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This article is a continuation of our previous analysis of the most popular US states for bitcoin using data from CoinDesk’s bitcoin ATM map. popular european countries for bitcoin As public interest in digital currencies grows, bitcoin ATMs have proven to be critical for bridging the gap between casual onlookers and active bitcoin owners. To identify the areas where bitcoin ATMs are particularly popular, we analyzed data from CoinDesk’s bitcoin ATM map and calculated the countries in Europe with the most machines per capita. Of course, the term ‘popular’ is subjective by nature and there are countless ways to measure it, but for the purpose of this report, popularity is defined by the number of bitcoin ATMs per capita in each European country. Data analysis Our data for Europe include a total of 64 bitcoin ATMs distributed across 20 countries. The UK and Netherlands are home to more than 30% of Europe’s bitcoin ATMs with 10 machines in each country. When adjusting for each country’s population, the UK ranks only eleventh most popular in Europe for the digital currency machines. Other countries with multiple bitcoin ATMs that missed the top five include the Czech Republic, ranked sixth with six ATMs; Switzerland, ranked seventh with three ATMs; and Italy, ranked 14th with four ATMs. Here are the top five most popular European countries for bitcoin, ranked by the number of bitcoin ATMs per capita: 1. Isle of Man Isle of man One bitcoin ATM for every 87,000 people It may not be the biggest or most populous place in Europe, but the Isle of Man is certainly leading the way in embracing bitcoin. A conference devoted to the island’s booming digital currency economy is taking place this week on 17th and 18th September. 2. Slovenia slovenia One bitcoin ATM for every 687,000 people Home to popular exchange Bitstamp, Slovenia has welcomed bitcoin businesses – including ATMs – with open arms. Despite a population of only two million people, the country has three bitcoin ATMs on file in our records. 3. Finland finland One bitcoin ATM for every 777,000 people Finland is host to Europe’s very first bitcoin ATM, which was installed in Helinski in December of last year. Since then, six more machines have arrived, showing the Finn’s demand for the digital currency. 4. Ireland ireland One bitcoin ATM for every 1.55 million people Bitcoin has seen a warm reception in Ireland. The country’s first bitcoin ATM went live in Dublin back in March, and one prominent figure from the Central Bank of Ireland has spoken about the country’s future with bitcoin. 5. The Netherlands netherlands One bitcoin ATM for every 1.68 million people The Netherlands, along with the UK, is home to the most bitcoin ATMs in Europe with 10 machines. The world’s first Bitcoin Boulevard also opened in Holland this year, and has attracted digital currency enthusiasts from all over. Do you own a bitcoin ATM that you don’t think is included in CoinDesk’s records? Contact us at [email protected] Images via Shutterstock Bitcoin ATMsEurope
Original author: Tom Sharkey

Entrepreneur Li Xiaolai speaks at Huobi's birthday eventEntrepreneur Li Xiaolai speaks at Huobi’s birthday eventThis weekend has seen two large gala evening events hosted by large Chinese bitcoin exchanges: Huobi’s first anniversary celebrations on Saturday and the ‘One Night in Beijing with OKCoin’ mini-conference on Friday . Both took place at five-star hotels in Beijing, with attendees numbering several hundred for each event. Each event featured an exhibition of Chinese bitcoin companies that included app developers, ATM manufacturers, and mining hardware makers. Audience at OKCoin's main event on Saturday nightAudience at OKCoin’s event on Saturday nightChinese bitcoin news site Bitell reported that OKCoin’s event at the Westin Hotel featured a keynote speech by CEO Star Xu, and the official launch of the company’s new Virtual Futures trading platform. There were also roundtable discussion topics concerning bitcoin’s outlook in China, a debate and launch of the new book ‘The Controversial Bitcoin’. Huobi marked one year since its launch on 1st September 2013 at the Shangri-La Hotel with the first ‘China Bitcoin Industry Summit‘ featuring presentations, panel discussions, and a huge birthday cake. The company used the event as a launching platform for several new services including BitYes, its international USD-based trading platform, and DigCoin, Huobi’s mining-based investment product. CEO Leon Li said: “Huobi is more than a bitcoin exchange, it is a comprehensive bitcoin services company.” Huobi's giant birthday cakeHuobi’s giant birthday cakeIt also handed out a series of awards for mining companies, other applications, and innovative bitcoin media. Shifting sands The mood surrounding bitcoin exchanges in China has shifted visibly since May this year, when the five largest players withdrew booths and speakers from China’s first international bitcoin conference at the last minute. Huobi’s Robert Kuhne said there have been no public statements from the Chinese government in the past few months, and that exchanges now have a much better idea of the boundaries within which they operated. Attendees at Huobi's first birthday eventAttendees at Huobi’s first birthday eventNow large exchanges are expected to attend the next big China event, Shanghai’s Bitcoin Expo on 19-21st September. OKCoin is listed as a major sponsor and CEO Li as a speaker. All this occurs as China’s larger exchanges have adapted their business models