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Bitcoin News Bits - May 13th, 2013

2013-05-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

I get quite a few emails from people looking to promote their products, services, events, and sites. Unfortunately I don't have the time to get back to everyone in a prompt manner, but I can assure you that all of your emails are read and I always take the time to check out your sites.

Here are the latest and greatest:

Pocket Rockets Casino - A new Bitcoin poker room (there are actually a bunch of new ones as of late) just opened up, called "Pocket Rockets Casino." They went live on April 16th. It's a great browser-based poker experience that just needs some players to get the ball rolling, which is usually the first big struggle for any poker site. They appear to be running some decent promotions to get bums in the seats, so be sure to check them out!

Silk Road - WhoisHostingThis.com put together a great infographic that questions the dependency of Bitcoin on Silk Road, and whether Bitcoin can survive without its most infamous service. Personally, I think if Silk Road disappeared, there would be another Silk Road ready to take its place. The bigger question being asked here is, "will anonymous transactions continue to be a mainstay of the Bitcoin economy?" I don't think there's any doubt about that.

Ripple Giveaway - If you were lucky enough to sign up to the Ripple email list prior to May 9th, then some free Ripples (XRP) are headed your way! Nobody knows how many are going to be given away this time around, but I'm going to venture a guess and say 1000ish to each person.

CoinCliff - Are you *still* staring at Bitcoinity or Clarkmoody, watching every Bitcoin trade? Well, stop! Get CoinCliff for Android (iOS coming soon) instead and set a variety of configurable alarms to let you get back to living your life again! By the way, if you've been staring at Bitcoin prices over the last week, you're more patient than I am.

The Bitcoin Catalog - Until I read The Bitcoin Catalog, I wasn't aware of how many Bitcoin sites existed that I hadn't even heard of; there are lots! The Bitcoin Catalog does a beautiful job of listing hundreds of Bitcoin-related sites, and would look great on a coffee table or in a waiting room. Be sure to take a look at the online .pdf version as well.

Inside Bitcoins (July 30th, NYC) - All eyes are focused on the Bitcoin 2013 conference, kicking off in San Jose this Friday (yours truly will be there). As a result, I bet most of you aren't aware that another big conference is planned just over two months later, on the east coast in New York City! "Inside Bitcoins" will take place at the New Yorker Hotel, and Charlie Shrem will be there to preach the good Bitcoin word!

WalletRSS - Looking for a way to track your Bitcoin transactions without opening your wallet? Check out WalletRSS and get real-time transaction info sent to the RSS applications that you already use!

BitcoinPaperWallet - One of the most secure ways to create a Bitcoin wallet is to do it on paper and store it safely. Keep in mind that no method is fool-proof, but BitcoinPaperWallet has done an amazing job of providing a free design for anyone looking to print their own paper Bitcoin wallet. Follow the additional security instructions for additional peace of mind.

I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam."

2013-05-08T17:34:00.001-07:00

I received an interesting message in my bitcointalk.org inbox today. It said that a user going by the name of 'TradeFortress' was paying forum members 5 BTC to edit their posts in this thread to say that, "Ripple is a scam."

This is the exact text he wanted each user to post:

"Ripple is a scam! Ripple is a get rich quick scheme for it's creators, a private for-profit company. It is NOT open source. It is CENTRALIZED, akin to PayPal rather than Bitcoin. For more info, visit RippleScam.org."

Ironically, in the earlier days of Bitcoin (2010, 2011, and well into 2012), the same accusations were spread about Bitcoin. Bitcoin was a "Ponzi-scheme," "pyramid scheme," "scam," etc. The same Bitcoin supporters that fought these accusations tooth and nail are now saying the same thing about Ripple.

Ripple is led by Jed McCaleb (founder of MtGox, eDonkey) and Chris Larsen (e-loan, Prosper.com), both successful businessmen who do not have an interest in sullying their good names.

Arthur Britto, Stefan Thomas, and David Schwartz are major contributors to Ripple's development, and all played an active role in Bitcoin's early successes.

OpenCoin, the company overseeing Ripple, has already raised venture capital from firms led by the co-founders of PayPal and Netscape. These firms do not invest in scams, but in companies with unique ideas that will turn a significant profit if successful.

