There are few places in the world where bitcoin’s legal status is more unclear than in Russia. In February, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said that “money substitutes” such as bitcoin are explicitly illegal. In July, the Bank of Russia (the country’s central bank) said that digital currencies “should not be rejected” and said it…
Something very big appears to be in the works at Overstock.com. Details are few, but at least two key facts are known: It’s a “top secret project” requiring a “high degree of discretion,” and it’s very clearly being built with cryptocurrency in mind. According to a series of job postings made on the company’s Careers…
Digital currency-dedicated e-commerce site Bitcoin Shop seems to be going through quite a rough patch. The website, launched last September as a bitcoin-friendly alternative to Amazon, announced on Wednesday that its entire management team would be waiving a significant portion of their salaries for the next six months. The publicly traded company claims that the…
In July, Germany-based bitcoin ATM maker BitXatm announced a partnership with a Los Angeles-based startup named CryptVision that would bring 1,000 Sumo Pro ATMs to the U.S. and Canada. The deal would have been a windfall for BitXatm, which was still struggling to break into the U.S. market, and would have made CryptVision the largest…
In an interview with CoinDesk published today, venture capitalist and Silk Road auction winner Tim Draper had some very bullish things to say about the price of bitcoin. “I guess the markets aren’t seeing what I am seeing,” Draper said. “An entire economy is being rebuilt. I have a price target of $10,000 in three…
The bitcoin derivatives market just took a giant step forward. Reuters reports that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal regulatory body responsible for preventing fraud in futures contracts, gave full approval to a new bitcoin-backed swap created by TeraExchange. The new derivative allows clients to lock in a dollar value to their bitcoin…
Is bitcoin finally gaining traction in Japan? Even before the collapse of Mt.Gox, the country has been equal parts skeptical and disinterested in the cryptocurrency concept. In June, the country’s ruling party issued a statement claiming that there was no need to create bitcoin regulation, referring to the Japanese bitcoin industry as a “sprout.” If…
Last month, Overstock.com claimed it was on the verge of adding a bitcoin payment option to their O.co global retail site. After a 10-day delay (the launch was planned for September 1), Overstock quietly enabled the BTC-payment system early this morning. Although Overstock is hardly the first company to accept bitcoin payments from anywhere in…
Earlier this month, Ontario-based payroll firm Wagepoint made headlines for becoming one of the first organizations to enable direct bitcoin payments to employees. At the time, Wagepoint’s BTC payroll service was limited to Canada, but according to an interview published by CryptoCoinsNews, the company has expanded the option to their U.S.-based clients. According to the…
The Bank of England released a pair of cryptocurrency-related articles today, prompting waves of commentary throughout the global financial press. The articles, pre-released from the BoE’s forthcoming Quarterly Bulletin 2014 Q3 report, focus on defining bitcoin’s core innovation — the trustless, distributed ledger better known as the block chain — and on examining the economics…