Log inRegister

Coin News

Philippines-based exchange Coins.ph today released a mobile bitcoin wallet app with features the company says are aimed squarely at emerging market use cases. As well as standard wallet functions, the Android-only app allows users to buy and sell bitcoin through various channels, top up prepaid mobile phones, pay bills, and even work as a mobile remittance service by converting to Philippines pesos. Coins.ph Android app screenshotCoins.ph Android app main pageCoins.ph CEO Ron Hose said the intent is to provide simple solutions starting from the most basic, giving everyone a safe and convenient way to use their money. “With our bitcoin wallet, customers enjoy similar perks to those they would get from having a bank account, minus the barriers for setting one up. Most importantly, keeping a Coins.ph wallet is free.” Sending money home The app’s remittance features makes it useful not just for the islands’ residents, but also for the millions of Filipinos living in other countries around the world. Users can select an outlet from the app’s long list of banks and payment processors, with useful notes advising how much each charges in fees. Some processors (generally the most expensive) will deliver cash door-to-door, others allow for customer pickup. Coins.ph Android app screenshotCoins.ph Android app screenshotChoose from a wide selection of outlets for paymentsCustomers can walk into any of over 5,000 retail locations to buy or sell their bitcoins. To send money from overseas, it’s possible to send bitcoins directly from an existing balance or perform a cash-to-cash remittance. A user can initiate the remittance in-app and deposit cash in any bitcoin ATM around the world. The app provides a QR code for the ATM to scan, and pesos are delivered automatically to the preferred destination by the next business day. Key market The Philippines’ remittance market is huge, with around $23bn-worth of incoming transfers to the country in 2013 and an additional $30-$60m sent domestically. This has led to a focus on the country as a test bed for one of digital currency’s most frequently-touted killer apps: the chance to side-step existing international transfer options. At least three bitcoin startups are actively chasing the worldwide Filipino remittance market. As well as Coins.ph, competitors Rebit.ph and BuyBitcoin.ph are also adding features and building relationships with financial services businesses. According to this TED presentation by economist Dilip Ratha, $413bn was sent in remittances worldwide in 2013 – about three times the total sent in foreign aid. Banks optional Unlike popular exchanges and apps in the developed world, Coins.ph users don’t need to link their accounts to bank accounts to buy and sell bitcoin. This is particularly useful in a country where as much as 75% of the population remains ‘unbanked’ and fewer than 5% have credit cards. High fees and long lines, Hose added, are the norm for those who can afford them least. “Traditional banking will never reach these people, because the costs of operating branches, armored trucks, etc. are just too high to economically serve a customer whose savings rate is very low,” Hose said. “Digital currencies and mobile phones are cutting these costs down, and are going to change the landscape of financial inclusion globally.” Expansion plans Coins.ph says it is also developing a system for bill payments, allowing a family member in a country like Qatar or Canada to pay utility or tuition bills directly from the app or website for Philippines-based relatives. The company has plans to expand throughout Southeast Asia, hoping to tap into the region’s 620 million unbanked population. Earlier this year it opened a second exchange, Coins.co.th, in Thailand. The mobile app, Android-only at present, is available for download from Coins.ph or the Google Play store. Philippines pesos image via Shutterstock AsiaPhilippinesRemittances
Original author: Jon Southurst

dark market bitcoin European prosecutors are speaking out about a new pan-European project designed to combat dark markets on the web – and they’re addressing bitcoin as a key tool of dark market operators. The Illegal Trade on Online Marketplaces (ITOM) was started by the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, the Openbaar Ministrie. The project, which began with a meeting in April this year, draws together law enforcement from various European countries in an attempt to stop the illegal trade of goods online. Agencies involved include Europol and law enforcement from the UK, Portugal, and Germany. The project has identified bitcoin as a key pillar supporting illegal trade, and will focus on the digital currency as part of the dark market ecosystem. Wim de Bruin, a spokesperson for the Openbaar Ministrie, mentioned the value of cryptocurrencies for the global economy, but made a point to address their use in illicit activities: “We consider the bitcoin and other crypto currencies as a good addition to the world of economic trade. Sadly though they seem to provide great benefits for illegal trade, illegal international money transfers and money laundering. We hope we can stimulate the ‘bitcoin community’, as you call it, to help us keep the bitcoin [system] as free of illegal usage as possible. Our ultimate goal is that the bitcoin system will become as self regulating as possible.” De Bruin added that the company was already talking to bitcoin exchanges and banks, among other third parties. Multidisciplinary interventions The project had a plenary meeting on ‘multidisciplinary interventions’ in June. Although de Bruin wouldn’t comment on operational matters, a document published by the Ministrie outlining ITOM’s focus may give clues as to what these interventions