Original author: Stan Higgins
Coin News
Original author: Pete Rizzo
Another week in the unpredictable world of alternative digital currencies has yielded some interesting developments. Read on for just a taste of the many things going on in the altcoin world today!
Happy birthday, feathercoin!Feathercoin turned one year old this past week. The scrypt-based proof-of-work coin debuted on 16th April 2013, and has long possessed a passionate and involved community.In a message posted on the official feathercoin forum, leader developer Bushtar thanked the community for its dedication and meditated on some of the events of the past year. At the same time, he acknowledged some of the challenges lying ahead for feathercoin.CoinDesk has learned that an anniversary party will be held at The Oxford Blue in the UK on Saturday, 26th April.The community has also raised 6000 FTC, or about $900, to be donated to Prostate Cancer UK.A new game for caishencoinThis week, Tiny Elementals – an animated racing game for the Android and iOS platforms – became available for download. The project was developed by members of the caishencoin community and is aimed at providing not only a way for users to spend their caishencoins, but also return value to the community at large.As developer Stuhlman told CoinDesk, users will be able to exchange their caishencoins for codes that can later be redeemed in-game for points. Points can be spent on abilities and powerups available in Tiny Elementals.When asked about the team’s relationship with Apple, Stuhlman said that there has been no official communication with the company. Because no caishencoins actually pass through the game – codes are redeemed via a separate portal out-of-game – they say the concept does not run afoul of Apple’s scrutiny of digital currencies.Said Stuhlman:“We want to build Zynga in crypto, but at the same time not bring in too much burden on the devs, Apple have been very strict about using bitcoin or other cryptocurrency so we want to play by the rules for now.”The community will also be holding weekly tournaments, with prizes being offered in caishencoins and other alts.Mastercoin team looks to expandThe mastercoin development team announced on its official blog that it is seeking a new hiring manager.Mastercoin’s team also posted other open positions, including product manager and web team lead, at the beginning of April.In the blog post, team member Ripper234 laid out the qualifications perspective candidates need to present. The position is not full-time, but any applicants should have experience working as a tech hiring manager, possess developed communication skills and be “superficially familiar with Bitcoin”.More information about the position can be found here.Strange alt of the weekThis week’s Strange Alt of the Week award goes to houseofcoins (sign: HOC). Styled after the popular Netflix show starring Kevin Spacey, the coin is designed to create power institutions within its community based an owner’s accrued holdings.HOC utilizes the scrypt proof-of-work algorithm and sports a 21 million coin supply limit. The coin will debut with a 50% premine to be distributed among participants in an initial public offering. The block time is two minutes, with a per-block reward of 50 houseofcoins per block and no reward halving scheduled.Everyone who owns houseofcoins gets a proportional vote on decisions made by community, including funded projects. The person who owns the most houseofcoins is considered the President, with Vice President and Speaker of the House positions designated for the second- and third-largest wallet owners. All other coinholders are considered part of the House. While there are no limits on ownership, no single holder may have more than 10% voting power.In a post on the Bitcoin Talk forum, developer BitOffer wrote that votes in the House will determine the majority of decisions. A later post proposed the concept of investing in mining hardware in order to generate revenue.Unlike most new coins, the announcement suggested that listing houseofcoins on an exchange was not a primary goal and would be left to the community to decide.Image via Bitcoin Talk forumaltcoinsfeathercoinmastercoin
Happy birthday, feathercoin!Feathercoin turned one year old this past week. The scrypt-based proof-of-work coin debuted on 16th April 2013, and has long possessed a passionate and involved community.In a message posted on the official feathercoin forum, leader developer Bushtar thanked the community for its dedication and meditated on some of the events of the past year. At the same time, he acknowledged some of the challenges lying ahead for feathercoin.CoinDesk has learned that an anniversary party will be held at The Oxford Blue in the UK on Saturday, 26th April.The community has also raised 6000 FTC, or about $900, to be donated to Prostate Cancer UK.A new game for caishencoinThis week, Tiny Elementals – an animated racing game for the Android and iOS platforms – became available for download. The project was developed by members of the caishencoin