Celery Launches Consumer-Friendly Bitcoin and Dogecoin Buying Service
Multi-exchange trading platform provider BTX Trader has officially
launched Celery, a new product that aims to position the company to
expand its market beyond institutional traders to everyday US consumers.
Celery will offer bitcoin and dogecoin buying, boasting what the
company says is a more carefully calibrated user experience than what
has been provided by other digital currency exchanges and brokerages to
date.
BTX Trader CTO Divya Thakur and COO Ilya Subkhankulov expanded on
this idea of user experience in an interview with CoinDesk, saying:
“We tested [Celery] with users and watched them use the product. So, we feel that our onboarding and our user experience is superior to any other solutions out there, when it comes to a first time buyer of bitcoin or dogecoin.”
Thakur explained that many of the consumers BTX Trader worked with
were unaware that they could buy fractions of a bitcoin, an insight that
lead the service to include preset buying options.
Consumers can elect to purchase ‘Packages’ to buy $19.99, $49.99 and
$99.99 worth of bitcoin or dogecoin, or use the ‘Custom’ version of the
interface, which may be more familiar to existing traders. Celery does
not support credit card buying.
Further, Celery includes social features, allowing those who purchase
bitcoin or dogecoin to share the message to others. To encourage
customer confidence, these messages are then aggregated on the main
page.
BTX Trader is a subsidiary of WPCS International, a public company that specializes in product integration, speciality construction and electrical power.
Opening a Celery account
To begin, Celery requests basic user information including the user’s first name, last name, email and country of residence.
Next, it asks that users add their mobile phone number, address and
bank account information. At each stage, the company provides a short
explanation of why such information is needed, another feature clearly
aimed at novice buyers.
The ‘Add a phone’ option, for instance, reads:
“Please provide your mobile phone number to enable Two-Factor Authentication, a security feature that sends SMS codes to your phone to better protect your account. We will not contact you by phone unless absolutely necessary.”
Elsewhere, Celery builds in basic definitions for its services. When
users seek to deposit digital currency, they are greeted with an
introductory explanation of how an address works.
Support for altcoins
Thakur also told CoinDesk that Celery aims to be digital currency
inclusive, a stance that it has first presented in its support for
dogecoin.
He added that he believes dogecoin’s strong community was its most attractive feature:
“We think dogecoin is a great community. It’s used in sites like reddit, it’s much higher volume than bitcoin tipping and there’s really no good hosted wallet for dogecoin.”
With the move, Celery joins expresscoin to become the latest novice digital currency service to also court dogecoin buyers.
The perks of being public
Thakur and Subkhankulov also talked about their relationship with
WPCS, which funded BTX Trader with a $1m investment earlier this year.
Thakur indicated that while they do seek insight from the company’s
CEO Sebastian Giordano, they are free to innovate as they see fit,
saying:
“The way that really works is that we were on a call with them talking about our direction. They really keep us as a domain expert when it comes to digital currency.”
To learn more about Celery, visit its newly launched website. More information on BTX Trader and its offerings for institutional traders can be viewed here.
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
Huobi: Regulated US Bitcoin Market Key to Our Expansion
Known as one of China’s ‘big three’ exchanges, Beijing-based Huobi experienced a meteoric rise to the top tier of China’s bitcoin industry last year, emerging as newcomer and growing to become a market leader with more than 100 employees.
Since that early success, Huobi, like other China-based exchanges, has struggled to control its international perception.
Huobi has had to fight off rumours it
was faking trading volumes in a bid to attract users. Further, the
future and stability of its business were called into question by
China’s central bank, which has moved broadly to discourage bitcoin businesses from working with its financial services sector in March.
It’s this uncertain image that Huobi is looking to attack as it, like
major competitors OKCoin and BTC China, begins to set its sights
overseas.
