Welcome back and Happy December!
Thanks to all who sent Thanksgiving tips in response to my post on Wed. Andrew (and Yonny) have done an incredible job consistently writing up summaries of the most important industry news that doesn’t necessarily make it above the fold. (I just binge re-read three months worth of Tid Bits, and picked up a few things that I had originally missed.) They kept on top of things over the break as well, so today I’ll let you enjoy the plethora of holiday Tid Bits.
Speaking of which, a quick anecdote: despite my stunted growth, I played basketball in high school, but never went out for the football team until my senior year. The head coach who wanted me to join the team always used to say, “It’s never too late to do the right thing” after I’d tell him it was too late for me to try-out for football. Ultimately, I relented, and the phrase stuck with me despite my ultimate senior-year on-field performance — which was about what you would expect from a cement-footed rookie.
Anyway, my point is that it’s never too late to do the right thing and tip the interns, even if you missed the Thanksgiving Bit. Tomorrow is “Giving Tuesday”, so you’ve got one more day.
[I included the above anecdote because I know 50% of you hate the side stories, and the other 50% like them.]
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RFBs (Request for Bits)
I’m a monolingual, waspy American male (in the plurality of bitcoiners, I think), so almost by definition I’m missing a large chunk of the real Bitcoin story. I continue to think that the only real (near-term) consumer adoption of digital currencies will happen in developing economies, but it’s hard for me to keep tabs on the global scene when there’s so much happening in the US. That’s why I’m going to enlist some local experts to help co-author Bits that give an overview of their respective regions. Whether you want to take a crack at a full draft, or merely send me a list of the top ten articles / stories from each region, or something in between, I would love to write one post a week about one of these non-US countries/regions with some guest regional contributors.
This will be a major new addition to the Daily Bit in 2015. This won’t just be of the “Around the World in 60 Seconds” variety, but full-length posts.
The West
Canada
Argentina
Mexico
Brazil
Elsewhere in Latin America
Caribbean
Middle East & Africa
Israel
MENA
Turkey
Kenya (include M-Pesa news)
Elsewhere in Africa
Asia
China (1 update per month)
Hong Kong & Singapore
India
Japan
Korea
SE Asia and Islands
Philippines
Thailand
Indonesia
Australia
Europe
UK / Ireland
France
Germany
Switzerland
Northern Europe
Southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, etc.)
Turkey
Russia
Interested in covering one of these? Send me an email 2bitidiot@gmail.com and include the country you like in the subject line.
Certified Bitcoin Professionals
The Digital Currency Council is seeking feedback from members of the Bitcoin community on its certification exams for lawyers, accountants, and financial professionals. Share comments, edit sample questions, and propose new core competency areas that would help professional advisors master Bitcoin.
https://github.com/DigitalCurrencyCouncil/CertificationExam/blob/master/README.md
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Bolt, San Francisco (VC-backed)
-Stealth startup focused on consumer applications of Bitcoin.
-Open positions: Security Engineer, Ruby Engineer, UI/UX Designer, Executive Assistant.
-Check out Bolt (bolt.com) and email jobs@bolt.com.
Elliptic, London (VC-backed)
-Vault and enterprise digital currency services.
-Open positions: Software engineers and business development gurus.
-Learn more and apply at elliptic.workable.com
Today’s Tid Bits
HSBC Severs Links With Firm Behind Bitcoin Fund
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-jersey-30261976
HSBC, the New York based corporate bank, has ended its commitment with the world’s first regulated Bitcoin investment fund, the Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund (GABI). Global Advisors, the hedge fund behind the investment fund claims the bank was worried about the “money laundering risk,” with regard to bitcoin. However, GABI and the Global Advisors hedge fund are tightly regulated. GABI has said to find another bank, but it is not in New Jersey.
Citi Chief Economist: Bitcoin is Closest Commodity to Gold
http://www.coindesk.com/citi-chief-economist-bitcoin-closest-commodity-gold/
Citi’s chief economist argued in a research note published last week that gold is a commodity like bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The research note was in regard to Switzerland’s proposed popular referendum, which would require the Swiss National Bank to hold a fifth of its assets in gold. Williem Buiter, Citi’s chief economist, argues that gold can be thought of as a “fiat commodity,” but does point out that he believes gold and bitcoin are in “benign bubbles.”
Airbnb Warming to Bitcoin, Invites Coinbase to HQ
http://cointelegraph.com/news/113020/airbnb-warming-to-bitcoin-invites-coinbase-to-hq
Private accommodation giant, Airbnb has invited Coinbase to its San Francisco headquarters on December 3rd to give a talk about the blockchain and bitcoin. However Airbnb seems to believe, “the real power of Bitcoin stem from its underlying decentralized ledger, the blockchain,” and describes bitcoin as having a “wildly fluctuating price.” It is too early to speculate on whether Airbnb will be considering using bitcoin as a payment option.