community and is aimed at providing not only a way for users to spend their caishencoins, but also return value to the community at large.As developer Stuhlman told CoinDesk, users will be able to exchange their caishencoins for codes that can later be redeemed in-game for points. Points can be spent on abilities and powerups available in Tiny Elementals.When asked about the team’s relationship with Apple, Stuhlman said that there has been no official communication with the company. Because no caishencoins actually pass through the game – codes are redeemed via a separate portal out-of-game – they say the concept does not run afoul of Apple’s scrutiny of digital currencies.Said Stuhlman:“We want to build Zynga in crypto, but at the same time not bring in too much burden on the devs, Apple have been very strict about using bitcoin or other cryptocurrency so we want to play by the rules for now.”The community will also be holding weekly tournaments, with prizes being offered in caishencoins and other alts.Mastercoin team looks to expandThe mastercoin development team announced on its official blog that it is seeking a new hiring manager.Mastercoin’s team also posted other open positions, including product manager and web team lead, at the beginning of April.In the blog post, team member Ripper234 laid out the qualifications perspective candidates need to present. The position is not full-time, but any applicants should have experience working as a tech hiring manager, possess developed communication skills and be “superficially familiar with Bitcoin”.More information about the position can be found here.Strange alt of the weekThis week’s Strange Alt of the Week award goes to houseofcoins (sign: HOC). Styled after the popular Netflix show starring Kevin Spacey, the coin is designed to create power institutions within its community based an owner’s accrued holdings.HOC utilizes the scrypt proof-of-work algorithm and sports a 21 million coin supply limit. The coin will debut with a 50% premine to be distributed among participants in an initial public offering. The block time is two minutes, with a per-block reward of 50 houseofcoins per block and no reward halving scheduled.Everyone who owns houseofcoins gets a proportional vote on decisions made by community, including funded projects. The person who owns the most houseofcoins is considered the President, with Vice President and Speaker of the House positions designated for the second- and third-largest wallet owners. All other coinholders are considered part of the House. While there are no limits on ownership, no single holder may have more than 10% voting power.In a post on the Bitcoin Talk forum, developer BitOffer wrote that votes in the House will determine the majority of decisions. A later post proposed the concept of investing in mining hardware in order to generate revenue.Unlike most new coins, the announcement suggested that listing houseofcoins on an exchange was not a primary goal and would be left to the community to decide.Image via Bitcoin Talk forumaltcoinsfeathercoinmastercoinOriginal author: Stan Higgins
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Bye-bye Gox and hello BTC debit cards! Not entirely sure what I’m talking about? Take a look at this week’s news roundup to get up to speed with the latest developments in the world of digital currency.
Mt. Gox announces commencement of bankruptcy proceedings: This week we bid our final goodbye to Mt. Gox as a company when bankruptcy proceedings were announced in Japan. The troubled bitcoin exchange officially filed for liquidation last week. A group of investors made a last ditch attempt earlier this week to stop the company from being liquidated, but a deal didn’t materialize.
Jeff Garzik announces partnership to launch ‘BitSats’: Bitcoin core developer Jeff Garzik’s Dunvegan Space Systems has partnered with Deep Space Industries Inc. to build ‘BitSats’ – bitcoin satellites that will be launched into space to act as a backup of the bitcoin block chain.
Xapo announces new BTC debit card: California-based bitcoin wallet provider Xapo is launching a bitcoin debit card. The product is being lauded as the first to allow bitcoin users to spend freely like traditional debit cards. Xapo said the card will debit bitcoin directly from users’ wallets and could be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted, although MasterCard denied having a direct relationship with Xapo.
‘The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin’ premieres: The hotly anticipated bitcoin documentary ‘The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin’ premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on April 23rd. The film covers all of bitcoin’s high-profile twists and turns since 2011.
State of Bitcoin Q1 2014 Report: CoinDesk released its State of Bitcoin Q1 2014 report which indicates that venture capital in the bitcoin ecosystem is soaring. For rest of the year, venture capital looks set to match early stage in the Internet in early ’90s.
Thanks for watching, have a great weekend!
