The New Stellar Consensus Protocol Could Permit Faster and Cheaper Transactions

Stanford professor David Mazières thinks he has a faster, more flexible and more secure alternative to Bitcoin, MIT Technology Review reports.Two independent reviewers, from Stanford and Cornell universities, agree that the new technology could make digital payments and other transactions cheaper, safer and easier.Alternative blockchains are often dismissed as worthless “me-too” copycats or scamcoins, which, unfortunately, has some element of truth....

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Newly Declared European Microstate Liberland Plans to Create Its Own Digital Currency

A group of Czech citizens has declared a new state, the Free Republic of Liberland, in a tiny 6-square-kilometer territory along the Danube River between Croatia and the Republic of Serbia. The Liberland territory is not claimed by either of these two states, which according to the group permits it to declare a new “microstate” in compliance with international law.After the Yugoslav Wars, some borderland territories have been disputed, but this area...

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MIT Launches Digital Currency Policy and Standards Research Initiative

MIT Media Lab has announced the launch of Digital Currency Initiative, a three-pronged program aimed at increasing awareness of the technology on campus and abroad while providing research to promote policy and standards initiatives.The news was first detailed in a post penned by former White House senior advisor and Digital Currency Initiative director Brian Forde, who today officially joined the university-run research laboratory.Forde previously...

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Ripple Labs Expands to Asia Pacific Region

The company behind the consensus network and currency, Ripple, has announced a new office in Sydney, Australia as part of a push further into the large Asian and Pacific markets.“We are excited to formally unveil a presence in Asia Pacific — an area that has been aggressively pursuing faster payment technologies for both domestic and cross-border payments,” said Ripple Labs CEO and co-founder Chris Larsen.According to a Ripple Labs s, the expansion...

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eBay and PayPal Confirm Upcoming Separation, Support for Bitcoin Payments

In September 2014, eBay announced plans to separate eBay and PayPal. In a recent SEC filing, eBay confirmed that a newly formed corporation named PayPal Holdings, Inc. (“PayPal”) will take over the businesses that make up eBay’s payments segment. eBay, the existing publicly traded corporation, will continue to operate its marketplaces business.The separation, which will provide current eBay stockholders with equity ownership in both eBay and PayPal,...

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XAPO Partners with Online Gaming Company CEVO; Holds $21,000 Giveaway

Bitcoin company Xapo announced a partnership with e-sports company CEVO and bitcoin-based gaming service Leet to provide a seamless, bitcoin-enabled competitive gaming experience to players.“We believe that gaming presents one of Bitcoin’s most exciting growth opportunities, as fast, inexpensive and secure bitcoin payments have the potential to open the global gaming community to players who lack access to a bank account or credit card,” notes the...

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Bitcoin for Freelancers: Popular Billing Service Hiveage Adds Bitcoin

Operating a small business with Bitcoin just got a bit easier. Online billing service Hiveage has announced its integration with Bitcoin wallet and exchange Coinbase , allowing its 45,000-plus small business and freelance clients around the world to invoice and accept payments in bitcoin.“Bitcoin is quickly becoming a useful way of transferring value, and it’s been highly demanded over the past few months by our users,” says Hiveage founder and...

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French Telecom Giant Orange to Invest in Bitcoin Startups

French telecom carrier Orange is looking to invest in Bitcoin startups in the coming months, Bloomberg reports. Orange (formerly France Telecom), one of the largest telecom firms worldwide, is now one of the first big international phone carriers to become interested in the technology behind the digital currency.“There’s something intriguing in this technology, so we want to be there as early as possible,” said Georges Nahon, CEO of Orange Silicon...

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OneBit: Use Bitcoin Anywhere MasterCard PayPass is Accepted

Startup OneBit is developing a Bitcoin wallet app that lets users pay at any store with contactless mobile payments via the MasterCard PayPass payment network.OneBit securely converts bitcoin on the fly at market rate into any major local currency using BitPay, and pays the merchant via their NFC payment terminals. OneBit will permit users to pay at any MasterCard PayPass-accepting merchant worldwide, with zero fees.“The magic that happens underneath”...

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Former Nike CIO Joins Bitreserve

Former Nike CIO and member of the exclusive Fortune 40 Under 40 list Anthony Watson has joined the Bitcoin bank Bitreserve as President and Chief Operating Officer.“I am thrilled to join Bitreserve at such a pivotal moment in the evolution of cloud money and financial technology,” says Watson. “Money is a common language around the world, and Bitreserve democratizes how people access, hold and move value. We have the unique opportunity to craft a...

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Coinbase Issues Request for Bitcoin Micropayment Services

In a thoughtful blog post, Coinbase offers ideas for new Bitcoin applications and business models. Based on the applications under development by the more than 7,000 developers using the Coinbase API, it appears that four main categories of Bitcoin applications are gaining popularity among developers: P2P tipping, cross-border payments, international microfinance and reputation platforms.The Coinbase post identifies other promising Bitcoin application...

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Align Commerce Launches Public Beta of International Payments Platform

Align Commerce announced yesterday that the public beta of its international payments platform had launched, which could cut the cost and time of transactions in a $24 trillion market. Thirty-four countries are now exposed to this beta.“The $24 trillion cross-border payments market is growing at a breakneck pace, expected to eclipse $54 trillion by 2022, despite a highly inefficient and expensive system in which businesses spend over $50 billion...