are or who the prosecutors may target. The document outlines what the group sees as the ecosystem for financial trade, breaking it down into seven main steps: obtaining goods, connecting to the Internet, offering goods for sale, contact with buyers, shipment, payment, and financial services to deal with the revenues. It describes the illegal players in these seven steps, including dealers, bulletproof hosting providers, web admins, website sellers and customers, and money mules. The document also outlines a list of partners that the prosecutors presumably want to work with in targeting dark markets. These include ISPs, customs, drug prevention groups, logistics services – and, specifically, the bitcoin community. In a statement to the Dutch Newspaper Volksrant, the Ministrie highlighted ITOM as an attempt to target international illegal trade by partnering with countries across Europe. It vowed to take down dark markets, and also to focus on mail and logistics services as the delivery mechanism for illegal goods. The project’s research may stimulate new cryptocurrency policies at an EU-wide level, de Bruin stated: “We hope to have a better insight into the effects and necessity of regulations regarding crypto currencies within the EU at the end of the project in 2015. The aim of the project is to advise the European Commission and member states in this matter. With that we also hope to stimulate uniformity between the member states in how they regulate and deal with crypto currencies.” The prosecutor’s response to Volkskrant also suggested that new legislation may be able to increase visibility into bitcoin transactions. Not everybody’s on board Some members of the bitcoin community were less than happy with the move, and saw it as a direct threat to their own online activities. Mike Gogulski, original creator of the Ross Ulbricht defense fund, says that he doesn’t use dark markets, but he “supports them 100%”. “Let’s finally recognize that financial commerce is speech, and that it is speech worthy of all the protections that ‘freedom of speech’ attracts,” said Slovakia-based Gogulski, who now runs an online bitcoin laundering service. In spite of Ulbricht’s arrest and subsequent charges for drug-related crimes, dark market activity is growing. The technology to start such markets is readily available, and encryption makes it difficult for law enforcement to shut them down. Often, authorities must resort to infiltration and shoeleather detective work, which can be resource-intensive. Jerry Brito, founder of cryptocurrency policy advisory service Coin Center, said that dark market operators nevertheless face their own challenges: “I do think it’s very easy to start one, but then you have to get people to trust you to use that market, and I don’t think that’s easy at all. And I think it’s also difficult to keep the OPSEC [operational security] that you need to be completely impenetrable. So I am not sure I can say right now who’s winning. This is a big challenge for law enforcement.” Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was arrested after several OPSEC slip-ups that led law enforcement to his door. ITOM is currently in the middle of implementing the interventions that it planned in June. This phase will last until March 2015, after which the group will evaluate the results. There will be a concluding seminar on the project in September, and then a final report in December 2015. Dark market image via Shutterstock. Dark MarketsITOMSilk Road
Original author: Danny Bradbury

Sierra Leone Liberty Group at HospitalSierra Leone Liberty Group at a local hospitalA group of entrepreneurs promoting bitcoin in western Africa has reminded the world of the dire situation it faces as its daily fight to stop the spread of Ebola continues. The Sierra Leone Liberty Group (SLLG), initially formed to promote free enterprise and libertarian ideals as the path to prosperity in the country, has continued to promote its message despite the frequent need to jump in and assist members’ fellow countrymen more directly. According to leader Mustapha Cole, the group has worked with Ministry of Health vehicles alongside local nurses and has used funds from bitcoin donations to deliver dwindling medical supplies such as disinfectant, goggles and rubber gloves and also to help educate local populations on how to avoid Ebola infection. Cole said: “In Sierra Leone we are suffering from the Ebola outbreak. Every day there is death in my community as people die and food is scarce as the people are quarantined in their homes. Ebola burial teams went on strike due to non-payment of weekly allowances. So we have no faith in the government.” There is also a need to feed people in villages that have been cut off from the world by quarantine and road blocks. Cole and his group have also used the funds to purchase rice, onions, fish, pepper and oil for delivery. Ebola continues to spread The SLLG initially asked for donations via bitcoin to help fight Ebola’s spread in August, when there had been only 1,400 deaths. That number has since skyrocketed to over 4,000, and the World Health Organization has warned there could be 20,000 cases by next month without an increase in international assistance. Cole’s effort to introduce bitcoin to the country has two channels: one a straight-up donation drive through his group’s website to collect micro-donations from anywhere in the world, and the other to raise money through local entrepreneurs selling their products. Bitcoin campaign in Sierra LeoneThe Sierra Leone Liberty Group is promoting bitcoin use among local merchantsThe donation drive has raised a total of 3.173 BTC via two bitcoin addresses on its homepage and Facebook page. The lack of a functioning bitcoin ecosystem in Sierra Leone