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Still wish I had gotten some when they first came out.
Bitcoin Cryptocurrency Crash Course with Andreas Antonopoulos – Jefferson Club Dinner Meetup
http://thebitcoinnews.com/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-crash-course-with-andreas-antonopoulos-jefferson-club-dinner-meetup/
Buy some Bitcoin https://digatrade.com before US raises interest rates...
Money is such a hassle...lol Tuesay funny from last night
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/01/jimmy-fallon-makes-a-chris-christie-fat-joke-to-chris-christie-video/
Saw that, i guess they are getting with the times
Oxford Dictionaries Adds New Definitions for 'Blockchain' and 'Miner'
OxfordDictionaries.com, the online language resource owned by the Oxford University Press, has added new cryptocurrency-related definitions.
The site outlined its latest additions in a new blog post, a list that also included "hangry", "butt-dial", "Redditor", "rage-quit" and "bants", among others.
A "blockchain", according to the site, is a noun defined as:
"A digital ledger in which transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are recorded chronologically and publicly."
The resource added new definitions for terms related to bitcoin mining as well, according to Katherine Connor Martin, head of US dictionaries for the Oxford University Press.
The updated definition for the noun "miner" includes:
"A person who obtains units of a cryptocurrency by running computer processes to solve specific mathematical problems."
The verb "mine" has a new section as well:
"[To] obtain units of (a cryptocurrency) by running a computer process to solve specific mathematical problems."
The inclusions come roughly two years after the site added "bitcoin" to its list of definitions.
OxfordDictionaries.com is distinct from the Oxford English Dictionary. According to its publisher, whereas the site "focuses on the current language and practical usage", the Oxford English Dictionary is aimed at portraying "how words and meanings have changed over time".
USAA: Bitcoin and Blockchain Are FinTech Game-Changers
Vic PascucciVic Pascucci is quick to use the phrase "game changer" when talking about bitcoin and blockchain technology.
The current USAA head of corporate development and board member at its portfolio startups including Saffron, ID.me and Automatic Labs says he hasn't seen many technologies that meet this description during his nearly 20 years in the VC sector.
Bitcoin and the blockchain, in his opinion, are very different than other areas of interest for the insurance, investing and banking firm, founded in 1922.
"I've been working in technology since the early 1990s, I never thought I'd see something as big as the Internet," Pascucci, who has been with USAA since he joined as a vice president of enterprise operations in 2006, said in interview.
However, he suggested his personal passion for the technology may be more overstated than the US military-focused financial firm, which generated $24bn in revenue in 2014 and manages $26.7bn in net worth for its members.
Pascucci told CoinDesk:
"I've seen a lot of great things out there that could help our members and our enterprise, but I think the biggest potential game-changer long-term will be bitcoin and the blockchain."
This interest, according to Pascucci, is propelled by how well the financial technology hits on its three core areas of focus – finance, consumer Internet and digital capabilities. "We look for those convergences that have that synergy," he continued.
But while there is much speculation as to how USAA could ultimately deploy bitcoin-based services or blockchain technology, Pascucci remained tight lipped about what the team he said based full time on the blockchain is currently developing.
"We want to be sensitive to how much we expose," he said. "We experiment a lot, and if we come out too early, our members expect to see it. The last thing we want to do is mismanage our users' expectations, so we want to be sensitive to that."
Pascucci did hint that the group is working on applications on both the bitcoin blockchain and on private blockchains that would potentially enable the company to track assets and claims and conduct real-time record-keeping.
"There are so many efficiencies we can unlock," he added.
Chance meeting
To date, USAA's biggest move in the space was its participation in Coinbase's $75m Series C round, completed in early 2015 – a move he attributed to an early meeting with the company.
Pascucci said that, in order to keep pace with emerging technologies, his team makes frequent visits to the West Coast to meet with venture firms and FinTech startups.
"We sat down with [Coinbase co-founder] Fred [Ehrsam], Micky Malka from Ribbit Capital and just had a great conversation about bitcoin and the blockchain and the efficiency it would bring," he recalled.
But it was the makeup of the bitcoin services firm's user base that ultimately convinced USAA to make Coinbase one of its estimated 10 to 12 annual deals, where it invests anywhere from $1m to $10m in venture capital.
"We saw an amazing index of USAA members using Coinbase," he said. "We were one of the most active user groups, but we saw our members' accounts were twice the size and they tended to be twice as active."