Ripple will only be successful if it's able to provide its users with the ability to send quick, cheap transactions to anyone, anywhere in the world, using any currency. Its intended goal is to let users do just that, in their currency of choice, as easy as it is to send an email.

Some Bitcoin users, like TradeFortress, are afraid of the idea of a central organization driving the development of such a capability. They think that if anyone is in charge, and if that anyone might turn a profit, then it's not in the best interest of anyone to use their service. Some Bitcoin users, like TradeFortress, are adamant about this, to the point that they're willing to pay out thousands of dollars worth of Bitcoin to get their message across. Ironically, a very large percentage of Bitcoin users are hoarding Bitcoins to do just that, turn a profit. Profit is fine for them, as long as it's just for them.

If Ripple is a scam, and its users are unable to take advantage of Ripple's services as advertised, then Ripple will quickly disappear as another failed business. If the fact that a centrally organized team is driving the development of a product equates to "scam," (this is the main argument) then pretty much every product and service you've ever used is also a scam.

You've probably heard that large websites like Reddit and OKCupid are now accepting Bitcoin. The fact of the matter is, they're not accepting Bitcoin at all. They're actually accepting US dollars. Reddit and OKCupid are using the services of a company called Coinbase that instantly converts Bitcoin payments into US dollars for a small fee. Reddit and OKCupid don't want Bitcoins because they can't pay their employees or their bills with Bitcoins, but they can do that with US dollars. In other words, large corporations aren't interested in Bitcoins themselves, but in the savings that can be had by using Bitcoin as a value-transfer mechanism, or protocol.

Similarly, Ripple is a protocol for sending money, but with Ripple you don't have to buy a digital currency like Bitcoin to get your money from A to B. You can send USD, EUR, CAD, AUD, whatever you wish, and as more Gateways come online, more currencies will become accessible. As long as you have a very small quantity of Ripples (XRP) in your account (just one or two dollars worth), you'll be able to complete thousands of transactions. This is Ripple's main advantage over Bitcoin, and why a lot of Bitcoin users are afraid of it.

Even Roger Ver, a.k.a. "Bitcoin Jesus" has to pay his supply chain to keep the Bitcoin Store running, so he can't use Bitcoins either. Roger Ver doesn't accept Bitcoin, he accepts US dollars from BitPay. If even Bitcoin Jesus isn't interested in Bitcoins themselves, then why not let customers use their local currencies from the get-go and take out the Bitcoin middleman? If the same, or even greater savings can be had with a better protocol, then why not use Ripple?

---

As always, do your due diligence, and come to your own conclusions. I can assure you that Ripple is not a scam, but I can't guarantee that it isn't a threat to Bitcoin.

Ripple is now a Tsunami!

2013-05-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

Just like that, Ripple's market cap now exceeds that of Bitcoin. There are a lot of people asking just what the heck is going on, and of course, trying to figure out if this is just another digital currency bubble.

Taking into consideration the total number of Ripples (XRP), that is, 100 billion, and the current exchange rate of approximately 70 XRP/USD, the XRP market cap is $1.43 billion USD. Bitcoin's market cap is currently $1.30 billion USD.

Clearly the XRP exchange rate has been influenced by the limited supply of XRP. The question is, how many are actually "floating" and how many have been locked away by OpenCoin and the founders?

We do know that the founders have retained 20 billion XRP, and that OpenCoin controls 80 billion XRP. Of that 80 billion, 50 billion are being "given away," though how that is happening is a bit of an unknown. It's likely that giveaways like the one we saw on the bitcointalk.org forum are the exception and not the rule. OpenCoin is probably paying developers in large lots of XRP to help build Ripple's infrastructure and applications.

Six days ago, someone put together a spreadsheet that lists all non-zero Ripple accounts and their XRP holdings. From this list, we can make some educated guesses:

There are 99.25 billion XRP in the top 55 accounts, with the smallest one holding 40 million XRP. These are likely OpenCoin holdings or those of major investors. We can safely assume that none of these coins are in circulation.