means only the sending end of the process is streamlined. The SLLG’s American mentor, writer and economist Dan McLaughlin, must facilitate payments by exchanging the BTC amounts to fiat and then transferring to Africa via the traditional, cumbersome remittance channels. Bitcoin campaign in Sierra Leone West African bitcoin drive Despite the daily hardships, Cole still hopes to attend the first regional Bitcoin Seminar in Ghana on 5-7th December. The conference is organized by Ghana’s Dream Bitcoin Foundation (DBF), which shares the principles of the SLLG and believes economic freedom transcending national boundaries is the best way to build African economies. The DBF’s campaign page for the seminar reads: “We will also demonstrate to them how bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are the irrepressible tool for Liberty, which will rapidly replace the existing corrupt system that keeps them all in poverty and suppression.” The DBF is working in conjunction with bitcoin entrepreneurs both locally and from the US. In addition to organizing the conference, the DBF is also experimenting with the idea of its own local cryptocurrency, called Dreamcoin, as a promotional and educational tool. Both DBF and SLLG hope that cryptocurrency use, bitcoin or otherwise, will streamline local economies as well as open up new markets internationally for local sellers. Bitcoin campaign in Sierra Leone Bitcoin donations to the SLLG to help fight Ebola can be made on the group’s website. Images courtesy Sierra Leone Liberty Group  AfricaCharityebolaGhanaSierra Leone
Original author: Jon Southurst

urdubit Pakistani bitcoin exchange Urdubit launched today in an effort to facilitate greater adoption of the digital currency in the region. The launch aims to usher Pakistan into the wider bitcoin community, as its operators are bullish on the digital currency’s potential as a solution to greater geopolitical issues in the area. For now, Urdubit is focused on bringing liquidity to local bitcoin trading markets and educating newcomers on its promise as a decentralized commodity. Its founding partners, Zain Tariq and Danyal Manzar, are the founder and chief operating officer, respectively, of bitcoin community and advocacy group BitcoinPk. Manzar told CoinDesk: “When we started out educating people about the block chain and how it can be used as a payment gateway we found many people mining bitcoins who did not have any medium to trade them directly into Pakistani rupees.” Urdubit uses the BlinkTrade open-source software and technology, which offers operators a cost-effective way to open bitcoin exchanges without having to hire a developer. This is BlinkTrade’s third client. It also powers digital currency exchanges in Paraguay and Venezuela. Instant deposits The cloud-based, decentralized nature of the BlinkTrade software enables exchange operators to bring bitcoin liquidity to regions with less active bitcoin trading markets. instant deposits Unlike other exchanges, Urdubit offers Instant Deposits technology, which allows users to access their traded bitcoin immediately without having to wait for confirmations. BlinkTrade head Rodrigo Souza said to CoinDesk: “Most of the traders leave their bitcoins at exchanges because they don’t want to wait for three to six confirmations to trade, and this creates a pot of gold that attracts hackers. It is not good for the exchange operators and not good for the system.” To do this, verified Urdubit users first need to confirm their bitcoin addresses. Once validated, the next transaction from that address will credit the bitcoin into the trader’s account, so it is available for him or her to use instantly, with zero confirmation. This way, Souza explained, the trader doesn’t have to leave his or her bitcoin sitting statically in any exchange. Users are unable to withdraw any bitcoins or fiat while a deposit is unconfirmed, in a measure to prevent double spending. In the case of a double spending attack, Souza explained, the trader would lose access to his funds, and the exchange operators will get access to all his account data. Urdubit charges a 0.75% fee on all trades, and 1% on deposits and withdrawals in Pakistani rupees. BTC deposits are free; there is a 0.0001 BTC miner’s fee on withdrawals. ‘Money in the new world’ Doing business in Pakistan is heavily influenced by Islamic guidelines, Tariq told CoinDesk; people there are generally motivated by peace but challenged by education. About 96% of Pakistanis are Muslim. An estimated 21% of the population lives below the poverty line, and the country has a total adult literacy rate of 55%. “We plan to create a platform where people feel safe with the world of bitcoin and hopefully substitute it for trading locally as easily as Pakistani rupees, while giving everyone an opportunity to invest in this commodity,” Tariq said. Michael Sweeney is founder, secretary and treasurer of the Women’s Annex Foundation (WAF), a platform that encourages young women to exercise their intellectual freedom through blog-writing and social media and pays them in bitcoin to do so. While most of its operations are based across Afghanistan, it also has a presence in Mexico, Egypt and Pakistan. Speaking to CoinDesk ahead of the Urdubit launch, Sweeney said the people that WAF has seen use and accept bitcoin in Pakistan are “very entrepreneurial”, and that although there aren’t any bitcoin exchanges in the region he was aware of at the time of the interview, he’s observed that users find ways to use the digital currency through gift or phone cards. He told CoinDesk: “It has changed my perception of ‘money’. Here in the US, we are so used to the USD being our currency. It creates the basis for accounting, finance, day-to-day groceries. Now I see things in