From there, Pascucci said USAA realized it needed to "move fast" to better understand the technology, investing because of the combination of market analysis and member association.
As for whether it remains interested in subsequent investments in the space, Pascucci was optimistic if non-committal, adding:
"There's a strong feeling we'll do more, but we've got all types of lines of businesses to serve."
Possible applications
Right now, Pascucci said USAA is still working to develop a thesis on the technology, and it hasn't decided where it might be most applicable.
Still, Pascucci acknowledged bitcoin and the blockchain could impact how USAA interacts internally, with other financial organizations, with its members and how its members interact with each other.
"It's that kind of constant balancing act as to where we're going to see the best benefit for our members and the cost," Pascucci said. "It feels like bitcoin is most advanced but it feels like the enterprise capabilities are so vast, but it could all take time."
More specifically, Pascucci deflected comments on whether it was pursuing blockchain-based recordkeeping technologies for use in its insurance claims process.
Ultimately, Pascucci said USAA will continue to base its decisions on feedback from members, with whom he stressed the firm strives to maintain a dialogue regarding its decisions. Should users be uncomfortable with or unsure about the need for certain features provided by the technology, he suggested any interest could fall by the wayside.
"They could surprise us and say 'We like the set up the way it is,' he said. "We see the capabilities and the power, but the members are going to tell us what they like."
Pascucci suggested regulatory uncertainty surrounding the technology was another factor, citing discussion as to whether bitcoin is best considered a currency or security.
"My take on that is that the level of understanding has to be consistent with regulations," he continued. "The regulations weren't designed for these types of things."
Ongoing discovery
As for the ongoing work at its facilities, Pascucci was less specific with details, noting that 90% of his team is working on the firm's venture arm and tracking emerging trends.
"I have a team of nine that works for me," Pascucci explained. "Zach Gibson, our chief innovation officer, he has the tech resources to incubate ideas, they have a full team of people that's exploring disruptive technologies and we're working closely with that team."
Pascucci said USAA has an equally strong interest in technologies that enable communication with its members, given that it has no physical branches. Cybersecurity, storage, networking and analytics also remain top priorities in the innovation lab.
Cost, he suggested, would also be a factor in the company's decisions, and that ultimately any solution it pursues would need to balance expenditure with benefit.
Pascucci concluded:
"My team in corporate development is responsible for identifying emerging trends that will ensure it's as relevant the next 100 years as it was the last 100 years."
Vic Pascucci is speaking at Consensus 2015 in New York. Join him at the TimesCenter on 10th September. A list of the event speakers can be found here.
That is a good way to get the word out and let people learn about it
Stanford Joins NYU and Duke in Offering Bitcoin Course
Stanford is joining NYU and Duke University in offering a course on bitcoin – kicking off with a free security webinar tomorrow.
The college's new course, Crypto Currencies: Bitcoin and Friends, launches on 21st September. Besides Stanford students, it will be open to professionals completing their graduate certificate in cyber security.
Computer Science professor Dan Boneh, an expert in applied cryptography, will lead the course – which tackles security across the entire bitcoin ecosystem. In a release he said:
"The technology behind bitcoin and other crypto currencies can be an indispensable tool for protecting information."
While the introductory webinar is free, tuition for the remainder of the sessions clocks in at $3,960 (a $600 discount for attendees from one of Stanford's member organisations). To complete the certificate, which requires four modules in total, will cost between $13,440 and $18,480.
Founded in 1885, Stanford frequently ranks in the top five universities in the US, only 5.7% applicants who apply are accepted. While not the first, it is the most prestigious school to offer bitcoin tuition.
It is a long shot, but it can make sense and is doable
BBVA: Blockchain Tech Could Replace Centralised Finance System
Buy Bitcoin here: https://digatrade.com/
http://www.coindesk.com/bbva-blockchain-tech-could-replace-centralised-finance-system/
Blockchain technology could be used to bypass today's centralised financial infrastructure entirely, according to a report by BBVA Research US.
The report, titled Blockchain Technology: The Ultimate Disruption in the Financial System notes that the application of blockchain technology would first be useful in the payments space, where it would eradicate the need for any intermediaries and significantly reduce costs for banks.
However, decentralised public ledgers could disrupt the financial system as a whole, adds the report. "Given that the majority of financial assets such as bonds, equities, derivatives and loans are already electronic it may be possible that someday the entire system is replaced by a decentralised structure."
Touching upon smart contracts, the report also noted how being able to register and trade assets on a decentralised register increases efficiency.
It adds:
"In this environment, the current system where financial institutions record individual's accounts in a centralised fashion and the bank's reserves are stored by the central bank would be replaced by the 'Internet of money' or the 'Internet of finance' – a fully decentralised financial system."
Challenges and risks
The possibility of a decentralised public ledger replacing the current centralised system, the report says, also comes with various risks and challenges.
Firstly, a decentralised system would have to offer the same or a higher level of trust and protection than the current centralised financial structure.
For this to happen, the report explains the decentralised system would have to concentrate a "massive amount" of computer power and in turn be able to cope with the huge energy consumption required to support it.
Furthermore, the decentralised system would also have to deal with legal and regulatory concerns, as well as with matters of national security, such as money laundering, fraud, tax evasion or terrorism.
The report notes that digital currencies could also suffer price volatility, which could have sizeable negative effects. "These shocks could generate systemic risk and severe economic downturns ... in this scenario, monetary policy would not be able to respond effectively if it fails to boost demand among a large share of economic agents that use digital currencies."
The risks aside, BBVA Compass believes blockchain technology has a bright future ahead. Its report concludes:
"Therefore, the key question is not how, but when the disruption will become far-reaching. As other industries that have been transformed by new technologies and digitisation, blockchain technology could reshape the financial industry well beyond the payments system."
BBVA and crypto
BBVA Research is the economic research department of BBVA Group, but this is not the first time the global Spanish banking group has entered the crypto arena.
BBVA Ventures, the private equity branch of BBVA, participated in Coinbase's $75m Series C funding round – the biggest investment in a bitcoin company at the time.
Just recently, BBVA's Open Talent competition – a global fintech startup competition – included nine crypto startups in its three regional finals.
BBVA Innovation Center also posted an online tutorial to inform consumers on the uses of digital currencies and give them a better idea of where these could be purchased.
Buy Bitcoin here: https://digatrade.com/
Digatrade is 100% owned and operated by Bit-X Financial Corp - BITXF.
One of the only pure play public company bitcoin exchanges in the world today!
That's good to know. Never knew visa bitcoin was even going to be a thing
Visa: Bitcoin Has a Future in Payments
Large existing payments companies are “lowering the drawbridges” and working more openly with new players in the space, according to a Visa executive.
Jonathan Vaux, executive director of new digital payments and strategy at Visa Europe, was speaking at WIRED Money, held in London yesterday.
“I genuinely believe that by working together, we will succeed together. I think that the innovation that the startups bring is fantastic and that the scale the incumbents – the banks, the Visas of the world – can bring is really really valuable,” he said.
Removing friction
Vaux’s session at the one-day conference focused on removing friction between startups and incumbents within the payments space.
Formerly vice president at American Express, Vaux said bitcoin is very much on his radar:
“The one thing I often get asked about is bitcoin. I do see … a separation between the currency and the technology that sits under it. From the point of view of currency, I think that's interesting. As Visa, that's what we do – we manage currencies.”
However, he finds the attitude of some of those in the cryptocurrency space a little bizarre. When he was at South by Southwest earlier this year, he noticed a number of cryptocurrency company members arguing.
He said it came across like a scene from Life of Brian, where fractious independence movements the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front spend more time fighting each other than achieving their shared goal.
Regardless, he believes bitcoin has a future in the world of payments and wider finance.
“I think it's going to be really interesting how that currency stabilises,” he said, adding:
“Like any other currency, although this might not be the best week to discuss it, at Visa we are very keen to facilitate that translation of currencies on a global basis.”
The executive said he is also deeply interested in the underlying technology behind bitcoin and suggested it could be used to streamline the payments process when implemented by incumbents, such as Visa.
“Ultimately, what we're looking for is the technology and the component parts that we can bring into our platform and into our marketplace, that delivers a richer proposition,” he explained.
Jonathan Vaux Visa
Jonathan Vaux, executive director of new digital payments and strategy at Visa Europe, speaks at WIRED Money.
Startup advice
Vaux receives pitches on a daily basis from startups looking to form partnerships with Visa and he used his WIRED Money session to offer some advice to such companies.
Number one on his list was preparation. Startups need to “do their homework” and make sure they’re confident the service or product they are pitching is tailored to the larger company’s needs.