to suit the local environment: rather than focus on market speculation as they did last year, they have recently diversified their offerings with margin trading, derivatives, bitcoin wallets and even P2P lending. The exchanges have also moved closer to China’s other bitcoin mega-industry, bitcoin mining, with part-shares in mining factories and participation in mining pools, cloud mining and other investment products. OKCoin's Changpeng Zhao speaks at Saturday's eventOKCoin’s Changpeng Zhao speaks at Saturday’s eventOther bitcoin startups face rocky road This could be both good and not-so-good news for bitcoin on China. It could signify that acceptance of bitcoin is growing, or that authorities no longer consider it influential in mainstream life. A source from the Chinese bitcoin scene, who preferred not to be named said of the exchange’s expanding businesses: “[It's an] inevitable trend of the overall industry, but small startups are facing a bigger challenge.” The attention is drawing in outsiders and new investors who wanted to get involved in bitcoin, but some mining and application startups are having a tough time finding both customers and investment. For example, startup wallet service Bihang posted a notice last week saying it is closing down. Rui Ma, China-based partner at 500 Startups, agreed that Chinese venture capital interest in smaller bitcoin startups is “definitely low”, and that mainstream VC investors are “not taking it seriously” for reasons of lack of legal clarity, low visibility and daily use in China and better opportunities for tech entrepreneurs outside the bitcoin sphere. Kuhne added that while things could easily change in future, there is still optimism. “There is so much excitement because of fast-developing technology and all the money to be made,” he said.   OKCoin Event Panda Images via Philip McMaster, OKCoin, Huobi, Weibo AsiaBitcoin MiningChinaLeon LiStar XuWallets
Original author: Jon Southurst

cpu moore's law The bitcoin mining industry has witnessed massive change over the past two years. The technological arms race launched by ASIC makers quickly put an end to GPU and FPGA (field-programmable gate array) mining, but much like the Cold War arms race, additional investments may prove unsustainable in the long run due to ROI constraints. Currently, miners are hitting the wall. Technology is the first problem. Most miners are already using the latest nodes, namely 28nm and 20nm processors offered by TSMC and GlobalFoundries, while the first 14nm/16nm FinFET ASICs are expected next year. Yet progress is slowing down due to a number technical limitations plaguing all chipmakers. The second problem involves economics. It is more down to earth, but it is closely related to chip design and manufacturing. Bigger chips manufactured on relatively immature processes tend to be costlier to produce and develop. They usually face yield and leakage issues as well. Thou shall not ignore Moore’s Law The first technical challenge can be described as the thermal barrier. Simply adding more transistors and building massive chips with billions of transistors delivers more performance, but cooling these chips becomes troublesome and impractical. At the same time efficiency becomes an even bigger problem. As an emerging field of IC design, bitcoin mining ASICs have experienced rapid evolution over the past two years. However, they cannot keep evolving and developing at the current rate. A number of technical limitations and Moore’s Law simply cannot be overcome even by the world’s foremost chip designers and foundries. The same issues apply to multibillion dollar chipmakers like Intel, Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD and various ARM partners such as Samsung, MediaTek and Apple. Moore’s Law stipulates that the number of transistors doubles approximately every two years. Performance scales accordingly, but this does not mean that performance increases at a linear rate, as chip designers can optimise microarchitectures without piling on more transistors, hence yielding more performance from a the same number of transistors and chip area. ASICs differ from general purpose processors and a lot less money goes into its development and optimisation. As it matures, optimisation gets more difficult. This means ASIC design will inevitably slow down. Since most ASICs already use cutting edge manufacturing nodes and there is a limit to how big practical designs can be, more resources will have to go into optimisation, performance-per-Watt tweaks and state of the art cooling technology. This approach involves more spending and development than a transition to a new manufacturing process and it usually does not yield the same performance or efficiency increase. ASIC designers tend to keep a lot of information away from prying eyes. ASIC makers reveal some basic specs, such as the number of processing cores and the size of the chip package, but they do not paint the full picture. The actual number of transistors and the size of the actual silicon in the package (die size) tend to remain undisclosed, although they are much more relevant than package sizes, voltages and other marketing-friendly specs. Since these are not mass market chips, they are unlikely to be taken apart and placed under a microscope so much of the information never becomes public, thus preventing in-depth analysis. blockchain-hash-rate-ghs-9-2014 The problem for bitcoin miners is the fact that overinvestment is starting to create an unsustainable trend. Demand, caused by ever higher