Tag Archives: news

  1. Home   /  Posts tagged news" ( Page2 )
12 Jul 0

Analysts: Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF to pass SEC approval

As the Winklevoss twin’s highly-anticipated, not to mention first of its kind bitcoin exchange traded fund, inches its way towards becoming a reality, ETF analysts are weighing on the likeliness of the fund securing the SEC’s approval. 
Chief Investment Officer of ETF.com, Dave Nadig, tells International Business Times: 
“I don’t see very much in the way of impediments to it at this point, “everything I see in the Bitcoin filing is by the book so it would be a surprise if they officially deny it. If they pocket veto it and kind of ignore it for a while… that’s a possibility.”
The Winklevoss twins, who have claimed to own as many as 1% of all bitcoins in circulation, recently revealed in their fourth filing since the ETF’s initial proposal that the fund will trade on the NASDAQ under the ‘COIN’ symbol.
The twins’ bitcoin ETF seeks to appeal to investors who want to get in on the digital currency under regulated conditions, which further opens the door to large institutional investors who cannot yet hold bitcoin directly on brokerage statements. Furthermore, the fund hopes to mitigate the risk often associated with storing the digital currency while providing a template for tax reporting. 
ETFtrends web editor, Todd Shriber explains: 
“If the Bitcoin ETF is classified as a commodity ETF, the rate of tax they’ll be paying will much higher than if they bought a currency ETF.”
ETFtrends.com editor and president of Global Trends Investments, Tom Lydon says that given the twins’ openness about the status of the ETF, which can only go so far due to SEC laws and procedures, the likeness of it securing approval is highly likely: 
“I would feel strongly it’s going to happen it may not be as soon as people would hope, I wouldn’t imagine they would continue talking about it and making progress if in fact it would not come to fruition.”
Lydon tells IBT that the largest impediment in terms of acquiring investors will lie in the education of those interested parties. However, thankfully, he adds, “they’re pretty good at explaining what Bitcoin is.”

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
, ,
adoption, Articles, news, Regulation
27 Jun 0

Major Italian newspaper il Giornale accepting Bitcoin for digital subscriptions

(NEWSBTC) A major Italian newspaper outlet is apparently now accepting bitcoin
for digital subscriptions, we’re learning from a reader email this
morning. The bitcoin logo is boldly visible on il Giornale‘s digital subscriptions page [link], where nearby it says, “The Journal is the first newspaper in Italy and in Europe who accepts payments in Bitcoin.”
The outlet is one of the top 20 daily papers in Italy, with a last reported circulation number of 678,000 readers in 2012.
il Giornale‘s digital subscriptions allow readers to view
all news categories and articles in PDF files optimized for Android
smartphones, iPads, and other tablet devices.
The cost? 0.42 cents per day with an annual subscription.
ilgironale bitcoin subscription
Despite the fact that il Giornale may be the first major newspaper in Italy and Europe to accept bitcoin, they aren’t the first in the world.
Here in the United States, the Chicago Sun-Times announced they would be accepting bitcoin payments for subscriptions at the start of April of this year in a move designed “to keep the Sun-Times current and evolving with changing technology.”
Despite the news, many in the community weren’t exactly surprised,
given the paper’s previous interest in the digital currency. In early
February, the paper put up a bitcoin paywall as a test of how users
would interact with using bitcoin (users had the option of donating to a
non-profit). The results were overwhelmingly positive, with 713 donors.

