Bitcoin is more than just a newfangled breed of internet-based currency. It’s a truly groundbreaking innovation that has the potential to completely reshape how we handle both public and private information. While the idea behind bitcoin was inspired by the need to have a universally available currency that wasn’t subject to the whims of governments…
Last year, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss announced their plans to launch the world’s first publicly traded Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Unfortunately, the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust has been mired in the complexities of Securities and Exchange Commission regulation, leaving the field open for competition. If Barry Silbert’s SecondMarket has their way, the Winklevii will be stuck in…
With bitcoin ATMs popping up an almost daily basis for the last month, there as been a noticeable void of activity in the tech-driven community in Silicon Valley. That changed yesterday, when Robocoin launched a new two-way bitcoin ATM at the Bitconference held at 500 Startups headquarters in Mountain View. While the ATM isn’t likely…
Bitcoin prices have fallen a little over 2.5% (about $12) in the last 24 hours, seemingly due to a false report that Chinese authorities were on the verge of blocking all bitcoin transactions starting April 15. The claim, published on China’s equivalent of Twitter, Sina Weibo, has since been retracted. According to a translation published…
Thanks to a new withdrawal system recently announced by BTC-e, one of the biggest roadblocks to mainstream bitcoin adoption may soon be a thing of the past. Starting today, BTC-e customers can withdraw their funds to any country in the world through their Visa or MasterCard. This development has huge implications for the bitcoin community….
In a media release posted late yesterday evening on the Mt.Gox website, the bankrupt bitcoin exchange announced that it had recovered “199,999.99” BTC from an “old format” wallet. According to the statement, the discovery was made on March 7 during an audit as part of their bankruptcy proceeding. The recovered bitcoins are worth $114 million…
This week, Coinbase announced the addition of two new staffers, both with impressive tech pedigrees. Former Facebook security director Ryan McGeehan will move to a security role at the bitcoin startup, while former Amazon business development and sales director Todd Edebohls joins the company as a VP of business development. From a business perspective, both…
In a report published on Yahoo News’s Japan section, Mt.Gox has recovered nearly 200,000 BTC from a “lost” wallet dating back to 2011. The company’s lawyers claim that Mt.Gox found the wallet on March 7 during an internal investigation following their declaration of bankruptcy on Feb. 28. Few details about the recovery have been released,…
It’s no surprise that more banking-related industries take such a critical, or even hostile stance towards bitcoin. By its very nature, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies cut banks completely out of the loop and undermine their entire business model. From the banking world’s perspective, bitcoin is a completely disruptive innovation. From the perspective of the ATM…
There has never been a currency as inherently transparent as bitcoin. Anyone who feels so inclined can download the entire block chain (about 16GB at the moment) and sort through every transaction ever made. But when transactions happen in off-chain transactions, which is almost always the case at an exchange or online wallet, it becomes…