difficulty, is outstripping development. Ideally miners would need chips capable of breaking Moore’s Law and then some. Over the past year the hash rate of the bitcoin network has skyrocketed from around 1,000,000GH/s to more than 200,000,000GH/s, briefly peaking at 231,138,370GH/s in late August. In roughly the same period the difficulty shot up from about 65 million to 27,428,630,902 on 31st August. blockchain-hash-rate-9-2014 Part of the increase should be attributed to new, more efficient and powerful ASICs, but in reality most of it comes from huge investments in this inherently risky industry. The old approach no longer works, as illustrated by hash rate trends in late August and early September. This is the focal point; this is where technology and economics intersect. New technology will slow down the decline, but it won’t stop it Since Moore’s Law is not going anywhere, the current rate of growth is unsustainable unless the price starts to pick up. It can be maintained through additional investment in industrial-scale mining operations, but only in theory. The days of high yields and ROI measured in weeks rather than months are over. Technological advances, including the introduction of more efficient ASICs and the transition to 14nm/16nm FinFET nodes have the potential to fuel further growth, but not nearly at the same rate. Technology simply cannot evolve at a rate that would enable such growth in the long run without additional investments. Thermals and efficiency are becoming a big problem. At a price of $500 bitcoin miners generate about $1.8m in revenue each day. If the price does not go up they could end up making even less. If it goes down, pulling the plug is another option, as miners will run their hardware at a loss for long. This figure does not include operating expenses, cost of capital and investments in next generation hardware. Energy costs are another constant. They are more likely to go up than down, forcing miners to migrate to regions with abundant, cheap electricity. Iceland and Scandinavia have already attracted a number of mining operations. This trend will inevitably lead to even more centralisation. The cost of keeping the network running is going up, but the returns are not. Margins are going down, competitiveness is becoming increasingly important and small mining operations are unlikely to remain competitive in the future. This does not include just individual miners, but small mining companies as well. Therefore we expect to see more consolidation and diversification moving forward. What the future holds So will the network continue to grow more powerful? There is no straightforward answer as nobody can estimate the price of bitcoin over the next few quarters. Should the price remain stagnant, we could even start to see a drop or at least a stagnation in the hash rate. The difficulty has gone up three times last month, going up from 19,729,645,941 to 27,428,630,902 in under 25 days. This represents an increase of more than 40%. Each increase was followed by a sharp (but brief) decline in the hash rate, which was compensated for in the days following each increase. However, the past two weeks point to a different trend. The increase also indicates that many miners responded to the difficulty spike by pulling the plug on obsolete hardware, which itself is nothing unusual. However, the size of each drop is, as we are dealing with drops in the range of 20-25%. Big difficulty increases past the 20,000,000,000 mark clearly affected a large part of the network, rendering many miners obsolete overnight. They were replaced by more efficient units that kept the hash rate up, but in turn they also increased the difficulty, creating a vicious circle that will claim even more obsolete hardware in the near future. This is nothing new, but data indicates the sheer pace at which the difficulty is going up is starting to have a serious effect on many miners. In the short term it will create market opportunities for the most competitive mining operations and hardware makers, boosting efficiency in the process. The risk is that the trend will claim too much obsolete hardware and put many miners out of business, resulting in even more centralisation and fewer incentives to invest in the mining space. Sept 10 - Bespoke Silicon Chart 2From ‘Bitcoin and the Age of Bespoke Silicon’, Michael Bedford Taylor, 2013.Michael Bedford Taylor, Bitcoin and the Age of Bespoke Silicon, 2013 About the charts We included miners that are listed as discontinued or currently shipping from Bitcoin.it’s mining hardware comparison data. We searched for shipping dates from publicly available sources, particularly miner’s own websites or their posts on Bitcoin Talk. We excluded the Minerscube 15 because its advertised hashrate of 15m Mhash/s skewed our charts too much. Data and charts by Joon Ian Wong Image via Shutterstock ASICsMining
Original author: Nermin Hajdarbegovic