While we haven’t exactly seen widespread adoption of bitcoin for
digital news subscriptions, it’s nice to see it getting a start in Italy.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
, , , , ,
adoption, Articles, bitcoin, Europe, italy, lifestyle, news
Close up of Sweden Flag
19 Jun 0

Swedish central bank acknowledges benefits of cryptocurrencies

Close up of Sweden Flag(CoinDesk) Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, has published a brief economic commentary on the impact of digital currencies on the retail payments market.
The document outlines the basics behind digital currencies and focuses on bitcoin, but it also mentions some altcoins such as litecoin and dogecoin. Aside from a relatively basic introduction to digital currencies and background information for novices, the document also sheds light on the state of bitcoin in Sweden and the bank’s attitude towards bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Take-up remains limited

The Sveriges Riksbank report found that the use of digital currencies in Sweden remains very limited. The authors point out that it is particularly difficult to obtain accurate information on the use of digital currencies in different countries, hence most analyses are usually limited to the total issue value and global usage. The report tries to isolate Sweden and examine transactions limited to Swedish krona (SEK) exchanges. Even so, the data may not be complete, as it only deals with transactions involving SEK.
“On average, around 212 bitcoins per day were converted to or from SEK during the period December 2012 to May 2014 at an average value of just over SEK 266,000. However, the daily value varied substantially, between SEK 2,500 and SEK 2.5 million, depending on the exchange rate and the number of bitcoins exchanged,” the report notes.
The authors caution that the statistics are incomplete, as there is no data on transactions between private persons and other movements of funds that could be relevant. Therefore, they concede, the exchange statistics may underestimate the use of bitcoin in Sweden. However, the report concludes that the values involved in cryptocurrency transactions pale in comparison to traditional transactions. This is how bitcoin stacks up:

“Households make daily payments using cards and cash totalling 8 million in volume and to a total value of over SEK 3 billion. Even if the use of bitcoin in Sweden were to be much larger than the average exchange value of just over SEK 266,000, this is a relatively low value in relation to other types of payment. At present, there only seem to be around 25 swedish companies accepting Bitcoin.”

Risky but innovative

Although the report contains the usual set of caveats found in most central bank statements involving digital currencies, it also includes some relatively positive commentary. The report states that digital currencies are one of many innovations in the Swedish payments market and like other innovations, digital currency is essentially positive:

“It can contribute to meeting new payment needs and to making payments cheaper and more secure. Those who choose to use a particular payment service can be expected to do so because it gives them an added value in relation to other payment services. This also applies to virtual currencies, which can for instance make some cross-border payments simpler, faster and cheaper. Another advantage is if the payer does not need to share sensitive information, such as card number or bank account number, with the payee.”

Cryptocurrencies may also be better suited for micropayments made via websites, the report further notes. Disadvantages associated with digital currency platforms include lack of clear regulation, lack of consumer protection regulation, volatility, security risks and the risk of using digital currencies for illicit transactions. The report concludes that the impact of any innovation depends on how much it is used. The use of digital currencies is “very limited” both in terms of the number of users, the number of transactions and the value involved in said transactions. Therefore both the positive and negative effects of digital currencies on the payment market in Sweden are currently negligible.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
, , , , ,
Analysis, Articles, cryptocurrency, Europe, news, Regulation, sweden
shutterstock 97676123 300x185
10 Jun 0

First Bitcoin hearings at the Italian Parliament tomorrow

Tomorrow, in the Aldo Moro meeting room of the Italian Parliament there will be a consultation on the open source Bitcoin protocol. The technical aspects will be introduced by:
  • Sebastiano Scrofina – CEO and Co-Founder at Dropis
  • Guido Baroncini Turricchia – CoinCapital’s Partner
  • Francesco Vatalaro – Università Di Tor Vergata
  • Massimo Bernaschi – CNR
  • Ferdinando Ametrano – Banca IMI – Università Bicocca
  • Roberto Tudini – Studio Tudini&Tudini
In the second part there will be a round table that will allow for the comparison of ideas and the points of view of different stakeholder. The event is organized by the On. Quintarelli and CoinCapital, bringing the Bitcoin inside the walls of the Italian Parliament allowing to highlight the risks and the opportunities.
Offering to the parliament a first overview and a neutral basis to start an aware and balanced discussion.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
, , ,
Articles, italy, news, Regulation, wearesatoshi
stallman dollar two
8 Jun 0

Which celebrities are getting into Bitcoin?

