To Ƀ or not to ฿? That is the question posed by designer Melissa Volkmann, who recently penned a blog post[1] calling on bitcoin companies to rethink the industry’s creative direction.
The self-confessed ‘tech nerd’, who heads up design at mining software firm Hashrabbit[2], is on a quest to “refresh public perception” about digital currency and increase its consumer appeal, starting with the businesses currently operating in the space.
In this interview, we discuss the industry’s biggest creative flaws, bitcoin’s lack of designers and Volkmann’s earliest experiences with the ‘magic internet money’.
Swarm has partnered with Focus Investments to fund its second class of startups.
The fund will provide between $5,000 and $50,000 in funding to startups accepted into the round, which follows its first announced in October[1]. Participants in its inaugural round included Coinspace, Manna and a decentralised dance party.
Focus invests primarily in bitcoin ventures and projects such as Counterparty, Factom, GetGems and NXT. A decentralized crowdfunding platform, Swarm helps startups establish themselves as distributed collaborative organisations (DCOs), allowing them to sell cryptographic tokens to raise funds.
CEO Joel Dietz indicated that Swarm is putting a greater emphasis on “the govenrance aspect” or DCO model for its startups following a recent legal seminar it sponsored that sought to address legal challenges in the crypto 2.0 space.
At the event, legal experts in the cryptocurrency space put forth a working paper[2] that suggested DCOs, where tokens are used to denote membership in an organisation, were among the safer legal models for projects looking to raise money.
Tokens remain tradable and can increase in value, giving backers the option to sell their stake in the project to an interested third party.
Bitcoin mining giant BitFury has announced it has completed the manufacturing of its anticipated 28nm ASIC chip.
BitFury first revealed the development of the chip in the fall of last year, at the time raising $20m in funding for the project from investors including venture capitalist Bill Tai[1], current BitFury board member and former VeriFone CFO Bob Dykes[2] and the Georgian Co-Investment Fund[3].
CEO Valery Vavilov sought to frame the announcement as part of BitFury’s overall drive to keep chip efficiency in line with the rising difficulty of the bitcoin mining network, calling the chip the company’s “most energy-efficient and high-performance technology to date”.
Vavilov said:
“BitFury continuously improves its market-leading technology and we are already hard at work on the next generation 16nm chip that is expected to achieve 0.06 J/Gh this year.”
The company reported the chip has been tested to deliver 0.2 joules-per-gigahash, a figure it had advertised widely at the time the project was announced.
BitFury raised an additional $20m in a Series A round in May 2014, bringing its 2014 total to $40m over two rounds.
A lawmaker from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia is speaking out against bitcoin and other digital currencies on the grounds the technology is part of a US plot to undermine the country’s efforts internationally.
The comments, made by MP Andrei Svintsov, came during remarks addressing the ongoing debate in Russia over whether bitcoin and digital currencies should be banned as part of a broader effort to stop capital flight.
Nonetheless, Svintsov’s remarks count as some of the more extreme to emanate from the discussion. Svintsov told Russian broadcast news agency REGNUM:
“All these cryptocurrencies [were] created by US intelligence agencies just to finance terrorism and revolutions.”
Svintsov reportedly went on to explain how cryptocurrencies have started to become a payment method for consumer spending, and cited reports that terrorist organisations are seeking to use the technology for illicit means.
While pointed, the statements do not seem to represent the views on bitcoin from within the federal legislature. For example, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets has stated as recently as August that she opposes criminal penalties for bitcoin use.
Svintsov has also been associated with such movements as one that would find tobacco and alcohol products removed[1] from the windows of retail outlets.
A new survey shows that US consumers believe payments made with bitcoin are safer than those conducted using mobile wallets or apps.
The report, published by Chicago-based Walker Sands Communications[1], focuses on changes in retail payments behavior, particularly as it pertains to digital transaction methods.
Ultimately, it found that 3% of respondents said that they consider bitcoin to be the most secure form of payments, compared to 1% for mobile phone or wallets. The study was conducted using a sample group of 1,400 consumers.
The report said:
“Consumers consider mobile wallets and apps the least secure form of payment, even ranking behind cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.”
Cash ranked highest on the list of trusted payment methods. Fifty-six percent reported that they prefer cash over alternative payment methods, compared to 22% for credit cards and 18% for debit cards.
Just 2% said they think checks are the most trustworthy payment method.
Elsewhere, the report found evidence of a broader shift toward digital payments, one that it said has been accelerated by the introduction of mobile payments products like Apple Pay.
Silicon Valley has become a symbol of technological innovation and achievement in the digital age – a shining beacon of progress and “disruption.” It’s hard to find someone in the Bay Area who isn’t working on some app or technology that promises to change the world forever.