Original author: Roop Gill
Pelle Braendgaard is the co-founder of Kipochi, a UK-based, globally focused bitcoin wallet service started in March 2013.Kipochi notably integrated with Kenya-based mobile payments provider M-Pesa in July 2013, allowing its users to send and receive bitcoins before converting them to local currency.Braendgaard recently spoke at Inside Bitcoins NYC as part of the a keynote panel called “Bitcoin, Remittances and the Developing World”. The panel included Epiphyte CEO Edan Yago and Let’s Talk Bitcoin! co-host Stephanie Murphy, among others. After the session, CoinDesk spoke to Braendgaard in a candid conversation about the challenges bitcoin faces in the developing world.
CoinDesk: Since Kipochi is mostly focused on developing markets, some readers may be unfamiliar with your service and its mission. Can you start by briefing us a bit on the big-picture vision for the company? Pelle Braendgaard: What we’re trying to do is, first of all, create a wallet that allows you to send and receive bitcoins. I think that most current wallets are just not very easy to use for your average user.We do that by modeling it very much on how mobile money systems work in Africa. There, you can send money with your mobile number, if you send money to someone, a wallet gets created in the background and you can just access it. So, there’s no sign-up. You spoke at length today about the challenges bitcoin faces in the remittance market. Should consumers view Kipochi as a wallet provider or a remittance service? Remittance is really an old-fashioned way of looking at it. You’d go into the Western Union office and send an amount of money to Senora Gonzalez, or whoever, in some country, and she could go to an office down there and pick it up. Yes, it’s electronic, but the end user doesn’t do anything electronic. They deal person-to-person.So, that model doesn’t really work with bitcoin. It could work with bitcoin as a back-end, but bitcoin itself doesn’t have a way of providing an identifiable person behind it, so you need to send money to a bitcoin address somehow.[With] that model, unless it’s just Western Union and they change from using whatever electronic system they use now to use bitcoin as a back-end, things may be a little cheaper, but the savings is not really big.I see remittances being more like mobile money, where you load money onto the phone and send it to someone, who can then go and cash that money out. Given that the international market is so large, do you view Kipochi as a company that has competitors in the bitcoin wallet or remittance space? Our primary competitors are existing remittance systems.I mean, you could say that other bitcoin wallets like Blockchain are our competitors, but they’re really only our competitors in the established technical user space. People will argue that non-technical users can use bitcoin and download an Android wallet, but most of them are really, really complicated.Your average user starts getting scared if he sees all kinds of crazy code, which is what a bitcoin address is, it’s just a bunch of letters and numbers and it freaks people out.Maybe a phone number used to freak people out, but at least there was a period where you’d call your operator and say ‘I’d like to call Mr Smith in number 12′, they would do that. So, there was this period where people got used to the numbers.I think it’s actually the biggest stumbling block in the bitcoin community. When you think of remittance providers, you think of companies that need licensing to operate in different countries. Do bitcoin wallets need licensing if they’re used for international money sending? No jurisdiction so far has not come out with any rules regarding wallets. The exchange is what you have to go in and license. The exchange is the equivalent of the Western Union office. Here in the US, at Coinbase, we can get money in and out using our bank accounts.Developing countries and immigrants, they would prefer to go into an agent of some sort and do it in person. We’re working with banks and operators to make an easy way for people to exchange bitcoin for Kenyan shilling in their bank account. It’ll take time before that deal is confirmed, but we’re working with them.In the meantime, LocalBitcoins and similar kinds of services are where people are going to start using these systems. If you look at M-Pesa, you could go to a local agent and someone you trust, so they were able to grow quickly.It will be very easy for those businesses to offer bitcoin services, so I see a lot of new business coming from there. How does Kipochi plan to adapt its wallet offering to serve a remittance function?The wallet doesn’t handle the translation into the local currency [...] We’ll be announcing a South African exchange soon – it will be the first one where you can move money between your Kipochi wallet and the exchange.So, we’re looking at it in a way where we are helping exchanges. Whether those exchanges are online or not, it’s all the same for us, we provide an easy way for them to get money in and out of wallets so they can build their own business. Given that you’re casting such a wide net by focusing on the developing world, how differently are you approaching different markets? Our base wallet is going to be the same, but each exchange will be determined by the regulatory culture of each country.For example, in Kenya, people are a lot more used to dealing with mobile money, so I see Kenya being small agents first, then fairly quickly banks will offer a service where you