Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin Trading – The Ultimate Guide

t the time when this guide was written, January 2014, the price of one bitcoin stood at $913, down slightly after reaching an all-time high of over $1,200 earlier in December. The new cryptocurrency came a long way from trading below $4 just two years ago. Major online and offline retailers are starting to add the new currency as a payment method. But what exactly is bitcoin?

According to a recent Bloomberg poll, only 42 percent of Americans correctly identified bitcoin as a virtual currency. Six percent thought it was an iPhone app.

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency launched in 2009 by ‘’Satoshi Nakamoto’’. Satoshi worked on the project alone for 2 years before releasing the code to the public. He disappeared shortly after creating the cryptocurrency, but before leaving he posted the now infamous quote:

‘’It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on’’
Satoshi Nakamoto, January 17th, 2009.

What’s so special about Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and a new and unique financial vehicle, unlike anything the world has ever seen. It’s called a cryptocurrency because it uses cryptography to control the creation and transfer of money. Despite the name, there is no physical coin to speak of, Bitcoin is a completely electronic form of money.

Bitcoin solves the so called ‘’double spending problem’’ present with digital goods. For example, if I have an mp3 file or an ebook on my computer, I can freely copy that file a thousand times and send it to a thousand different people. For a digital currency, the possibility for unlimited copying would mean a quick hyperinflationary death. Bitcoin solves this by maintaining a peer to peer network and recording each transaction in a public ledger called the block chain. Say I send 1 bitcoin from my bitcoin address to my friend John. The bitcoin network records that transaction in the block chain and I no longer have possession of that bitcoin. The coin ‘’moved’’ from my bitcoin wallet to John’s wallet.

What’s so special about Bitcoin? There are many arguments on whether the new virtual currency will succeed or fail. We will not get into this nor discuss the politics behind the project. Our concern is strictly with the profit opportunities provided by this new payment phenomenon. In the next few pages on the new digital currency we will outline our thoughts from the perspective of a trader and a potential investor in this upcoming market.
Bitcoin Basics

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer virtual currency. This means that in order for a transaction to occur, no middle men or central authority is needed. You can send any amount of bitcoins to anyone living anywhere in the world, completely eliminating the need for traditional third parties like banks or money transmitters. The cryptocurrency also allows the bypassing of capital and AML restrictions.

In order to send or receive bitcoins, all you need to have is a bitcoin address and internet access. You only need to be online long enough for the transaction to process. Similarly to traditional bank accounts, you can receive bitcoins to your bitcoin address even if you’re offline. When you want to ‘’collect’’ your coins however, you’ll have to find an internet connection.

How to get a bitcoin address

Like we mentioned previously, in order to send or receive bitcoins you will need to have a bitcoin address. You can get a bitcoin address either by downloading the bitcoin client or by getting an online wallet. The two most popular btc clients are Bitcoin-qt and Multibit. The main difference between these two clients is in the size of the block chain that needs to be downloaded. If you decide to go with Bitcoin-qt, have at least 10 Gigabytes free space on your hard drive for the block chain. As Bitcoin-qt is the ‘’official’’ bitcoin client, if you can spare 10 GB, go for this option. Here’s a page that has step by step instructions on installing Bitcoin-qt.

Multibit is a lightweight version of the bitcoin client. You can read more about it here.

Where are my bitcoins stored?

But where are the bitcoins actually stored? After you install one of the two clients above, you can find your bitcoins in a file called wallet.dat. If you use windows this file will be located in the application data section. If your computer gets stolen or lost and you haven’t made a copy of the wallet.dat file you will lose your bitcoins. It is always recommend to backup this file.

The bitcoins can also be stored in online wallets. There are specialized websites that offer bitcoin wallet services. However due to these sites being a frequent target for hackers, keeping bitcoins in online wallets is not recommended when you can easily store them offline on your computer. Wallets can be useful for storing small sums of bitcoins so that you can make quick online purchases. Some of the more popular wallet services are Blockchain and CoinKite.

Btc exchanges are a somewhat safer place for your bitcoins compared to online wallets because they keep most coins in what is known as ”cold storage”. Usually over 90% of the bitcoins deposited on an exchange are kept offline. A small 5 to 10% reserve is kept onsite for immediate redemption purposes. There are plenty of guides online on how to store/secure bitcoins, go over them. It’s always safer to take care of this process yourself then to trust a third party with a substantial amount of bitcoins.

Bitcoin Advantages

Bitcoin has several advantages compared to traditional money transmitting services. We already mentioned two of these above, the elimination of the need for third parties and the bypassing of restrictions.

Another major plus of the new cryptocurrency is the very low cost for sending and receiving bitcoins. While it is possible to send transactions completely free of charge, it is recommended to pay the small fee in order to speed up the sending process.

The fee amount depends on the data size of the transaction. A typical transaction is 500 bytes and carries a fee of 0.0001 BTC. At current prices of $913 per bitcoin, this amounts to a charge of 9.13 cents.

Because the fee is completely dependent on a transaction’s data size and not on the number of bitcoins being sent, a $10 transfer will carry the same fee as a $10 Million transfer. The fee will take a 0.913% piece of a $10 transfer but that same fee will only take 0.000000913% of a 10 Million transfer.

Bitcoin offers benefits to merchants as well, as transactions that involve the digital currency are secure and irreversible. Without the risk of fraud or fraudulent chargebacks, merchants can offer their products at a discount thereby generating more sales or pocket the difference themselves. In addition, with card processors out of the picture, merchants can save on the percentage cut taken by Visa / MasterCard.

AVG Technologies Hosting Cryptocurrency Meet-Up this Wednesday

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Litecoin | Mar 24, 2014 12:16PM GMT


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AVG Technologies, the world’s most renowned mobile security, PC optimization, Internet security and privacy software provider, is now taking a special interest in Bitcoin and other related cryptocurrencies, owing to the recent security threats the latter has faced.

The online security professionals have consequently announced a Cryptocurrency Meet-Up at their San Francisco office this Wednesday, in which they will discuss various security challenges faced by virtual currencies today. AVG has invited anyone who is interested in cryptocurrencies and blockchain protocols in general.

The company throws-in an instance to make its point, explaining how everyone thinks of keeping their Bitcoins, Litecoins and other digital currencies is safe and secure offline wallets. “With the advent of Bitcoin 1.5 and multi-signature systems, this concern becomes more manageable for the mass market,” writes AVG Chief Strategy Office Todd Simpson while explaining how people use multiple keys – a total of two or three – to detect any suspicious behavior in their transactions, and ensuring endpoint security as the cryptocurrencies continues to evolve.

“Regardless of the exact evolution of cryptocurrencies over the next few years, AVG has a part to play. By protecting endpoints, and giving users more confidence in transacting, we can play an active role in this space,” adds Todd.

Meanwhile, he also discusses about a new open source project called Ethereum in particular. As per the reports, it will going to be the major attraction of the meet-up. The writer also gives a teasing hint about Ethereum for those cryptocurrency enthusiasts who are still unaware of its forthcoming role in securing digital currency transactions.

The Ethereum project has also been revealed at the recent Bitcoin Conference 2014 in Miami.



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Buying Your First Bitcoin

But how can you actually get a hold of a bitcoin? The easiest way to acquire bitcoins is to buy them at an online exchange. There are three major bitcoin exchanges, each of them with their own unique properties and a different fee structure.

Bitstamp.net

If you’re European, Bitstamp is your best bet to get some bitcoins at a low cost. The company is based in Slovenia, part of the EU. Deposits by SEPA are free, withdrawals are charged a fixed 0.90€ fee once the funds are converted to Euros. Because Bitstamp only offers trading in BTC/USD (Bitcoin versus the US Dollar) all Euro transfers are immediately converted to Dollars. If you want to withdraw by SEPA, you have to convert your funds back to Euros.

The fee structure favours big traders and market makers. The basic fee for new accounts starts at 0.5% and goes all the way down to 0.2% if you trade over $150,000 in one month.

Yes forex traders, you heard that right, the LOWEST fee structure is 0.2 percent. The 0.2% charge is per side, so you will get hit with this fee whenever you buy or sell bitcoins.

Luckily, the spread between the bid and the ask price is very low, most of the time ranging between 1 and 2 dollars. At a current bitcoin rate of $819, this amounts to an added cost of 0.1 to 0.25%. You only pay the spread if you want to enter a trade right away with a market order. If you placed a limit order to buy and you’re willing to wait until someone wants to sell, you can purchase your bitcoins at a small discount at the bid and later sell them at the ask, pocketing the spread in the process.

Bitstamp has largely avoided the deposit and withdrawal problems that plague many bitcoin exchanges. With a lack of regulation on the upcoming virtual currency and its checkered past, many financial institutions remain reluctant to get involved with processing bitcoin related transactions. You can deposit funds in USD, EUR, GBP and CHF. US clients are accepted.

