With MtGox effectively dead, Bitcoin can now enter the third stage of evolution, explains BitGo CEO Will O'Brien in an extensive essay. More »
Erik Voorhees, a respected Bitcoin entrepreneur who created SatoshiDice and now runs Coinapult, shares his views about MtGox and the future of Bitcoin. More »
Hollywood could learn a lot from Silk Road 2 about heightening stakes and creating suspense in this epic whodunnit thriller where 4000 bitcoins were stolen! More »
In this extensive video, Bitcoin Leah interviews Brock Pierce, Alan Meckler, Sam Cole, and companies including BitGo, GoCoin, Lamassu and more. More »
Read our Bitcoin Holiday Gift Guide 2013
After the success of Bitcoin Black Friday, many Bitcoin owners are looking for where to spend their bitcoins this holiday season. There’s still time to get some great gifts with Bitcoin.
Here is our Bitcoin Holiday Gift Guide 2013, featuring:
- Gift cards from Gyft
- Bitcoin gifts from BitGo
- Bitcoin deals at BitDazzle, Coingig and other marketplaces
- And buying from the Bitcoin Black Friday merchants!
Read our full guide and make it a Bitcoin holiday!
Bitcoin Leah: Pay Me in Bitcoin From Now On
A New Bitcoiner is Born in Vegas
This article was written by On Bitcoin contributor @BitcoinLeah.
I received my invitation to drive out to Las Vegas for the Inside Bitcoins conference though a direct message on Twitter. I didn’t send a resume to OnBitcoin.com, I didn’t get a recommendation through an acquaintance and I didn’t give the website a call asking if they had work for me. My job opportunity came to me as a tweet, because the Internet has changed, and will continue to change, all of the rules of how we live our lives.
“The medium is the message” has never been more applicable.
I excitedly told my mother the news of my new job.
“They’re not paying you in Bitcoin, are they?” She worried. “Your grandfather doesn’t like Bitcoin as an investment. You know it’s not backed by anything real. Get them to pay you in dollars.”
I excitedly told a friend, who much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, has been avidly spending his days mining and trading crypto-currencies, the news of my new job. “Are they paying you in Bitcoin? Don’t be an idiot and accept dollars! Get them to pay you in Bitcoin!”
Therefore, the question on my mind going into the Inside Bitcoins conference was, “How do I want to be paid for this job? USD or BTC?”
In November, I’d found out about Bitcoin through an online article about a Silk Road 2.0 being opened under a new Dread Pirate Roberts.
“We have to come up with a story other than Silk Road for how you found out about Bitcoin,” My new employers told me upon our first meeting over drinks in Las Vegas. “Bitcoin being associated with illegal activities is bad for all of us who are invested in the future of Bitcoin.”
Apparently, Silk Road is the Voldemort, the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, of the Bitcoin world.
But look, in defense of my speaking of the devil, I wasn’t in the least bit interested in making any illicit purchases, but wow, was I ever interested in getting my digital hands onto some digital currency ASAP! With my meager savings, I immediately bought four bitcoins from Coinbase for $250 each.
A decentralized digital currency makes sense because our media, our communication and our knowledge have all already transitioned, or are in the process of transitioning, online. Moving currency online is the next logical step in our evolution and Bitcoin is the way we will achieve a new level of accessibility and unity with our currency. The entrepreneurs and investors I met in Las Vegas at the Inside Bitcoins conference are working hard to achieve this vision, and from what I observed, they’re off to a fantastic start.
Bitcoin isn’t backed by any government or physical assets and that’s the reason many people, such as my grandfather, are not willing to invest. But for me and the others like me, those of us who spend our days and nights craning our necks, backs aching, eyes glued to the Internet, alone and yet not alone in an increasingly unified digital world, Bitcoin is backed by the most important obsession of our lives. We live online and it’s only proper that we should have our own currency. For us, Bitcoin is backed by something much more trustworthy, important and precious than gold – Bitcoin is backed by the Internet.
After a little over a month, my initial Bitcoin investment of $1,000 is worth $3,448, and my expectations for the future are so bright that I’ve bought a new pair of shades.
For my time in Las Vegas, how did I want to be paid for my work? USD or BTC?
After meeting the men and women who share the same vision as I do for the future, I had no more doubts about which currency I would prefer to receive for my work.
I was paid, and will happily continue to be paid, in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Week: Las Vegas, Bitcoin Leah, China, Regulation, Coinbase
Bitcoin Week
Here is a roundup of the top Bitcoin news from last week.
We attended the Inside Bitcoins conference in Las Vegas. There were over 1,000 people there to meet and mingle with fellow Bitcoin entrepreneurs and investors. It was the biggest Bitcoin event ever!
Our own contributor @BitcoinLeah interviewed many of the key executives and we published an exclusive video. Bitcoin Leah interviews Brock Pierce, Alan Meckler, Sam Cole, and other Bitcoin executives, and hears pitches from many companies including BitGo, GoCoin, Lamassu Bitcoin ATM, Kraken, Tealet, CoinTap.ca, and more!
Follow Bitcoin Leah on Twitter to stay in touch with her, and you can send her bitcoin at 3NM4DLjDQ7AnQaDVjua8crWJXgdqwPwaV8 using BitGo or any other Bitcoin wallet.
