BTC China Accepting Bank Deposits Again 

Emily Spaven (@emilyspaven) | Published on January 30, 2014 at 13:32 GMT | BTC China, Exchanges,

Prominent Chinese bitcoin exchange BTC China is now accepting customer deposits via its corporate bank account, plus offering small prizes to its customers.
Bobby Lee, CEO of the exchange, confirmed that customers can now buy bitcoins from the exchange by depositing their funds directly into the company’s account.
“Previously, we judged doing this as not being viable, however, we have since changed our stance. We looked again at the guidance issued in December and we think it’s a reasonable for us to accept customer deposits via our corporate bank account,” said Lee.
He went on to say BTC China now believes the main message in the memo issued by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on 5^th December was that banks in the country aren’t allowed to set up or become a bitcoin business.
The memo stated that people in China are permitted to buy and sell bitcoins and stressed that that bitcoin exchanges should register with the Ministry of Industry and Technology (MIIT). Lee said:

“The fact the PBOC said exchanges need to register with MIIT essentially means it recognises exchanges as a business category and BTC China as a legitimate business.”

He explained there’s the potential the central bank and/or the Chinese government could “change the rules of the game”, enforcing stricter policies, but for now he is confident his company is not doing anything wrong.
BTC China has not experienced an upturn in trading volume since the company reinstated direct deposits, this could be because the move has not been publicised, but Lee puts it down to other factors.

BTC China is now accepting direct bank deposits. Image via imgur.

“Volumes in China have been down since December. A lot of the people we have spoken to have stopped trading, they’ve cashed out, so activity has calmed down a lot. Volume is certainly going to be low for the next few days because we’re going through a Chinese New year period,” he explained.
Lee said BTC China decided to take advantage of the current lull in interest in order to make sure the new deposit procedure runs smoothly.

$165 promotion

BTC China has also launched a promotion to bring awareness to its Maker-Taker programme and reward its customers.
Maker-Taker is a system whereby those posting multiple buy/sell offers and increase liquidity in the market (“makers”) are paid a fee, whereas those who take the offers and remove market liquidity (the “takers”) are charged a fee of 0.3%.

 

BTC China has given over 3.1m RMB to market makers

Until 15^th February, company is giving 1,000 RMB ($165) to one maker and one taker every time the amount rebated to makers exceeds 100,000 RMB.
“The prizes go to the maker and the taker who push the rebate threshold over the next 100,000 mark. We have already given out over 3m RMB in rebates and given prizes to 62 winners,” Lee explained.
He went on to say BTC China’s domestic competitors charge 0% commission, but he believes Maker-Taker is a more compelling deal. Lee said:

“Obviously if you’re a taker, to go and buy and sell bitcoin actively, you have to pay a small commission, however, the reason you pay for that is access to the liquidity and the depth of our order book.”

Because of this model and the depth of the order book, BTC China states customers can easily buy and sell tens of thousands of bitcoins without moving the market.
“We’re not trying to be different for the sake of being different. We’re trying to be innovative and benefit bitcoin in China. The Maker-Taker method accomplishes two things – it brings more market depth and more liquidity to the site, plus it reduces volatility, which makes for a healthier for market for bitcoin in China,” Lee concluded.
What do you make of BTC’s new promotion and the Maker-Taker model in general?
Chinese money image via Flickr.

Head of Russia’s Largest Bank Backs Bitcoin, Again

Nermin Hajdarbegovic | Published on January 26, 2014 at 15:33 GMT | Europe, News, Regulation

Sberbank may not be a household name in the west, but it just happens to be the third-largest bank in Europe.

It’s also the biggest bank in Russia and Eastern Europe, with nearly half a trillion dollars in assets and a workforce of 300,000.

The bank is owned by the Central Bank of Russia and it is headed by German Gref, who served as the Russian Minister of Economic and Trade from 2000 to 2007. Gref’s tenure was marked by a period of economic reform and liberalization. Judging by his recent statements, he is still open minded when it comes to monetary issues.

Protecting bitcoin?

This news follows comments Gref made about the currency back in December. Speaking in an interview at the sidelines of the World Economic Forumin Davos, Gref voiced his support for digital currencies.

“It’s a very interesting global experiment that breaks the paradigm of currency issuance.”

He added that he had already made his opinion heard in government circles, by sending letters to the central bank, the finance ministry and to the very top, the Kremlin. In the letters, Gref asked officials to intervene with parliament in order to avert any bans against digital currencies, reports Bloomberg.

He said an outright ban would be a “colossal mistake”, adding: “It definitely shouldn’t be banned, it must be studied and maybe regulated properly”.

Colleagues aren’t convinced

Although Gref sees an opportunity in digital currencies, many fellow bankers would beg to differ. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told reporters at Davos that the rise of bitcoin will prompt governments to clamp down and treat it like any other payment system.

VTB Group is Russia’s second-largest lender and its CEO Anrei Kostin doesn’t share Gref’s enthusiasm, either. He described digital currencies as “quite dangerous” for the money market and stated that VTB Group doesn’t plan on getting involved.

“Our monetary authorities are only now formulating their opinion about this,” he said.

Russia’s ultimate plan

Last week, a set of amendments introduced in the Russian parliament caused a fair amount of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) in the bitcoin community, as it wasmisinterpreted as potential bitcoin ban. Russian regulators are of course keeping a close eye on digital currencies, as are their counterparts across the world. However, they have not taken any noteworthy action against the proliferation of digital currencies in Russia.

President of the Russian Electronic Money Association Viktor Dostov told Bloomberg that it is still unclear how Russia would regulate digital currencies. He stated that the only point of control would be an exchange centre where bitcoins would be traded for money. However, we are not sure whether Dostov is advocating the creation of a centralised exchange on a national level, or simply referring to independent bitcoin exchanges. It is a case of lost in translation.

In any case, Gref’s statements should go a long way toward reassuring bitcoin investors and enthusiasts in Russia and CIS member states for that matter.

It is also interesting to note that in a recent interview with CNN, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev admitted the country’s economy is slowing down, but pointed out that his government is gradually transforming Russia into a knowledge-based economy and introducing 21st century technology into various industries.

Whether or not Russia is ready to embrace 21st century payment systems and alternative currencies remains to be seen.

regulationRussiaSberbank

Richard Branson: 6 Bitcoin Customers Confirmed for Virgin Galactic Space Flight

Emily Spaven (@emilyspaven) | Published on January 24, 2014 at 17:30 GMT | Companies, Investors, News

Billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has revealed a handful of people have paid in bitcoin for their place on board the Virgin Galactic spaceship.
Back in November, Branson announced his commercial space flight venture Virgin Galactic was to accept payment in bitcoins and, just two months later, “six or seven” people have already paid for their tickets in the digital currency.
Earlier this month, Virgin Galactic took its SpaceShipTwo on its third test flight, with the craft reaching 71,000 feet – its highest yet.
SpaceShipTwo is a consumer-ready vehicle designed to fly to the edge of space. It is partly based on the technology of SpaceShipOne, the craft that completed the first manned private spaceflight in 2004.

Sir Richard Branson

Advocate

Branson told CNBC he was very interested in bitcoin, but shouldn’t be considered its number one advocate.
“What I’m saying is we have a spaceship company and if people have made a lot of money out of bitcoin … we’ll accept their money and send them to space,” he added. 
Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, the entrepreneur revealed he has invested some of his own money in bitcoin, however he is not 100% convinced bitcoin will be the cryptocurrency that succeeds over all others. He said:

“I think there will be a global currency that will take on [J.P. Morgan CEO] Jamie Dimon and the other banks and other currencies. That will be the future. I suspect that if it isn’t bitcoin, someone else like Square will … come up with that currency.”

Branson’s comments follow an interview between CNBC and Dimon, in which the CEO said JPMorgan would be unlikely to have much to do with bitcoin.
“The question isn’t whether we accept it. The question is do we even participate [with] people who facilitate bitcoin?” he said.

Exciting opportunity

Branson, on the other hand, is much more open to the idea of a new, dominant currency. He deems the idea of a new global currency “very exciting” and said, in his CNBC interview, he supports the use of a currency that doesn’t require large fees and charges to move around.
“Whoever is behind bitcoin is brilliant – it’s a brilliant first step,” he added.
Branson was later asked who he believed to be the most instrumental person in the world of business over the past 25 years.
“I personally think Larry Page from Google, and obviously Sergey [Brin] who has worked very closely with him. They’ve created a formidable company. They’ve transformed the world in many ways,” he replied.
Richard Branson image via Prometheus72 / Shutterstock.com

Richard BransonVirgin Galactic

Google Lets Slip That It's Exploring Possible Bitcoin Integration Plans

Since Overstock.com OSTK -3.2% began accepting Bitcoin payments earlier this month, the cryptocurrency community has been buzzing with speculation about which tech company will integrate Bitcoin next.  So Jarar Malik decided to ask.

“After the whole Overstock thing, I said ‘f–k it,’” says Malik, a Bitcoin early adopter, online marketing manager and musician with a following in Pakistan. “‘Let me email the head guys at a bunch of tech companies and see what they say.’”