Coinbase.com

Coinbase is probably the easiest and safest way to purchase bitcoins in the U.S. Unlike BitStamp, Coinbase is not an exchange. They act as a counter-party to all customer trades, you buy or sell your bitcoins directly to Coinbase. The buy/sell fee is 1% on top of the buy/sell spread. The bid/ask is usually close to BitStamp where the firm gets its liquidity from. For example, the current bid is at $635.48 and the current ask is $638.07. In addition to this, the firm has daily limits on the amount of bitcoins bought/sold. These limits are not applied on the individual level. Basically Coinbase has a set amount of bitcoins that it is willing to buy or sell every day. During times or high volatility, users may not be able to buy/sell bitcoins until Coinbase decides to ‘’refill’’ their stock. Here’s a good explanation on this issue from their Customer Support:

‘’The limit you’re seeing is Coinbase’s daily limit being reached, not your personal limit. Sometimes the Coinbase site itself will run into a daily rolling limit on purchases or sales if there is an exceptional amount of activity in the bitcoin markets. We put up this temporary pause to make sure that we have enough funds to accommodate the transfer orders being created. This should be a rare exception rather than the general rule however. There is no specific time of the day where this limit starts – it’s on a 24 hour rolling basis. It might be best to check in at 6am or 7am Eastern Standard Time tomorrow. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you – we know this can be frustrating. This is something we’re working on as we speak.’’

Coinbase claims that over 97% of all customer funds are stored offline in bank vaults to prevent theft or loss. If you live in the States, you can easily link your bank account to Coinbase to facilitate quick and easy bank transfers.

BTC-E.com

If you’re a forex trader, BTC-E is probably the easiest exchange to get into. The company offers its own MetaTrader platform. The instrument comes with a leverage of 3 to 1 and the ability to short bitcoin. Shorting is not an option at Bitstamp. You can still sell any bitcoins you already own at these exchanges but you won’t be able to short bitcoin outright.

The fees on MetaTrader are slightly higher, 0.3% per side compared to 0.2% if you used btc-e’s web interface. If you’re a forex trader btc-e might strike you as the best option of the three. But alas, nothing is as straightforward in bitcoin world.

No one knows who the real owners behind btc-e are. Apparently the headquarters of the company are in Bulgaria and the support staff is more familiar with Russian then with English, but the rest is a mystery. The company operates a complicated deposit and withdrawal process that relays the money through several banks and payment processors before depositing them to your account. If you plan to deposit on BTC-E, make sure to follow their deposit instructions to the letter. Because the deposits go through a web of banks, tracking down a lost deposit is near to impossible.

On the plus side, the company does offer deposit and withdrawal by several popular e-wallets like Webmoney, PerfectMoney, Ukash and Paypal (withdrawal only $500 minimum). According to user reviews, deposits and withdrawal by these methods are a lot faster and smoother compared to bank wires.

BTC-E does accept US clients. However, starting from the middle of December 2013, the company stopped processing US dollar wires or any wires connected to a US bank. Here is an email reply to a customer’s question on this: ‘’We don’t accept international wire transfers from US Citizens or from US Banks. All transfers from US Citizens or US Bank will be refused by bank.’’
Other ways to purchase bitcoins

Aside from the exchanges, you can also buy bitcoins on ebay and similar auction sites. Keep in mind that due to the possibility for chargebacks and fraud, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies trade at a premium on ebay. Face to face meetups are another option to acquire bitcoins. Checklocalbitcoins.com for bitcoin sellers and buyers near your area. Always exercise caution when doing an offline exchange. Meet during the daytime and in places with a lot of people around. If possible, bring a friend.

We’ll leave the choice of where to buy your first bitcoin up to you, we hope that our presentation relayed enough information to help you make an informed decision. It all depends on your needs and requirements. Some exchanges are better for trading, others have superior banking relations with bankwire deposit and withdrawal options.

Leveraged Bitcoin Trading

In this section we’ll go over several options for trading bitcoin on margin. We’ll also outline the options to short the virtual currency. Before we go any further, a caution is in order. Bitcoin prices are highly volatile. Prices rose from a low of 195.50 on November 1st to a high of 1,090 by November 30th 2013. From here, the btc price crashed to a low of 420 on December 18th, only to go back up and retest the 1,000 level in January of this year. One bitcoin is currently worth 825.88 on btc-e. The chart below demonstrates this volatility.

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Unlike major forex currency pairs which barely move 1 percent per day, bitcoin prices can rise or fall over 30 percent in a single day. If you know how to trade, you don’t really need any leverage to make money with bitcoin. With that caution out of the way, let’s get down to business and go over some of the options for leveraged btc trading.
We already wrote about one of the more competitive options for shorting bitcoin and leveraged trading, BTC-E. The Bulgarian exchange offers the popular MetaTrader platform with 3 to 1 leverage, shorting capability and a low fee of 0.3 percent per side.

AVA Trade

AVA Trade is a forex broker that offers bitcoin trading through a CFD. Two bitcoin CFDs are available, Bitcoin Mini and Bitcoin Weekly. The Bitcoin Weekly CFD has a 20 to 1 leverage and expires every Friday at 21:00 GMT. The Bitcoin Mini only has a 2 to 1 leverage but doesn’t expire. Both contracts are using data from BTC-E and AVA Trade adds around 10$ premium on top of the exchange spread. You can find more about the bitcoin trading conditions here. Here’s a snapshot of AvaTrade’s MT4.

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A major flaw of both contracts is the inability to trade them during the weekend. Bitcoin trading is completely decentralized and doesn’t rely on a network of banks for executing trades thus there is no set open and closing time. Unlike forex which trades 24/5, bitcoin trades 24/7 (except on AvaTrade). As can be seen on the chart, large gaps are frequent on AVA Trade’s Bitcoin CFD due to this policy. AvaTrade does not accept US clients at this time.

Etoro.com

Etoro.com is one of the latest forex brokers to offer bitcoin trading. Unfortunately, the product is not very suitable for day trading as you can only enter and exit the market four times per day. It uses the BitStamp’s data feed as a price reference. You can read more about Etoro’s bitcoin offer here. Here’s a snapshot of their bitcoin CFD in action:

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Unfortunately despite having a dedicated US part of the site (link toeToro - USA) , eToro doesn’t seem to accept US clients at this time. Here’s a part of the Q&A section that deals with this question: ‘’As part of our ongoing optimization process currently underway in the US, we have temporarily suspended our service. Therefore, at this time we will not be accepting new clients or funds from existing US customers. While you’re here, you are welcome to continue experiencing eToro through our practice mode, which will stay available and free to all.’’’

Btc.sx

Btc.sx offers a 10 to 1 leveraged product based on BitStamp’s data feed. Similarly to Ava Trade, Btc.sx adds around 10$ to the spread at BitStamp. You will need a deposit of at least 0.01033 of a bitcoin in order to trade at Btc.sx. At current bitcoin prices of $638, this amounts to around 6.3$. Btc.sx is dually incorporated in England and Singapore. The exchange currently accepts only bitcoin deposits, no fiat currency deposits are allowed.


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The pic above shows a bitcoin long position. Btc.sx has several restrictions that make trading with leverage problematic. The exchange doesn’t support moving the stoploss after entry. When contacted about this, their support team told us that ‘’this feature will be implemented in the next few months’’. Our question is why isn’t it already implemented?

As you can see on the picture, you can only set the stoploss as a distance from the current price (in the pic this is set as 50 points). The default is 88 points below entry. This is exactly where my stop was, 88 points below 935 at 847. There is a trailing stoploss option but despite my best efforts, I couldn’t make it work. So essentially, once you set your stoploss on Btc.sx, you’re stuck with it.
The high rollover cost also makes leveraged trading at Btc.sx problematic. The currency rollover cost for my position was 0.0094 of a bitcoin, that’s 8.8 US Dollars, far too high for a 1,000 usd position in my opinion. Because the company only allows deposits and withdrawals in bitcoin, it has largely avoided the US Dollar deposit/withdrawal issues encountered by other btc exchanges. Btc.sx does allow US clients.

Bitcoin Options

Besides CFDs, the new cryptocurrency has also helped spawn a new options market. Currently several companies are in the business of offering Bitcoin options. Anyoption.com is one of the more established option houses that offers trading in the virtual currency. You can bet on rising or falling bitcoin prices. Anyoption.com is not an option for US clients, the company doesn’t accept USA traders at the moment. Here are some of the current btc options on offer.


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Predictious

Predictious.com is a betting websites that matches buyers and sellers and doesn’t price the options themselves. Besides betting on bitcoin’s demise or rally, you can also try to predict the next winner of the Oscars or bet on which party win control the US Senate after the 2014 elections. Currently the site takes bitcoin deposits only. Predictious does accept US clients.


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What Drives Bitcoin Prices?

Regulation

Regulation and other actions by government entities has one of the biggest impacts on the price of bitcoin. The US and Chinese governments are the ones to watch. Somewhat favorable comments by US lawmakers in November and December of last year underpinned the bitcoin rally.
At a Senate committee hearing last month a Justice Department official said that ‘’bitcoins can be a legal means of exchange’’. The new cryptocurrency can be exploited by ‘’malicious actors’’ and should be subject to ‘’rules to protect people’’, the agency added.
Increased bitcoin purchases from China and the adoption of the currency by Chinese online businesses were another driver that helped push the BTC/USD price from 195.5 at the start of November to a high of $1090 30 days later. Baidu, the biggest Chinese search engine started to offer payments in bitcoin. The chart below shows the remarkable November rally.

November rally

The silence of the Chinese authorities was seen as a subtle acceptance signal by market participants. The situation didn’t last long however. On December 7th, The People’s Bank of China barred financial institutions from buying or selling virtual currency or Bitcoin related products. The Bank also demanded that businesses stop with the practice of pricing their products in Bitcoins. BTC/USD opened the day at $906.50 on BTC-E. After the news hit the wires, bitcoin prices crashed from to a low of $551 in only 9 hours, a fall of 39%.


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December 7th is marked with a yellow rectangle on the chart above. After a small dead cat bounce to $970 in the next few days, bitcoin prices resumed their decline. BTC/USD marked an interim low of $420 US dollars for one bitcoin on December 18th.

Increased Adoption and an Expanding Marketplace

At the start of 2012, one bitcoin was worth exactly $4.72. One year later a piece of the new currency could buy you a book on amazon ($13.51). On January 1st 2014, buying a single bitcoin would set you back $806.
With the 2008 financial crisis still fresh in people’s minds, most wrote off Bitcoin’s rising price as just another ‘’bubble’’. But what a lot of people failed to grasp is why the price is going up. While speculation and betting on higher prices certainly played their part in the process, a major reason behind the gains is very simple, increased adoption of the cryptocurrency.
According to BitPay, a Bitcoin Payment Service Provider, as of November 2013 there are over 14,000 merchants currently accepting bitcoins. Two years ago this number stood at few hundred. The number of transactions facilitated by Bitpay increased tenfold in 2014 and crossed the 50,000 mark in November. The payment processor said that 6,296 bitcoin transactions occurred on Black Friday last year, up from only 99 transactions the year prior.
Some of the notable adopters as of late include Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. You can now buy a private flight into space with your bitcoins. Zynga, the facebook games platform, offered the bitcoin payment option to players in “FarmVille 2”, “CastleVille” and other games. Major adult websites are also starting to accept the new currency as a means for payment.
All of these developments point to one thing. The Bitcoin marketplace is expanding at an astounding rate of growth. The businesses and individuals that embrace this new phenomenon will have a leg up over their competition going forward.

Usage in outlawed activities

The third biggest fundamental driver of bitcoin prices is the increased (or decreased) usage in activities outlawed by governments. Bitcoin’s pseudo anonymity has facilitated dealings in anything from the purchase of contraband like illegal drugs or weapons to bypassing capital and investment restrictions and tax avoidance. Government crackdown on these activities tends to suppress the price of bitcoin.

A notable example of this was FBI’s shutdown of the ‘’Silk Road’’ marketplace. The website had over 10,000 products for sale, 70% of which were drugs that are illegal in most countries. Around 340 different varieties of drugs were offered on the site. The site functioned as an ‘’Ebay for drugs’’, connecting buyers with sellers and not doing any dealing themselves.

The FBI shut down Silk Road on 2 October 2013. The alleged chief operator of the site, Ross William Ulbricht (also known as Dread Pirate Roberts) was charged with alleged murder for hire and narcotics trafficking violation. The agency confiscated over 26,000 bitcoins from different accounts on Silk Road, worth approximately 3.6 million US Dollars back then. Twenty days later, the FBI reported that they had seized 144,000 BTC thought to belong to Ulbricht.


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The chart above shows the bitcoin market’s reaction to the website’s shutdown and the subsequent btc confiscation. Bitcoin prices plummeted from 123.95 to a low of 75.20 on the news. The market didn’t take long to recover however as most took the plunge as an opportunity to buy some cheap bitcoins. Prices were back to 118 two days later.

The second yellow rectangle on the charts marks the FBI’s announcement of the large btc confiscation. The prospect of an US law enforcement agency holding a large chunk of bitcoins spooked markets. The BTC/USD took a dive from 195.20 to a low of 152.49 on the news. But as can be seen on the chart, the spike lower was again used by investors to gabble up coins at a bargain.

It is interesting to note that a major bitcoin rally started right after the Silk Road shutdown, somewhat dispelling critics arguments that the virtual currency was mainly used as a tool for facilitating drug trafficking. In the months following the site’s closure, several major online and offline businesses started accepting bitcoins. These include major US retailers like Overstock.com and Tiger Direct. The CEO of Overstock.com reported that the company logged more than 800 purchases using Bitcoin on the first day they started offering the new payment solution, totalling $130,000. The company estimates that Bitcoin buyers have made $500,000 in purchases in the first 14 days since the new payment option was offered.

But what about the supply side?

Traders with experience in other commodity markets are probably asking themselves why the supply topic is placed last in an article that goes over the drivers of bitcoin prices. The reason is because when it comes to bitcoin, the supply doesn’t have much of an impact on the price. This is because the supply is constant and known beforehand and SHOULD therefore be already priced in. Situations like finding a huge oil field that significantly depresses oil prices is not possible with bitcoin. Let me explain.

The supply of bitcoins grows by the process called “mining” bitcoins. The supply is expected to increase by 10% in 2014 after going up 11.11% last year. The rate of block creation is 6 per hour with each block worth 25 bitcoins (around 25k USD). If more mining power goes online and the block generation increases to 7 blocks per hour for example, the so called “mining difficulty” will go up until the 6 blocks per hour average is reaffirmed. On the other hand if miners generate less coins then the difficulty will go down making it easier to generate new coins. You can read more about the supply of bitcoins here.

Wall Street Bitcoin Forecasts

With the mark of drug trafficking of the record, the new cryptocurrency was also starting to attract the attention of Wall Street. Wedbush Securities, a little known analyst firm put a forecast of around $98,500 on the price of one bitcoin. The analysts expect bitcoin to rise by 10 to 100 times its current value as the new technology partly replaces traditional payment processors and money transmitters. Bank of America Merrill Lynch wasn’t as optimistic in its forecasts. The Bank’s analysts predict a maximum ‘’fair’’ estimate of bitcoin of $1,300.

The Winklevoss twins told CNBC that a $400 Billion market cap for BTC would be a “small bull case scenario’’. With around 12 Million bitcoins currently in circulation, to reach that market cap one bitcoin has to be worth a fantastic $40,000. The brothers are major investors in bitcoin after getting rich from an early investment in Facebook.

The largest potential for ‘’disruption’’ to the current status quo lies in taking a chunk out of the payment processors market. Visa and MasterCard are estimated to take a 2 to 3 percent cut of every card transaction. By using bitcoin instead, merchants stand to improve their bottom line by at least 2 percent. In addition, because bitcoin transactions are irreversible, there is no possibility for chargebacks and fraud. This reduces the costs of operation by another several percentage points.

Another area ‘’ripe’’ for disruption is the money transfer market. The market is currently dominated by large players like Western Union and MoneyGram, WU for example can earn upwards of 10 percent per transaction on international remittances. By comparison, a bitcoin transaction shouldn’t cost more than 5 percent even after accounting for all exchange and bank wire fees for both the buyer and the seller on each side of the remittance. If no fiat currency is involved, sending and receiving bitcoins is almost free and costs 0.0001 btc regardless of the amount. This is around 9 cents at current btc prices.

Additional Bitcoin Resources

There are plenty of resources online where you can learn more about bitcoin and its unique properties. Here are some of the major websites that can help you speed up the learning process.

Weusecoins.com Provides simple instructions for setting up your first bitcoin wallet and purchasing bitcoins.

The Bitcoin Wiki. Plenty of articles on any bitcoin related topic that range from securing your wallet, dealing with scams, mining bitcoins, to a list of online and offline businesses that accept the new currency.

Bitcointalk.org The main bitcoin forum. Use it only after you’ve got the basics down by following the previous two links. Use this resource to ask questions about more advanced topics.

Bitcoincharts is the most popular website for following the current bitcoin price. The site provides a rundown of all major btc exchanges by volume. You can also arrange the markets to only display the Euro or the Japanese Yen versus bitcoin on the different exchanges. Like the name says, the website also offers charts with several popular technical indicators. The choice of timeframes ranges from 1 minute all the way to the Weekly TF. Plus, you get to see the current market depth at the different exchanges.

Bitcoinity.org Another popular charting resource, very similar to Bitcoincharts. Recently switched to mBTC pricing, 1 mBTC = 0.001 BTC. They still offer the option to display prices in BTC instead.

CoinDesk.com Coindesk provides daily news on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

DC Magnates focuses on news about different digital currencies including bitcoin. It was launched by the same team from Forex Magnates, a popular forex industry news website that many of our forex readers are probably familiar with.

Places to spend your bitcoins

The following three sites provide an interactive map of bitcoin merchants near your area.

• http://bitcoin.travel/
• BitcoinMaps · World Map of Bitcoin Economy
• CoinMap

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade Provides a long list of bitcoin merchants. The wiki page showcases different categories of businesses. You can find anything from major retailers like Overstock and Target to forex brokers accepting bitcoin deposits and bitcoin specific stock and options markets.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Games Bitcoin’s pseudo anonymity helped trigger a revival in the games of chance industry. This wiki page provides a selection of places where you can gamble away your bitcoins. Includes card games, dice rolls, poker sites and online casinos.

Bitcoinstore.com One of the first websites to offer bitcoin purchases.

Gyft.com By using bitcoins to buy gift cards from Gyft.com you can get 3% back. The selection of gift cards incudes major retailers like Amazon, GameStop, Target, Wholefoods and a lot more.

Another Litecoin-Based National Cryptocurrency Hits the Market; Schedules an Airdrop

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Cryptocurrency News, Litecoin | Mar 26, 2014 12:48PM GMT



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Cryptocurrencies meets patriotism again! After the much hyped Auroracoin raising the siren against Iceland government, for their impotency in handling the nation’s economy, there is now another currency which is born out of the iniquitousness of its country’s lawmakers. Meet Aphroditecoins, a new and conceptually-outdated digital currency of Cyprus.

Though, one can easily figure out that how Aphroditecoins is heavily inspired from Spain’s digital currency Spaincoin, which is further heavily inspired from Iceland’s Auroracoin – the originator of financial patriotism. Likewise Auroracoin creator, who had announced to distribute the 31.8 coins to each Icelander (and is currently distributing too), Aphroditecoin creators have also made a similar announcement to distribute 25.4 coins to each Cyprus citizen from April 21st 2014.

But country-based cryptocurrency has its story behind inception, quite like Bruce Wayne, whose reason to create Batman was to clean Gotham from the wrath of criminals. The superhero cum digital currency Aphroditecoin is also formed to break the shackles of a fiat currency, a “legalized criminalization” if one tries to quote it. The creator of the currency recites their version of Cyprus government’s unethicalness, by referring the latter’s decision of taking 10% savings of every Cypriot to solve the nation’s bankruptcy problem. Excerpt:

“Cypriot economy is slowly bleeding. The people of Cyprus are being sacrificed at the altar of a flawed financial system, controlled by an elite that made astronomical bets supported by the government on behalf of the people and ultimately at the expense of the people.”

Furthermore, the Aphroditecoin creators quotes many examples that justifies the nation’s need of having a democratic and unregulated cryptocurrency. It then raises the question of an individual’s liberty and free will.
“The power must be taken away from the politicians and given back to the people. Cryptocurrencies are a very important milestone in this fight for liberty. They bring the hope of a new era of free currencies, immune to the meddling of politicians and their cronies,” says an excerpt from Aphroditecoin.org.

Aphroditecoin: Nationalism or Gimmick?

It would be tough to predict the Aphroditecoin’s real intentions behind the airdrop, that whether it is to free people from outdated financial bonds, or just to create enough marketing hype to set a benchmark. We will keep you updated with the every latest information our network detects. Meanwhile, let us just welcome the new cryptocurrency to the highly populated digital currency sector.

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Bitcoin Falls $70 as Chinese Banks Ordered to Stop BTC Deposits

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Bitcoin prices tumbled by more than $70 today as the PBOC ordered Chinese banks to halt deposits to 15 bitcoin exchanges based in the country. The new rules are adding to previous restrictions imposed by the Central Bank. Previously, Chinese exchanges were getting around the PBOC deposit ban by using the personal account of their CEO. In addition, most Chinese exchanges implemented a roundabout voucher system. The new order aims to put an end to the loopholes.

Bobby Lee, chief executive officer of BTC China, told Bloomberg: ‘’I’m aware of the rumors circulating on the topic. I haven’t heard of anything else to confirm that. We are still waiting to see what happens.’’

While the order hasn’t been made official yet, several reputable Chinese news outlets have already published a snapshot of the new rules and the future doesn’t look bright for the virtual currency in China. China’s central bank has ordered banks and payment companies to close the accounts of the btc exchanges by April 15th, China financial news site Caixin said, citing a notice sent to banks earlier this month.

Bitcoin plunged over $70 in just a few hours on the news. BTC/USD fell from $582.70 to a low of 509.90 on BTC-E. One bitcoin is currently quoted at $523.10 on the exchange, btc prices are slightly higher on BitStamp at $525.

Bitcoin Tumbles on Rumors of PBOC’s Order for Accounts Shutdown

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | Mar 27, 2014 10:33PM GMT


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Bitcoin prices plummeted nearly 10 percent on Thursday as news filtered in that China’s central bank had issued a directive to the local banks to stop dealing with businesses that transact using the virtual currency.

The Bitcoin was trading at $535.10, a drop of 7.77 percent from the Wednesday’s closing amount, according to CoinDesk.* This was triggered by media reports that the People’s Bank of China had mailed banks directing them to shut down the accounts of 15 Bitcoin traders by April 15. The digital currency hit an intraday low of $514.24 today.

“I’m aware of the rumors circulating on the topic,” Bobby Lee, chief executive of BTC China, a leading bitcoin exchange in China, told Bloomberg. “I haven’t heard of anything else to confirm that. We are still waiting to see what happens.”

BTC China was quoting the Bitcoin at 3,053.98 yuan, down 14.1 percent, reported Wall Street Journal. Yuan is the second most traded currency against the Bitcoin in terms of volumes after the dollar.

While the PBOC circular couldn’t be confirmed independently, some reputable Chinese media such as online business news site Caixin verified the story as a fact.

When asked whether customers will no longer be able to send funds to BTC China from their bank accounts directly, Lee cautiously agreed. However, he said one option for customers would be to make direct deposits with cash.

"If the rumor turns out to be true, that's what's going to happen. At this time it's too early for me to elaborate on what steps we will take," said Mr. Lee. "We will take it one day at time."
Under PBOC rules, the directive may never be disclosed publicly, though banks will enforce it.

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Auroracoin: After Airdrop, Its Value Drops

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Cryptocurrency News, Litecoin | Mar 28, 2014 12:47PM GMT


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The number of Icelanders claiming Auroracoin is somehow inversely proportional to the coin’s value. It has been now three days since the inception of Iceland’s first national cryptocurrency’s Airdrop, but not a single instance has shown its value’s escalation, considering its day-wise performance.

If the reports of last 24 hours are taken into consideration, Auroracoin value has dropped around 40% - currently surviving at a mere $5.03. A day before the Airdrop, the coin was valued around $13, which means it has fallen up to 65% since the event, and is showing no signs to recover.

As per now, over 6% of the total population has claimed their slack of 31.8 Auroracoins. Speculations are that citizens, owing to their lack of knowledge about cryptocurrencies, are shorting Auroracoins the moment they are receiving it. This has also affected the currency’s overall market cap, which was hanging yesterday at around $77m, but has fallen miserably within 24 hours to over $54m.

Meanwhile, Auroracoin creator Baldur Friggjar Óðinsson has shown no worries regarding the future of the currencies, saying that “fluctuation has nothing to do with the viability of Auroracoin.”
Experts however do not seem to agree with Baldur. Two days ago at CoinSummit San Francisco, popular altcoin exchange Cryptsy CEO Paul Vernon made a remark at the Icelanders’ knowledge of the use of cryptocurrencies. “It’s just market driven,” said Paul keeping Auroracoin in context. “The fact that there is a drop is because people are getting rid of the coins.” Paul’s observation was favored by Litecoin developer Charles Lee, and Dogecoin founder Jackson Palmer.


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After famed dealmaker Warren Buffett warned investors to stay away from Bitcoin, calling it "a mirage," venture capitalist (and Bitcoin investor) Marc Andreessen called him an "old white man crapping on new technology he doesn't understand."

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Legendary investor Warren Buffett and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen debate the merits of Bitcoin. Earlier this month, famed dealmaker

Warren Buffett warned investors to stay away from Bitcoin, calling it “a mirage,” saying that, while it may be a better way of transmitting money, the “idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke.” While interviewing Bitcoin investor Marc Andreessen at a CoinSummit “fireside chat” (minus the fire) Tuesday, I asked him to respond to Buffett. He supplied the missing flames.

“The historical track record of old white men crapping on new technology they don’t understand is at, I think, 100%,” said venture capitalist (and younger white man) Marc Andreessen. Fellow Andreessen Horowitz partner Balaji Srinivasan quipped that Bitcoin has outperformed Buffett’s “Berkshire Hathaway by a lot in the last year.” (42 minute mark)

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Andreessen’s “skewering” of Buffett has gotten lots of news coverage, but the answers were actually rather glib. Lots of burn, but not much kindle. So I followed up with Andreessen, whose firm has made Bitcoin plays including a $25 million investment in Bitcoin wallet and merchant processing service Coinbase, for a more substantive response to Buffett’s Bitcoin criticism. Here’s Buffett’s full Bitcoin takedown:

“Stay away. Bitcoin is a mirage. It’s a method of transmitting money. It’s a very effective way of transmitting money and you can do it anonymously and all that. A check is a way of transmitting money, too. Are checks worth a whole lot of money just because they can transmit money? Are money orders? You can transmit money by money orders. People do it. I hope bitcoin becomes a better way of doing it, but you can replicate it a bunch of different ways and it will be. The idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke in my view.”

Buffett says Bitcoin is a very fast anonymous money order. Companies that send money orders make money off of them, so investing in the companies that control the money orders makes sense (the Coinbases and Bitpays of the world) but the money orders themselves (i.e. Bitcoins) aren’t worth buying as an investment. That’s a valid critique. During our chat, Andreessen and Srinivasan said Bitcoin is the “next Internet.” People often compare it to Internet protocols that enabled the development of email and the World Wide Web as we know it. But protocols and the “Internet” don’t make money; the valuable systems built on top of them do. Buffett is essentially saying Bitcoin is a protocol like TCP/IP that isn’t a money maker, and is encouraging investors not to drop $600 bucks/coin (even if unlike TCP/IP, the supply of Bitcoin is limited).

“This is a standard trope of technology criticism by people who don’t understand technology,” says Andreessen by email. “‘Yes, sure, it’s great technology, but it won’t be useful or valuable in the way that those crazy nerds think it will be useful or valuable.’ I’ve heard it my whole life applied to every new important technology. It’s fake sophistication — it sounds nuanced but it’s not.”

Andreesen says the argument “completely misses the logic flow of how Bitcoin works.” When I suggested that the actual value of “a bitcoin” is arbitrary, and that more important than the value is the fact that it’s fluid, and easily converted to “real money,” he objected.

“A value of a BTC is not arbitrary, in fact it’s the opposite of arbitrary,” he says. “It equals the value of a single slot in a finite sized public cryptographic ledger through which value can move. The total Bitcoin ledger has value corresponding to the volume and velocity of transactions that will run through it in the future; by extension, each slot in the ledger has fractional value determined by the total number of slots (which, in Bitcoin’s case, are limited to 11 million today and 21 million ever).”

“So saying what Warren is saying is like saying ‘a car is great technology but it’ll never actually get anyone from point A to point B,” he continued. “Bitcoin is great technology BECAUSE it lets people get value from point A to point B through the public ledger; that functional use creates the value of the ledger, and a single BTC has a corresponding fractional value of the ledger.”

To belabor the car analogy, isn’t Bitcoin more like a taxi than a car one owns? The value is in giving money a ride from one place to another. Those in the taxi don’t care what the taxi’s worth, just how much the ride will cost, i.e. what the Bitcoin transaction fees would be. So why does the value of the Bitcoin taxi matter, and why should people invest in it assuming it will go up? In fact, it seems problematic if you care about the value of the taxi (or the Bitcoin), because then you might not want to drive it/use it, assuming it’s going to get more valuable. That means fewer slots on the ledger that can be used for value transfer — the whole point of Bitcoin.

Andreessen then broke out economic theory, saying that the velocity of money will overcome the effect of Bitcoin hoarders, and that hoarders will essentially lead to more valuable Bitcoin.

“The market cap of the ledger needs to be high enough to accommodate all of the value that wants to PASS THROUGH it in any period of time (volume & velocity of value passing through),” Andreessen wrote. “So then, the intrinsic value of a BTC is emergent from the functional value of the ledger as a way to exchange value (or, more accurately, emergent from the collective forecast of the future volume & velocity of value that will pass through the ledger).”

This of course assumes that lots of people settle on using Bitcoin as their cryptocurrency of choice, rather than one of the alt-coins out there or a cryptocurrency without a limit on coins created. And it requires lots of systems dependent on Bitcoin, to up the amount of value that wants to pass through.

So Buffett and Andreessen’s disagreement will remain unresolved. Only a time traveler could declare the victor.

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Karmacoin: A Bitcoin-based Digital Currency for Righteous People

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Cryptocurrency News, Litecoin | Mar 29, 2014 10:01PM BST

With the number of cryptocurrencies just single-figures away to cross the 200-mark, any new digital currency will work solely on its market innovation. The never-heard-before saying is proved authentic by Auroracoin, a Litecoin-based digital coin which emerged using the tagline of the first nation-based cryptocurrency. The currency once even touched the third highest market cap, leaving behind Litecoin itself; but based on what but an innovative marketing approach.

There is now a new cryptocurrency that has found its foot in the real “virtual” world. Named as Karmacoin, this new digital coin has the Bitcoin’s DNA like any other decentralized currency, but distinguishes itself from the rest by creating an avatar of a currency for righteous people.
The approach here is simple, involving people to make the world a better place and rewarding them for their valuable contribution with a Karmacoin; quite like a merit badge of some Scouting organization. Only in this case, the badge can be traded in exchange of money. It’s like bribing for good, if one tries to sum up simply with no offence to the creators.

The very first examples of the Karmacoin’s style has also started to appear already. In its recent post at Business Wire, Karmacoin acknowledged its contribution in raising around $200 to compensate the losses of a girl scout who were given fake $50 bills in exchange of the cookies they were selling. Although the amount is very little in comparison to what Dogecoin raises almost every week, but is quite good enough to make Karmacoin’s presence feel.
“It’s perhaps a bit ironic that a digital currency would come to the rescue of the victims of a fake currency scam. This was probably why we were so compelled to help out. We wouldn’t want this incident to diminish the Girl Scouts’ mission of building courage, confidence, and character,” said Tony Sorel, Director of Karmacoin. “Our own motto is based on good deeds towards others, so both organizations share a common purpose.”

The director also specified that the use of Karmacoin is suitable for small transactions and donations, as the sending comes free. Although he never mentioned anything about the coin’s use in larger transactions.

We have also catered few other details on Karmacoin, as per mentioned in its recent press release. Like it ensures secure and anonymous transfers like any other digital currency; it funds transacted in seconds and automatically verified in minutes; credit card-like chargebacks are not possible, protecting merchants and charities; and others.

It is though too soon to predict the possible prospects of Karmacoin, but we can’t deny it is indeed unique in its own way. It gives you reason to be good, seriously.

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Mt. Gox CEO Once Again Under Suspicion for Mishandling Customers’ Accounts

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Cryptocurrency News | Mar 30, 2014 3:19PM BST


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Alleged facts about Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles mishandling the customers’ accounts were revealed, after a panel of exchange current and former staff underwent a discussion with Reuters. As per the three interviewed employees, Mr. Karpeles, two year before the exchange’s bankruptcy, was using the customers’ money to cover the company’s operative costs.

Started as a small venture, Mt. Gox quickly emerged as the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange platform. Also emerged were the company’s costs, which included of rented office space in Tokyo’s reputed business center, installation of hi-tech robots, and Karpeles’s very own Honda Civic from Britain. The Mt. Gox employees exposed the involvement of Mark in diverting the clients’ money for such expenditures, saying they were not even given any sort of financial details back then.

Facts that directly points to Mark Karpeles’s involvement in draining client’s money also include his expenses that were paid by the same bank which stored the customer’s deposits, stated Reuters. The employees also informed of a one-hour meeting with Karpeles in 2012, in which he assured them that the clients’ money was not used in company’s expenditures. The doubts of the employees raised when the man denied to share the financial details with them, as mentioned above.

The Mt. Gox Conspiracy Theory

If reports are to be believed, one can assume that Mt. Gox CEO was gradually taking out expenses from the customer’s bank accounts, especially when he was a part of an unregulated financial institution. Early rumors about the Mark’s alleged involvement in the February’s million-dollar theft at Mt. Gox is now investigable. Recently, experts have also found out that only a handful of Bitcoins were stolen from Mt. Gox due to the much-hyped DDoS attack.

The fall is now on Tokyo investigation panel that whether it will consider the latest revealed facts or not.

New Zealand First Bitcoin ATMs Launched in Auckland

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | Apr 1, 2014 1:20AM BST


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New Zealand’s first Bitcoin ATMs were unveiled in Auckland, which allow the locals to purchase the virtual currency in cash.

The two ATMs were launched by a local company called Bitto NZ. According to Bitto co-founder Jonathan Ewing, the machines were manufactured by Lammasu, a Portuguese firm and they are part of the 120 ATMs currently active across the world.

The machines are not the “fixed-on-the wall” type of ATMs and will be provided only by appointment or used in events, according to Ewing. The machines can only allow users to purchase Bitcoin using cash, but will not facilitate withdrawal of the New Zealand dollars or allow users to sell the Bitcoin.

Ewing said the move was motivated by the urge to encourage more people to use Bitcoins.
"We don't want to see them cash-out. There are other methods and ways for them to do that and we can point people in the right direction but we're all about helping people get into Bitcoin."

Users will buy bitcoins by loading a QR code of their respective Bitcoin wallet and then inserting cash into the machine.

"Using the machine, you will immediately receive the funds in Bitcoin 30 seconds later, with an up to 10 minute confirmation time," he said.


According to The New Zealand Herald, 8 ATMs will be rolled out in New Zealand; two in Wellington and six in Auckland. One of them will be a machine that will allow users to buy and sell Bitcoins, i.e. a “two-way” ATM.

Bitcoin Gains 10%, Briefly Trades Above $500

After stabilising around the $455 area in yesterday’s trading session, BTC/USD rallied $45 to reach a high of $500 today. The pair was unable to break past the important psychological level however and is currently trading somewhat lower at $486.15 on BTC-E. One bitcoin is quoted at $480 on BitStamp.

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Steven Woodrow, the lawyer heading the US class action case against the defunct exchange MtGox, told Coindesk that Mark Karpeles is attempting to block his motion to have him testify on US soil. The next hearing in the on-going Chapter 15 US bankruptcy protection will take place today in a Dallas, Texas. According to the lawyer, Mark had offered to fly to Taiwan instead. If Karpeles is not willing to visit the country, Woodrow suggested that Karpeles or his companies shouldn’t be granted the protection of the US courts.

‘’Really what this comes down to is a lack of transparency, there are things happening, bitcoins being moved, supposed proceedings that are occurring, other investigations that are ongoing and US creditors are at a real disadvantage. They receive this information piecemeal in confusing ways and they don’t know what to believe. Given that lack of transparency, we need to have Mr Karpeles come to the US to answer questions in a fluid way, not force everyone to fly around the globe to depose him through an interpreter.’’

People’s Bank of China officials offered differing views on the fledgling cryptocurrency. Zhang Niannian compared bitcoin exchanges to casinos and called into question the legitimacy of btc businesses, speculating that they could take off with the funds at any time and leave customers with little legal recourse.

Xu Nuojin, deputy head of the PBOC’s Statistics and Analysis Department, said that bitcoin is ‘’ kind of folk currency, so it is a currency, but it is not a legal tender. This is a breakthrough concept of sovereignty currency’’. He went on to say that bitcoin is still not recognized by central banks as a currency and that it lacked the recognition of an institution like the US Federal Reserve that would ensure its use.

Officially, the People’s Bank of China is still keeping silent on the rumored deposit ban that sent bitcoin prices plunging below the $500 mark few days ago.

Cryptocurrencies: Technology Demystified

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Cryptocurrency News | Apr 13, 2014 4:17PM BST


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While this is an established fact that the mainstream users and newcomers to the cryptocurrency business do not care much about the working of the currency, it is imperative that we understand the basic working methodology underlying prominent cryptocurrencies so as to safeguard ourselves from the speculative bubbles building around some.

Working

Cryptocurrencies are physical precompiled files that use a public key (easily available) / private key (unique to a user) pair generated around a specific encryption algorithm. The key establishes ownership of each key pair, or ‘coin,’ to the person who is in possession of the private key. These key pairs are stored in a file named ‘wallet.dat,’ that resides in a default hidden directory on the owner’s hard drive. The private keys are sent to counter party involved in the transaction through dynamic wallet addresses generated by the user. The destination payment address usually is the public key of the currency key pair. There is a limited amount of each type of cryptocoin available on the network, and value of each unit is assigned based purely on a couple of factors. First the supply and demand and second the fluctuating difficulty/constraint levels required for mining each coin.

It goes without saying that the wallet.dat file is the most important file of the cryptocurrency software architecture, as that is where the physical cryptographic private key file is stored analogous to cash. If a user loses their wallet.dat file, or has it stolen, the cryptocurrency is lost.

To the rescue of the common user, the decentralized nature of open source protocol ensures that the control of the network remains in the fists of the user. Transactions are dependent solely on participants in the network, and the user being responsible for the security of their own finances and data, thus negating the need for reliance on third parties such as banking institutions.
For example, the Bitcoin operates much like a p2p file sharing protocol, and similar to the torrent technology. The essence being, a p2p network relies on user participation for successful trusted data exchange. Each transaction is confirmed through key verification on multiple nodes in the network before reaching its destination.

Market Participants

Talking about the market, with no regulators or monitory bodies in place, the exchange trading platforms such as BTC-e and Vircurex are essentially the backbones of the cryptocurrency economy. These trading platforms provide the place for miners and speculators to engage primarily in arbitrage among various cryptocurrencies.

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Meet NewYorkCoin, the Latest Litecoin-Inspired Cryptocurrency for New Yorkers

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency News, Litecoin | Apr 16, 2014 6:48PM BST


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It has been over a month since its launch and yet there hasn’t been much buzz about NewYorkCoin in the cryptocurrency markets. Despite the fact that this part-Litecoin-part-Dogecoin inspired local coin has squeezed its way in cryptocurrency exchanges like BITTREX, Xnigma and Bleutrade, NewYorkCoin is still an unknown currency to many. Even a CTRL+F on the famous Coin Market Cap couldn’t find it in the top 100.

But that doesn’t mean the currency has come and gone erratically. Instead, we at ForexMinute believe that NewYorkCoin is not relying on quick-fame like its other counterparts, and is rather working towards building a scholastic community of Bitcoin believers in New York. The digital coin is far-sighted and has chosen the economy center of America to launch itself, which by chance is also the city which will soon host graduate-level Bitcoin courses.

NewYorkCoin is the idea of New York Foundation – a community that is working towards bringing digital currency enthusiasts, including miners, entrepreneurs, investors, merchants, and developers under one roof.

The community is ready to give alternate options to New Yorkers the way they have been using their money. And they are indeed working innovatively to reach people.

Renowned altcoin exchanges like Cryptsy, CryptoRush and MintPal have shown interest in adding NewYorkCoin to their portfolio. Furthermore, there are “other promotions or bounties offered as well which include a sign up bonus of 10,000,000NYC and the NYC sticker that can be posted in their window to the first 100 merchants who accept the coins. The maximum coin number is 100 billion,” as stated in the NewYorkCoin’s press release.

Another wonderful example of NewYorkCoin’s innovative promotional scheme is them including free 1,000,000NYC if a New Yorker is able to find the photo of newyorkco.in stickers that are posted around Manhattan. The cryptocurrency can also be mined for 0% pool fee.

Technical Specifications

NewYorkCoin is based on Litecoin’s Scrypt Algorithm, with a mere 30 seconds block time. The maximum number of NewYorkCoins that can be mined is 10 billion. It’s one block, which has over 907k NewYorkCoins is pre-mined and will be returned to community via bounties, giveaways, faucets, and other means. “Through promotions and bounties the foundation plans to establish a base for wide spread acceptance of the currency and provide an enhanced user experience as well,” says one of the representatives from the New York Foundation.

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The Last Effort to Save Mt. Gox from a Group of Investors

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | Apr 20, 2014 9:17AM BST


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With Mt. Gox founder Mark Karpeles giving up on the idea of rehabilitating the Bitcoin exchange in favor of liquidating its assets, a group of investors is now seeking to buy it has launched a website to garner support from creditors of the bankrupt Bitcoin exchange to prevent a liquidation of its assets.

The new attempt from the investors’ group came after Mark Karpeles relinquished control to the Tokyo District Court, which will decide the fate of Mt. Gox in the coming weeks. Now the group on its website says that it needs creditors’ help to stop liquidation, which would be good neither for Mt. Gox creditors nor Bitcoin's reputation.

According to the release by the group the liquidation of the Bitcoin exchange will leave the wrong impression with the general public and regulators. The group has been demonstrating against Mt. Gox in Tokyo against the company which had 127,000 customers at the time of its closure, and each of them is now a creditor with little hope of recovering the money.

The Group Asks Creditors to Fill a Form to Support Them

The group says that if somebody is a Mt. Gox creditor, he is requested to fill the form to support our plan to rehabilitate the exchange, conduct an audit to determine the true status of each customer's balance, distribute the coin on a pro rata basis to the creditors, and help in recouping the remainder of the losses.

According to this group of investors liquidation is a last resort when all other avenues fail, including rehabilitation. It also accuses that there have not been any attempts to save Mt. Gox. No efforts were made to get it audited or hear the creditors and their losses by the Tokyo District Court.

The Likely Impact of Liquidation

The website also reveals the grave impact liquidation of Mt. Gox will have. It says that it will mean the loss of millions of dollars worth of lost Bitcoins. Liquidation will also set a dangerous precedent for the community sending a message that these enterprises are either too difficult to untangle or not important enough to save.

The group of investors showed their concern about the interest of creditors as according to it they would likely receive a meager percentage of their holdings and not the one that they deserve because most of the assets would go to paying bankruptcy lawyers and the like. The worst part about the entire process is that it will take years.



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Cryptocurrency Trading News: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin Stumble; Mastercoin Crashes

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency News, Litecoin | Apr 23, 2014 11:04AM BST


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Last 24 hours were though full of joyous moments, but the cryptocurrency markets once again fell on a blink of speculations. This time, it is the much-talked-about Safecoin presale whose uncertainties are seeming to affect the entire cryptocurrency clan.
The sale guidelines released by MaidSafe said “the sale event will run until ten percent of all Safecoin (429,496,729) are sold or 30 days have passed, which ever happens first”. The company had promised to offer attractive leverages on both Bitcoin and Mastercoin for Maidsafecoin, but soon after the presale, the company dumped Mastercoin from the sale, leaving its market value in havoc.
While Bitcoin was able to sustain its value throughout yesterday, owing to US-based private equity firm NEA’s decision to invest a huge capital in Bitcoin companies, its altcoins including Litecoin, Dogecoin and others were not so fortunate. Here is how the market is looking for now:

BTC/USD

The BTC/USD is on a downtrend since Monday, after reaching to its peak at around $501.525. The pair gradually faced a series of pushes and pullbacks in last 24 hours, meanwhile finding resistance at $494 and support at $491. Right before entering today’s trading hours, the pair’s value once though fell slightly below the $490 mark, but recovered in the following hours.
At this time of writing, the BTC/USD pair is trading at around $490, falling 0.5% since 0000 UTC today.

Litecoin, Dogecoin also stumbles

Similar dips were seen in the altcoins as well. The LTC/USD once again slipped 1.55%, reaching $12.05 in the last 24 hours after touching the peak value of $12.35 yesterday. The downtrend is similar to the one of Bitcoin, for obvious reasons.
The DOGE/USD meanwhile fell a little too much within last 24 hours. The pair is currently trading around $0.00055, while at yesterday’s close it was trading at $0.00058.

Mastercoin Falls Ominously

As MaidSafe withdrew Mastercoin from its Safecoin presale, the MSC/USD fell massively around 50%, taking its value from the week’s peak $87 to as low as $50. The scandalized crash was never even reported by MaidSafe which further sent negative shivers throughout the cryptocurrency market.

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Bitcoin News Mash-Up: Yelp to Endorse Bitcoin Businesses; US Govt. Sells Bitcoins; and Many More

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Bitcoin News | Apr 29, 2014 6:38PM BST


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The following are the major Bitcoin events that took place between April 28th and April 29th

Yelp Now Lists Merchants who Accepts Bitcoin

The famous business directory Yelp (market cap: U.S. $4 billion) added a new function that will allow merchants, who accepts the digital currency Bitcoin, to advertise on its platform. The company unveiled this new release by a notice posted on its website. “For those who haven’t heard the buzz about Bitcoin,” they wrote, “it’s a new payment technology that allows consumers and businesses to make fast, secure and low-cost digital payments from any Internet-enabled device. Bitcoin also allows for consumers and businesses to transact without having to store sensitive data like a credit card number. Finally, like cash, Bitcoin's transactions are one-way, so businesses don't have to worry about chargebacks.”

U.S. government Sells Bitcoins Seized from Silk Road Ex-User

Cornelis Jan Slomp, a Dutch ex-user of Silk Road, pleaded guilty for importing illegal substances from the United States and also selling them in other countries between March 2012 and August 2013. The convict is likely to face the harsh penalty of 40 years in prison. Gary Hartwig, special agent in charge of the area of Homeland Security Investigations Agent in Chicago, said: "Those who mistakenly believe the anonymity of the Internet – even on the Deep Web – shields them from scrutiny are finding out they can’t evade detection in cyberspace". According to Assistant Prosecutor in the case, Randall Sanborn, the government has already sold more than $3 million in revenue, but declined to provide details about the sale.

South Korea: Winklevoss Twins to Participate in Bitcoin Event

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss twins are scheduled next month to attend the largest conference on technology-related startups in South Korea, called beLAUNCH. Known investors will participate in a panel on Bitcoin to be named "The Tipping Point of Bitcoin".

Agreement between the National Stock Exchange U.S. and Atlas ATS

The exchange Atlas ATS and the National Stock Exchange of the United States (NSX for short) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that will allow NSX to regulate the exchange site. Thus, Atlas became the first North American exchange that is a fully regulated. David Harris, president and CEO of the Stock Exchange, said: "We are very excited about working with Atlas ATS and all other market participants in the digital currency space to create a framework for safe, transparent and auditable rules applied to a unique market place."

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Bitcoin News Mash-Up: Primary School Accepts Bitcoin; Charlie Shrem Pleads Not Guilty; and Many More

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Bitcoin | Apr 30, 2014 6:21PM BST



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Cyprus: Primary School Accepts Bitcoin

Cyprus’s Limassol based The Lighthouse Progressive Primary School recently announced to accept Bitcoin as payment for monthly student fees. The educational body is known to offer a comprehensive educational experience for children between the ages 5 and 12 years. The news was announced in the Reddit Bitcoin sub-forum by Marios Neocleous, parent of a student at The Lighthouse School, who suggested to the authorities of the institution to accept cryptocurrencies.

Stefan Molyneux YouTube Channel Reappeared

Freedomain Radio, the official YouTube channel of the Canadian philosopher Stefan Molyneux, reappeared after disappearing for a few hours. The online space, in which the libertarian intellectual freely express their views, has over 150,000 subscribers and over 50 million downloads. It is suspected that the channel was removed due to a controversial speech given by Molyneux last Friday in Amsterdam, Netherlands, entitled "Bitcoin vs. Political Power.” Removal of channel triggered a wave of criticism from philosopher’s fans and listeners worldwide, after which the channel was restored to its online space.

Charlie Shrem Pleads Not Guilty in Courthouse

Charlie Shrem, former vice president of the Bitcoin Foundation and former CEO of BitInstant, pleaded not guilty before the Federal Court in Manhattan, New York, United States. The young entrepreneur is charged for alleged money laundering worth over USD 1 million. Shrem’s trial will now be held on September 22 this year.

FinCEN: "Mining Services Are Not Money Transmitters"

FinCEN, a state agency allocated for monitoring financial crimes in the United States, issued new rulings to indicate that both the cloud mining and escrow services [related to Bitcoin] should not be considered money transmitters. The announcements come after requests from some companies regarding to further clarify the FinCEN policies.

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China Construction Bank Won’t Allow Bitcoin and Litecoin Payments

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | May 4, 2014 7:00AM BST


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As China's central bank hammered the companies that accept Bitcoin in the country, China Construction Bank had no option but to announce that it won't allow clients to use their accounts for transactions related to Bitcoin or Litecoin. However, China Construction Bank is not the only company that has announced so, Alipay and China Merchants Bank are others.

Currently, China Construction Bank is one of the "big four" banks in the People's Republic of China. In fact, in 2011 it was the second largest bank in the world by market capitalization and 13th largest company in the world and its decision to accept the digital currency was considered one positive indication among the supporters.

However, now that it is the second major bank, after China Merchants Bank, to announce that it won’t accept Bitcoin and Litecoin, it looks like the digital currencies would be facing a lot of trouble in the sense that major financial organizations don’t seem to have the will to contest against the decision from the central bank of China.

Earlier in March this year, the central bank of China warned of the risks of trading in Bitcoin. It even went to the extent to ask banks and third-party payment agencies not to enable Bitcoin transactions and shut related accounts by April 15. The government watch dog then came across with some organizations that still accepted Bitcoin after April 15.

To shut all these entities permanently, the central bank of China again issued a warning and forced most Bitcoin trading platforms to shut their operations. On April 22 the central bank of China convened a meeting of executives of more than 20 commercial banks and third-party payment companies who deal with Bitcoin to discuss important issues.

Will the Existing Bitcoin Platforms Move Out from China?

The bank demanded that the commercial banks suspend transactions and close current accounts with transactions related to Bitcoin. The latest decision on the part of China Construction Bank is in pursuance to the same demand from the central bank of China. Now, the risk is also looming large on the existing Bitcoin platforms.

If the local news reports are to be believed the existing Bitcoin platforms will probably have to move overseas, and Bitcoin trading will go underground in China. The times for Bitcoin are not as bright as they were some months ago; however, this does not seem to have any impact on Chinese investors who on the contrary have become the most active ones in the world.

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The MIT Bitcoin Expo Begins, More Than 300 Participate

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | May 6, 2014 8:02AM BST


The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the most happening place for Bitcoiners now as more than 300 students, faculty and community members gathered to hear about what many at the MIT Bitcoin Expo, the world’s first Bitcoin economy. Organized by Jeremy Rubin and Dan Elitzer, the event according to attendees was a huge success.

Jeremy Rubin and Dan Elitzer, the two organizers raised more than $500,000 in Bitcoin to distribute $100 in Bitcoin to each student at the beginning of the 2014 fall semester. Some other contributors for the event included HackMIT, the College Cryptocurrency Network and the MIT Society of Women Engineers.

The participants attended the program which gave first hand idea about the digital currency and its modus-operandi. It also gave several perspectives from leading academics and professionals who discussed and debated why Bitcoin and cyptocurrencies represent one of most exciting developments in decades across the fields of cryptography.

Most of the speakers with plenty of experience and expertise elaborated the Bitcoin economy from various aspects e.g. distributed computing, graph theory, finance, and economics. The event also included a workshop where expert practitioners were introduced to tools for interacting with the code that lies at the heart of Bitcoin.

The much awaited event that was meant to introduce new business to the Bitcoin economy gave insightful perspective on the digital currency. According to the organizers of the expo the event was aimed at exposing the tools and know-how needed to contribute to the experiments that are being carried out unabatedly these days.
In his interaction with the media, Bitcoin Foundation chief scientist Gavin Andresen said that his organization aims to make students aware of the tools and resources available to them so they can start working on projects related to Bitcoin.

The projects whether that is building some sort of new product or service, contributing to an open source project, or joining up with an existing venture, according to him is vital for those who wish to know about the digital currency’s future.

Panel Discussions and Discourse on the Digital Currency

According to the sources at the Bitcoin Expo, the first half of the day was comprised of panels focusing on a wide range of topics surrounding the digital currency. For instance, a lot of insightful views and opinions were shared by the honorable speakers at the event that got instant appreciation from all segments of users.

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India Gets its First Bitcoin Exchange Platform

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Bitcoin | May 6, 2014 7:25PM BST


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India now is face to face with the emerging Bitcoin technology. After 5 years since the launch of this digital currency, Bitcoin will now be available to trade in India thanks to a new Bitcoin trading platform, that launched just yesterday.

Dubbed as BTCxIndia, the new and first real time Indian digital currency platform throws hints of being another BTC China with an ‘X’ factor. Although India itself shows the potential of being another China in the context of digital currencies. Likewise China’s regulators, India’s finance regulatory body Reserve Bank of India (or RBI) too has a balanced stand on Bitcoin. In December 2013, the latter issued a warning to Bitcoin users, trader and holders, informing them about the currency’s ill-effects.

“At present what we are saying is neither we regulate [Bitcoin] nor we support them,” said the RBI’s deputy governor KC Chakrabaty. “Regulation comes only when people are doing certain business and we come to understand that something wrong is happening. First of all we don't understand this subject.”

The deputy-governor clearly suggest that the people, as well as the government in the end, cannot take a definite stand against the Bitcoin as they are not fully equipped with its functionality. There is although a very great chance for the Indian regulator to at least consider allowing Bitcoin trades in the near future, even if they do so by taxing the digital coin.

Coming back to the BTCxIndia, the platform is registered under Companies Act 1956 with corporate identity number U67190AP2013PTC091266. BTCxIndia guarantees to be a secure and transparent platform, offering “same level of log-in and account security as used by the established financial institutions.” The platform also promises to store customers’ money offline to counter it from malicious online attacks.


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Bitcoin for Beginners: How to Mine Bitcoins Part 3 – Investment

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Bitcoin | May 7, 2014 8:07AM BST



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This is the third part of the series "How to mine Bitcoins". Therefore, before continuing, it would be advisable for you to read the previous articles of the same series. If you have already been there, then please continue.

In this tutorial, we will discuss the certain investments a miner has to make before starting to mine Bitcoin. The first question to arise inside the child-like mind of any Bitcoin novice is “Is Bitcoin mining accessible to me?” To be frank, the answer to this question varies according to the situation. But in order to enable the reader to build a possible situational picture, we will attempt to answer it.

Assuming you already have a computer – any computer. In theory, you are already eligible to mine. Using your current CPU or GPU (See Tutorial 1), you are all set to start producing Bitcoins and you would not even require any low to bulky initial investment either. This is very good news, especially for all the gamers out there.

But wait, that's just theory; today, in practice, CPU mining is not even close to being efficient, not all graphics cards are going to serve us when we will put our miner helmets on. (More details about this in coming articles)

How much should I invest?

The answer to this question is difficult. As in any investment, one should do a risk/benefit analysis before acting. We suggest readers that before undertaking any kind of investment, understand what Bitcoin is, how it works, what problems they solve, what is their potential, their risks, etc. They should not invest in something that is unknown or only guided by what others say; gamer forums are a clear example of this. When you invest your money you're not a gamer, you are an investor.

Colorado Congressman Becomes First Politician to Accept Bitcoin Donations under New FEC Rules

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | May 10, 2014 1:42AM BST


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Jared Polis may become the first politician to collect bitcoin donations for his campaign war chest under the new Federal Election Commission rules.

Polis, a Colorado congressman, rushed in immediately to give bitcoin devotees a chance to contribute to his campaign on Thursday after the FEC said that donations in the digital currency are legal. Polis plans to campaign for his re-election this November.

Polis launched a website that allows bitcoin users to campaign for him. Within 24 hours, over $1000 worth of bitcoins was donated to his campaign, reported the New York Times.

FEC’s ruling was as a result of intense lobbying from Make Your Laws PAC, a North Carolina-based political nonprofit that states its mission is “to allow normal citizens to directly participate in every aspect of their legislative process worldwide”.
Polis is no doubt proud of his feat; In fact he told the Times that he was the first politician to accept bitcoin donations as per FEC’s new rules.
“I think there were one or two that toyed around with [bitcoin contributions] before these rules came out,” Polis said. “But under the actual permission from the Federal Election Commission, we’ve been working on this for weeks expecting that a ruling would occur, so we were able to go live within hours of the ruling.”‘

Bitcoin is a virtual currency that exists free from control from any government or central bank, and also offers its users anonymity. It has rapidly gained popularity partly due to its acceptance by an increasing number of businesses. However, most governments have expressed concerns that the currency may be used for money laundering or purchase of illegal arms and drugs. China has recently taken measures to further restrict its use by ordering local banks not to deal with the currency.

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The Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust to be Listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | May 11, 2014 5:00AM BST

After the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC issued a warning to investors about Bitcoin as it feels the investors are at risk, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, disclosed in a regulatory filing that they had chosen to list their Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

The twin brothers were first among the investors who thought that Bitcoin futuristic payment method for international transactions was worth investing in. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are known for their legal battles with Facebook's co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg wherein they got attractive compensation after successful settlement.

Earlier the SEC said that Bitcoin created new "concerns" for investors and for that reason several regulatory bodies and watchdogs issued their warning for investors. In fact, the Federal agencies have been scrambling to figure out how to regulate Bitcoin since the collapse this year of Mt. Gox caused a huge loss for investors.

As the two entrepreneurs don’t want to get caught in hassle, they came up with this idea to register with NASDAQ. The SEC in an alert posted to its website said that a new product, technology, or innovation such as Bitcoin has the potential to give rise both to frauds and high-risk investment opportunities.

The warning message also reads that investors should keep utmost care while investing with a Bitcoin firm. The Winklevoss brothers have invested in Bitcoin companies, including the exchange BitInstant, and at one point owned more than $64 million of virtual currency itself. Earlier in February, the twins started the Winkdex.

Winkdex is their own index to measure the price of Bitcoin, to work in conjunction with their proposed Bitcoin ETF. The twin brothers want to give investors an easier way into the market. Like SPDR, the widely used gold ETF. According to Cameron Winklevoss the goal of his company is to make it as similar to the gold E.T.F. as possible.

Cameron Winklevoss further added that his company is trying to reduce the friction of purchasing Bitcoin and securing it. Bitcoin has seen tremendous appreciation in its exchange value in the last one year. When Bitcoin came to existence, it was valued near to 20 dollars each; however, in October 2013 it reached to 1200 dollars.

Bitcoin is receiving acceptance from mainstream businesses and the wider adoption by both consumers and technology entrepreneurs helped the price skyrocket to more than $1,000 at one point last year.

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Chinese Virtual Coin Firms to Circumvent PBOC Onslaught by Going Offshore

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | May 12, 2014 10:19PM BST


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Chinese bitcoin companies are planning on sidestepping the government crackdown on the virtual currency.

The currently biggest exchange in China, Huobi, is thinking about moving operations international to protect its customers.
“We are trying to create an offshore account and to go international. We don't want to touch the customers' money in China, because maybe [regulation] is going to get worse,” Leon LI, founder and CEO of Huobi told the South China Morning Post.

Before PBOC’s restrictions took effect, it was possible for customers to deposit or transfer money through the company’s account in mainland China. Such transactions may not be possible in future; with offshore accounts being an alternative way around mainland’s stringent banking system.

Li was among chiefs of the five most dominant bitcoin firms in China, who didn’t attend an international bitcoin meeting in Beijing over the weekend to avoid raising the gathering’s profile.

"You can see the pressure being applied from different angles," said Bobby Lee, the CEO of BTC China and who also never attended the weekend gathering.

Lee said his bitcoin exchange that’s based in Shanghai had resorted to use of paper vouchers to handle transactions while avoiding mainland financial institutions.

Since China started the crackdown on bitcoin, the country’s biggest banks have severed links with bitcoin. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the largest bank in the world by assets and market capitalization, has just cut ties with the virtual currency, entering the list of others that have moved in that direction.

Lee, who formerly engineered for Yahoo, said the measures on bitcoin meant that traders on the mainland were unwilling to deal in the digital currency.

According to Coinreport, Hong Cheng, managing director of a bitcoin ATM maker BitOcean, said that if China continued to mount pressure on bitcoin, his company would relocate elsewhere in Asia.

Electronic Store CeX to Allow Bitcoin Exchange

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | May 13, 2014 10:27PM BST


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A UK high Street exchange CeX for games and electronics will allow its customers to pay in bitcoins for three days per week.
CeX commercial director David Butler said that bitcoin enjoyed several security and access advantages on top of being a currency that’s gaining popularity on a global scale.

Bitcoin was invented in January 2009 and is mined by means of peer-to-peer network that’s outside the realm of banks.
The virtual currency can be transferred from one person to another. An entire digital currency network authenticates each transaction.

CeX’s Glascow branch has put bitcoin on trial for the next three days and has already performed well, according to Express.
Shoppers are being shown how to trade pounds for bitcoins by slotting banknotes into a machine before the transaction is reflected on the digital account.

Just like conventional money, bitcoin price fluctuates, although this morning it exchanged at 0.00386 to the pound. Product prices are then changed to show the difference in value between the two currencies.

Unlike other currencies, the virtual currency is not controlled or regulated by a government, bank or any other central authority.

One shopper said he walked into the store intending to buy a few DVDs only to realize he could only purchase by using the bitcoin machine. Ben Griffiths said he found the experience good, although he was helped by the staff to know how to pay via the machine.

The shopper said he was willing to make purchases using the virtual currency if it was available in other stores.

Butler said that the halting of payments in the sterling pound had no political connotation.

“While we are temporarily dropping the pound from our Glasgow store, at a time when Scottish independence is high up on the news agenda, we are doing so to give customers a choice in how they trade with us," Butler is quoted by Sky as saying.

Coinbase.com Distributes Free Bitcoins to College Students

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency News | May 15, 2014 9:24AM BST

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In one of the most progressive steps to expand Bitcoin’s territory, popular Bitcoin online wallet Coinbase.com has decided to give away free bitcoins to college students. To avail this gesture, students are only required to make an account on Coinbase.com using an ‘.edu’ email address.

The news comes right after the recent announcement of two MIT students that raised $100 worth Bitcoins for the undergraduates in the campus. In their announcement, Coinbase itself has mentioned the aforementioned fundraiser to be its sole inspiration. “We were inspired by this project and hope we can contribute to the growing interest of bitcoin among college students,” it said.

How Such a Give Away Can Boost Bitcoin Popularity?
A learning mind is always open to new ideas and innovations. And what can be a better audience for Bitcoin but a student who will believe to improve the technology, rather than reject it downrightly. We believe what Coinbase, and those MIT students, are doing is preparing a future generation for an open and transparent economy, which is controlled by people for the people. The liberal minds, when accumulated together, can create wonders for digital currencies. This give away might be a small step towards that direction, but it will surely open the gates for many customers and innovators to understand and implement the Bitcoin technology.

Is Coinbase's Idea a Success?
Yes indeed! The website has listed a leaderboard, which lists the most popular universities, alongside the number of students, which have taken advantage of the Coinbase new scheme. The leading university domains belong to Illinois, Utexas, Berkeley, Purdue, Drexel, and many others.

As a true Bitcoin enthusiasts, ForexMinute.com praises Coinbase for their efforts and urges our readers (who are students) to try out this revolution called Bitcoin.