There are another 17 accounts with exactly 10 million XRP that, again, are not likely in circulation. That brings the total number of "institutionally held" XRP to 99.42 billion.

The total number of XRP that are actually being bought and sold right now is therefore in the 500 million range. At 70 XRP to the USD, they would be worth just over $7 million USD, a realistic estimate of how much fiat and BTC has been deposited into Ripple.

Account number nine on the spreadsheet is of great interest, as it appears as one of the nine billion XRP accounts, but one that has been drawn down by 1.421 billion XRP. What is this account being used for? Perhaps for actual giveaways, or for selling Ripples to re-sellers such as BitStamp or xrptrader.com.

Sources tell me that, in the same vein as what has been happening with Bitcoin, Chinese investors have shown great interest in Ripple, and are responsible for a non-trivial fraction of the recent rise in XRP valuation.

So what is Ripple actually worth? As a protocol, it has Bitcoin beat hands down. Remember that most merchants do not accept Bitcoin directly, instead, they use services like BitPay to instantly convert Bitcoins to fiat. A good portion of Bitcoin's utility is as a protocol, not as a store of value. We will probably see much of Bitcoin's protocol-driven business move into Ripple as additional gateways, like the soon-to-be open Kraken, come online. If Ripple's "Federation Protocol" gains traction, we could very easily see a market cap in excess of $10 billion USD within a year.

Remember that Ripple's key investors have connections to PayPal and Dwolla, and will want to bring them on as Ripple Gateways. Such a move would boost Ripple's valuation well into the stratosphere, leaving Bitcoin behind as a beta-version afterthought.

Expect to see some interesting discussion, debate, and hopefully some big revelations at this year's Ripple... err... Bitcoin Conference in San Jose in two weeks. With the drama surrounding CoinBase and MtGox, and the explosion of interest in Ripple, the timing couldn't be better.

2.5Mb of Wikileaks Cables Embedded in the Bitcoin Blockchain

2013-04-23T20:01:00.001-07:00

John Robb, a writer at Resilient Communities, just tweeted that a large amount of Wikileaks cable data has been embedded in the blockchain.

There are indeed methods for embedded text in the blockchain, the most famous being Satoshi Nakamoto's entry in the first block, "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."

Some worry that child pornography could be stored in the blockchain, thus implicating anyone who downloads it, though the illegality of that is rather questionable.

Some guy just put 2.5 Mb of Wikileaks cables into the Bitcoin blockchain.It's out there forever now.Very cool use of the tech.
— John Robb (@johnrobb) April 24, 2013

Bitcoin/Ripple Market Sets Daily Volume Record

2013-04-14T13:28:00.002-07:00

Is Ripple riding on the coattails of Bitcoin's sudden rise to fame, or is its popularity a result of the recent press release regarding some high profile investors?

Either way, today was a big day for the Ripple (XRP) market. Over 300 Bitcoins worth of Ripples were traded on the distributed exchange, blowing the previous record of 92 out of the water, and the day isn't over yet.

Courtesy of RippleCharts.com

Total USD inside the Ripple network was hovering around $80,000 today, while total BTC was around 1300.

Ripples were trading for between 25,000 and 40,000 to the Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Alliance of Canada Makes Debut

2013-04-14T09:59:00.001-07:00

By gathering key industry players The Bitcoin Alliance of Canada's goal is to cultivate Bitcoin knowledge and involvement nationwide.

WireService.ca Press Release - 04/13/2013 - The concept behind the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada (BAC) was inspired by the need for accurate and professional media coverage of Bitcoin in Canada. Both on television and online, news typically doesn't properly address the dynamic aspects of Bitcoin. However, with Bitcoin use skyrocketing globally, the need for more concise and insightful information will only increase. The BAC is poised to become a reliable source of that information.

Knowledgeable Bitcoin users, those who are fluent in economics, those with a story to share, and merchants looking to start accepting Bitcoin will be key players in the development of Bitcoin in Canada. The BAC will exist to explain Bitcoin with clarity and professionalism. With more and more cryptocurrencies cropping up, businesses in Canada both interested in or already using electronic cash should keep up with news and facts surrounding these varied systems. The BAC hopes to strengthen the Bitcoin community by making all the news and facts accessible to the general public. The BAC will strive to clearly express new and foreign concepts common to emerging currencies like Bitcoin in order to avoid misconceptions and confusion, and to better appeal to a broad audience.

