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“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!

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22 Companies Called to New York to Answer Questions about Bitcoin

The New York State Department of Financial Services has subpoenaed 22 companies in an effort to better understand the uses and implications of alternative currency Bitcoin.

“If virtual currencies remain a virtual Wild West for narcotraffickers and other criminals, that would not only threaten our country’s national security, but also the very existence of the virtual currency industry as a legitimate business enterprise,” said Benjamin M. Lawsky, Superintendent of Financial Services, in a release. “We believe that – for a number of reasons – putting in place appropriate regulatory safeguards for virtual currencies will be beneficial to the long-term strength of the virtual currency industry.”

Forbes published a list of 22 companies that were subpoenaed due to their involvement in Bitcoin.

• BitInstant
• BitPay
• Coinabul
• Coinbase Inc.
• CoinLab
• Coinsetter
• Dwolla
• eCoin Cashier
• Payward, Inc.
• TrustCash Holdings Inc.
• ZipZap
• Butterfly Labs
• Andreesen Horowitz
• Bitcoin Opportunity Fund
• Boost VC Bitcoin Fund
• Founders Fund
• Google Ventures
• Lightspeed Venture Partners
• Tribeca Venture Partners
• Tropos Funds
• Union Square Ventures
• Winklevoss Capital Management

Below is the full release providing context on the subpoena.

CC image by wallyg

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Bitcoin Conference Speakers Share Mixed Views on the Future, But Optimism on Work Underway

“Bitcoin looks like Facebook today, but so did Friendster in its day.” — Brock Pierce, Managing Director of Clearstone Global

The Inside Bitcoins NYC conference dealt with a broad swath of topics from business models and profitability concerns to how Bitcoin can be an enabler of social freedoms.

And yet, much of the speaker focus and audience concern surrounded how Bitcoin can become more mainstream, how will it interact with or change the current infrastructure, and what (and who) will be the winning business model.

While there were discussions by the VC panel (Gold 2.0) and the keynote speaker, Charlie Shrem, on altcoins and other fiat currencies, the overwhelming consensus is that Bitcoin will be the dominant currency in the space.

As Brock Pierce, Managing Director of Clearstone Global, cautions “is Bitcoin Friendster, Myspace or Facebook?  It looks like Facebook today, but so did Friendster in its day.”

Looking at the state of the Bitcoin community today, many of the companies are still nascent – a number of the represented firms have had recent shutdowns/relaunches or are soon to launch private betas.  There continues to be a strong interest in education about legal and regulatory issues, today particular emphasized by the interest in the overview of major legal topics by Jacob S. Farber, Senior Counsel at Perkins Coie LLP.

Also represented on the post-lunch panel was James White, Director Tax Issues for the US Government Accountability Office, demonstrating how the government is taking a more active interest in the space.

Overall, the conference explored the major topics that entrepreneurs and potential financial investors are grappling with.  Among the motivations discussed by Anthony Gallippi, Co-Founder and CEO of BitPay (site), is the reduction of credit card payment fraud (estimated at $100 billion per year) and ability to accept payments from a much larger international consumer base.

Stephanie Murphy, from Let’s Talk Bitcoin, and Alan Safahi, founder and CEO of ZipZap, see the value in enabling freedom of speech through transactions outside the control of governments or without third-parties recording personal information.

However, for Bitcoin to become a mainstream monetary transfer mechanism, a number of issues need to be addressed, such as the noted legal uncertainties or the evolution of the current legacy infrastructure discussed by Maria Sparagis, President of DirectPayNet.

Ultimately, the major questions of adoption, future direction and industry winners continue to be hashed out.

Authored by Michael Smouha and Ronan Murphy, Contributors to On Bitcoin

Read other articles from the conference:

• Inside Bitcoins NYC Keynote: Is Bitcoin the New Financial Order?
• Finding Business Model Opportunities in Bitcoin – Inside Bitcoins NYC
• Building Bitcoin into the Core Architecture of the Web – Inside Bitcoins NYC

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Bitcoin News

A roundup of the top Bitcoin news from May 27 to June 1:

Monday, May 27

• Video Documentary: The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin

Wednesday, May 29

• Liberty Reserve Shut Down; What Will Happen to Bitcoin?

Thursday, May 30

• Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn Calls for Innovation Leadership with Mention to Bitcoin

Friday, May 31

• Mt. Gox Forces Users to Verify Accounts After Government Crackdown

Saturday, June 1

• Bitcoin Now Accepted at VectorToons Art Marketplace via BitPay

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VectorToons will use BitPay to Accept Bitcoin

VectorToons.com, a royalty-free PDF vector illustrations website, announced that the website will now accept Bitcoin as a payment method.

“Our company was among the first to accept Paypal when they were a startup,” said owner and founder of Yourbrain Media Inc. Brad Gosse. “Bitcoin is a secure, legitimate currency being used in high volumes online. Since many of our customers are early adopters, we need to be as well.”

The website will use BitPay, an electronic payment processing system for the Bitcoin currency, to calculate the current U.S. dollar to Bitcoin exchange rate. It will then give the customer a payment address upon checkout.

“If you already have a Bitcoin wallet, it’s extremely easy,” said Gosse.
 In addition to Bitcoin, the website also accepts Paypal and credit cards.

The VectorToons.com website allows people to buy only the graphics that they want without a subscription or the purchasing of credits. The clip art, available as a high-quality PDF download, is royalty-free and can be used in an array of projects, from websites and videos, to sales letters and in print advertising. The PDF format allows easy conversion to other popular formats like PNG, JPEG and GIF.

“I created the site mainly because I find it hard to find good vector art at reasonable prices,” said Gosse. “I have had my own full -time cartoonists on staff for a long time and decided to open my exclusive catalog to other designers. A dollar for vector art is unheard of in the design world, so I figured let’s make it affordable for everyone.”

Currently, the site has over 1000 images to choose from, but Gosse says more will be added daily. The site features artwork of people, animals, icons, food items, holiday-related graphics and other objects. The website allows you to browse by category or search by keywords.

Using vector graphics in your sales letters, products, books and advertising helps to improve your message and can increase sales says Gosse.

“Since hiring my own cartoonists over a year ago, my sales copy conversions have more than doubled,” said Gosse.

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