BitPay, Xapo, LibraTax, Roger Ver and others are kicking off an initial fundraising campaign that begins today for the BitGive Foundation. BitGive has received its official 501 (c) (3) status from the IRS, a major achievement that validates BitGive’s approach and efforts.
They are raising initial funds to build their long term fund for charitable giving. BitGive is the first Bitcoin nonprofit organization to receive a 501 (c) (3) approval. In just over a year since its founding, the BitGive Foundation has raised funds and led campaigns donating to several public health and environmental causes.
Connie Gallippi, Executive Director of BitGive shares, “One of our first goals was to secure our 501 (c) (3) status, which enables BitGive to provide US donors a tax deduction for their donation and provides a number of legal and financial benefits to the organization. We are very grateful for the expert legal team we have at Perkins Coie, LLP, who provided pro-bono services to establish the Foundation and apply for this tax exempt designation.”
Gallippi said they can now turn their attention towards establishing a multi-million dollar investment fund to provide sustainable support for the organization and to make financial contributions to improve public health and the environment worldwide. They are very pleased to have BitPay, Xapo, Libra Tax, and Roger Ver leading the effort and look forward to welcoming more Founding Donors.
BitGive’s mission is charitable giving and they are currently partnering with The Water Project to raise $10,000 (BTC equivalent) for clean, safe water in sub-Saharan Africa. BitGive, BitPay, and numerous other donors have contributed to the campaign, which is currently at over 75% of the goal.
In earlier efforts, BitGive and the Bitcoin Community raised $4,850 in one day for Save the Children for Philippines Typhoon Haiyan Children’s Relief Fund. The BitGive Foundation has also donated 1 BTC to Team Rubicon, a nonprofit organization deploying veterans for disaster relief, for Tornado Relief across the mid-west US.
BitGive’s Board of Directors includes Stephen Pair, co-founder and CEO of BitPay; Patrick Murck, legal counsel at the Bitcoin Foundation; Madeline Finch, a former Administrative Officer of a community foundation; Curtis Alling, Principal and CEO at Ascent Environmental; and Karsten Behrend, Chief Compliance Officer at Xapo. The organization was supported in its first year by donations and in-kind support from KnCMiner, Bitcoin Development Fund, BitPay, Perkins Coie, LLP, and many others.
BitGive is launching today their Founding Donors Campaign and Membership Program for organizations and individual donors who wish to support the organization’s mission. These programs are not limited to US donors and welcome donors from all over the world.
To support the BitGive Foundation, donations are being accepted at: http://bitgivefoundation.org/
Digital currencies have been creating quite a stir in the payments industry. Whether it is Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Darkcoin, or any other coin-of-the-crypt – regulators can’t seem to decide on the best way to handle their presence.
Tomorrow afternoon BitPay and Payment Week will be presenting a special free webinar online to take a look at the current regulatory environment of cryptocurrencies.
With an in-depth look at the regulators, the legal definitions, exchanges and futures this webinar will prove an interesting one.
The webinar will feature Tim Byun the Chief Compliance Officer at BitPay, Carol R. Van Cleef from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, Houman Shadab the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Taxation and Regulation of Financial Institutions and will be moderated by Felix Shipkevich from Shipkevich PLLC.
Those interested in the webinar may register now at: http://paymentweek.com/part-1-defining-bitcoin-legality/
BitPay announced a partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Athletic Association. The sponsorship, brokered by IMG College, the Athletic Association’s multimedia rights partner, will cover Georgia Tech’s football and basketball programs and will help to bring more awareness to bitcoin, specifically in the college landscape.
With the partnership, BitPay’s logo along with the bitcoin symbol will be on display in Bobby Dodd Stadium and the McCamish Pavilion through the 2014-15 school year.
“Through our partnership with IMG College, BitPay was able to sponsor Georgia Tech Athletics with bitcoin,” said Stephen Pair, BitPay’s CEO and Co-founder. “This sponsorship also allows BitPay to increase awareness of bitcoin and support our alma mater at the same time.”
Tony Gallippi Executive Chairman and co-founder along with Mr. Pair are both graduates of Georgia Tech.
“Pairing an innovative technology company pioneering a new digital currency with Georgia Tech is a great match,” said Kristen Rose, General Manager of Georgia Tech IMG Sports Marketing. “The use of Bitcoin in the sports world is brand new, and we’re proud Georgia Tech is leading the trend through this partnership.”
We’ve seen examples in the past of being able to purchase a car with bitcoin but now Los Altos based and venture backed startup Beepi is allowing users to purchase cars with bitcoin.
Beepi has announced that it has integrated with BitPay, to become the first peer-to-peer marketplace to allow its users to purchase cars with bitcoin. Adding bitcoin as a payment option is the next logical steps for Beepi, a company founded with a goal of eliminating friction at every step of the buying and selling process.
“The $300 billion used car marketplace has experienced little to no innovation in decades and we’re excited to lead this change. Beepi first eliminated the hassle of working with car salesmen and now we’re taking the frustration out of payments,” said Ale Resnik, Co-Founder & CEO of Beepi. “Integrating with bitcoin is a natural extension of our promise to deliver the easiest way to purchase a car in the 21st century.”
Much like Tesla Motors, Beepi continues to reshape the antiquated process of buying a car – a person’s second largest financial purchase – by removing complex barriers. Once a customer selects “check-out” on the Beepi site, they will then be prompted to click “payment options” and can select the bitcoin icon to purchase the car with bitcoin. Through Beepi’s partnership with BitPay, the buyer can complete their purchase using bitcoin while the seller still receives cash. Beepi is offering a $1,000 rebate to the first three Beepi buyers who purchase a vehicle using bitcoin with a value over $10,000.
