Electronics Retail Giant Newegg Now Accepting Bitcoin

Major electronics e-retailer Newegg is now accepting bitcoin for their inventory of over ten million products that include consumer electronics, computer systems, video games, and even household utilities in a move that will rattle how bitcoin enthusiasts shop for electronics on the internet.

Any one of the California-based company’s 25 million registered customers can now take advantage of paying for their goods in the emerging digital currency that has grown tremendously in the past two years thanks to a partnership with Atlanta, Georgia-based BitPay.

“Newegg’s customers are among some of the earliest bitcoin miners and are enthusiastic proponents of the crypto-currency. Adopting bitcoin as a payment method is another way we’re responding to our customers’ diverse needs,” said Newegg’s Soren Mills, who serves as Chief Marketing Officer for the company’s operations in North America. “Working with BitPay to implement a bitcoin payment option at Newegg was a seamless process and our partnership gives us the capabilities we require for high-volume e-commerce.”

Newegg’s decision to partner with BitPay came as a direct result “of the company’s industry-leading reliability and scalability,” which will effectively allow Newegg to handle refunds and payment exceptions with the processor’s advanced payment API.

“Our mission is to make bitcoin every merchant’s favorite form of payment. Forward-thinking merchants like Newegg allow bitcoin enthusiasts from around the world to shop with ease,” said BitPay Co-founder and Executive Chairman Tony Gallippi. “Newegg has been the most requested retailer from the bitcoin community and our collaboration will serve this pent-up demand.”

With over 35,000 merchants on board and over $30 million in venture capitalist funding, BitPay is now processing over one million dollars in bitcoin payments every day.

BitPay is also processing payments for Newegg competitor TigerDirect.

How bitcoin payments work

Upon attempting to check out on the Newegg website, customers will now see the ‘bitcoin’ option in addition to traditional means of payment.

If the customer already has a digital wallet, they can click the ‘Pay with Bitcoin’ button — which will auto-populate the necessary fields to quickly send payment.

Alternatively, customer can scan the presented QR code with their mobile device if applicable, or they can simply view the address and copy it to the wallet of their choice (assuming they are using a web wallet service like Blockchain.info, for example).

Major companies and bitcoin

Newegg joins an ever-increasing list of major companies that have decided to take advantage of the distinct features that make bitcoin appealing to merchants.

Overstock.com became the first major company in the world to adopt the digital currency late last year when CEO Patrick Byrne announced to NEWSBTC last year that the plan was to start acceptance by the second half of 2014. Overwhelming press attention made the integration happen much quicker, and the company flipped the ‘on’ switch in January.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic venture also announced last year they would be accepting bitcoin for flights into space — a whopping $250,000 per person.

This year we’ve seen TigerDirect join the bitcoin train (as noted above), and even DISH Network announced plans to start accepting bitcoin later this year.

Travel powerhouse Expedia also began accepting bitcoin payments this year for hotel bookings, adding they would be interested in expanding acceptance to other services like car rentals and flights if this trial [of sorts] goes well.

Demands met

Members of the bitcoin community have long wondered when Newegg would finally give in with regard to accepting digital currency as a means of payment, and no doubt this integration comes due to customer demand.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the sales pan out, but if Overstock and TigerDirect serve as examples, Newegg should be on track to making their first million in bitcoin fairly quickly.

TREZOR “On Track” With Classic Hardware Wallet

There’s been a decent amount of buzz surrounding the TREZOR hardware wallet, but very little excitement as to how long they’ve taken to be released (we’re still waiting), but Satoshi Labs released an update on the highly-anticipated devices last week, and they say things are “on track” with the Classic version of the wallet.

SatoshiLabs writes in their blog:

One of the first plastic cases for TREZOR Classics has been presented to us during our visit of the production facility today. We’re glad to confirm that our new producer is in line with our ETA announced in previous update.

In that previous update, the company had informed their customer base that the initial manufacturer they had selected to produce the cases for the TREZOR Classic ” turned out to be less professional in the real production,” missing a number of deadlines and not delivering satisfactory results.

But things are looking up for customers. SatoshiLabs says that shipments for pre-order backers are going to be shipped by the end of July. And as soon as they have more of the devices in stock, they say they will be opening their e-shop for regular sales.

SatoshiLabs adds:

In following days the first testing batch of 100 pieces will be produced and completed. Then we are going to put the devices through environmental chamber testing. They will be tortured with extreme temperatures, humidity and vibrations and once they prove to sustain standards for high quality electronics, we’ll give the green light to production.

So there you have it — just a little while longer! (via CoinDesk)

QwikBit Accepts Delivery of First Batch of Bitcoin AVMs For Isle of Man Roll-Out

Bitcoin AVM (automated vending machine) operator QwikBit today announced that they have taken delivery of a first batch of bitcoin AVMs manufactured in Portugal by Lamassu for an eventual distribution on the Isle of Man and in the United Kingdom.

We’ve seen many of these Lamassu devices make their debut over the past year, but the location in which these particular machines will be placed is fitting.

That’s because the Isle of Man is hoping to become a hot spot for bitcoin activity. A number of businesses on the Isle have already committed to helping bitcoin businesses get started, as we reported last month.

The company has said that the first locations for the placement of the devices on both the Isle of Man and in the United Kingdom have been secured, and the team at QwikBit is working matters out with regulators on the Isle before launch time.

“We’ve been looking forward to the arrival of our first batch of Bitcoin AVMs for several weeks. In that time, we’ve been working on securing our first locations in the Isle of Man, and also liaising with Jason Kelly, a specialist lawyer and Vice Chairman of the Manx Digital Currency Association (“MDCA”), who has provided invaluable insight on local regulatory matters,” said Stan Ho, COO at QwikBit.

“Following the Isle of Man’s Financial Supervision Commission (“FSC”) announcement on Digital Currency, Qwikbit has also been liaising with the FSC regarding our launch. Once we have the green light, we’ll install a number of AVMs in the Isle of Man, and then roll out the rest of this batch in the UK,” Ho continued.

Lamassu CEO Zach Harvey says he’s pleased to see the launch:

“We’re very excited Qwikbit is launching on the Isle of Man with our Lamassu machines,” he said. “This is a big step towards making Bitcoin more accessible in the Isle of Man and in the UK.”

Meanwhile, MDCA chairman said, “The arrival of Qwikbit AVM’s is another step forward in making Bitcoin more accessible to the general public and establishing the Isle of Man as a domicile of choice for crypto-currency businesses.”

Bitcoin Shop Bids in USMS Bitcoin Auction Not Accepted

There’s been silence with regard to just who is the prevailing bidder when it comes to last Friday’s bitcoin auction held by the United States Marshals Service.

Things have been a little different when it comes to participants whose bids were not accepted, however. Both Barry Silbert of SecondMarket/Bitcoin Investment trust and  Dan Morehead of Pantera Capital announced their bids weren’t accepted, and now Bitcoin Shop, Inc. has come forth to announced their bids were also not accepted.

“Our bid with the USMS to purchase bitcoins through an online auction was not accepted,” said Bitcoin Shop CEO Charles Allen. “As a mechanism to hedge our proposed investment, we also bid through the Second Market syndicate for a smaller allocation, but that bid was not accepted either. After evaluating the current bitcoin currency landscape, we submitted a bid price that, if accepted, reflected our determination of a competitive and attractive value for our investors. Bitcoin Shop will continue to evaluate investment opportunities such as this in the future.”

Friday’s auction — which ran for twelve hours from 6 am to 6 pm Eastern time — made available more than 29,000 bitcoins worth over $18 million.

The bitcoins were auctioned off in two blocks. A ‘Series A’ block made available 9 blocks of 3,000 bitcoins, and a ‘Series B’ auction made available 2,646 bitcoins.

The bidding syndicate that Allen mentioned (which ran through SecondMarket) was designed to allow smaller-scale investors to participate in the auction. That is to say that instead of having to submit a deposit of $200,000 in order to become part of the auction (as required per the USMS), the syndicate’s requirement was to deposit a minimum of $25,000. The collective bids could also have been much larger than any one investor could afford, but of course that was not the case.

The 29,000 bitcoins auctioned off originated from the now-defunct Silk Road illicit marketplace shut down late last year, a service allegedly run by Ross Ulbricht (also known as Dread Pirate Roberts). He is currently awaiting trial, and another version of the Silk Road marketplace has since opened for business.

DATA برنامه هایی دارد تا دولت ، ایالت ها و بانک های آمریکا ، ارزهای مجازی را به رسمیت بشناسند

دو نفر از بنیانگذاران کمیته جهت شکل دادن به سازمانی خود- نظارتی به نام DATA (سازمان انتقال دارایی های دیجیتال) در این هفته جزئیات بیشتری را درباره ی برنامه شان با CoinDesk مطرح کردند.

ایجاد DATA در روز سه شنبه اعلام شد و درمورد دفع قوانین بالقوه تهاجمی علیه شرکت های ارز مجازی که توسط سازمان های فدرال و ایالتی در آمریکا وضع شده اند،  ابراز امیدواری شد. این برنامه دارای یک هیئت مدیره می باشد که توسط دو بخش مدیریتی کوچک تر دیگر توصیه خواهد شد.

یکی از آنها هیئت مدیره ی مشاوره ای تکنولوژی و دیگری هیئت مدیره ی اجتماعی خواهد بود که شامل اعضای DATA از بخش صنعت و پشتیبانی از ارزهای مجازی است.

Constance Choi  از بنیانگذاران این کمیته و عضو دبیرخانه ، گفته است : ” ما اعضای هیئت مدیره را از میان مجریان سابق نظم، اساتید برجسته ی تکنولوژی که در زمینه ی فناوری و حریم خصوصی سر رشته دارند و افرادی از نهادهای مالی نوآوری های بالقوه را بدرستی درک می کنند استخدام کرده ایم. و امیدواریم که مقطع گسترده ای را تشکیل دهیم “

او اضافه کرد همچنین در زمانی که DATA به صورت رسمی

ادامه خبر را در ادامه مطلب بخوانید

Australian Tax Office’s Bitcoin Guidance Reportedly Delayed

Today was the day many Australians that dabble in bitcoin and other digital currencies were very much looking forward to. The country’s tax authority — the Australian Tax Office — was due to release guidance on the use of bitcoin. But they haven’t, and it looks like there’s going to be a delay period of another month, according to iTnews.

“It remains our priority to provide the community with the final guidance paper in time for people to complete their 2013-14 income tax returns,” said a spokesperson for the tax office, but of course, tax payers are still very much in the dark.

But despite the fact that proper guidance hasn’t been issued, the tax office asks taxpayers to not refrain from reporting the date, value, and reason for their bitcoin transactions. Unfortunately, these taxpayers won’t know how their bitcoin will be taxed.

The reason for the delay, according to iTnews, is the Tax Office’s decision to hire legal counsel from outside the agency to have a review of their drafter tax policies.

“To ensure our advice to the community is comprehensive and robust we have sought further advice from external legal counsel,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

“We have also received representations from industry bodies seeking to provide us with further information. These factors will delay the release of our final guidance paper on the taxation treatment of crypto-currencies.”

Here in the United States, the Internal Revenue Service deemed in late March that for the purpose of federal income taxes, bitcoin should be treated as property. The guidance was met with much resistance from the bitcoin community, but anger at the rules has since subsided.

And recently in Germany, tax officials have recognized bitcoin as a currency, and therefore suggest it is subject to a 25 percent withholding tax.

Poll Review: Do You Prefer XBT or BTC

It’s Sunday, and you know what that means. It’s time to take a look at last week’s poll!

In that poll we asked the seemingly age-old question of what the bitcoin abbreviation should be. Most commonly in the community, XBT or BTC have been widely used. But because bitcoin is decentralized, there has been both agreement and disagreement on standards and conventions, since there’s no one authority to say what is or is not proper.

So getting back to the results, there were a total of 308 votes (and you can look for the weekly poll in the lower right of every page if you’re interested). A whopping 275 voters, or 89.3 percent, said they prefer the BTC abbreviation. The other 10.7 percent (33 votes) were for XBT as the preferred abbreviation.

You’ll notice a mix of abbreviation usage when it comes to businesses in the space. For example, a website like Blockchain.info uses BTC, whereas an exchange like Kraken will go by XBT.

It even goes far beyond this, with mixed usage of the bitcoin symbol and denominations.

Establishing a standard

The Bitcoin Foundation recently announced the formation of a Standards Committee to address this very issue. With the recognition that bitcoin is decentralized, the committee’s tasks are to make recommendations on which symbol, abbreviation, denominations should be used.

(Full disclosure: I am a member of that committee.)

Moving forward, it will be interesting to see developments on this front, but for now it would appear bitcoin users are quite comfortable using ‘BTC’.

 

U.S. Marshals Service Bitcoin Auction Taking Place Today

Today is the day for some high rollers to get their hands on bitcoin in a way unlike we have ever seen before. A massive bitcoin auction is taking place from 6 am to 6 pm Eastern time, and it’s being held by the United States Marshals Service.

Up for grabs: 29,656.51306529 bitcoins seized from the Silk Road operation that was shut down by federal authorities in late 2013.

Silk Road had served as the web’s most popular illicit marketplace, where users could buy anything from hard drugs to weaponry using bitcoin. With the take-down came the arrest of the alleged Dread Pirate Roberts, Ross Ulbricht (he’s currently awaiting trial).

Today’s auction comes following a registration process that began nearly two weeks ago. Bidders interested in participating were required to fill out a registration form, provide government-issued identification, and wire $200,000 as a deposit to the Marshals service.

It all leads up to today, where there will be a so-called “Series A” auction for 9 blocks of 3,000 bitcoins, and a “Series B” auction for 2,646 bitcoins.

And while the auction is expected to be held in secrecy, a Marshals Service staffer last week inadvertently released the email addresses of individuals who had inquired.

Among them include a Coinbase executive, a BNP Paribas employee, and Barry Silbert of SecondMarket/Bitcoin Investment Fund.

Silbert announced recently the creation of a syndicate that would allow investors to join the auction in a pool without having to commit to depositing $200,000.

Certainly, it should be interesting what comes from today’s auction, and we’ll have more information on the results just as soon as it becomes available (if it becomes available!).

Bitcoin Exchange OKCoin Doing Q&A Session Monday Morning

If you’re looking for an opportunity to ask a bitcoin exchange questions about their operations, Monday morning will be your chance.

OKCoin, China’s largest bitcoin exchange, has announced that they will be conducting a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) session on Monday, June 30th. There, Reddit users will be able to, well, ask the company anything — and one user has already taken the liberty of doing so by asking:

“Why are you still faking volume? Current 24 h volume okcoin 55k BTC more than 2x Rest of exchanges combined”

The question was met with a lengthy response, of which includes:

A lot of discussion has been centered on the trading volume at OKCoin and how it is “fake”. This, however, just isn’t true. It all boils down to the zero-fee trading model. Because we don’t charge our users any fees for trades there is a lot of HFT(High Frequency Trading) taking place. This leads to the “bloating” of our numbers. We have admitted this and our CEO Star Xu made a statement about this in a Coindesk article written by Rui Ma.

Another user asks: “I am not sure I will be able to be there at that time but I am curious if you have any plans to open up USD/BTC in the future?”

OKCoin responded by stating that they do indeed have plans to do so and are working to enable this as soon as possible.

The exchange will be starting the Q&A session at approximately 9 am Eastern time that day. Mark your calendar!

Need to Put $25 to Work? Ashton Kutcher Says Buy Bitcoin

Bitcoin just found itself another celebrity endorsement. Hollywood star and investor Ashton Kutcher endorsed the digital currency this week on Quora, a question-and-answer website frequented by people of all walks of life.

Kutcher responded to the interesting question: “What are some smart ways I can put $25 to work for me?” in which he, among other things, suggested the poster buy bitcoin.

He writes:

I would deploy a barbell strategy. Go to stockpile.com and buy fractional shares in blue chip stocks. Then buy bitcoin. Do this every other week for four weeks and on the fifth week buy a beer for someone you admire or gift someone either some bitcoin or fractional shares of stock. I’m a firm believer that generosity has a multiplying effect. Happiness, freedom, peace, and financial security are only sustained by sharing them with others.

This isn’t the first time Kutcher has expressed interest in bitcoin. At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference that took place in mid-2013, Kutcher said bitcoin is “obviously becoming more and more relevant.”

Further, Kutcher’s A-Grade Investments venture capitalism fund has invested in Atlanta-based BitPay, a leading bitcoin payments processor.

So you could say it’s no surprise here that he’s recommending people buy into this digital currency, which has seen exponential growth in the last one and a half years.

Over the past several months, bitcoin has attracted the attention of many notable entities in the tech sector — particularly those who invest. Just ask Marc Andreessen, who suggests that in twenty years, we’ll be talking about bitcoin like we do about the internet today.

A soar in price first in April 2013 and later in November 2013 put the digital currency in a position where investors have actually been able to look into it seriously and making the determination that this is worth putting money into.

What do you think? Is Kutcher’s strategy one worth taking seriously?

The Bitcoin Job Fair Takes Places Today in Manhattan’s Financial District

If you’re interested in getting yourself a job in the bitcoin industry and live in the New York City area, today may be your chance. The Bitcoin Center NYC is holding a Bitcoin Job Fair today from 12:00 – 5:00 pm local time.

This particular job fair is the eastern coast’s first, with the last fair taking place on May 3rd in Sunnyvale, California at the Plug and Play Tech Center. The fair saw four hundred job seekers, and this weekend’s event in Manattan will be on-track to attract a decent crowd, it seems.

At the last Bitcoin Job Fair, Atlanta-based BitPay made multiple hires — adding a Chief Compliance Officer, a user experience team members, and an engineering services group member.

It looks like BitPay will be back for more action in New York, along with eGifter, Coinbase, Coinsetter, and others, according to the Bitcoin Job Fair website.

The event’s location is fitting. Bitcoin Center NYC sits a mere 100 feet from the New York Stock exchange in the financial district of Manhattan. It’s old finance meeting new finance within the space of one city block.

Admission to the event is free for prospective job seekers, but space is limited as we understand, so if you’re one to do things last minute, you still have some time to get yourself in presentable shape!

Barry Silbert Releases Results of Bidding Syndicate For US Marshals Bitcoin Auction

SecondMarket and Bitcoin Investment Trust CEO Barry Silbert has released some decently interesting information this Saturday afternoon relating to Friday’s bitcoin auction held by the United States Marshals Service. To be clear, the results were not that of the auction itself, but the syndicate that Silbert formed shortly after the USMS announced the auction a couple of weeks ago.

According to Silbert, there were 42 bidders involved in the syndicate, with 186 bids received and a bitcoin quantity bid of 48,013.

Results of our US Marshals bitcoin syndicate: Bidders – 42 Bids received – 186 BTC quantity bid – 48,013 Winners notifed by USMS on Mon

— Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) June 28, 2014

The syndicate was designed to allow smaller-scale investors get involved with the auction sans having to commit as if they had gone into the auction alone. Those requirements demand bidders submit a deposit of $200,000 from a United States bank account, in addition to meeting other registration standards.

As such, the collection of all bids received by the syndicate would then go toward the USMS auction, which ran for twelve hours from 6 am to 6 pm Friday. The minimum amount to have participated in the syndicate was $25,000.

Ten percent of auction fees collected from the syndicate will go directly to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Certainly, Monday will be interesting, but it’s unclear as to whether or not the Marshals Service will publicly announce the auction winners. There’s a good possibility that it will be kept undisclosed (to the best of the USMS’s ability). That is until the inevitable moment where someone involved provides more information.

We can likely expect Silbert to make additional comments on this matter come Monday. Stay tuned.

California Gov. Jerry Brown Signs Bill Legalizing Alternative Currencies Like Bitcoin Into Law

We’ve been discussing a bill that’s been making its rounds through the legal system in California, and as of this weekend, it’s been signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown just days after the news that lawmakers in the Golden State had passed it.

That bill [also referred to as AB-129]– as we’ve discussed previously — effectively makes it simpler for state residents to use alternative currencies by nullifying an old bill that deemed anything but the use of the United States dollar as legal.

These alternative currencies include but are not limited to Starbucks Stars, Amazon Coins, and yes, even bitcoin and other cryptographic currencies.

“In an era of evolving payment methods, from Amazon Coins to Starbucks Stars, it is impractical to ignore the growing use of cash alternatives,” said State Assemblyman Roger Dickinson in a recent statement, as pointed out by the Los Angeles Times.

And while the news is good for users of this emerging digital currency, it doesn’t quite change a whole lot in terms practical use of bitcoin, for example. The aforementioned law that prohibited the use of anything but the dollar was one of many unenforced laws in the State of California.

Former Director of US Mint to Keynote at Bitcoin Conference in N. Carolina

We’ve written a few times about Edmund C. Moy, the former Director of the United States Mint who has seemingly taken a liking to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.

Last month, Moy notable said via social media that, “It’s Time Banks Got Competition. Time for Cryptocurrencies,” further pushing him into a noble status in the cryptocurrency community.

And now he’s even doing public speaking at a Bitcoin expo. As first pointed out by bitcoin website CoinTelegraph, Moy will be serving as the keynote speaker at the ‘Cryptolina‘ conference that’s taking place from August 15-16th in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Event organizer Faruk Okcetin had the following to say in a press announcement:

“This is a game-changer. Ed Moy is widely respected among the finance and exchange industry, and is among the highest level officials yet to recognize both the future and inevitability of cryptocurrency. The Carolinas are thrilled to be hosting Mr. Moy’s first appearance at a Bitcoin conference.”

Other speakers at the event include Elizabeth Ploshay of BitPay and the Bitcoin Foundation, and angel investor Mark Easley.

As one would come to expect at a bitcoin conference, Cryptolina takes a look at today’s issues in the cryptocurrency community on several fronts along with the future.

Edmund C. Moy was nominated by President George W. Bush as the Director of the United States mint in 2006, and was sworn in the same year. The role lasted until 2011.

For more information on Cryptolina, visit www.cryptolina.com.

Cryptocurrency Mining Conference Slated to Take Place in October

Cryptocurrency Mining Conference Slated to Take Place in October

There’s apparently a new kind of cryptocurrency conference taking place later this year. Dubbed Hashers United, it’s said the be the first global conference dedicated to cryptocurrency mining, and it’s taking place from October 10th-11th at the Tuscany Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The conference will bring together professionals, hobbyists and vendors from within mining and throughout the wider cryptocurrency sector. Attendees can expect over 35 workshops and sessions, and more than 25 speakers.

On the list of speakers is Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, who have been “specially selected for their expertise and commitment to mining and cryptocurrencies.”

The conference will feature key figures from tax, legal and regulatory bodies from the United States to provide important updates. In addition, speakers will cover topics including protocol scrutiny, algorithm analysis for better strategic planning and operations; more effective rig building; live mining demonstrations; and workshops covering profitability, investment, cryptocurrency management and more.

Behind the conference is Final Hash, LLC, a mining contract company with rig facilities in Houston, Texas.

“We’re in contact with miners every day and their needs just aren’t being met via current conferences or even online,” said the company’s Executive Technical Director, Marshall Long. “It’s time for a ‘real world’ forum where everyone, no matter their experience, can have an open and frank discussion about the key issues they are facing and how as a community we can help each other to overcome them.”

For more information on the event, head over to HashersUnited.com.

Edward Snowden Defense Fund Has So Far Raised 150 Bitcoins

We’ve seen all sorts of bitcoin fundraisers going on in the community recently, but did you know there existed a fundraiser to help with the legal defense of Edward Snowden?

There apparently is, and the amount of money its raised so far is nothing to scoff at. As of this writing, the address [Blockchain.info link] has collected just about 150 bitcoins, or $87,195 at the present exchange rate.

Snowden defense fund has raised $90,341.66 in #Bitcoin https://t.co/cKda45taX1 donate: http://t.co/GEHJ0hK5YS info: https://t.co/SdNf8MpTa1

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 24, 2014

The news comes from Wikileaks, a media outlet that has taken to publishing secret information and classified media from unidentified sources. Wikileaks has longs supported Edward Snowden, who has been on the run from authorities in the United States since 2013 after releasing a slew of classified documents from his work as a National Security Agency contractor.

Donation efforts are designed to help Snowden through his current legal predicament, in which the United States seeks to bring him back to face trial.

Wikileaks turning to bitcoin, to many in the community, was an inevitable thing. With pressure from world governments, traditional processors like VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, and others imposed a banking blockade on the funding of their operation.

With no central authority to say what can and cannot be transmitted, it highlights just one of many benefits of bitcoin — with nobody on the other end to say “no

QuickBooks Online Adds Support for ‘PayByCoin’ For Bitcoin Payments

Intuit’s QuickBooks Online has become the first cloud accounting system to allow small businesses to accept bitcoin payments, we’re learning via a blog post sent to us by a company spokesperson earlier today

The California-based company’s new PayByCoin service has been made possible through an integration between QuickBooks Online and Coinbase — a bitcoin merchant services provider and broker.

For the small businesses using QuickBooks Online to generate their electronic invoices, PayByCoin comes as a free add-on, which is certainly convenient.

Here’s how the whole thing works, as explained by Intuit:

1. The small business owner/operator must first register with Coinbase and link their wallets to their existing QuickBooks Online account.

2. Customers who receive and invoice have the option to pay by traditional means (credit card, etc.), but also have the option to pay in bitcoin.

3. Intuit isn’t charging any fee for the service (although Coinbase does charge a 1 percent fee after the first $1 million in sales).

The company explains:

Intuit is providing the connectivity and software services to direct customers to the small business operators CoinBase wallet, and to record the transactions in QuickBooks Online. Intuit will not receive or hold any funds related to the PayByCoin transactions, either in USD or Bitcoins.

It’s an interesting development in the world of bitcoin e-commerce, especially seeing such a large company getting involved with the digital currency in this manner.

As a business owner, how inclined would you be to use this service?

Project Skyhook Announces Shipment of 150th Bitcoin ATM

Bitcoin ATMs: they’ve become so very popular. A point proven today by Project Skyhook, who announced via their blog that they have shipped their 150th unit.

Demand for the Skyhook units have been quite high primarily given their low-cost pricing. Compared to competitors’ pricing, the Skyhook only runs at $999, and Project Skyhook says that demand “is very strong, and growing every day.”

In the past month, the team says they’ve sold 70 ATMs, and they’re apparently projecting even greater demand in the next month.

“Our goal this year is to sell 1,000 units, and thanks to our great customers (seriously, we love you, thank you), we’re strongly on track to meet that goal,” they write.

The team also notes that customer issues with the machines have been minimal, adding they’ve “gotten a lot of great testimonials and very creative use stories.”

They write:

Our goal with Skyhook has been to make it possible for everyone to become a Bitcoin exchange, so that the buying of Bitcoin is easy, accessible, and not restricted to a single central source. We’re happy that people are using Skyhook ATMs to make it easy for everyone to buy Bitcoins, and we’re proud of our role in improving the Bitcoin ecosystem by reducing our dependence on centralized exchanges.

Skyhook ATMs are designed to be easy to manufacture, and even feature a pre-installed tablet to act as the touch screen interface.

Most recently, Canadian start-up Quadriga CX announced plans to install 30 of the devices throughout Vancouver

.

Meet Australia’s Newest Bitcoin Exchange: CoinTree

The evolution of bitcoin exchanges over the past year and a half have been interesting. We’ve seen many exchanges come and go, and our Australian friends may be pleased to know their country now has another option for trading digital currency.

It’s called CoinTree, and it’s based in Melbourne and run by two software engineers (who thankfully also happen to be members of the bitcoin community) who have a combined twenty years of experience in building global software (they also frequently attend the Melbourne bitcoin meetup if you want to meet them).

From what I’ve observed, the website appears to be fairly well designed. And they have this great instant demo that allows you to try out the system without having an account.

Also interesting: when a user makes a deposit into their secure wallet on CoinTree, they can actually verify the balance using a block chain explorer so they know exactly where their money is.

Fees are important, and according to the exchange’s announcement today on Reddit, there aren’t any buy or sell fees on the platform. There also aren’t any fees to withdraw bitcoin from the exchange. If you are, however, looking to withdraw in cash, a 2 percent fee will apply.

Of course, they’re only getting started here, so it will be a while before we know if this platform will take off. But hey, at least there’s another option available.

For additional details, visit cointree.com.au.

BTC-e Establishes New PAMM Service

Popular cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e announced via their website this week that they are now offering traders their new PAMM service, a first in the sector.

PAMM — or Percent Allocation Management Module — will allow BTC-e investors to follow the trading strategies (using a slave account) of both professional and experienced traders (a master account).

Over the past several years PAMM technology has been extensively used by traders in the currency exchange markets. It is a proven and effective instrument for money management, investments and strategy copying. BTC-e is the first crypto-currency exchange to make PAMM accounts available for bitcoin traders.

Explained by BTC-e:

Traders can select a suitable strategy with the help of PAMM account rating and graphs that display the Master’s trading results in the past. The Master uses his own capital for trading and trades via the Meta Trader 4 terminal. And his trading strategy is replicated on an unlimited number of ‘Slave’ accounts. As a remuneration the Master receives part of the profit from each ‘Slave account’, that follows his strategy. Profits and remuneration are calculated automatically within the PAMM technology and are paid strictly on time.

The idea is to allow anyone — new or experienced — to get in the game and start generating profits. And the addition of the feature is reflective of BTC-e’s desire to remain one of the top crypto exchanges today.

It will certainly need some time to get off the ground, but it will be interesting to see where this goes in the weeks ahead. If you’re looking for additional information on this, you can visit pamm.btc-e.com

.