For Dignitas, Bitcoin Helps Break Down Government Barriers - By Brad Edwards

For a charitable organization, Bitcoin can make a big difference. Discover how it can help an organization like Dignitas help those in need.


Read the full article here: Bitcoin

Kraken Announces At Mt. Gox Creditors Meeting It Will Aid Investigation - By Brad Edwards

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell made this unexpected announcement, which adds a welcome element of hope to the Mt. Gox debacle.


Read the full article here: Bitcoin

Bitcoin Foundation Shifts Focus To Core Development - By Brad Edwards

The Bitcoin Foundation has announced it will pull back from public policy, outreach, and education to focus on core development. Why?


Read the full article here: Bitcoin

Etherem Founder Vitalik Buterin Beats Mark Zuckerberg For World Technology Award - By Brad Edwards

Vitalik Buterin’s contributions to the cryptocurrency space are being recognize by the outside world as well.


Read the full article here: Bitcoin

Bitcoin Black Friday Might Be The Biggest Day Ever For Bitcoin Transactions - By Brad Edwards

Last year’s Bitcoin Black Friday was one of the biggest days ever for Bitcoin. Can they beat that record this year?


Read the full article here: Bitcoin

Dogecoin Overcomes The Odds, Plans Its Dogeversary - By Brad Edwards

The odds were stacked against Dogecoin from day one, but they’ve overcome all manner of challenges. The Dogeversary party celebrates that.


Read the full article here: Bitcoin

Roger Ver: "I'm Against Regulation At The Point Of A Gun" - By Brad Edwards

Roger Ver appeared at Toronto’s Decentral Bitcoin Meetup to chat about venture capital, regulation, and the future of cryptocurrency.


Read the full article here: Bitcoin

ShapeShift Lens Allows You To Use Your Altcoins Anywhere Online. Yes, Anywhere. - By Brad Edwards

What is ShapeShift Lens? It’s a new service which allows you to use altcoins wherever Bitcoin is accepted. Find out more here!


Read the full article here: Bitcoin

Why Does Richard Branson Believe In Bitcoin? - By Brad Edwards

Richard Branson is one of the richest men alive. With hundreds of businesses under his name, why is he so interested in Bitcoin?


Read the full article here: Bitcoin

Bitcoin Price Rallies Above $400 - By Brad Edwards

The price of Bitcoin is known to be volatile, with peaks and valleys. And we’re currently witnessing one of the peaks as the price rises


Read the full article here: Bitcoin

New Trading Platform CoinSquare Aims To Be More Secure And Transparent - From The CoinFront

In the world of cryptocurrency, one of the most important elements is trust. While Bitcoin itself is a decentralized, trustless system, there are still some untrustworthy people within the Bitcoin world.

Nowhere is trust more important than for trading platforms and online wallet services. After all, these organizations hold your hard-earned coins.

And there has been a laundry list of collapsed Bitcoin platforms this year so far. Mt. Gox, MintPal, Moolah, BitXoin, Flexcoin, Bitcoin Trader, Dogevault, the list goes on and on.

As these platforms fall apart, they create new opportunities for entrepreneurs to come in, learn from the mistakes of their predecessors, and build what will hopefully provide a better, stronger trading platform.

One of those entrepreneurs is Virgile Rostand, developer of the newest cryptocurrency trading platform CoinSquare. Virgile sat down with The CoinFront to talk about his project.

So what’s your background Virgile? What did you do before you entered the cryptocurrency world?

After earning my PhD in Mathematics and a Masters degree in Mathematical Finance, I began working as a financial engineer and consultant within the financial sector. I developed some pricing and risk management software which banks and hedge funds use. But after I discovered Bitcoin, and started wandering further down the rabbit hole, I realized the potential cryptocurrency has.

And what was it that made you finally take the plunge? When was it?

Bitcoin has been on my radar for almost three years, but it’s only in January of last year that I really decided to go with it full-time. The main reason would be that I now believe that Bitcoin (and blockchain technology) has the potential to significantly change the way modern finance is working. I see the market for crypto finance gaining momentum and I wanted to be part of that revolution.

Agreed! We can all contribute in our own way. But while some of us create their own coins, others build merchant adoption programs, and still others start Bitcoin news websites, you decided to start a trading platform. Why?

I had different business ideas back then and a crypto exchange wasn’t my first choice. However, as a lot of people, I was disappointed with the current state of affairs of existing exchanges. Scandals, hacks, and secrecy was everywhere! I realized I couldn’t run a proper crypto business if there wasn’t an exchange I could trust in the first place. So here we are, CoinSquare is born.

What sets CoinSquare apart from other cryptocurrency trading platforms?

The first thing you are going to notice is our user interface which is like nothing else in the market. We especially designed everything from the ground up for our users to enjoy a unique trading experience that is more intuitive and customizable than anything else, and without the need to install or download software on your machine other than a standard web browser. It also aims at being very responsive with live updating data, and without the need to reload pages over and over. I wanted to make the design usable on touch screen devices which are becoming more ubiquitous on the market.