Support and interest is welcome in this endeavor to establish a strong, knowledgeable market in Canada that understands and accepts Bitcoin. For media requests, general inquires, or to participate please contact the BAC.

Contact:
Anthony Di Iorio
Founding Member, BAC
416-831-9593
adiiorio@bitcoinalliance.ca
www.bitcoinalliance.ca

News Bits - April 11th, 2013

2013-04-11T16:45:00.001-07:00

Winklevoss Twins own 1% of all Bitcoins;

Fair and positive analysis of Bitcoin on Bloomberg TV today;

Tired of staring at the ticker all day? Try BTC Track;

A new online marketplace, BitPapa, is launching this month;

Trading will resume on Mt.Gox at 7pm Pacific;

Ripple is starting to make waves in the media.

A Gorgeous Visualization of Key Bitcoin Statistics

2013-04-08T21:30:00.001-07:00

A Bitcoin enthusiast working for Tableau Software forwarded me the code for an incredible visualization of stats regarding Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related statistics. I had to squish it a bit to fit in on my blog, but you can find it here.

Learn About Tableau

Ripple Coin Flip, the SatoshiDice of Ripple?

2013-04-07T21:42:00.003-07:00

I came across Ripple Coin Flip on the bitcointalk forums and decided to give it a try. There's only one available address to send to and it gives you a 49% chance of doubling your money. The ripple address is rEgXAZiBKcLPo64wRd5JaASpZ8mGidfZiX if you want to try it for yourself. Watch this video to see how well it works!

Drew Carey and Roseanne Barr are Bitcoin Fans!

2013-04-07T11:26:00.000-07:00

Just tried to buy breakfast w bitcoins. Refused. #whenwilltheworldcatchuptomyhipness?
— Drew Carey (@DrewFromTV) April 7, 2013

Leave your Narrow Corridors. Leave all limited thought. Dream the Dreams of poets and pirates. Ahoy me mateys! YE R WATCHIN' BITCOIN B BORN
— Roseanne Barr (@TheRealRoseanne) March 26, 2013

Bitcoin in Video: Coverage from the Last Week (Part 2)

2013-04-07T11:12:00.001-07:00

See Part 1 here.

Bitcoin in Video: Coverage from the Last Week (Part 1)

2013-04-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

For your convenience, here are six videos that captured the excitement in the media surrounding Bitcoin over the last week. The last one is a great documentary put together by Bitcoin Magazine and the GoldMoney Foundation. Click here to see eight more videos.

$200 USD on Monday? GoWest and Hazek Jr Debate the Possibility

2013-04-07T09:41:00.001-07:00

An excerpt from a Skype discussion...

GoWest: This morning's trading activity has been absolutely mesmerizing, if not unbelievable. In the nearly two years I've been following Bitcoin, I can't remember the last time I've seen such a bullish run this early on a Sunday. It seems quite likely that we could hit $200/BTC as early as Monday.

hazek jr: I agree, the Bitcoin exchange rate is going full retard at the moment, and what is happening today on a Sunday typically shouldn't be happening. So in my disbelief I cannot agree that we will reach $200 that fast. I'm as confident as ever we will get there eventually but we need to take a break first, wait for traders to take some profits perhaps with a temporary top just below $190 and then in a day or two we can make a $200 attempt.

GoWest: You have to keep in mind that last week's press coverage was unparalleled. I guarantee that, in response, some deep pockets lined up to get their money into Mt.Gox. At a rate of 1000 account verifications a day, which seems to be the case, anyone who got in line early last week will be able to get their funds into Mt.Gox when the banks open in Japan on Monday or on Tuesday (which is still Monday over here in North America). There's plenty of time for fiat to rush in and give us the boost we need to soar past the $200 or $2.2 billion mark. As I'm typing this, we've hit $163, with over 1000 BTC support above $159.

hazek jr: That's an excellent point, Mt.Gox does open their offices with quite a nice head-start before the rest of us which could yield just enough of a push. However if one examines a bit of trading history from the past 6 months, one could easily see the same potential momentum in buying getting accumulated which then simply needed to face a psychological barrier, for how ever short period of time, before being able to push through. That's why I stand by my prediction, $200 no sooner than Wednesday.

GoWest: Alright, so we're only arguing about 48 hours here. Here's some food for thought: you only have to get an account verified with Mt.Gox if you're going to deposit (or withdraw) more than $50,000 USD. Anyone else is simply waiting for an "ID check." What percentage of those 14,180 accounts are getting an ID check and how many are dealing with $50,000? What's 14,180 accounts (the current waiting list) x $50,000 USD? That's $709 million. That's right, $709 million dollars. Even if only 2% of the accounts are dealing with $50,000, that's still $14,000,000. I'm beginning to think that $200 may be a low-ball estimate for Monday.

hazek jr: Ok, you're on!

The Mt.Gox Verification Queue: 14,180 Users!

2013-04-06T13:24:00.002-07:00

I just received a report from a friend that the Mt.Gox verification queue, as of eight minutes ago, is now 14,180 users long.

Fourteen thousand, one hundred and eighty users! That's a lot of money about to flow into Bitcoin.

Six days ago the queue was reported to be over 8300, with approximately 1000 accounts being verified daily; that works out to 12,000 new accounts in the last week.

Update:

Why is there a requirement to verify an account? From Mt.Gox:

"If you plan to invest more than 50,000 USD or equivalent on the long term in bitcoins, we need to know about you. In this case please use our verification system to get your account verified first.

Please also be advised that all deposits are subject to an ID check by our AML team and this process would take up to 1 business day. First-timer depositors are requested to upload their copy of the official ID to facilitate this process (you will not have to be fully verified at this point if your deposit is lower than 50,000 USD)."

So, how many of these 14,180 users are planning to invest over $50,000? How much money is that in total? The implications are staggering.

TorBroker - The Silk Road of Stock Brokers

2013-04-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

A daring new service, "TorBroker," was quietly announced in the gambling (how ironic) sub-forum of bitcointalk.org last week.

TorBroker does for securities trading what Silk Road did for the drug trade, allowing users to buy and sell any of nearly 1000 stocks and ETFs anonymously and under the cover of the Tor network. Users fund their accounts with Bitcoin and pay a 1% fee to buy and sell securities.

The main selling points of the service are that users can access publicly traded securities without providing any identifying information, not even an email address, while masking their IP addresses through the Tor network, and of course, dodging capital gains taxes. Trades can only be executed at the opening bell, so day traders won't find this service overly useful.

Can you trust TorBroker to not run away with your Bitcoins? Well, there's an interesting answer, with a dramatic Bitcoin twist. Roger Ver, a.k.a. "Bitcoin Jesus," was contacted by the creators of TorBroker and was asked if he'd be willing to hold 1000 BTC as a security bond that could be used to pay back users in the event that TorBroker disappeared. Here's the full quote:

"I don't know TorBroker or any of the people behind it, but about a month and a half ago they contacted me, and at least one other well known member of the Bitcoin community, and asked us to publicly hold 1,000 BTC as a security bond that would be used to refund customers if TorBroker ever disappeared with their customers money.

While I fully support TorBroker's efforts to bring additional economic freedom to traditional financial markets, legally it didn't seem safe for me to be the front man for this.

The fact that they were looking for someone to hold this bond seems to be a strong indication that they are in this for the long term, and do not intend to disappear with everyone's money.

If the regulators are able to uncover the true identities of the TorBroker accounts, I am sure that they (the regulators) will steal everyone's money though.

I wish TorBroker the best of luck, and financial tyrants the worst."

No doubt, if the Silk Road has pissed off the FBI, TorBroker is really going to get the SEC's skivvies in a knot!

TorBroker can be accessed with the Tor Browser at http://torbrokerge7zxgq.onion.

The Bitcoin Bubble

2013-04-02T22:34:00.003-07:00

More people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing...

(it's not a bubble, it's a positive feedback loop).

And there it is... Bitcoin has hit $100!

