Original author: Jon Southurst
Coin News
Previous year’s bitcoin prices. Source: CoinDesk BPIThis division of a bitcoin may seem infinitesimal now, but, given that the price of bitcoin is up about four times what it was just a year ago, and may one day be worth thousands of dollars, it makes sense.Understanding the current unitsRight now, breaking down bitcoin below the very understandable price-per-coin concept isn’t easy to understand.From memory, is it easy to recall what a μBTC (microbitcoin) is? Or that a mBTC (millibitcoin) is 0.001 of a bitcoin? Do we really need a bunch of different hard-to-remember names and acronyms?There is a logic within the system, but such scientific nomenclature is anything but user-friendly.Bitcoin is digital, so computers can divide it very simply, but it’s not so easy for the average human brain, especially when looking at the smaller units, therefore a simpler system may be needed to help take bitcoin into the mainstream.Travis Skweres, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange CoinMKT, said:“Bitcoin is capped. It’s limited. Which means it needs to be chopped up into bits. [And] we need to make it easy to understand how much each of those bits are worth.”Bitcoin’s marketing problemPeople roughly have a better idea of what they are getting in terms of dogecoin because it isn’t worth nearly as much as bitcoin.One thousand DOGE has a value of around $0.60. It fluctuates here and there, but 1,000 is a rounded number that most can relate to. That’s one reason why dogecoin is now increasingly popular in transactions, especially in tipping.Bitcoin seems to continue to have a marketing problem. The logo for bitcoin is another example of where important, final decisions have yet to be made, resulting in more confusing concepts about how bitcoin should be visually represented.Skweres, who concedes that bitcoin isn’t quite ready for the mainstream, believes that these sorts of issues need to be addressed so that the average person doesn’t become overly confused:“It’s all about marketing, how can you make it as easy as possible for the general public to understand?”Size mattersNo one knows how high (or low) bitcoin’s price will be in the future. Because of this, careful considerations must be put in place to make sure that the bit – or whatever the community decides a bitcoin’s unit of account should be – is neither too large nor too small.The wavering value of bitcoin might be why there hasn’t been a consensus decision yet.However, the rise of venture capital investment in bitcoin, and especially in consumer-oriented BTC companies, means that leaders in the space need to make a decision on proper units of account for bitcoin soon.This would avoid baffling potential customers with different terminology based on the whims of individual companies calculating bitcoin values for users. 
Source: CoinDesk State of Bitcoin Q1 2014Dan Held, the Director of Product at Blockchain, agrees with the bit concept, but that caution should be exercised when making a final decision on the subject of bitcoin’s units below the level of 1 BTC:“We should have a maximum of one sub-unit for bitcoin. [But] the size of sub-unit should be chosen carefully as that one sub-unit will need to have lasting understandable value.”Bitcoin money cloud image via ShutterstockBitsDan HelddivisibilityTravis SkweresunitsOriginal author: Daniel Cawrey
Original author: Stan Higgins
Original author: Stan Higgins
Steve Beauregard is the CEO and founder of GoCoin, a merchant-focused digital currency gateway that offers businesses the ability to accept digital currencies such as BTC, LTC and DOGE.GoCoin raised $1.5m in funding led by Bitcoin Shop this March to further its goal of expanding the use of digital currencies around the world, and in particular, in emerging markets.Beauregard recently spoke about his work during the “Bitcoin Merchant On-Ramp” panel at Inside Bitcoins NYC on 7th April as part of a discussion that addressed digital marketing techniques, among other topics. There, CoinDesk sat down with Beauregard for a conversation that touched on his company’s interest in altcoins, its assessment of the international digital currency market and more.