As Bitcoin has grown from an obscure, niche technology embraced by a few small, highly technical circles into an actual (though still obscure) “industry,” it shouldn’t surprise anyone that San Francisco/Silicon Valley has become the de-facto go-to spot for American Bitcoin companies to set up shop.
While the Bay Area is certainly a great spot for a Bitcoin start-up, I invite you to hop on the 101 and travel about 380 miles south to my hometown of Los Angeles (La La Land for you Midwesterners), where a growing group of Bitcoin startups is transforming the City of Angels into a hotbed of digital currency innovation.
Known to some as “Silicon Beach,” LA is now home to several Bitcoin ventures, including Expresscoin, Tether, Holy Transaction, Ambisafe, Gem, GoCoin, Interwallet, and the company I work for, Netki. (If you work for a Bitcoin company based in LA that I did not mention, I apologize for the omission. And please reach out to me, I’d love to connect!)
Known primarily as the entertainment capital of the world, LA is actually a great place for Bitcoin. The monthly Bitcoin meetup, hosted by Gem, has more than 1,000 members, with a waitlist for almost every event. Engaged crowds highlight the real passion and camaraderie that has formed among a growing community that has a strong appetite for Bitcoin growth and adoption in their city.
Los Angeles has a massive immigrant population and acts as a hub for digital content creators (YouTube stars, writers, artists, etc.), making it a fantastic testing ground for two of the “killer” use cases that Bitcoiners are most excited about: remittances and micropayments to content producers.
To gain more insight into what makes LA such an appealing place to run a Bitcoin business, I spent a recent morning on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach, talking with Gem COO Ken Miller about LA tech, Bitcoin adoption, and the Venice Skate Park (where I have some fond childhood memories).
Gem is a secure multi-sig Bitcoin wallet for developers. With Gem’s API, a developer can integrate a fully functional and secure wallet within minutes.
For Miller, a key aspect that makes one location better than others is access to talent. It’s no secret that finding talented software engineers in Silicon Valley is easier than say a Little Rock, Arkansas. (Sorry to Razorback fans out there.) But is it really the only place where tech startups can hope to find qualified employees?
For Miller, the answer to that question is no, and he points to access to colleges and universities as a key component:
“If you’re a tech start-up that needs to start hiring, access to top talent is extremely important,” he said. “Good colleges are a huge part of that, and in LA we’ve certainly got them.”
It’s no secret that Stanford being located in Palo Alto played a huge role in transforming Silicon Valley into the tech hub that it is today, filling the area with talented, forward-thinking young people who would go on to build, drive and invest in the future of technology.
But just as ‘The Valley’ has access to top talent from Stanford and Cal-Berkeley, Silicon Beach has the likes of Cal Tech, UCLA, USC, and the Claremont colleges right in our backyard.
With access to a top technical institution (only MIT is ranked above Cal Tech), the most applied-to university in the country (UCLA, also a top-20 ranked university), and two of the best liberal arts colleges (Pomona is No. 5; Claremont McKenna College No. 8), LA companies have access to a large pool of highly intelligent candidates with academically diverse backgrounds. (Rankings per a 2015 U.S. News report.)
While most would assume that graduation day brings a mass exodus of “tech” people from LA colleges to jobs and companies in the Bay Area, increasingly, this is not the case.
“There’s a growing sentiment amongst these students that the Bay Area tech scene has become saturated, and that it’s a real dog-eat-dog type of environment,” Miller said. “A lot of them want to stay in Southern California, and with a growing number of tech companies sprouting up out here, they actually have real opportunities to work and thrive in LA.”
Line for the Gem booth at USC’s career fair
In addition to LA colleges, Miller notes that Gem has received a number of applications from highly qualified computer science majors at universities such as Michigan and MIT who have expressed their desire to become a part of LA’s new tech scene.
What’s particularly interesting about this is that these students have expressed a desire to do “something different,” noting that “everyone goes to San Francisco.”
In other words, we are now seeing young computer scientists and software engineers who have explored the possibility of life in Silicon Valley and are actively choosing to work in LA instead. While this is not to say that Silicon Beach will replace Silicon Valley as America’s tech or even Bitcoin capitol, these changes are important, and the community should take note.
If you’re thinking about starting a Bitcoin company, or your current startup needs a change of scenery, take a look at LA, we’d love for you to become a part of what we’re building (and the weather’s not too bad either).
Speakers from the top companies in the Bitcoin industry will present a full-day mini-conference of Bitcoin-related content during the SXSW 2015 Interactive Festival. The event will take place Monday, March 16, at SXSW’s Startup Village in the Austin Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Downtown in Austin, Texas.
The event will feature five sessions focusing on topics about the Bitcoin industry, with information from basic to advanced. Good and bad myths will be addressed, and speakers will share their vision for a future with Bitcoin.
