Back To School With Bitcoin

bitcoin

PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price and Volatility index.

Follow 303 Cryptocurrencies here: http://coinmarketcap.com/ .

Bitcoin Tracker | Week 39    

School’s back in session and bitcoin is on the syllabus for students at MIT, NYU Law and Switzerland’s University of Zurich. Students can even pay for notebooks and pencils at MIT’s Coop with bitcoin and the University of Zurich is combining the technology of NFC and bitcoin so that students can buy their burgers in the student cafeteria using bitcoin.

Speaking of buying stuff with bitcoin, rumor has it that the naughty celebrity pics that were hacked off of Apple’s iCloud were purchased using bitcoin. Another bitcoin use case!.

Ironically, bitcoin prices slid under $500 to $486.93, according to the PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price index.  Yet The Bitcoin Sentiment Index is about the same as it was last week, in the mid 90s. For this week at least, the general public thinks that cryptocurrency prospects are increasing, even though its prices are declining.

And, finally, guilty is what Charlie Shrem will plead to the charges made against him of “unlicensed money transmission”.  Orange is, as we all know, the new black.

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 …

The bitcoin innovation machine was in full swing last week as merchants and merchant processors all rallied ‘round bitcoin! Alternet Payment solutions launched a worldwide bitcoin processing platform. CheapAir, a discount airline, has seen over $1.5 million in ticket sales via bitcoin, has expanded and will accept litecoin and dogecoin as well. A new bitcoin compliant ATM machine hit the market and 150 UK-based bitcoin investors and innovators signed a manifesto lobbying for bitcoin-friendly legislation.

  • September 4, 2014 – MIT’s Kendall Square bookstore may be the first college bookstore to accept bitcoins from students, the bitcoins are processed through BitPay.
  • September 4, 2014 – NYU law school taught their first course on bitcoin, The Law and Business of Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies
  • September 4, 2014 – Alternet Payment Solutions (APS) launched its worldwide bitcoin payment processing business, which will provide bitcoin payment methods for B2B.
  • September 4, 2014 – PayStand releases bitcoin plugin for WooCommerce that will give WordPress merchants a way to accept bitcoin, by integrating with BitPay.
  • September 4, 2014 – DigitalTangible is introducing a marketplace that will allow investors to exchange bitcoins for gold in real time.
  • September 4, 2014 – A new bitcoin ATM enters the market, CoinOutlet, which is hoping to set itself apart as the ATM is anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) compliant.
  • September 3, 2014 – CheapAir, the first airline to accept bitcoin, now accepts litecoin and dogecoin for payment.
  • September 3, 2014 – More than 150 startups and venture capitalists have backed a new manifesto outlining a number of recommendations for the UK’s FinTech industry that include bitcoin-friendly legislation.
  • September 2, 2014 – Switzerland’s University of Zurich is integrating a student-made bitcoin payments solution into one of its cafeterias as part of a two-week trial, called CoinBlesk.
  • August 31, 2014 – 5 US States, Texas, New Mexico, New Hampshire, California, and Colorado are ready to promote bitcoin-friendly regulation.

On the Dark Side …

What we lack in quantity this week, we sure made up in quality. The Apple iCloud celebrity nude photo hacker scandal involved the leaker of the photos used bitcoins to buy them. Let’s see what the FBI has to say about that. And, Charlie Shrem will plead to the charges made against him of “unlicensed money transmission”.

  • September 4, 2014 – The UK Chancellor is going to outline bitcoin measure in the 2015 budget.
  • September 4, 2014 – Kevin Landis of Firsthand Technology Value fund reported to the Wall Street Journal that he believes that bitcoin is interesting but not a good investment.
  • September 2, 2014 – Charlie Shrem will plead guilty to “unlicensed money transmission”.
  • September 1, 2014 – Rumor has it that the leaker of the wave of celebrity nude photos that seeped out Sunday of Labor Day weekend exchanged the photos for bitcoin donations via 4chan.