$46k Spent on Mining Hardware: Who Will Deliver the Goods?

Dario Di Pardo (@dariodipardo) | Published on March 31, 2014 at 14:38 BST | Analysis, Cointerra, KnCMiner, Mining, Technology

Manufacturers of digital currency mining equipment have become notorious for their long delays in shipments and poor customer service. But is this general perception actually the case?
In this personal mining hardware roundup, Dario Di Pardo gives us his insight into the world of the frustrated miner, after personally dealing with a number of mining hardware makers over the last five months, and dealing with widely varying levels of delay, customer services and offers of compensation or refund.

Black Arrow

Product: Prospero X-3 (2 TH/s)
Price including shipping: $4,978
Order date: November 18th, 2013
Anticipated shipping date: February 24th, 2014
Expected delay: 2-3 months
After ordering in November and expecting delivery in February, shipping has now been delayed till May 1st due to power consumption issues with Black Arrow’s 28nm ASIC chip.
To compensate for the delay, however, the company offered free cloud hashing power for six months – effectively worth 25% of the purchased hashing power.
Tape-out of the improved chip was completed on February 23rd, and no further issues that could endanger the new shipping date are foreseen.
Customer support has been somewhat slow, but still reasonable.

HashFast

Product: Sierra (1.2 TH/s)
Price including shipping: $6,696
Order date: November 18th, 2013
‘Guaranteed’ delivery date: February 15th, 2014
Expected delay: 2.5 months
In December, a production update was communicated via email. Unfortunately, it also contained the email addresses of all HashFast customers, thus compromising their privacy, as well as mine.
My initial order confirmation gave February 15th as the ‘guaranteed delivery date’ (deliveries after this date entitle buyers to a refund). In January, however, I received an email giving March 31st as the new ‘guaranteed delivery date’. The email came without any complementary information whatsoever.
I received a further email on 28th March concerning shipping updates. Basically in my case (Batch 3), I must accept another month of delay (May shipment) or I can ‘upgrade’ my order to the new Sierra EVO (2 TH/s).
The latter option would also mean later shipment (end of May) and because it will be a kit, I would have to buy my own power supplies.
Ironically enough, people who placed an order for the Sierra EVO (available as of 20th February) will seemingly get theirs before I do, in April, this is despite the fact that I ordered mine three months before them.
Bitcoin refund requests from early customers who paid their order in bitcoins were refused and offered refunds in fiat at USD hardware pricing at the time of purchase instead. According some displeased customers, who are now considering legal action against HashFast, the terms of service clearly stated that orders paid in bitcoins would be refunded with the same amount of bitcoins.
Facing a one-week backlog, their customer support strikes me as questionable: some emails are ignored, while others are answered with generic replies.
No compensation for the delivery delay has been offered at this time.

Virtual Mining Corporation (VMC)

Product: Fast-Hash One Platinum Edition (1 TH/s)
Price including shipping: $6,479
Order date: November 24th, 2013
Anticipated shipping date: January 2014
Delay: 8 months?
Production of VMC’s consumer mining machines is subject to a significant delay, due to underperformance of the 28nm ASIC chip manufactured by eASIC.
According Kenneth E. Slaughter, CEO of VMC, which is a subsidiary of Active Mining Corporation, customers who wish to cancel their pre-order will be refunded in full.
Strangely enough, this delay is not being communicated to the company’s customers, neither by email nor via the website. One can only discover this information by checking the forums.
Considering the delay and lack of communication, I decided to apply for a refund on January 10th.
The only refund method is by cheque, and I received mine about a month after my application. Unfortunately the cheque came with a misspelling in my name, so that cashing it in was impossible.
The cheque was sent back with an accompanying letter clearly stating the correct spelling of the recipient’s name, just to be sure.
However, mid-March a new cheque arrived containing the same misspelling and, this time, it wasn’t signed either. At this point I started to wonder whether these errors were being done on purpose to delay the refund.
Declining my request to have the funds wired to my bank account instead, VMC will now be sending a third cheque (after receiving the unsigned one back from me).
So, maybe with some luck, some four to five months after applying for a refund, I will actually get my money back.
Despite all this, their customer service team has pretty good response times to email inquiries.

Bitmine

Product: CoinCraft Desk (1 TH/s)
Price including shipping: $5,758
Order date: November 28th, 2013
Anticipated shipping date: February (week 1)
Expected delay: 2.5 to 3 months

After a three months’ delay, Bitmine began shipping their first CoinCraft Desk units on the 12th of February.
According to CEO Giorgio Massarotto, exactly one month thereafter, about 250 units were delivered, which would average out at a production capacity of 12 units a day.
Some customers have claimed the slow production rate is due to a deal Bitmine made with PETA-MINE, allowing them to cut in front of the delivery queue, causing extra delay for ordinary customers. This has not been confirmed, however.
In addition, Bitmine is currently experiencing a shortage of 1300W power supplies, which are needed for a fully populated (1 TH/s) CoinCraft Desk. Also a result of the PETA-MINE deal, according to some commenters.
Early recipients of the hardware have also reported that the Desk’s ‘turbo mode’ doesn’t work as advertised. For a 1 TH/s Desk ‘turbo mode’ would allow hash rates up to 1.5 TH/s. In reality it doesn’t even come close to that number, they said.
Those who have ordered a CoinCraft Rig unit will have to cope with yet more delay, in the sense that shipment of these units has yet to be started. A recently published news update on the company website says this is expected in early April.
To compensate for the delay, Bitmine has a customer protection plan in place, which the company says consists of the following:

1) Shipment can be late up to a maximum of 10 days from the agreed shipment date.
2) For each subsequent 10 days of late shipping, we will add for free 10% more hashing power to your order as penalty.
3) After the 61st day of late shipment, you have the right to request a full refund and we will pay you an additional penalty of 10% of the initial order amount.

However, Bitmine recently announced on its official forum (just before it was closed down for about a week due to personal insults towards the CEO) that the maximum bonus hashing power was limited to 50% – a fact not mentioned in their customer protection plan.
This fact, in addition to the PETA-MINE story and the CoinCraft Desk’s ‘turbo mode’ issues, has led to many upset customers.
From the end of February till mid-March emails were answered with a delay of one to two weeks. During this period it was also very difficult to get a support representative on the phone.
Bitmine has worked through its support tickets backlog, however, and you can now expect a response time of about one day.
So far, Bitmine has been unable to provide an estimated shipment date for my order.

