Category Archives: News
Buy a Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Bitcoin in Seattle
“Ah, cheese, glorious cheese. Really, what is better than a delicious melty cheese sandwich on fine artisan bread?” — Seattle-based Cheese Wizards
Cheese Wizards is a family-run food truck that operates in Seattle. The wizard-themed grilled cheese business has been operating for about a year and seems to be gaining quite a following.
And with Seattle being known for tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft, what should a food truck do to stand out? Start acccepting Bitcoin, of course!
“We host a lot of smart, tech-savvy people in Seattle, and a lot of the brilliant minds in Seattle share some of our interests: wizards, fantasy, gaming, good cheesy sandwiches, and cutting edge cryptocurrency,” co-founder Tom Saxbe told Geekwire in an interview.
The brothers use BitPay to settle Bitcoin into USD, protecting Cheese Wizards from the volatility of the Bitcoin market while paying lower fees than they do on credit cards.
With the average item on the menu under $10, adopting Bitcoin makes sense. Credit card companies take a flat fee plus a percentage, and there’s always a risk of chargebacks and fraud. With Bitcoin, there are no transaction fees (just a monthly fee to BitPay) and no risk of fraud or chargebacks.
If you’re hungry, look for Cheese Wizards around Seattle and have your Bitcoin ready!
Bitcoin Week: India, Video Games, Silk Road Aftermath, Dwolla, More
Bitcoin News
Here is a roundup of the top Bitcoin news from October 7 to 13.
Competitive video games get a wagering system with LeetCoin. Former housemates of Silk Road owner Ross William Ulbricht are interviewed. Bitcoin becomes more popular in India as an alternative to the national currency. And, payment network Dwolla stops supporting Bitcoin users.
Monday, October 8
Wednesday, October 10
Friday, October 11
- Former Roommates of Silk Road Owner: “Think of us like Walter, Jr.”
- Payment Network Dwolla Cuts Off Bitcoin Users
Saturday, October 12
LeetCoin, A Controversial Bitcoin Wager System for Video Games
LeetCoin is inviting video gamers to join its Bitcoin movement
LeetCoin (or “Elite Coin”) has entered the Bitcoin market with a bold statement, “The Future of Competitive Gaming has Arrived.”
Gamers can sign in via Steam and then join LeetCoin servers to compete for Bitcoin while playing their favorite first-person shooters. Bitcoins are automatically transferred from the losers to the winners.
LeetCoin’s goal seems to be to make video games side bets more efficient, which is fine on a small scale. But since this amounts to gambling, it can be expected that LeetCoin will have to seek pastures outside the U.S. once it scales much like SatoshiDice and BitFunder.
There are other challenges to this business, such as players feeling more compelled to cheat.
“I can’t think of anything better to incentivize hacking,” said one user. “Let’s say you have a great server that uses Punkbuster and updates frequently with good hackers on your staff creating and blocking holes as you go. That still doesn’t do anything to prevent players from using a corrupted network to DOS attack competitors. You wouldn’t even need that many drones to clog a single home user’s bandwidth.”
But these challenges don’t stop the reality that video game fanatics might just be the perfect match for Bitcoin wagering. And LeetCoin wants to let video games wager on their first-person shooter battles with Bitcoin, where it’s a game of winner take all.
Here is LeetCoin‘s intro video to the service.
Payment Network Dwolla Cuts Off Bitcoin Users
Payment network Dwolla prepares to block Bitcoin and virtual currency exchanges
Dwolla is a payment network that allows any business or person to send, request and accept money. Their pitch is low flat fees, or in some cases no fees at all, to send money.
With the recent Silk Road bust that is still making heads spin at the magnitude of the illicit business operated on the Bitcoin marketplace, it seems that some companies are getting nervous about being too close to Bitcoin.
Dwolla is officially cutting off Bitcoin users from its network.
Here is an email Dwolla sent to its users.
Dear Dwolla Account Holder,
As you know, Dwolla does not sell, accept, mine, value, take possession of, or hold Bitcoin or any other virtual currency product, and none of Dwolla’s users transact business with Dwolla using Bitcoin or any other virtual currency product. However, recent interest involving virtual currency and its exchanges has created uncertainty and confusion around virtual currency, and Dwolla’s relationship with a small number of its exchanges. This has forced Dwolla to reassign resources, funds, and services.
As Dwolla gears up for a new stage of growth, we recognize that we can no longer sustain this merchant base (.1 percent of Dwolla merchants) and its unique needs, and that attempting to do so jeopardizes both of our communities’ starkly different, but similarly ambitious, vision for improving payments.
Effective October 28, 2013 at 4pm CT, Dwolla will be withdrawing its service offerings to virtual currency exchanges and virtual currency related services.
What does this mean? Your account, and its functionality, will remain unaffected. However, you can deactivate your account from within your Dwolla dashboard, if you so choose. Dwolla aims to provide its users and the few affected merchants with the guidance necessary to ensure a smooth transition. To do that, we encourage users to over-communicate with our support team, report any suspicious activity, and revisit our terms of service to ensure uninterrupted services.
What is the timeline of events?
- October 10: Only existing users with a 30-day history with Dwolla will be able to send funds to merchants affected by this change.
- October 15: Affected merchants will be limited to sending money only, and will no longer be able to receive funds from customers. They will be able to issue refunds to customers at this time.
- October 28: Affected merchants’ accounts will be suspended. No further activity will be provided. October 29: Provided no security or fraud concerns, Dwolla will transfer any of the remaining funds inside the affected merchant’s Dwolla account to its linked bank account.
The decision to remove anyone from the network — no matter the circumstances — is not something Dwolla takes lightly. We are grateful for the opportunity to service and learn from these users. We wish the community and its pioneers the best.
Sincerely, Dwolla Support
Is this a good move for Dwolla?
On the upside, it gives them a clean separation from the legal and regulatory risks associated with virtual currency exchanges and marketplaces.
On the downside, they may lose customers. One user commented in a forum about the policy, “I’ve just deactivated my account. There is really no reason to use Dwolla other than to buy Bitcoins.”
Former Roommates of Silk Road Owner: “Think of us like Walter, Jr.”
In a reference to hit show Breaking Bad, a former roommate of Silk Road’s owner Ross William Ulbricht compared himself to Walter, Jr., the son of main character Walter White who was oblivious to his father’s drug empire.
Ulbricht, or the Dread Pirate Roberts, as he was known to the Silk Road community, was arrested in San Francisco last week by federal authorities. Silk Road was a Bitcoin marketplace used primarily for buying and selling drugs and had generated more than $1.2 billion in transaction revenue over the last two years.
Read: The Party is Over. Silk Road Bitcoin Drug Marketplace Seized, Owner Arrested
It turns out that Ulbricht had spent the last few months before his arrest subletting an apartment from two other men in the Sunset District. He used a fake name, Josh, described himself as a currency trader, paid his rent in cash, and kept to himself on his computer most days.
Forbes published a detailed article about how Ulbricht met his former housemates and the surprise that ensued when they saw Ulbricht’s face on the front page of the newspaper the day he was arrested.
“He seemed like a normal guy,” said one roommate in an interview with Forbes. “Obviously he had a dark side, but he never showed any of that.”
“I don’t entirely understand what his motivation was,” said the other roommate. “He’s got all this money and he just sits in a not-particularly nice rental house in the Sunset [District] and just f***s around on the computer all day until he gets sent to prison.”
Read more about Ulbricht’s former housemates at Forbes.
Ulbricht is now being ordered to New York to face charges.