The hour-long sessions for the day are titled “What is Bitcoin?,” “Bitcoin 2.0,” “A Future with Bitcoin,” “Impact on Developing World,” and “Real World Applications.”
Speakers for the event include:
Nic Cary, co-founder at Blockchain
Stephen Pair, CEO and co-founder at BitPay
Will O’Brien, CEO and co-founder at BitGo
Tatiana Moroz, founder at Crypto Media Hub
Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin and engineering manager at Coinbase
Jed McCaleb, co-founder at Stellar Development Foundation
Constance Choi, principal at Seven Advisory
Tina Hui, CEO and founder at Follow the Coin
Dan Elitzer, founding president at MIT Bitcoin Club
Jake Benson, CEO and founder at LibraTax
Connie Gallippi, executive director and founder at the BitGive Foundation
Jonathan Zobro, co-founder at 37coins
Sebastian Serrano, CEO and co-founder at BitPagos
Sean Percival, venture partner at 500 Startups
Adam Ludwin, founder at Chain.com
Nick Sullivan, CEO and founder at ChangeTip
Vinny Lingham, CEO and co-founder at Gyft
Adam Draper, CEO and founder at Boost VC
Bitcoin at SXSW 2015 is sponsored by BitPay, Gyft, LibraTax, ChangeTip, and Chain. Information about speakers, sessions, and sponsors can be found at www.BitcoinAustin2015.com.
The SXSW Interactive Festival, taking place March 13- 17, has come to be known as the place to preview the technology of tomorrow. The event will feature five days of compelling presentations and panels from the brightest minds in emerging technology.
It will also include networking events hosted by industry leaders and a lineup of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games, and startup ideas the community has to offer. Registration information for SXSW Interactive Festival is at http://sxsw.com/interactive.
Pay your taxes in bitcoin? Maybe, if you live in one of three states now considering bills in support of that option.
In January, Utah Republican state representative Mark K. Roberts introduced a bill, H.C.R. 6, to create a Council on Payment Options for State Services that will study how Utah could accept Bitcoin as a valid form of payment. The bill includes the possibility for Utah residents to pay state taxes using Bitcoin.
In February, eight New Hampshire state representatives introduced a bipartisan bill, NH HB552, to propose that New Hampshire should officially accept Bitcoin for taxes and fees. The bill calls for the development of a detailed implementation plan, followed by operational acceptance of Bitcoin by the state before July 1, 2017.
It seems almost surreal that Bitcoin, often portrayed by the popular press as a means to avoid taxes and hide cash and illicit activities from the government, could find one of its first official applications in tax payments.
The short and pragmatic text of the New Hampshire bill only mentions the financial implications of collecting tax payments in Bitcoin. Republican Representative Eric Schleien believes that the adoption of Bitcoin for tax payment purposes would be a boon for the state, and argues that Bitcoin transactions are cheaper and more secure than those made with credit cards, so that the law would offer both state and taxpayers a more reliable payment option at a reduced cost.
The Utah bill is more visionary. It mentions the important benefits that an official adoption of Bitcoin could bring to the state’s technological leadership and economy:
“Technology industries, including emerging technologies, play a growing role in [economy] and culture. The state must also remain open to new technologies and ideas to continue attracting talented and educated entrepreneurs. [Bitcoin] provides merchants with an attractive alternative mechanism for accepting payments, because transaction fees for Bitcoin are generally much lower than those imposed by other payment processors. “
Reading between the lines, a key passage here is “attracting talented and educated entrepreneurs.” Rep. Roberts seems fully aware that new, disruptive technologies can create fast growth and “iPhone moments” that boost entire industries. He appears to be persuaded that Utah could become a Silicon Valley for cryptocurrency business. Perhaps someday visitors to Utah will be greeted by a “Bitcoin Rockies” sign.
Utah is also the home state of Overstock, a large online retailer that allows customers worldwide to pay in bitcoin. Overstock is also behind one of the most interesting and potentially disruptive developments in the Bitcoin space: their Medici crypto-stock exchange project aims to create an open alternative to traditional stock exchanges such as NYSE and NASDAQ, based on blockchain technology and accepting Bitcoin payments.
The Free State Project, a hardcore Libertarian group based in New Hampshire, greeted the New Hampshire bill with a blog post titled “Bitcoin for Taxes and Fees? Only in NH.”
“New Hampshire is known as a libertarian hot spot, and the Bitcoin community here is strong. Read about the rich connections between Bitcoin and the Free State Project here.”