KnCMiner

Product: Neptune (3 TH/s)
Price including shipping: $10,175
Pre-order date: January 7th, 2014
Anticipated shipping date: Q2 2014
Expected delay: None
Having taped out their 20nm ASIC chip in February, KnCMiner seems on track for the Q2 delivery of the 3 TH/s SHA-256 mining rig.
In case a delay should occur, KnCMiner has said it will compensate customers with a free hosted hashing package as part of its so-called ‘Plan B’.

Alpha Technology

Product: Viper (Scrypt) Miner (90 MH/s)
Price excluding shipping: £5,450 ($8,984)
Pre-order date: January 10th, 2014
Anticipated shipping date: July 2014
Expected delay: None
Shortly after the KnCMiner 100 MH/s scrypt miner announcement on March 3rd, Alpha Technology struck back with updated specifications for both of its upcoming miners.
The hash rate of the 5 MH/s scrypt miner has increased to 16 MH/s, while the 25 MH/s rig will be mining at 90 MH/s. Prices have not increased as a result.
Regular development updates contribute to a good customer experience so far.

CoinTerra

Product: TerraMiner IV (2 TH/s)
Price including shipping: $6,569
Order date: January 12th, 2014
Anticipated shipping date: May 2014
Expected delay: None
CoinTerra’s January and February batches were shipped out with a delay of about a month.
Because hardware specifications have been lower than anticipated – with a hash rate up to 1.72 TH/s instead of the advertised 2 TH/s and a 20% power draw increase – early customers were offered a 15% discount coupon redeemable against their next CoinTerra hardware purchase.
Seemingly now on track for delivery of later batches, they are working on improving the miner’s performance and power efficiency to meet its initial specifications.

This $200 Raspberry Pi Box Could Have Saved Mt. Gox

• By Robert McMillan

The innards of the PiperWallet, powered by Raspberry Pi. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

The PiperWallet is a small black box that does little more than generate numbers and spit out paper. But if you invest in bitcoin — the popular digital currency — it could be a lifesaver.
When you own bitcoins, they’re stored at a particular address on the internet, and if you want to spend them or move them, you’ll need a cryptographic private key associated with that address. Many people store their keys in “wallets” that sit on their personal computer or on a website somewhere. Some companies, such as Coinbase or Blockchain, now offer free online wallets that are pretty convenient. But those who hold a large number of bitcoins don’t like to use conventional wallet services. They’re worried these services will be hacked.

Based on the popular Raspberry Pi hardware kit, this $200 device makes bitcoin wallets out of paper. That way, no one can hack them.

In fact, it’s good to be a little paranoid when it comes to storing bitcoins. There’s a lot of malicious software out there that sniffs around on computers for ways to steal the digital currency. That’s why PiperWallet takes a different tack. Based on the popular Raspberry Pi hardware kit, this $200 device makes bitcoin wallets out of paper. That way, no one can hack them.
In the online world, stealing bitcoins is pretty darned simple. Just ask Bloomberg TV’s Adam Johnson. A few months back he quickly had $20 worth of bitcoin stolen when he briefly flashed a private key on television. It’s one of the big security problems with bitcoin — the internet’s version of cash. If someone steals your coins, they’re gone forever.
So, when they own serious amounts of bitcoin, investors go to some pretty extreme lengths to protect their private keys. Charlie Shrem, the now-indicted CEO of the Bitinstant bitcoin exchange, saves his on a ring that he wears on his finger. Others generate their private keys on brand new computers that they never connect to the internet. PiperWallet wants to help anyone store their keys in a similarly secure way — but with dead trees as the medium.

An example of a PiperWallet paper bitcoin wallet. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

That tactic could have helped Mt. Gox, the first major bitcoin exchange, which kept its bitcoins in what’s known as a “cold wallet”. That means that Gox’s private key was supposedly stored in a way that it couldn’t be accessed by hackers, or by any systems connected to the internet. Except that many of Gox’s bitcoins “vanished” — somehow — and Gox was forced to declare bankruptcy, a mess that looks like it will take years to sort out.
Nobody but CEO Mark Karpelles seems to know what happened to Gox, but there may be a lesson here. If the company had simply used a secure paper wallet, perhaps it would still have its bitcoins. That goes double for Gox customers who had stored their bitcoins with the troubled exchange rather than on their own. “If people had stored their coins in PiperWallet, then they wouldn’t have lost them on Mt. Gox,” says PiperWallet’s creator, Chris Cassano.
He has sold about 300 of his PiperWallets to date, mostly to paranoid bitcoin types, or to bitcoin ATM operators who want to give customers a quick and easy way to print out a secure bitcoin wallet. The device is easy to use. You plug it in, push a button, and out comes your wallet complete with digital keys and phone-scannable QR codes. You can print a wallet, use your phone fund it with bitcoins, and then hand it over to a friend or family member or just like cash. It’s the perfect gift for your favorite Bloomberg TV reporter.

11 Top Bitcoin Memes

Roop Gill (@roopgill) | Published on March 29, 2014 at 11:56 GMT | Lifestyle

Bitcoin and viral memes are two of the greatest gifts of the Internet.
Hence, it makes perfect sense to pay tribute to both in a rundown of the best bitcoin memes making the rounds on cyberspace.

1. Let’s establish who the bitcoin owners are:

However, thanks to a little something called ‘anonymity’, we’ll never really know exactly who owns what, although some have tried.

2. They took the blue pill:

While it may take Neo some time to get ready, you can already buy lots with your bitcoins.

3. Bitcoin is going to be explosive:

But could it be worth more than an ounce of gold?

4. You can go places with bitcoin:

The Caribbean, Mount Everest, the Moon … oh the places you’ll go!

5. But not everyone loves bitcoin:

In fact some people really hate it. Like this guy. And this one too.

6. What we are all wondering:

It might be these guys in Asia.

7. This could be their strategy:

All hail Queen B? These contenders are catching up. Some did really well last year.

8. There were definitely some winners in bitcoin:

If you want to know exactly what happened with the value of bitcoin, then make sure you read this.

9. And then there was Chuck Norris:

But sadly, lots of other people were not able to do so.

10. Rejoice! The chosen one has been found:

Maybe not. But, this is what Newsweek speculated.

11. Just in case the man didn’t make himself clear enough:

Because one does not simply find Satoshi Nakamoto.

Chamath Palihapitiya: Bitcoin is Moving Past ‘Amateur Hour’

Carrie Kirby (@carriekirby) | Published on March 26, 2014 at 21:52 GMT | Companies, Events, Investors, News

In a wide-ranging, pointedly honest and often funny on-stage interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek writer Brad Stone at CoinSummit San Francisco on Wednesday, 26th March, venture capitalist and former Facebook and AOL executive Chamath Palihapitiya reflected on the future of bitcoin and on the changes the bitcoin ecosystem is undergoing right now.

