Bitcoin is legal, but mainstream adoption will mandate playing by the rules By Michael Carney On May 17, 2013 Earlier this week, the US government took its first action against the bitcoin ecosystem , freezing the US accounts of Mt. Gox, which is the largest bitcoin exchange in the wo...
It does have all the characteristics. Since February 2009, when it was first introduced, bitcoin has overcome initial skepticism and gone from mere curiosity to a billion-dollar market. About 11 million bitcoin have been mined since the crypto-based currency was introduced, and at a p...
Bitcoin-related startups should have no problem raising money considering the amount of VC interest and dedicated funds cropping up: Union Square Ventures has made a big bet, Andreessen Horowitz is studying the sector closely, and Liberty City Ventures and Secondmarket’s Barry Silbert...
He finds the crypto-based virtual currency fascinating, and not just because he has the bona fides of a hard core programmer. Bitcoin has the potential to be usable and feasible mainstream mode of payment — or in his words, a “payment mechanism.” While some may view it as “a crazy Lib...
US authorities launch their first attack on bitcoin By Adam L. Penenberg On May 15, 2013 Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security served the Dwolla mobile payment service with a court order requiring it to immediately cease all account activities with the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange...
If the promises of bitcoin could ever be unlocked – perhaps one of the biggest ifs in the tech world today – it’s about as big of a venture-style opportunity as you could imagine. Right now the value of the system is a headline-grabbing $1 billion. But if its potential to be a global,...
Most recently, US-based bitcoin exchange startup CoinLab sued Mt. Gox for $75 million alledging breach of contract related to a partnership between the two companies. According to the lawsuit, CoinLab entered an agreement to license Mt. Gox’s technology, including “exclusive right to ...
Great, now engineers think that they are economists too By Bryan Goldberg On April 10, 2013 Several months ago, one of my company’s engineers told me about Bitcoin. It wasn’t the first time that I had heard about the concept, but it was the first time that somebody I knew actually bou...
“[Apple's] ‘cool factor’ is clearly waning, they’re products are overpriced, and now they’re indifferent, even hostile, to customer who regularly spend tens of thousands of dollars on their products. Can they really be thinking that the best product is the one that you replace really ...
Welcome to the Bitcoin revolution, there’s no going back now By Michael Carney On March 15, 2013 I’ve been aware of Bitcoins for a few years now and have been generally curious about the concept. Lately, though, I’m being bombarded with information on it. For the uninitiated, Bitcoin ...
Bitcoin me: Adam Draper’s Boost VC makes a big bet on the virtual currency By Michael Carney On March 8, 2013 As a fourth generation Silicon Valley VC, Adam Draper has early stage tech investing in his blood. Or as the subheader of his personal blog reads: “I have two missions in life...
By Francisco Dao On March 5, 2013 I remember a moment at SXSW in 2009 when a friend of mine asked to borrow my computer. When I handed him my Acer laptop he said, “What the hell is this?” For a second, I felt like the guy wearing Wrangler jeans at the hip nightclub, and it occurred to...
Is college too expensive? Yes. Is college worthless? It depends on who you ask. But Arthur C. Brooks, a contributor to the New York Times, was able to get a degree for just $10,000 through online/remote education opportunities (the so-called 10K-B.A promoted by Bill Gates) and turn it...
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write., and It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript pProgramming lLanguage. JSON is a text format that is completely language ...
There appears to be 3 key elements to payment processing. i) Fees Charged, ii) Fraud capabilities and iii) Ease of working with the organization. I think this article focused on the 3rd bullet point only which perhaps limited its effectiveness. It certainly did a good job of capturing...
The first thing I thought of when I read about the Bitcoin Ponzi scheme was “Super Mario Bros”. I had heard of Bitcoin before but had always assumed that, like a coin in the classic Nintendo game, it was relatively worthless in the real world. I was wrong. At the current exchange rate...
Bitcoin Savings & Trust, the company that many suspected would end up being exposed as a fraudulent Bitcoin pyramid scheme, has ended up displaying all of the signs of a pyramid scheme. Most recently, according to The Verge, the “bank” lost all of the money, and hasn’t been communicat...
While Bitcoin is a fringe currency in the minds of almost every person in existence, that doesn’t mean there aren’t passionate users and owners. Among these users include four men who have decided to sue Bitcoinica, a large Bitcoin currency exchange, for nearly $500,000 in lost funds....
