Category Archives: News
FinCEN Gives Early Guidance on Bitcoin Regulation
Regulation on Bitcoin Heats Up in Washington Meeting
On Monday, the Bitcoin Foundation met with FinCEN, the crime enforcement division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as well as regulators and law enforcement officials.
Patrick Murck, general counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation, prepared a presentation on Bitcoin for agencies including the FBI, IRS, Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Secret Service.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, FinCEN made a statement after the meeting giving preliminary guidance on the matter.
“Fincen’s recent guidance concerning virtual currencies made clear that virtual currency administrators and exchangers that provide services within the U.S. must register with Fincen as money-services businesses and that they share similar regulatory responsibilities with other financial institutions,” said Jennifer Shasky-Calvery, director of the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, in a statement after the meeting.
This activity comes on the heels of other regulatory interest in Bitcoin, including Germany’s ruling that Bitcoin is private money, Thailand’s guidance that Bitcoin is illegal, New York’s Department of Financial Services sending subpoenas to 22 Bitcoin companies, and the U.S. Senate launching its own inquiry.
Top Bitcoin News Last Week: CoinChat, Germany, CoinTap, more
Bitcoin News
A roundup of the top Bitcoin news from August 19 to August 25:
Tuesday, August 20
Wednesday, August 21
Thursday, August 22
Canadian Startup CoinTap Sells Bitcoin Gift Cards to Help Adoption
CoinTap Looks to Make Buying Bitcoins Easy
Buying Bitcoins is complicated, and there are a number of companies are looking to change that. The latest entrant on this scene is Canadian Startup CoinTap.
CoinTap is the creation of Bitcoin Ventures, Inc., a local virtual currency software development company that offers smart solutions for Bitcoin e-commerce.
The product is a gift card which streamlines an otherwise tricky and time-consuming process of trading your money on a market for Bitcoins, says the company’s representative and Bitcoin consultant Ashley Fulks.
“Buying Bitcoins are now as uncomplicated as buying a loaf of bread,” says Fulks. “Simply go to the store and buy a CoinTap card. Then go online, redeem your card on our website and, presto, you’ve got Bitcoins.”
A $50 gift card is redeemable for 50 dollars in credit, which can then be used to purchase Bitcoins at a competitive rate through the company’s website. (As of writing, the current value of 1 Bitcoin is $121 US on Mt.Gox.com exchange or $97 CDN on CaVirtex.ca.)
“The Bitcoin is the best-performing currency in the world,” says Fulks. “Whereas governments and banks set the values of fiat currencies based on how they want their economies to perform, the Bitcoin is decentralized and runs on a peer-to-peer network, so its value can’t be regulated by a small group of people.”
“With Bitcoins, there’s no inflation. It’s all math. There will only ever be 21,000,000 in circulation,” explains Fulks. “Since the Bitcoins value is determined purely by the market, it shows a different picture of what other currencies are worth.”
Currently, governments and financial institutions worldwide have varying definitions of what Bitcoins are.
While the Government of Canada views Bitcoins as a tradable commodity, but not a currency, Germany recently ruled that the Bitcoin is “private money” and therefore taxable, just like regular money.
So if Bitcoins are so cutting edge, what can you do with them?
“They can be saved as an investment; traded for other valuable currencies such as Euros, Rubles, US dollars, Yen, Litecoins, Feathercoins – which are just two of the many new virtual currencies cropping up,” says Fulks. “You can also use Bitcoins to purchase any type of good or service from any vendor willing to accept Bitcoins.”
There’s already a huge community online for shopping with Bitcoin, including bitcoinstore.com – an Amazon-style store that only deals in Bitcoin. Several smart-phone apps, like blockchain.info, offer portable wallets and easy point-of-sale systems for vendors to make transactions easy, Fulks explains.
Fulks says some early-adopters are now living exclusively off of Bitcoins.
“They buy their groceries and even pay their rent with the help of online companies like billpayforcoins.com, who will pay your bills in fiat currency in exchange for Bitcoins,” says Fulks.
Bitcoin Ventures Inc. is actively securing global partnerships, “to help bring Bitcoins to the world,” says Fulks.
“The Bitcoin community is very supportive of emerging technologies and has contacted us with open arms. I know a lot of people want to make it easy to get Bitcoins and CoinTap is here to help.”