All prices are quoted in bits by default (1,000,000 bits= 1BTC). This make values more readable and easier to type.

The trading happens in real-time with live updating data, public exchange data distributed using high availability cloud servers. The trades are executed as soon as they are confirmed and accepted by the exchange instead of being queued and checked after by another process like some other platforms.

We also have low trading fees: starting at 0.1% per trade, we are priced among the lowest.

All that sounds great, but Bitcoiners are more wary than ever of surrendering their coins to a centralized organization. How do you plan on securing the trust of the Bitcoin community?

In two words, transparency and security.

Security is paramount! We offer email verification and confirmation for account sensitive operations, 2-factor authentication, and active IP monitoring per account in order to prevent unauthorized access. Your passwords are stored using the very strong bcrypt algorithm and the user information is held on privately owned servers only accessible by CoinSquare (not on a virtual private server).

CoinSquare also runs a completely independent “backoffice” application whose role is to reconcile our books and make sure everything adds up in real time. If a problem is detected there, the exchange withdrawal process shuts down immediately and a service request is sent out to our administrator.

As for transparency, it comes in different forms. First, from the management side, I want to emphasize that CoinSquare will be run with the culture of a proper financial corporation with the fiduciary duty put above everything else.

CoinSquare is incorporated in Canada and registered as a money service business. We are commited to respecting existing legislation and staying ahead of the curve with a strong know-your-customer policy and identity verification process for applicable financial transactions.

From the technical side, we have plans to implement proof of reserve in order to show our individual users that their deposits are backed and allocated to actual coins on their respective blockchains. That won’t be ready for launch, but will be implemented later. We believe in making the business as transparent as possible by leveraging the blockchain technology. We actually believe that blockchain technology can make a financial business much more transparent than our currently existing financial institutions, and we are certainly moving in that direction.

Where would you like to see CoinSquare by this time next year?

We’ll be opening coin-to-coin markets immediatly and coin-to-fiat very soon as well, with both USD and CAD. As things develop, CoinSquare will continue adding features and markets that will help you manage your cryptocurrency portfolio. In short, we want to give you the best platform possible, to make it a turning point in the development of the cryptocurrency economy.

What do you think is the biggest issue facing the Bitcoin community today?

Merchant adoption rate is still very low, although we have seen impressive progress during the last year with Dell, Overstock, Expedia, and others. The more people are willing to accept BTC as a mean of payment, the more useful it will be. This should drive down volatility and help establish BTC as a store of value in the long run.

Your platform specializes in crypto-to-crypto trades. Which coins do you think are the most interesting currently?

As the owner of a trading platform I don’t think it’s my place to comment on individual projects directly. But I would say that the main factors that makes a coin interesting (and valuable) are community endorsement, innovation, and merchant adoption. We selected a set of 11 crypto coins to start with based on these factors, in particular we have Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Darkcoin, and Blackcoin, XCurrency, Peercoin, VeriCoin, Vertcoin, Primecoin, and Auroracoin. We’re also keeping a close eye on so called crypto 2.0 coins as well and will be adding more coins based on demand and new oportunities as they show up.

What’s the hardest part of building a crypto exchange?

Security, hands down. Everything needs to be secured so tightly. You need multiple layers of security in case one layer fails so you can detect it and take effective counter measures. Some people are working very hard to get into exchanges and steal other people’s coins. You have to be ahead of them all the time and never let your defenses down. It’s like playing chess and you have to plan 2-3 moves ahead all the time.

Great, thanks Virgile! Where can people go to find more information about CoinSquare?

The best way is to visit the platform itself. Stop by and say hi in the site’s integrated chat box! We’re also on Twitter.

New Trading Platform CoinSquare Aims To Be More Secure And Transparent

Russia Lowers Proposed Fines For Bitcoin Use - From The CoinFront

It’s no secret lately that Russia hasn’t been a big fan of Bitcoin.

After taking a confrontational approach to it, they seemed to have started backing off. They then started putting more pressure on Bitcoin. And now it seems like they’re backing off yet again.

The Russian government is working on a bill which would impose fines upon those who “disseminate money substitutes” – including Bitcoin. And while the bill seems to be going forward, the fines have been decreased.

Where originally the fine was 60,000 rubles (about $1292 USD), it has been lowered to 50,000 (about $1077).

Some Bitcoiners may see parallels between Russia’s behaviour and China’s over the last year. To this day, the Chinese government’s official position on Bitcoin is unclear, and Russia’s flip-flopping feels similar.

What Bitcoin Needs

In his reddit AMA recently, Bitcoin Foundation chief scientist Gavin Andresen mentioned one of the things Bitcoin needs to grow is “regulatory clarity”.

He raises a good point. Without a proper understanding of the playing field, or what we’re up against, it will be difficult for Bitcoin businesses to react appropriately and adapt.

Russia Lowers Proposed Fines For Bitcoin Use

NXT Freemarket Officially Launches - From The CoinFront

The NXT Freemarket has officially launched.