Real-time network PubNub launched a solutions toolkit for building your own Bitcoin pricing app. We interviewed CEO Todd Green who declared that there should be no more Bitcoin fail whales. PubNub also announced a partnership with Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox.
In the biggest funding event ever for Bitcoin, popular cloud-based wallet Coinbase raised $25 million from prolific venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz. Coinbase now has over 600,000 customers transacting Bitcoin.
Back in Las Vegas, BTCChina CEO Bobby Lee took the stage to explain why China is #1 for Bitcoin trading. In a thoughtful and in depth presentation, Lee explained the cultural, political and regulatory factors that have contributed to recent growth.
Practicing lawyer and Bitcoin expert Marco Santori walked the Inside Bitcoins audience through the regulatory requirements for Bitcoin companies. We published an extensive article detailing the difference between FinCEN and state money transmission license requirements, as well as both compliance and avoidance strategies.
And Tradehill CEO Jered Kenna gave an entertaining keynote at the conference with a look back on the key milestones over the past year.
And much more!
@BitcoinLeah Interviews Executives at Inside Bitcoins Las Vegas 2013
On Bitcoin contributor @BitcoinLeah interviews attendees of the Inside Bitcoins conference in Las Vegas 2013 in this extensive video.
Bitcoin Leah interviews Brock Pierce, Alan Meckler, Sam Cole, and other Bitcoin executives, and hears pitches from many companies including BitGo, GoCoin, Lamassu Bitcoin ATM, Kraken, Tealet, CoinTap.ca, and more!
Tip @BitcoinLeah at http://BitGo.com
3NM4DLjDQ7AnQaDVjua8crWJXgdqwPwaV8
Follow @BitcoinLeah on Twitter!
No More Bitcoin Exchange Fail Whales, Says PubNub CEO Todd Greene
PubNub delivers a quick-start toolkit for Bitcoin Exchanges to handle trading volume
“No one wants to see a fail whale when they are making a $10 million Bitcoin transaction” — Todd Greene, CEO of PubNub
“Bitcoin never sleeps,” said Brock Pierce, managing director at Clearstone Global Gaming Fund and prolific Bitcoin angel investor, on a panel discussion at the Inside Bitcoins conference in Las Vegas last week.
Bitcoin is a global, 24/7 marketplace. The largest Bitcoin trading exchange is in China, called BTCChina. There are exchanges in Japan, Slovenia, and the US, to name a few.
So how do you keep track of cross-exchange arbitrage opportunities and global pricing movements in real-time? Real-time network PubNub says it has the answer, called the Bitcoin Exchange Solution Kit.
We interviewed Todd Greene, CEO of PubNub. PubNub is a real-time network that operates a global set of data centers for real-time applications.
“A real-time application is any type of Internet application where an event happens somewhere and you want it reflected immediately somewhere else,” said Todd Greene, CEO of PubNub in an interview with On Bitcoin. “Examples include Webex, E*TRADE, World of Warcraft, Skype, and stock quotes.”
And now Bitcoin trading.
With the Bitcoin Exchange Solution Kit, available at RTBitcoin.co, app makers can create their own real-time data feeds of Bitcoin prices and trades.
“It’s like a CDN for real-time data,” explained Greene. “You need a set of services and core building blocks.”
The key building blocks include data push, presence (when somebody drops off), storage and playback service of data streams, security and encryption, and analytics. PubNub also promises a 0.25 second latency guarantee.
This is not PubNub’s first time at the dance. With other real-time solution kits for stocks and collaboration, the company has an extensive customer list including Rebtel, Viggle, GetTaxi, Humble Bundle, StageIT, Spreecast, Celly, Monotype, Class Dojo and more.
Greene told us that they have helped Coca-Cola with real-advertising campaigns, provided the backbone for real-time voting at the Superbowl, and powered the second largest VOIP provider in the world.
Why Bitcoin? And a Partnership with Bitcoin Exchange Mt.Gox
We asked Greene why he was building a solution kit for Bitcoin exchanges.
“Charles Schwab had a decade to build their technology,” said Greene, “and now people are trying to build Bitcoin exchanges in a couple of months. With Twitter, it’s okay to see a fail whale; no one wants to see a fail whale when they are making a $10 million Bitcoin transaction.”
Related: Bitcoin Exchanges Plagued by Liquidity Issues and Attacks
To kick off the launch, PubNub has partnered with Japan-based Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox, once the leading exchange in the world and still a valuable player in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Mt.Gox has published a wiki page with details on the integration with PubNub.
“Mt.Gox is now using the services of PubNub to stream real-time data due to the difficulty to cope with the kind of volumes of data we need to broadcast real-time while keeping a reliable service,” said Mt.Gox.
Todd Greene sees growth in his Bitcoin customers. Any app maker, financial service company, news publication, or emerging exchange can benefit, said Greene. Many new entrants have been unable to handle the sudden spikes in trading volume. PubNub thinks they can help.
“With Bitcoin transactions having exceeded 100,000 in a day and valued at over $850 from just $13 a year ago, its apparent the virtual currency is catching on. And, like any financial trading platform, scalable and secure real-time infrastructure is key for ongoing success,“ said Stephen Blum, CTO of PubNub. “Now, Bitcoin exchanges can focus on their business instead of the complex real-time systems and data centers required for these features.”
For more information on PubNub’s Botcoin Exchange Solution Kit, visit: RTBitcoin.co.
Thanks to PubNub CEO Todd Greene for the interview.
