Canadian virtual currency exchange Vault of Satoshi (VoS) recently announced several major new services for its rapidly growing customer base. The announcement is the first of two major “Summer Update” announcements, with the second planned in the near future. VoS Director of Marketing Adam Cochran posted the announcements to several popular bitcoin forums, as well…
In late 2013, as bitcoin prices were reaching their historical peak, noted commodity investor and radio show host Peter Schiff mockingly dismissed the growth in the virtual currency as “modern-day tulip mania.” Since then, Schiff has continued to be a vocal critic of bitcoin as an investment, claiming it to be poor competition for the…
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…