September is in full swing and is starting to heat up, with the end of the summer season activity in the markets. Will this be the season that altcoins rise to prominence? Keep an eye on the volume and chatter and you never know – this week’s gamble could be next month’s killer use case for digital currency. Pinkcoin and Sync team up ip.bitcointalkTwo prominent altcoins have recently established a partnership, setting the stage for long-term cooperation on both services and broader project support. The teams behind Sync and pinkcoin have entered into a new agreement in which some of the investor benefits given to Sync users will also be extended to those who stake certain amounts of PINK. This includes enrollment in the membership program offered by the Sync Foundation, the trade organization built around the Sync project, and discounts on the group’s upcoming cryptocurrency gathering in Las Vegas scheduled for later this year. Cooperation between coins is not new, though past examples like UNOCS have demonstrated that there are limits to broad organizations formed by ostensibly competing coins. But according to pinkcoin developer CryptoCayce, pinkcoin and Sync have much to gain from working together. Calling the partnership a “win-win situation”, he told CoinDesk: “Pink and Sync are not in competition in the same space within the altcoin world since Pink is so abundant with about 364 million coins and Sync is so scarce with about 1,100 coins we view Pink as having day-to-day usage whereas Sync is effectively the gold reserve.” The pinkcoin team is currently working on the beta version of its online poker platform, and the partnership adds a level of support to the project. Among the services offered to eligible pinkcoin holders is a webinar with poker professional Danny Johnson. Dogecoin web app Backslash enters beta Monday Some have called dogecoin an easy way to get into digital currency, owing to its ease of use, robust community and family friendly image. One of the goals of the project is to introduce people to cryptocurrency who aren’t necessarily familiar with the technology. Backslash, which began development earlier this summer, is looking to make it even simpler to send DOGE from one person to another. The platform is an HTML 5 web app that hosts a series of wallets for users who want to quickly send DOGE to others, and will be entering public beta this Monday. fast-doge Users can send dogecoins via email or social media accounts, enabling recipients to create their own wallet via Backslash’s service. The team behind the project said that they took a similar approach to Coinbase in terms of coin management, which keeps their transactions off the block chain and, as a result, free. CoinDesk spoke with Paul Benigeri and Roneil Rumburg, the co-creators of the web platform, who said that the goal is to make it easy to tip or donate dogecoin, which are arguably two of the key use cases for the coin. While the infrastructure appears simple, the team goes to great lengths to make sure that private keys are kept away from potential fraudulent access. Rumberg explained that transactions are signed on a computer that is partitioned from the Internet, using a separate device to actually broadcast the transactions. Rumburg told CoinDesk: “What we’re trying to do there is air-gap the keys from the Internet.” Though still in its early stages, the community reactions to Backslash’s alpha were mostly positive. According to Benigeri, the public beta will draw from past participants as well as those in the DOGE community that have been waiting for broader access. Darkcoin undergoes anonymity review DarkcoinThe darkcoin development team has been working on a new version of DarkSend, its transaction anonymizing mechanism that helped spark a boom in production of anon-style altcoins. DarkSend+ was submitted for review to cryptocurrency expert Kristov Atlas, who later drafted a full summary of his findings. The move is not a new one. Other coins built on the basis of anonymity have been subjected to public coin reviews, and most of these undertakings are intended to prove the veracity of the anonymizing mechanisms. In the case of Atlas’ examination, he found that while there are vulnerabilities to certain types of attacks, darkcoin’s approach to hiding transactions works. Darkcoin developer Evan Duffield noted in a response to Atlas’ report that some of the identified weaknesses have already been addressed. He acknowledged that some approaches, including those that target masternodes, are capable of succeeding. However, he reiterated that DarkSend achieves its stated goals, explaining: “Darkcoin solves the anonymity problem by making the block chain a fog. There are very few practical ways to attack our system, and at it’s core, most of the attacks listed were based solely on the fact that the merged transactions were using only two participants while in the test environment. This has always been a known issue and never was intended to be used beyond testing.” Strange alt of the week The plethora of altcoins in existence has given rise to certain projects, both serious and light-hearted, to somehow reduce the considerable supply through redemptive or outright destructive means. While not the first to suggest using a proof-of-burn mechanism to produce coins in a network, ÇoinProLite is perhaps the most outlandishly presented as demonstrated by its Bitcoin Talk forum post. Using a commonly attributed (if not decidedly scatalogical) term to denote coins that are of a poor quality, the ÇoinProLite developer says that the altcoin community at-large can help lessen or eliminate coins that are no longer in use, and that many a so-called bagholder can escape their “dire positions” with ÇoinProLite. For a sales pitch that can only truly be experienced rather than described, ÇoinProLite has won this week’s Strange Alt of the Week award. ÇoinProLite is expected to have a max supply of roughly 2.6 billion coins, though the final amount could change depending on the number of coins burned in the process. The coin’s “innards and guts”, in the words of its developer, provide multiple proofing systems, including a staking mechanism that generates a small interest rate. Despite the loquacious style of the developer’s posts, the person behind the project seems to want to create a more inclusive environment for whatever community may emerge. The developer says: “Bear in mind for you guys sitting on the sidelines, there’s plenty of room for maneuverability if there’s some aspects you’ll like to see incorporated that I’ve failed to mention or thought of yet, but suffice to say this’ll be built with your best interest in mind, along with as much transparency as possible, allowing you to even dictate the terms. Simply voice your opinion, whereupon a dialog will ensue to further the cause.” Images via Shutterstock, Bitcoin Talk Have a tip about a notable happening in the altcoin world? Email CoinDesk at [email protected] Disclaimer: This article should not be viewed as an endorsement. Please do your own extensive research before you consider investing in the altcoin space. DogecoinpinkSYNC
Original author: Stan Higgins

Breadwallet front page Users of iOS devices can now download a decentralized wallet app that connects directly to the bitcoin network, making it different from other server-based products on the market. Breadwallet is the first bitcoin wallet app of its kind on Apple’s platform. Its creator says users are not vulnerable to server downtime or the hacking attacks that sometimes strike centralized providers, and wallet management remains straightforward enough for the average user. It is now featured on the ‘Choose Your Bitcoin Wallet’ page at bitcoin.org, and has received favorable comments from users on Reddit. A video demonstration of the app is here. Security features Instead of running through central servers, Breadwallet accesses the bitcoin network directly, using ‘simplified payment verification’ (SPV). Developer Aaron Voisine said he prefers this to other iOS apps that are “server-trusting” or just “wrappers around web windows”, building his own SPV backend from scratch. Breadwallet is a BIP32 HD or ‘hierarchical deterministic’ wallet, which means all of a user’s bitcoin addresses (public and private) and balances can be recovered with a single unique phrase. Provided you remember the phrase, users’ wallets will never need backups and can be restored on other devices even if the original is lost, broken or stolen. Breadwallet PIN entry screenBreadwallet PIN entry screenThat being so, Breadwallet is staking a claim as iOS’s first decentralized bitcoin wallet. The Android version of Hive wallet is built on Mike Hearn’s bitcoinj and thus is listed as ‘decentralized’ by bitcoin.org, but its iOS version is not. Hive does, however, use a similar deterministic tree structure (BIP39) to Breadwallet, meaning backup phrases from each app may be used on the other. Choosing a more secure platform Voisine said he chose iOS because he wanted to create an app that anyone could use relatively safely, without needing to know how to secure a desktop or Android device – something even more technical users often struggle to do properly. He said: “As bitcoin grows to become a major world currency, malware theft is going to be a huge problem. Stealing digital cash is way more lucrative than turning people’s machines into spambots or stealing credit cards.” Apple’s tight grip over its native platform was actually the best way to reduce the threat of malware, he added. Further, iOS is the only popular platform that hardware-encrypts the filesystem by default, giving added protection to users who lose physical access to their devices.Breadwallet three iphones However, Voisine said that users of ‘jailbroken’ iOS should not install Breadwallet, or any kind of bitcoin wallet. “You’re going to get robbed because you think you know more than you actually do. Any jailbreak app has total control of your phone and your wallet. I understand the temptation to use it with a little bit of money, but you will get lazy because it will be convenient to use right up until it isn’t.” He added that he wanted to make a wallet with a “beautiful, convenient user experience that is also as secure as possible for people who have zero understanding of computer security.” Bitcoin matures on iOS Bitcoin users with iOS devices have seen a dramatic improvement in wallet options in just the past few months. No sooner had Apple quietly ceased its policy against bitcoin wallet and payment apps in June, than the first examples began to appear. There are now over 10 wallet and payment options available on iOS, includng Blockchain, Gliph, Hive, Coin Pocket, Bity and GreenAddress. Voisine, who has been a mobile developer for six years, was previously the lead iOS developer for Yammer, as well as co-founder of Lightt Inc. He said he was convinced Apple would change its policy on bitcoin apps eventually, and set to work months before the decision was made in order to be ready to submit on the first day Apple allowed it. The long head start turned out to be prudent – the biggest challenge Voisine faced was building the app’s SPV mode bitcoin network client portion. No-one had written this for iOS previously, and it took him six months to complete, he said: “All the Android wallets that are SPV use Mike Hearn’s bitcoinj, which took over a year to write.” Breadwallet is free to download and use from the iOS App Store. Images via Breadwallet AppleBreadwalletiOS
Original author: Jon Southurst

T15B Basement space