_______________________________________________________________

Though he had just flown in from Toronto for day two of CoinSummit San Francisco, Chamath Palihapitiya immediately opened his fireside chat on 26th March with a quote that arguably summed up the feeling of the conference, saying “I feel like I’ve traveled to Mecca” in a quip that garnered laughs from the packed crowd.

BusinessWeek’s Brad Stone followed by asking Palihapitiya to bring the audience up to speed on his recent investments, and he quickly illustrated that he remains bullish on bitcoin, stating his belief that “everyone in the world should have 1% of their assets in bitcoin”.

Palihapitiya took big topics head on out of the gate, dismissing all other digital currencies by emphasizing that his previous statement referred only to bitcoin, not other alternative currencies, and stating that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance issued on 25th March was in fact a boon not just for the industry, but for the general investing public.

“For anyone who thinks this is a bad thing, it’s actually a really good thing. There has been tax policy that has been exploited by rich people for years that have allowed us to wash taxes on anything we own.”

Has-beens and also-rans

The troubles of Mt.Gox and several other recently failed bitcoin companies are “awesome for bitcoin,” Palihapitiya said.

“We’ve got to flush out all the has-beens and also-rans. There’s a bunch of amateur hour bullshit in the bitcoin ecosystem.”

“They will get replaced by a more systematic approach to problem-solving, the right checks and balances, the right regulatory participation,” he said. ”The fact that the price stabilized after is even more important, because it shows the growing maturity of the bitcoin market,” Palihapitiya added.
CoinSummit, has a more business-focused mood than some past bitcoin events, with a notable absence of panels on libertarianism or floating extra-national communities.
This shift is exactly what bitcoin needs, Palihapitiya asserted.

“All of the folks that want to have a libertarian bent or some other political agenda and strap it in on top of bitcoin – it’s really bad for us. You need to replace them with people who have a technological motive or a financial motive.”

Bitcoin’s apolitical agenda

Palihapitiya made it clear that this is an important point to him, returning to it when asked about his biggest worries as a bitcoin investor:

“We need to divorce ourselves from all the political rhetoric. I don’t think this is meant to be a mechanism to evade taxes, a mechanism to push back on government structure.
If we can drop the ego-driven part of wanting to thumb our nose at the establishment, then what we’re left with is actually a Trojan horse that replaces the establishment. And that’s good enough.”

What he is not concerned about is the use of bitcoin for illicit transactions, like on the now-defunct Silk Road marketplace.
In the future, Palihapitiya said, bitcoin will be more crime- and terrorism-resistant than cash, because it will likely get to a place where bitcoin addresses are associated with real names – or even Facebook accounts. But even right now, US dollars are used for more illicit purposes than bitcoins, he stated.

“The CIA drops bushels full of money at the feet of Afghan warlords. What do you think they’re doing with that, buying bread and fucking cheese? That’s not what they’re doing with it. They’re harvesting heroin and killing people.”

Golden State Warrior

Palihapitya swore freely during his interview, usually drawing chuckles from a clearly admiring crowd. Stone jokingly asked when Palihapitiya, a partial owner of the NBA franchise the Golden State Warriors, would start accepting bitcoin for ticket sales.
“We’re working on a stadium, and are about to plow three-quarters of a billion dollars into the San Francisco economy. … As soon as we figure that out, we’ll talk to BitPay,” he said.
Becoming more serious, Palihapitiya said that big retailers such as Walmart will eventually want to accept bitcoin because it will cut their credit card processing costs and provide customers with fraud protection.
Here are some of the other topics Palihapitiya touched on in his lively conversation with Stone.
On Mark Zuckerberg’s opinion of bitcoin:
“I think he thinks it’s cool. I don’t think they’re going to do anything in the near term. I’m speculating. Here’s a  great thing that would be awesome, is if Facebook figured out how to partner or launch a secure wallet, and then how to apply their identity on top of it to create a whitespace within the blockchain so that transactions, buying between people who were willing to be named, have some mechanism to have an easier way of doing things, acknowledged by governments and tax authorities, etc. That would be a game changer for bitcoin overnight.”
On the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto:
“Who cares? The only reason to care is because that person or group of people should be celebrated. … We’re all going to mythologize this now to kingdom come. It’s almost better if this person or group of people never became public, because then it’s really all of ours – and that’s what we want.”
On why he advocates for everyone owning at least a little bitcoin:
“When we look back after 30 years and these things are at $1m (dollars) a coin, I think it would be better if many people had shared in that appreciation instead of a few. That’s why I’m so evangelical about it. You can own one bitcoin, you can own five, you can own a few satoshi. Everyone should just have a little taste of it.”
Images via CoinDesk

Australian Manufacturer Debuts First Cashless Bitcoin ATM

Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on March 24, 2014 at 11:53 GMT | Bitcoin ATM, Companies, News, Startups

An Australian company says it has produced one of bitcoin’s holy grails: a cashless ATM that allows users to buy bitcoins using a credit card, and sell bitcoins via a direct deposit to their bank account.
The first fully functional Diamond Circle ATM arrived from its manufacturer in Brisbane this week. Unlike competing ATMs and vending machines that rely on QR codes and cash, Diamond Circle’s solution is based on near-field communication (NFC) technology with paper receipt backups.
This unique approach is the brainchild of CEO Stephen Rowlison, a seasoned FinTech (financial technology) entrepreneur with 30 years of IT experience in Australia, Asia and the US. Before founding Diamond Circle, Rowlison was working on various projects developing NFC payment and loyalty card systems for retailers. He said:

“I was interested in NFC technology and payments, but just needed a unit of transfer. After learning about bitcoin, I figured I could combine the NFC chip with the ATM idea.”

He added: “What I’ve really done is just brought together two existing technologies: contactless NFC and BTC. QR code payments have been outlawed in China and have no inbuilt card security, which is why using contactless technology makes so much sense.”

Wallet tags

Although Rowlison is exploring other NFC devices for his ATMs, he has decided to focus on a ‘wallet tag’ for now, which is a small disc that can be used as a pendant or keychain.

“It’s got the same smarts as banking technology except we mandated a Personal Identification Number for all tags that are registered online.”

It’s the same contactless technology being deployed in some countries by Visa’s PayWave and Mastercard’s PayPass. Australia’s point-of-sale debit card network EFTPOS, which uses PC compatible devices, has also begun using NFC chips.

This all means Diamond Circle will be in a dominant position to launch its second phase: POS integration that will enable retail merchants to accept payment in bitcoin using devices they already have.
The ‘wallet tag’ devices function as cold storage wallets that communicate with the cashless ATMs. Customers also have the option to print out paper receipts and use them with more traditional smartphone or desktop wallet clients. The paper receipt can also be used as a backup for wallet tag users.
Diamond Circle customers can use the NFC ‘wallet tag’ device with a number of smartphones to check bitcoin balances and broadcast their public address.

More secure storage

Diamond Circle provides customers a secure way to store and use bitcoins. The company does not provide online bitcoin wallets that are often susceptible to theft. Diamond Circle wallets and private keys are stored only on the wallet tag devices and paper receipt backups.
“Even if we get hacked, there’s nothing to take,” Rowlison said.
Diamond Circle will save a fortune by not handling physical cash. Once a machine needs to handle paper (or in Australia’s case, polymer) dollar bills it reduces the value proposition by increasing the costs of its production, materials and maintenance.
He insisted the technology itself was a lesser challenge, since it uses mostly off the shelf components that have already been tested in other payment systems.

“Once we ironed out the problems of bitcoin, the value proposition for consumers and the entire supply chain becomes obvious. instant cheap international money transfer and payments.”

Working with the current financial system

Often the bigger test faced by Diamond Circle and other bitcoin startups is learning to function within the regulatory environment. Rowlison said his focus has been on developing a compliant product with all KYC/AML regulations built in, meaning Diamond Circle ATMs are fully compliant.
This focus has helped the company form the necessary partnerships with banks and other financial institutions, though there has still been some resistance.
“It hasn’t been easy, we’ve had two rejections from major banks,” Rowlison continued.

“They just need to understand risks can be managed, it’s just a matter of getting that through to them. I don’t see it as an ‘Us vs Them’ situation, bitcoin is just another currency, we can coexist. We need to figure out how we can cooperate.”

He said there had also been “a bit of pushback on locations” from larger shopping malls worried about the product being delivered. The company may need to prove its technology first in a smaller location, like the coffee shops and cafes that house bitcoin ATMs elsewhere, then move to larger centers.

International interest

The company is an ‘Enrolled Money Transmitter Business’ and is run by a team with extensive C-Level experience in various fields of compliance in Australia and in the US.
Diamond Circle has received international interest in their ATMs already with queries from customers in in the UK, Canada, USA, Asia and the Middle East, and says it has already sold two of its ATMs within Australia and one to the UK.
The company is listed on cryptostocks.com under the ticker XDC, a direct pass through to their underlying shares, which helped them raise initial seed capital.
Images via Diamond Circle

GBBG Bitbillions is All About Believing in Blockchain

March 22, 2014

By bitadmin

GBBG|Ware Development

In November of 2013 GBBG|Ware, our software development services division, landed their first major project. Since that time, we have attracted 3 major projects and a hand-full of minor projects. Project managers are reporting 2 of our major projects will progress into beta testing stage in April 2014. We expected one of them to move into this stage in March 2013, but it was delayed due to additional security and stability enhancements.
While we are unable to disclose the identities of the clientele we are developing these projects for, we do want to shed a bit of light on their importance.
One of the projects is in the online gaming industry and similar projects have grossed over $10.0 million within their first 6 months of operations. We expect the project we are working on to be superior to any bitcoin related product currently on the market in this category from both a technical and entertainment stand-point.
Another of the projects we are developing is in the e-currency exchange industry. Similar projects have grossed hundreds of millions in revenue over the past few years. Again, we expect our project to be superior to many of the other e-currency related products currently on the market, especially from a technical and security standpoint.
It is important to note that GBBG|ware is developing these software platforms for 3rd party clients. We will not own or operate these businesses, however, we will be able to brand the “Powered by software developed by GBBG|ware” statement on their websites. We fully expect the entire bitcoin industry to take notice of the quality of our work. It is our expectation that more and more bitcoin industry clients will come to GBBG|ware as they see the robust, technically superior, security enhanced nature of our development skills.
50% of revenue generated through GBBG|ware development services will be poured into the member matrix pools. We expect to see the impact of this revenue increasing the matrix pools within 30 to 60 days.

Steady Growth

From the publication of “The Long Overdue Post” on January 30, 2014 we have continued to experience a consistent, steady growth in membership, Co-Founder upgrades, and Premier upgrades on each earnings source. GBBG is already operating profitably, and these profits are consistently increasing. While we would obviously prefer a slightly increased pace for growth, we are fully able to manage operations and development milestones with current levels.
So, THANK YOU for the continued support and dedication! Because of our loyal, dedicated membership, GBBG is building a foundation from which we expect many profitable revenue streams to emerge.
A few of our growth highlights for the first quarter of 2014 include:

1. New customer service division
2. Stand-alone product support division
3. Increased software development staff
4. Premium advertising sales division

Premium Advertising Sales

As most members are aware, GBBG added premium banner advertising positions to all our websites in March. From the launch of bitbillions through March 1st, 2014 the company generated a sum total of less than $10 in advertising revenue through the a-ads.com system and a few other ad networks we tested. Since we added our own premium banner ads platform, we have already generated several thousand dollars in advertising revenue in March alone. We are currently in the final stages of negotiations with a handful of major advertisers that we feel will dramatically bolster advertising sales revenue in the future. Two of these upcoming premier advertiser negotiations are in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Through our network of websites, GBBG is generating over 1 million unique visitors per month and well over 10 million impressions. These numbers are growing consistently. Therefore, we fully expect premium banner advertising revenue to increase consistently.
50% of revenue generated through premium banner advertising sales will be poured into the member matrix pools. We expect to see the impact of this revenue increasing the matrix pools within 30 to 60 days.

New Upcoming Earnings Source

Sometime before April 1, 2014, we will introduce a brand-new earnings source to our line-up. We are very excited about this new development. This new earnings source will be very different from our current offerings. First, those who participate will be earning commissions, and being paid, weekly. Second this source involves the promotion of a real, physical product critical to the acclimation of true wealth. Third, this new source will allow members to attain 5,000 GBBG points each month without viewing ads, watching videos, clicking links, or any online action that takes time. Participants will simply earn GBBG points by actively involving themselves in a product central to true wealth.
Keep your eye on our Blog and the Earnings page for upcoming details regarding this amazing new opportunity!