In accordance with these global goals, the company’s international business director Wendy Wang spoke at The North American Bitcoin Conference
last weekend. There, CoinDesk sat down with Wang for an extended
interview where she suggested Huobi will soon add support for USD
markets in a bid to attract new users both in China and around the
globe.
Wang told CoinDesk:
“You can imagine how much money Chinese consumers hold in USD [...] We’re looking at the whole picture. Our actual competitors are BTC-e, Bitstamp and Bitfinex, all of those platforms. We want to be the international standard.”
To meet this goal, Wang said Huobi is investing heavily in AML and
KYC compliance and overall security. But, she added: “We have a lot of
homework to do.”
Data from Bitcoinity suggests Huobi is the second-largest bitcoin exchange in China, trailing OKCoin, though that exchange’s recent volume figures have been affected by its international expansion and are not currently available.
International ambitions
Of course, Wang also offered her thoughts on what exactly it means for a bitcoin exchange to be international, especially given the fact that Huobi, as most exchanges, does already serve customers outside of its home country.
To Wang, being an international exchange means growing the business
and its ambitions. Throughout the discussion, she emphasized the
professional abilities of her team, noting Huobi’s strong legal,
accounting, marketing and compliance divisions.
Shifting the team’s focus globally will mean a reallocation of some of its team to address this issue, Wang said:
“We’re still trying to weigh how to change or what is the right way to change. We definitely want to go international, but who is to tell us the standards of being international? It’s a long and hard way to find a standard to running a proper business in the bitcoin industry.”
She added: “We’re trying really hard, but it’s complicated and hard to say if we’re there.”
Managing perception
Like OKCoin’s Changpeng Zhao,
Wang is confident that Huobi’s product will meet the needs of global
consumers. In particular, she notes that she feels the exchange has the
best liquidity and that it now offers novel features such as margin
trading and interest accounts via its new platform BitVC.
However, Huobi faces a language barrier, one that it is still working to overcome, as evidenced by Wang’s lukewarm reception from conference-goers at TNABC.
Still, she is optimistic that Huobi can reach these customers through
dialogue, and that its persistent approach will pay dividends, saying:
“For the international users, we changed all the interface, we learned a lot of things from other trading platforms, and we have our main customers we can talk to and give feedback. So, we are trying to get a heads up about what our foreign customers really like.”
Uncertainty in China
Given the uncertainty regarding whether China will even allow Huobi
and its competitors’ operations to continue, it remains unclear whether
Huobi itself and its competitors will need to focus internationally out
of necessity. Early this year, its announcements suggested it was one of
the exchanges more willing to adapt to survive.
Wang indicated that Huobi is interested in other Asian markets, and
that it could seek to set up a regulated exchange in Singapore or Japan
in part to reduce this risk.
However, with formal guidance from Chinese regulators unlikely,
she suggested that the biggest focus for her company is on the US and
wider USD market, stating:
“Everyone is looking at the US market, but we’re waiting on the regulation coming up. All the exchanges will start doing something at this point.”
Wang went on to say that Huobi is still evaluating the measures put
forth in New York, and that though they don’t necessarily support those
proposals, firm guidance on how to operate in the market would be
beneficial, adding:
“As long as the government defines [bitcoin] and actually regulates it, you can follow up and we can actually make movements according to the law.”
She also named Europe and Australia as other markets of interest to the exchange.
Cooperative culture
While both Huobi and OKCoin have their sights set on becoming the top
global exchange, Wang said that the atmosphere between the companies
remains friendly, especially as the major companies are grappling with
issues – whether regulation or international exchange – simultaneously.
“Most of the CEOs here sit together and talk about future of bitcoin
and chinese bitcoin exchanges what we’re going to do internationally,”
she said.
As for now, she wouldn’t say when Huobi would make its formal
introduction to the international market, suggesting that her company
wants to ensure its strategy is fully in place before any moves are
made.
As Wang asserts, confidence is king in the international market, and
she is keen to ensure that Huobi moves lightly as it tries to secure new
users.
