As former Square COO Keith Rabois launches one more “stellar” currency, Kanye West wins a lawsuit that shutters Coinye Bitcoin. Life in the land of the bitcoins and crypto-currencies is never dull.
PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price and Volatility index.
Follow 303 Cryptocurrencies here: http://coinmarketcap.com/ .
Bitcoin Tracker | Week 34
There is justice in the world. Kayne West won his lawsuit against that clever person who created the Coinye Bitcoin. Not at all related, was the ever so slight slipping of Bitcoin pricing which is still trading below $600, but barely, down to $588.02 from $596.62 on July 24th according to PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price index.
A Bitcoin ATM operator in New Zealand was forced to close its doors after banks refused to work with them. Also not related, was the news that Bitcoin has become the currency of choice of pedophiles, the details of which we have chosen not to disclose. Investments in bitcoin and bitcoin related businesses continue to grow, with almost as much funding going to bitcoin startups in Q2 2014 as in all of 2014. There are about 130 investors in the bitcoin space and many angels showing interest, which is expected to continue to grow. The latest entrant was former Square COO, Keith Rabois, who launched a “stellar” new crypto-currency which enables any one to send anyone else money in any currency over a network using “stellar” currencies. So far, we think it’s tied for best crypto-currency name (the other one being Ripple).
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 …
Alternative currencies are popping up with new, “stellar” ideas. Stellar is the name of the newest virtual currency that enables the sending and receiving of money between any user anywhere in the world. And, the use and support of Bitcoin is taking hold in countries that have great distrust in their own country’s currency and government.
- July 31, 2014 – Former Square COO and Khosla Ventures partner Keith Rabois has launched an open source non-profit named Stellar. Stellar is a decentralized protocol that lets users send and receive money between any pair of currencies with a bitcoin-like virtual currency called “stellar”.
- July 31, 2014 – Trust in virtual currencies in Vietnam is gaining as there is gradual distrust in the Vietnamese currency.
- July 31, 2014 – BitPay – a bitcoin processor, wants to reach to one million merchants by the end of 2016.
- July 31, 2014 – The government of Ecuador, which has banned bitcoin, has announced plans to create their own cryptocurrency.
- July 30, 2014 – Coinbase announced a partnership with Wikimedia Foundation so that it can accept bitcoin donations to Wikipedia (that are, of course, immediately converted to U.S. dollars.)
- July 30, 2014 – BitPay announced a new pricing plan that offers basic payment processing, free-of-charge, forever.
- July 30, 2014 – Coinbase announced that they will waive all processing fees for registered 501© non-profit organizations that are accepting bitcoin through its merchant tools.
- July 28, 2014 – Bitcoin investments in Q2 2014 see deal activity high and funding at almost the same levels as all of 2013.
- July 27, 2014 – Bitcoin is catching on in tech-savvy Romaniawhere many Romanians are still distrustful of its own currency.
On the Dark Side …
The Mt. Gox saga continues with the police department in Tokyo announcing that they will conduct a full investigation into the collapse of Mt. Gox. Europe continues to be divided and unsure of what to do with bitcoin with the Austrian government divided and the European Union’s top court debating over how to classify transactions between virtual and traditional currencies.
- July 31, 2014 – The Metropolitan Police Department of Tokyo announced that they will launch a full-scale investigation into the collapse of Mt. Gox.
- July 30, 2014 – Bitcoin currency and anonymous wire transfers are becoming the preferred payment method used by pedophiles.
- July 30, 2014 – The European Union’s top court is testing tax-free trading of bitcoins and the EU Court of Justice must decide if transactions between virtual and traditional currencies can be classified as a service and if so, whether the trades are tax-exempt.
- July 30, 2014 – While two cabinet ministers in Austria gave guidance on Bitcoin’s status as a financial instrument and tax treatment, the Federal Minister for finance and the Vice Chancellor, Michael Spindelegger, reiterated that crypto-currency is not a financial instrument.
- July 30, 2014 – New Zealand based bicorn ATM operator, Bitcoin Central, has been forced to shut their doors after local banks refused to provide financial services.
- July 29, 2014 – Coinabul is facing a class-action lawsuit after allegedly defrauding thousands of customers.
- July 29, 2014 – Despite the PR value of bitcoin in Vancover, the monetary value isn’t there, with only 60 physical merchants accepting bitcoin.
- July 28, 2014 – Kanye West won a lawsuit against the creators of Coinye Bitcoin.
