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Circle, A High Profile Bitcoin Startup, Raises $9M with Seasoned Team

October 31, 2013 News

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“We’re as excited about Bitcoin and digital currency as we were when we first discovered the Internet in 1990.” — Circle launch announcement

Jeremy Allaire is a seasoned entrepreneur. In the late 1990s, he developed the web development platform ColdFusion that was widely adopted and later acquired by Macromedia in 2001. Mr. Allaire then started an online video platform called Brightcove that went public in 2012.

Now Mr. Allaire has raised $9 million for his new venture called Circle, a company that is embracing the Bitcoin revolution.

“Bitcoin and digital currency represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the future of the Internet and global commerce,” said Jeremy Allaire, founder and chief executive officer of Circle Internet Financial, Inc. “There’s a tremendous opportunity to make payments easier, more secure and less costly for consumers and businesses. Digital currency can dramatically reduce the friction and costs currently experienced in the world by merchants and consumers.”

Jeremy Allaire photo by Keith Teare

Circle promises to enable global digital currency and transforming the world economy with secure, simple, and less costly technology for storing and using money. Circle is building a suite of online products for end-users, businesses and charities aimed at enabling greater ease-of-use in online and in-person payments, enhanced security and privacy for consumers, and lower costs for businesses in accepting digital payments.

The Circle platform will be built on top of open protocols such as Bitcoin. Circle has also announced that it is a gold member of the Bitcoin Foundation.

The company’s $9 million Series A funding comes from Jim Breyer, Accel Partners and General Catalyst Partners. Jim Breyer will join the Board of Directors of Circle, as will David Orfao of General Catalyst Partners.

“It is rare to find a world-class entrepreneur embarking on a path to bring innovation to the global financial marketplace,” said Jim Breyer, Partner, Accel Partners. “The dramatic global growth in mobile, social and online commerce is creating the need and potential for a real global digital currency. With Jeremy’s vision for Circle and track record as an Internet pioneer, the opportunity here is to potentially build a significant global company. I’m very pleased to be working with Jeremy again.”

Unlike other companies in the Bitcoin space that have skirted regulatory gray areas, Circle is taking the challenge head on. Circle is regulated by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), a bureau of the U.S. Department of Treasury, as a money transmitter and is seeking appropriate state licenses. Circle also recently hired John Beccia as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. Beccia, former Chief Regulatory Counsel for the Financial Services Roundtable in Washington, D.C. brings decades of operating experience in banking, compliance and risk management.

Circle’s funding was first announced in a New York Times profile piece published last night. Read “Bitcoin Pursues the Mainstream“.

Learn more at www.circle.com.

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First Bitcoin ATM Officially Operational in Canada – RoboCoin

October 30, 2013 News

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Last month, we reported that Bitcoiniacs, a Canadian retail store, had ordered RoboCoin Bitcoin ATM kiosks and will be deploying them across Canada. This week, in a Bitcoin milestone, the first ever commercial Bitcoin ATM went online in Vancouver.

RoboCoin allows buying and selling Bitcoins from a freestanding kiosk that integrates software, bank grade hardware and security.

“We are incredibly passionate about the product we’ve put together,” said RoboCoin on the occasion. “Robocoin will be the easiest, quickest, most convenient way to both buy and sell bitcoin ever. Say goodbye to pesky bank wires, archaic verification processes, and weeks of waiting time to get money converted. Using only the best bank grade hardware, Robocoin is capable of instantly handling transactions in the thousands of dollars. Not only does this provide incredible convenience for Bitcoin owners, but this also has the potential to change the entire remittance industry.”

The ATM is different from your typical bank machine. The machine accepts cash and delivers Bitcoin, or accepts Bitcoin and provides cash.

This is important because it is difficult for many to get liquidity on their Bitcoin. Signing up for an exchange like Mt.Gox is a lengthy process, involving scanning and submitting your government-issued ID. Other Bitcoin wallets, like Coinbase, make the process easier but there is a limit to liquidity.

This is the first step in what will be a large movement by the Bitcoin ecosystem to bring the digital currency to retail.

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You May Have a Fortune on Your Hard Drive: Recovering Lost Bitcoin

October 29, 2013 News

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There’s Gold In Them Hills, and Bitcoin On Your Hard Drive, Maybe

A story published by The Guardian is sweeping the Internet today. It’s about a Norwegian man who found 5,000 Bitcoin in 2009 for $27, and forgot about them until this year only to discover that they are now worth over $800,000.

“Kristoffer Koch invested 150 kroner ($26.60) in 5,000 bitcoins in 2009, after discovering them during the course of writing a thesis on encryption,” explained the Guardian. “He promptly forgot about them until widespread media coverage of the anonymous, decentralised, peer-to-peer digital currency in April 2013 jogged his memory.”

Koch bought an apartment in Toyen with his newfound money.

Losing Bitcoins is Not Uncommon

It turns out that losing Bitcoins is not an uncommon circumstance. Many of the early adopters started mining or trading for Bitcoin back in 2009 and 2010 when the currency had little value. They did not look at Bitcoin as an investment, but rather a social experiment.

One man, in May 2010, offered to pay 10,000 BTC to someone to deliver a pizza to him. That sum is now worth over $2,000,000.

In the early days of Bitcoin, there were no cloud wallets. Bitcoiners used client software that would generate or accept bitcoins and save them into a file on the computer. Imagine the scenarios in which these bitcoins can be lost: file corruption, hard drive crashing, or just disposing an old computer.

One user on a Reddit forum compared his experience to the Norwegian man, “This happened to me but I only walked away with $25k. Still felt like winning the showcase on the Price is Right. I was cleaning up my important folder on one of my hard drives and came across the wallet.dat file.”

How to Recover Lost Bitcoins

The first step in protecting your Bitcoin investment is proper backup. You can use a Bitcoin cloud wallet to store your money or just use regular file backup solutions.

Second, if you think you used Bitcoin in the early days with a client program, search your hard drive for a file named “wallet.dat.”

Finally, if you do have bitcoins stored on your computer and your hard drive gets corrupted, then here is a list of free software to help you recover what might be a small fortune.