can get money in and out of your wallet.We’re already talking with banks to do that down there. So, there will be a button where – I won’t mention the banks that we’re working with – but you’ll be able to move money in and out of your bank account. Let’s talk about Kenya. Its consumers are the most experienced with digital money, and therefore it would seem, most likely to understand your solution. Are you worried about not being able to replace solutions like M-Pesa for this reason? [Bitcoin]‘s cheaper, it’s international. The international part is the important part. For people sending money in Kenya, there’s no way we can compete with M-Pesa within the next year or so, probably in the longer-term, yes.But, there are a lot of problems with M-Pesa. They are very, very happy with themselves and trying to cut competitors out as much as possible. One of the pain points that comes up when talking about international markets is that those who might benefit the most from solutions like bitcoin might not have the technical knowledge to understand them or be worried about its volatility. How big is this issue?Initially it will be an issue, and for mass adoption it will need to be solved. But, there are enough people that can use the technology now. It won’t reach the grandmas just yet, until that volatility issue is solved.Education is a big issue. Most of our users are pretty much young well-educated tech-savvy guys in their twenties. I don’t have definite numbers on that, but that’s everyone I talk to.This interview was edited for clarity.Smartphone user image via Shutterstock. Pelle Braendgaard image via KipochiAfricaInside BitcoinskenyaKipochiremittanceSouth Africa
CoinDesk: Since Kipochi is mostly focused on developing markets, some readers may be unfamiliar with your service and its mission. Can you start by briefing us a bit on the big-picture vision for the company? Pelle Braendgaard: What we’re trying to do is, first of all, create a wallet that allows you to send and receive bitcoins. I think that most current wallets are just not very easy to use for your average user.We do that by modeling it very much on how mobile money systems work in Africa. There, you can send money with your mobile number, if you send money to someone, a wallet gets created in the background and you can just access it. So, there’s no sign-up. You spoke at length today about the challenges bitcoin faces in the remittance market. Should consumers view Kipochi as a wallet provider or a remittance service? Remittance is really an old-fashioned way of looking at it. You’d go into the Western Union office and send an amount of money to Senora Gonzalez, or whoever, in some country, and she could go to an office down there and pick it up. Yes, it’s electronic, but the end user doesn’t do anything electronic. They deal person-to-person.So, that model doesn’t really work with bitcoin. It could work with bitcoin as a back-end, but bitcoin itself doesn’t have a way of providing an identifiable person behind it, so you need to send money to a bitcoin address somehow.[With] that model, unless it’s just Western Union and they change from using whatever electronic system they use now to use bitcoin as a back-end, things may be a little cheaper, but the savings is not really big.I see remittances being more like mobile money, where you load money onto the phone and send it to someone, who can then go and cash that money out. Given that the international market is so large, do you view Kipochi as a company that has competitors in the bitcoin wallet or remittance space? Our primary competitors are existing remittance systems.I mean, you could say that other bitcoin wallets like Blockchain are our competitors, but they’re really only our competitors in the established technical user space. People will argue that non-technical users can use bitcoin and download an Android wallet, but most of them are really, really complicated.Your average user starts getting scared if he sees all kinds of crazy code, which is what a bitcoin address is, it’s just a bunch of letters and numbers and it freaks people out.Maybe a phone number used to freak people out, but at least there was a period where you’d call your operator and say ‘I’d like to call Mr Smith in number 12′, they would do that. So, there was this period where people got used to the numbers.I think it’s actually the biggest stumbling block in the bitcoin community. When you think of remittance providers, you think of companies that need licensing to operate in different countries. Do bitcoin wallets need licensing if they’re used for international money sending? No jurisdiction so far has not come out with any rules regarding wallets. The exchange is what you have to go in and license. The exchange is the equivalent of the Western Union office. Here in the US, at Coinbase, we can get money in and out using our bank accounts.Developing countries and immigrants, they would prefer to go into an agent of some sort and do it in person. We’re working with banks and operators to make an easy way for people to exchange bitcoin for Kenyan shilling in their bank account. It’ll take time before that deal is confirmed, but we’re working with them.In the meantime, LocalBitcoins and similar kinds of services are where people are going to start using these systems. If you look at M-Pesa, you could go to a local agent and someone you trust, so they were able to grow quickly.It will be very easy for those businesses to offer bitcoin services, so I see a lot of new business coming