This week bitcoin-ers are preparing for the Cryptolina bitcoin conference in Raleigh, North Carolina on Friday and Saturday, August 15 and 16. Perianne Boring, BBR Editor in Chief and President of the newly formed Chamber of Digital Commerce, is giving an update on the state of New York’s BitLicense Regulations. Headlining is Edmond Moy, former Director of the US Mint (2006-2011) who has recently become semi-bitcoin famous by getting vocal about bitcoin over his social media channels. This will be Moy’s first bitcoin conference.
Update on BitLicense Initiatives:
The New York Department of Financial Services published their proposed BitLicense Rules and Regulations on July 17. We are three weeks into the 45 day comment period where the industry has the opportunity to express any concerns they may have. Thousands of people have submitted comments to the DFS and last week a spokesperson from DFS said “we are open to [extending the comment period]”, which we find encouraging.
Along with the Chamber of Digital Commercepetition, there are several petitions circulating the web regarding New York’s proposed BitLicense regulations, including Fix BitLicense Coalition, and Boost VC’s petition on FixTheBitLicense.org.
Concerned parties are also encouraged to submit personal comments directly to NYDFS Office of General Counsel Dana V. Syracuse, New York State Department of Financial Services, email: .
CoinDesk: Industry Reactions to New York’s BitLicense Proposal
A collection of interview from industry CEOs and compliance officers.
Chamber Of Digital Commerce Will “Bridge the Gap” Of Political Uncertainty
After launching the Chamber of Digital Commerce at The North American Bitcoin Conference in Chicago last month, President and Founder Perianne Boring vows to bridge the gap between political uncertainty and public perception of bitcoin. “As Steve Stockman remarked at the TNABC, policy makers tend to over-regulate the unknown due to uncertainty and a sense of ‘public duty.’” The Chamber recently launched a petition on their website asking New York DFS to extending the comment deadline on their proposed BitLicense Regulations. (You can read and sign the petition here.)
Boring: NY BitLicense Would Tell Bitcoin Companies Where To Invest Profits
In an interview with Pocket Full Of Apps, Perianne Boring, Founder and President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, addressed her concerns about New York’s proposed BitLicense regulations. She believes “BitLicense has the potential to choke off small business.” Boring also highlights Section 200.8 (b) of the proposal, and says if Lawsky’s BitLicense is passed, the regulations would force “Bitcoin companies to invest their profits into traditional investments and prohibit companies from investing profits back into the industry they are operating in.”
Here’s To Another Not-So-Boring Week:
Andrew Hemingway Becomes First Candidate for Governor To Accept Bitcoin
New Hampshire’s youngest gubernatorial candidate ever, 32 year old Andrew Hemingway, is also the first candidate running for governor to accept bitcoin campaign donations. Already, 20 percent of the GOP candidate’s donations have come in bitcoins. (Recap: In May the Federal Election Commission legalized bitcoin donations, capped at $100.) If elected, Hemingway hopes to make New Hampshire the first state to allow residents to pay their state taxes in bitcoin.
Blockchain Reaches Two Million Wallets
Blockchain.info is celebrating crossing the two million dollar e-wallets line. The number of e-wallets has increase eight times year-over-year according to Mary Meeker’s Internets Trend Code Conference. E-wallets continue to grow exponentially.
Rushwallet Releases In-Browser Wallets
Canadian based technology company, Kryptokit, which specializes in digital currencies and encryption services, has released a new HTML5 in-browser wallet. The wallet is integrated with OneName.io, a service that ties usernames to bitcoin wallet address, so sending payments can be as easy as typing @UserName in the recipient address. You can access your wallet from anywhere by typing in the URL in your web browser.
Wikimedia Rakes In $140,000+ In Bitcoin
One week after deciding to accept bitcoin donations using Coinbase, the Wikimedia Foundation had raised more than $140,000 worth of bitcoins. Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit that runs Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. Coinbase offers 0% processing fees for non-profits like the Wikimedia Foundation, which is does not display ads, and is funded through donations. The move was surprising because back in March the co-founder of Wikimedia, Jimmy Wales, in a subreddit post bemoaned the fact that offering more payment options led people to donate less.
