Bitcoin Tracker: March 14

By PYMNTS | March 17, 2014

Bitcoin Tracker | Week 15

What’s the difference between pork bellies and bitcoins? Nothing, says Goldman Sachs. They pooh-pooh the notion of bitcoin as currency and instead classify it as a speculative asset that rises and falls based on the madness of the crowd. The Satoshi Nakamoto story continues to amuse/intrigue and, as someone said, there’s got to be a rose ceremony in there somewhere. Lord and Taylor now accepts bitcoins and New York is trying to become the “Delaware” of Bitcoin by trying its very best to create an attractive regulatory environment. Oh, and we’ll have not one, but two, panels at The Innovation Project 2014 focused on Bitcoin with some of the movers and shakers of the Bitcoin world at the mike.

Hope you enjoy, and if you have any news you’d like to share, please send it our way at contactus@pymnts.com.

On the Plus Side …

“Can I put that on your Bitcoin account?” Words to be spoken now by sales associates at Lord & Taylor, which has agreed to accept bitcoins for payment. And the crazy miners are gearing up and revving up for lots of action – as in $20 million a month. We’d hate to pay their electricity bills.

March 13, 2014 – A restaurant in Tampa Bay, FlameStone, will accept bitcoins to purchase gift cards on the restaurant’s website.
March 13, 2014 – Mobile ad network adds Bitcoin as a payment option.
March 12, 2014 – CloudHashing.com prepares for a $20 million a month mining business, and plans to explain their processing power.
March 12, 2014 – Information Week says that the first major crypto currency may not be a success story, but one will. And the evolution is in process, and they will become something more sustainable.
March 12, 2014 – Bitcoin exchanges soon may be welcome in New York State, but they will be subject to strict regulation. The New York State Department of Financial Services said it would soon consider proposals for a regulated virtual currency exchange.
March 11, 2014 – Businesses are buying into Bitcoin, despite the skepticism, due to the “cool factor” and the option to avoid the 3% credit card fees.
March 11, 2014 – Bitcoin users may now buy from Lord & Taylor stores using a software application with the mobile app Pounce supported by Coinbase.
March 11, 2014 – The founder of Wikipedia started playing with bitcoins and tweeted about it, leading to donations to his account, which he then gave to the Wikimedia Foundation.
March 10, 2014 – The Bitcoin ATMs came in handy at South By Southwest so developers could take out U.S. dollars.
March 10, 2014 – The Bitcoin community donated over $30,000 to the man who says he was wrongly identified as the founder of Bitcoin to say sorry. We note he was not paid in bitcoins.

On the Dark Side …

Goldman Sachs carries a lot of weight in this industry, and it released its opinion that digital currencies are not a currency, but rather a speculative asset whose value is unstable and given to the whims of the speculators – like oil, pork bellies and other commodities. And more than one article has been written to suggest that Bitcoin is the most elegant and clever “Ponzi Scheme” ever created.

March 13, 2014 – Conan O’Brian invited the COO of BTC on his show to explain Bitcoin – he wasn’t impressed.
March 12, 2014- Goldman Sachs released a 25-page note upon polling its research units to see if the digital currency can ever have a meaningful impact in their fields of expertise. Overall, the ruling was that it is just too volatile to be of use.
March 12, 2014 – Goldman Sachs also released a graph showing the volatility of Bitcoin vs. other currencies, and there is no comparison.
March 11, 2014 – A US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted a temporary restraining order to freeze U.S. assets of Mt. Gox, Tibanne KK and Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles to try and find out exactly what happened to the money missing from Mt. Gox.
March 11, 2014 – ZD Net joins the group in calling Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme for the 21st century; the author also called Bitcoin the “Santa Claus of currency.” Wait, he isn’t real?
March 11, 2014 – The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has issued a new investor alert against Bitcoin, labeling the alert “Bitcoin: More Than a Bit Risky.”
March 11, 2014 – Bitcoin is going to struggle to gain ground because of how it will be taxed in the U.S., and it will be taxed at a high price just for the convenience of using it.
March 10, 2014 – The NYU Professor and economist, Nouriel Roubini, nicknamed Dr. Doom for accurately forecasting the financial crisis, called Bitcoin a “Ponzi Game.”
March 7, 2014 – The person identified as Satoshio Nakamoto denies that he is the founder of Bitcoin, thus perpetuating the mystery.