Last Thursday Overstock launched an updated international checkout system which allows the acceptance of Bitcoin globally. Today Overstock formally announces its commitment to donating 4 percent of all its global Bitcoin revenues to foundations working to defend and further the adoption of cryptocurrencies. Overstock’s international revenue arrives through O.co, its international brand and site.
Overstock has initially selected the Chamber of Digital Commerce, known as a representative of the digital commerce industry in Washington, DC. The Chamber’s goal is to promote the acceptance and use of digital assets. Overstock will be continuously evaluating similar foundations across the globe and choosing those among whom it will rotate its support. An attempt will be made to align donations with foundations in those areas of the world from which the associated revenue derives.
“The cryptocurrency movement is at a critical stage in its evolution,” said Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. “Adoption among the technorati is fairly pervasive, but it needs to make its way into the lives of the masses in the developed and developing worlds, while avoiding the obstacles that uninformed intervention by lawmakers could impose. The Chamber of Digital Commerce will help make this possible. We’re excited to support them.”
Image provided by Overstock Press Relations
Hive’s OS X and Android wallets have featured an App Store for some time now that allowed third-party developers the ability to hook in and create applications with the Hive wallet.
Today we are learning though that Hive will be removing the feature from the Hive OS X and Android wallets with the next update of each respective platform’s software.
In a recent email update Hive stated the following,
We’re a bit teary-eyed to announce that our App store for Hive Android and OS X will removed on the next update. We are not planning to keep its doors closed permanently, but right now it is difficult to maintain a good user experience with limited resources and so many companies in the Bitcoin ecosystem coming and going. If you have any thoughts about this, please write to us or talk to us via our Skype chat.
It appears that while the idea was a unique one that maintaining the quality of the App Store has proven difficult for the company with so many new third parties appearing and suddenly vanishing all at the same time.
Update: We have performed a correction to this story to correct the spelling of Grey/G2 Romania as it had previously appeared incorrectly.
The Bitcoin Foundation today announced the first Chapter Affiliate in Eastern Europe, Fundatia Bitcoin Romania. Fourth in the continent along with Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark to join the global foundation, Bitcoin Foundation Romania will lead localized education efforts in Romania and encourage adoption among consumers and merchants.
“I believe that Bitcoin is at point where everyone who believes in it – be it the currency or protocol – needs to work together to help it move forward. The partnership with the global foundation is our first step in this direction. Our main goals are to support Bitcoin in the region and to educate people about the potential of this technology,” said Victor Cazacu, Board Member of Fundatia Bitcoin Romania.
The leadership team is comprised of former CTO at Grey/G2 Romania, Victor Cazacu, board members, Dragos Birsan, Daniel Daia, Radu Georgescu, Edward Russell and Cezar Zamfir as General Counsel. This team has already spearheaded community outreach programs such as Bitoin courses at the Universitatea Politehnica Bucuresti and TechHub and will continue to reach out to universities all over the country.
“Engaging universities and students is important to the foundation and we’re pleased to see how successful and professional Fundatia Bitcoin Romania has been in their approach,” said Mark Woods, Affiliate Director of Bitcoin Foundation.
Romania joins the foundation’s growing international network of chapter affiliates around the world.
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/
The Bitcoin Foundation today released a primer on the law of jurisdiction [pdf] to help its small-business and start-up members manage their regulatory obligations. It is also publicly available on the foundation’s Resources page on the website.
A global Internet protocol that holds out great promise for global financial inclusion, Bitcoin easily allows people and businesses to conduct cross-border transactions. “But doing so may place Bitcoin users and businesses under the authority of unfamiliar or burdensome foreign laws,” the report says. Bitcoin businesses face “the prospect of defending themselves in regulatory proceedings and lawsuits in far-away places.”
Commissioned by Robert A. McFarlane, a partner in Hanson Bridgett LLP’s San Francisco office and chair of the firm’s technology law practice, the brief primer details steps companies may take to avoid making themselves subject to burdensome regulations or lawsuits in states that are unfriendly to Bitcoin.
The report discusses several protective options: “IP blocking (also known as ‘geofencing’), screening based on user-entered address data, electing not to display ads to audiences in undesirable jurisdictions, and providing less interactivity to users in undesirable jurisdictions may demonstrate that a company does not intend to conduct business in a particular state.”
“No Bitcoin business wants to exclude any jurisdiction,” said Jim Harper, Global Policy Counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation, “but it is important to have that option. When regulations are unjustified by consumer protection benefits, the better course will be to conduct business in the jurisdictions that embrace innovation, the consumer benefits of Bitcoin, economic growth, and job creation.”
Microwallet.org a withdraw only service that powers literally hundreds of bitcoin faucet sites has announced it will be closing it’s doors soon.