She concluded:
“The way we do business is honest and professional and we do what we say. It’s going to take time for users to trust our brand. Saying is always easier than doing. What we want to present is our action.”
Correction: Additional comment has been added to
clarify Huobi’s position on US regulation and the NYDFS proposals. An
original version of this article referred to Huobi’s Wendy Wang as Wendy
Wen.
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
OKCoin Denies Manipulating Bitcoin Trading Volumes
The issue of trade volume authenticity on Chinese exchanges has surfaced again, with one user accusing the country’s busiest exchange OKCoin of manipulating volumes after bitcoin statistics sites displayed a sharp drop in a short period.
Chinese exchanges including OKCoin have been accused in the past of artificially inflating
their trade volumes and even influencing prices by using in-house
software ‘trading bots’. The exchanges have always categorically denied
this, saying high volumes are the result of their low (or absent)
trading fees.
Sudden decline in volume
Reddit user ‘circle2011′ noted yesterday
that OKCoin’s CNY/BTC volumes had gone from around 115,000 BTC on 1st
July to 11,000 by 12th July before all trade data disappeared from the
graph on Bitcoin Charts.
Circle2011 even suggested OKCoin’s new chief technology officer, Changpeng Zhao,
might have put a stop to OKCoin’s automated trading now the exchange
was trying to appeal to a more international audience and is coming
under greater scrutiny.
OKCoin has experienced large volume spikes previously, topping
280,000 BTC three times between February and April. The 11,000 figure on
12th July was, however, the lowest daily volume in the past six months.
OKCoin.com’s volume was 37,153 BTC on 24th July and 27,228 BTC on 25th July.
Reliability of trade data
OKCoin’s manager of foreign operations, Zane Tackett, responded to
the poster’s claims, saying no OKCoin data had appeared on either
Bitcoin Charts or Bitcoinity in recent weeks because those sites were
trying to pull data from the international OKCoin.com site (which has
not been officially launched), instead of its main OKCoin.cn site.
Tackett said the full international exchange would be up and running “within 12 hours”.
Just last month, OKCoin released a raft of new algorithmic trading tools with the specific aim of attracting high-volume traders, particularly those located outside mainland China.
Exchange denies manipulation
Zhao himself also responded to the reddit claims, writing:
“On the topic of volume, please understand a couple things. We, the exchange, do not control volume. It is what it is.”
He also pointed out that OKCoin does not set the BTC price, adding
this was “a bit more obvious, but you would be surprised how many times I
get asked”.
“When the price is stable, like it has been dead-stable in the past couple days, people trade less, many HFT/Algo’s triggers won’t trigger, and you see low volumes. It’s pretty simple!”
He also said there was “nothing surprising” about volumes reaching
115,000 BTC given bitcoin’s price climb from $450 to around $650 in
recent weeks.
Busy trading in China
Chinese yuan (CNY) is the second-most traded
fiat currency in the bitcoin ecosystem with around 19% of world volumes
after the US dollar’s 52%. This is despite CNY rarely being used or
exchanged outside China.
Bitcoin trading and speculation also remain popular activities in China, despite repeated warnings from the country’s central bank, and China’s exchanges have gone from relative obscurity to among the world’s busiest in the past year.
This has led to accusations of volume manipulation. Exchanges say
fierce competition and the Chinese low-fee model (often 0% per trade)
leads to a far higher volume of high-frequency trading (HFT), or trading
algorithms deployed by actual users. As a result, in-house trading bots
are not necessary.
So far, such claims have been impossible to prove either way, with
reports of manipulation based on observation of movements and
speculation as to the reasons. The exchanges maintain that no matter
what the volume figures, their markets still have enough liquidity to
buy and sell at the listed rates.
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
AirBaltic Waives Controversial Bitcoin Transaction Fee
Latvian airline airBaltic has decided to eliminate its controversial transaction charge on bitcoin purchases.
Earlier this week, the firm became the first European airline to accept bitcoin for flight bookings.
