On Bitcoin | Tracking Bitcoin news and the incredible adoption of Bitcoins!

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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 »

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Bitcoin for Organisations – A Global Guide by UK-Based MetaLair

August 9, 2013 News

MetaLair is a startup based in the UK focused on Bitcoin, Litecoin and cryptocurrency. The company is developing a decentralised exchange mechanism able to facilitate secure exchanges between both cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.

In a effort to promote Bitcoin for organisations, MetaLair has published a leaflet that provides a quick primer of how organisations can adopt Bitcoin. It is embedded below and published on Reddit.

Federal Judge Rules Bitcoin is Money in Ponzi Scheme Case

August 8, 2013 News

Bitcoin is Money, Say Federal Judge

A few weeks ago, we covered the story of Trendon T. Shavers, a Texas man charged by the SEC with running a Bitcoin ponzi scheme. Now labeled the “Bernie Madoff of Bitcoin,” Mr. Shavers founded and operated Bitcoin Savings and Trust (BTCST), and over 700,000 BTC through this investment vehicle, an amount equivalent to nearly $5 million USD at the time of raising, and roughly $70 million today.

One component of Shavers’ attempted defense was to call into question whether Bitcoin is truly a form of money and therefore can be regulated by the SEC. The federal judge ruled with no uncertainty that Bitcoin is money.

It is clear that Bitcoin can be used as money. It can be used to purchase goods or services, and as Shavers stated, used to pay for individual living expenses. The only limitation of Bitcoin is that it is limited to those places that accept it as currency. However, it can also be exchanged for conventional currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, Euro, Yen, and Yuan. Therefore, Bitcoin is a currency or form of money, and investors wishing to invest in BTCST provided an investment of money.

So much for that, Mr. Shavers.

Patrick Murck, general counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation, commented to Wired on the case. “This isn’t that shocking. If anyone wants to run a Ponzi scheme in Bitcoin, they can expect to get busted. If you run a Ponzi scheme anywhere, you’re gonna get busted — and you should. Bitcoin isn’t some sort of silver bullet that somehow ameliorates all the legal concern around your otherwise illegal activity.”

The full ruling by the court is embedded below.

CC image by Joe Gratz

Brigham Young University Housing Starts Accepting Bitcoin

August 6, 2013 News

Two off-campus housing facilities at Brigham Young University have begun accepting Bitcoin as payment for rent. The two houses are Mountain Pines (for women) and The Nauvoo House.

The official announcement on the housing websites is rather understated, simply saying “We Accept Bitcoin! Please contact us if you would like to make a payment using Bitcoin,” but this is a big step forward for the alternative currency.

First, this is a demonstration of mainstream adoption in Bitcoin. There is nothing more critical than paying your rent and this is a big endorsement that the currency can be trusted.

Second, this gives college students the opportunity to drive faster adoption of Bitcoin. Facebook started out as a social network for Harvard students, followed by all campuses, and eventually the world. Perhaps Bitcoin’s rise to ubiquity will be ignited by its usage on college campuses as well.

Mt. Gox Makes New Appeal to Bitcoin Community to Share Stories

August 5, 2013 News

Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox has published a new appeal to the Bitcoin community. After a successful ad campaign promoting the positive adoption of Bitcoin during the G8 Summit in June, Mt.Gox’s parent company Tibanne is developing a grassroots campaign to show how Bitcoin affects real people and small businesses.

They are accepting crowd-sourced submissions by Wednesday, August 7.

Here is the official appeal from Mt.Gox:

Dear Bitcoiners,
Thanks so much for your support of our previous ad for the G8 Summit in June. We were able to get Bitcoin in front of a lot of influential people from around the globe and received a lot of amazing feedback.

Right now our parent company Tibanne is working on another campaign to promote Bitcoin by showing how real people and businesses are using Bitcoin to improve their lives. The campaign will be launched in a major print ad and website.

It’s short timing, but we’re appealing to merchants and individuals in the Bitcoin community interested in sharing their experiences with Bitcoin as part of this campaign. We’ll feature selected people and businesses in the ad as well as on the site, and of course link back to you.

What we need:

- Picture of you if you’re an individual, and you and your business if you’re an owner
- A quick quote about how Bitcoin has influenced you or your business
- We’ll need you to sign a release as well, so we’ll send that to you when you get in touch

The deadline for submission is August 7th 2013 (Wednesday) EOD. If anyone would like more information or has any questions, please don’t hesitate to post them here or send us an email at stories@tibanne.com

Thanks so much for your help, and we’re looking forward to getting your stories out to the world.