Built around the idea of enabling free, private, and global trade between members of the cryptocurrency community, the platform uses the NXT blockchain to store items being sold.

This means the entire platform is decentralized. There is no organization with access to your personal information, and since there is no single point of failure, the NXT Freemarket is extremely resilient to hacks.

Free As In Free?

When the NXT Freemarket claims to be free, they don’t mean free of charge.

The fees are rather low, though, at 7.77 NXT to post an item (around 15 cents USD), along with any blockchain-related transfer fees. These fees are only for the seller, though; the buyer only pays the blockchain fees.

Not The Only Platform

The platform was originally announced back in September of this year. Though they may be one of the first high-profile trading platforms to fully launch, they’re not the only one.

OpenBazaar, a similar platform, launched its beta 3.0 release yesterday, with the hope of launching it in full by the end of the year.

NXT Freemarket, OpenBazaar, and other projects like it are entering the market at a time where the incumbents are already well established. Companies like eBay have been around for decades, and are part of the original force behind what drove the online boom in the 90’s and 00’s.

But eBay has high fees, and a payment system, PayPal, which massively favours the buyer in disputes leading to cases of fraud across the board.

Will NXT Freemarket and OpenBazaar be able to dethrone eBay as the dominant ecommerce platform?

NXT Freemarket Officially Launches

MintPal Partners Raising Funds For Lawsuit Against Alex Green/Ryan Gentle - From The CoinFront

MintPal, the beleaguered altcoin exchange dragged down in the wake of Moolah’s collapse, isn’t going down without a fight.

Michael and Ferdous, Alex Green’s partners in acquiring Moolah, have painted themselves as innocent victims of Green’s activities, and are raising funds to “help us get justice served” against him.

On the website MintPal Justice, Ferdous goes into a long-winded description of the events that transpired. He speaks of Green’s highly regarded reputation within the Dogecoin community, having donated 20 million DOGE to the original Dogecar fundraiser and managed several other charity drives. “Green was one of the good guys in my book”, he says.

Gaining Control Of MintPal

He outlined the process involved in their gaining control of MintPal as well;

Green eventually proposed to me the idea of putting forward an investment, between myself and Michael, in order to make a joint offer to purchase the well-established, and highly reputable MintPal.com trading platform. I believed that MintPal had the potential to be one of the top businesses in the digital currency arena; and as we had the opportunity to acquire it, I jumped at it.

The agreement was put forward, that Michael and I would cover the cost of acquisition, and Moolah, as a corporate entity, will manage MintPal for 10% of MintPal’s revenues in return. We eventually agreed that a new holding company will be established, named Torihiki Limited – which would in turn own the newly acquired MintPal service, and any further products or services that we as a group agreed to purchase, or develop internally.

Michael and I would own 65% of the the newly established Torihiki Limited, and divest 35% of the shares to Alex Green, and some of the key Moolah employees who would be working directly for MintPal.

Though he admits MintPal’s security needed some improvements, especially after the VeriCoin scandal in July of this year, “MintPal itself, prior to Green’s involvement, was an excellent platform.”

Moolah V2’s launch, though, was launched “with a buggy platform, a $20 template, and was lacking several key features – many of which were perfectly intact before Green’s involvement”. Plagued with errors, it was taken down after only a few days.

The Revelation Of Green’s Identity

Of course, the cryptocurrency community now recognizes Alex Green to be Ryan Francis Gentle, the well-known online serial scammer. And while no court has yet confirmed the allegations against him, the evidence is damning.

Green eventually took full control of MintPal, and holds it to this day. This includes the site, database, and all the coins on the system. Ferdous was able, however, to recover some of the coins which hadn’t properly migrated from MintPal 1.0.

Green Selling The Lost Bitcoins?

Ferdous claims Green “lost” 4000 BTC during MintPal’s collapse. Later, though, he uncovered a Local Bitcoins account under the name “LemonadeDev”, one of Green’s alleged aliases.

This account claims to have “sold over 1500 BTC in the past 6 months, and have access to roughly 4000 BTC for larger sales.”

Well then.

These coins include those from several charity drives, including the Remember Carlos initiative in memory of Dogecoinball creator Carlishio who took his own life as a result of a long battle with depression.

Taking Action

Michael and Ferdous are gathering funds in order to pursue legal action against Green. Working with Selachii LLP, they are hoping to raise $25,000 to cover their legal costs. If successful, “the legal fees will be awarded against Ryan Kennedy, and the bitcoins donated to cover the legal fees will be returned to the donors.”

Ferdous appeals to the cryptocurrency community to unite against such malicious activity.

I believe that we are currently at a tipping point in cryptocurrency, which has long since been due – a moment where finally, an individual who attempted to use the Bitcoin platform for ill-gotten gains, has been trapped in a web of his own lies, fraud, and deceit. In Kennedy/Green’s wake of destruction, he has left a sliver of hope – in that finally, digital currency users can unite under one banner, to make a legal stand against con artists who abuse this industry, and its users, for their own fraudulent benefits. We are finally in a position where we can make an example out of those who believe that it is “safe” to conduct scams under the banner of cryptocurrency; and send a clear message to anyone else who believes that this is their ticket to making a quick buck off our community.

MintPal Partners Raising Funds For Lawsuit Against Alex Green/Ryan Gentle

OpenBazaar Beta Now Compatible With Windows - From The CoinFront

OpenBazaar has released its 3.0 beta, nicknamed “Tabriz”.

Named after one of the oldest bazaars in the Middle East, Tabriz includes several minor bug fixes. The most significant change, though, is that this is the first edition of OpenBazaar to be compatible with Windows. To download Tabriz, click here, unzip the file, and run OpenBazaar.exe. You can also download it via torrent magnet link.

What Is OpenBazaar?

OpenBazaar is an open source, decentralized online commerce network. The platform will use Bitcoin as its currency, will have no fees involved, and will be immune to censorship. This helps avoid many of the drawbacks inherent in more centralized platforms.

Billing itself as “the baby of eBay and BitTorrent”, OpenBazaar will create contracts between users who want to sell their products and those who wish to buy them. Escrow, third-party arbitration, and transactions are all done in a decentralized, trustless fashion.

OpenBazaar’s goal is to have a full release by the end of 2014.

OpenBazaar Beta Now Compatible With Windows

BitLicence Architect Ben Lawsky Rumoured To Resign In 2015 - From The CoinFront

Ben Lawsky, New York Department of Financial Services Superintendant, is stepping down as of next year.

Lawsky, the chief architect behind the NYDFS’ BitLicence proposal, is expected to leave in early 2015 for a job in the private sector.

His exit is part of what’s been called a mass exodus of staffers from recently re-elected New York Governor Cuomo, including his top aide, budget director, press secretary, and chief counsel.

This suggests that the BitLicence will be Lawsky’s swansong, his final great act as NYDFS Superintendant before he moves on to other things.

Lawsky has said in the past that his goal is to have the BitLicence completed by the end of the year. As a result, any further work done on it after it comes into play will be done by a new superintendant.

Whether Lawsky’s replacement will be more reasonable than Lawsky, or more tyrannical, remains to be seen.

The BitLicence

Meanwhile, the BitLicence continues to loom on the horizon.

The commentary period came to a close nearly three weeks ago, and since then the NYDFS has been relatively quiet on the subject.

Lawsky did, though, announce they were considering a “transitional BitLicence“, useful for startups and smaller companies, in order to give them an easier regulatory framework in which to operate.

This will likely be seen as too little, though, by some of the Bitcoin industry’s bigger players, many of whom have already spoken out against the BitLicence. Should it become law, some of these companies, including Circle, have claimed they will simply halt doing business with residents of New York.

BitLicence Architect Ben Lawsky Rumoured To Resign In 2015

Artists Invade The Cryptocurrency Space - From The CoinFront

The world of cryptocurrency draws all sorts of people. Naturally, the coders, developers, and more technically-minded people get a lot of the credit, but there’s more to it than that.

Creative types have flooded in as well, bringing their talent in songwriting, musicianship, painting, drawing, and, ahem, writing.

Here are some of the more interesting pieces of Bitcoin-related art to be found online, and where they came from.

Ray Istre

Ray is a precious metals enthusiast who later got involved in the Bitcoin world for the same reason: concerns over the current US monetary system and what it means for the future of wealth.

His art is clearly inspired by Bitcoin and the state of the US economy, as you can see in the pieces below. Ray is selling these pieces for Bitcoin. You can get in touch with Ray through Twitter.

“Benjamin’s Vision”

“No Interest To Pay”

“Control of Purchasing Power”

Nina Yankovich

Nina is an Irish artist who has made a name for herself with her darker, more haunting aesthetic. She recently partnered with Cryptoart, a a service that sells limited edition prints of fine art which can double as cold storage wallets.

She created a series of three pieces for this purpose. One for Bitcoin, one for Dogecoin, and one for Peercoin, which you can see below.

So Cryptoart

 

See What Tomorrow Brings

Crypto Greensleeves

To get your hands on one of these limited edition prints, visit Cryptoart’s website. If you’re an artist yourself, you can also have your art showcased on their site.

Wow Such Art

Not all art within the cryptocurrency space is fine art, though.

The Dogecoin community is a perfect example. The user DogeDraws has been creating original caricatures of doge in the position of various different popular culture characters. While his drawings started out crude, they’ve since developed significantly.

So Pitty! Much Fool! Wow!

Super Saiyan Dogeku

Doge Nukem

Doge Rider

And of course, there’s the popular Dogecoinball comics, which satirized events happening within the Dogecoin community. Dogecoinball has been put on indefinite hiatus as a result of the death of its creator Carlishio2, but the older comics are still amusing and appropriate for anyone involved in the Dogecoin community.

Doge Ice Bucket Challenge

AuxPoW

Who are some of your favourite cryptocurrency artists? Let us know in the comments below!

Artists Invade The Cryptocurrency Space

Robocoin Now Requires Its ATM Operators To Collect User Information - From The CoinFront

Robocoin has announced the new software for their machines will require Bitcoin ATM operators to collect information from their customers.

This move has been made as a result of attempts to comply with KYC (Know Your Customer) regulations.

The move comes about as a result of the fact that as a registered money services business, they could no longer legally process financial transactions.

“When Robocoin launched one year ago, we offered KYC/AML hardware and software but let operators choose their own compliance strategy,” the company said in a blog on their site. “Some decided to disable compliance altogether.”

We hoped operators would always get to choose KYC vs Non-KYC, but legal requirements have emerged that do not allow the choice. It has become clear that as a registered money service business (MSB), Robocoin cannot support non-KYC machines anywhere in the market. Under our lawyers’ advice, we cannot process anonymous financial transactions. Our operators must comply with know your source and know your destination requirements. Disabling KYC and allowing anonymous transactions create money laundering risks. We cannot violate the law or risk the long term viability of Robocoin and our global Robocoin Operator network.

Robocoin Operators Respond

Robocoin’s new system is a step down from the original platform in terms of user experience. This writer often visited a Robocoin Bitcoin ATM in Toronto, and always had a pleasant experience with it. However, the new interface makes it far more difficult to manage.

The owners of that Bitcoin ATM have expressed frustration at the nature of Robocoin’s decision, but they aren’t the only ones.

In a reddit post, a user who goes by @Jonnybitcoin has slammed Robocoin’s decision and calls up on other Robocoin operators to take action. It has been reproduced below, as it was originally written.

Dear Robocoin Operator,

Like me you paid alot of money for Robocoin machine and it is YOURS.

Today Jordan Kelly CEO of robocoin is threatening us all saying he will convert our machine into a login terminal for Jordans own centralised, proprietary, closed source, web based system. This benefits him and his company as it steals YOUR CUSTOMERS and gives him more centralised power.

This is not in the spirit of bitcoin’s decentralised freedom loving roots.

We as robocoin operators need to unite together and install open source software on our machines and cut Jordan out and his fees out.

I have spoken with Lamassu who run free open source software on their machines

It is possible to buy a separate PC that you can run alongside the PC that comes in the safe.

You can then just reconnect the webcam and validator to this new PC and run the machine as a giant Lamassu.

This software may need tweaking to get it working with the cash acceptor that comes in the robocoin.

This is a call for help to the open source and bitcoin community to come together and make these bitcoin ATMs what they should be. Free and open.

I will be turning off my 4 robocoin machines until either Jordan backs down on this and commits to supporting version 1 software as he said he would or we have the machines running on the lammassu software.

I suggest we all turn off our machines together to show we won’t be bullied into his new system.

Please show your support for this project either by replying or adding your voice to the reddit post where I have posted this letter.

Regards

@Jonnybitcoin

Robocoin did suggest that those who operate their machines and are “unwilling to sacrifice anonymity in favor of compliance” could resell their machines to other groups through Robocoin.

For a community like Bitcoin, naturally wary of data collection and government snooping, this move could spell disaster for Robocoin.

Robocoin was the first company to establish a <a href=”http://thecoinfront.com/tag/bitcoin-atm”>Bitcoin ATM</a>, in Vancouver. Since then, the company has 46 machines worldwide, including Canada, the US, Spain, UK, The Netherlands, and Czech Republic.

Robocoin Now Requires Its ATM Operators To Collect User Information

Silk Road 2.0 Shut Down, Alleged Founder Arrested - From The CoinFront

The Silk Road 2.0 website has been shut down by the FBI, who arrested its alleged ringleader, Blake Benthall.

26 year old Benthall, who allegedly went by the name “Defcon” on the site, was arrested on Wednesday, and has been charged with hacking, money laundering, and drug trafficking, among others.

The site was a successor to the original Silk Road marketplace run by a user under the name “Dread Pirate Roberts”, whom authorities have alleged is Ross Ulbricht. Silk Road 2.0 was nearly identical to the original Silk Road platform.

In an unusual coincidence, Silk Road 2.0 was shut down a day before its first birthday. At its height, it was said to be generating around $8 million USD monthly in sales.

Benthall, a former employee at SpaceX, entrepreneur, and charity volunteer, is currently in custody.

Bitcoin And Drugs

While Silk Road was not strictly a drug bazaar, the items sold on it were almost exclusively drugs, hacking tools, and other illegal items. Users paid for these items with Bitcoin.

Bitcoin has a long history of illicit trade, having been used by the original Silk Road marketplace after its users realized the ease with which payments could be made on the platform without having to go through traditional payment methods which are far more traceable. While Bitcoin is far from truly anonymous, it is an improvement over credit cards.

Some claim, though, that the existence of these online drug marketplaces actually reduces the amount of drug-related violence occurring globally.

The argument is that because these users are interacting with each other through an impersonal online system, and the goods are being delivered through traditional postal service, it’s far less likely that their interaction will result in violence than if they had met in a back alley somewhere.

