Like this? Share it.

2014 is shaping up to be the year of Bitcoin. From large venture capital investments to mainstream coverage to merchant and consumer adoption, Bitcoin is quickly achieving escape velocity as a standalone digital currency.

So naturally, Bitcoin businesses are heading to CES in Las Vegas to network and show off their product offerings.

Butterfly Labs, a manufacturer of Bitcoin mining equipment, is exhibiting at the show. BitPay, a Bitcoin payment processor, is hosting a booth. As is Blockchain.info, one of the largest hosted Bitcoin wallets. And BitGo, provider of the industry’s first multi-signature Bitcoin secure wallet, is attending.

Related: Bitcoin Mobile App ZeroBlock Acquired by Blockchain.info

Other Bitcoin companies demoing new products this week include:

• BitAngels (Las Vegas and Austin). Largest angel network of investors in Bitcoin technologies; representatives will be available to discuss Bitcoin investing trends.
• BitcoinShop (Washington, DC). Largest online retailer offering merchandise exclusively in Bitcoins.
• Duty Free BTC (High Point, NC) - E-commerce Bitcoin store for duty free products.
• Kncminer (Stockholm, Sweden). World’s leading Bitcoin mining hardware provider, with more than $60 million in sales in past nine months and the world’s fastest Bitcoin miner, the 3 Th/s Neptune.
• Kryptokit (Toronto, ON) – An instant Bitcoin wallet and secure instant messaging system that runs right in the browser.
• Lamassu (Manchester, NH) – The smallest, least expensive Bitcoin ATM on the market, which recently shipped its 100th unit.

Stay tuned for more coverage. Tweet us @OnBitcoin to meet up!

Like this? Share it.

Like this? Share it.

In an easy-to-read article, serial entrepreneur and investor James Hong discusses the best way to store Bitcoin.

His conclusion: BitGo.

Most Bitcoin wallets use a single key. Desktop software wallets keep that key in a file, while hosted or cloud wallets store it on a server. This creates a single point of failure risk. If the key is stolen, lost or corrupted, your money is gone.

BitGo has changed the security paradigm and created a multi-signature wallet.

“I think of this as being a bit like movies where nuclear missile systems often require two separate and different keys to launch nuclear missiles,” writes Hong. “If you only have one key, it’s worthless.”

BitGo creates 3 keys in a secure manner, and you need 2 of them to unlock funds or send Bitcoin. One key is kept with BitGo, one controlled by the user, and a third held offline as a backup key.

This allows you to have the convenience of a hosted wallet and the close to the security of cold storage.

Read Hong’s article on Medium and related discussion on Reddit. Visit BitGo.com to create your own secure wallet.

Like this? Share it.

Like this? Share it.

Happy 5th Birthday to the Bitcoin Blockchain!

Five years ago today, the first 50 Bitcoin were issued in the first block of the Blockchain, also called the Genesis Block.

The 50 BTC reward went to address 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa, owned by Satoshi Nakamoto. Since that first block, all other bitcoins have been issued to miners who process transactions, on average about every 10 minutes.

Bitcoin is a global digital currency managed by a peer-to-peer, decentralized network of computers. There is no central bank or governing body that controls the currency. Instead, Bitcoin issuance and trading are governed by an open-source algorithm initially presented in a 2008 whitepaper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto. After the initial system was launched, the open-source code was handed over to a non-profit organization called the Bitcoin Foundation.

As of December 2013 there are over 12 million bitcoins in circulation out of a total expected 21 million that will be issued by the year 2140. Similar to a precious metal commodity, Bitcoins are added to the economy through a process called “mining.” Mining is a computational process that effectively issues new bitcoins to the network in a predictable fashion.

All Bitcoin transactions are recorded on a decentralized public ledger called the Blockchain. Every miner in the network stores a copy of this ledger. Approximately every 10 minutes, new bitcoins are added to the overall pool when a new block is mined and added to the Blockchain. The miner receives a reward (currently 25 Bitcoin) for discovering a block.

After 5 years of transactions, Bitcoin is now has a $10 billion market capitalization. Happy birthday Blockchain!

Like this? Share it.

Like this? Share it.

Movie and TV celebrity William Shatner, famous for his roles in Star Trek and more recently as a spokesperson for Priceline.com, is interested in Bitcoin.

OK new subject: what the heck is bit coin?

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) January 3, 2014

In a lengthy Twitter conversation, Shatner engaged with his followers to understand what Bitcoin is and where to buy some.

The result? He’s going to buy Bitcoin at Coinbase.

Ok so I’ll go open up an account and see if these codes will translate into real bitcoin and then figure out what to do with them

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) January 3, 2014

Like this? Share it.