PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price and Volatility index.
Bitcoin Tracker | Week 48
The United States and its many different members and offices that make up government continue to be very divided on how to handle crypto currencies. From the commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission advocating for the regulation of bitcoin because it (or something like it) will disrupt the financial markets, to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission slowly beginning to crack down and investigate “violations of the federal securities laws” to the State of New York proposing transitional bitcoin licensees to help crypto currency startups grow before facing new regulation, it makes it hard to keep up.
Bitcoin’s price is almost the same as it was last week at 344.04 when last week the price was 340.81 according to the PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price index.
As always, if you have any news you’d like to share, please send it our way at contactus@pymnts.com.
On the Plus Side …
mPOS has gone bitcoin, with SumUp being the first mPOS player to accept the cryptocurrency. Google offered an endorsement of sorts by installing a bitcoin ATM on their London campus and the NY Regulators might offer transactional licenses to come operators before fully deciding on regulations. .
- November 6, 2014 – SumUp has integrated bitcoin into its mPOS solution, letting merchants across Europe offer bitcoin as an option. Merchants won’t have to pay any transaction fees through 2015 on bitcoin payments.
- November 5, 2014 – Google installed a bitcoin ATM on their London campus.
- November 5, 2014 – A Democratic member of the Commodity Future Trading Commission, Mark Wetjen, posted an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal advocating the virtues of Bitcoin.
- November 4, 2014 – Bitnet Technologies, a bitcoin payments gateway, created a deal with Sphonic, an online security services provider, to implement global antimony laundering transaction monitoring and know your customer and know your business services.
- November 4, 2014 – New York regulators may license some firms to deal with digital currencies on a transitional basis before full regulations are in place.
- November 4, 2014 – BitPay launches bitcoin checkout app for one tap payments.
- November 3, 2014 – Circle launched a mobile application for Android and IOS which will let users make payments, send and request money and covert money between bitcoin and dollars.
- November 2, 2014 – After two years of being in stealth mode the Bitcoin Brothers have launched a hosted bitcoin mining services, which they claim is powered by better, stronger machines to make mining more efficient.
- October 31, 2014 – An open source project aims to replace traditional passports with bitcoin technology which would make it nearly impossible for a person to fake their identity.
On the Dark Side …
Researchers at the University of Kentucky have found a positive correlation with illegal activity search terms and bitcoin interest. How about that! Drug dealers continue to use crypto currencies to sell drugs via the internet, a Texas man has been arrested on wire fraud and security fraud charges for his $4.5 million bitcoin Ponzi scheme and you can send horse feces to your least favorite person anonymously and pay for it in – you got it – bitcoin!
- November 6, 2014 – Professor Kevin Dowd at Durham University believes that investors should abandon bitcoin as it is a doomed crypto currency.
- November 6, 2014 – The federal government announced its first bitcoin securities fraud case. A Texas man is accused of operating a Ponzi scheme by getting people to turn over their bitcoins in return for promise of high interest rates and the ability to recover their investment at anytime.
- November 6, 2014 – A fire at a warehouse facility in Thailand destroyed bitcoin mining equipment.
- November 6, 2014 – The S. Securities and Exchange commission is serious about their investigation into bitcoin stocks.
- November 5, 2014 – Researchers at the University of Kentucky examined the characteristics of US bitcoin users based on an analysis of Google search data. The research found that two search terms, related to computer programming enthusiasts and possible illegal activity (Silk Road) are related to search interest in bitcoin. However, search query interest doesn’t mean active participation.
- November 4, 2014 – Online drug dealers are now using darkcoin, to stay anonymous.
- November 4, 2014 – Now there is a new service that enables users to send horse feces to their worst enemy and pay with bitcoin – to be totally anonymous.
- November 4, 2014 – A hacker threatened the bitcoin service, Bitalo, which in turn put a bounty on the hackers head (to be paid in bitcoins, of course).
- October 31, 2014 – BTC Guild, a popular Bitcoin mining pool, may be sold after the founder announced plans to close the organization early next year.
