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Bitcoin Tracker | Week 38
Apple, Blue Ivy, North West, River and Summer Rain, are looking like much more normal baby names when compared to the couple that wants to raise the first bitcoin baby. They have pledged to name their first offspring, Satoshi Bitcoin, well, that is, if they can raise enough bitcoins. While Satoshi is a somewhat common name for a Japanese boy, let’s hope the newborn girl (yes, it is a girl) has a good sense of humor. But hey, at least the kids on the playground (and their parents) will get the bitcoin reference. A new study reports that the majority of Americans have heard of bitcoin (51%) but only 3% have used it. Perhaps they don’t like shopping at Overstock.com (or the dark web).
In this last unofficial week of summer, bitcoin prices settled closer to the $500 mark, at $507.75 according to the PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price index.
And, maybe the notion of having a baby named after it got everyone in a good mood about the crytpocurrnecy last week. The Bitcoin Sentiment Index, which launched last week, is now twenty points higher, closer to where it was in the April timeframe. The index, which is powered by Qriously data, leverages mobile ad infrastructure to deliver questions to millions of users in the UK and US. Currently, Qriously asks randomly selected users “the importance of bitcoin in 12 months will: (Increase/Decrease/Stay the Same)”. For this week at least, the general public thinks that cryptocurrency prospects are increasing.
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 …
Speaking of sentiment, more merchants are accepting Bitcoin and seem to share the Expedia’s VP of Global Products feeling that “Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere; it’s here to stay”. A new anonymous marketplace is set to launch, selling only, ahem, completely legal items. Coinbase made a surprise announcement that they had insured customer’s bitcoin wallets. And, in the “we’re not really sure where to put this news” category, the dark web that is all about selling stuff you’d never want to tell your mother you bought, has been ignited by bitcoin, and created a whole new level of competition and customer service as a result – Illegal stuff, with a smile.
- August 28, 2014 – A new marketplace, OpenBazaar, is launching and designed to enable “pseudonymous, uncensored trade” but the developers adamantly insist that it wasn’t designed to sell drugs, guns or other contraband. (Have we mentioned that there’s a bridge for sale in a certain New York borough?)
- August 28, 2014 – Coinbase stirred up some chatter when they announced that they actually had their customers bitcoin wallets kinda, sorta insured. The deal was brokered by Aon and underwritten by insurers with S&P ratings of at least A+.
- August 28, 2014 – Every resident of Dominica, a Caribbean island, will receive bitcoin next year to make the world’s largest and highest density cryptocurrency community. On Pi Day (March 14) 70,000 residents will receive bitcoin via text message. (We suggest that they try not to spend it all in one place.)
- August 28, 2014 – Despite the concerns of the Hungarian central bank, the country received their first bitcoin cash machine.
- August 28, 2014 – Simon Fraser University (SFU) because the first Canadian University to accept bitcoins and will now take donations in the digital currency.
- August 27, 2014 – A bitcoin mining center in Iceland will be 100% powered by renewable energy. Australian bitcoin firm digitalBTC has announced a multi-year hosting and power supply agreement with Verne Global – a UK-based company specialised in “power-conscious” data centre solutions.
- August 26, 2014 – Updates to the Swedish operated bitcoin wallet, KnC Wallet make it easier than ever for users to send and receive bitcoin to one another.
- August 26, 2014 – Newegg is now accepting bitcoin payments from customers in Canada.
- August 25, 2014 – A South Korean Bitcoin exchange, Korbit, raised $3 million in Series A funding to expand bitcoin adoption in Korea.
- August 25, 2014 – BitPay is paying ESPN for the sponsorship of the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl in bitcoin. BitPay hopes to have 100 local businesses accepting bitcoin by the time of the game on December 26.
- August 23, 2014 – Startup San Francisco Open Exchange (SFOX) set out to help users buy, sell and invest in bitcoin exchanges similar to how investors use E-Trade.
On the Dark Side …
Economist David Evans isn’t the only bitcoin skeptic in the economist community. The majority of Austrian Economists aren’t jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon, it turns out. Shocker! Hackers took off with $100,000 worth of bitcoin from Cannabis Road and Citi analysts reported that the price of bitcoin is ripe for “acute instability” due to the current oversupply of coins that miners and large merchants are holding on to. As for usage, well, let’s just say, it hasn’t ignited.
- August 27, 2014 – A new survey, from the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the Massachusetts Division of Banks, found that 51% of people in the U.S. were aware of bitcoin but only 3% had used it.
- August 27, 2014 – The Australian government’s online information portal published a ‘Bitcoin for business’ page to advise operators of their tax and regulatory obligations.
- August 27, 2014 – A hacker group is trying to leverage the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine as it distributes malware that is capable of targeting bitcoin wallets.
- August 26, 2104 – Citi analysts report that bitcoin’s current price is poised for “acute instability” due to an over supply of coins from miners and large merchants.
- August 26, 2014 – The majority of Austrian Economists, who are harsh critics of government central banks, not only don’t appreciate cryptocurrencies, but they are also very critical of them. At the 2014 Austrian Economics Research Conference, there was barely a mention of bitcoin.
- August 25, 2014 – A couple, looking to help with the expenses of their newborn daughter, have set up a crowdfunding account, hoping to receive bitcoin donations in exchange for naming their child Satoshi Bitcoin. Three days in and not a single bitcoin donated.
- August 25, 2014 – Hackers took off with $100,000 worth of bitcoin from Cannabis Road.