(TheCoinFront) Here in the Bitcoin world, we’ve built up our own celebrities. Figures like Andreas Antonopolous, Erik Voorhees, Stefan Molyneux, Brock Pierce, Charlie Shrem, and Gavin Andressen should, for better or worse, be familiar names to all Bitcoin aficionados.
But
there are many celebrities in the outside world as well who have begun
embracing Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Here are just a few of them:

Ashton Kutcher

Kutcher may be best known for playing
simple-minded characters like Kelso from That 70’s Show or Jesse from
Dude Where’s My Car, but in reality he’s anything but.Through his fund, A-Grade Investments, he’s invested in companies like
BitPay, which allows merchants to accept Bitcoin payments. He’s also
invested in Skype, Airbnb, and Foursquare, among others.

Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg is an active internet user, with a
presence on Twitter with tens of thousands of tweets, and a Reddit
account with hundreds of thousands of karma points. In fact, on Reddit
he has even been made the moderator of the subreddit /r/trees, devoted
to, what else, pot.Last December, Snoop posted a tweet saying his new album
would be “available in bitcoin and delivered in a drone”. Coinbase
noticed the tweet and responded that “we could make the Bitcoin part a
reality for you.” While Snoop said he wanted “to make it happen,” it
never materialized.

Richard Sherman

Sherman, the cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks
football team, has an online store on his website. At the beginning of
January, he posted the following on his Facebook page:”For all you techies out there, I’m now accepting Bitcoins at my online
store http://store.richardsherman25.com. I hear it’s the currency of the
future.”

Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel might not be a celebrity in the same light as the above people, but he’s a major player in the world nonetheless.The cofounder of Paypal has been a believer in the decentralization of
money for much longer than Bitcoin has been around, and has openly
admitted he thinks Bitcoin has the power to change the world.

Richard Branson

The well-known billionaire head of Virgin Inc
began accepting Bitcoin as payment for his Virgin Galactic service, a
space tourism company.He has also invested a significant amount of his personal wealth in
Bitcoin, which makes him one of the more high profile Bitcoin holders.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
, , ,
adoption, Articles, bitcoin, news, wearesatoshi
Arthur Chapman 3
7 Jun 2

Seller seeks $2 Million in Bitcoin for real Yukon gold mine

yukon gold mine

(CoinDesk) The unnamed parent company of a Yukon, Canada, gold mine is now for
sale on high-end bitcoin-only marketplace BitPremier for an asking price
of $2 million in BTC.

The listing indicates that the more than 3,000 BTC
price tag includes the gold mine itself and all its associated assets,
including $1 million worth of actual mining equipment, the rights to one
mining property and the lease agreement to another mining lot.
The ad suggests that the purchase could be a profitable one for the buyer as well, stating:

“Any new buyer could recoup their initial investment in as little as two mining seasons.”

The
listing indicates that the company earns $1m annually in sales and has
the potential to produce 3,000 to 4,000 ounces of gold per year.
In
a bid to encourage more novice bidders, the current owner further said
he is willing to stay on to manage the property for up to five years to
ensure the operation runs smoothly.

Record-setting sale

The listing is just one of the many high-end items that have been listed on BitPremier’s website since it launched in May 2013, but if completed, it would be the largest facilitated by the e-commerce company to date.
The most expensive purchase on the platform was completed in March, when a villa in Bali, Indonesia sold for $500,000 in what was believed to be the single largest bitcoin purchase ever.
If completed, the $2m gold mine sale would surpass this figure, potentially setting two new records in the process.

Bitcoin meets gold

Notable
for its size, the gold mine listing is also indicative of how bitcoin
has become more widely accepted in the precious metals community.
Earlier this year, Bitcoin Bullion launched a gold-to-BTC exchange, while financial personality Peter Schiff announced in May that his gold and silver outlet Euro Pacific Precious Metals would begin accepting bitcoin due to market demand.
For more on how bitcoin bullion dealers are looking to expand their services into new and potentially lucrative markets, read our most recent report.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
, ,
adoption, Articles, bitcoin, news
6 Jun 0

Josh Wise will suit up in the Dogecar two more times this year!

