BitGo announced today that co-founder Mike Belshe will replace Will O'Brien as acting CEO of the bitcoin security provider.
Calling the move "the best path forward", Belshe suggested that the transition was put in place by the BitGo's remaining founders, including both himself and Ben Davenport, and that O'Brien will continue working with the company as a strategic advisor.
US retail giant Overstock has invested in blockchain technology specialist Peernova as part of its second tranche of Series A financing.
Formed through a merger between cloud mining contract provider CloudHashing and ASIC hardware designer HighBitcoin in early 2014, Peernova raised $8.6m in funding last December as it sought to accelerate its shift away from mining.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has taken note of the issues hindering partnerships between bitcoin businesses and banks.
At a Brussels meeting with industry figures last Friday, the anti-money laundering policy maker proposed a risk-based approach that ensures every digital currency business is evaluated on an individual basis.
A risk-based approach means that banks identify and assess the money laundering and terrorist financing risks they are exposed to, setting the appropriate mitigation measures accordingly.
Jared Marx is an attorney at Washington, DC law firm Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis. He advises companies about bitcoin-related regulatory law and represents companies and individuals in civil and criminal proceedings.
Here, he discusses why a new securities ruling is a potential boon for 'crypto 2.0' and 'bitcoin 2.0' companies operating in the US.
Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) has received approval to list on the securities marketplace OTC Markets Group, meaning shares could begin trading as soon as next week.
In preparation for the debut, the private investment vehicle owned by Digital Currency Group (DCG) has announced the launch of Grayscale Investments, which will sponsor the BIT, taking on responsibilities as necessary to register and run the fund.
A Swedish bitcoin brokerage has gone to court with the country’s tax authority to prevent an audit of its customer information.
Goobit AB, the company that operates the Stockholm-based BTCX, is fighting a third-party audit request from the Skatteverket, the Swedish tax agency, that would require it to disclose information about its customer base.
As reported last week by Swedish language newspaper Dagens Nyheter, BTCX has gone to court in order to prevent this information from being handed over.
The blockchain's increasing size continues to raise concerns about its ability to accommodate transaction growth.
But, could a decentralised system where transactions are sent over a network of off-blockchain micropayment channels solve the ledger's scalability problems?
The statements, issued by SBT partner Mircea Mihaescu to online news source Roem.ru, stand in contrast to continued suggestions by government officials that the use of bitcoin will be formally outlawed this spring.
In the interview, Mihaescu was largely dismissive of legislation and regulation in general, stating his belief that laws often lag behind innovation, and as such, perhaps shouldn’t be a key concern for global entrepreneurs.
The company framed the launch as one that will empower entrepreneurs working in countries with more restrictive laws against bitcoin, or that have moved to block bitcoin services, to build bitcoin apps and manage funds with its API.
“If you’re a developer making your site in a country that doesn’t allow you to do bitcoin properly, now you can access Tor through Coinkite and let us manage the operational wallet and you don’t have to worry about that,” CEO Rodolfo Novak explained.
“We don't plan to close.”
Such is the resolve of BTC-e, the largest exchange for the Russian ruble, heading into spring 2015. The informal date has been on the minds of many in the bitcoin community since it was first billed as when Russia would ban bitcoin in August of last year.
Bitcoin brokerage Anycoin Direct has added TrustPay as a new payment option, opening the company to 14 new markets in Europe.
The deal enables the Netherlands-based brokerage to receive instant wire transfers from customers in markets such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary and others in the region.
Anycoin Direct provides brokerage services for bitcoin as well as altcoins including litecoin, darkcoin and dogecoin.
Co-founder Bram Ceelen told Bitcoin News:
“With the addition of TrustPay, we now serve almost all the European market. Our goal is to make buying and selling bitcoin as easy as possible. To do this we work with as many local trusted payment methods as possible to make sure the buy process goes as smooth as possible.”
The move builds off previous efforts to grow in the European bitcoin market, after announcing its growth strategy last year. The company raised €500,000 as part of a seed round in January, a funding effort led by a private investor.
At the time, co-founder Lennert Vlemmings suggested that some of those funds would be used to adopt new payment methods for the platform.
TrustPay did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Eastern Europe image via Shutterstock
Having started mining bitcoin at the age of 13, Dumont boasts more maturity than many in the still-nascent industry (your correspondent included), peppering his conversation with signs of his veteran status and allusions to the tribulations of trading (most of his early bitcoins were unfortunately sold in the $20–$30 range).
