Showing posts with label Crypto currency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crypto currency. Show all posts
Tuesday, 18 November 2014
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First UK Bitcoin ATMs Reportedly Hitting London in February
No more shall the United Kingdom exist without the presence of a bitcoin ATM. A new report indicates that two startups are racing to bring a bitcoin kiosk to the country by next month.
One of these start-ups is aptly named Global Bitcoin ATM Ltd. With the goal to install five machines monthly, the company looks to install its first Robocoin machine on a high street in Central London.
The second company is SatoshiPoint, who hopes install two Robocoin bitcoin ATMs in London in March. The planned locations are Oxford Street and Notting Hill.
For now, users in London (and on a larger scale, the United Kingdom) do have alternate options for getting their paws on bitcoin, but it will cerBlockednly be interesting to see how the bitcoin ATM ecosystem plays out in the country.
Biostart Going to Launch Crypto Mining Motherboard
The motherboard maker Biostar is apparently going to be launching soon a dedicated crypto mining motherboard or as the call it a “Professional Bitcoin Mining Machine”. The product called Biostar BTC-24GH will use 64 ASIC chips on a single board that supposedly will provide 24 GH/s hash rate for mining Bitcoins (SHA-256). There is no word about release date or pricing available, but this offer already seems like a too little, too late thing with other ASIC makers going for the Terahash range already and the network difficulty already way too high for just 24 GH/s to be profitable, unless it is very power efficient and very cheap, both of which do not seem very likely and you’ll now in a moment why.
The specifications of the 24 GH/s SHA-256 ASIC device say 130W as power consumption per module and you can stack up modules, up to 50 together for higher hashrate. Each module will be with dimensions of 244×244 millimeters and use COM to USB connection to the computer. With 50 of these boards you could get up to 1.2 TH/s hashrate which does not sound bad at all, if the price is right, however you would need 6500W of power so in terms of performance per watt the Biostar BTC-24GH won’t be interesting at all.
Wikimedia “Cautious” About Wikipedia Accepting Bitcoin
A brief correspondence on Twitter between a man and Chairman of the Wikimedia Foundation Jimmy Wales revealed that the organization that cares for the Wikipedia only encyclopedia is “cautious” about accepting bitcoin.
No specific reasons were provided, though it should be noted that according to Wales, “Staff are looking into lightweight implementation and will make recommendation to [the] board”.
This isn’t Jimmy’s first run-in with bitcoin. In early March, Wales noted that he was playing around with bitcoins and even started an accidental donation drive for Wikipedia, in which over 10 bitcoins were donated.
It was the community’s way of saying, “Hey! Accept bitcoins!”, and whether or not that will happen remains to be seen.
In the eyes of some in the bitcoin community, Wikipedia accepting donations would further legitimize bitcoin’s image — in which many unfamiliar with it think it’s an outlaw’s currency.
LocalBitcoins Service Responds to Vulnerability Claims Following Reports of Missing Bitcoins
“Be advised that sellers and buyers have been reporting stolen funds from their Localbitcoins wallet all day today,” posted a user on social sharing website Reddit on Thursday.
With a 30-character password and two-factor authentication, the user reported losing his funds on the LocalBitcoins service — a platform that allows bitcoin buyers and sellers to trade coins for cash and vice-versa.
He wasn’t the only one. A number of other users reported the same issue, raising concerns that the LocalBitcoins website/platform had somehow become vulnerable to a malicious attack.
The service took to their official blog to report their findings, and noting that the root cause of the issue may boil down to malware and/or phishing attacks at the end-user level:
“The common pattern between these cases has been that prior the transaction there have been login to the account, and the fact that none of the users affected had 2-factor authentication enabled. Most likely explanation to these attacks have been stolen user credentials through phishing or malware,” the company wrote.
Except some users did have two-factor authentication enabled — complicating the situation.
“There have been claims that users with 2FA have been affected. So far we have received three this kind of reports in total during last month, and some further investigation is required before we can draw too many conclusions about these cases,” the Finnish company said in an update to their original post.
All-told, the company says the amount of users affected has been under 30, and the amount of missing bitcoins has been less than that.
“We will continue investigating these cases during the weekend, and meanwhile outgoing transactions might be delayed, since we try to minimize cold storage movements until everything is sorted out,” they said. “We apologize all inconvenience affected
Bitcoin Broker in Singapore Hoping For a ‘Light Touch’ on Regulation
The director of Singapore-based Bitcoin brokerage Coin Republic says that city-state should approach the regulation of bitcoin and digital currencies with a “light touch”, according to ZDNet.
In the eyes of David Moskowitz, government-imposed regulation alone won’t put a stop to illicit use of digital currency. The idea instead is to allow the technology behind these rapidly-growing crypto-currencies to curb potential crimes like terror financing and money laundering.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has said they’re soon planning to release legislation that will require digital currency exchanges, brokerages, and other intermediaries to gather the identities of customers, with an additional requirement to report suspicious financial activity to appropriate authorities.
Moskowitz expects regulations to be out soon, but before they do, he at least hopes they’ll be taking community feedback into consideration.
“Based on MAS’ previous statement, I think the legislation will be similar to those related to the remittance and currency exchange business, which isn’t conducive for Coin Republic, specifically,” he said.
“These regulations would raise the cost of running the company and I may have to rethink the business, maybe considering moving the business to another country.”
Coin Republic is also the operator of a bitcoin ATM in the city, which has installed biometric features to collect user identities, but they’re currently disabled to improve user experience at this time.
Depending on rules set forth by the MAS in the months upcoming, those features may need to be activated.
But he’s hoping it doesn’t come to that.
“I don’t have any issue with light touch regulation like [KYC/AML] policies, which are reasonable for anything above a cerBlockedn transaction value such as $5,000 or $10,000,” he says.
Anything beyond that could very well just be a nuisance.
“So the technology can handle a lot of the concerns, and I think it is more effective than regulations which are always gonna be a step behind any technology,” he noted.
The reality is that as digital currency becomes increasingly popular, authorities will look for ways to regulate it. Unfortunately, these regulations have the possibility of causing headaches for all parties involved.
Here in the United States, the State of New York is currently considering regulation of digital currency. The New York State Department of Financial Services recently held hearings with panelists representing the digital currency industry and government institutions in attempts to get feedback.
CerBlockednly, it will be interesting to see where the MAS takes this. One thing’s for sure, though. Moskowitz isn’t the only one looking for a “light touch” on digital currency regulation.
LocalBitcoins.com Down
Popular bitcoin buying/selling connecting service LocalBitcoins.com has been suffering from an extended outage this weekend, with its numerous users unable to access the website for hours.
The service — no stranger to periods of downtime — has remained rather quiet on this issue, leaving many questions what the issue is.
They have, however, shed some light.
Last posting on their twitter feed eleven hours ago (as of this writing), the service estimated an estimated time of repair to be approximately two hours — apologizing to users for the inconvenience.
More information came in the form of a brief post on the company’s blog website simply stating the following:
“Our server had gone down yesterday. The reason might be hardware failure. We are researching the issue and trying to get the site back up.”
A hardware failure most suddenly would do it.
And since the servers could be hosted in an unmanned collocation facility (this is purely a guess, and we are not suggesting this is the case), it may be a matter of time before LocalBitcoins administrators or a technician can gain access to the company’s servers to make the appropriate repairs.
Regardless, users should be aware that the cause of downtime is not malicious in nature, nor does it mean that bitcoins in escrow are compromised.
Us Regulators to Pen First Bitcoin Rule
“We may be looking at some type of model definitions, or model laws or regulations, and very likely recommendations to either our federal colleagues or to Congress,” said David Cotney to news agency Reuters outside of a public hearing on the matter Friday.
Cotney serves as the Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks, and was appointed in February as head figure of the Emerging Payments Task Force — the nine-member group in charge of the rulebook.
For the task, Cotney says that task force has given themselves approximately one year.
The idea to create a bitcoin rulebook is one that attempts to prevent complications for individuals in the United States.
As each state in the country has their own set of rules and laws on a multitude of topics, said rulebook would (hopefully) present a clear-cut and uniform guideline for users of the digital currency.
Recent talking points within the task force seek to clarify which operators in the digital currency space will require regulations, and which do not.
“Who’s in and who’s out? So if we can offer that would be a … big step,” Mr. Cotney was quoted as saying.
Benjamin Lawsky, who also serves on the task force, has proposed the idea of companies operating in the bitcoin space apply for a so-called ‘BitLicense’ — which could very well set a precedent if enacted.
Beyond this: how will the very people affected by these rules react? Will they have a say in how they’re written?
At this point, it’s simply too soon to tell, but we’d like to hear what you have to say. How do you feel about a bitcoin rulebook? Is it a step forward or backwards in your view?
Coinbase to Add Device Verification Feature to Better Protect User Accounts
The device authentication feature is just exactly as it sounds, allowing users of the service to create a list of authorized devices (new devices can be added any time) from which their accounts can be accessed. In other words, if it’s not listed, you’re not getting in.
It’s all in effort to better protect the user from the seemingly endless amounts of account phishing and hacking attempts.
Coinbase also took the opportunity to advise users that they should always check the address bar while on any Coinbase page to verify that they are indeed on Coinbase’s site and not a phishing website.
Links to such phishing sites are common and often come disguised as official website links in emails.
The company is urging users to report such occurrences to spoofed@coinbase.com, from which the company will do what they can to have the fraudulent websites taken down or blocked on web browsers that support blacklists like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
Perhaps common sense, but the company is also recommending users make use of two-factor authentication when possible. This adds another layer of security to the process of logging in, preventing an intruder from correctly guessing your password by requiring a frequently-regenerated access code.
And speaking of passwords, Coinbase reminds you to make them unique! It’s never recommended to create easy-to-guess passwords, or use the same password for multiple services.
Finally, the threat of malware jeopardizing your bitcoin holdings not only on your computer, but on Coinbase, is real. Ensure installed software comes from trusted sources and consider installing a reputable anti-malware software to ensure your system is infection-free.