Bitcoin Comes To Overstock After CEO Locks 40 People In A Room For A Week Kashmir Hill Forbes Staff

Of Course A Book About Bitcoin Should Be Sold For Bitcoin Kashmir Hill Forbes Staff

Bitcoin's Incredible Year Kashmir Hill Forbes Staff

He started with Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook, asking if Apple AAPL -1.81% or Amazon had any plans for the cryptocurrency. No response. Then he tried the Google GOOG -3.1% triumvirate Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt. When they also ignored him, he moved down a rung to Google’s Senior Vice President Vic Gundotra.
To his surprise, Gundotra wrote him back. He also forwarded Malik’s query to another Google staffer and started a series of email exchanges that  led to one Googler telling Malik that the company is indeed pondering how it can make use of the world’s first form of decentralized digital cash.
“We are working in the payments team to figure out how to incorporate bitcoin into our plans,” wrote Google Senior VP of Ads and Commerce Sridhar Ramaswamy at one point in the email exchange that Malik forwarded to me. He promised to get back in touch “when we are a little more sure.”
When Malik posted Ramaswamy’s response to the Bitcoin forum on Reddit and immediately got an positive response from the site’s bitcoiners, Google Wallet exec Ariel Bardin followed up by asking Malik to serve as a moderator on a Google survey posing the question “What would I want Google to do with Bitcoin?”
I reached out to Google, and the company responded in a very different tone, but didn’t deny that the comments Malik posted to Reddit were real. “As we continue to work on Google Wallet, we’re grateful for a very wide range of suggestions,” a spokesperson writes. ”While we’re keen to actively engage with Wallet users to help inform and shape the product, there’s no change to our position: we have no current plans regarding Bitcoin.”

The Forbes E-book On Bitcoin Secret Money: Living on Bitcoin in the Real World, by Forbes staff writer Kashmir Hill, can be bought in Bitcoin or legal tender.

Malik isn’t deterred. “They’re not dismissing it,” he says. “Maybe this will force their hand.”
Although it hasn’t adopted Bitcoin into any of its products, Google has been more Bitcoin-friendly than most other major tech firms. While Apple hasn’t allowed a single Bitcoin client into its iOS app store, dozens of Bitcoin wallets are available for Android. And in 2011, Eric Schmidt said at the Mobile World Congress that the company’s co-founders once considered introducing a Bitcoin-like virtual currency called Google Bucks, which he discouraged for regulatory reasons.
But some sort of Bitcoin integration could offer a boost to Google in its digital payments competition with Paypal. And Overstock.com illlustrated the buzz that Bitcoin adoption can generate earlier this month when it received $130,000 worth of Bitcoin sales in its first day accepting the currency, mostly from new customers.
Redditors certainly seemed wild about the idea. “I would love for google to make it possible to pay with bitcoin on most shops I come across,” wrote a user named Sturmhardt. “This is HUGE guys. I’ll move over to Google+ if this turns out to be true… ;-)” wrote a user named maxilllian.
As for Malik himself, he’s holding out hope that Google will make Bitcoin as ubiquitous and easy to use as Gmail. “Google is integrated in every part of our lives,” he says. “I’d like to see them let us send payments back and forth the same way we use email…to incorporate Bitcoin into our daily DNA.”
–
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Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a decentralized, anonymous electronic currency that first came into being in 2009. It's still not clear how far Bitcoin can go in establising itself in the mainstream economy, but there are quite a few large and small businesses accepting Bitcoin as a means to purchase goods and services. You can use the cryptocoin to buy produce at a farmers market, security services from major internet companies, as well as drugs and weapons from your favorite online black market. The list of Bitcoin vendors is growing every day.

Bitcoin ATM Appearance Draws Crowds in Zurich

Jona Kallgren (@Jonakallgren) | Published on January 24, 2014 at 10:00 GMT | Events, News, Technology

It’s the financial capital of Switzerland, filled with huge banks and powerful companies. It is also considered the world’s largest gold trading centre, and is home to over 1,300 multi-millionaires. And now, after a guest appearance by a bicoin ATM, Zurich has been introduced to cryptocurrencies.
The ATM in question is a Lamassu unit that was widely considered to be Europe’s first bitcoin ATM when it was installed at a market hall in the Slovakian Capital, Bratislava. After reading about the unit, two Zurich-based bitcoin enthusiasts, Dorian Credé and Christian Mäder, took the 10-hour trip to see the machine in action.
They were both impressed. So much so, that Credé called Lamassu that very evening to place an order for his own unit.
But unwilling to wait for the ATM to be delivered in mid-march, Credé set out to convince Marian Jančuška, who owns the Bratislava unit, to let them take it to Zurich for a guest appearance. To his surprise Jančuška immediately agreed, and one week later Credé and Mäder went back to pick up the unit and install it in a busy market hall in the centre of the city.