A unique co-working space has launched in east London, offering digital currency companies the opportunity to work side-by-side in an environment designed to promote growth and innovation. Called T15B, the space is currently occupied by staff members of seven cryptocurrency-focused companies, including bitcoin trading platform BTC.sx and Australian bitcoin wallet and exchange CoinJar. Co-founded by Pamir Gelenbe and his wife Gulnar Hasnain, who are behind the bitcoin events series CoinSummit, T15B is located close to London’s tech hub – the so-called ‘Silicon Roundabout’. The space accommodates a corner of the 2,300sq/m office occupied by BoldRocket, which offers support to technology companies. The décor is very stereotypically east London – exposed brickwork, bare light fittings and visible pipes on the ceiling, paired with clean lines and a few stand-out features such as a ‘green wall’ (an entire wall covered in live plants) and a large orange rocket sculpture. Gelenbe said he looked at a few venues in the city, but the BoldRocket office really stood out as a place in which creativity would be bolstered. Nurturing digital currency innovation Gelenbe’s aim for T15B is to offer a home for the best virtual currency entrepreneurs in Europe, creating an informal network of help and support. “I believe that we all end up outperforming when we surround ourselves with great, inspiring people,” he added. Gelenbe explained there are currently 18 people in the space, including members of Coinometrics, Proof of Work Media, XBTerminal, Bullion Bitcoin and Coinscrum. He’s looking to increase these numbers, but isn’t willing to let just anyone join. He explained: “We don’t want to compromise on quality. We have a selection committee and review applications on a rolling basis. We are looking for serious entrepreneurs and individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to the virtual currency space.” Click below to view a gallery of pictures of T15B. Motivation Joe Lee, founder and CEO of BTC.sx, has been in the space since the beginning of this month having outgrown two Google TechHub offices. “Being surrounded by people working to disrupt the world of finance, through bitcoin, is incredibly motivating,” he said. Lee added he is enjoying working alongside other entrepreneurs that display an “incredible amount of talent and knowledge”. He believes London could become a world hub of bitcoin innovation due to its lengthy reputation as the finance capital of the world. “From an entrepreneur’s perspective, when a majority of the talent you are working with comes with financial services experience, you cannot fail to believe that London is going to be a city to watch out for,” Lee explained. Aleks Nowak, co-founder of XBTerminal, which helps businesses accept payment in bitcoin, agrees: “We have several of the best bitcoin startups based here now, the Bank of England and government seem to be changing polices to support the growth. We are in a very strong position to succeed.” Mentoring Gelenbe has co-founded a number of companies and is currently a partner at Hummingbird Ventures, a firm that has invested in bitcoin companies including Kraken as well as a number of other technology businesses. He insisted he doesn’t consider T15B a business venture, and is more interested in using the space to boost Europe-based cryptocurrency developments. With this in mind, Gelenbe has a very hands-on role in the office, acting as a mentor to the companies working there. “For me, this is an experiment. It’s acommunity initiative that might succeed, but also might fail, we just have to wait and see” he said. GalleriesLondonUK
Original author: Emily Spaven

Top 5 most popular us states for bitcoin Bitcoin’s popularity keeps growing by the day. Even in the face of regulatory speed bumps and PR fiascos, the number of merchants accepting bitcoin, the number of bitcoin wallets and the amount of venture capital invested in the industry all continue to rise. As the public’s interest in the digital currency grows, bitcoin ATMs have proven to be critical for bridging the gap between casual onlookers and active bitcoin owners. Bitcoin ATMs offer users the ability to instantly purchase the digital currency, which, for many first-time buyers especially, adds a touch of familiarity to an otherwise foreign experience. While bitcoin ATMs are popping up almost everywhere around the world, it’s safe to assume the powers of supply and demand help dictate where the machines are most concentrated. Data analysis To identify the areas where bitcoin ATMs are particularly popular, we analyzed data from CoinDesk’s new bitcoin ATM map and calculated the US states with the most machines per capita. Of course the term ‘popular’ is subjective by nature and there are countless ways to measure it, but for the purpose of this report, popularity is defined by the number of bitcoin ATMs per capita in each US state. Our data include a total of 51 bitcoin ATMs distributed across 20 states. Not surprisingly, the two most populous states – California and Texas – are home to nine machines each, accounting for 35% of all the country’s bitcoin ATMs on record. When adjusting for states’ population, neither California nor Texas make the cut for the top five most popular states for bitcoin. Other states with multiple bitcoin ATMs that missed the top five include Missouri, ranked 7th with three ATMs; Michigan, ranked 14th with two ATMs; and New York, ranked 16th with three ATMs. Here are the top five most popular states for bitcoin, ranked by the number of bitcoin ATMs per capita: 1. New Mexico popular bitcoin states One bitcoin ATM for every 695,000 people The southwestern state has three machines in our file and is the home of the US’s very first bitcoin ATM in Albuquerque. 