from there. How does Kipochi plan to adapt its wallet offering to serve a remittance function?The wallet doesn’t handle the translation into the local currency [...] We’ll be announcing a South African exchange soon – it will be the first one where you can move money between your Kipochi wallet and the exchange.So, we’re looking at it in a way where we are helping exchanges. Whether those exchanges are online or not, it’s all the same for us, we provide an easy way for them to get money in and out of wallets so they can build their own business. Given that you’re casting such a wide net by focusing on the developing world, how differently are you approaching different markets? Our base wallet is going to be the same, but each exchange will be determined by the regulatory culture of each country.For example, in Kenya, people are a lot more used to dealing with mobile money, so I see Kenya being small agents first, then fairly quickly banks will offer a service where you can get money in and out of your wallet.We’re already talking with banks to do that down there. So, there will be a button where – I won’t mention the banks that we’re working with – but you’ll be able to move money in and out of your bank account. Let’s talk about Kenya. Its consumers are the most experienced with digital money, and therefore it would seem, most likely to understand your solution. Are you worried about not being able to replace solutions like M-Pesa for this reason? [Bitcoin]‘s cheaper, it’s international. The international part is the important part. For people sending money in Kenya, there’s no way we can compete with M-Pesa within the next year or so, probably in the longer-term, yes.But, there are a lot of problems with M-Pesa. They are very, very happy with themselves and trying to cut competitors out as much as possible. One of the pain points that comes up when talking about international markets is that those who might benefit the most from solutions like bitcoin might not have the technical knowledge to understand them or be worried about its volatility. How big is this issue?Initially it will be an issue, and for mass adoption it will need to be solved. But, there are enough people that can use the technology now. It won’t reach the grandmas just yet, until that volatility issue is solved.Education is a big issue. Most of our users are pretty much young well-educated tech-savvy guys in their twenties. I don’t have definite numbers on that, but that’s everyone I talk to.This interview was edited for clarity.Smartphone user image via Shutterstock. Pelle Braendgaard image via KipochiAfricaInside BitcoinskenyaKipochiremittanceSouth AfricaOriginal author: Pete Rizzo
More than six months after the seizure and subsequent closure of the online black market Silk Road, the case against its alleged mastermind Ross Ulbricht presses on, most recently in the form of a 64-page court filing in which Ulbricht’s attorneys elaborated on how they plan to defend against the laundry list of charges brought against their client.However, while it may be easy for the bitcoin community to tune out the now regular developments in the case as a speed bump on the road to the technology’s wider adoption, such an escape is not available to Kirk and Lyn Ulbricht, the mother and father of the man who authorities allege used the alias Dread Pirate Roberts to commit a litany of crimes, and who is currently serving time in New York’s Metropolitan Detention Center as he awaits trial.Speaking to CoinDesk about a range of topics related to their lives and the case, the Ulbrichts frequently use words like “daunting”, “difficult” and “discouraging” to describe the challenge in balancing the needs of their personal lives, their Costa Rican vacation rental business, their son’s case, and, perhaps their most high-profile endeavor in the bitcoin community, FreeRoss.org – the website that seeks monetary donations for Ross Ulbricht’s defence.After the wave of initial press coverage, the Ulbrichts are still searching for ways to raise awareness about their son’s case and what they believe to be its larger ramifications for Internet commerce.Said Lyn Ulbricht:“[What's interesting about] the indictment is how they’re using the law. There’s a big problem with it and the impact that it could have on Internet freedom and freedom of speech.”According to Lyn and Kirk, the indictments against their son “hold a grave danger” for the Internet, one that could affect service providers and websites that host third parties, and by extension many of the major brands that rely on such laws to avoid substantial liabilities.Added Lyn:“One of the things that we’re really trying to emphasize right now is for people to realize that this case affects much more than just this one person, Ross Ulbricht.”‘Changed landscape’Issued in late March, the most recent court filing by Ross Ulbricht’s defence team notably used recent decisions from US regulatory bodies such as FinCEN and the IRS to argue that certain money-related criminal charges do not fit Ulbricht’s crimes.For the Ulbrichts, however, the most important takeaway is perhaps how their son’s case could impact Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, though they maintain hope that the case will be thrown out altogether.That 1996 ruling sought to shield Internet entrepreneurs from liability against the criminal actions of their users. Under this law, large online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay are treated as service providers, not publishers, and are therefore shielded from culpability should someone break a law when publishing via their service.Reads the official motion to dismiss:“[Under Section 230] lawsuits seeking to hold a service provider liable for its exercise of a publisher’s traditional editorial functions – such as deciding whether to publish, withdraw, postpone or alter content – are barred.”The rationale was that such restrictions would encourage these providers to censor users for fear of costly legal retribution should their platforms be misused.The motion continued to state why the defence believes the charges represent a new, and potentially worrying application of the law.