The first public bitcoin ATM in Argentina opened recently in a Buenos Aires suburb. Given that bitcoin ATMs have been popping up like wildflowers all over the globe in the last few months, this might not seem like big news. In a country in the middle of a deep economic crisis and an estimated inflation…
The rumors are true: PayPal is integrating bitcoin payments into their One Touch mobile wallet system using technology developed by their subsidiary Braintree. Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco today, Braintree CEO Bill Ready said that the company will soon be integrating bitcoin payments via a partnership with Coinbase. Not hedging his bets, Ready made…
Last month, early-adopting bitcoin payment processor OKPay was ordered by a British Virgin Islands court to surrender $6,014,910 in held customer deposits to defunct bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox. OKPay had hoped to return these funds directly to customers, but legal challenges by Mt.Gox’s Trustee Fund have held the funds in a “limbo” within Mt.Gox’s OKPay account…
The Wall Street Journal reported today that Blockchain.info has retained Marco Santori in a new role as global policy counsel. Santori is well known within the bitcoin industry, and currently serves as the chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation’s regulatory affairs committee. In addition to his legal work for the Bitcoin Foundation, Santori also writes about…
According to tech industry news website Re/code, PayPal subsidiary Braintree will soon announce that it has entered into a bitcoin-payment processing arrangement with Coinbase, possibly as early as today. Braintree’s service is widely used by a variety of tech startups, including openly disruptive, peer-to-peer services like Uber and Airbnb, which are seemingly ideal adopters for…
This morning, the official PayPal YouTube channel uploaded new video titled “PayPal Voices,” focusing on the increasingly peer-to-peer nature of transactions in an increasingly decentralized economy. But a single line of the video’s text holds huge ramifications for the bitcoin community, as well as the future of digital currency. Roughly eight seconds into the video,…
According to a new report published by the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA), the rapidly growing bitcoin ATM industry is at risk of “creative destruction” unless self-governance structures are soon put in place. The ATMIA’s “position paper” notes that bitcoin ATMs represent a “genuine innovation in the payments space,” and hopes for an eventual “stabilization” of…
Miami-based mobile security and payments company Alternet Systems announced a new partnership agreement with Atlanta-based bitcoin payment processor BitPay. The non-exclusive agreement will allow Alternet’s payment arm, Alternet Payment Systems (APS), to serve as a third-party vendor for BitPay. While affiliate partnerships are nothing new, even for BitPay, the scope of this new arrangement could…
In a recent Gigaom profile of Overstock.com’s bitcoin adoption, CEO Patrick Byrne let slip an interesting detail about the company’s plan to donate 4% of BTC sales to a different bitcoin charity or foundation every month. According to the article, the first recipient of the plan will be the newly minted bitcoin political advocacy group…
BitPay’s monopoly on WordPress e-commerce payments may be coming to an end. Recently launched competitor PayStand has been gaining significant attention this week, offering a wide range of payment options including a zero-fee payment option for bitcoin purchases. The plugin, available for popular e-commerce plugin system WooCommerce, may help PayStand gain a foothold in the…