Dumont, for example, recalls a time when you could mine bitcoin with your GPU and still make a profit, and laughs often when discussing his early attempts to secure unwanted graphics cards from sometimes indifferent friends and relatives.
Online retail giant Overstock has released new insight into the buying behavior of its bitcoin customer base, revealing bed sheets have become the demographic’s favorite item to purchase.
The top five items bought on Overstock with bitcoin are now sheets, donations to non-profits, headphones, cases and holders, and area rugs, respectively. Cables and tools, mattresses, coffee tables, A/V cables and fashion sunglasses round out the top 10 categories.
Addressing the findings, Overstock director of communications Judd Bagley commented on the relatively mundane list of items as evidence of the program’s overall success.
Bagley told Bitcoin News:
“The only thing that makes that list interesting is the fact that it’s so unremarkable. I guess bitcoiners are regular people.”
The remaining top 50 items show everyday items such as bath towels and comforter sets ranking above tech fare such as USB flash drives and micro SD cards.
Overstock’s data suggests it has been successful in winning regular spending from the bitcoin demographic, a trend it first discussed last August.
An ambitious plan to launch bitcoin-enabled microsatellites has taken a step forward with a new business deal.
Dunvegan Space Systems, a startup led by bitcoin core developer Jeff Garzik has signed a manufacturing contract with Deep Space Industries (DSI) that will find it constructing 24 nanosatellites for its proposed BitSat program.
The BitSat cluster will act as space-bound bitcoin nodes and is the first of a planned series of nanosatellites. Additional BitSats will be available for purchase at $1m apiece, according to the company.
Factom has announced it will launch its forthcoming crowdsale on 31st March at 15:00 UTC.
Billed as a “software sale”, the event will allow consumers to exchange bitcoins for Factom tokens that will be available upon the blockchain-based recordkeeping network’s beta release.
Factom president Peter Kirby indicated that final launch date was set after his company met key objectives, including a certain threshold of confidence in its beta version as well as the finalization of milestones with decentralized application crowdfunding platform Koinify.
Speaking to Bitcoin News, Kirby spoke about the challenge Factom faced when seeking to orchestrate the sale, voicing his optimism that the project would avoid the pitfalls of those held in the past on platforms such as Mastercoin.
Kirby said:
“We wanted to run the cleanest software token sale in history. We don’t want our customers to be caught up in that regulatory concern. It’s a new asset class, so we have to make sure we’re abiding by all the rules, but watching out for the rules that don’t exist yet.”
Crowdsale funds will be released in installments of 33%, with Factom being able to obtain a portion of its funds upon the release of its beta client, its front-end and peer-to-peer consensus mechanism, respectively.
The Koinify platform requires companies to set benchmarks, serving as the arbitrator between the public and decentralized applications. The crowdsale is the second such event to be held on Koinify following the inaugural sale of GetGems tokens launched in December.
The news comes amid a steady stream of announcements for Factom, which has recently signed partnerships with industry service providers such as Coinapult, Serica (formerly DigitalTangible) and Tether.
Kirby went on discuss the issue posed by working with Koinify, which leverages the Counterparty protocol to conduct its sales.
Factom had originally intended to use the Omni protocol, an alternative layer that allows tokens to be issued on top of the bitcoin blockchain. However, it decided to leverage its own technology to forge a solution.
“Originally we were going to release a proxy token, but we’re going to be issuing our own token on the Koinify platform that runs on Factom. It’s no longer an Omni project or a Counterparty project, it really does live on its own,” Kirby said.
Kirby went on to say the “whole point” of Factom was to focus on distributed ledgers, a factor the lead to the decision to release the tokens on top of its own protocol.
He continued stating that he expects the token to be exchangeable between peers when the beta platform is released, with exchanges then having the ability to decide whether to list the asset for trading.
To make purchases on the Koinify platform, customers will need to first purchase bitcoin. Bitcoins will then be sent to a public Factom address, which will contain the purchaser’s public key in a data field.
“When the Factom blockchain launches, the information embedded in all these bitcoin transactions will be used to generate the Factom tokens and load them into the purchasers’ wallets automatically,” the release states.
