Category Archives: News
Top Bitcoin News Last Week: Royal Baby, SatoshiDice, Argentina, and More
Bitcoin News
A roundup of the top Bitcoin news from July 15 to July 21.
Monday, July 15
Tuesday, July 16
Thursday, July 18
Friday, July 19
Sunday, July 21
Work in Silicon Valley? Pay with Bitcoin at Coupa Café in Palo Alto
Coupa Café Starts Accepting Bitcoin
If you work in Silicon Valley, you know of Coupa Café. It’s a coffee shop in Palo Alto where the typical patrons are tech startup entrepreneurs coding away on a Macbook Air while they sip a latte.
Now this trendy coffee shop is becoming a payments pioneer by accepting Bitcoin at the register.
“It’s like when the Internet first started in the ’90s,” said Mike Landau in an interview with Palo Alto Online. Landau is a Facebook software engineer who helped build the technology that enables Coupa Café to accept Bitcoins.
“Bitcoin does two things,” Landau explained. “One is, it’s a currency. But it’s also a medium of transaction. You can imagine it being kind of like PayPal, but completely open source and decentralized. There’s no one company that’s in charge.”
Coupa Café’s cash register rings up a sale in both dollars and Bitcoin. Customers who want to pay in Bitcoin can use an app called Blockchain to scan the cafe’s QR code and send BTC for payment.
Bitcoin Gambling Company SatoshiDice Sold for $11.5 Million
SatoshiDice Sells to Undisclosed Buyer for $11.5 Million
SatoshiDice is an Bitcoin gambling company with a simple concept: send Bitcoins to SatoshiDice, the dice are rolled, and your winnings are sent back to you within 30 seconds in Bitcoin. The company’s revenue model is to apply a transaction fees on each wager (win or lose) of 0.0005 BTC.
Founded by Erik Voorhees, who has recently been based out of Panama City to operate the company, SatoshiDice claims to be the biggest Bitcoin gambling company in the world.
SatoshiDice now also has a new accolade: the first major Bitcoin acquisition. Mr. Voorhees announced on the company’s forum that SatoshiDice was being acquired for 126,315 BTC, or around $11.5 million.
SatoshiDice is being sold, in full, to a new company that will take over all ownership, operations, and management. The total sale price is 126,315 BTC, or 0.00126315 BTC per share.
To put the acquisition in perspective, the buyer paid about 1.1% of available Bitcoins to buy the company.
The buyer has not been disclosed, though some reports suggest the acquirer is a large gambling entity looking to expand into Bitcoin.
Up until the sale, shares of SatoshiDice have been traded on Romanian Bitcoin exchange MPEx under the ticker S.DICE. Voorhees clarified what this sale means for shareholders.
According to the MPEX Agreement, MPEX holders are entitled to receive 0.00126315 BTC per share, alongside other private owners. However, for the good of the MPEX holders and for the sake of the general Bitcoin community, which the site always has intended to support and nurture, SatoshiDice has arranged to pay MPEX holders an additional .00223685 BTC per share bringing the total to 0.0035 BTC per share.
This is a 277% premium over the sale price and a roughly 175% premium over the current market price of S.DICE shares on MPEX. It is also roughly equivalent to the average price of S.DICE shares at IPO (though BTC was $12 back then, and over $90 today).
As per the S.DICE agreement, asset owners do not have voting rights to effect operational changes, nor any rights to negotiate nor block a full buyout of the company. Nevertheless, SatoshiDice has kept the interests of the asset holders in mind throughout this negotiation process, and has intended to treat these holders fairly, above and beyond contractual obligations.
The next day, Voorhees confirmed the acquisition.
UPDATE July 18, 2013: SatoshiDICE was sold in full to a private party. S.DICE has been delisted and closed. S.DICE holders were paid .0035 BTC per share at close.
In liberty,
-Erik
SatoshiDice was launched in April 2012 when Voorhees acquired the technology from a Reddit forum user.
I have been running a bitcoin casino for a little over a week. It has made 146 BTC with an investment of around 45 BTC to get it started. I don’t want to run it any more because I am concerned about legal issues.