(NewsBTC) Shibes: get ready to start your engines. That’s right, Josh Wise will suit up in the Dogecar two more times this year, it’s being reported. One of those times will be in Sonoma, California, Wise’s home state. That race will take place Sunday, June 22.

For all of the people who make fun of NASCAR for only having left turns, Sonoma will be sporting right turns in addition to some left ones. That means things might get a little crazy so you should watch.

Josh Wise Sonoma Tweet

Josh then announced it.
Josh Wise tweet

The race god (dogecar backwards) has raced twice in the dogecar this year. Once was at Talladega and the other time was in North Carolina for the Sprint All-Star race, which Wise was voted in as the Sprint Fan Vote winner. Wise finished 20th and 15th in those respective races.

Wise will also race in the dogecar at Talladega for the last known time this year on October 19.

The reasons are obvious. Since Josh’s announcement of the dogecoin partnership his fan base has grown tremendously. Wise’s twitter followers have grown by about 20% in the last three months and the partnership has also helped dogecoin get noticed since the news was featured on several major media outlets.

Dogecoin supporters can only hope this will boost the coins price since another halving day is coming up in 31 days. Usually a lot of miners leave as the rewards lessen, but this comes at a time when scrypt asics are hitting the market. One thing for sure is that the community is on dogecoins side. The community is on their side and CoinGecko ranks dogecoin #2 by its metrics which include community.

Josh Wise Twitter

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
, ,
Articles, Dogecoin, news, US
dish network bitcoin1 251x260
29 May 0

Satellite TV operator Dish Network to accept bitcoins!

Satellite TV operator Dish Network said it would accept bitcoin payments from customers from the third quarter, joining companies such as Overstock.com Inc and Zynga Inc in accepting the digital currency.

Dish said it selected Coinbase as the payment processor for bitcoin transactions with customers who choose to pay their bills online with the bitcoin wallet of their choice. Bitcoin is a digital currency that is not backed by any government or central bank and is bought and sold on a peer-to-peer network independent of central control.

In March, it launched its Instant Exchange feature, which will be used by Dish to convert bitcoins to U.S. dollars. Dish’s third quarter starts on July 1. While bitcoins may not be an alternative to established currencies, they can cut the cost of moving money around.

“We always want to deliver choice and convenience for our customers and that includes the method they use to pay their bills,” Bernie Han, Dish’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. “Bitcoin is becoming a preferred way for some people to transact and we want to accommodate those individuals.”

PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that credit card companies charge around 3 percent in transaction fees and PayPal’s commission can go as high as 4 percent. The same transactions via bitcoin is likely to be free.

Image source: ElBitcoin

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
, ,
adoption, Articles, bitcoin, news
28 May 0

Bitcoin Society CEO: Why digital currency is a tool for global good

(CoinDesk) The weekend before last week’s Bitcoin2014 conference in Amsterdam, 22-year-old Matthew Kenahan had a choice to make – one that he said was “probably one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to make”.

Here was his dilemma: attend graduation after slogging for four hard years to get his degree in International Business and Marketing, or skip it to attend the Bitcoin2014 conference, where he and the organization he heads, the Bitcoin Society, were nominated for a Blockchain Award or ‘Blockie’.
“I had my 91-year-old grandmother travelling up from Mississippi [to my graduation],” he told CoinDesk. He eventually chose Amsterdam, and was
rewarded with not only winning the award for ‘Most Impactful Charity’, but also for ‘Bitcoin Champion’ after Andreas Antonopoulos was unable to accept the prize due to a conflict of interest.