“The automotive industry is at the forefront of bitcoin adoption and we see that trend continuing to grow with companies like Beepi leading the way. The beauty of ecommerce and sites like Beepi is that the inventory of all cars is accessible across the country for purchase as well as expanding the base of potential customers including those who hold bitcoin and are looking for things to buy,” explained BitPay Executive Chairman and Co-Founder Tony Gallippi.
n addition, the company plans to add a QR code option for buyers to purchase a car through their mobile devices. With these initiatives, buyers will be able to pay for any car in the Beepi marketplace with the crypto currency, a bank transfer, cashier’s check or up to six different credit cards at once.
This announcement comes on the heels of Beepi’s recent $5 million round in Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures. Only 60 days after launch, Beepi has hit $6 million in annual revenue run rate, making it one of the fastest growing startups in Silicon Valley.
Each week Billboard has been putting out lists of the top selling albums to radio stations, various television channels and to the general public on the Internet.
Recently Mastodon debuted it’s new album Once More ‘Round The Sun. Many readers will remember that this album was sold via Bitcoin for preorders as we previously reported.
BitPay had previously announced a partnership with Warner Bros. Records artist, Mastodon, making them the first major label band to accept bitcoin through BitPay.
“We’re excited to work with fellow Atlanta-natives BitPay for our new album,” had said Mastodon in a statement at the time. “We want to give our fans as many options to buy our new album as possible, and are happy that bitcoin can be one of those choices.”
It now appears that giving fans a choice on a plethora of options and including bitcoin has certainly paid off.
Mastodon this week debuted on the Billboard 200 chart with it’s highest position in the history of the band taking home the 6th spot on the chart.
hangletonweblogs has learned that NewEgg is now officially accepting Bitcoin as a payment method on the site.
The company is expected to make a full announcement early on Tuesday morning regarding the acceptance of Bitcoin on the electronics retail site.
Initially Paige Freeman the VP of sales for BitPay had been hinting to this announcement on Monday via Twitter but has since deleted the tweets.
While at checkout customers can now select the Bitcoin option as shown here to begin the checkout process using Bitcoin.
Yesterday many began speculating as to what major retailer would begin accepting Bitcoin next with Bitpay after the company began dropping hints that it would be making a major announcement this week. It now appears that announcement will be regarding NewEgg.
Early reports coming in to hangletonweblogs from those familiar with the situation are that this announcement would take later in the morning today but that some individuals had stumbled across the Bitcoin promotional pages and payment options earlier than anticipated.
Due to it being after 3am on the East Coast where BitPay is a comment could not be rendered regarding this major retail announcement at the time this entry was published.
hangletonweblogs will publish official statements from both BitPay and NewEgg later today when they are made available to us. NewEgg adds Bitcoin as a payment option after Tiger Direct earlier this year began accepting the cryptocurrency.
This morning ESPN and Bitpay announced that this year’s NCAA St. Petersburg Bowl has been renamed to the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl after a high-profile sponsorship from Bitpay that will involve not only renaming this year’s bowl game but also allowing NCAA fans to purchase tickets for the game using Bitcoin via Bitpay.
The name change is effective immediately and will result in this year’s game on December 26th running under the new name and the name remaining the same through 2016.
“Our goal is to continue to move bitcoin into the mainstream and sponsoring the St. Petersburg Bowl offers us that opportunity,” said Tony Gallippi, Executive Chairman for BitPay. “College football fans and the bitcoin community represent a similar target demographic – tech-savvy men between the ages of 18 and 40.”
By sponsoring the bowl game, BitPay is not only hoping to stimulate the bitcoin community around the event, but also to further promote interest in the digital currency on a national scale. The bowl game will be an exciting opportunity to enable fans to use bitcoin in a fun, collegiate sports environment. With a rapport of over 33,000 merchants and growing, BitPay has led the bitcoin economy by allowing businesses around the world to easily accept bitcoin. The attention brought to bitcoin by the game will only further boost its ascension into the mainstream.
“We’re extremely excited to welcome BitPay to college football and our bowl home in St. Petersburg,” said Brett Dulaney, Executive Director of the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl. “We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial arrangement.”
The 2014 game will be played on Friday, Dec. 26, at 8 p.m. ET at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. The game, which will once again air on ESPN, is in its first-year of its new conference affiliation with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the American Athletic Conference.
Tickets for the 2014 Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl will go on sale later this year with prices starting as low as just $40. Tickets will be available through Ticketmaster or by phone at 1-800-745-3000. Tickets and merchandise will also be available to purchase with bitcoin.
While details have been sparse regarding official merchandise, in stadium purchases and other items being purchasable with Bitcoin it is likely over the next coming months that more details will be made avaliable.
BitPay today announced a partnership with Warner Bros. Records artist, Mastodon, making them the first major label band to accept bitcoin through BitPay. Mastodon’s new album, Once More ‘Round the Sun, is scheduled for release on June 24th, and will be available for purchase with bitcoin at mastodonrocks.com/bitcoin.
Mastodon is one of the most successful hard rock bands of the past decade, both critically and commercially. The band is well known for its innovative sound and style, making them a perfect fit for the bitcoin community.
“We’re excited to work with fellow Atlanta-natives BitPay for our new album,” said Mastodon in a statement. “We want to give our fans as many options to buy our new album as possible, and are happy that bitcoin can be one of those choices.”
“BitPay is honored to partner with Warner Bros. Records artist Mastodon. Having a major label artist embrace bitcoin is a definite sign of bitcoin’s growth and expansion into the world of music,” said Tony Gallippi, BitPay’s Co-founder and Executive Chairman.