Cypriot university to accept Bitcoin payments
(YahooFinance) Cyprus’ biggest private university said Thursday it will start
accepting the digital currency Bitcoin as an alternative way to pay
tuition fees.
been a hub for international banking before suffering a collapse in its
financial system this year, leading the government to impose controls on
the flow of capital as it accepted an international bailout.
But
the University of Nicosia said the move to accept Bitcoin was unrelated
to the controls. Rather, it was meant to help foreign students in
countries where traditional banking transactions are either difficult or
costly to pay for programs such as online degrees.
The
university’s chief financial officer, Christos Vlachos, said the
institution, which has about 8,500 students enrolled, is the first in
the world to take Bitcoin payments.
Bitcoin is a
cryptography-based digital currency that advocates say is
counterfeit-proof. Its value is determined by supply — which is limited
by its design — and demand. Among the various criticisms leveled at
Bitcoin are that it is too prone to price swings against other
currencies to be useful.
Vlachos said payments are free of risk
for the university since it immediately converts the digital currency to
euros at the day’s exchange rate.
He said that the university is
also offering a new Masters’ degree in digital currency, a field he says
is the monetary equivalent of the Internet in its infancy.
“It’s the gold of tomorrow,” Vlachos told the Associated Press.
He
said the Cypriot government should set up a regulatory framework to
attract digital currency trading companies and boost the bailed-out
country’s foundering economy.
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.
A map of Bitcoin-friendly businesses
(WashingtonPost) The tech-crazed Bay Area seems like an obvious place to find
bitcoin-friendly businesses. But you’ll also find them in less likely
locations. Rooks Comics and Games, in Bozeman, Mont., for instance. An
antique shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Alberty’s Broadway
Liquor in Muskogee, Okla., about an hour out of Tulsa. And the Church of
Saint John the Evangelist in Goshen, N.Y.
On the East Coast, you’ll find at least four venues in Manhattan and
nine in Brooklyn. Washington, D.C., sadly, has only two places where you
can spend your digital cash, and one of them seems to be a think tank
of sorts. But take your bitcoins to Cambridge, Mass., and you’ll find a
welcome at a fusion eatery named Thelonious Monkfish and a diner called
Veggie Galaxy.
If you find a business that’s is accepting bitcoin, add it on Coinmap.org !
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.
Richard Brown, executive architect, IBM thinks the future for crypto-currencies looks very bright.
Bitcoin, the world’s first decentralised digital currency, entered mainstream consciousness this year: Bitcoin-focused startups are accessing venture capital and industry commentators talk about it as an important international payment mechanism of the future. But are we interpreting its significance too narrowly? In this video, Richard Brown, IBM Executive Architect for Banking and Financial Markets Industry Innovation, argues that Bitcoin’s true significance lies in its potential as a global digital asset register and in the lessons it teaches us for design of complex distributed systems. He also explains why recent law-enforcement action against operators of illegal websites that transacted in Bitcoin will help accelerate adoption by legitimate businesses.”
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.