Monthly Archives: August 2014

BitPay Offers ‘Free and Unlimited’ Payment Processing for Merchants

Posted on by

“One of bitcoin’s leading merchant processors, BitPay, has introduced a new pricing plan that makes its basic level of service free and unlimited.  The new plan allows merchants unlimited use of any plugin, API or app from the BitPay library and access to the company’s email support.  The company’s business and enterprise plans, which offer customers additional features, will continue at existing prices. The new pricing plan helps further reduce the barrier to entry for new merchants that are looking to accept bitcoin payments.  Previously, BitPay’s basic pricing plan was available to merchants at a cost of $30 for 30 days, for transactions of up to $10,000 daily.”

http://www.coindesk.com/bitpay-eliminates-fees-basic-merchant-processing/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Tony Gallippi Talks Newest BitPay Innovation: Copay

Posted on by

“Copay is an open-source multi-signature wallet with some highly interesting features created on BitPay’s Bitcore, an open source bitcoin stack. For starters, BitPay is using Copay as one of its platforms for a decentralized key generator it has developed. This way, Gallippi says if a company were ever compromised, the keys would not be as they wouldn’t come from that centralized place. Decentralized key generators add a whole new level of security the Bitcoin community needs to ensure investor confidence.  According to Gallippi, he researched the top 100 richest accounts in Bitcoin and found that none of them, not a single one, was secured with multi-signature technology.”

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/tony-gallippi-talks-newest-bitpay-innovation-copay/2014/07/22

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Payza Introduces Bitcoin Buying Option in 190 Countries

Posted on by

“Global online payment processor Payza has announced it is now offering customers in 190 countries the ability to buy bitcoin via bank transfer.  Payza took to its official blog to reveal the news, though this formal announcement followed preliminary tweets from both Payza business development consultant Charlie Shrem and the London and Montreal-based company itself. Speaking to CoinDesk, Shrem elaborated on Payza’s goals, suggesting that the company’s biggest opportunities may be in catering to bitcoin’s merchant space.  ‘[Payza will] be the only company where if a merchant actually wants to accept both credit card and bitcoin, they only need to work with one company,’ he said.”

http://www.coindesk.com/payza-launches-bitcoin-buying-consumers-190-countries/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Bangladesh Becomes Bitcoin Foundation’s First Asian Affiliate

Posted on by

“The Bitcoin Foundation has announced its first affiliate group in Asia, with Bitcoin Foundation Bangladesh becoming the latest local advocacy group to join its international network.  Bangladesh is the eighth most populated country in the world, with over 150 million people. Although still considered a ‘developing country’, it has an open and market-based economy driven mainly by agriculture and large-scale manufacturing industries.  As is the case with neighboring India and the Philippines, Bangladesh counts on remittances from foreign-based workers and even local employees sending money from large cities to small towns as a significant contributor to its GDP.”

http://www.coindesk.com/bangladesh-becomes-bitcoin-foundations-first-asian-affiliate/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Austria Offers ‘Contradictory’ Guidance on Bitcoin’s Financial Status

Posted on by

“The federal minister for finance and vice chancellor, Michael Spindelegger, reiterated that bitcoin is not a financial instrument (that is, a tradable asset), echoing the position of the country’s markets regulator, the Financial Market Authority.  The federal minister for science, research and economy, Reinhold Mitterlehner, however made reference to a German policy recognising bitcoin as a ‘unit of account’ and requiring commercial bitcoin transactions to gain permission from the German financial markets regulator.  ‘The two ministries contradict each other, so there is no [clear] way to interpret [the guidance],’ said Peter Šurda, an Austrian economist who studies bitcoin.”

http://www.coindesk.com/austria-offers-contradictory-guidance-bitcoins-financial-status/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Europe Inches Towards A Decision on Bitcoin VAT

Posted on by

“A recent legal referral in the EU may be inching the region a little closer to more unity on one small element of bitcoin taxation, but it won’t do much to help global confusion on the matter.  The ECJ could take up to two years to deliver a decision, which can then be used by Sweden in its policy making, explained European tax lawyer Estoban van Goor.  The ruling could prompt other countries to change their regulations, he warned – or it could even prompt the EU to pass legislation broadly addressing VAT on cryptocurrency. It’s a potentially existential issue for European cryptocurrency exchanges, said van Goor.”

http://www.coindesk.com/europe-inches-towards-decision-bitcoin-vat/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Visa aims to make future payments friction-free

Posted on by

“Two years ago Sam Shrauger worked for PayPal. Today he’s senior vice-president of digital solutions at Visa and presiding over its newly launched digital laboratory where the company is developing a blueprint for the future of payments.  Visa’s blueprint suggests that a car’s onboard computer may in the future be used to facilitate a payment at a drive-through restaurant, or an internet-connected fridge could order and pay for groceries to be delivered, or a biometric such as a fingerprint might be used to initiate a secure payment.  The company last week unveiled Visa Digital Solutions, a suite of tools that can be used by developers to turn any ­internet connected device into a payments system.”

http://www.afr.com/p/technology/visa_aims_to_make_future_payments_8IucuVjza7XuuItJVsqdhL

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Investor under house arrest sends robot to Bitcoin convention instead

Posted on by

“Investor Charlie Shrem, the co-founder and chief executive officer of BitInstant, is under house arrest at his parents’ home in Brooklyn, New York, accused of handling Bitcoins used for illegal transactions on the Silk Road website.  But he managed to circumvent the house arrest by trundling around the convention corridors on what is best described as a combination between an iPad and a Segway.  Shrem, 24, denies the charges against him and is due to stand trial in September.”

http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/investor-under-house-arrest-sends-robot-to-bitcoin-convention-instead–gy3tI3SiWg

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Judge in Silk Road criminal case says Bitcoin is as good as money

Posted on by

“The New York district judge presiding over the criminal case against Ross Ulbricht, the alleged creator of underground online drug market Silk Road, has decreed that cryptocurrency Bitcoin is functionally the same thing as real money. Ulbricht had argued that he could not be charged for money laundering for his alleged part in creating Silk Road, as Bitcoin was not a real currency, but Judge Katherine Forrest rejected his defense. ‘The money laundering statute is broad enough to encompass use of Bitcoins in financial transactions,’ Forrest wrote in a ruling released on Wednesday. ‘Any other reading would in light of Bitcoin’s sole raison d’être be nonsensical.'”

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/9/5885649/bitcoin-as-good-as-money-says-judge-silk-road-case

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Online Retail Giant Newegg Now Accepts Bitcoin

Posted on by

“Popular online computer hardware and software retail giant Newegg has announced it is now accepting bitcoin as a payment option – a move that had been widely anticipated by its customers.  The Los Angeles-based company, which recorded $2.8bn in annual revenue in 2013, made the announcement today, saying it will use BitPay as the payment processor to convert bitcoin sales into US dollars.  The online retail industry has slowly been opening the doors to bitcoin buyers since late last year. Newegg’s direct competitor TigerDirect began accepting bitcoin in January, following Shopify’s addition of the digital currency as a payment option for its vendors back in November 2013.”

http://www.coindesk.com/online-retail-giant-newegg-now-accepts-bitcoin/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet