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Bitcoin Documentary: Day 10 Recap (Washington, DC) #theBITmovie – Video

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Bitcoin Documentary: Day 10 Recap (Washington, DC) #theBITmovie
Follow the Journey 30 Days. 40 Cities. All Bitcoin. Follow the journey - http://www.thebitmovie.com http://www.facebook.com/thebitmovie http://www.twitter.com/thebitmovie http://www.instagram.com/thebitmovie ...

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Bitcoin Documentary: Day 10 Recap (Washington, DC) #theBITmovie - Video

Proposal To Form China’s First Bitcoin Advocacy Group To …

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Established in 2012, the Bitcoin Foundation has quite a few titles It is a top trade organization, an unofficial organisation to represent the interests of Bitcoin, a Bitcoin lobbying group and one of the worlds leading advocacy groups for the cybercurrency, to name a few. Although not everyone in the Bitcoin community agrees as to what the Foundations role is, there is little doubt that it is one of the most high-profile nonprofit organizations in the space, with some of the most recognizable Bitcoin luminaries serving on the board.

In a move reminiscent of the Bitcoin Foundations original establishment, a man named Ryan Xu has called for the formation of a China-focused bitcoin advocacy group.

Originally posted on Yibite.com, the Chinese bitcoin news website on 8th November, Xus proposal generated a moderate amount of social media comments in its immediate aftermath. Though judging by peoples response, the interest was not strong, such a proposal nonetheless raises questions as to whether China needs its own bitcoin advocacy group, and whether such an organization would be viable in the current regulatory environment.

In his 930-character long proposal for a Bitcoin Development Foundation (BDF), Xu outlines five issues that it seeks to tackle:

1. The China bitcoin Industry is still in an early stage, companies in the space need support; 2. The Chinese bitcoin community lacks solidarity. There needs to be more people who are dedicated to the development of the community; 3. The Chinese bitcoin community has little voice in the mainstream media, which is dominated by negative news and commentary. 4. There was little communication between the Chinese bitcoin community and relevant organizations. Communication with government and businesses needs to be strengthened; 5. The Chinese bitcoin community lacks communication with the rest of the world. It needs to be kept up to date with developments in the international bitcoin community, and learn more from their experience.

Although these general issues are widely acknowledged, there is a lack of consensus as to whether a new Bitcoin Foundation is the answer.

Relationship with Bitcoin Foundation

In an email exchange with Xu on November 26, he introduced himself as Chief Strategy Officer of Bitcoin Group, an Australia-based bitcoin company. Yet he is probably better known in the Chinese Bitcoin community for his alias (Martian), and for being a prolific bitcoin commentator who frequently publishes opinion pieces on the Chinese language bitcoin media.

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Proposal To Form China's First Bitcoin Advocacy Group To ...

Proposal To Form China's First Bitcoin Advocacy Group To Test Government Attitude

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Established in 2012, the Bitcoin Foundation has quite a few titles It is a top trade organization, an unofficial organisation to represent the interests of Bitcoin, a Bitcoin lobbying group and one of the worlds leading advocacy groups for the cybercurrency, to name a few. Although not everyone in the Bitcoin community agrees as to what the Foundations role is, there is little doubt that it is one of the most high-profile nonprofit organizations in the space, with some of the most recognizable Bitcoin luminaries serving on the board.

In a move reminiscent of the Bitcoin Foundations original establishment, a man named Ryan Xu has called for the formation of a China-focused bitcoin advocacy group.

Originally posted on Yibite.com, the Chinese bitcoin news website on 8th November, Xus proposal generated a moderate amount of social media comments in its immediate aftermath. Though judging by peoples response, the interest was not strong, such a proposal nonetheless raises questions as to whether China needs its own bitcoin advocacy group, and whether such an organization would be viable in the current regulatory environment.

In his 930-character long proposal for a Bitcoin Development Foundation (BDF), Xu outlines five issues that it seeks to tackle:

1. The China bitcoin Industry is still in an early stage, companies in the space need support; 2. The Chinese bitcoin community lacks solidarity. There needs to be more people who are dedicated to the development of the community; 3. The Chinese bitcoin community has little voice in the mainstream media, which is dominated by negative news and commentary. 4. There was little communication between the Chinese bitcoin community and relevant organizations. Communication with government and businesses needs to be strengthened; 5. The Chinese bitcoin community lacks communication with the rest of the world. It needs to be kept up to date with developments in the international bitcoin community, and learn more from their experience.

Although these general issues are widely acknowledged, there is a lack of consensus as to whether a new Bitcoin Foundation is the answer.

Relationship with Bitcoin Foundation

In an email exchange with Xu on November 26, he introduced himself as Chief Strategy Officer of Bitcoin Group, an Australia-based bitcoin company. Yet he is probably better known in the Chinese Bitcoin community for his alias (Martian), and for being a prolific bitcoin commentator who frequently publishes opinion pieces on the Chinese language bitcoin media.