New Financial Transparency

In April 2014 we plan to release brand-new transparency reporting on all our sites. Rather than displaying a Bitcoin address with the balance held, we will supply fully transparent financial accounting to all members. On each site, members will be able to see the entire sales revenue generated, commissions paid out, contest winnings paid out, and amounts contributed to the various Matrix and referral upgrade pools. It is our goal to allow every member to have complete access to the entire financial picture of GBBG.
By revealing transparently every aspect of our financial picture, we intend to instil trust and rapport. Members will be more confidently able to tell others about GBBG because they can verify to their referrals the financial condition of the company in real-time. New referrals will easily be able to see the company pays its compensation plan on time, and has the resources in store to continue doing so. We feel this will be a major, useful tool for our membership when promoting our products to others.

Matrix Software Development

In April 2014 we plan to begin development of our Matrix software. This will be the long-term software that operates every one of our websites and manages the 3×7 forced matrix. Some of the features of our upcoming software include:

• Unified login – you will login to bitbillions.com and be automatically signed into all our websites
• Unified data – statistics and data (such as points and financials) will be unified and reported in real-time across all our websites
• Real-time Genealogy – all members will be placed into our 3×7 matrix automatically, Founders first, Co-Founders next, Reserve members next, and Free members last

We anticipate the development of our Matrix software to take 90 to 180 days to complete. Therefore, we anticipate the ability to move to Matrix stage, from a technical stand-point, before all the Co-Founder positions are claimed. Once the Matrix software is fully developed, we will simply wait for all the Co-Founder positions to be claimed and then, flip the switch.

Major Upcoming Project

GBBG intends to release details of our own major upcoming project in April. We will move into a crucial phase for this project soon. As we said repeatedly in the article titled “The Long Overdue Post”, we are developing serious software with serious technical ability. This is not an overnight project. It will take several months to even have our major project in beta testing stage. In addition, we expect major hurdles to clear in legal, regulatory, and banking areas. We will begin to address these hurdles over the next few months as we roll the concept out to our membership.
To allow members the opportunity to understand the nature of our product we will highlight the following aspects:

• Ability to acquire ANY virtual currency (e-currency) instantly, without a credit card, without a bank account, without a phone, without a computer, and without any electronic device at all.
• Ability to transfer money to anyone on earth without a credit card or even a computer or telephone. This transfer happens instantly and has the lowest costs on earth.
• Ability to accept payments from customers anywhere on earth with the lowest payment processing fees on earth.
• Ability to store money in an online wallet that is so secure we GUARANTEE your funds cannot be stolen. If they are stolen, we will replace them at our own expense.
• The most secure, dependable, customer-friendly, customer responsible payment processing and wallet management system ever built.

We hope this helps members get a glimpse of what we are working on.

Global Blockchain Believers Group

For the past two years, GBBG (Global Blockchain Believers Group) has been working to build a foundation from which we can grow many profitable Blockchain businesses. Bitcoin, e-currencies, and general money/payment related projects are the tip of the iceberg. As a group of experience software engineers, the core leaders of GBBG understand the real genius of “Bitcoin” is not the online money we are all hearing about, it is BLOCKCHAIN.
Over the next few years, we know people world-wide will begin to understand this reality. Blockchain is a protocol that revolutionized online payments. However, this is the very beginning of a major onslaught of tidal waves many industries should prepare for. We fully believe Blockchain will revolutionize the banking industry, legal industry, title industry, mergers & acquisitions industry, entertainment industry, intellectual property, securities and commodities industries, forex, and many, many more industries.
You are involved in a company with a long-term vision. We see the future, and the future is NOT Bitcoin. The truth is, Bitcoin is just a PART of the future. It is the first earth shattering development in many earth shattering developments to come. We intend to spend the remainder of 2014 identifying a handful of truly disruptive ways Blockchain can be used to disrupt other, non-financial, industries. And, we intend to become involved in the development and distribution of products in these industries.
Over the next 10 years, because of Blockchain, things will change most people haven’t even thought of yet. The manner in which books, movies, games, and music are distributed will change entirely. The manner in which the transfer of property (buildings, intellectual assets, etc.) occurs will be revolutionized and industry dinosaurs turned on their heads. We are even discussing involvement in a project that will revolutionize the operations of the entire Internet, taking the Internet into a decentralized peer-to-peer global network that cannot be manipulated or controlled by any government or central “authority” on earth.
In the 1960s the Internet was born. 95% of the population on earth did not become aware of it, or how it would affect their lives, until the mid-1990s. Blockchain was born in 2009. Today, 99% of the people on earth are not aware of it, or what it WILL do to change every life on earth over the next 20 years.
If you are involved in GBBG because you want to turn a quick buck or become an overnight success, please leave. We don’t want you here. You will just detract and discourage members from reality. We are Global Blockchain Believers Group. We understand the reality that we are at the very beginning of something that, over the next 20 years, will change many aspects of life on earth. And, we plan to be involved in those changes.
Over time GBBG and our members will profit greatly. We expect to produce millionaires in the same way Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook produced countless numbers of millionaires. Just remember that NONE of them produced these millionaires overnight. They all did so through slow, methodic, consistent growth.
Grow with us. Persevere with us. We are here for the long-haul. Together, we succeed.

BTC-e Enables Fund Withdrawals Using MasterCard and Visa Cards

Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 21, 2014 at 16:41 GMT | BTC-e, Exchanges, News

Notoriously tight-lipped bitcoin exchange and CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index member BTC-e is now allowing customers to withdraw funds to Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards, with some exceptions.
The company blog post, issued on 21st March, indicated that the new program is now available to customers in any country, using any currency. All customers will pay a 5% fee for the service.
The new functionality is noteworthy as it will allow customers to send money to debit and credit cards issued by two of the largest and most commonly used international card issuers. At present, the transfer of funds is only possible in US dollars.
Explained BTC-e:

“If your card is not in USD, the money will be converted at the rate of VISA / MasterCard or your bank’s rate (depending on the agreement with your bank).”

BTC-e estimated that customers will need to wait between two and four days to receive funds. MasterCard’s Maestro debit card, cards issued by PayPal and Visa Electron debit cards are not able to be used in conjunction with the service.
BTC-e did not respond to requests for further information.

Customer feedback

BTC-e conducted customer testing for an unidentified period before enabling the service, and posted answers to three frequently asked questions.
The exchange indicated the transactions will display as “affiliate payment” or “refund affiliate payment” on credit card statements. It added that funds can be sent to cards in any country and that on some cards such transactions would not be possible due to restrictions imposed by banks.
Added BTC-e:

“Some credit cards that do not allow [you] to have a positive balance cannot be funded. If payout to your card is not possible, then we will immediately notify you and refund the money back to your account.”