The news was covered by digital currency news outlets and even some
mainstream media, putting Latvia firmly on the cryptocurrency map.
However, enthusiasm soon waned after it emerged that the airline
was still charging its standard €5.99 fee on bitcoin transactions – the
same as customers paying with a credit card.
Prompt u-turn
The airline originally responded to the criticism by explaining that
the transaction fee is actually used to cover the cost of processing
bookings rather than the transactions themselves.
However, many in the bitcoin community felt the airline was missing the whole point of accepting bitcoin, which offers tiny or no transaction fees.
It did not take long for airBaltic to review its policies – in the
face of cryptocurrency community discontent, perhaps – and the airline
has now waived transaction fees on bitcoin payments altogether.
The update could have gone unnoticed had it not been for BitPay, which tweeted the news last night:
Stephanie Wargo, BitPay’s VP of Marketing told CoinDesk:
“Part of our mission is to help educate merchants on bitcoins and in working with airBaltic we pointed out that fees for bitcoin payment processing are substantially lower than credit cards and other forms of payment. As a result they dropped any fees for paying with bitcoin and pass those savings on to the consumer.”
CoinDesk has reached out to airBaltic for comment, but has not yet received a reply.
Travelling with bitcoin
Although airBaltic is the first airline to accept bitcoin, there are
already a number of ways to spend bitcoin in the travel industry and to
some extent in the hospitality industry.
Expedia began accepting bitcoin for hotel
bookings last month, but it has not yet started accepting bitcoin for
flight bookings. The company recently told CoinDesk that the response to
its bitcoin push has been better than anticipated, but it stopped short of disclosing any figures.
As far as flight bookings go, CheapAir started accepting bitcoin last year. CheapAir has since expanded its services to 200,000 partner hotels and railway offerings, and recently announced it has topped $1.5m in total bitcoin sales.
AirBaltic aeroplane image via Aleksandrs Samuilovs / Wikimedia Commons
Disclaimer: CoinDesk founder Shakil Khan is an investor in BitPay.
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
American court stops Mt. Gox from auctioning Bitcoin domain
A United States court issued a temporary order to forbid the sale of the domain Bitcoins.com,
which is still owned by the CEO of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange
Mt. Gox. Mark Karpeles announced the auctioning of the domain two weeks
ago.
The injuction – which will expire in 14
days – was issued by the district court in Washington state against the
web-hosting company Tibanne following a request from Seattle-based CoinLab, which had previously filed a suit in the United States against Mt. Gox, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Tibanne
is one of the companies connected to Mt. Gox. Karpeles wanted to use
the profit from the auction to keep the United States-based company
running, but also giving at least half of the money to the Mt. Gox
creditors, the previous clients that lost money due to the collapse of
the exchange.
The downfall of the exchange boosted a war between several interested parties, who can’t seem to be able to agree over how the Japanese company’s assets should be divided up.
The auction, which is being managed by Heritage Auctions, was supposed to happen this Thursday (24th) and was expected to generate more than $750,000.
Source : http://bitcoinexaminer.org
Perianne Boring to speak at the Bitcoin Center NYC-July 31
Last weekend, Perianne Boring spoke at the North American Bitcoin Conference in
Chicago with the announcement of the Chamber of Digital Commerce,
Bitcoin’s first office for political affairs. On Thursday, July 31st,
she will be in NYC at the Bitcoin Center to talk about the political
stage that is set for Bitcoin in the coming months.
This will be a landmark event given the regulatory context. Last Thursday, July 17, the New York State’s Department of Financial Services released a draft
of proposed Bitcoin regulation utilizing a system of BitLicensing. The
draft entered a period of public feedback on Wednesday and will continue
for 45 days. The Chamber of Digital Commerce and many others in the cryptocommunity have shared concerns
that the comment period may be too short as the draft is potent,
long and difficult to understand. In a letter to the New York Department
of Financial Services, prominent members of the Bitcoin community asked for an extension as well as the Chamber of Digital Commerce.