terms of ‘value’ and ‘time spent’. How much time did it take me to earn that new mobile phone or how many years did it take for my house to double in value? That is money in the new world.” Geopolitical considerations Sweeney echoed the argument that bitcoin’s use cases are best demonstrated in the developing world, where many are unbanked and suffer from weak and volatile government-backed currencies. “In the US, I have seen the data that 8% of households are unbanked and 25% of households are underbanked,” he said. “In developing countries like Pakistan, those numbers can easily flip the other way and the majority of the people are unbanked. […] Clearly the huge opportunity for bitcoin and its peer-to-peer transactions is in developing countries.” Manzar maintains that Pakistan’s geography makes it poised for a successful bitcoin economy. It borders two of the world’s fastest growing markets, India and China. China is one of its largest trading partners. Chinese importers and exporters would benefit from an exchange that allows instant trades and payments in bitcoin without having to worry about dollars, he added, alluding to the country’s record-low trade deficit and hence depleted dollar reserves. He said: “We have to be dependent on loans from the IMF, Asian Development Bank and World Bank. Bitcoin can open the path for Pakistan to bypass dollar-only trade barriers.” Whether the Pakistani government and bitcoin community can foster the digital currency’s development well enough and long enough for it to become such an impactful economic force remains to be seen. “There is only one thing that will give bitcoin value,” Sweeney said, “and that is for people to start using bitcoin in their daily lives.” Educating the community Closing the awareness gap, Tariq suggested, will be one of the first hurdles to overcome not just for Urdubit but for the growth of Pakistan’s small but active bitcoin community. Right now it’s unconcentrated, and sustained through other means of trust-based, peer-to-peer trading. He said: “You have to realize that even wealthy Pakistani people fear what they don’t understand, and English being second language – it creates a small understanding barrier.” A friend of Tariq that goes by the alias Diablo Raja has been committed to promoting bitcoin in the local language, Urdu. Tariq is also touring the country at the end of the month to teach bitcoin newcomers about its uses and benefits. “Most people are not aware of the bitcoin economy and think that they might be cheated by someone,” Manzar added. “Pakistan has seen a lot of scams in daily life and over the Internet that people fall prey to.” Images via Urdubit BlinkTradeExchangePakistan
Original author: Tanaya Macheel

Apple Pay Bitcoin Threat
Apple Pay isn’t even here yet and, arguably, it’s already winning the war against bitcoin. Like the digital currency, Apple is disrupting the payments system, but people will probably use it more than they use bitcoin. Cupertino has carefully focused on three areas to make sure that happens: front-end experience, financial institutions, and merchants. So what is the cryptocurrency community going to do about it? Apple Pay’s holy trinity Apple nailed the customer experience side. For starters, it rolled out the system with the new iPhone, and with the announcement of the Apple Watch, both of which garnered unprecedented attention from the tech industry. It sold 10 million iPhone 6 models in the first weekend. The watch is going to sell in droves. Not all of these customers will use Apple Pay, of course. But many will. And far fewer people own bitcoin. Then, there are the merchants. Apple snagged deals with major brands before Apple Pay was even announced. Retailers including Whole Foods, Bloomingdales, Staples, Walgreens and Subway are already signed up. NFC POS system with phoneThe firm has also timed the system’s launch expertly: point-of-sale (POS) systems need Near Field Communication (NFC) capability to work, and POS systems that support these can be expensive. However, many retailers will be mulling upgrades to their existing POS terminals anyway, thanks to a critical deadline next October, when US retailers will be required to use the chip-and-pin technology already available in major credit cards, as an added security measure. If they don’t, then they could be liable for card fraud, rather than the card providers, who shoulder the responsibility today. If they are upgrading their POS systems anyway, NFC will seem like an easier decision. On the financial side, Apple has secured Visa, MasterCard, and Amex, along with several major US banks. Users will be drawn to the better security within Apple Pay, which prevents credit card details from having to travel through merchant networks. Apple Pay uses a token instead, to represent the card, along with a one-time dynamic number designed to help authenticate transactions securely. Thumbs up for security Then, of course, there’s the iTouch biometric system, which will be used to authenticate the user. iTouch may have its detractors, but is a lot better than the current paper signature system in the US (which retail clerks won’t necessarily even check), and will likely be better than PIN verification too, which as security guru Brian Krebs points out are easily skimmable. Apple Pay may help to prevent credit card security breaches such as the Home Depot and Target thefts, which haunt the headlines on a worryingly frequent basis. With conventional swipe-and-sign credit card systems as used across the US today, the card vendor is responsible for the data on the card’s magstripe. With Apple Pay, the merchant POS systems needn’t see the credit card at all. New tricks, same old dog All of this will be sweet music to banks, merchants and retail