoKit, which works as both a bitcoin wallet and an encrypted messaging system. With over 6,100 users and a nearly 5-star rating,…
Although it has been hailed by many as an disruptive alternative to today’s fee-prone banking and credit card systems, there is a growing realization in the mainstream financial world that bitcoin’s innovations may actually be the solution to some of those industries’ biggest problems. Speaking on CNBC yesterday, BitPay CTO Stephen Pair suggested that the…
Shortly after the election of entrepreneur Brock Pierce to the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, members of the organization began a campaign to oust him. Citing Pierce’s controversial history with troubled dotcom-era startup Digital Entertainment Network, foundation member Patrick Alexander terminated his membership in protest. Alexander was shortly joined by another nine members, who also…
Last week, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) hosted its Emerging Payments Task Force at a meeting in Chicago. The task force met with representatives from SecondMarket, CoinX, Xapo and BitPay to discuss the the current state of bitcoin regulation and its impact on the quickly growing virtual currency industry. Speaking with the CSBS…