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Proposal To Form China's First Bitcoin Advocacy Group To Test Government Attitude

The real benefit of paying with bitcoin

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Why do I say this? Well from the very beginning of time, humans have traded goods with one another, and have used money as proxies for these goods, as a simpler form of exchange. That money has taken the form of gold and silver, sea shells, promissory notes and State issued legal currency, to name but a few. In all these cases the money has been forged, cheated, stolen and its value decimated by inflationary tactics. Kings did it to pay off war debt, people clipped bits of gold coins, weighing scales were tampered with, the Federal Reserve was invented to control it etc. There is not a single instance until bitcoin, of a truly trustworthy form of money, one whose value was constrained not by the laws and weaknesses of man, but by the universal laws of mathematics.

Read MoreThe elephant in the room this holiday season

So bitcoin is really radical. It allows a secure system of exchanging value between people, and indeed machines, who have never met, that can be trusted, verified and never forged. Yes, we have heard of many instances of bitcoin hackers and thieves, but these are not security issues with the core bitcoin network per se, rather weakness in the storage of the keys used to secure a bitcoin wallet. Just like a bank vault with the combination lock code taped to the front door not being secure; bitcoin secured by keys left lying around where they are easily stolen are not safe from theft either.

So with bitcoin, we have a secure, programmable form of money that can be used for global transactions, that cannot be forged, that is fully audit-able, that is actually software that can be built into anything and everything. Once this is understood, once this is grasped, the magnitude of the possibilities it enables is truly staggering. That's what has all these venture capitalists salivating and that's what has thousands of the smartest programmers in the world working feverishly to unlock the potential of. It's a magnitude of change and possibly similar in scope and scale to the Internet itself, and it's just the beginning.

Read MoreIs Apple Pay a bitcoin killer?

Bitcoin has another interesting property that is worth mentioning. It's a bearer instrument. That means, just like a dollar bill, the person that holds it and presents it as payment is the de-facto owner. Why is this an important property? Well, we live in a world where we are expected to disclose our identity and financial future to companies that are just not qualified to secure it, just to shop online or eat in a restaurant. We have all seen this recently with the hacking thefts at Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase and Target to name just a few. Credit-card fraud and identity theft actually cost us over $5 billion a year, and ruin many lives and dreams. Bitcoin solves this problem, once and for all, because using it, we, as consumers, do not have to risk our financial future when we do things like our Christmas shopping. Bitcoin payments are anonymous at least as far as merchants are concerned. The data trail that bitcoin leaves behind is indeed traceable using the blockchain, with the right tools. It can be used to fight crime and terrorism, it can be used to identify us, but importantly it cannot be used to steal our identity, or to steal our money, or to impact our credit rating. So it's a much more palatable and secure approach to payments than credit cards can ever be.

So, when we ask the question, what needs to happen for the mass adoption of bitcoin to occur; the answer is just time. In time, the money the venture capitalists are investing and the code the developers are writing will bring forth systems and solutions to problems that are just not feasible or practical without Bitcoin. Just like the browser makes the Internet accessible to everyone, these systems and solutions will make bitcoin accessible to everyone and will change the way we interact, trade, spend and receive money. Whether that's peer-to-peer lending, peer-to-peer finance, distributed capital formation, secure voting, or solutions to transparency in finance and derivates. The technology has so much potential, and it just cannot be un-invented. Its adoption really is inevitable.

Read MoreBitcoin set to take on the financial world: book

Commentary by Trevor Murphy, the CTO of BitStash, a company that securely stores bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Murphy was a co-founder of TradingEdge in 1997. He was responsible for the design and development of the first electronic fixed-income trading platform, BondLink, which ultimately processed billions of dollars in daily transactions, and was acquired by Market Axess (MKTX) in 2001. Murphy has been involved in numerous other start-up companies and provides consulting services to venture capitalists, financial services and Fortune 500 companies. Follow him on Twitter @bitstashCTO.

WATCH: CNBC's 'Bitcoin Uprising'

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The real benefit of paying with bitcoin

Falcon Global Capital Closes Bitcoin Fund Because of Slow Demand

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Falcon Global Capital closed its bitcoin fund because of slow demand, said co-founder Brett Stapper.

The fund, which began in February, had attracted about 25 clients, who contributed from $25,000 to $10 million each to invest in the virtual currency, Stapper said in an interview. While many more called to inquire about bitcoin, they didnt invest, in part because bitcoins price slipped more than 50 percent this year, according to CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index.

Falcon refunded the money to its clients in November, and has decided to refocus on consulting about bitcoin and how it works, Stapper said. The company is expanding its team of four staff members to 10 people based in San Diego and New York to advise institutions, corporations and governments, he said.

Everyone is having some difficulties in raising funds, Stapper said.

Bitcoin price index funds are losing their appeal because many consumers can now easily acquire bitcoins directly from websites, and there are also many price index funds competing for clients attention, he said.

A number of bitcoin funds and investment-management firms - - including Falcon, Binary Financial and The Bitcoin Investment Trust -- popped up in the last 1-1/2 years, as bitcoins price rose from about $13 to about $1,000 last year. Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of Winklevoss Capital Management, are working to introduce a bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

The technology is really, really exciting, Stapper said. But, he says, whether or not bitcoin is worth investing in at this point is unclear.

To contact the reporter on this story: Olga Kharif in Portland at okharif@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah Rabil at srabil@bloomberg.net James Callan, Andrew Pollack

Press spacebar to pause and continue. Press esc to stop.

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Falcon Global Capital Closes Bitcoin Fund Because of Slow Demand

Bitcoin hacking raises security concerns

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Concerns are rising over the security of the digital currency bitcoin following hacking cases that allegedly took place for the first time in South Korea at local online bitcoin exchange Bitcore.

A man surnamed Kim in the southeastern port city of Pohang filed a complaint with the Pohang Cyber Police Agency on Nov. 14, claiming that 15 of his bitcoins worth around 6.2 million won (based on the value of a bitcoin as of Monday) were stolen by an anonymous person operating from Bitcore on Nov. 11.

Another user of the bitcoin trading website posted comments on an online community forum saying his bitcoins were stolen the same night.

"When I tried to access the mobile site of Bitcore on my smartphone at around 10:30 to 11 p.m., I saw nothing but an error message in English," Kim told The Korea Herald.

The next day when Kim was able to log in to the website, he found out that his bitcoins had been transferred to another bitcoin trader's account without his consent.

Traders receive a verification code on their smartphone when they try to sell their bitcoins, but Kim said he had not received any security code for the illicit transaction.

After the incident, Bitcore officials tried to track down the IP address belonging to the account that received Kim's bitcoins, but the anonymous nature of the bitcoin system kept them from verifying the owners account details. No compensation has yet been made for the alleged theft cases, nor has an advisory notice for possible hacking attempts been put up on the website, upsetting the users of the online exchange.

The police confirmed that it received Kim's complaint, but said it had not launched an investigation into the hacking due to other ongoing investigations.

Kim who mostly makes deals via his smartphone, Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Grand One, said he had done nothing unusual with his smartphone nor noticed any suspicious activity on his handset before the digital currency was transferred.

"This case could be just a small individual incident, but there could be other hacking cases on a bigger scale down the road if no action is taken," Kim said.

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Bitcoin hacking raises security concerns

Midwest Bitcoin Food Desert Gyft to the Rescue – Uncoinventional Living Tour West – Day 12 – Video

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Midwest Bitcoin Food Desert Gyft to the Rescue - Uncoinventional Living Tour West - Day 12
http://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/uncoinventional-living-tour-west-day-12-podcast-midwest-bitcoin-food-desert-gyft-to-the-rescue.

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Midwest Bitcoin Food Desert Gyft to the Rescue - Uncoinventional Living Tour West - Day 12 - Video

Hedgy wants to eliminate Bitcoin volatility

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One of the hardest aspects for merchants wishing to offer their services or product in Bitcoin is volatility, with the cryptocurrency being notoriously fickle in its exchange rate. Hedgy wants to eliminate that level of volatility.

San Mateo, CA-based Hedgy uses the first principles of derivatives combined with the novelty of the Bitcoin block chain to manage Bitcoin price risk, according to the company.

The startup offers two services: BITForward, an Over-the-Counter (OTC) derivative contract on the market, and BITLock, a Bitcoin hedging tool.

BITForward offers a smart contract that is executed between counter parties with what is claimed to be zero default risk. The product promises to allow speculators to gain consistent exposure to the price movement of Bitcoin, enabling them to realize a profitwithout the need to buy or sell the underlying asset.

The more interesting product for merchants who sell goods in Bitcoin is BITLock. The service sees a smart contract executed between counter parties with what is agin claimed to be zero default risk. The hedge in the contract exchange is said to effectively eliminate Bitcoin volatility for miners, merchants, remittance processors and payment gateways by locking in the value of their Bitcoin holdings using margin deposits.

The service overcomes the need for merchants accepting Bitcoin being immediately forced to liquidate their coin holdings to dollars due to the ongoing volatility in the market; it gives merchants the ability to lock in the value of their Bitcoin holdings.

The team behind Hedgy comes with strong backgrounds:Juan Pineda and Tim Olsen (Heads of Technology and Engineering respectively) were both previously employees of Apple, and CEO Matt Slater was the founder of Campus Ink.

The company has so far raised $765,000 in an Angel round from Boost VC.

Its an interesting, be it somewhat risky play into the sometimesmurky world of Bitcoin.

Unlike a good portion of startups today which seem to be a solution looking for a problem, Hedgy definitely addresses a problem: Bitcoin volatility for those who trade in it, particularly merchants in B2C and B2B markets.

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Hedgy wants to eliminate Bitcoin volatility

Bitcoin Giving Tuesday is Tomorrow — Red Cross Accepts Bitcoin — Bitcoin Price Up! – Video

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Bitcoin Giving Tuesday is Tomorrow -- Red Cross Accepts Bitcoin -- Bitcoin Price Up!
Sponsored by http://AirBitz.co Decemeber 1st, 2014 -- The Big M stands for Madness! This episode is brought to you by Airbitz, the ease to use, secure mobile...

By: MadBitcoins

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Bitcoin Giving Tuesday is Tomorrow -- Red Cross Accepts Bitcoin -- Bitcoin Price Up! - Video


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