2. North Dakota popular bitcoin states One bitcoin ATM for every 723,000 people North Dakota’s spot at number two on the list may seem unlikely, but having just one ATM had a big impact, as the state is one of the least populous in the nation. 3. Nevada popular bitcoin states One bitcoin ATM for every 930,000 people Casinos in Las Vegas have proven to be a popular place for bitcoin ATMs, and if some predictions about bitcoin’s potential for the gambling industry come true, we can expect to see many more here. 4. Hawaii popular bitcoin states One bitcoin ATM for every 1.40 million people Tourists and residents of the picturesque island state have options if they need to buy some bitcoin: Hawaiin Island Stamp and Coin just launched the state’s first ATM in its store in Honolulu. 5. Massachusetts popular bitcoin states One bitcoin ATM for every 1.67 million people Known for its many prestigious universities and generally progressive residents, it’s not surprising that Massachusetts made the top five of all states – there’s even a bitcoin ATM on MIT’s campus. As of now, the sample size of bitcoin ATMs in the US is quite small. As demand for the digital currency increases and more business owners invest in new machines, hopefully bitcoin ATMs become more ubiquitous in the States and abroad. Do you own a bitcoin ATM that you don’t think is included in CoinDesk’s records? Contact us at [email protected] Images via Shutterstock Bitcoin ATMsUS states
Original author: Tom Sharkey

atm flickr
Two years ago, Zach Harvey and his brother, Josh, were saddled with a failing guitar shop selling vintage and handmade pieces in New Hampshire. The guitar venture had once been a roaring success, but that had been in Tel Aviv, before the duo decided to move back to the United States. On the verge of shutting down the company, the brothers started casting around for a new project to take their minds off the struggling business. They had come across bitcoin before, in 2011, but did nothing more with it besides deciding that they would accept bitcoin payments for their guitars. Now, they decided to try and solve the problem of buying bitcoin. It was too complicated. They built a prototype of a machine that would dispense bitcoin in exchange for fiat. It was essentially a wooden box filled with components purchased on eBay. Harvey recalls: “We took it to a libertarian forum in New Hampshire and immediately people were all over the machine. Bitcoin became something that people were interacting with, that they could physically see. It kind of erupted at that point.” The Harveys have parlayed that prototype into Lamassu Bitcoin Ventures, the bitcoin ATM manufacturer with the largest share of an exploding, and perhaps the most visible, segment of the cryptocurrency economy. While Lamassu may be on top now, its early rival Robocoin and well-funded new entrants are piling into this rapidly changing sector. Pioneering manufacturers The first bitcoin ATM to be used commercially was a unit by Las Vegas-based manufacturer Robocoin. It was installed in Vancouver’s Waves coffee house at the end of October 2013, lending the place a sci-fi vibe as customers lined up to buy cryptocurrency. A month had barely passed before the news got out that the machine had already grossed more than $1m Canadian dollars, breaking even for its operator after just 17 days. The bitcoin ATM gold-rush had begun. At the start, ATM manufacturing was dominated by two firms, Robocoin and Lamassu, each with seemingly opposing approaches to the business. Robocoin machines are large, freestanding, machines with built-in palm-scanners. They allow two-way transactions between fiat and bitcoin, with each machine costing about $15,000. Lamassu units are compact, white machines that sit on a table-top. They cost $6,500 each and only allow users to buy bitcoin. The differences don’t end there. While Robocoin machines require operators to use the Bitstamp exchange, Lamassu customers are free to choose an exchange. Robocoin also charges a 1% fee for transactions completed. Robocoin has started modelling itself after a bank, calling its machines ‘branches’, while Lamassu has moved to an open-source software model. Early stumbling blocks Both pioneers have run into stumbling blocks as their machines left the factory floor to be installed in restaurants, cafes and bars around the world. The Robocoin machine in the Waves coffee house, for example, left dozens of angry customers with unprocessed orders in January as a problem cropped up with Bitstamp, which was the only exchange the machine could use. Lamassu, meanwhile, inadvertantly turned a customer into a competitor when Tim Schuuman, owner of the eighth Lamassu unit, became unhappy because the firm wouldn’t open-source its software. Upon receiving his Lamassu unit, Schuuman was sufficiently indignant to start work on his own open-source ATM, which is now the low-cost Skyhook machine. One operator is Jonathan Harrison of London’s SatoshiPoint. His favoured brand is clear: his firm owns four Robocoin machines and a Lamassu unit. Still, he said, things are changing: “Lamassu is sort of marching towards [Robocoin] and they’re going to have to do something. We have to pay Robocoin 1% of every transaction as well. With Lamassu it’s nothing.” ATMs outside the bitcoin bubble Even as the two incumbents were locked in a battle for market-share and to hit shipping deadlines, strong new competitors have entered the space, and