About Bitcoin Ventures
Based in Calgary, Alberta, Bitcoin Ventures Inc. was founded in 2013 by a forward-thinking group of business-savvy computer-techs.
For more information visit www.cointap.ca
Germany Ministry of Finance Declares Bitcoin is Private Money
Germany Declares Bitcoin is Private Money
It seems that every government is starting to weigh in on Bitcoin. First, the Bank of Thailand advised local companies that Bitcoin is illegal. Then, a federal judge in Texas wrote that Bitcoin is money in a ruling about a Bitcoin ponzi scheme.
Now, Germany has ruled that Bitcoins are private money.
“The German Ministry of Finance does not classify bitcoins as e-money or as a functional currency; they cannot be regarded as a foreign currency. Nevertheless they have to be subsumed under the German term of ‘Rechnungseinheit’ as a financial instrument,” Martin Chaudhuri from the Ministry of Finance told CoinDesk. Rechnungseinheit translates to unit of account in English.
Via MarketWatch.
Chatrooms, Meet Bitcoin – CoinChat Pays You to Chat Online
CoinChat Lets Users Earn Bitcoin While They Chat Online
CoinChat is an innovative new chatroom concept, combining real-time chat with Bitcoin. The service has a unique spin that users can earn Bitcoins while they chat.
The creator of CoinChat goes by the username TradeFortress on the Bitcointalk forum and is based in Australia. We connected with TradeFortress for an exclusive interview.
On Bitcoin: Tell us how you came up with the idea for CoinChat and when it launched?
CoinChat: The idea of CoinChat originally came from a more primitive chatroom which had only one room that gave rewards. CoinChat launched in April of this year with IRC-styled chat and advanced features people expect, plus a major revamp of the user interface has been done since.
On Bitcoin: How does it work?
CoinChat: For chatters that are familiar with IRC, getting used to CoinChat is extremely easy. The design resembles IRC, allowing a quick and easy transition to the new interface. It also includes multiple features to enhance your chatting experience, including:
- The ability to create custom rooms
- Custom chat colors
- Scripting based on an easy-to-learn language (Node.js)
- Cat-like emoticons built in
- A fully-responsive design that adapts to your device and current resolution
- A friends list that allows you to keep up with who is online
- Multiple methods to earn free Bitcoins by chatting
On Bitcoin: Why did you decide to combine Bitcoin with a chat room?
CoinChat: When you combine Bitcoins with a chatroom, you get cool bots and games – there’s the PvP #arena, #fishingbot, and of course cow tipping, which was one of the first bots created by our users.
On Bitcoin: Who is using CoinChat today? How big is your audience if you can share?
CoinChat: CoinChat has users all over the world with diverse backgrounds and a lot of drama. Seriously, “come here for the coins, stay for the drama.”
It’s also open to customization. Through CoinChat’s scripting, the only thing limiting the creation of new services is the creativity of the programmer. There are already multiple bots running on the service, allowing members to gamble while playing dice, take part in cow tipping, go fishing and more. Since anyone is able to create their own scripts, the number of new and exciting games will only keep increasing with time.
A friends list helps with keeping up with users you wish to keep in touch with on a regular basis. This is matched with the ability to instantly and easily send private messages to one another, opening the doors for having private conversations with one another.
The custom chatroom option allows members to set up their very own rooms based on their own topics. They can get their friends in (utilizing a URL system that grants access as easily as clicking on the link) and others can find the room through a public listing. This helps keep different conversations on-topic and allows the room’s creators to moderate their own rooms, dealing with any problems that may occur.
On Bitcoin: How do users earn Bitcoin? Is your company funding this or do advertisers pay?
CoinChat: The best part about CoinChat is that it also pays its users for taking part in the community through conversation. There is a tipping system where members can tip each other for any reason, along with the normal earnings that are randomly rewarded on a line-per-line basis. All funds are earned in Bitcoins and can be instantly withdrawn to an Inputs.io account upon reaching 5 mBTC. Through CoinChat’s ability for its members to earn Bitcoins by chatting, it facilitates a system where everyone wins.
These payments are funded through advertisements and fees, as well as premium features like chat styles.