Program Offers Bitcoin Entrepreneurs Camplike Atmosphere
http://online.wsj.com/articles/program-offers-bitcoin-entrepreneurs-camplike-atmosphere-1417398720
The Wall Street Journal covered the Boost program, a bitcoin boot camp for aspiring entrepreneurs and their startups. The Draper family, one of Silicon Valley’s most storied families, backs the program, and the program is starting to focus exclusively on bitcoin. Boost invests $10,000 to $20,000 for a 6% stake in each company in the boot camp. The participants bunk together in a dorm like hotel, across the street form the offices, providing a camplike atmosphere.
Purse.io Closes $300k Funding to Expand Amazon Discount Service
http://www.coindesk.com/purse-io-closes-300k-funding-expand-amazon-discount-service/
A San Francisco-based startup that allows people to buy items on Amazon using bitcoin, Purse.io has closed a $300,000 seed-funding round. Roger Ver, Bobby Lee and Terrence Yang all took part in the funding round, which will be used to build bitcoin apps and improve the user experience. Purse.io works as a peer-to-peer, marketplace, matching customers wishing to purchase bitcoin using their credit cards with bitcoin holders who want to spend their bitcoin with Amazon. Purse.io usually achieves a discount rate of around 20% for bitcoin shoppers on Amazon and currently has more than 12,000 users with monthly transactions greater than $120,000.
Usual Suspects Return to Bid in Latest US Marshals Bitcoin Auction
http://www.coindesk.com/usual-suspects-return-bid-latest-us-marshals-bitcoin-auction/
The second planned auction of the 50,000 bitcoin seized by the US Marshals Service has attracted many of the same bidders who participated in the first auction in June. Including Binary Financial, Bitcoin Investment Trust, Bitcoins Reserve, Mirror, Pantera Capital, and Tim Draper. The 50,000 BTC represents just a portion of the 144,000 BTC originally confiscated from Ulbricht. The auction will take place on Thursday, December 4th.
Kraken Bitcoin Operator to Help Liquidate Mt. Gox
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/11/25/kraken-bitcoin-operator-to-help-liquidate-mt-gox/
Payward Inc., operator of the Kraken bitcoin exchange, will help Mt. Gox investigate the loss of its bitcoin and manage the process of paying back its creditors. A Tokyo bankruptcy court approved the agreement on Monday. In February Mt, Gox one of the world’s largest bitcoin exchanges failed and lost 850,000 bitcoin, most belonging to around 127,000 creditors. Kraken will pay 30 million yen to Mt. Gox creditors at the end of the liquidation process, but will not seek to rehabilitate Mt. Gox or buy any of its assets. Jesse Powell Kraken’s CEO said he volunteered to help out to, “Minimize damage to creditors, restore faith in the bitcoin community, and demonstrate trusted leadership in the industry.”
GAW Miners to Launch Bitcoin Challenger, Paycoin
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/11/25/bitbeat-gaw-miners-to-launch-bitcoin-challenger-paycoin/
Josh Garza CEO of GAW Miners, the company that has built the world’s fastest growing bitcoin mining operation, recently launched the ICO (initial coin offering) of its latest project Paycoin. Paycoin, previously named Hashcoin, is modeled on bitcoin and the blockchain, but paycoin’s blockchain is independent of bitcoin’s and will involve an additional layer of mining computers beyond the base level of miners. The higher-level of miners will compress data to make Paycoin transactions more streamlined, making it much faster than the 10-minute time frame it takes to confirm bitcoin transactions. The coin opens to the public on January 2nd with an expected market cap of $250 million.
Bitcoin May Be Exempted from VAT, Says Dutch Minister
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-may-exempted-vat-says-dutch-minister/
Although it is not yet the official position of the Dutch government, it was implied that if you are making a purchase using bitcoin in the Netherlands, you may soon be exempt form the value added tax (VAT). Under current Dutch law bitcoin sales are not seen as exchanges causing for the exemption. This means that bitcoin exchanges, marketplaces and other professionals based in the Netherlands will not have to pay the VAT as well. The UK and Finland also have exempted bitcoin from the VAT.
Who Will Benefit From Digital Currency? Bitcoin Experiment Gives a Glimpse
http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/11/26/who-will-benefit-from-digital-currency-bitcoin-experiment-gives-a-glimpse/
Forbes conducted an interview with a Stanford Business School professor and economist Susan Athey on digital currencies. Today, they discussed the MIT bitcoin experiment where every undergrad will receive $100 in bitcoin. Professor Athey discusses community adoption, compares Venmo to bitcoin, where students could spend bitcoin, and whom she thinks will benefit most from bitcoin. She concludes that people who conduct payments internationally especially those in developing countries, and those who are “unbanked” would benefit the most form bitcoin. Professor Athey is also a board member of Ripple Labs.
Chamber of Digital Commerce Taps Matthew Mellon to Help Ease Bitcoin’s Banking Woes
http://www.coindesk.com/chamber-of-digital-commerce-matthew-mellon/
Matthew Mellon, bitcoin entrepreneur and banking professional, is the new honorary executive committee chairman of the Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC). Mellon founded Coin.co and was the former finance committee chairman for the New York State Republican Party. Mellon’s focus will be on growing the level of bank involvement in the bitcoin industry. US-based bitcoin startups have been struggling to secure banking partners, and the CDC will hope to alleviate this problem.
Have a tip or feedback? Email me! (2bitidiot@gmail.com)