Beyond expectation

Dorian Credé and Christian Mäder with the ATM in Zurich

The trial ended on Wednesday, and Credé said it was a “huge success, beyond [...] expectations”. Over the four days that the machine was operational, 90 transactions were made and a total of 14.8 bitcoins were purchased.
This is despite the machine only being able to handle euros, not Swiss Francs – and only being able to display Slovakian as a language. Also, being a Lamassu unit, it only converts fiat currency to bitcoin, not the other way around.
Credé and Mäder were on hand with the ATM at all times to help people buy bitcoin, and answer any questions about the cryptocurrency. It was hard work, but worth it, said Credé:

“People came from all parts of Switzerland just to see the ATM. It was pretty cool. We had one person from MasterCard and one from a private bank who came all the way from Geneva just to buy some bitcoin, Then they asked a few questions before they drove all the way back.”

Credé said that he invested about 2,000 CHF (approximately $2,219) of his own money to bring the machine over. The 3% service charge went to the ATM’s owner Jančuška, so in the end he has no financial gain to show for it. But this was never the plan.
“It was more a spontaneous reaction. I love the idea of being the first to show it in Switzerland. I can say mission accomplished,” he said.

Bitcoin fascination

Dorian Credé with the Lamassu ATM

Credé’s fascination with bitcoin goes back several years, stemming from his other project: Wikirating which provides free and collaborative credit ratings of companies and countries.
After having the idea to pay contributors in bitcoin, he became more and more interested in the cryptocurrency. Credé eventually started the World Bitcoin Association with Mäder – who is one of Switzerland’s most prominent bitcoin bloggers. The aim of the Association is to unite non-profit bitcoin organisations around the world.
One person involved the project to bring the ATM to Switzerland had a step learning curve. Daniel Bollhalder, who manages the market hall where the ATM was housed, admits he did not know much about bitcoin and that he is quite “old-school” when it comes to these things.
However, after seeing the machine in action he was more than happy to offer a permanent space for Credé’s own ATM when it is delivered.
“We are crazy people, so we say yes to crazy projects. It is that simple,” he said.
Zurich Image via Shutterstock

Bitcoin Trading Thrives at London’s First Satoshi Square Event

Kadhim Shubber (@kadhimshubber) | Published on January 20, 2014 at 11:35 GMT | Events, News

London held its first Satoshi Square event on Saturday 18^th January – a bitcoin meetup combined with live face-to-face trading of the sort popularly imagined to dominate Wall Street.
Part networking event, part trading floor and part public outreach, the event attracted everyone from bitcoin entrepreneurs to curious members of the public.

“We want to increase awareness of bitcoin among the general public. Bitcoin is a concept that’s quite difficult to get your head around, so we want to bring the public together with people who are experts in digital currency,” said Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, a bitcoin insurance startup in the UK, and organiser of the Satoshi Square event.
One of those experts was Hugh Halford-Thompson, co-founder of quickbitcoin.co.uk, a UK-based bitcoin marketplace.
“London’s bitcoin community is good, just look around,” he said, gesturing to the crowd of roughly 100 people who had congregated at Spitalfields Market for the event. “But the biggest thing we all want to do is kick off the [bitcoin] economy.”
Halford-Thompson was doing his best to grow the community on Saturday, helping people set up wallets and educating them about bitcoin. As we talked a women approached us to talk about bitcoin and he leapt into action,  “Have you got an iPhone or Android, we can get you set up!”

But the bitcoin economy is a bigger challenge, he said:

“It’s moving in the right direction, but I think a bigger problem than regulation is the banking issue. Irrelevant of the regulation, they don’t want bitcoin companies or bitcoin services. My view on that is they probably don’t want bitcoin to work.”

Although there are a few bitcoin businesses in London, like The Pembury Tavern in Hackney, the city still lacks a natural home for bitcoin in the same way that Berlin has the Kreuzberg area.
“What I’d really like to do is get a group of businesses in a similar area, introduce them to bitcoin, get them set up and get an economy together,” says Halford-Thompson.
Other bitcoiners at the event were mainly happy to be among like-minded people. As you would expect for a community built around a digital currency – and for any community in 2013 – much of the interaction happens online.
“It’s nice to meet with people in real time. Using bitcoin in the real world, it’s rare,” said Mark, 59. Like many in the community, the former soldier’s main interest in digital currencies was anonymity.
“Anonymity is the most important thing to me … the products I buy fall into an area that bitcoin doesn’t want to be associated with.”
He declined to provide more details, but noted the impressive speed with which the “criminal fraternity” had adapted to bitcoin.