CoinDesk: There’s a number of bitcoin companies competing in the merchant space. GoCoin was a bit of a latecomer, as it was founded in July of last year. Why did you believe GoCoin could compete in the space? Steve Beauregard: I think within a couple of years there will be five to 10 companies like ours. There’s plenty of space at this point. You’re also going to start to see payment processors vertically align with which verticals they’ll serve.So, like political campaigns are their own angle. We’ve done some political fundraisers with bitcoin. There’s specific needs, they need to collect certain information, they need to be able to verify who the donor is, and so that’s sort of a niche that we’ve started to carve out that’s more specific.I think that where you focus your sales efforts is where you’re going to have your most success. We’re looking at international businesses, we’ve got ourselves organized as an international company that’s serving Europe, Southeast Asia and then also the Americas. Looking beyond digital currencies, which company or companies do you hold up as an ideal for where you want your company to be in the space? Steve Beauregard: I definitely think of PayPal, that’s sort of the obvious one. That said, I think that we’ve taken more of a laser-focus on serving merchants, we’re not trying to be all things to all people.I think Coinbase serves many masters if you will. They’re taking the wallet, they’re doing cold storage, they’re more in my mind a consumer play, and ‘Oh by the way, we also serve merchants.’We take more of a ‘Hey, we’re going to be high-service for merchants, provide solutions for high-volume online operators.’ Your company has also been one of the more high-profile supports of altcoins, adding LTC and DOGE support. Can you speak to the business case for altcoins and why they make sense as part of GoCoin’s strategy? Steve Beauregard: I think that what’s unique about the other coins is the characteristics of the people who own those coins are different than bitcoin. Bitcoin has a very tech roots, but I see dogecoin skews a bit younger.Litecoin sort of became, the miners that are mining litecoin are the ones that missed out on the early days of bitcoin, and so, there’s a lot of people who started mining litecoin because they could make a lot more money mining litecoin than mining bitcoin.They see their money a bit differently, and I think they’re more willing to transact with litecoin in many cases than they are with bitcoin. Why do you believe other bitcoin businesses have been hesitant to reach out to or otherwise embrace some of the more prominent altcoin communities? Steve Beauregard: First of all, some people believe that there’s already enough education you have to do to get people to understand bitcoin, and when you get into litecoin it becomes sort of dilutive.I think that’s one thing, I also think that we’re probably the first company to look at coins as being just another currency and we designed our system from the ground up to be able to bolt on other currencies as we see fit.So, I think that from our standpoint we’ve designed the system in such a way that is very flexible. I doubt that the first movers in the space designed their systems with the same considerations. I think they built their platforms for bitcoin, while they could take on others, i think it would be very disruptive to their existing base. Do you see bitcoin as the long-term frontrunner in the space? Steve Beauregard: I’m agnostic about it. I’m a believer in digital currencies, and i think that each has a characteristic that gives it value.I like that litecoin is sort of more fair, you don’t need a ton of money to be able to mine litecoin. It doesn’t take as much power and as much electricity. Some of the other coins that are proof of stake have interesting characteristics.Obviously, bitcoin is the gold standard at this point, but I remember Napster. Speaking about international markets, there’s been a lot of discussion about how underbanked consumers can benefit from digital currencies. But, there’s also the awareness that these same individuals might not have the tech-savvy to embrace these solutions. What’s your assessment of this gap? Steve Beauregard: I still think it’s substantial. I don’t really worry about remittances per se, but what’s more interesting to me is the onramp for shoppers.People who live in Southeast Asia, they can’t shop on Western websites because they don’t have a credit card. I would like to see these tools get to the point where they can shop on these sites, and that there’s enough sites that they want to shop on. The tipping point is the onramp of getting coins in their hands.I think ATMs will make a big dent, the ability to put cash in and get coins and be able to go shop. I think that’s going to do quite well in Singapore and some of the other more technical countries. Since your business has a focus on serving Asian markets, can you speak to the situation in this region given the uncertainty with which these regulators are approaching the issue? Steve Beauregard: I’ll speak more to Singapore. The monetary authority there has been very receptive. They’ve given the same buyer beware warnings, and the tax regulators have given pretty clear guidance there as well.I think China is the wild card. Thailand’s interesting since they did a reversal, since they’re central bank called bitcoin illegal and they’ve since reversed on that.Some of the other markets, I haven’t spent as much time analyzing, since they haven’t developed as quickly as I thought they might.This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.Image via LinkedIndogecoinGoCoinInside Bitcoinslitecoin