“In fact, prior to this case, internet service providers, search engines, or browsers have never been charged criminally for permitting content or even hosting web sites that tolerate or even promote illegal activity – thereby providing those web sites and activities the very same ‘platform’ Mr. Ulbricht is alleged to have provided.”Explained Kirk Ulbricht:“If Ross is convicted, then it will change the whole landscape of the Internet and it will mean that service providers, website operators, hosts, third parties will be criminally liable for criminal clients.”As an example, the law has been used by online classifieds provider Craigslist, which in 2009 was not deemed liable for actions conducted by its users.As such, Lyn and Kirk’s comments suggest that their son’s legal defence is seeking to put forth the claim that Silk Road was a service provider, and should be eligible for protection under this law.It should be noted, though, that the prosecution must still prove that Ross Ulbricht was the user of the alias Dread Pirate Roberts and the administrator of the site, and that Section 230 does have an exception for federal criminal liability.Donations update
To date, Lyn says that FreeRoss.org has not received “a ton” of donations, but that they typically come in waves when press coverage is more pronounced.She stresses that, despite some claims, the family has not benefited from their son’s substantial bitcoin holdings – the roughly 144,000 BTC now in custody of the government and the subject of its own ongoing legal dispute.Said Lyn:“There is this perception that we have plenty of money because of bitcoin.”Contrary to this claim, Lyn states that “[donations] come to [the family] and basically go straight to the lawyer”. Further, she noted that the family currently owes a significant amount to lawyers and forensic experts.As an example of the high cost of litigation, she noted that the US government has submitted 10 terabytes of digital evidence so far in the case – an amount some estimates suggest is roughly equivalent to all the printed material collection of the US Library of Congress – all of which needs to be explored.Daily struggleLyn notes that “everything has been hard” since her son’s arrest, but that she and her husband are preferring to take things day by day.She described her current feelings toward her son’s situation, stating:“It’s a long haul, sometimes we’re encouraged and sometimes it’s just, you know, we see Ross every week and it’s very difficult. [...] It can be frightening, then other times you try to take it one day at a time and do whatever we can to help him and also get the word out there.”She also talked about her steep learning curve with all the aspects around the management of FreeRoss.org. Prior to launching the site, she says that she was not familiar with bitcoin, Facebook or many of the other tools she now uses regularly.The family has received help from volunteers who have dedicated time to assisting their efforts, Lyn added.Adjusting to prison lifeLyn also spoke about Ross’s mental state while he is in prison awaiting trial. So far, she indicates that her son is trying his best to maintain his spirits, though she says he is without certain privileges. For instance, he has been restricted from accessing email.She said:“He’s giving a lot of heart to the people in there, it’s just heartbreaking to see people with families – people who he feels shouldn’t be there – so he’s trying to do his best to be a positive force [...] while he’s there.”Ross’s floor in the prison is one of the more “mellow and peaceful ones”, Lyn said, adding that her son is doing his best to contribute to this environment:If someone is agitated or angry or upset, he’ll talk to them. He’s trying to be a good influence, and that’s just kind of who he is. He’s trying to make the best of a very, very hard situation.”Experience with bitcoin communityLyn also told CoinDesk about her recent experience at the Texas Bitcoin Conference in March, which she described as positive:“They were just very happy to have me at the conference, most everyone I met was very gracious and supportive and [showed] a lot of compassion – really wonderful people.”Still, she indicated her belief that the bitcoin and wider Internet community should be more aware of her son’s court case:“I understand why people are like ‘it’s not my kid, why would I help him?’ But, it’s really the case itself, it looks to be that it’s going to be precedent-setting and affect a lot of aspects of the Internet and Internet commerce.”Lyn added: “It’s going to be quite a battle”; and her comments suggests it is one that she and her husband are seeking more support in fighting.Images courtesy of FreeRoss.orglawRoss UlbrichtSilk RoadOriginal author: Pete Rizzo
Take out your smartphones and get those palms warmed up for a scanning, because it’s time for CoinDesk’s weekly bitcoin ATM roundup.