ChangeTip Expanding Operations
ChangeTip is a service that allows people to send bitcoin micropayments as tips to people on different social media outlets. Users tip by mentioning @changetip (or /u/changetip on Reddit) in the comment section stating the tip amount they would like to give to the author of the post. Users can also choose to tip someone for the amount of a coffee or other items. Micropayment services, like ChangeTip, have the potential to revolutionize the media industry by decentralizing the need for advertisements. Instead of media companies having to support advertisements to fund their services, readers and viewers can “tip” the authors directly, cutting out a middle management process.
ChangeTip is currently servicing Twitter, Gitbub, Reddit and StockTwits and recently announced they are expanding operations to YouTube, Tumblr, and Google+. To start tipping visit https://www.changetip.com/ and set up your account.
Huobi Acquires Two Companies To Expand Services
The Chinese exchange features and services war heats up: Chinese exchanges are constantly trying to one-up each other as the competition grows – a healthy challenge that benefits consumers.
Huobi, one of China’s largest bitcoin exchanges, just acquired two companies Quickwallet and Qukuai. Quickwallet is a multi-signature wallet company that will bring greater security to Huobi customers. Qukuai is a bitcoin block explorer which tracks bitcoin transactions in the blockchain. These acquisitions will extend Huobi’s product line which now includes its traditional exchange, BitVC – a margin trading and interest bearing account platform, and now multi-signature wallets and a block explorer.
Vogogo Gets $8.5 Million In Funding
Payment services company, Vogogo, has raised $8.5 million in funding. Vogogo offers payment processing technology with a focus in software development, risk management and compliance services. The company plans on expanding into the US market in the next few months, in addition to their current Canadian market. In a recent press release, CEO Geoff Gordon said that Vogogo will help the “global crypto industry to meet the stringent requirements of regulators and traditional banks.”
Global Payments Inc. Signs Referral Deal With Bitpay
Global Payments Inc. is one of the largest payment processors in the world, servicing the healthcare, retail, government, and financial services industry, among others. On August 6, Global Payments announced they signed a referral deal with Bitpay, one of the largest bitcoin payment processors, to offer bitcoin payment services to Global Payments merchants. Tony Gallippi, Bitpay co-founder, said “This partnership with Global Payments allows ecommerce and retail merchants to easily accept bitcoin payments.” Notably, both Bitpay and Global Payments are both based out of Atlanta.
Public Perception Of Bitcoin Is Changing – For The Better
According to a report from ETH Zurich Department of Systems and Designs, David Garcia (a lead researcher in the report) says, “bitcoins were something for hackers and computer nerds. Today hipsters pay for their drinks with it.” The report found a positive correlation between social media trends (think tweets and Google searches) and the price development of bitcoin.
WSJ: “Learning To Love A Boring Bitcoin Market”
Bitcoin’s price is starting to flatten out, and while this might not sound like news, it’s a big deal to some. Many believe that in order for Bitcoin to prove itself as a reputable form of currency, the index price needs to flatten out. Bitcoin spiked on June 1st ($676.75), and had numerous ups and downs with media-frenzied episodes like the Silk Road and Mt Gox scandals. In their weekly Bitcoin report, Dan Morehead and Ron Glantz (Pantera Capital) “expect this to create a positive feedback loop in which volatility declines and consumers become increasingly comfortable holding and using bitcoin in their daily lives.”
Bitcoin Brands Inc. Hopes To Capitalize on ‘Microloans’
Microloans were created for the self-employed and for startups looking for loans not exceeding $35,000. Now, three companies are hoping to simplify the process even more by offering their micro-lending services to the masses. TrustLeaf hands out microloans through private crowdsourcing (friends and family members only), while PayPal Working Capital fixes microloan repayments on a percentage of total monthly sales, and Bitcoin Brands offers microloan services through Bitcoin.
Lake Tahoe Home Sells For 2,739 Bitcoins…$1.6 Million
Only a handful of properties have been sold in bitcoin, since the peer-to-peer currency hit the market. A 1.4 acre porperty in Lake Tahoe now joins the ranks. BitPay processed the transaction.
BBR Trend: What We’re Reading…
Bitcoin Pandemonium: The Onging Economic, Public, and Legal Debate over the Nature and Impact of Bitcoin by Nicolas Wenker
Bitcoin Pandemonium offers an in depth analysis on bitcoin and the history of regulation behind it. The book reaches both a mass audience, with simple explanations and definitions. “One of Bitcoin’s biggest challenges in becoming mainstream is the lack of regulatory clarity. Bitcoin Pandemonium brings a sense of cohesiveness to Bitcoin’s fragmented regulatory efforts,” says Perianne Boring, Founder and President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce.