THELOGICALINDIAN - UNITED STATES
A few weeks ago, the New Hampshire House of Representatives saw a bill alien which would bulldoze the accompaniment to acquire bitcoin for the acquittal of tax bills. Last week, Utah followed clothing with a agnate bill, although this one is alone to actualize a achievability abstraction about accepting bitcoin. Like New Hampshire’s, I agnosticism that this will be anesthetized into law, but it’s still air-conditioned that governments are alike discussing the possibility.
New York Burghal administrator Mark Levine wants the burghal to alpha accepting bitcoin for the acquittal of fines and fees, too. “A Harvard alum with a BA in physics, Levine is a affiliate of the city’s finance, education, apartment and buildings, government operations, and rules committees.”
Levine spoke to Coindesk about the bill, and said the burghal currently pays several actor dollars per year in acclaim agenda fees for the payments of fines.
California Lieutenant Governor and above ambassador of San Francisco Gavin Newsom is active for Governor of The Golden State… and accepting bitcoin for political contributions. He has a big ol’ “Donate Bitcoin” button appropriate on the home folio of his attack site.
NEW STUFF
Large payments processor Stripe has clearly confused their bitcoin acquittal arrangement out of beta and made it accessible to merchants application the service. The change won’t be automatic, merchants accept to actuate it in their preferences, but this could advance to some big name companies accepting bitcoin in the approaching (here’s some examples of companies that use Stripe).
And they’re accomplishing it right, too. Legacy payments through Stripe cost the merchant 2.9% a thirty cent fee. Merchants will alone accept to pay a 0.5% fee for bitcoin transactions.
Only two months afterwards their antecedent artefact launch, accouterments wallet architect Ledger aloft a EUR 1.3 actor allotment annular this week. Read added about the fundraising, forth with Ledger’s eyes and roadmap in this blog post.
Aboriginal of its kind: Ledger additionally released a audience video of the world’s aboriginal “virtual accouterments wallet” active on a corpuscle phone.
Dell expands bitcoin payments to the UK and Canada.
HACKS, THEFTS, & SHUTDOWNS
Early bitcoin poker allowance Seals With Clubs abruptly announced their cease this week. In the announcement, they emphasized that no abstracts or user money was lost, and all users will be able to abjure funds currently captivated by the site. SWC agent Bryan Micon afterwards revealed in a video blog that the accommodation to abutting the armpit was fabricated afterwards his home was stormed by armed agents of the Nevada Gaming Board and he was placed in handcuffs, although he was answerable with no crime.
Canadian barter CAVIRTEX has also appear its closure. No funds were absent and users will be able to get their money out.
Chinese altcoin barter Bter.com lost added than 7,000 bitcoins this week. The site’s operators affirmation they were hacked, but don’t aphorism out the achievability of it actuality an central job.
Bter tweeted that they will booty whatever measures all-important to accomplish users accomplished again, up to and including affairs the site.
Two bitcoin ATMs were baseborn in Amsterdam. Newer bitcoin ATMs handle clandestine keys remotely, so one cannot abduct bitcoins by burglary the apparatus itself. The thieves were acceptable afterwards the banknote central the machines, or they afield anticipation they could abduct bitcoins from them.
Meanwhile, a bitcoin ATM abettor in Vermont accustomed a cease & abandon letter from the state’s Department of Financial Regulation.
READS
Two books I best up this week: The Age of Cryptocurrency (4.9/5 stars on Amazon) is by WSJ columnists Paul Vigna and Michael J Casey. You may bethink the aglow Saturday Essay the WSJ appear a few weeks ago… it was an acclimatized extract from this book.
And additionally The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System (4.4/5 stars on Amazon), by James Rickards, columnist of Currency Wars. Rickards’ accent may be a tad on the sensationalist side, but he makes for a acceptable devil’s apostle to boilerplate opinions such as banking institutions actuality “too big to fail,” or that the US Dollar is allowed to shock-events that accept bedeviled added currencies.
Drug Policy Alliance: Silk Road was Safer Than the Streets for Buyers/Sellers
“People use drugs. They get those drugs from addition else. In adjustment to absorb drugs, addition had to buy them, and addition had to advertise them. We don’t accept to like it, but we do accept to accede the absoluteness of it. Our absolute access to responding to that absoluteness has appropriately far been a afflictive disappointment. Silk Road was, in the best basal sense, a artefact of our bootless war on drugs—a acknowledgment to our woefully bare way of managing not alone biologic use, but additionally biologic appeal and biologic sales.”
For the miners/chip designers out there: Faster SHA-256 ASICs application Carry Reduced Adders
Some absorbing abstracts analysis of “Willybot,” a abstruse trading apprentice that absolutely purchased ample quantities of BTC on the Mt.Gox barter in the months arch up to the site’s implosion.
BITS & PIECES
This accomplished Thursday, CNN aired an hour-long adventure of Inside Man, in which Morgan Spurlock (of Supersize Me fame) attempts to alive on bitcoin for a week. He encounters a few hiccups forth the way, but the documentary is, overall, an cold attending at bitcoin: it has its faults and its uncertainties, but it additionally does what it’s declared to do absolutely well. Watch it on YouTube
CNN Money additionally added a big ol’ credible bitcoin ticker to their markets homepage. Yet addition archetype of the boilerplate media abating up to bitcoin.
The US Marshals Service is auctioning off addition 50,000 of Ross Ulbricht’s bitcoins on March 5th. After this bargain is completed, the USMS will accept 44,000 bill larboard to sell.
Last October, I helped Carnality Media shoot this abbreviate documentary on a bitcoin mining acreage in Dalian, China. They afresh appear it. Motherboard: Inside The Chinese Bitcoin Mine That’s Making $1.5 Million a Month
Princeton University is now alms an online address alternation about bitcoin and added cryptocurrencies. Here’s the aboriginal lecture, it’s about an hour long.
Version 0.10.0 of the bitcoin advertence cipher was appear this week. Notable improvements to the cipher accommodate a faster accompany time (down to ~8 hours vs. the canicule it ahead took) and activating transaction fees. More capacity on amphibian fees here.
And an all-embracing account of all the cipher changes. YouTube
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