customers alike. It’s like nails on a chalkboard for the bitcoin community. For starters, as some have already said, Apple’s partnership with the banks and payment processors still puts the incumbent system firmly in control. The only thing that really changes is the payment channel. Apple Pay is therefore still anathema to bitcoin’s mission, which involves disrupting centralized control in the financial industry and returning real financial control to the user. “If the bitcoin industry really wants to take on Apple Pay, it has to reinvent itself.” Second, Apple is beating bitcoin in terms of the customer experience. Its ecosystem is exceedingly user friendly and customer focused. The company has spent years perfecting a design and user experience language that is second to none in the tech business, and, whenever it turns its attention to an existing business model, it brings these tools to bear, recrafting entire industries in its own image. People understand Apple phones, and thanks to Jony Ive’s team, they will quickly understand the Apple Watch. Moreover, they will crave these devices. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is still striving for mainstream adoption. Notwithstanding positive news from the likes of PayPal, Circle, and Stripe, the concept is still opaque to many. The market for wallets is fragmented, and scandals like Mt Gox still scare many away. By its very nature, bitcoin is a grassroots movement. It doesn’t enjoy the same top-down organisation that Apple does. That means that design, user experience, and security are inconsistent across its many implementations. That makes it hard for mainstream users to understand. A craving for control iPad with Steve JobsApple’s ability to control every detail of the user experience is also the source of one of its biggest threats: it is an inherently fascistic company. A penchant for total control is a dangerous thing in a company that likes to reinvent entire industries. Ever since the early 2000s, if not before, Apple has thrived on locking people into its ecosystem, and it excels at cementing this structure up and down the supply chain. We saw this with the launch of the iTunes store, which Apple integrated with the iPod and iTunes products upon its launch in 2003, signing deals with the major labels. Jobs admitted this fact not long before his death, explaining in an internal 2010 email that he wanted to “explicitly lock customers in Apple’s ecosystem”. Apple has used its hardware and software innovations to strongarm companies – and customers – into deals. In 2010, shortly after the launch of the iPad, it made magazine and newspaper publishers wanting to sell subscriptions via iPad apps subscribe to an agency model, in which it kept all of their subscriber and credit card information. Even Rupert Murdoch had to capitulate. Apple also agreed to pay $450m to settle a civil action lawsuit, after it was shown to have engineered retail prices on ebooks in collaboration with several top publishers, using the power of the iPad. Since its App Store emerged, Apple has been infamous for the strong and often ambiguous control that it exerts over its ecosystem. Although its policy on virtual currencies changed in June, leading to the launch of several bitcoin wallet apps for iOS, the fact remains that the fortunes of App Store vendors – including those offering bitcoin wallets – are entirely subject to Apple’s whim. The struggle ahead So, Apple Pay will probably succeed, as customers flock to it, unaware of the control that they are giving up, and of the benefits that bitcoin could offer. History has shown repeatedly that the majority will trade control for convenience. If you have any doubts, just look at Facebook. There are positive upsides, perhaps, if you squint. Yes, perhaps Apple Pay will drive NFC into the ecosystem so that bitcoin can use it. But then, by the time that happens, Apple Pay will already be there. Apple Pay won’t obliterate bitcoin, of course, but it is going to shine very bright as a payment channel. It will attract large numbers of users with the convenience of instant mobile payments just as bitcoin faces its next major challenge: to move from being a largely speculative asset into a true currency, used every day by millions of users around the world. Bitcoin needs to continue that transition, to introduce more liquidity into the market and to meet its real potential. So if the bitcoin industry really wants to take on Apple Pay, it has to reinvent itself. Make itself friendly. Market itself to people so technologically ignorant that they’re one step away from microwaving their iPhones. That’s a difficult task to pull off. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, CoinDesk. iPhone and NFC POS system images via Shutterstock and iPad image via Bloomua / Shutterstock.com AppleApple PayPayments
Original author: Danny Bradbury

showroomprive bitcoin Showroomprive is a Paris-based online shopping website for clothes, cosmetics and household items that offers discounts of 30–70% off of leading brand-name products. Its more than $500m in annual revenue make it one of the leading e-commerce companies in Europe, with 2013 figures placing it just behind LVMH Moët Hennessy, and the second largest private sales website behind Vente-privee. These figures could increase, the company hopes, now that it has integrated bitcoin into its payment options. In an interview with CoinDesk, cofounder and chief executive Thierry Petit said: “I plan that probably between 5 and 10% of my payments in the next three or four years in Europe will be through the bitcoin system. If there is some additional technology and if some of the big players accept bitcoin then it will accelerate and change the game.” Showroomprive has an active mobile