Of course most of the people there didn’t fit this stereotype, borne out of bitcoin’s previous association with the Silk Road. The site’s demise, thought to be bitcoin’s death knell, arguably freed bitcoin to enter the mainstream untainted by a high-profile connection to drugs and illegality. Some residue still remains, however.
“Even techies are suspicious of it, they think it’s a bubble or it’s a scam,” said Scott, 43, a mobile developer and creator of Bitty Bot, which trawls bitcoin marketplaces every five minutes and tweets the best prices.
Events like Satoshi Square, held out in the open (and unfortunately the cold), are an important tool in dispelling these myths and stereotypes. The answer to the question “What’s bitcoin?” was on fine display on Saturday. Simply, it’s the ordinary people who use it because they believe we can build a better foundation for finance in the 21^st century.
Video by Roop Gill

Bitcoin ATM Installations Surge in Canada

Joon Ian Wong (@joonian) | Published on January 19, 2014 at 15:06 GMT | Companies, News

Three cities in Canada are set to have bitcoin ATMs installed in the coming weeks, making the country the top ATM location in the world. New ATMs will be installed in the Canadian capital city Ottawa as well as Montreal and financial hub Toronto.
The ATM operators are announcing their plans to install machines across the country even as Canada’s central bank issued a statement yesterday declaring bitcoin is not recognised as legal tender there.
Fadi Azouz, who operates the Montreal machine, said his ATM would be installed by 24th January at the Bitcoin Embassy in Montreal. It will take live rates from either BitStamp or the Canadian exchange Virtex and will charge a 5% for transactions. The ‘embassy’ is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting bitcoin. Azouz said the central bank’s announcement would have no impact on his plans:

“The [statement] does not affect us at all. As long as the millions of people using bitcoin around the world continue to believe in it and trust it to be an honest method of payment, it shall continue to [be] just that.”

Azouz added that his company, Vx5 Technologies, will be installing and operating bitcoin ATMs in eight countries this year. They include Lebanon, the Philippines, Hungary and Venezuela, among others.
Azouz will not be operating a Lamassu or Robocoin machine, which are the two most well known manufacturers of bitcoin ATMs at present. Instead, he has opted for a machine built by an Ottawa company called Bitaccess. The firm calls its machines ‘BTMs‘.
Bitaccess makes a machine that converts fiat currency to bitcoin and another model that does two-way conversions. Current players Lamassu and Robocoin offer machines that convert fiat to bitcoin or two-conversions respectively.

A Lamassu bitcoin ATM

The Ottawa ATM maker has also included a wallet-generation feature on its machines. This means the ATM can create a wallet for a user who does not have an existing way of storing bitcoins. According to Bitaccess, a high-entropy, one-time, paper wallet is generated, which is then scanned manually by the user. The company says it doesn’t store any information about the printed wallets.
Ottawa will also get a Bitaccess machine, according to a report from the Ottawa Citizen. The machine will be operated by a company called BIT-Capital, which also claims to run several cryptocurrency investment funds. The Ottawa ATM was installed in the Clocktower Brew Pub yesterday, according to the Citizen‘s report. The micro-brewery boasts four home-brewed beers and an “upscale pub menu”.

Tom Drummond, a bitcoin user in Ottawa, said he welcomed the arrival of an ATM in the city. He said his current method of buying bitcoin on Canadian exchange Virtex takes between two hours and three days, depending on how he transfers his money to the exchange.
Virtex charges a 1.5% fee for a 120-day trading volume of less than 400 BTC and 0.5% for a trading volume greater than 2,000 BTC. It also allows customers to deposit or withdraw cash using a prepaid debit card that costs CA$10 for the card and CA$2 for each cash withdrawal from an ATM. The process can be complicated and daunting for a new user, which is one reason Drummond welcomes bitcoin ATMs in Canada.
“I feel ATMs will be good exposure to the public for BTC,” Drummond said.
In Toronto, Canada’s commercial capital, an ATM has been installed at Bitcoin Decentral, a co-working space dedicated to bitcoin businesses in the city’s downtown. The space is 5,500 sq ft spread over four floors. The ATM is run by the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada, according to a report from the Toronto Star. It’s unclear what type of machine has been installed, but it appears that it is not a Lamassu, as the Star reports that it can perform two-way conversions between bitcoin and fiat currency.

Robocoin bitcoin ATMs

Vancouver was the world’s first city to have a bitcoin ATM permanently installed last October. That Robocoin unit made waves after it reportedly accepted more than CA$1m in deposits in its first 29 days of operation. Its operator, Bitcoiniacs, said in December that it would install Robocoin machines in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary in December, but the Bitcoiniacs website only lists the Vancouver machine.
Manufacturers of bitcoin ATMs, Lamassu and Robocoin, have been engaged in a race to sell their machines around the world. Lamassu announced it had sold its 100th unit. New players have been entering the scene, ranging from the open-source Skyhook ATM to Canada’s homegrown Bitaccess BTM.