Renewed activity

The news follows what appears to be an increasingly active period of experimentation from the major exchange in regards to its offerings, notably following the insolvency of its one-time major competitor Mt. Gox.
On 28th February, it cut withdrawal fees via some of its third-party services in a move that increased the ease with which some customers would be able to move funds out of the exchange.
The moves also come in the wake of increasing attention from the mainstream media and warnings from major investors about the exchange’s practices.
Image credit: Sukharevskyy Dmytro (nevodka) / Shutterstock.com

How Bitcoin is Changing Everything

Ariel Deschapell | Published on March 15, 2014 at 12:50 GMT | Analysis

Perhaps the single most prominent, and telling, feature of bitcoin today is its massive controversy in the media. Not a single day goes by without an article or televised mention about its dangers, risks, and dubious mainstream appeal.
Many in the mainstream seem set in their beliefs that bitcoin is a fad, or even worse a ponzi scheme, and is destined to fail. Yet when was the last time a ponzi scheme attracted global attention and prominent venture capital investment? Since when has a fad incited the simultaneous and largely hostile reactions of governments across the globe?
Why did other payment technologies like PayPal or Western Union apparently fail to meet the requirements to be discussed in virtually every central bank on the planet, yet cryptocurrency is being so thoroughly scrutinised? Ironically enough, the on-going debate about whether or not bitcoin is truly a valuable disruptive technology, is all the evidence you need that it is.
This is because bitcoin as a technology isn’t just challenging business models, or even an entire industry. Plenty of innovative outfits do that with much less flare. Bitcoin is challenging the financial infrastructure of the whole global economy, and even more, it is challenging entire generations of established political and economic theory that that infrastructure is built on.
Bitcoin’s exponential growth flouts all of the traditional monetary theory that is the mainstream ideology amongst academics and politicians today. Its very existence and growing success cannot be accounted for within these old paradigms.
It challenges not only the basis and underlying assumptions of the modern financial system, but calls into question the beliefs and even livelihood of so many politicians, economic advisors, and media pundits. That is why so many are so sceptical of it, and others even outright hostile.

Bitcoin the currency

As a currency, bitcoin is in many ways the antithesis of modern fiat currencies. It has grown exponentially in usage the last year, and all without being declared by any state or central bank as “legal tender”. That simple fact astonishes many in academia, who could never have guessed a currency could spontaneously form and organically grow within the modern free market.
It was something that was never even discussed theoretically, and is still taking time to sink in amidst the denials that bitcoin is here to stay.
Yet this occurrence is surprisingly not entirely without precedence. Bitcoin is not the only example of a homogenous “good” being adopted by a population as a currency, for nothing but its underlying natural value and universal appeal. We have a much older example of that: gold, more than 5,000 years ago.
Cryptocurrency is following the same path as precious metals in ancient civilization. Where gold was valued for its color, easy malleability, purity and its anti-corrosive properties, bitcoin is valued for it’s speed, decentralization, anonymity and ultra low transaction costs.

Gold was discovered by practically every world civilization and became a good of such universal value it slowly became the de facto means of exchange (along with silver) across much of the planet, eventually culminating in the Classical Gold Standard. That is a span of dominance of thousands of years, compared with the 43 years of the global fiat system we have today.
History thus clearly shows that the idea of a currency deriving value primarily from the “backing” of some central state is nonsense.
For the vast majority of civilization, money was gold or silver, and both originated not as centrally issued currency that, as a result, magically had value, but as universally valued substances.
Bitcoin is fast becoming the first commodity since gold to become a widely accepted means of exchange without the need of a central authority backing it.
However unlike gold, Bitcoin is completely out of the reach of governments and can’t be regulated, centralized, or ultimately shut down and replaced with inflationary fiat money. For all its durability and timeless lustre, gold my pale to the longevity of a cryptocurrency system.

Reacting to Big Data

However Bitcoin is not just a currency that promises to eventually end the trend of patchwork national currencies that exist for the almost sole purpose of allowing governments to endlessly fund their own deficit spending.
When the Internet was growing in the 90s it promised a future in which everyone everywhere had access to all the knowledge in the world, a future where technology ultimately empowered the individual.
Indeed, this promise is coming closer and closer everyday as more people in underdeveloped countries have access to cheaper and cheaper smartphones and Internet access. However behind this positive outward development, the big players have long since been behind a much different trend.

“Businesses will hopefully creatively utilize the open source design of Bitcoin to provide entirely secure and anonymous end-to-end experiences.”

Google, Facebook, as well as many others, all keep meticulous track of user data for advertising and other purposes. On several occasions, the massive amounts of data collected by Internet service and telecommunications companies have been utilized by agencies such as the NSA, under morally questionable motives at best.
The result is a system that has evolved with the ability to track everything you do, like, go, and know, and then provide all of that data to one central authority you may or may not trust, all with little choice for the consumer. The Internet has recently been more reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984, rather than the future of individual empowerment that was promised.
Cryptocurrency is the first major technological advancement that, intentionally or not, is a massive reaction to the trend of Big Data. It is decentralized and anonymous by design, and it is these key features within the Bitcoin protocol itself that may be the key to weakening the hold of massive data collecting service companies like Google.
Already, all payments with Bitcoin are anonymous, which could allow users to opt out of advertising with anonymous micropayments. Yet many other cryptocurrencies such as Namecoin are attempting to take the protocol that enables this and use it to build other decentralized networks.
Among these can be email, domain names, and other such systems.

Decentralized applications

This is only the beginning however, businesses will hopefully creatively utilize the open source design of Bitcoin to provide entirely secure and anonymous end-to-end experiences. The possibilities for the emerging wave of decentralized applications are endless, and only time will tell what it does result in. As David Johnston, the $1m sponsor of the Austin Bitcoin Hackathon put it:

“[Decentralized applications] have the potential to become self-sustaining because they empower their stakeholders to invest in the development of the DA.
Because of that, it is conceivable that DAs for payments, social networking, and cloud computing may one day surpass the valuation of multinational corporations like Western Union, Visa, Facebook, Google, and Amazon that are are currently active in the space.”