After today’s price slump you probably can’t buy bitcoins with your Chinese bank account and your local face-to-face trader has gone into hiding.If you’re lucky, though, a nearby machine will help you out.Every week, these bitcoin-trading machines grow in number. This week’s roundup includes more exotic locales, unexpected events, and at least three altcoins.Bitcoiniacs and Cointrader.netCanadian companies Bitcoiniacs and Cointrader.net, who together launched the world’s first Robocoin bitcoin ATM in Vancouver last year, announced they would be expanding their venture globally and have partnered with several bitcoin groups around the world. Their machines are currently being rolled out in the locations below.London, UKOne of the first partnerships is with UK company QuickBitcoin, who installed their Robocoin in e-cig and coffee shop The Vape Lab, near Liverpool Street Station. The machine is actually London’s third electronic bitcoin dispenser, joining another Robocoin and a Lamassu machine. Proprietors Pierre Durand and Jonathan Cadeilhan said:“We are very happy to welcome their first bitcoin ATM of the UK into our shop, we put all our efforts to keep the The Vape Lab at the forefront of ingenuity and creativity.”“The process of buying and selling bitcoin in the UK just got much easier,” said Cointrader’s co-founder Mitchell Demeter. “We now offer our clients four different ways to trade.” 
Bucharest, RomaniaAnother of the joint venture’s Robocoin machines was installed in Bucharest, Romania, on 18th April in collaboration with local group Bitcoin Romania. It’s reportedly the first in continental Europe.The group said its machine is currently undergoing tests, and they hope to have it fully operational soon.Texas, USAEntrepreneur Sheldon Weisfeld is also taking a Robocoin on tour for his company Coinvault, driving around Texas with the machine in a trailer. Coinvault has already installed two Robocoin machines in Texas, one at the Central Texas Gun Works in Austin, and Brave New Books bookstore near UT Austin.Sheldon from @CoinVaultATM getting interviewed. #bitcoin @Vtechp @bitxbitxbitcoin @jamesduchenne @TXCoinitiative pic.twitter.com/PUcGlPUqLA
– Kevin Moore (@aggiebitcoin) 12 April 2014Hong KongHong Kong already has two one-way Lamassu kiosks, but it’s about to take the next step. Company Coinnect is debuting a two-way Genesis1 machine it calls a ‘Bitcoin Exchange Kiosk’ at its training room at 100 Cyberport Road, Hong Kong on 25th April.Whistler, BC CanadaLogicoins has deployed a Genesis1 machine in a flotation therapy center in the tourist resort town of Whistler, British Columbia.The machine, which also trades in litecoin and dogecoin, is part of Logicoins’ ‘Resort Project’ that aims to put bitcoin ATMs in locations where people are also likely to spend digital currencies: namely, vacation destinations. Moscow, RussiaIt may not be permanently installed yet, but for a country usually famous for bitcoin prohibitions it’s a start. At the Bitcoin Conference Russia on 23rd April, local company CoinSpot demonstrated a Lamassu one-way kiosk to participants.A top Russian Bitcoin news source: @CoinSpot has brought one of the first Bitcoin ATM machines to Moscow! pic.twitter.com/9cCndiktcI
– Roger Ver (@rogerkver) 23 April 2014Had enough bitcoin ATM stories?Then we have a bonus item for you. Not only does London have three functioning bitcoin kiosks, it seems even the altcoins are joining in the fun with this feathercoin vending machine. What’s more, it even accepts actual coins!. Stay tuned for next week’s roundup, and catch up with all our ATM news right here.ATMsMoney-Spinners