Silk Road 2.0 Shut Down, Alleged Founder Arrested

Patrick Murck: "I Want To Get The Foundation Back To Its Roots" - From The CoinFront

In the wake of the resignation of Jon Matonis from the position of Executive Director of the Bitcoin Foundation, former general counsel Patrick Murck has stepped up to fill the role.

To help the community better understand his upcoming role, he held an AMA on reddit.

Questions From Canada

The community had several interesting questions for Murck.

Francis Pouliot, from the Bitcoin Foundation Canada had quite a few questions for him, but perhaps the most interesting one was as follows:

You mentioned in your last blog post that “my first priority is to cut out distractions and focus the Bitcoin Foundation on the areas where we can add the most value for the bitcoin community”. Regarding this statement: According to you, what should be the Foundation’s primary and essential mission? (please name only the most important one)

Murck responded that “supporting standardization through the Bitcoin Core reference implementation fo bitcoin and providing better avenues for new people to build out core infrastructure” would be their priorities.

He also asked whether Murck believes the Bitcoin Foundation’s affiliate program, designed to help Bitcoin Foundation chapters open worldwide, was successful so far, and he isn’t enthusiastic about it.

Much like the grant program, doing the the affiliate chapter program right is a project that requires a serious commitment of resources from the Foundation not the least of which is creating an effective marketing and sales process that our chapters can leverage for their local community. It’s a priority for us to engage in a conversation with our local affiliates to chart a better course forward.

Politics And Bitcoin

Another user asked how the new Republican-controlled congress could affect Bitcoin and how they plan on working with them.

I’ve found that bitcoin plays well with both political parties in US. Sometimes for different reasons. For us the strategy is to be a resource on the technical rules that govern bitcoin and the social contract that allows the bitcoin network to regulate itself. We can be that resource for politicians or other groups and associations doing work on the ground.

He was also asked about New York’s impending BitLicence regulations, and what impact they could have on Bitcoin. And not only did he have insight into how to the BitLicence’s broader implications, he also had some advice on how to communicate Bitcoin’s benefits to politicians.

We have had plenty of discussions with State regulators and they are watching how things unfold in New York. That doesn’t mean they are interested in following New York’s approach per se, but the “bitlicense” proposal has garnered a lot of attention both here and abroad.

What State regulators seem most concerned with is consumer protection and what happens if the citizens they are charged to protect lose their life savings in a bitcoin exchange meltdown. I think they would love to hear constructive thoughts on how they can do their job without getting in the way.

But if you do reach out to your State regulator keep this in mind. As you pitch this cool new technology (or your business), you will tend to highlight all the ways that technology is different from everything out there in the market. When a regulator hears that something is “different” they think about how much work it’s going to take them and their staff to understand how to deal with it. It’s usually better to tell your friendly regulator all the ways that this new technology (or your business) is the same as something they already know how to deal with. That puts things in a useful context for them and let’s you focus on the consumer benefits.

Avoiding The Question

Not all questions were positive, though. One user brought up a very simple point outlining the lack of any real incentive to join the Bitcoin Foundation:

I’m putting a business together. I’m looking at $1,000 a year to join the foundation. As far as I know I’d be the only member in my area. I’d be joining an organization that has a rocky reputation in the community.

Why should I sign up?

Another user asked an extremely baited question which underscored the frustration many have had with the Bitcoin Foundation so far:

Hey Pat, what do you think about the Bitcoin Foundation being the complete antithesis of what bitcoin is meant to achieve? How do you really feel about decentralization?

Murck declined to answer either question.

He also declined to answer a question from Litecoin creator Charlie Lee about the Bitcoin Foundation’s stance toward altcoins.

The Bitcoin Foundation has previously been very hostile towards Litecoin and other altcoins. They believed that the goals of “development, safety, and promotion” only applied to Bitcoin and basically tried to pretend that Litecoin and other altcoins do not exist, should be ignored, and are detrimental to Bitcoin.

With you as the new Executive Director of the Bitcoin Foundation, would this stance change? I and many others believe that we are in this crypto revolution together. And it is in the best interest of the Bitcoin Foundation to help with the development, safety, and promotion of all crypto-currencies. Do you agree?

To be fair, though, Lee did state he had “already gotten your answer to this question in person, but I figure I should ask this publicly also.”

Moving Forward

As Executive Director, Murck stated his top three priorities are:

Refocus the Foundation around technical standards and the Bitcoin Core reference implementation of bitcoin. This includes developing a more formal technical standards approach to bitcoin development.

Creating a better member experience for our supporters. Being more transparent in what we do and engaging in a dialog about our priorities.

Developing a sustainable business model so that bitcoin’s development isn’t at the mercy of bitcoin price swings. This should also help align the Foundation’s future with the value it is providing to the community.

In a similar question, he also said “the quick version is that I want to get the Foundation back to its roots. That would probably look a lot like the Linux Foundation or the Apache Software Foundation.”