At the very least, the ever-growing success of bitcoin thus far candidly illustrates that there is indeed a massive demand for anonymity online, one companies would be wise to take advantage of.
It’s far too tempting to compare bitcoin to PCs, the Internet, or even to gold 5,000 years ago. While it does possess similarities with many of these things, and comparing it to such landmark achievements underscores its importance, bitcoin is it’s own phenomena.
PCs may have had a huge amount of industry leaders shrugging it off or denouncing it entirely like bitcoin does now, but it never had whole governments attempting to shut down or regulate its use.
Precious metals may have been the first and last good to become universally adopted as a means of exchange, but this was a slow process that took centuries if not millennia, whereas the usage of cryptocurrencies has exploded in just a few short years.
While bitcoin may have many old conceptual roots, it is altogether new and powerful. It is ushering in a new paradigm in various aspects of society, and creating a new benchmark for future technological achievements to inevitably be compared to.
Bitcoin is changing everything, and if you aren’t on board, then you’re already a dinosaur.

Menufy Now Supports Bitcoin Payments at 400 US Restaurants

Nermin Hajdarbegovic | Published on March 14, 2014 at 20:52 GMT | Coinbase, Lifestyle, Merchants

US-based online restaurants service Menufy has integrated Coinbase into its e-commerce platform, allowing consumers to spend bitcoin at hundreds of US restaurants.
Menufy didn’t make much of a fuss out of the news, however – the Coinbase deal was announced only on Twitter and reddit.
The company says its service is available in nearly 400 restaurants across 28 states.
The service is free of charge, so any restaurant that wants to enroll can do so freely, with no contracts.

Level playing field

Menufy develops e-commerce software and custom websites for each of its restaurants.  The service is mobile-friendly and allows users to order and pay for food in a few easy steps, even if the restaurant in question doesn’t have its own website.
The approach is rather clever, as most small restaurants still don’t have their own e-commerce platform, and many don’t even have a web presence.
Menufy lets small restaurants sell online without spending a fortune, and, as a result, helps level the playing field with big franchises that can afford to invest in such services.

Room to expand

The news doesn’t mean that 400 restaurants have started accepting bitcoin directly, however, as Menufy handles the whole process through Coinbase.
The proprietors might not even be aware that they are accepting bitcoin payments – in the same way most people don’t know they’re using HTTP when they browse the Internet.
Though the 400 restaurant total sounds impressive, some relatively big states like California and New York are underrepresented.
Texas is not, however, and Texans tend to love both a nice meal and bitcoin, so it’s a match made in heaven, perhaps. Menufy says it is working to extend its reach to other states and expand its portfolio.

eBay Patent Filing for Currency Exchange System Included Bitcoin

Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 10, 2014 at 18:28 GMT | Companies, Law, News, Technology

A second eBay patent application has surfaced on the US Patent and Trademark Office database – further highlighting the online marketplace’s interest in digital currencies and digital currency processing systems.
Named ‘System and Method for Managing Transactions in a Digital Marketplace’, the application follows its “gift token” patent revealed on 19th December last year. Filed in December 2011, six months before its gift token filing, this document names bitcoin specifically.
The patent details eBay’s plan to create a currency module configured to manage the exchange of digital currencies, one that might require eBay to maintain or access an exchange rate for conversion.
Reads one patent section:

“The currency module 308 allows a user to trade one form of currency for another form of currency. [...] The digital currency may be used to pay for real-world financial obligations (e.g., bills) as well as for virtual-world obligation.”

The news supports the notion that eBay has been aware of, and thinking strategically about, digital currencies for some time.
eBay currently encourages the sale of virtual currencies on its Classified Ads platforms in the US and the UK, though it permits the sale of such items elsewhere on its site provided they are housed in physical items like hard drives or USB sticks.

Patent lists bitcoin as acceptable currency

The processing system would not be just for bitcoin alone, but rather a long example list of currencies that could be used on the proposed system.
This included US dollars, eBay bucks, now-defunct Facebook credits and bitcoins:
“A non-exhaustive and example list of currencies capable of being exchanged may include frequent flyer miles, loyalty and reward points (e.g., credit card reward points, hotel loyalty points, retail loyalty points), virtual currency, cash, Bitcoins, Facebook credits, eBay bucks, cash-equivalent currency (e.g., gift cards, travellers checks, cashier’s checks), and any other form of currency.”
Payment system 122, as detailed in the filing, would in turn allow bitcoin users to potentially “accumulate value in a commercial currency” on the site that would later be redeemed for goods and services on the eBay network.

eBay’s bitcoin speculation continues

The patent filing marks the second time in recent weeks that eBay has hinted its broader plans may include digital currencies, and adds to the growing history between the company and the digital currency.
Though he may have been speaking more broadly about digital forms of payment, eBay CEO John Donahoe has indicated as recently as 19th February that PayPal could pursue a digital wallet that holds multiple forms of currency.
Donahoe has been one of the more outspoken executives when it comes to addressing bitcoin. Last November, the exec stated he believes digital currency will become a “very powerful thing” that could one day factor into PayPal’s plans.
Image credit: Twin Design / Shutterstock.com

South Korea Launches its First Two-Way Bitcoin ATM

Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on March 9, 2014 at 10:25 GMT | Bitcoin ATM, Companies, News, Technology

South Korea is the latest country to introduce its first bitcoin ATM. Not only is the machine produced locally by a home-grown company, it is also two-way, meaning users can also sell bitcoins and withdraw cash.
The machine, which officially began operating yesterday, sits in the Coffee Sedona cafe in one of Seoul’s largest shopping malls, the Coex Mall which is also close to the Coex Intercontinental Hotel and a casino in the city’s world famous Gangnam district. For those wanting to buy bitcoins, it accepts cash
and credit cards(note: the card slot on the machine is a dummy slot, normally used for non-bitcoin ATMs).

It is the result of a joint venture between bitcoin exchange Coinplug and Nautilus Hyosung, the number one ‘regular’ ATM manufacturer in Korea, which also has the world’s fourth-largest market share. Coinplug’s Richard Yun said the machine’s launch was well attended by the Korean media.
This video (in Korean) demonstrates how transactions are made in both directions using a smartphone wallet.

Security and compliance

The machine also has one other key feature, or lack thereof: unlike other two-way bitcoin ATMs, such as the one produced by US company Robocoin, the Coinplug machine does not collect any identification or biometric information from users. Robocoin, as what it calls a security feature, requires photo ID and takes a palm vein scan of users, although the company says this information is not uploaded to a database anywhere and that palm vein scans function like a secondary PIN, representing the “most anonymous biometric on the market”.
Coinplug’s machine does have some restrictions of its own, though. Yun said the machine is set to allow transactions at a maximum of (the equivalent of) $200 each, and a maximum of three transactions a day per wallet address. This is less than what is typically allowed by Korean banks for ATM transactions, which is $1,000 per transaction and $6,000 per day.
Other popular bitcoin ATM options, like the machines produced by Lamassu, accept cash and dispense bitcoins only.