I’ve completed a deal with someone and the new site is up at http://satoshidice.com/
In 2012, SatoshiDice earned 33,310 BTC.
In March 2013, it started blocking IP addresses in the United States due to fears of U.S. regulation, given the laws governing online gaming. A company spokesperson told CoinDesk at the time, “SatoshiDice is building a ubiquitous global brand in the bitcoin space, and must take the coercive threat of government seriously.”
Cruise Ship Startup Community Blueseed Gets Bitcoin Funding
Blueseed Continues Full Steam Ahead with Bitcoin Funding
Blueseed is a live/work/play startup community for 1000 entrepreneurs, on a cruise ship to be stationed 30 minutes by ferry from the coast of Silicon Valley.
The location is in international waters, outside U.S. jurisdiction, and allows entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world to start or scale their companies without needing U.S. work visas. Instead, easier-to-obtain B1/B2 business/travel visas will be used to arrive on Blueseed and to visit the mainland in order to connect with the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
Blueseed creates a new class of real-estate – technology-enhanced and ocean-based – and differentiates from existing business accelerators by creating an entire ecosystem (mentors, talent pool, investors, service providers etc.), and enabling a very close-knit community, modelled after university campuses. So far, with no dollars spent on marketing, over 1300 entrepreneurs from 400 startups in 66 countries have expressed interest.
Blueseed Announces Funding from Bit Angels
In light of last week’s major developments within the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Blueseed is announcing reaching a new milestone towards launching its startup ship for entrepreneurs – receiving the first investment from the first group of angel investors focused on the digital currency Bitcoin.
Last week, the House Republican Conference strongly opposed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill passed by the Senate, which among its 1198 pages included a section for granting an “INVEST” visa to international startup entrepreneurs. This development is unfortunately detrimental to the chances of a startup visa being enacted. Blueseed represents a viable, entrepreneurial alternative to this political problem.
Last week as well, the SEC announced that it will be lifting the ban on general solicitation, an 80-year old measure that has been preventing startups from publicly disclosing their ongoing fundraising campaigns. Blueseed will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to publicly announce its next fundraising round once the new provision becomes effective, in order to raise the amounts needed to launch the community.
Blueseed is also proud to announce receiving the first investment from Bit Angels, the first Bitcoin angel investors group. The group’s goal is fostering the growth of startups that promote Bitcoin, the decentralized digital currency. The Bit Angels regard Blueseed as an upcoming Bitcoin-friendly jurisdiction, with a streamlined legal and regulatory system, accelerating the growth of the Bitcoin ecosystem. In another first, Blueseed has received one investor’s contribution directly in Bitcoins. Leading the Bitcoin round was Jered Kenna, co-founder of Tradehill, the largest Bitcoin exchange in the U.S.
Learn more at Blueseed.
Argentina Bitcoin Adoption Jumps in Recent Months – Report
Argentina Leads Top 50 Countries in Increase of Bitcoin Adoption
According to a report by The Genesis Block, adoption of Bitcoin in Argentina has jumped in recent months.
The chart below shows the change in rate of Bitcoin downloaded (month to date in July), highlighting that Argentina is the only country that increased in Bitcoin adoption month-over-month.
The Genesis Block shares this explanation for the change in Argentina.
In a story familiar to any bitcoin enthusiast, the digital currency is being sought after for two key reasons: debasement of national fiat and increasing capital controls. Inflation has been a significant problem for Argentina for years, but has come to the forefront after a series of public events highlighted just how bad the problem had become.
In March, economists from an opposition party to the reigning President Cristina Kirchner estimated inflation to be roughly 24%, more than double the government estimate of of just over 10%. Those economists were given fines of 500,000 pesos each, equivalent to nearly $100,000. The fines were overturned in May by the countries courts, sending an embarrassing blow to President Kirchner.
Argentinan economists aren’t the only ones who don’t believe the government’s inflation data. In February, the International Monetary Fund censured the Argentine government for misreporting inflation statistics.
Read the full analysis at The Genesis Block.
CC image by Pablo Manriquez.