ATMsBitaccessCanadaLamassuRobocoin

eBay UK to Allow Sale of Virtual Currency from 10th February

 Emily Spaven (@emilyspaven) | Published on January 16, 2014 at 21:36 GMT | Companies, Merchants, News

 

eBay is launching a dedicated Virtual Currency category on eBay Classifieds in the UK on 10th February.
The Classified Ads category will allow for the sale of all types of digital currency, including bitcoin and litecoin, eBay representatives have confirmed.
eBay Classifieds, which lists posts throughout the site, serves as the site’s answer to Craigslist. eBay provides the free platform for local buyers and sellers to connect, but does not participate in the transactions.
Ryan Moore, Manager of Business Communications at eBay, said:

“To promote a trustworthy marketplace and ensure compliance with applicable regulations, eBay is currently updating its Currency Policy. The updated policy will clarify that listings for Bitcoin and other similar virtual currencies must be listed in the Virtual Currency Category in the Classified Ad format.
The Virtual Currency category is expected to be available on the UK site on February 10th.”

A Reddit post earlier today sparked rumours of the change in policy. The post included an email from eBay stating that the company does not currently permit listings of digital currencies, but that this will soon change.
The email reads:

“Please know that per our recent policy update, Virtual Currency (i.e. Bitcoin and Litecoin), whether digitally or physically delivered, cannot be listed in Auction-style or Buy-It-Now listing formats. eBay is opening a Virtual Currency category to allow the sale of virtual currency in Classified Ads format on February 10, 2014.
We request that you do not list these items until that date. Please be informed that repeated breach of the policy may further jeopardize your account status. To avoid any inconvenience in future, we’d appreciated it if you go through our help pages or contact us before listing any such items.”

At press time, the policy change only applies to eBay’s UK site. An eBay customer service representative said: “Our policies are different for different country sites, so to know more about other countries, you need to contact the respective eBay sites.”
In December, an eBay user found a loophole that enabled him to sell digital currency via the site. He confirmed via customer service employees from eBay that virtual currencies could be sold on the platform, provided they are housed in physical items (like USB sticks or hard drives).

A bitcoin “mining contract” listed on eBay.

Pro-bitcoin

Both eBay president John Donahoe and David Marcus, president of eBay-owned PayPal, have shared their positive views on bitcoin in recent months, with Donahoe stating that he believes digital currency is going to be a “very powerful thing” in the future.
Marcus has been much more vocal in his support of bitcoin, labelling digital currency “truly fascinating” in one interview and even going as far as to call it the future of money in another.
This week, Marcus pledged his support to bitcoin on Twitter, stating that those at PayPal are “believers in BTC”.

A small step

While today’s development isn’t quite the eBay-accepts-bitcoin-payments announcement that digital currency enthusiasts have been seeking, it should not be overlooked. The company has shown it is certainly not anti-bitcoin, and that it is prepared to adjust its policies to accommodate the fledgling currency and its alternatives.
The firm’s bosses have made it clear they are interested in virtual currency and they are sure to be watching closely as other large online retailers start to accept it as a form of payment.
Overstock – a company with revenue of $1.1bn for 2012 – started accepting bitcoin last week, using California-based online wallet and payment processing firm Coinbase to handle its transactions. The company subsequently enjoyed a huge surge in sales, as CEO Patrick Byrne revealed on Twitter.
Byrne said in a recent interview with CNN International that he is certain other retail giants will follow his company’s lead and start accepting bitcoin payments soon.
“This forces the hand of Amazon and some other big players. They have to follow suit. You will see them follow suit, I’ll be stunned if you don’t, because they can’t just cede that part of the market to us, if we’re the only main, large retail site taking bitcoin. Either they have to start taking it, or they’re just giving away a piece of the market,” he said.
Whether eBay will start to accept bitcoin is unclear, but what is certain is that, with a global customer base of 233 million and revenue of $14.07bn in 2012, doing so would give digital currency a huge mainstream boost.

eBayOverstockUK


 

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Pay Your Taxes With Bitcoin: snapCard Launches ‘Pay the IRS’ Service

  Daniel Cawrey (@danielcawrey) | Published on January 15, 2014 at 23:06 GMT | Companies, Merchants, News

Bitcoin-based shopping cart snapCard is expanding its offerings by launching a pay-the-IRS service for its customers.
“Tax services are truly relevant right now,” Ioannis Giannaros, one of snapCard’s founders, told CoinDesk. “It’s going to be really cool.”
SnapCard users will be able to pay their taxes in bitcoin, and the company will process a USD transaction through a payment processor.
“Essentially, you fill out a form and you say how much you want to pay. Then, we invoice you.”

Tax Payment Processing With BTC

“There are payment processors that have partnered with the government already. What we’re essentially doing is [functioning as] a layer on top that accepts bitcoin,” said Giannaros.
The cost for the tax payment service is a 1.87% fee for the payment processor and a flat $10 charge from snapCard.
“We have a government payment processor, like a credit card processor, that we run the transaction through. That’s the nuts and bolts of it.”
The electronic methods of submitting owed taxes have consisted of an echeck or a credit card. Many credit card processors charge between 2-3% to make a tax payment using plastic.

“There’s a lot of attributes to the US dollar that make it monopolistic in the US, and one is paying taxes. You have to pay in dollars,” Giannaros said. “At the end of the day, you still pay in dollars through us. But it kind of alleviates the end-to-end point. It’s using bitcoin to pay your taxes.”

SnapCard and Ecommerce

SnapCard bills itself on its website as ‘the easiest way to buy anything on the Internet using bitcoin’. The company regularly charges a 2% fee (1% during the month of January) when using the shopping cart service to pay for items with bitcoin, and uses a bookmarklet to enable the checkout process.
Once a user gets to the shopping cart stage of an online purchase, he or she clicks on the snapCard bookmarklet, which forwards the data to the company for bitcoin processing. The advantage of this is that, with the exception of Overstock.com, large online retailers still don’t accept bitcoin as a payment method. Until that changes, those who want to buy items with BTC from Amazon or a majority of online retailers need to use a third-party service. SnapCard has even processed the sale of a $90,000 Mercedes Benz from a car dealership that would not accept BTC.
So far, snapCard has facilitated more than $300,000 in BTC transactions from an active base of over 2,500 users. In December, Giannaros and his co-founder Michael Dunworth told CoinDesk in an interview that they believed many of their customers were early bitcoin investors looking to spend their increasingly valuable bitcoins to promote the virtual currency.
SnapCard is currently being incubated at Boost VC, a San Mateo, CA-based startup accelerator that frequently financially backs bitcoin-based companies. A few other bitcoin startups along with snapCard will be pitching to investors at Boost’s Winter Class Demo Day on 11 February.
It’s free to sign up with snapCard. Customers have the option of linking their account to Coinbase or getting an invoice to pay to a bitcoin address within five minutes of order processing.
Tax payment image via Shutterstock

Wells Fargo Holds Summit on Bitcoin Engagement

Danny Bradbury (@dannybradbury) | Published on January 15, 2014 at 00:49 GMT | News, Regulation, US & Canada

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Wells Fargo bank has assembled a group of experts that met in San Francisco today to discuss the “rules of engagement” for bitcoin, the company has confirmed.
Digital currency experts, executives from the finance industry, and members of the US government are all said to be on the action team to discuss the bank’s attitude to bitcoin in the future. The group was assembled by Jim Richards, the head of anti-money-laundering at the bank.

“We are gathering a group of internal and external experts and interested parties to help us understand virtual currencies as well as the digital currency payment system. We are looking to learn and become better informed in that area,” a source at Wells Fargo told CoinDesk today.

Bitcoin is becoming an increasingly visible part of the monetary landscape, garnering not only a report from the Congressional Research Service last month, but also warranting two hearings from Congressional committees, one of which explored banking regulation as a discrete topic.
At that November hearing, banking industry representatives called for more regulation of the digital currency, arguing that controls were needed to ensure that illicit transactions could not take place. Regulation was needed to “legitimize” the digital currency, warned Paul Paul Smocer, the president of BITS. BITS is the technology policy division of The Financial Services Roundtable – an industry body set up by the financial services industry to explore approaches to new technologies.
Bitcoin companies have traditionally been plagued by strained banking relationships. Banks have closed accounts without warning, or simply refused to open them at all. Some companies have negotiated working partnerships. Coinlab famously signed an agreement with Silicon Valley Bank last year, although since then, grassroots reports have emerged of others being refused accounts. Tradehill, an exchange for high net worth individuals, ceased trading after the firm’s relationship with the Internet Archive Credit Union, fell through.
Government regulations already steer bitcoin policy for Wells Fargo, which is a federally regulated entity. “It’s a rapidly evolving area, and there has been some guidance shared. But what we have seen says in part that administrator exchanging it for federal currency is a money transmitter under federal regulations,” the Wells Fargo spokesperson said, explaining why it is so difficult to have a clear policy on whether it will do business with a bitcoin-based company.

“We are working to make sure that we are meeting our due diligence requirements. That if we are providing services to those companies, that we look at federal registration, state licensing, business background, AML procedures, all of that due diligence.”