The site which has served the community since it’s creation in November of 2013 today announced that it was up for sale and that the site would be closing soon.
hangletonweblogs learned of the closing early this morning after the Microwallet site went offline for a brief period of time earlier in the week.
Today a message was posted on the Microwallet.org site that the site’s source code is for sale for 4BTC. The message can be read here: https://www.microwallet.org/index/sale
We are unsure if this purchase includes the domain name but based on the description listed on the site it appears the owner is simply selling the source code and not the Microwallet.org domain.
At the time of press hangletonweblogs has reached out for comment but has not yet received a response. While the site simply lists that it is currently for sale hangletonweblogs has confirmed that the actual service is in fact being closed down after a post was made by the owner on Bitcoin Talk stating:
(https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=348060.msg8330919#msg8330919)
The anonymous internet search engine DuckDuckGo has received a welcomed enhancement today thanks to the efforts of the developers at blockchain explorer Biteasy.
Users of DuckDuckGo can now enter a bitcoin address on the site and receive detailed results from Biteasy directly on the search engine results. Back on June 30th the developers at Biteasy initially suggested the addition via github and over the past several weeks they’ve been working on an implementation with the DuckDuckGo developers and after many iterations the new implementation is now live and the Biteasy has taken to the company blog to announce this.
You can try it out right now on DuckDuckGo by entering a bitcoin address, block or transaction ID.
SuicideGirls is a website that features pin-up photography and profiles of alternative female models who are known as the “Suicide Girls”. The site functions as an online community with member profiles, member blogs, and the option to join networking groups based upon interests. SuicideGirls also features interviews with people from popular and alternative culture, user-submitted news articles, and an online merchandise store. Access to most of the site requires a paid membership.
A membership that as of moments ago you can now pay for using Bitcoin.
Prospective members can head over to the site and peruse several payment options including the ability to purchase a 1 year membership, 2 years of membership or 5 years of membership using bitcoin
SuicideGirls joins in a long line of other porn sites that are currently offering bitcoin payment options including Hustler.
In response to a Bitcoin Foundation filing yesterday, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) quickly promised to provide the foundation more information about its controversial “BitLicense” proposal.
Citing New York law that requires a clear statement of “needs and benefits” for proposed regulations, the Bitcoin Foundation’s comments included a request under New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) for “any risk management and cost-benefit analysis (or any other systematic assessment) that is a part of the ‘extensive research and analysis’” the NYDFS cited when it issued its proposal.
“The community can help you fit regulatory means to public interest ends if they have access to the risks your study of digital currencies identified,” wrote Bitcoin Foundation Global Policy Counsel Jim Harper to New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services. The NYDFS promised hours later to deliver that information to the foundation within 20 days.
Echoing and extending community demand for more time to comment, the Bitcoin Foundation also suggested that the NYDFS adopt “an iterative process, in which you issue drafts, take comments for three months, re-draft, and take comments again until the many, many issues raised by the proposed regulation are thoroughly vetted in true collaboration with the community. ”
Citing the NYDFS Superintendent’s willingness to engage with the community on Reddit, the Bitcoin Foundation letter highlighted tools such as News Genius and GitHub that would support a truly collaborative rulemaking process. “[T]he department should resist the constraints of administrative procedures developed in the era of postage stamps,” Harper wrote. “We are confident that the community will meet you wherever you announce you will be engaging with them.”
The Bitcoin Foundation will publish all of the material it receives from the NYDFS for the Bitcoin community to review. If the agency takes the full 20 days to respond, the materials will be available just days before the close of the original comment period on the regulations, which was the minimum 45 days allowed by New York law. The NYDFS has signaled that it will extend the comment period on its sweeping, controversial draft digital currency regulation.
hangletonweblogs has learned exclusively that tonight during The Alex Jones Show on Chain Radio that controversial talk host Alex Jones will announce that his website InfoWars.com and the Info Wars Store will begin officially accepting Bitcoin in the next few weeks.
The announcement is expected to come at the beginning of the 3rd hour of The Alex Jones Show (tonight at midnight Eastern) this evening after some discussion regarding bitcoin near the end of the 2nd hour of The Alex Jones Show where he discussed bitcoin with Shooter Jennings, the son of country music legend Waylon Jennings, who is releasing a new album and came on the program to speak about it with Jones.
Alex Jones states, “I was able to wrap my head around it […] this cryptocurrency – the idea is beautiful”.
Alex Jones who has been back and forth even having a guest at one point who stated that “an upcoming bitcoin collapse was coming” about bitcoin and had discussions with Max Keiser on occasion about bitcoin but has never officially stated he would begin taking bitcoin or accept bitcoin until now.
Alex Jones has been seen by many as a major figure of controversy but his endorsement of bitcoin via way of accepting it for his products will add another place for those who wish to spend bitcoin another outlet to do so.