app platform through which it currently generates more than 50% of its fashion-driven sales. However, at present, it does not accept bitcoin on its apps. Looking to US leaders Petit’s business targets consumers that are looking to buy leading brand-name products at the most affordable prices, so being able to offer his customers an additional payment option seemed like “something very disruptive and interesting”. “For me as founder of the company – I’m an engineer to be honest and I love technology and seeing how it can disrupt our industry,” he said. Bitcoin first piqued Petit’s curiosity about a year and a half ago, he said, and this year the major US corporations that began integrating it as a customer payments option turned him on a little bit more. Petit said: “A few months ago, we noticed that various tests had already been carried out in the United States, for example. More and more well-known e-commerce sites, like Dell or Expedia, have already integrated bitcoin as part of their services. That’s why we were very conscious that it may be a real innovation for our payment strategy. […] That’s why I wanted to be very pragmatic, to cut to the solution.” Showroomprive first implemented bitcoin payments into its operations in the Netherlands because the market was primed for payments innovation. “As for France,” he added, “we are adopting a practical approach but we believe that consumer tendencies are evolving. The two are compatible.” A change of heart Petit said the learning process has been surprising for him, and that the doom and doubt communicated about bitcoin by so much of the media and financial industries made him wary of the concept – at first. He said: “The fact that people are now motivated by bitcoin, they know more or less what it is – this is a really positive point. I was a little bit afraid by bad comments in the ecosystem and it’s on the contrary, a lot of people think it’s a great innovation.” He then turned to the regulatory sphere, where he spoke highly of French senator Philippe Marini and defended his approach to regulating bitcoin activity. “In France that they want to [regulate] for something positive, and not to kill bitcoin,” he said. A collaborative economy Petit spoke to bitcoin’s practical uses and advantages to his business, citing perks like instant transactions and lower transaction fees. He added that he’s observed a lot of new digital wallet companies and other technology platforms enter into the payments, banking and e-commerce space, and surmised that the growing trend might be the result of an increasingly mobile way of life. He said: “One thing that is not disrupted yet is the money. Bitcoin can disrupt the money through several actions – it can give the company immediate transfer, lower commission … it’s very interesting in terms of construction and as you can see, a lot of developments, like Airbnb, are coming to this collaborative economy.” He added: “The payments industry at this time in Europe is like a war … maybe bitcoin will have something to play in this industry.” Image via Shutterstock EuropemerchantsShowroomprive.com
Original author: Tanaya Macheel

Tuscany Exterior This week, the first-ever conference aimed at bitcoin miners, mining companies and those with an interest in the sector kicked off amid the glitz and glamour of downtown Las Vegas. Hasher’s United, hosted this year at The Tuscany Hotel and Casino from 9th to 11th October, included panels focused on a number of practical and conceptual topics and brought together speakers like venture capitalist Tim Draper, GAWMiners CEO Josh Garza and BitAngels co-founder and chairman Michael Terpin. A number of companies in the space including China-based manufacturer Bitmain, cooling technology specialist Green Revolution Cooling and more were also in attendance. Many in the 100-strong crowd were small- or medium-sized bitcoin and altcoin miners, most of whom have been mining for at least the past year-and-a-half. As some told CoinDesk, the event provided an avenue for miners to both interface with companies in the space and learn new ideas to apply to their existing strategies. Opening talk on crypto’s future The first panel, which included Draper, Garza and Terpin, cast a wide net by asking a simple question: where is crypto headed today? Though focused primarily on the technological advancements made possible using digital currency, the panel members – as well as many others on the first day of the event – found their way back to one of the industry’s hottest topics: the price of bitcoin. Draper noted that he may have been “too conservative” about his prediction of $10,000 per bitcoin in three years. He remarked that miners who exchange their bitcoins for fiat currencies are a significant part of the selling pressure we’re seeing on the markets today. Draper explained that this dynamic should reverse in the future, saying: “[Miners are] a force-selling component and nobody’s buying. But as these companies evolve and all of these businesses allow us to use bitcoin for more and more purposes, that will be what drives the price up.” Terpin polled the crowd by asking how many sell a certain percentage of their bitcoins for fiat currencies like the dollar. One only miner raised their hand when Terpin asked if they sold 100% of their bitcoin for dollars, and about one-third of the crowd indicated that they don’t sell any of their generated bitcoins. Garza voiced the least concern regarding the price, saying that ultimately, the value of bitcoin is underpinned not so much by the consumers and merchants who use and accept digital currency but by the miners who facilitate the whole network. “Miners believe in the currency the most,” he said. Garza later drew applause when he said that GAWMiners pushes