Yun said the company was able to produce a two-way machine thanks mainly to the South Korean government’s light touch approach to bitcoin regulation so far. The government, like many others, has declared bitcoin is not a currency and will not regulate it, and has not made any attempts to restrict its use. Should the machine prove successful in its homeland, Coinplug will be looking for interested buyers outside Korea.
Coinplug has been busy in Korea this year, recently launching three separate Android bitcoin apps for merchants and traders, and a wallet app for everyday users. The company has also been funded so far 50% each in bitcoin and fiat currency by its Silicon Valley-based partner, new venture capital firm Silverblue.
ATM image via Coinplug

Overstock Tops $1m in Bitcoin Sales, Projects Up to $20m By Year’s End

Tom Sharkey | Published on March 4, 2014 at 23:27 GMT | Coinbase, Merchants, News

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It has been less than two months since e-commerce giant Overstock.com began accepting bitcoin payments on their website, and the online retailer has already surpassed $1m in total sales.
Overstock’s CEO Patrick Byrne confirmed the company’s plans to embrace bitcoin back in December, and bitcoin payment processing officially went live on Overstock.com on 9th January.
Byrne spoke with CoinDesk about its $1m milestone, asserting that while the initial surge of bitcoin sales did subside, there has since been steady growth in bitcoin payments:

“In the first day there was an enormous surge of bitcoin sales, but we’ve also seen a gradual building of bitcoin sales in a week-by-week basis.”

The initial projections for sales processed with bitcoin on Overstock.com this year was set at $3-5m, but this figure has since increased dramatically, according to Byrne.
The CEO now predicts that Overstock will see a total of $10-15m in bitcoin sales this year, and suggested that this number could reach as high as $20m if bitcoin sales maintain their current growth rate.

New data

Overstock partnered with Coinbase to process bitcoin payments, and together the two companies have compiled and released data that shows the spending habits of bitcoin users on Overstock, notably comparing them to credit card users.
The findings show that customers who use bitcoin as a payment method spend on average $58 (34%) more on their orders than customers using credit cards.

Byrne says that Overstock has reaped the benefits of accepting bitcoin as a payment method, most notably in regards to eliminating chargeback fraud from credit card payments and reducing payment processing fees:

“Bitcoin payments have helped us avoid fraud in the form of chargebacks with credit cards, and we’re also able to get paid faster than when payments are processed with credit cards.
It takes three days for payments to finalize with credit cards, and with bitcoin we can get paid immediately.”

Market effects

While Overstock is credited as the first major online retailer to accept bitcoin payments, they’re not alone when it comes to reputable companies embracing bitcoin. TigerDirect began accepting bitcoin payments in late January, and companies like Virgin Atlantic and Reddit have helped further legitimize the digital currency as a convenient and secure payment method.
Speaking on the recent news of Overstock’s $1m bitcoin sales milestone, Coinbase noted that while they’re excited about the growing number of transactions being processed with bitcoin, they’re certainly not surprised:

“We are more gratified than surprised with these recent milestones, as they illustrate our belief that we are near a tipping point for broad merchant and consumer adoption of Bitcoin.”

Byrne hopes that the news of Overstock surpassing $1m in bitcoin payments will continue to build the currency’s credibility and adoption rates, noting that many customers are switching from competing commerce sites to shop with bitcoin on Overstock:

“I’ve seen the bitcoin community really embrace Overstock and I’ve read about many cases of our customers coming over from Amazon specifically to shop using bitcoin.
I think that bitcoin payments will account for several percent of all online transactions in the next year or two, and when this happens, Amazon will be forced to start accepting bitcoin on their website.”

With the amount of sales being processed with bitcoin steadily growing on Overstock, Byrne noted that the company has recently changed its business model and will start to hold “5-10% of [their] processed bitcoins in reserves.”
Given the option that Coinbase offers its merchants to immediately convert bitcoins to fiat currency, this move is a symbol of Overstock’s confidence in the principles of bitcoin and its utility as a means for buying goods and services online.

KnC and Chicago Sun-Times Launch Pre-funded Bitcoin Wallet

Nermin Hajdarbegovic | Published on March 3, 2014 at 11:09 GMT | KnCMiner, News, Wallets

Mining hardware maker KnCMiner has launched its first bitcoin wallet, with an interesting twist.
As part of the launch, the first 96,000 downloads will be awarded with a few bucks to spend.
The KnC Bitcoin Wallet app is available on the Google Play Store and it’s free. Needless to say, there’s no app for iOS or Windows Phone. The wallets are pre-funded and it appears that the first 1,000 downloads will be awarded with $5 each, while the next 95,000 wallets will get $1 each (at the current BTC/USD exchange rate).

Bitcoin wallets for the masses

In order to appeal to a wider audience, KnC has teamed up with the Chicago Sun-Times, which is supporting the launch with ads and sponsored content in the form of a “Bitcoin for Beginners” guide.
KnC co-founder Sam Cole said the move was part of the company’s effort to educate a wider audience about the possibilities of Bitcoin:

“KnC wants to share information about this evolving technology with the public. Most people don’t understand what exactly Bitcoin is or how they could benefit fromusing KnC Wallet in their daily life. We’re trying to change that.”

Wrapports Chief Technology Officer Josh Metnick said the Chicago Sun-Times was an obvious choice, as the paper already embraced bitcoin. Wrapports publishes the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Reader and several dozen smaller publications in northern Illinois and Indiana.
“As a media company in today’s environment, it’s crucial for us to stay engaged with new forms of commerce like Bitcoin. Our initial Bitwall experiment proved successful, and we are going to keep pushing the boundaries across all types of technologies,” Metnick said.
The big hope is to equip 100,000 Chicagoans with an active bitcoin wallet, Metnick told us.

Teething problems

According to the Google Play page, the wallet is currently in version 0.9.1 and it has been installed just under 500 times.
The company’s wallet can send and receive bitcoins using phone contacts and it has an integrated QR scanner to dynamically convert BTC to local currency. However, KnC admits a couple of limitations – for example its NFC payments are still not working.
The app supports all Android versions back to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, so it should work on the vast majority of devices launched over the last two to three years.
The first version of the app was uploaded on 21st February to a mediocre response. The average review score is 3.7 and some users are reporting several issues. However, KnC has acknowledged these negative comments and promises to iron out any kinks soon.