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Coinbase Issues Request for Bitcoin Micropayment Services

In a thoughtful blog post, Coinbase offers ideas for new Bitcoin applications and business models. Based on the applications under development by the more than 7,000 developers using the Coinbase API, it appears that four main categories of Bitcoin applications are gaining popularity among developers: P2P tipping, cross-border payments, international microfinance and reputation platforms.The Coinbase post identifies other promising Bitcoin application...

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Three Methods for Simple Bitcoin Business Accounting

This is a guest post from Digital Currency Council Member Marty Zigman. Recently, I gave a webcast presentation to AICPA members to help accounting professionals understand Bitcoin and how to treat it on the general ledger. If you are an AICPA member, the webcast is available for your viewing. In this article, the key points from that presentation are outlined and will help accountants fundamentally understand and approach business based Bitcoin...

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Sidekik: Decentralized Video Streaming and Storage

The Sidekik app, which is accepting bitcoin in its crowdfunding campaign, is intended to bring real-time accountability to law enforcement by streaming video and audio of encounters with police to Maidsafe.The goal is to protect the integrity of evidence.The app, which began its second stage of crowdfunding March 9 , will do far more than just video and audio streaming. An army of attorneys is being built who will compete to be your representative...

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DEC_TECH Toronto with Keynote Speaker Andreas Antonopoulos: This Week on Decentral.tv

All this week, decentral.tv will be airing segments from the first Decentralized Technology (DEC_TECH) event held at MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, presented by Decentral. Held on March 17, 2015, the event drew a crowd of over 300 digital currency enthusiasts.Monday’s segment begins with opening remarks from host Anthony Di Iorio of Decentral and Adam Nanjee of MaRS.A series of presentations follows, beginning with Gerald Cotten, CEO of QuadrigaCX....

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Barclays CEO: The Banking Sector Has Not Yet Felt the Full Disruptive Force of Technology, but It Will

The Wall Street Journal reports that Wall Street is exploring innovative applications of digital currencies to mainstream banking and financial issues. The recent wave of Wall Street interest in Bitcoin technology is inspired by a growing appreciation of the inevitability of radical changes in the financial industry, which is long overdue for the kind of Internet-driven cost savings that have affected other industries.The emphasis is on efficiency...

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Houston Bitcoin Embassy Opens

Houston, we have a problem. We need more cutting edge tech entrepreneurs.Luckily there’s a new space in Houston, Texas, built just for that, provided by Cryptospaces, which is backed by bitcoin consulting company, FinalHash. Located at 6907 Almeda Rd., the Houston Bitcoin Embassy is an incubator/ coworking space dedicated to tech startups. There are also plans to install a bitcoin ATM in the facility by the end of April.The Embassy is home to the...

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Bitrefill and Celery Make Bitcoin Remittances Easy: A Conversation With CEO Sergej Kotliar

Bitcoin airtime merchant, Bitrefill, has partnered with New York-based Bitcoin exchange Celery to enable bitcoin remittances of phone minutes to more than 100 countries – without the sender ever having to touch the digital currency.“The integration uses all of the benefits of Bitcoin but hides the complexities from the user, just uses Bitcoin as settlement rails,” said Celery CEO IIya Subkhankulov.The process does not require a user to buy bitcoin...

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The Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) Goes Live with Ticker GBTC

A few weeks ago Bitcoin Magazine reported that the Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) was about to become the first publicly traded Bitcoin fund. On Thursday, the BIT received formal approval for listing on the OTC Markets Group’s OTCQX exchange. The fund is listed with the symbol GBTC, and trading is expected to begin early next week.Barry Silbert announced on Twitter that the BIT fund is live and waiting for eligible shareholders to deposit their shares...

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Neteller Adds Bitcoin Funding to Prepaid Mastercards

In a surprise move, e-wallet provider and payment processor Neteller quietly started to accept bitcoin deposits at zero fees. Neteller customers will now be able to top up their accounts by exchanging Bitcoin into one of the currencies offered by Neteller.Neteller, owned and operated by publicly traded British global payments company Optimal Payments PLC, is used by millions of consumers in more than 200 countries and especially popular in the foreign...

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Designers Compete to Create Global Cryptocurrency Brand

by Jacob Donnelly on March 26, 2015 { } Many people know the symbol of Bitcoin. Many people might know the symbol of Litecoin. Even fewer know the symbol of a Dogecoin. There are hundreds of cryptocurrencies that have been developed, but what’s the symbol for “cryptocurrency?”Brand Me Crypto, a design contest sponsored by Vogogo and Cryptsy, is hoping that one concise brand can be created that will epitomize the true brand of cryptocurrency.“I found...

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The Future of the BitGive Foundation: Great Potential Amid Uncertainty

Over the past three days, Bitcoin Magazine has featured stories about the BitGive Foundation; how it began and the work that it has done with charities including Save the Children, The Water Project and Medic Mobile. Its founder and sole full-time staffer, Connie Gallippi, has helped the organization grow to become the first registered tax-exempt bitcoin charity, spreading the word about Bitcoin’s potential for positive change in the world.“We’ve...

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Anycoin Direct Expands to 14 New European Markets

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 CoinDesk:“With...

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Bitreserve Expands to India and Mexico; Partners with Mexican Billionaire

Bitcoin bank Bitreserve , founded by CNET founder Halsey Minor in 2013, shields its customers from the volatility of bitcoin by instantly locking deposits to a fiat currency selected by the customer, for example the US dollar. If you make a deposit in bitcoin to Bitreserve, you don’t have to worry about volatility, because your bitcoin can be converted to dollars on-the-fly and appear as dollars in your balance. So Bitreserve users don’t lose money...

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