Factom said it will not be taking customer information as part of the sale, a process that will be mirrored by Koinify, which stressed it does not accept or transmit virtual currency, control bitcoin addresses or hold public keys as part of the sale.
“Koinify's job is to make sure that the best practices as far as the accountability (milestones) and transparency of this sale are followed and implemented in the crypto field and we do not desire nor need to control funds or currencies,” the company said.
Both parties indicated that more details would be released ahead of the launch.
Image via Factom
Former OKCoin manager of international operations Zane Tackett has announced he will join Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange Bitfinex.
Tackett became the latest public-facing figure to resign from OKCoin on 10th March. At the time, he cited a “difference of opinion” as well as “unsolved problems” facing the exchange as motivating factors.
Tackett revealed his position at Bitfinex will be familiar, as he will take over community outreach and product development, roles he also played at OKCoin. Further, he discussed some of the challenges facing the USD bitcoin trading leader, arguing the exchange must not stay complacent given the competition in the sector.
Tackett told Bitcoin News:
“I think the best way to gain users is to interact with them and offer the best exchange in the world, and that's what I'll be looking to do at Bitfinex.”
The announcement notably follows the departure of OKCoin’s CTO Changpeng Zhao last month, and comes amid signs the exchange is shifting focus away from international trading.
Bitfinex is currently the market leader in USD bitcoin trading, according to data from Bitcoinity, trading 1.2m BTC over the last 30 days. By contrast, OKCoin is the number two exchange in both USD and CNY trading, trailing BTC China in its home market.
An additional 150 victims of the allegedly fraudulent bitcoin exchange MyCoin have come forward to police, according to the South China Morning Post.
Accompanied by Democratic Party legislator James To Kun-sun, 23 victims reported their involvement with the company to police on Wednesday. The development is the latest in the ongoing saga surrounding MyCoin, a platform billed as a bitcoin exchange but that may have never dealt in the digital currency.
SCMP indicated that one victim is said to have lost $HK80,000 ($102,946 at press time), a figure that may be among the highest individual totals so far reported.
The US Marshals Service (USMS) has revealed that three bidders each took home a portion of the 50,000 BTC sold during its most recent bitcoin auction held 5th March.
The winnings were divided among the unnamed individuals, with the leading bidder claiming 27,000 BTC ($7.9m at press time). The remainder of the bitcoin was split among two individuals who took winnings of 20,000 BTC ($5.9m) and 3,000 BTC ($885,801), respectively.
A spokesperson for the USMS confirmed the totals via email, adding that the transfer of proceeds to the winners has now been finalized.
The week's biggest intra-day price swing happened early in the week, when bitcoin hit a high of $286.28, representing a gain of $19.24 from the day's low.
Trading sessions ended in positive territory on four consecutive days, from the end of the previous week and into the first days of the week just passed. Some $50 separated the daily low at the start of the sessions and the high at the end, on 3rd March.
Though rumors that Islamic State (IS) has been seeking to use bitcoin as a means of payment have persisted in the media, so far, little connection has been made between the notorious rebel group and the digital currency.
Perhaps as a comment on this ongoing media narrative, bitcoin enthusiast and AltMarket developer Bryce Weiner (@BryceWeiner) used bitcoin micropayments service ChangeTip to initiate a $1 tip to a suspected IS account (@vvvv_101) this week in an incident that has since caused controversy.
The tweet, sent on 28th February, spawned discussion and sometimes humorous banter on Reddit regarding the role of social networks in facilitating free speech, though at least one of the involved entities is taking the matter more seriously.
Speaking before the Institute of International Bankers this week, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Thomas J Curry discussed virtual currency as part of a speech aimed at addressing the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and its ability to adapt to new innovations.
In his remarks, Curry referenced the "serious challenges" the banking industry faces from terrorist and criminal organisations, and how he believes they can be combated with strong risk management and anti-money laundering (AML) and BSA compliance.
Penned by Assemblymember Matt Dababneh, chairman of the state’s Banking and Finance Committee, AB-1326 would prohibit virtual currency businesses from operating unless they are licensed by the Department of Business Oversight (DBO) or have received an exemption from the agency.
Similar to the general financial code, license applicants would need to pay a non-refundable $5,000 fee to register; provide certain identifying information; and keep a certain amount of funds in “investment-grade permissible investments”. The definition includes money market funds, state bonds and US government agency securities and excludes virtual currencies.