no wonder, because the global ATM industry is a multi-billion dollar business. There are 2.6 million ATMs in operation around the world, according to consulting firm Retail Banking Research (RBR). That number is accelerating, driven by huge demand from Asia. India, for example, grew its installed base of ATMs by 44% in 2012 compared to a year earlier, RBR has found. You only need to look at the revenues of the handful of giant companies that dominate traditional ATM manufacturing to see the size of the opportunity for bitcoin’s fledging makers. The biggest of these is Ohio-based NCR Corporation, which commands 30% of the global installed base, according to RBR. Last year, the NYSE-listed company reported revenues of $3.1bn for its financial services segment, which includes ATM hardware, software and installations. Its rival Diebold, also based in Ohio, reported sales of $2.3bn from its ATM business last year. Between them, the two companies employ 45,300 employees around the world. Convergence with fiat ATM networks Two of the most ambitious new entrants in the bitcoin ATM world are BitAccess, a Canadian outfit that recently exited the prestigious Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator, and Skyhook. Haseeb Awan is one of four co-founders at BitAccess. The firm has 46 machines installed. Awan describes an ambitious strategy to tap existing ATM networks and big banks. He says the startup is already on its way. Awan says his firm’s model of providing a turnkey solution to operators will help it win business from operators of existing ATM networks. His firm will deal with compliance issues, the logistics of moving cash and the machines’ hardware and software. He said: “The traditional ATM industry is in danger right now, there are ATMs on every corner. Bitcoin machines can do huge transactions and they are more lucrative. We are in touch with all the major companies right now.” Fiat ATM networks are operated either by banks or what are called independent deployers. Bank networks dominate the segment in most countries, with the notable exception of the United States, where independent deployers have just over half the market, according to figures from the National ATM Council. Payment Alliance International, based in Kentucky, is the largest independent deployer in North America. The privately held company runs 60,000 ATMs or about 15% of the US installed base. Open-source slashes prices At the other end of the market is Skyhook, which offers the cheapest machine on the market, priced at $999. It’s made in Oregon and runs on open-source software. The machine is relatively simple; it only allows users to buy bitcoin. It’s a small white block meant for table-tops with a touchscreen mounted on it. Schuuman, who co-founded the startup with Jon Hannis, believes that letting customers audit the code is the best way to grow the company and increase trust in bitcoin. Besides, it’s cheaper to develop it that way and it’s putting price pressure on other manufacturers. He said: “We just have simpler hardware and open-source software. We likely have lower margins [than competitors], but if we do put downward pressure on other manufacturers – great. The more open and available technologies like this become, the more bitcoin as a whole benefits.” For ATM operators like SatoshiPoint’s Harrison, the stiffer competition among manufacturers is a welcome development. He said he’s taking a close look at a BitAccess machine for the future. “I think these new machines that have shown up, they’re a lot cheaper and they’re being very aggressive with their pricing as well,” he said. The fiat ATM industry takes notice The fiat ATM industry is starting to take notice of the cryptocurrency space. The ATM Industry Association released a position paper on bitcoin ATMs this month, calling for greater regulation and welcoming bitcoin ATM operators into the fold. Bitcoin companies are biting. Michael Lee, who heads the association, said he expects several bitcoin ATM firms to become members in the coming weeks, following outreach efforts by his organisation. “Only through communication and relationship-building with innovators can we all seamlessly adjust to this new development,” he said. Felix Kronabetter, marketing manager at RBR, which publishes the definitive forecasts on the ATM industry, offered a less optimistic assessment of the budding bitcoin ATM sector, saying: “Bitcoin ATMs won’t have any impact. My understanding is that the machines are not even proper ATMs made by the major manufactures, so it’s a niche application at the moment.” Will bitcoin ATMs stay relevant? While bitcoin ATMs have played a crucial role in creating a tangible interface to the ethereal cryptocurrency economy, are they here to stay? Or will they go the way of transitional technologies of the past, joining the Minidisc, Dictaphone and Betamax video cassettes in the graveyard of once cutting-edge tech, as phablets and mobile wallets flourish? Mitchell Demeter of Bitcoiniacs, which operates the first bitcoin ATM, at Waves coffee house in Vancouver, doesn’t think so. He sums up the appeal of a machine specifically designed for buying a digital currency: “For a lot of people we’re the first contact they have with bitcoin. A lot of people do research online but they don’t have anyone physically to talk to. They find that a huge advantage.” Featured image via Flickr / 23912576@N05 BitAccessBitcoiniacsLamassuRobocoinSatoshiPointSkyhook
Original author: Joon Ian Wong
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