strongly for acceptance within its business-to-business dealings, saying that his company has told others that “if you won’t accept our bitcoins we won’t do business with you.” Panel 1 The panel also discussed how the future of digital currency usage will see a rapid increase in the development and deployment of smart contracts. Draper said that he is currently exploring options for use in his venture capital dealings, adding that the legal and accounting professions risk being upended by smart contracts or programmable transactions. Terpin argued during the panel that, as far as the US is concerned, the move toward digital currency adoption won’t be as smooth as Draper was predicting. The problem, he said, was that American bitcoin users haven’t been presented with a viable use case for the technology. “I don’t think there’s a killer app in the United States beyond investing if you have a bank account,” Terpin concluded. The panel also spoke briefly on the topic of the underbanked and bitcoin in emerging markets. All three participants touched on the potential of bitcoin-powered remittances, but acknowledged how the infrastructure isn’t quite yet in place for emerging market use of bitcoin to take off. “The question is: how do you get bitcoin to all these people?” Draper asked. Industry dives deep Following the broad opening panel, the first day of Hasher’s United featured a plethora of talks and discussions on some of the issues facing miners today, potential revenue sources and strategies for maximizing efficiency and profits. There were also a series of presentations made by companies in the space, including one by Genesis Mining which saw the unveiling of Project X, a new product that enables cross-coin mining without the need to purchase separate contracts. Several altcoin developers, including litecoin creator Charlie Lee and the teams behind ultracoin and unbreakablecoin also held demos and exhibitions during the event. Panel3 Lifeboat Foundation advisor and CoinDesk contributor Hass McCook led a talk on the business foundations of bitcoin, breaking the digital currency mining and services sectors down to their basic structural elements. He argued that some miners do themselves a disservice by not adopting more formal business practices, a problem that, in some ways, holds back the broader industry. He explained that the market fundamentals remain solid, providing a unique opportunity for miners to create value-added service based on the creative demands of their customer base. McCook added: “There are so many things that bitcoin can do for us, we don’t know 90% of what it can do for us yet. These [use cases] will come out as smart people continue developing products.” Predicting that “95 percent of bitcoin startups will fail,” McCook offered his vision for the future crypto-economy. He predicted that, owing to the homogenous nature of bitcoin hardware and the general trends we’re seeing in the industry today, the digital currency market ten years from now will be characterized by greater consolidation, the creation of so-called “super-services” and the proliferation of block chain technology in a number of key industries. He acknowledged that the process won’t be simple and that further price discovery will likely occur. On the other hand, McCook said that events such as the notorious ‘bearwhale‘ may become less frequent as usage ignites and major players hold less bitcoins overall. Mining’s behavioral challenges One of the more notable panels of the day centered on the topic of game theory and the question of how this area of research can be applied to bitcoin mining and the wide-ranging security vulnerabilities facing the sector today. The talk included insights from Cornell University researcher Emin Gun Sirer, Princeton University assistant professor Arvind Narayanan, University of Maryland PhD candidate Andrew Miller and Sean Bowe, creator of model development platform SimBit. Miller, who shared his research on the types of attacks centered on bitcoin mining pools, including so-called vigilante attacks that essentially sabotage the act of collective mining. Panel2 He offered a series of potential changes to the reward structure, including changing the dynamic nature of block rewards to encourage less malevolence. At the same time, Miller suggested that the consensus-base nature of bitcoin development and the technology’s history could prevent otherwise worthwhile fixes from being integrated: “Any time there will be a consideration in the future of a possible change, there will be some kind of complicated tug-of-war over the tradeoffs and the prior investments that might be affected by it.” Sirer, co-author of a controversial paper on a mining network vulnerability known as selfish mining, opined that the mining sector itself isn’t the simplest ecosystem to map out and analyse from theoretical and behavioral perspectives. “It’s difficult to model what miners want,” he offered. Narayanan argued that game theorists who work in the bitcoin space need to do a better job of interfacing with other parts of the ecosystem in order to obtain more reliable data. He said: “What I think is that the theorists and academics working on bitcoin need to work out to the community, the miners, and have a firm grasp of some of these strategies’ implications in order to input into the game theory models.” Sirer disputed this, offering examples of how his team reached out to both community members and the bitcoin bore development team. Bluntly acknowledging the “pushback” he experienced following the release of the selfish mining paper, Sirer thanked the core team for being open to the eventual development of a fix to the vulnerability. During a question-and-answer session after the panel, one miner asked about the risk of 51% attacks on the network given the rise of large mining pools in the past. The participants stated that, ultimately, there is little to do in a distributed system like bitcoin mining beyond community outreach to keep mining conglomerates honest. “There is nothing to push it back except social pressure,” Sirer concluded. A full recording of the first day of Hashers United can be found below: Images via The Tuscany Hotel & Casino, GAWMiner, Shutterstock Hashers UnitedMining
