Deputizing America

“By its indictment of FedEx, the feds are telling all other delivery firms that they are now forcibly deputized to do the DEA’s job in the War on Drugs. If they don’t play along, they need to show up in court.  Banking regulators have been playing a similar game. Under a campaign known as Operation Choke Point, they have been telling banks that if they don’t investigate their customers for ‘high-risk’ activity, they will be subject to subpoenas and everything that implies. As a result, banks have simply been cutting off links to customers on the simple basis of what business they are in.   If New York’s Department of Financial Services has its way, bitcoin businesses operating in the state will be deputized, too.”

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/deputizing-america

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Apple Allows the World’s Most Popular Bitcoin Wallet Back Into Its Store

“It looks like Apple has finally changed its stance on bitcoin.  Six months after Apple removed Blockchain from its online App Store—effectively preventing people from using the popular bitcoin wallet app on the iPhone and the iPad—the tech giant has now allowed the app back into the store. ‘This seems to be the first strong and real sign they are ready to accommodate future digital currency development,’ the makers of Blockchain said a statement, referring to Apple. ‘It goes a long way to legitimizing bitcoin and now provides hundreds of millions of iOS users access to bitcoin applications.’  Blockchain CEO Nicolas Cary thinks Apple’s new attitude comes down to one thing: Android.”

http://www.wired.com/2014/07/blockchain-back/

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Mike Hearn Wins $40K Bounty for Bitcoin Core Crowdfunding Platform

“BitcoinJ developer and former Google engineer Mike Hearn, creator of the decentralized crowdfunding platform Lighthouse, has been awarded the majority of a $100,000 bounty. The bounty was offered by self-proclaimed bitcoin millionaire and entrepreneur Olivier Janssens, who in a post on the bitcoin subreddit from June called for a platform to facilitate funding for critical bitcoin projects. In his original statement, Janssens argued that the Bitcoin Foundation was failing to adequately fund bitcoin core development. Because of this, he stated, the bounty winner’s project should serve as a replacement for the Foundation itself.”

http://www.coindesk.com/mike-hearn-wins-40000-bounty-bitcoin-core-crowdfunding/

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BitPay Offers ‘Free and Unlimited’ Payment Processing for Merchants

“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/

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Tony Gallippi Talks Newest BitPay Innovation: Copay

“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

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Payza Introduces Bitcoin Buying Option in 190 Countries

“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/

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Bangladesh Becomes Bitcoin Foundation’s First Asian Affiliate

“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/

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

“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/

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Europe Inches Towards A Decision on Bitcoin VAT

“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/

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Visa aims to make future payments friction-free

“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

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