The big impact that is very possible here is that the idea of BitLicensing and
the way it is implemented especially within the New York State draft
would push the Bitcoin economy into a bank-centric system. Not unlike
other forms of state licensing, this too will subject the industry to
government scrutinizing, oversight, and cronyism.
It’s not hard
to imagine how this may play out: Once licensing is implemented, the
State of New York will have the legal ability to acquire as much
information on Bitcoin accounts and users as they want. Should a company
not comply or not meet a deadline, the DFS will, and out of
reputation, they will strike down hard on the first
non-complying companies in order to make an example. If the 45-day
comment period proves to be too short and the legislation too complex
and long, the crypto-community will be in danger, at least in the New
York State.
Beyond that, the regulation itself poses a threat to
start-ups and small businesses that don’t have the resources available
to deal with the legal hoops and requirements. This will also further
keep other businesses and industries from even considering
cryptocurrency integration, thus hampering future success and
innovation. The ones that will survive are the big, the banks and the
already established.
And as the IRS ‘scandal’ continues
to play out, we may have to ask the integrity of regulating bodies as
they increase their potency in the industry. Beyond government
organizations, what about the legislative bodies themselves? Should we
put financial standards in the hands of appointed individuals like the
Department of Financial Services, or elected peoples who may or may not
have cryptocurrencies in the forefront of their issues? How much will
the DFS allow to be put into the hands of the market?
If and when
the state of New York’s BitLicensing goes into effect, it may set a
precedent for other states to follow suit. The legal grey area will
close when they decide on following in the intrusive regulation methods
of New York or the more hands-off approach of Texas. It may become a
major political battle and perhaps an issue in local and state elections
within the next decade. In that, the Chamber of Digital Commerce may be
a last defense in political measures and lobbying.
Of course,
I’m dealing in many hypotheticals, but beware the hard hand of the
government. The government bailed-out banks. The government pushed down
false interest rates. The government assured risky CDOs and subsidized
the housing market losses until it was unsustainable. As Bitcoin crosses
the line into politics, we must consider the dangers at hand.
Bitcoin Center NYC
Following her presentation, the Bitcoin Center will continue the night with their Thursday night Satoshi Square Trading, with live trading on the floor and free drinks.
Perianne Boring is the President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce and the authot of the ‘Boring Bitcoin Report.’ She also worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative analyst and advised on finance, economics, tax policy and healthcare.
The Chamber of Digital Commerce is not associated with the Bitcoin Foundation.
Source : http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com
Amazon Wallet: A Threat to Bitcoin?
This is what Amazon Wallet looks like.
What Amazon Wallet Does, Or Rather, Doesn’t Do
Amazon Wallet is…surprisingly basic. Designed for use at the point-of-sale, Amazon Wallet is essentially an Android app that stores gift cards and loyalty cards. The app will come preloaded with Fire Phones, and is currently available as a beta app on Google Play and the Amazon Appstore. Apple doesn’t allow beta apps into the App Store, which may explain why Amazon Wallet isn’t yet available for iOS.
Amazon Wallet’s Main Page
Users can import cards with the app or via http://www.amazon.com/wallet. These cards are then available digitally in a variety of formats, such as barcodes, QR codes, and/or images. The app can also be locked with a 4-digit pin.
However, that’s about it as far as functionality goes. Unlike amazon.com/wallet, where users can manage their payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, and checking accounts, the Amazon Wallet app can only manage rewards cards and gift cards. While the supported vendors list is pretty long, the app doesn’t really seem to offer anything new. Instead, Amazon Wallet feels like an even more limited (and somewhat uglier) version of Apple’s Passbook rather than a true digital wallet.
Passbook
supports boarding passes, event tickets, gift cards, membership cards,
and more. Amazon Wallet, on the other hand, only supports gift cards and
loyalty cards with limited functionality from select vendors. Passbook
also has a more polished interface.
Amazon Wallet’s Potential
It seems odd that Amazon would launch what feels like a half-baked product, rather than waiting until the app offered something unique. However, Amazon Wallet has a lot of potential. If there’s one thing Amazon has, it’s a huge market share. The company operates worldwide and has millions and millions of users. In its current state, Amazon Wallet is similar to another service that Bitcoiners know well – Gyft. Gyft allows users to purchase gift cards online and store them in a digital wallet. The service also offers mobile apps for redeeming gift cards on the go. Two months ago, Gyft also launched a cloud-based POS system. With the direction Amazon is headed, Bezos and co. could put Gyft out of business if they play their cards right.One of the things the sets Gyft apart is that the service accepts Bitcoin. By doing so, Gyft has made it possible to use bitcoins at Amazon, Sears, Target, and many other retailers that don’t take BTC. I’ve personally used Gyft many times to make purchases at Amazon with bitcoins. However, with Amazon Wallet, Amazon could eliminate the Gyft middleman by accepting BTC. Amazon has a huge selection of gift cards available for purchase, is an established player in the digital payments industry, has a lot of marketing power, and is way more successful than companies like Gyft. It seems like the only thing missing from the equation is Amazon accepting BTC. However, Amazon has shunned Bitcoin several times in the past. But as competitors like Overstock, Newegg, TigerDirect, and Gyft see success with Bitcoin, perhaps Amazon will change its tune?
Source : http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com
US Court Banned Auction of Bitcoins.com Domain Name
The sale of bitcoins.com domain name was cancelled after the US District Court of Seattle issued a restraining order.
The domain name is now owned by Tibanne KK, the company that belongs to Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles. The web address was anticipated to be sold at the Heritage Auctions on July 24th in the US. Still, CoinLab, bitcoin company that has recently announced it will support Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy filing, intends to cancel the auction.
Tibanne KK was required to preserve and account for all its assets, including Bitcoins.com domain name. Roger Townsend, CoinLab lawyer, noted that the company will not allow selling the assets without an approval.
He stated: “We are pleased that the court entered an order requiring Tibanne to preserve and account for all of its assets, including any ownership it might have in Mt Gox, domain names or payments that it has received since the bankruptcy. This TRO sends a strong message to Tibanne that they cannot dissipate assets without the court’s approval.”
Heritage Auctions has not given any comments on the court order. However, according to the auction page, the event will be held on its original date.
Under the contract with Mt. Gox, CoinLab had to provide its services for the customers of Japan-based exchange in Canada and the US. Still, the partnership ended when CoinLab sued Mt. Gox for $75 million over failure to provide exclusive access to Bitcoin account information and withholding information necessary to market to customers. Mt. Gox then responded to CoinLab’s lawsuit with a counterclaim. However, neither of the lawsuits was resolved.
According to the restraining order, the Bitcoins.com sale will negatively influence the bankruptcy proceeding of Mt. Gox and the ability of creditors to return the funds.
The district court noted: “There is good cause to believe that immediate and irreparable damage to the court’s ability to grant effective final relief for plaintiff in the form of damage and monetary restitution will occur from the sale, transfer, assignment or other disposition or concealment by defendant Tibanne KK of their assets or records, unless Tibanne KK is immediately restrained and enjoyed by this order.”
Moreover, the order stated that prohibiting Tibanne KK and its employees to participate in the auction is in the public interest as it might affect the control of Tibanne KK’ assets.
The order will expire within 14 days, after which the court will determine the extension.
Source : http://www.coinspeaker.com
ZipZap grinds to a halt in the UK
ZipZap inc – one of the most promising startups within the digital currency sector has allegedly terminated operations in the UK.
Until recently the “Cash 4 Bitcoin” service allowed customers to
purchase Bitcoins in exchange for cold hard cash at thousands of
locations around the country but apparently due to ongoing problems with
PayPoint (the company that manages the payment processing
infrastructure behind ZipZap) cash deposits have been terminated until
legal clarity around digital currencies is released by the UK government
and Financial Conduct Authority.