And when asked what he worries about most, he’s thinking about “the community pulling itself apart before bitcoin reaches a tipping point in adoption.”

At which point a user replied “Maybe he’s referring to the fact that the bitcoin community disapproves of the self-appointed overlords in the Bitcoin Foundation, and that he would like us to accept and comply?”

Clearly, Murck has some work to do in regaining the trust and confidence of the Bitcoin community.

Patrick Murck: "I Want To Get The Foundation Back To Its Roots"

Dark Wallet Alpha 7 Released - From The CoinFront

Dark Wallet Alpha 7 was released last night, just in time for Guy Fawkes Day.

The Dark Wallet project, developed by unSystem’s Amir Taaki, is a program designed to fully anonymize Bitcoin transactions through decentralized p2p “mixing servers”, has been under development for several months.

Dark Wallet Alpha 5 included some new security features, and Alpha 7 includes some structural changes. These include interface translations support, an BIP44-compliant keyring structure, and an upgrade of BitcoinJS to stable version 1.2.

Dark Wallet Alpha 7 is still being tested, and at this point is unstable. unSystem warns that users should use it with actual funds at their own risk.

Dark Wallet is currently available in English and Spanish. To contribute a translation in your own language, you can visit their page at Transifex.

The next version, Alpha 8, is expected to be released on November 19th, followed by the first working beta in late November or December.

Dark Wallet Alpha 7 Released

Bill Nye: "The Future Of Commerce Is Going To Be All Electronic" - From The CoinFront

As one of the most undeniably popular platforms online, reddit is a hotbed for activity. Influencers from all sorts of fields will often show up for an “AMA” interview.

AMA means “Ask Me Anything”. It’s a crowdsourced interview, where any community member can ask that person a question.

And, since reddit is also one of the largest hubs of Bitcoin-related activity online, as influencers arrive it has become more common to ask them Bitcoin-related questions.

Such was the case when Bill Nye The Science Guy showed up yesterday for an AMA.

The Question

Nye was present to promote the release of his new book, Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation. During the AMA, he was asked about Bitcoin.

What’s your opinion of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general? Do you think it can achieve widespread use, or is it just a fad?

The user then tipped Nye an undisclosed amount, and told him to “take a night off and enjoy 4 beers on me”.

Nye’s answer was good news to Bitcoin fans:

If it’s not bitcoin, it’ll be something. The future of commerce is going to be all electronic. The gold standard was a fine idea, but electronic changes of funds and credits will be the future.

Speaking for myself, I want bitcoin in my analog watch, somehow, someday soon. But i want an analog watch. Not everybody wants that. It’s not for everybody!

As a result, the tips came pouring in from other users as well.

Though Nye was probably joking about holding bitcoins in his analog watch, he may not realize that there actually is an analog watch which can be purchased with Bitcoin. The big prominent Bitcoin logo right in the middle of it does satisfy his desire for “Bitcoin in my analog watch”, though that’s probably not what he meant.

Bill Nye: "The Future Of Commerce Is Going To Be All Electronic"

ChangeTip Launches Tip.me Tipping Widget - From The CoinFront

ChangeTip has been helping spread cryptocurrency across social media with its tipping bots. Many who would otherwise have no exposure to Bitcoin are brought into the fold as a result of tips sent to them through ChangeTip, especially on Twitter.

Now, ChangeTip has taken it one step further by launching a tipping widget for blog platforms, Tip.me.

Tip.me, which can be implemented on most platforms with a bit of Javascript, serves in a similar fashion to a Facebook “like” or Twitter “share” in that it makes social tipping as easy as a click of a button. This reduces the barrier for tipping. For many sites, currently users have to either scan a QR code or even copy and paste a wallet address into their wallet, choose the amount to tip, and then send it. With one-click tipping, it’s much easier.

With ChangeTip’s tipping widget, content creators can choose to either have their tips go to them directly, or have their contribution be directed toward a charity of their choice.

“We see the ‘like’ culture and want to level this up by changing gratitude online,” says ChangeTip co-founder Nick Sullivan. “This is a love button for the internet.”

Changetip hopes Tip.me will help reduce the barrier for entry for great content. Rather than having advertising fuel content, it can be fueled by the community itself. Since tipping allows for those who appreciate good content to directly compensate the content creator, it could reduce the need for advertising and make the internet a more user-friendly, less cluttered space.

ChangeTip Launches Tip.me Tipping Widget

Butterfly Labs Loses Control - From The CoinFront

Another chapter in the Butterfly Labs saga unfolds as the Judge Brian C. Wimes has approved a motion to transfer their assets to court control.

The motion was made by Eric L. Johnson, the temporary receiver in this case, on October 29th, and approved yesterday afternoon.

This motion has significant repercussions for Butterfly Labs. It allows the temporary receiver to manage Butterfly Labs’ assets, as well as administer their business operations. The court document outlines one of the temporary receiver’s specific duties:

The order also authorized the Temporary Receiver to “begin establishing an adequate cash reserve to cover potential refund liability. In this respect, and under the supervision of Temporary Receiver, the following actions may occur immediately…Conversion of Receivership Defendant’s substantial bitcoin holdings to cash on a systematic and reasoned basis.”