CoinDesk: There’s a number of bitcoin companies competing in the merchant space. GoCoin was a bit of a latecomer, as it was founded in July of last year. Why did you believe GoCoin could compete in the space? Steve Beauregard: I think within a couple of years there will be five to 10 companies like ours. There’s plenty of space at this point. You’re also going to start to see payment processors vertically align with which verticals they’ll serve.So, like political campaigns are their own angle. We’ve done some political fundraisers with bitcoin. There’s specific needs, they need to collect certain information, they need to be able to verify who the donor is, and so that’s sort of a niche that we’ve started to carve out that’s more specific.I think that where you focus your sales efforts is where you’re going to have your most success. We’re looking at international businesses, we’ve got ourselves organized as an international company that’s serving Europe, Southeast Asia and then also the Americas. Looking beyond digital currencies, which company or companies do you hold up as an ideal for where you want your company to be in the space? Steve Beauregard: I definitely think of PayPal, that’s sort of the obvious one. That said, I think that we’ve taken more of a laser-focus on serving merchants, we’re not trying to be all things to all people.I think Coinbase serves many masters if you will. They’re taking the wallet, they’re doing cold storage, they’re more in my mind a consumer play, and ‘Oh by the way, we also serve merchants.’We take more of a ‘Hey, we’re going to be high-service for merchants, provide solutions for high-volume online operators.’ Your company has also been one of the more high-profile supports of altcoins, adding LTC and DOGE support. Can you speak to the business case for altcoins and why they make sense as part of GoCoin’s strategy? Steve Beauregard: I think that what’s unique about the other coins is the characteristics of the people who own those coins are different than bitcoin. Bitcoin has a very tech roots, but I see dogecoin skews a bit younger.Litecoin sort of became, the miners that are mining litecoin are the ones that missed out on the early days of bitcoin, and so, there’s a lot of people who started mining litecoin because they could make a lot more money mining litecoin than mining bitcoin.They see their money a bit differently, and I think they’re more willing to transact with litecoin in many cases than they are with bitcoin. Why do you believe other bitcoin businesses have been hesitant to reach out to or otherwise embrace some of the more prominent altcoin communities? Steve Beauregard: First of all, some people believe that there’s already enough education you have to do to get people to understand bitcoin, and when you get into litecoin it becomes sort of dilutive.I think that’s one thing, I also think that we’re probably the first company to look at coins as being just another currency and we designed our system from the ground up to be able to bolt on other currencies as we see fit.So, I think that from our standpoint we’ve designed the system in such a way that is very flexible. I doubt that the first movers in the space designed their systems with the same considerations. I think they built their platforms for bitcoin, while they could take on others, i think it would be very disruptive to their existing base. Do you see bitcoin as the long-term frontrunner in the space? Steve Beauregard: I’m agnostic about it. I’m a believer in digital currencies, and i think that each has a characteristic that gives it value.I like that litecoin is sort of more fair, you don’t need a ton of money to be able to mine litecoin. It doesn’t take as much power and as much electricity. Some of the other coins that are proof of stake have interesting characteristics.Obviously, bitcoin is the gold standard at this point, but I remember Napster. Speaking about international markets, there’s been a lot of discussion about how underbanked consumers can benefit from digital currencies. But, there’s also the awareness that these same individuals might not have the tech-savvy to embrace these solutions. What’s your assessment of this gap? Steve Beauregard: I still think it’s substantial. I don’t really worry about remittances per se, but what’s more interesting to me is the onramp for shoppers.People who live in Southeast Asia, they can’t shop on Western websites because they don’t have a credit card. I would like to see these tools get to the point where they can shop on these sites, and that there’s enough sites that they want to shop on. The tipping point is the onramp of getting coins in their hands.I think ATMs will make a big dent, the ability to put cash in and get coins and be able to go shop. I think that’s going to do quite well in Singapore and some of the other more technical countries. Since your business has a focus on serving Asian markets, can you speak to the situation in this region given the uncertainty with which these regulators are approaching the issue? Steve Beauregard: I’ll speak more to Singapore. The monetary authority there has been very receptive. They’ve given the same buyer beware warnings, and the tax regulators have given pretty clear guidance there as well.I think China is the wild card. Thailand’s interesting since they did a reversal, since they’re central bank called bitcoin illegal and they’ve since reversed on that.Some of the other markets, I haven’t spent as much time analyzing, since they haven’t developed as quickly as I thought they might.This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.Image via LinkedIndogecoinGoCoinInside BitcoinslitecoinOriginal author: Pete Rizzo