ZipZap enabled customers to simply pop into one of 28,000 PayPoint participating shops across the United Kingdom and exchange cash for Bitcoins with minimal effort.
The launch of ZipZap was exciting news for the Bitcoin community for a
number of reasons. It removed the risk of transferring funds to
unlicensed exchanges in Europe, opened up the cryptocurrency up to a
wider UK audience for easier adoption and made the process of buying
Bitcoins as easy as topping up your phone with a voucher!
At the time of writing no public announcement has been issued by
ZipZap, leaving the possibility of this exciting service uncertain.
An undisclosed source with close ties to the Bitcoin community recently stated:
Due to the ease of purchasing Bitcoins with cash, money laundering issues have arisen and are the culprit behind the services abrupt closure.
With no legislation in place, it is a shame that genuine UK
businesses are being deprived of the opportunity to innovate and create
better services for the British people.
Source : http://www.coinspectator.com
Bitcoin Security Pioneer BitGo Raises $12 Million in Series A Financing from Redpoint Ventures, Stratton Sclavos and Syndicate of Leading Bitcoin Investors
Former Verisign CEO and Other Online Finance Luminaries Join Forces With BitGo to Shape Future of Digital Money
BitGo™, the leading Bitcoin security platform, today announced it has
raised $12 million in Series A financing led by Silicon Valley venture
capital firm Redpoint Ventures. Previous investors Bridgescale Partners,
Jeff Skoll, Bill Lee, and Eric Hahn participated in the round. New
investors include Radar Partners, Founders Fund, Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin
Opportunity Corp., Liberty City Ventures, Crypto Currency Partners,
Ashton Kutcher & Guy Oseary’s A-GRade Investments, and a number of
top Bitcoin industry executives and angel investors. This financing
makes BitGo one of the most well-funded companies in the Bitcoin
ecosystem and positions the company for significant growth.
BitGo also
announced that Jeff Brody, founding partner of Redpoint, and Stratton
Sclavos of Radar Partners will join its board of directors. Mr. Sclavos
was the CEO of Internet security firm Verisign from 1995 to 2007, and
has served on the boards of public companies Intuit, Juniper Networks,
and Salesforce.com.
“Bitcoin has
opened a new frontier much like the advent of the commercial Internet in
1994,” said Stratton Sclavos, Partner at Radar Partners and former CEO
of Verisign. “This new industry simultaneously promises endless
possibilities while facing meaningful security threats. We believe that
Bitcoin’s inherent advantages over existing financial services
infrastructure, combined with BitGo’s best-in-class security platform,
will accelerate the adoption of digital money as fundamentally as the
Internet changed global communication and publishing.”
BitGo (www.bitgo.com)
operates a Bitcoin security-as-a-service platform based on its
patent-pending multi-signature technology. The company currently offers
the world’s most secure online Bitcoin wallet for individuals, and BitGo
Enterprise™ (bitgo.com/enterprise),
the first multi-sig, multi-user solution for corporations and financial
institutions to manage their Bitcoin holdings with enterprise-grade
security. The company also enables exchanges, marketplaces, and
e-commerce players to use its platform to facilitate secure, multi-party
transactions that are secured with BitGo.
BitGo’s
founding team is comprised of financial technology, online security, and
digital currency veterans Will O’Brien, Mike Belshe and Ben Davenport.
Given a
sufficient level of security, Bitcoin is a game-changing technology for
global commerce and capital markets. With its decentralized,
peer-to-peer ledger of transactions and clearing system, Bitcoin is
poised to disrupt traditional payments and money transmission by
reducing transaction fees and eliminating fraud and chargebacks. In the
developing world, Bitcoin is being adopted as a viable alternative to
legacy currencies for storing and transferring wealth.