“Ok, you want my brand, you want my money, you want my distribution, what I have no sense of is what is in it for me as the provider of that service,” he said.
A lot of the startups Vaux comes into contact with are targeting their products at millennials, which doesn’t align with the target audiences of larger companies. He explained:
“Many of these services are so specifically focussed on the millennials that it may be hard [to gain a partnership] because, honestly, those are not going to be most large financial organisations' most successful customers."
Another gripe Vaux has is startups pitching to him without having thought extensively enough about the future roadmap of their businesses.
“It is a large organisation's worst nightmare to be dependent on a partner who cannot fulfil the obligations from a financial or from a scalability standpoint. Therefore, there's a lot of nervousness about that and the more clear and well thought out the plan is, the better for everyone,” he explained.
Areas of interest
Vaux said some of the areas Visa is currently interested in include “identification, device fraud, using cloud-based technology to take some of the pain out of online payments, digital receipting”.
He said these are the kind of services Visa thinks will really add value for its current and future customers.
At the end of his session, when asked what he sees as the highest risk to the future of Visa, he replied “complacency”, concluding:
“I think that you have to adapt, you have to learn … I think what we have to focus on is where we add value and collaborate with others to do that.”
BITXF Order Book:
OVERVIEWShow Order Book
Last Price:
$264.89
Daily Change:
$8.84
3.45%
Day's Range:
$255.00 - $264.90
Today's Open:
$256.04
24h Volume
19830 BTC
Market Cap:$3,688,260,573.50Total BTC:14,328,350 BTC
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Sunday, May 3, 2015â— USD/BTC: 239
LIVE TRADESSound OFF
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6 seconds 0.20000000 BTC $264.89
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11 seconds 2.11090000 BTC $264.78
11 seconds 1.99667649 BTC $264.78
LIVE ORDER BOOK
Bid
15.99720562 $264.29
0.12473168 $264.28
0.83319376 $264.04
1.89387016 $264.03
3.59170369 $264.02
Ask
9.80000000 $264.89
102.62030557 $264.90
1.19468527 $264.91
0.08181034 $264.92
0.60000000 $264.95
US$264 and heading north buy Bitcoin Buy BITXF!
Buy buy buy, without a reason why?
Bit-X Financial Set to Launch [DIGATRADE™] Cryptocurrency Bitcoin Exchange June 29th
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Bit-X Financial Corp. (OTCQB: BITXF), a digital currency bitcoin exchange and internet financial services company, today announced that its new exchange DIGATRADE™ is set to go-live June 29th and will operate under the domain www.digatrade.com.
DigaTrade™ will soft-launch on June 26th for exclusive users and investors that have previously registered at www.digatrade.com. The on-ramp group will be the first to set up their accounts and complete the compliance verification process and start navigating our trading platform.
Brad Moynes, President of Bit-X Financial and DigaTrade™ stated; "The proprietary trading engine (powered by ANX technology), provides our customers with access to a shared liquidity order-book and proven industry partnerships will provide a smooth trading experience". "The simple trading interface combined with world class management of high volume, high throughput, low latency trading modeled on the same LMAX pattern now leveraged by the world's largest Investment Banks makes DigaTrade™ an excellent choice for your digital asset portfolio".
"We are delighted to offer both our expertise in cryptocurrency technology and ANX managed services to Bit-X Financial Corp.," said Dave Chapman, Chief Operating Officer of ANX. "The completely managed solution relies on a proven technology stack with the security assurance of a reputable and long serving exchange".
ABOUT BITXF:
Bit-X Financial Corp is a Vancouver; British Columbia based Company listed on the OTC.QB under the trading symbol BITXF. The Company owns and operates a digital currency exchange and internet financial services Company; [DIGATRADE™]. BITXF is a reporting issuer in the Province of British Columbia, Canada with the British Columbia Securities Commission "BCSC" and in the United States with the Securities Exchange Commission "SEC". The exchange will initially offer Canadian dollar payment processing via Electronic Funds Transfer "ETF", and bank wire transfers followed by US dollar payment processing via credit cards including Visa & Mastercard.
CORPORATE CONTACT INFORMATION:
Bit-X Financial Corp
838 West Hastings Street, Suite 300
Vancouver, BC V6C-0A6
Canada
Tel: +1(604) 200-0071
Fax: +1(604) 200-0072
www.bitxfin.com
Media inquiries:
Bit-X Financial Corp
press@bitxfin.com
SOURCE Bit-X Financial Corp
RELATED LINKS
http://www.digatrade.com
NYSE Chairman: Millennials Trust Bitcoin More Than Fiat
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) CEO and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) chairman Jeffrey Sprecher has come out in support of bitcoin and the blockchain, voicing his belief that the technologies are part of a larger change in how trust is being established in society.
Speaking to CNBC's Bob Pisano on "Power Lunch", Sprecher opened up about NYSE's investment in bitcoin services provider Coinbase's recent $75m Series C funding round, one of the largest so far closed by an industry firm.
Sprecher suggested NYSE has been looking into bitcoin and the blockchain for "over a year", but noted the exchange has found the language of the industry difficult to navigate.
However, Sprecher said his interest had persisted due to the fact that millennials are becoming comfortable using the technology in the same way that they are becoming used to other platforms – such as ride-sharing app Uber – where the crowd, rather than a central authority, informs decision-making.
Sprecher told CNBC:
"We're seeing millennials trust a currency that is created in the ether, more than they trust fiat currency by government. I think that trend, whether it's a restaurant review or a taxicab or the way you exchange value, is something they believe in and we want to be on top of it because I think it's going to impact you and I."
"I think there's something to it," he said, alluding to bitcoin and the blockchain. "I think there's something here, that's why we invested in it."
Image via CNBC.
Ripple Appoints DTCC’s Former CEO as Advisor - this could revolutionize the electronic transfer of securities forever!
http://www.coindesk.com/ripple-appoints-dtccs-former-ceo-as-advisor/
Digital currency startup Ripple Labs has appointed Donald Donahue, former CEO of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) as an advisor to the company.
DTCC is the main clearing house for US securities and derivatives, processing more than $1.6 quadrillion in transactions per year.
In his role as COO and then CEO, Donahue is thought to have led the DTCC's efforts in stabilising the financial system following the 2007-08 market crash.
Donahue said in a company statement:
"I am very interested in the capabilities distributed payment technologies seem to offer for improving the safety, soundness and cost effectiveness of global payments and settlement infrastructures."
Donahue also worked with the US Treasury Department and other governmental and private sector groups to improve physical and cyber security in the financial sector following the attacks on the World Trade Centre on 11th September 2001.
Digital Assets, founded by entrepreneurs Sunil Hirani and Don Wilson in 2014, is likely to disrupt some of DTCC's market share as it sets out to revolutionise the traditional, centralised financial model by enabling customers to convert traditional securities – and other financial products – into digital assets which can be stored on the blockchain.
Blythe Masters, a former notable Wall Street executive, joined the bitcoin trading platform as CEO in March.
Ripple Labs
Very thorough, awesome job. It is going to take something big to sway the average joe though over to digital currency.
Sure would like to be a fly on that wall
Richard Branson to Host Bitcoin Summit on Private Island
http://www.coindesk.com/richard-branson-blockchain-summit-private-island/
Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson is set to bring "the greatest minds in cryptocurrency" together to discuss bitcoin and the blockchain on his personal private island this May.
Taking place on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands from the 25th to 28th, Branson's event will feature discussions moderated by Hernando De Soto, president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, Wall Street Journal senior columnist Michael J Casey and Matthew Bishop, US business editor for The Economist.
Branson has been enthusiastic in his praise for the bitcoin, having previously invested in payment processor BitPay and accepted the digital currency for his space travel enterprise Virgin Galactic.
The event's welcome message frames the gathering in terms that emphasise the lasting impact of blockchain technologies, stating:
"Come visit with Sir Richard Branson on his private island for a set of intimate discussions highlighting critical issues and solutions and to lay out the framework for a world where the humankind is fully benefiting from the amazing technology behind the blockchain."
Besides the Virgin Group founder, the event will be hosted by BitFury CEO Valery Vavilov and venture capitalists Bill Tai, Suzi Mai and George Kikvadze.
In total, the event will include 30 luminaries from the bitcoin and larger digital currency space, including bitcoin core developer Jeff Garzik, Bitreserve's Juan Llanos, Tally Capital's Matthew Roszak and entrepreneur and Bitcoin Foundation chairman Brock Pierce.
The event is also the latest high-profile bitcoin conference to be held in the Caribbean following the Satoshi Roundtable in February. That conference, organised by recently-elected Bitcoin Foundation executive director Bruce Fenton, sparked controversy for its exclusive guest list and "secretive" itinerary.
Prospective attendees and hosts declined to comment or provide more details about the event's itinerary at press time.
A full list of participants can be found on the event's website.
Wednesday, April 01, 2015 - 2:30 PM EDT
Bit-X Financial Announces Exclusive Bitcoin Exchange & Services Agreement with Hong Kong Based ANX
Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCwire) - Bit-X Financial Corp. (OTCQB: BITXF) today announced that it has executed an Exclusive Bitcoin Exchange and Services Agreement with Hong Kong based ANX. The proprietary ANXPRO trading and matching engine manages high volume, high throughput, and low latency trading and was modeled on the same technology recently leveraged by the worlds largest Investment Banks. It also features blended multi-currency settlement in addition to real time FX pricing and risk management.
Under terms of the agreement, ANX will develop a white-label crypto-currency exchange utilizing ANXPRO’s world-class proprietary trading platform. The agreement includes technical, development and support services to Bit-X and its registered users worldwide.
“The ANXPRO proprietary trading engine is a critical component to our business,” said Brad Moynes, President of Bit-X Exchange. “This agreement with ANX enables us to instantly offer crypto-currency services to our customers utilizing a proven technology platform and relying on the operations of a well-established brand and a very experienced team.”
Functionality of the Bit-X Exchange will include deposit and withdrawal services for multiple fiat currencies, payment processing via Vogogo Inc. services, trading exposure to Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Stellar while leveraging the established global liquidity order book; developed and managed by ANX.
“This is a win-win for crypto-currency exchanges and the eco-system as a whole,” said Dave Chapman, COO of ANX. “We are delighted that Bit-X has selected ANX as their preferred white-label provider by surpassing their technology and operational requirements”.
In addition to the development and management of the Bit-X Exchange, ANX will notify its19,750+ existing North American users to instantly migrate to the new Bit-X Exchange which has a go live date within 60 days.
ABOUT BIT-X:
Bit-X Financial Corp is a Vancouver based Company listed on the OTC.QB under the trading symbol BITXF. The Company has announced an exclusive agreement with Hong Kong based ANX to develop a crypto-currency exchange and to provide ongoing technical, development and support services to registered users worldwide. Bit-X Financial Corp is a reporting issuer in the Province of British Columbia with the British Columbia Securities Commission “BCSC” and in the United States with the Securities Exchange Commission “SEC”.
ABOUT ANX:
Founded in June 2013, ANX has grown into one of the most used Bitcoin exchange platforms worldwide. ANX is one of the largest and most diverse Bitcoin exchanges in the world. It is a pioneer and leader in the crypto-currencies industry. ANX’s achievements to date include introducing the world’s first multi-currency online Bitcoin exchange platforms (ANXPRO.COM & ANXBTC.COM), the world’s 3rd Bitcoin ATM machine, and a full-featured ANX Vault mobile app for crypto-currencies. ANX recently acquired troubled Bitcoin exchanges Norwegian based JUSTCOIN.COM and US based COINMKT.COM to expand into the European and North American markets. ANX was one of the first firms specializing in crypto-currencies to be issued with a Money Service Operator (MSO) license and prides itself on its transparency and regulatory compliance. The founding partners have financial markets, management consulting, banking technology and compliance backgrounds.
CORPORATE CONTACT INFORMATION:
Bit-X Financial Corp
838 West Hastings Street, Suite 300
Vancouver, BC V6C-0A6
Canada
Tel: +1(604) 200-0071
Fax: +1(604) 200-0072
www.bitxfin.com
Media inquiries:
Bit-X Financial Corp
Brad Moynes
press@bitxfin.com
ANX
Jess Chan
press@anxintl.com
BITXF (Bit-X Financial), BTCS (Bitcoin Shop) & GBTC - Bitcoin Investment Trust) -
Watch vault 51 bitcoinzusa BYSD ready for divvy Boom
No Bitcoin talk eh? May be an interesting investment. Anyone know stocks other than bysd and cehc dealing with them?
How has public opinion evolved about the digital currency? Look to the Kubler-Ross Model.
Sentiments on bitcoin, the digital currency, vary wildly at the moment. From reporters to venture capitalists to bankers to the general public, opinions run the gamut, from frenzied flag-waving, to cautious curiosity, to sneering skepticism. But you wouldn’t exactly call any of it “grief.”
And yet, the Kubler-Ross model, better known as the “five stages of grief,” (denial; anger; bargaining; depression; acceptance) is a rather apt explanation for what is happening with common perceptions of bitcoin right now.
That’s the analogy Adam Ludwin used in an interview with Fortune last December. Ludwin, CEO of the company Chain, an API that supports bitcoin applications, was asked about the public perceptions of bitcoin, and the divide between developer excitement and mainstream cluelessness. “Most of the world looked at Bitcoin in the last year and kind of scratched their heads,” said Ludwin. “We are still a good year away, in our estimation, from seeing the first production-ready instruments where you can imagine a known financial services company using this. But it’s not 10 years. And when it happens, people will be surprised by how quickly it spreads. You know, it’s like the five stages of grief—people have gone through all five, all in the last 12 months. There was total denial; followed by anger; followed by, ‘Well, we’ll just do it ourselves’ or ‘we don’t need this,’ that was the negotiating; and now they’re coming around, like, ‘Oh, maybe we should understand it.’”
The very same analogy appears in The Age of Cryptocurrency, a new book published last month by Paul Vigna and Michael Casey. “We expect you’ll go through a sort of Kubler-Ross model of cryptocurrency recognition before this book is over,” the authors write in their introduction. Their own summation of the steps toward bitcoin enlightenment? Disdain (“not even denial, but disdain”); Skepticism (“Enough stories have appeared to convince you that bitcoin is real… But the details don’t add up”); Curiosity (“Okay, it’s digital money, it may work, but what difference is that going to make to regular people?”); Crystallization (“the jaw-drop moment, the lightbulb moment”); and acceptance (“once you see this, there is no way to unsee it”).
Even New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer blog, in a post last March, used the “five stages of bitcoin grief” to describe how bitcoin enthusiasts were reacting to the news that bitcoin would now be subject to capital gains tax.
You could adjust the stages a little bit more and apply the model to the current media coverage of bitcoin. Call it the five stages of bitcoin understanding.
1.) Ignore. This is what most major news outlets did for a long time. Bitcoin first came around back in 2009 (but almost no one wrote about it), and it took until 2011 for some mainstream publications to begin to learn about it. But even then, most stayed far away. It was a technology on the fringes, not for serious discussion.
2.) Dismiss. Once mainstream news outlets—both newspapers and magazines—began to take even a minor interest in bitcoin, they began to write stories, but mostly with negative angles of dismissal. “Here’s a new bitcoin company or piece of bitcoin news that may be interesting, but it means nothing because bitcoin will fail, and here’s why.”
3.) Hedge. This is where most news outlets sit today, still—they’ve come to understand that bitcoin is a burgeoning technology that has interest and investment, and they are covering it a bit more often, but when they do, they are careful to hedge their bets by including the downside of, or skepticism around, any news or investment in the space.
4.) Cover. Now some publications are beginning to have dedicated reporters who, rather than writing one piece here and there, are almost exclusively covering digital currency. Most of these are business publications. And even still, the vast majority of sites covering bitcoin aren’t doing so on a daily basis, because they still aren’t convinced that it merits such close coverage. An exception, in contrast to legacy outlets, is a flood of bitcoin-only news sites: chief among them is Coindesk, but there is also CryptocoinsNews, Bitcoin Magazine, and many others.
5.) Write a book. The ultimate expression of believing that bitcoin is here to stay is to write a book on the digital currency. For the first few years of the technology’s existence, there were no books on the topic, but then came a flood. In 2014, hundreds of books were released on the topic (according to Amazon the number is a staggering 437, but that comes from a simple subject search, and likely includes many outliers). Two digital currency reporters from the Wall Street Journal wrote one. A CNBC contributor wrote one. A CNNMoney reporter wrote one. The list goes on. These are people in the media who not only have come to understand the currency, but have gone so far as to devote a book’s worth of reporting and discussion to it. (To read our interviews with some of these authors, see: “The bitcoin book boom.”)
Similarly, there is a quote (often attributed to Gandhi) that bitcoin supporters have adopted as their own, after Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss applied the phrase to bitcoin at the Bitcoin Foundation conference in May 2013: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Let's talk bitcoin.
Bitcoin is about to change the world - pay attention! BE YOUR OUR BANK!
The technology is the Blockchain. Go here www.blockchain.info
Cheers!
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