Bitcoin Wants To Get Under Your Skin

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PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price and Volatility index.

Bitcoin Tracker | Week 49

And it’s back!!! Well, just a little bit. Bitcoin prices increased this week a smidge as innovators absorbed a little bitcoin energy with the announcements of new, easy to use trading exchanges, bitcoin wallet app releases and a new service to send in gold and receive cryptocurrency in return! The increased price of bitcoin is good news, at least, for the man who injected chips in his hands which store the data for his bitcoin wallets – and can function as an alarm clock and set of keys, so multifunctional!

Slightly amusing is the fact that, at 60k merchants that accept bitcoin, some think that bitcoin has tipped and is borderline now ready for primetime. To put this in perspective, that is 25 percent of the number of numbers that accept Apple Pay – and that is <2 percent of all merchants in the U.S. – there are 9 million merchants all totaled in the U.S. So, bitcoin is nowhere from a merchant acceptance perspective, unless, of course, you want to transact on the Dark Web.

Bitcoin’s price spiked back up to 407.68 from last week the price was 340.81 according to the PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price index.

As always, if you have any news you’d like to share, please send it our way at contactus@pymnts.com.

On the Plus Side …

A few more point-of-sale players entered the bitcoin game this week, with NCR announcing that they will incorporate bitcoin acceptance into their small business platform, NCR Silver. There may be some hope for bitcoin in Australiasia, with the government of New Zealand opening up to cryptocurrencies.

  • November 13, 2014 – Yacuna, a UK cryptocurrency exchange, launched a site that aims to be user-friendly to remove the hassle of trading for newcomers who want to buy cryptocurrencies.
  • November 13, 2014 – The bitcoin vault service, Xapo, launched wallet apps for iOS and Android.
  • November 13, 2014 – Another vote for bitcoin technology or blockchain technology as the future of everything financial services. Investors and technologists think that the technology could replace aspects of both the financial and insurance industries.
  • November 13, 2014 – With over 60,000 businesses accepting cryptocurrency technology, some now believe that cryptocurrency may now become usable. (Has anyone told this source how many merchants that there are in the world?)
  • November 12, 2014 – Bitcoin4Gold launched which will allow verified users to mail gold to the dealer network which may be exchanged for bitcoin, litecoin, dogecoin or dark coin.
  • November 12, 2014 – The deputy governor of the New Zealand Reserve Bank said that future for digital currencies in New Zealand looks more hopeful than in other countries.
  • November 11, 2014 – The former head of Mt. Gox, Mark Karpeles, has emerged from silence and said not much of anything so far.
  • November 11, 2014 – A bitcoin entrepreneur, known as Mr. Bitcoin, had a tiny bitcoin wallet injected into his hands. Nice.
  • November 10, 2014 – Payment company NCR will integrate bitcoin into the NCR Silver platform.
  • November 10, 2014 – Russia’s Ministry of Finance reduced the proposed fines that bitcoin users may potentially face for creating, issuing, or promoting digital currencies.

On the Dark Side …

A sheriff’s office in Tennessee was reminded the hard way this week to not click the spam links you may receive in emails! After an employee mistakenly clicked the link, the office case files were locked down and after consulting with the FBI, it was determined that the best way to get the files back was just to pay the ransom.

  • November 13, 2014 – A Tennessee sheriff paid ransom to cybercriminals of $500, payable in bitcoin after an employee clicked a link to malicious software.
  • November 13, 2014 – Taxpayers may have to report bitcoin and virtual currency accounts that are held in foreign exchanges to the URS.
  • November 13, 2014 – The Bank of Canada outlined the risks that digital currencies may pose to consumers. They reiterated the message that threats could arise but they do not feel that electronic money currently poses a risk to the stability of Canada and maple syrup trading.
  • November 12, 2014 – Bitcoin prices rose, but altcoin prices dropped. There many not be enough room in town for two major cryptocurrencies.
  • November 12, 2014 – Visa CEO Charles Scharf said that if the demand for bitcoin from their customers occurs then they will answer the question of if Visa will accept the bitcoin.
  • November 11, 2014 – Department of Financial Services superintendent Benjamin Lawsky may be leaving his post in early 2015. This is bad news for bitcoin because he is the most powerful person in New York State that is leading the charge behind bitcoin regulation.
  • November 7, 2014 – Bitcoin Foundation Chief Scientist Gavin Andresen claims that he doesn’t want “to be the king of Bitcoin”. We understand Andresen, we wouldn’t want to be associated with that title either.