“We are still
in the early innings of the Bitcoin revolution,” said Will O’Brien,
chief executive officer and co-founder of BitGo. “BitGo’s mission is to
secure the world’s Bitcoin. By solving Bitcoin’s early security concerns
for our customers and industry partners, BitGo is excited to help the
Bitcoin industry grow with what we believe will be a speed and scale
comparable to the Internet itself.”
ENTERPRISE-GRADE BITCOIN SECURITY WITH MULTI-SIG
BitGo offers a
complete platform featuring enterprise-grade security, multi-signature
wallets, transaction signing policies, private key generation and
management, and robust authentication.
Prior to
BitGo’s market entry in 2013, Bitcoin wallets were backed by one private
key, creating the single point of attack that led to many of the
well-publicized security breaches in recent years. BitGo developed a
“2-of-3 key” multi-signature wallet in which three keys are issued and
any two are required to sign a transaction – the digital equivalent of a
bank safe deposit box.
The company has
created a range of innovative security products that leverage and
strengthen emerging industry standards, including BIP16 (P2SH) and BIP32
(hierarchical deterministic wallets).
ABOUT BITGO, INC.
Silicon Valley-based BitGo launched
the first ever multi-signature Bitcoin wallet in 2013, and continues to
create innovative security services on top of emerging industry
standards. The company operates a security-as-a-service platform that
powers the industry’s most secure, online Bitcoin wallet and enterprise
solutions for corporate treasury and key management.
BitGo was
founded by veterans in online security, digital currency, and financial
technology. Investors and advisors include elite Silicon Valley venture
capitalists and angels, and Bitcoin industry insiders who have backed
successful companies like PayPal, Netscape, Red Hat, Proofpoint,
Verisign, Juniper Networks, Yammer, and Tesla.
BitGo, BitGo Enterprise, Secured with BitGo, and BitGo Cold Key are the trademarks and service marks of BitGo, Inc.
Source : http://onbitcoin.com
Kings College in New York Will Accept Bitcoin
First Accredited College in USA To Accept Tuition Payment in Bitcoin
You’d never know from the relatively docile price of Bitcoin these past few months that the Bitcoin
revolution continues to explode in popularity. We’ve reported that
savvy Wall Street money is flowing into Bitcoin infrastructure to the
tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. We’ve described how the city of Cleveland, Ohio was the first to create its own Bitcoin Boulevard. We’ve recorded that banking powerhouse Wells Fargo is intending to offer Bitcoin related services. And it was to our amazement that the U.S. Post Office disclosed that it was drawing up plans to sell Bitcoins at its 36,000 brick and mortar locations.
Bitcoin continues to steadily and aggressively make inroads to
mainstream commerce that seemed entirely unattainable just 12 short
months ago.
While momentum and acceptance continues to explode, the Bitcoin to U.S. Dollar
exchange rate hasn’t. At some point in the near future, it’s likely
that the Bitcoin price will explode rapidly higher to catch up to the
fundamental demand as more and more mainstream firms adopt the
cryptocurrency. The latest to do so is Kings College in downtown
Manhattan, which has recently announced that beginning with the Fall
semester of 2014, it would accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for
tuition.
The New York Times reports:
“Bitcoin can already be used to purchase a
plane ticket, donate to a political campaign and pay a satellite TV
bill. Beginning this fall, it can also be used to pay for a college
education.On Friday, King’s College, a four-year
evangelical school based in Lower Manhattan, said that it would become
the first accredited college to allow students to pay their tuition in
Bitcoin. It’s also the latest in a growing list of groups that have
begun accepting virtual currency, fueled by a cottage industry dedicated
to making online money easier to use.
A small liberal arts college committed to
‘the truths of Christianity and a biblical worldview,’ King’s charges
$15,950 a semester for 12 to 18 credits, according to its website.
King’s has about 500 students, according to the school’s president,
Gregory Thornbury.”
Source :http://planetbtc.com
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