Tool for charity

Obviously, Kenahan’s ‘problem’ is a lighthearted tale, and nothing like the hard choices faced by people who are living hand-to-mouth in many regions of the world. In fact, he sees bitcoin as a tool for helping the less well-off and, under his leadership, the Bitcoin Society has sought to explore the charitable uses of bitcoin and to promote a positive image of bitcoin in contrast to its association with the drugs trade.
“The main idea behind this is to show people that you can use cryptocurrency for something other than Silk Road. We’re creating a global community,
we’re trying to connect people,” Kenahan explained
As befits a prize for charitable work, Kenahan pledged to donate his 1BTC winnings to the Women’s Annex Foundation, which aims to build women’s digital literacy and increase access to the Internet. He tweeted confirmation of the donation that same day. For Kenahan, that transparency in donations is appealing from an accountability point of view:

“[Bitcoin] allows you to create a unique address, for a very specific cause […]
we see both the incoming and outgoing transactions, and we can see that
it’s used for a very specific cause.”

Those charitable uses of bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, are already apparent from a human rights organization that works in Sri Lanka to homeless outreach shelter Sean’s Outpost in the US. Perhaps more famously, dogecoin has become a veritable charity fundraising machine, including the $50,000 Doge4Water campaign.

Image problem

More generally, the Bitcoin Society is devoted to challenging what Kenahan calls “misinformation” in reporting on bitcoin and to improving perceptions of bitcoin.
“One of the biggest issues with bitcoin, and one of the things that hindering the development of our community, is we have this fundamental image problem that oftentimes stems from misinformation or slanderous articles,” he argued.

Future plans

As part of that challenge, the Bitcoin Society is planning a number of projects over the next year, including a new website called bitcoincourses.org, which will help to educate people about bitcoin, and a textbook buy-back scheme for US students.
“Instead of selling your textbook back to the bookstore … and getting grossly underpaid,” he said, “what we would do is redeem that textbook for bitcoin. That provides a low-risk – it’s money you’ve already spent – way to get involved into a community that has more and more legitimacy every day.” Currently, Kenahan has big plans for expanding the Bitcoin Society team and is recruiting representatives from his alma mater Washington University.
“We’re going to be set up in Shanghai, New York, India, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago,” he said.
For this self-funded bitcoin champion – Kenahan said he previously traded in the bitcoin markets – 2014 is proving to be a very exciting year indeed.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
, , , , ,
Articles, bitcoin, Bitcoin Foundation, Conference, news, technology, wearesatoshi
bitcoin logo 583x610
28 May 0

Bitcoin backers work to make it mainstream

When Bitcoin emerged five years ago, it was the payment system many
geeks and enthusiasts had dreamed of: an international, decentralized,
anonymous, and transparent virtual currency that could potentially
replace inefficient traditional ones.
(Forbes) As investor Andy Kessler recently wrote in
the Wall Street Journal, Bitcoin participation requires “a certain
faith in the benevolence of strangers.” But instead, the general public
is ambivalent at best about the virtual currency, while
many Bitcoin-related startups fight an uphill battle to convince the
world that it is at least comparable to its established counterparts, if
not better. Some retailers are pro-Bitcoin as well. Overstock.com and
TigerDirect now accept it as payment.
And three weeks ago, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famous for having been portrayed in the movie The Social Network, disclosed that they would list a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund on the Nasdaq. The Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust aims to make investing in bitcoins as easy as buying shares of a public company.
The Winklevoss twins, who have themselves been Bitcoin investors for
some time, are also bullish on the future of the digital currency and
believe there should be easier ways to invest in it. They established
their fund for people who are eager to invest in the currency, but who
don’t want to actually own bitcoins. Their first-of-its-kind
exchange-traded fund can be bought and sold on the public markets like a
stock or an index fund. Previously, people interested in trading
bitcoins as an asset class had to store the currency themselves and take
on the risk that goes with that. The brothers were recently quoted
saying their business will remove “the friction of buying…while offering
similar investment attributes to direct ownership”.
Whether they rally Bitcoin adoption or not, they certainly remove some
longstanding obstacles to its viability as a consumer product. It’s
likely that in the coming months new services will continue to emerge
that aim to make Bitcoin mainstream.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
, , ,
Articles, bitcoin, future, news, wearesatoshi
« Previous Page Next Page »

Most read articles:

Recent Posts

Archives

Categories

Copyright @ 2020 - HOLY STREET.
Made with ♥ by HolyTransaction