Original author: Danny Bradbury
But, the film emphasizes that the regulatory battles will play out as feats in the greater endeavor to make Main Street comfortable with bitcoin, and that regulatory setbacks and scandals tied to shady players like Mt Gox and Silk Road shouldn’t blind anyone to the advantages, potential and fundamentals of the technology.Daniel said in the panel following: “We wanted to stress, too, that bitcoin is a piece of software and it’s public domain. So anything that you tie to it, any externalities, don’t actually have to do with it.It’s just a computer program. People are using it a lot of different ways, and that’s what we tried to show, that there’s a lot of different ways people are using it. So, to tie it to just one-particular-use cases, is a little bit short-sighted, I think.”Among the more prominent members of the cast are Shrem; CEO of former exchange TradeHill Jered Kenna; developer Gavin Andresen; bitcoin evangelist and Coinapult co-founder Erik Voorhees; Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpeles; and bitcoin angel investor and evangelist Roger Ver.Additional appearances are made by Yifu Guo, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Ryan Singer, Brian Armstrong, Fred Ehrsam, Tony Gallippi, Stephen Pair and Vitalik Buterin.Panel discussionThe panel following the show included Shrem and the Mross brothers, and was moderated by New York Times financial markets reporter Nathaniel Popper.The evening seemed as much an entrance for bitcoin as it was for Shrem, who has been held under house arrest since January. He was given temporary reprieve to attend the screening.Shrem was indicted last week on money laundering charges tied to Silk Road. Having made it clear throughout the film that the case doesn’t mean the end for him and bitcoin, he said in the panel:“Bitcoin belongs to everyone, there’s a place for bitcoin in the heart of every person. Someday – 10 years from now, 20 years from now – bitcoin will be powering underlying infrastructure of our banking system, or the way I send money to you, or to me, or from one person in China to pay for a surgery that needs to happen at 2:00 in the morning on a Saturday night, or for anything.”He added: “I think involvement can be you sitting at your computer or it can be you running a multi-billion dollar company. Everyone’s involved … So really, I hate to call it the people’s currency, because I’ll be called a communist, but it is the people’s currency, at the end of the day.”lifestyleUSAOriginal author: Tanaya Macheel
Casares explained that Xapo added the product due to demand from current customers who have wanted a way to spend the roughly 10% of their funds (on average) they keep in the company’s hot wallets. The remainder is stored securely in cold storage.Said Casares:“I think that this product is for existing customers who are asking for it. I expect a lot of the current customers to be using it.”Casares indicated that the ability for users to connect multiple cards to accounts may be added in the future, should customers request the feature.How it worksCasares said that Xapo receives all transactions when they are initiated by card users at the point of sale.From there, the company analyzes the account to determine whether there are enough funds to support the transaction. If so, the company authorizes the purchase immediately and sells the requisite amount of BTC via bitcoin exchange Bitstamp.
Merchants receive their payment in local currency and, to MasterCard, Casares said, the transaction appears just like any other local transaction.Casares went on to explain that the offering is different than the available prepaid options from Coincard and Cryptex, which need to be preloaded with bitcoins and that, he said, require users to manually convert bitcoins to local currency before purchase.Explained Casares:“This one is just like a debit card, because it debits from the wallet directly. You don’t have to be thinking about funding it and how much and when the conversion happens.”Xapo users, by comparison, only need to move bitcoin from their cold storage vaults to their company-issued hot wallets when more funds are required.Consumer focusThough best known for its secure bitcoin vault storage product, Casares told CoinDesk that the Xapo Debit Card is consistent with his company’s mission of becoming a viable, consumer-focused bitcoin bank.Said Casares:“We’re not a wallet company or a payment company. We are a bitcoin wallet, we are a bitcoin bank. Consumers need convenience and that’s why we provide our MasterCard debit card and why we will keep adding products based on our customers want.”Casares went on to stress Xapo’s commitment to consumers, stating that the company will never have merchant customers or offer merchant services.The launch follows Xapo’s 13th March announcement that it raised $20m in funding from Benchmark, Fortress Investment Group and Ribbit Capital.Images via Joshua Alvarez of The Hatch Agencydebit cardmastercardxapoOriginal author: Pete Rizzo