While the temporary receiver will be converting Butterfly Labs’ Bitcoin into cash, they will also gain control of all of Butterfly Labs‘ bitcoins. “The Stipulated Interim Order requires all parties to cooperate in transferring Receivership Defendant’s bitcoins to a Court-controlled bitcoin wallet, under the direction and supervision of Temporary Receiver.”

Butterfly Labs’ Future

So things are now officially out of Butterfly Labs’ hands. They had filed a motion last Wednesday, on the same day Johnson filed the above motion, for the court to dismiss the FTC’s case against them, claiming their case “fails to state a claim u pon which relief can be granted”.

Judging by the response to Johnson’s motion, Butterfly Labs seems to have the odds stacked against them.

They continue to maintain their innocence, claiming to be the first target of an FTC witch hunt against Bitcoin businesses. Their creditors, though, seem by and large happy that the case is unfolding as it is.

Butterfly Labs Loses Control

Ben Lawsky Announces a "Transitional BitLicence" For Startups - From The CoinFront

New York Department of Financial Services Superintendant Ben Lawsky has announced they are considering a transitional BitLicence, one which would be more applicable to the needs of small businesses and startups.

The transitional BitLicence, which doesn’t yet have a name, would allow these smaller entities a less constrictive regulatory environment in which to operate. The transitional BitLicence would only be available, though, for a limited time period.

The announcement was made during Lawsky’s keynote speech at the Money 20/20 conference. During this speech, he mentioned the transitional BitLicence was a response to the criticism the NYDFS faced during the commentary period.

And the criticism has been significant. Coinbase, OKCoin, Xapo, Circle, BitPay, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have all spoken out against it.

Lawsky also mentioned the NYDFS would be making a revised BitLicence framework available for public comment “soon”, with the goal of having it completed by January of next year.

Ben Lawsky Announces a "Transitional BitLicence" For Startups

World's First Bitcoin-Only Cafe Opens In Prague - From The CoinFront

The world’s first bitcoin-only cafe is opening in Czech Republic.

Parallel Polis, a crypto-anarchy institute founded in Prague, has a popular cafe attached to it. The entire institute accepts only Bitcoin, and also includes a co-working space, hackerspace, makers lab, and, of course, the Bitcoin cafe.

At the cafe, volunteers help newcomers set themselves up with Bitcoin. This includes setting up a wallet, purchasing their first bitcoins through their on-site Bitcoin ATM, and, if the visitor so chooses, spending those bitcoins at the cafe.

Parallel Polis is using Coin of Sale’s Bitcoin payment processing system to process Bitcoin payments and keep track of their accounting.

“We’re proud that Parallel Polis has selected Coin of Sale’s POS system to process Bitcoin payments with its institute,” says Tomas Forgac, CEO of Coin of Sale. “The thinking of liberty leaders in central Europe is nicely aligned with our company philosophy on data and currency – and how they are intricately tied to human value.”

“Since the very first moment our bartenders appreciate the user friendly interface of CoS,” adds Martin Leskovjan of Parallel Polis, “which is easily usable even if the staff is not experienced with computer technologies at all.”

Parallel Polis was opened by an avant-garde art group called Ztohoven to promote the ideas of liberty, privacy, and free markets.

World's First Bitcoin-Only Cafe Opens In Prague

BitcoinATM360 and Coinsetter Join Forces As Bitcoin ATM Market Expands - From The CoinFront

BitcoinATM360, a Bitcoin ATM solutions company, has joined forces with Coinsetter, a Bitcoin exchange geared toward Wall Street professionals, have joined forces to offer Bitcoin ATM operators preferred access to Coinsetter’s exchange.

This will allow Bitcoin ATM operators to facilitate transactions through their machines much more easily.

“This partnership will be known as a significant advance in the Bitcoin ATM space,” says BitcoinATM360 CEO Terry Woltman. “For the first time, an operator will be able to order a machine with backend exchange access, integration, and processing already set up before delivery. The ‘concierge level’ integration between BitcoinATM360 and Coinsetter, the most reliable bitcoin exchange for ATM operators that we’ve found, will speed up and improve the deployment of machines ordered from Bitcoin360ATM.”

More Bitcoin ATMs Than Ever

At the end of August, the Bitcoin world hit a milestone with 200 Bitcoin ATMs having spread across the planet.

That number has since increased to 285. And with Coinsetter and BitcoinATM360’s latest partnership, these machines will be more accessible and effective than ever.

It’s a testament to how quickly the Bitcoin community moves that something which was a brand new, novel concept less than a year ago is now simply a commonplace event. Stories about individual Bitcoin ATM launches are no longer very interesting, but the expansion of their presence worldwide is still a big deal.

BitcoinATM360 and Coinsetter Join Forces As Bitcoin ATM Market Expands