It is still unclear what will transpire from the meeting, and how positive the group will be toward bitcoin. Indeed, one legal contact of CoinDesks’s refused to comment on the story until more substantive news emerged of the firm’s position. Wells Fargo would not reveal which people were involved in the discussion, and as testimony at the banking hearing showed, opinions differ wildly on how aggressive regulators should be toward bitcoin.
Nevertheless, the fact that Wells Fargo is holding the meeting at all must be a positive sign for the digital currency community. It is the largest bank by market capitalisation, and has over 9000 retail branches across the US. Any clarity in banking policy at this level will doubtless steer opinion elsewhere in the banking community.
“Wells Fargo could remake the Bitcoin business in the US overnight,” said Ryan Singer, co-founder of Tradehill, who has since left to pursue another company in the bitcoin security space. “They have the expertise, knowledge and clout necessary to deal with concerns about AML compliance and banking risk. If they are truly getting close to being ready to experiment with bitcoin, then every bitcoin startup should be lining up to learn more. It’s also worth mentioning that they are active FinTech investors.”
Wells Fargo image via Shutterstock

banksWells Fargo

eToro Launches Bitcoin Trading For 3 Million Users 

Joon Ian Wong (@joonian) | Published on January 13, 2014 at 16:00 GMT | Companies, News

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Asset-trading platform eToro today launched bitcoin trading for its three million registered users.
With the launch, the platform hopes to target investors who are new to the cryptocurrency. Communications manager Nadav Avidan said:

“If you want to invest in bitcoin and you’re not a computer geek, you don’t really know where to start. We’re providing a simple way for people to get involved.”

According to Navidan, almost 5% of eToro’s active user base (about 200,000 users) have open bitcoin positions at the moment. Users from South America, the UK and Germany are currently the top bitcoin traders.
EToro’s bitcoin prices are in line with those quoted on Mt. Gox. The platform charges 1% of the transaction value on top of each transaction.

Three-click process

Etoro has classified bitcoin as a stock on its platform, partly because it wanted to familiarise users with the cryptocurrency. Users select the BTC ‘stock’ on eToro’s platform, the amount of capital they wish to invest, and click to confirm their choice.
Navidan said this three-click process is “probably the simplest way” to invest in bitcoin at the moment.

Orders for bitcoin on the site will be executed four times a day, which is more frequent than the daily order execution for equities on the platform. The higher frequency is required to account for bitcoin’s more volatile price movements, Avidan said.

Bitcoin investors on eToro will not require a wallet for the digital currency. The platform trades bitcoin on a ‘contract for difference‘ basis, which means users buy and sell financial derivatives that track the BTC price without actually owning the underlying asset.

Etoro’s chief executive and founder Yoni Assia is an outspoken bitcoin supporter, with some 2.6% of his eToro portfolio currently in bitcoin. He is also working on an open standards protocol to exchange value over the internet with coloured coins.
The idea behind the coloured coins framework is to allow users to hold various assets, in addition to bitcoin, by marking individual coins as unique units. These ‘marked’ bitcoins can then theoretically carry a value independent of the prevailing bitcoin price if they are backed by a contract or agreement.
Coloured coins can, therefore, be used to store and exchange assets other than bitcoin, including currencies, equities or bonds – while taking advantage of the block chain to verify transactions.

About eToro

eToro bills itself as a ‘social investment network’ that combines trading currencies, commodities, indices and equities with social networking features. It has more than 3 million users in 200 countries, with about 200,000 active users, according to Avidan.
One of the features eToro touts is Copy Trader, which allows users to replicate other users’ trades. The concept is similar to mirror trading, a well-established trader strategy.
User profiles include metrics like the ratio of “winning trades”, or the ratio of positions that were closed with a gain, the percentage of profitable weeks and the average number of days a user chose to leave a position open.
An eToro user can analyse these statistics and choose to copy users who they deem to be successful. The platform claims that Copy Trader users have a “win ratio” of 80%, TechCrunch has reported.
The most copied trader on eToro at the moment, within a six-month period, is AnasSleiman, with 8,375 users replicating his trades. Recent months have not been kind to the popular trader, however, as his portfolio is down nearly 30%. AnasSleiman, whose profile says he is based in Ireland, holds about two-thirds of his portfolio in currencies and the rest in commodities and indices.
A cursory search revealed a number of websites and forum posts calling eToro a “scam”. The company even has a page dedicated to debunking these accusations. Avidan dismissed the accusations, saying that users wrongly blamed the platform when they lost money on trades. Avidan added that eToro is regulated by the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, an independent regulatory body with the power to investigate or ban financial products it deems are marketed in a misleading way.
Disclaimer: This article should not be viewed as an endorsement of eToro. Please do your own research before considering investing any funds in this service.
Image Credit: Songquan Deng / Shutterstock.com

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During this stage, GBBG is raising development capital by selling Founder and Co-Founder positions. We sold 3,285 Founder positions during our pre-launch. There are currently 0 Co-Founder positions available for sale. We proceed into Matrix stage when there are 6,715 Co-Founder members.
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