2013-04-01T07:38:00.001-07:00

I probably should've prepared something for this moment, but to be honest, I had no idea it would come this soon.

$100 US per Bitcoin; amazing.

That's a market cap of 1.1 billion...

This blog has really become an archive of the trials and tribulations of Bitcoin, as we crashed from $30 all the way down to $2 and, the slow... very slow recovery and renaissance.

What a ride, what a ride.

Congratulations, Bitcoin!

Stage Set for Surge to $100/BTC

2013-03-29T21:05:00.002-07:00

Back when I proposed Bitcoin might hit $100 USD in 2013, I definitely did not expect it could happen within six weeks.

The media coverage and overall interest in Bitcoin has surged to remarkable levels. BBC, CBC, FOX, Bloomberg, Forbes, CNN, you name it, they've all run Bitcoin stories in the past two weeks.

Tradehill is back, ASICs are flashed up around the world.

There have been 243,000 downloads of the Bitcoin client in the last month.

On March 28th, 4824 users were on the Bitcointalk forums simultaneously, beating the June 19th, 2011 record by over 1000 users.

Bitcoin is now seen as a real alternative to fiat, thanks to the fiasco that is Cyprus.

There's $11 million in open bids on Mt.Gox, and only $2.5 million in asks. The wait list for account verification on Mt.Gox is over 4000 users.

Weekends are notoriously bearish for Bitcoin, but huge bid walls, amounting to over 10,000 BTC above $90 are now in place.

Is this a bubble, or the next step in a global financial revolution? You be the judge, but if I were you I wouldn't get in the way of this freight train.

Lifeboat Foundation to Match First 500 BTC in Donations

2013-03-19T18:44:00.001-07:00

The following press release can be seen in HTML format at http://lifeboat.com/ex/press.releases.bitcoins

LIFEBOAT FOUNDATION ENTERS 21ST CENTURY

Brian Cartmell makes large bitcoin pledge enabling the Lifeboat Foundation to start the process of changing its source of funding from 20th century money to 21st century money.

Story

March 20, 2013 -- While the Lifeboat Foundation was founded in the 21st century, until recently it was mainly funded using 20th century money, basically various types of monies backed by governments. Thanks to the encouragement of some of our larger donors we are now working to have the majority of our funding come from 21st century money -- money backed not by governments but by algorithms. The 21st century money Lifeboat is currently focused on is bitcoins.

Our Brian Cartmell will match the next 500 bitcoins donated. Learn about our growing bitcoin endowment fund (worth almost $40,000) at https://lifeboat.com/ex/bitcoins.

The attempted EU-IMF grab of bank accounts that held government-backed money was the key event that caused the Lifeboat Foundation to feel that the time for 21st century money was here.

About Lifeboat Foundation

The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards the Singularity.

Contacts:

Lifeboat Foundation News office
1638 Esmeralda Avenue
Minden, NV 89423, USA
+1 775-329-0180
press@lifeboat.com

The $8 Million Chart We Should All Be Watching

2013-03-17T08:03:00.001-07:00

Fun fact: did you know that it was only just over a month and a half ago that a new all-time high record was set for the value of bids on MtGox's order book? That record was $3 million USD.

Well, it's over $8 million now.

Chart courtesy of BitcoinX.com

As can be deduced from these three graphs, there is a strong correlation between the sum value of bids in the order book and the exchange rate. If we combine this with reports that there are still thousands of people waiting just to get their MtGox accounts verified, it's become apparent that the case for the current exchange rate being a bubble is getting ever so harder to make.

Perhaps instead of a continuing consolidation period, or even a temporary fall, we are actually poised for an even bigger rise? I believe that would be the correct assessment, given these facts.

I Just Sent Barack Obama 0.2 Bitcoins

2013-03-14T17:33:00.001-07:00

The innovation continues, and this idea is pretty cool. Those of you who are members of the Bitcoin sub-reddit are likely quite familiar with the Bitcointip bot that lets you tip commenters with Bitcoins. The program monitors comments in a limited number of sub-reddits and processes specific commands from those wishing to leave a Bitcoin tip. It's become a really cool way of introducing others to Bitcoin because they do not initially need Bitcoin accounts to receive tips.

Now the idea has been taken to the next level. 'Bitcoin Tipper' performs a similar function to the Reddit bot but applies it to Twitter. A user can create a Bitcoin Tipper account simply by following @bitcointipper and tweeting "@bitcointipper signup." The user will then receive a Bitcoin address which they can load with funds. Once you have money in your account, you can send Bitcoins to anyone with a Twitter account.

With this awesome new service, Twitter has suddenly become a global banking system with 540 million accounts. The best part about this is the ability to tip famous people with Bitcoins; I bet that will make things interesting quickly. To inaugurate this service (no pun intended), my first tip will be going to Barack Obama.

@bitcointipper @barackobama pay 0.2 BTC Welcome to Bitcoin, Mr. President!

— GoWest (@GoWestBTC) March 15, 2013

@barackobama @gowestbtc just paid you 0.2 BTC .
— Bitcoin Tipper (@bitcointipper) March 15, 2013

Breaking: The Blockchain has Forked

2013-03-11T18:11:00.000-07:00

Developers are currently holding an emergency discussion in #bitcoin-dev to determine a way forward.

The gist of the problem is that 0.7 and 0.8 clients have diverged with each building a different blockchain because 0.7 clients did not accept 0.8 blocks from a certain point.

The problem was likely caused by large blocks being rejected by miners running the 0.7 client.

At this point mining pools, merchants, and exchanges are considering taking themselves offline until a way forward is agreed upon. As a result, you may see that your transactions are slow to confirm, though that might be a moot point if the blockchain is rolled back.

This is a dark day for Bitcoin. Implications for the exchange rate will likely be huge... should Bitcoins be sold off prior to the exchanges going offline.

Update: Mt.Gox has temporarily suspended all deposits.

Update 2: The exchange rate has dropped 10% in the last 10 minutes, now $44/Bitcoin.

Update 3: Gavin Andresen has sent out an emergency alert: "URGENT: chain fork, stop mining on version 0.8"

Update 4: It appears as though the solution is going to be to encourage miners to revert to mining on version 0.7 until THAT blockchain is longer than the 0.8 chain, which would then make it the master blockchain.

Update 5: As the miners have taken their machines offline, the rate of block confirmation has dropped substantially. Only one block has been confirmed in the last hour, and even then, the transaction volume on that block was only 25 Bitcoins. It appears that the mining pools are taking coordinated action to address the issue in a timely manner, as they switch over to Bitcoin v0.7.

0143 GMT: Update 6: The v0.7 blockchain is currently 225436 blocks in length, while the v0.8 blockchain is 225446 blocks in length. Until 0.7 is longer than 0.8, the problem will persist.

0148 GMT: Update 7: This was the original announcement of the problem.

0151 GMT: Update 8: From Pieter Wuille, a great explanation of the cause of the fork:

0.7 and older nodes use BDB for storing the blockchain databases. It seems this database has a limit on the size of the modification it can make atomically to the database. With the larger blocks of the past days, it seems to have triggered the limit. The result is that 0.7 (by default, it can be tweaked manually) will not accept "too large" blocks (we don't yet know what exactly causes it, but it is very likely caused by many transactions in the block). Specifically, block
000000000000015c50b165fcdd33556f8b44800c5298943ac70b112df480c023 (height=225430) with >1700 transactions.

However. 0.8 (which uses a different database system) has no such limit, and happily accepts the block. As the majority of the hash power was on 0.8, the longest chain ended up using this block, which is not accepted by older nodes.

The solution is to (for now) go back to the old chain, which has block 00000000000001c108384350f74090433e7fcf79a606b8e797f065b130575932 at height 225430.

0219 GMT: Update 9: The exchange rate is really taking a hit now, down to $41.40 USD, or a 20% drop.

At this point, it's become an over-reaction. As soon as the v0.7-compatible blockchain is longer than the v0.8 blockchain, everything will be back to normal. This has actually been an excellent demonstration of how a decentralized development team and community can come together to resolve a major issue quickly, with minimal impact to the system.

0230 GMT: Update 10: Unfortunately it isn't simply a matter of the miners mining 10 blocks to catch up the 0.8 chain. There is still is considerable amount of hashing power working on the now defunct 0.8 chain and mining pool operators are just beginning the process of switching over to 0.7 (see the thread here). This will be a battle that will last well into the night, and possibly into tomorrow, depending on how quickly the mining power can be switched over. If it wasn't for the existence of pools, this would be like herding mosquitoes, let alone cats.

0249 GMT: Update 11: An important comment on how the blockchain works:

"For any block on the chain, there is only one path to the genesis block. Coming from the genesis block, however, there can be forks. One-block forks are created from time to time when two blocks are created just a few seconds apart. When that happens, generating nodes build onto whichever one of the blocks they received first. Whichever block ends up being included in the next block becomes part of the main chain because that chain is longer. More serious forks have occurred after fixing bugs that required backward-incompatible changes. Blocks in shorter chains (or invalid chains) are called "orphan blocks", and while they are stored, they are not used for anything. When a block becomes an orphan block, all of its valid transactions are re-added to the pool of queued transactions and will be included in another block. "

0300 GMT: Update 12: You can watch the ongoing battle, here, at blockchain.info. The orphaned blocks are part of the 0.7 chain which is trying to catch up to the longer, 0.8 main chain.

0313 GMT: Update 13: As transactions are propagated through the network, they're being added to both forks of the blockchain. One thing to realize, however, is that the block rewards that miners are receiving on the current main chain will be invalid, as the 0.7 chain, which will soon take over, will not recognize those coins.

The exchange rate has already made a miraculous recovery, back to 44.00 USD/Bitcoin.

0321 GMT: Update 14: Please read this update from Gavin Andresen, Bitcoin's lead developer.

0325 GMT: Update 15: Another explanation of what happened tonight:

Kim Dotcom Looking to Create "Megacard," A Bitcoin-Based Credit Card?

2013-03-04T08:50:00.001-08:00

#Megacard: I would love to create a #Bitcoin credit card! Who can help us make it happen? Email: twitter@kim.com
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) March 4, 2013

Looks like Mr .Com has more than a passing interest in Bitcoin after all!

Bitcoin Search Trend Hits 19-Month High

2013-03-03T06:29:00.002-08:00

The recent BTCUSD exchange rate increase has left many wondering how much of it is just speculation based on all the recent good news in the Bitcoin economy (reddit, Mega adoption, Coinbase growth, Bitcoin gambling growth, new Bitcoin stores and services launched, first ASICs delivered, etc..) and how much of it is actually based on sound new adoption.

Here's one decent attempt to make sense of various stats that do in fact support the premise that this is sound growth based on new adoption.

But another very good indicator is the google search trend for the term "Bitcoin" which just hit a new 19-month high:
Mt.Gox BTCUSD rate for the same period:

While it is true that an increased search volume does not necessarily translate into an increased user base it does however indicate a lot more interest in researching Bitcoin which up until now correlated quite well with the exchange rate, so it certainly is a data point to consider in your trading strategy.

The Bitcoin Ladder

2013-02-26T05:30:00.000-08:00

The Bitcoin Ladder ranks Bitcoin-accepting websites by the amount of traffic they receive.

Rung	Site	Alexa Global Ranking
1	Wordpress	21
2	Reddit	122
3	Internet Archive	229
4	OkCupid	684
5	4chan	906
6	Namecheap	915
7	Mega.co.nz	1,310
8	Lumfile	3,354
9	Torrent Leech	5,233
10	Filecloud.io	5,593

18 Apr 2013: OkCupid added, LewRockwell removed.

1 Mar 2013: Mega.co.nz added, OKPAY removed.

26 Feb 2013: Namecheap added, Slysoft removed.

14 Feb 2013: Reddit added, Los Angeles Independent Media Center removed.

19 Jan 2013: OKPAY added, DailyPaul removed.

16 Jan 2013: DailyPaul added, WrapBootstrap removed.

7 Jan 2013: WrapBootstrap added, Tor Project removed.

2 Jan 2013: Slysoft.com added, Erowid removed. 4chan.org added, What.CD removed.