BitPay Processing $1 Million Per Day
Running a bitcoin payment gateway is nothing short of big business. Thousands of merchants around the world rely on these services to allow for the acceptance of bitcoin with limited risk — allowing them to instantly exchange the digital currency for local fiat and avoiding potentially costly fluctuations in price.
Take BitPay, for example. The company has grown exponentially in the past couple of years, going from 1,000 merchants signed up in September 2012, to 10,000 merchants a year later in September 2013.
They’ve since accumulated about 30,000 merchants globally, making them an industry leader, and they’re hoping to bring somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 merchants aboard by the year’s end.
Some of these merchants include big-name brands, including electronics reBlockedler TigerDirect, gaming company Zynga, Richard Branson’s space venture Virgin Galactic, and the Sacramento Kings sports team.
Fifty percent of the company’s merchants are located in the United States, making this a huge market (not surprisingly). Thirty percent are based out of the European Union, and the remaining are sprinkled elsewhere on the globe.
Major services have even integrated BitPay’s payment processing product, including WordPress, Shopify, and VisualTouch — a point-of-sale system in use by some 6,000 merchants, some with over one thousand locations.
It’s all about making bitcoin payments easy and accessible, and judging by the company’s figures, you can say they are doing just that.
In 2013 alone, BitPay processed 209,420 digital currency transactions. That’s $110 million worth in fiat, if you were wondering.
Today, the company processes about $1 million worth of bitcoin transactions per day, I’m told.
Assuming these numbers keep up, BitPay’s on track to processing a significant amount more than they did last year (you do the math).
This incredible growth has forced the company to expand their operations, opening offices in San Francisco, Buenos Aires, and Amsterdam — which come in addition to home base in Atlanta, Georgia.
Investors are taking notice, too.
The company recently received a record $30 million investment in a funding round led by Index Ventures (Richard Branson also participated, as did a number of other entities), and is estimated to be valuated somewhere in the range of $160 million.
This investment will allow the company to add approximately seventy jobs to their work force across all locations in order to keep up with growth.
By the looks of it, the company is doing some big things. CerBlockednly, it will be interesting to see how these numbers change in the months ahead.
Judge Rejects CoinLab Complaint on Mt. Gox Revival
Earlier today, news broke that former Mt. Gox partner and creditor CoinLab had issued a formal complaint against a plan proposed by Sunlot Holdings that would see the group buying out the exchange for one bitcoin with the promise to pay back at least in part) investors who lost money in the exchange’s collapse earlier this year.
As it were, Bankruptcy Judge Stacey Jernigan is said to have rejected the complaint CoinLab, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). In that complaint, the Washington-based company — who sued Mt. Gox in 2012 for $75 million after a deal fell apart — said that Sunlot’s plans would be forced on Mt. Gox customers “without any real scrutiny.”
Mt. Gox lawyers told judge Jernigan that Nobuaki Kobayashi (the man overseeing Mt. Gox assets) and his team are considering other proposals — going against CoinLab’s allegations that have made it seems as if the Sunlot plan is set in stone.
Lawyers for CoinLab took the opportunity to tell the court recently that they could more efficiently find the missing bitcoins at Mt. Gox.
“If anyone can find the hidden bitcoins, it’s us,” said Larry Engel.
It could very well mean that additional proposals may stem from this. After all, at this point Mt. Gox investors are likely willing to hear any good idea that might see the recovery of their money.
Mt. Gox, under the leadership of Mark Karpeles, is said to have lost in the neighborhood of 850,000 bitcoins this year. That’s work over $480 million at the current exchange rate.
Several weeks following the trading halt at Mt. Gox, the company announced the mysterious appearance of 200,000 bitcoins in a wallet they reportedly thought was no longer used
Coinbase Offers $10 Worth of Bitcoin to AnyPerk Users
There’s an interesting initiative going on right now in the bitcoin industry. Companies working in the sector are doing their best to get bitcoin in the hands of as many people as possible.
San Francisco-based Coinbase is prepared for another round.
The company announced it is partnering with AnyPerk.com to offer existing AnyPerk users free access to $10 worth of bitcoin when they sign up with Coinbase.
AnyPerk is a company that works to provide employee perks to over 2,500 companies that include Salesforce.com, Groupon, and Etsy.
These users will be able to spend their bitcoin however they choose, either by converting it to fiat, or supporting the small bitcoin economy by, say, shopping at Overstock.com.
It’s a bold move, and one that will cost Coinbase quite a financially, but it’s also considered to be an investment. Coinbase, who is no stranger to giving out free money, is obviously aiming to bring aboard tons of new users. And a promotion like this just might do that.
It’s really interesting to see how companies have developed their own way to bring people into the bitcoin community.
Coinbase’s major competitor in the United States, BitPay, is also doing their best to bring aboard new users — not just to their service but bitcoin as a whole.
With strategic sports sponsorships arranged in the Southeast of the United States, they’re hoping to get people interested not by offering free money, but by exposing them to bitcoin-accepting merchants, logos, and the like.
And each tactic seems to be working well.
Coinbase has some major competition coming up, however. Circle Internet Financial of Boston is starting up their own wallet service, and they’re giving newcomers $10 worth of free bitcoin too.
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