Original author: Stan Higgins

Adam Ludwin co-founded Chain.com, a bitcoin developer platform. Prior to Chain, Adam was a venture investor in companies including Vine, Slack, Kik, and Paperless Post.  Here, he gives an overview of specific use cases for bitcoin that could become the digital currency’s ‘killer apps’. bitcoins killer apps Most people think about bitcoin as an alternative to something they already know, as opposed to an enabler of something they never considered. In 1985, Steve Jobs was asked by a journalist for concrete reasons why anyone would buy a computer for the home. He answered that “so far, that’s more of a conceptual market than a real market”. He went on to say that if you aren’t buying a PC to help you do business work at home, then you probably want one because “you know there’s something going on, you don’t exactly know what it is, so you want to learn”. But, he added, “this will change: computers will be essential in most homes”. When the journalist pressed him to explain why, he predicted the Internet: “The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people – as remarkable as the telephone.” A lot of people thought he was crazy. Bitcoin is in the same place today. Many people are intrigued because they can feel “something is going on”. But they wonder how buying a sandwich with bitcoin is better than using, say, a credit card. As with many breakthroughs, most people think about bitcoin as an alternative to something they already know, as opposed to an enabler of something they never considered. To get from here to the future, we need to start imagining and building services that are not simply bitcoin versions of existing financial products, but are novel systems that solve problems that could not be solved until the advent of bitcoin. These will be bitcoin’s killer apps. What might they look like? Here are a few examples: Digital resources – like energy, bandwidth, storage, and computation – will be allocated to the connected devices and services that need them through efficient bitcoin-based marketplaces. Load your smart phone with bitcoin, and it will automatically purchase access to the least expensive WiFi hotspots as you roam Paris. And one day, your phone could pay for itself by selling connectivity back into a mesh network, similar to how solar panels can sell energy back to the power grid today. Immersive virtual worlds accessed through devices like the Oculus Rift will have bitcoin-based economies, meaning there will be no bright dividing lines between where these virtual economies end and the real world economy begins. People will walk virtual pets to earn money for a flesh-and-blood Chihuahua. Teens will become millionaires for projects they launch in virtual worlds (sneak preview: today’s YouTube stars and League of Legends players you’ve never heard of). As the size of these virtual world economies grow, currencies that don’t cross over easily, like Euros, will feel antiquated. Synthetic versions of financial assets will be traded on the block chain, reducing default risk, increasing transparency, and providing universal access to financial instruments. Farmers will buy crop futures they couldn’t previously access. Better still, smart farms will automatically buy and sell hedging contracts throughout the season using data about soil, weather, yields, and prices. Artistic works will flourish as digital content gets pre-funded through tips from patrons and then purchased in tiny increments when consumed through metered players. Original digital works will be bought and sold by tracking ownership and provenance on the block chain. Bitcoin will allow people to own more income-producing assets and less unproductive stuff. The block chain will reduce the friction of share issuance and ownership, allowing us to be stakeholders in entities, large and small, that we care about and contribute to. And the trend toward shared usage of “things” – cars, computers, living space – will accelerate when the objects themselves become self-sustaining economic units. Over the next few years, a lot of the underlying infrastructure and technologies to enable these killer apps will come online. As this happens, bitcoin will begin to expand markets and make them more efficient. Everyone – and every thing – with an Internet connection will be a market participant regardless of who they are or where they were born. There will be more opportunities to earn money and more ways to spend it. All of our assets, not just our savings, will be connected to a financial grid, earning us a return commensurate with their utilization. There will be more ways to finance ingenuity and therefore more innovation. The world-uniting force of the Internet will begin to take its hold on all of our economic activity. This article has been republished here with permission from the author. Originally published on chain.com. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, CoinDesk. Chainkiller apps
Original author: Adam Ludwin
  1. Libra Raises $500k to Expand Bitcoin Tax Compliance Solutions
  2. Crypto 2.0 Roundup: The Overstock Effect, Counterparty Debates and a Crypto iTunes
  3. Sean’s Outpost Charity Finances Hit By Drop in Bitcoin Price
  4. Over 800 Payment Terminals in Romania Now Sell Bitcoin

Page 1482 of 1655