Meanwhile, last week, Democratic member of the New York City Council Mark Levine introduced a bill that would allow residents to pay for any fines and fees they owe the city using Bitcoin. In an interview with CoinDesk, Levine said:
”It started with realizing how much money the city of New York is losing on transaction fees on credit cards, ultimately it’s several million a year because of all sorts of fees and fines. [I] think that being the first major city in the U.S. to make this move sends a clear signal that we’re innovators here.”
Levine’s arguments are similar to those used to promote the New Hampshire and Utah bills: accepting Bitcoin payments would save the city a lot of money, and a vibrant Bitcoin economy would attract top tech talent to the city.
The passages quoted represent two often conflicting aspects of the developing Bitcoin economy: the business-oriented vision of a regulated Bitcoin economy that informs the Utah and New York City bills, and the free-wheeling Libertarian spirit reflected in the Free State Project comments to the New Hampshire bill. As often happens, future Bitcoin developments are likely to be influenced by both.
Bitcoin exchange igot has expanded to Kenya following the acquisition of TagPesa, a local cryptocurrency exchange and remittance gateway, and integration with M-Pesa’s mobile payments service.
Igot’s Kenyan customers can now use the exchange’s services by depositing and withdrawing Kenyan shillings either from their local bank accounts or their M-Pesa accounts.
The company, which is based in Australia, also provides remittance services to over 40 countries worldwide, including the EU, Middle East and Africa. The acquisition of TagPesa allows igot customers around the world to send funds directly into a friend or relative’s Kenyan bank account.
Rick Day, co-founder of igot[1], said that Kenya’s remittance market was huge and “largely untouched by bitcoin companies”.
While over 2.5 million Kenyan emigrants around the world currently remit money back to the African nation, Day said, traditional money sending services currently available are expensive.
He said:
“Bitcoin offers to solve this problem and igot plans to use this tool to make global transfers much easier.”
“We hope that this market would perform really well in the next six to 12 months,” he continued. “We expect to get a lot more traction as bitcoin becomes more ubiquitous.”
How it works
Users can deposit and withdraw funds using their regular bank account or their M-Pesa account.
However, in order to complete a transaction, the exchange requires that the user becomes verified by providing scans of a government-issued identity card and a utility bill.
To deposit funds, the consumer will have to create an order and then proceed to transfer the money via their bank or M-Pesa account.
Once this process is completed, the bitcoin will be deposited in the user’s igot wallet.
To remit money, customers must visit the ‘Global Transfer’ section of the site from the navigation menu, select the country to which they want to send funds, and complete the form with amount and recipient’s name and local bank details.
Future plans
Igot will continue to monitor the remittance market, said Day, explaining that the exchange will introduce new features to attract “not only the seasoned bitcoin traders, but also everyday people who may have heard about bitcoin but want to use it with ease and for something other than just speculating”.
The company’s ‘Pay your bill’ and ‘Pay your Rent’ bitcoin features have performed well in the Australian market, he continued, saying that these would be rolled out to other markets in future.
The co-founder also commented on the possibility of expanding to India. Indian e-commerce has soared in the last five years, he said, adding that they “were in the process of integrating some big names there to accept bitcoin as a payment method”.
He concluded:
“We want to be their obvious choice in the local market to accept bitcoin.”
Australian bitcoin company Digital CC Ltd has published the results for its half-year period up to 31st December 2014, posting a $2.3m net loss after tax.
Notably, the firm was the first bitcoin company[1] to be listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), trading as digitalBTC.
“The statutory loss recorded for the half has been impacted by necessary accounting adjustments flowing from digital currency price declines,” executive chairman Zhenya Tsvetnenko said.
The firm’s total revenue was $14.5m. Of this, $9.9m came from its liquidity desk and $9.9m from digitalX Direct sales. The revenue from bitcoin mining was $4.6m.
Net income before interest, taxes, depreciation etc (EBITDA) was $216,934.
Tsvetnenko said:
“Our half year has seen significant growth in our liquidity desk and digitalX Direct operations, as well as investments made in our early mover position in digital currencies.”
The company aired plans to continue focusing on the development of its software applications, such as digitalX Mintsy and digitalX Pocket, which will allow consumers “fast and secure transactions regardless of size and geography”.
Mining deals
The announcement comes soon after Digital CC dissolved a relationship with cloud mining platform CloudHashing[2].
Under the agreement, which was finalised in March[3], CloudHashing was to run digitalBTC hardware in data centres in Iceland and Texas to mine bitcoins.
On 30th January, the firm filed an announcement[4] with the ASX stating that the companies had agreed to end the supply deal.
Just previously, on 25th January[5], digitalBTC announced it was expanding its mining capacity and entering a new hosting contract with data centre provider Verne Global.
The company said at the time it was acquiring new bitcoin mining hardware from manufacturer Spondoolies-Tech[6] that would expand its processing capacity by approximately 40% for a “small outlay” of about $700,000.