After today’s price slump you probably can’t buy bitcoins with your Chinese bank account and your local face-to-face trader has gone into hiding.If you’re lucky, though, a nearby machine will help you out.Every week, these bitcoin-trading machines grow in number. This week’s roundup includes more exotic locales, unexpected events, and at least three altcoins.Bitcoiniacs and Cointrader.netCanadian companies Bitcoiniacs and Cointrader.net, who together launched the world’s first Robocoin bitcoin ATM in Vancouver last year, announced they would be expanding their venture globally and have partnered with several bitcoin groups around the world. Their machines are currently being rolled out in the locations below.London, UKOne of the first partnerships is with UK company QuickBitcoin, who installed their Robocoin in e-cig and coffee shop The Vape Lab, near Liverpool Street Station. The machine is actually London’s third electronic bitcoin dispenser, joining another Robocoin and a Lamassu machine. Proprietors Pierre Durand and Jonathan Cadeilhan said:“We are very happy to welcome their first bitcoin ATM of the UK into our shop, we put all our efforts to keep the The Vape Lab at the forefront of ingenuity and creativity.”“The process of buying and selling bitcoin in the UK just got much easier,” said Cointrader’s co-founder Mitchell Demeter. “We now offer our clients four different ways to trade.” Bucharest, RomaniaAnother of the joint venture’s Robocoin machines was installed in Bucharest, Romania, on 18th April in collaboration with local group Bitcoin Romania. It’s reportedly the first in continental Europe.The group said its machine is currently undergoing tests, and they hope to have it fully operational soon.Texas, USAEntrepreneur Sheldon Weisfeld is also taking a Robocoin on tour for his company Coinvault, driving around Texas with the machine in a trailer. Coinvault has already installed two Robocoin machines in Texas, one at the Central Texas Gun Works in Austin, and Brave New Books bookstore near UT Austin.Sheldon from @CoinVaultATM getting interviewed. #bitcoin @Vtechp @bitxbitxbitcoin @jamesduchenne @TXCoinitiative pic.twitter.com/PUcGlPUqLA– Kevin Moore (@aggiebitcoin) 12 April 2014Hong KongHong Kong already has two one-way Lamassu kiosks, but it’s about to take the next step. Company Coinnect is debuting a two-way Genesis1 machine it calls a ‘Bitcoin Exchange Kiosk’ at its training room at 100 Cyberport Road, Hong Kong on 25th April.Whistler, BC CanadaLogicoins has deployed a Genesis1 machine in a flotation therapy center in the tourist resort town of Whistler, British Columbia.The machine, which also trades in litecoin and dogecoin, is part of Logicoins’ ‘Resort Project’ that aims to put bitcoin ATMs in locations where people are also likely to spend digital currencies: namely, vacation destinations. Moscow, RussiaIt may not be permanently installed yet, but for a country usually famous for bitcoin prohibitions it’s a start. At the Bitcoin Conference Russia on 23rd April, local company CoinSpot demonstrated a Lamassu one-way kiosk to participants.A top Russian Bitcoin news source: @CoinSpot has brought one of the first Bitcoin ATM machines to Moscow! pic.twitter.com/9cCndiktcI
– Roger Ver (@rogerkver) 23 April 2014Had enough bitcoin ATM stories?Then we have a bonus item for you. Not only does London have three functioning bitcoin kiosks, it seems even the altcoins are joining in the fun with this feathercoin vending machine. What’s more, it even accepts actual coins!. Stay tuned for next week’s roundup, and catch up with all our ATM news right here.ATMsMoney-Spinners
Original author: Jon Southurst
Original author: Jaroslaw Adamowski