Bitcoin News Roundup – 31Jan. 2015

Posted by: DeepDotWeb

January 31, 2015

Recapping the week’s biggest Bitcoins stories from around the web.

Same FUD – Bitcoin may be used for the funding and recruiting of the Islamic State, globally known as ISIS, in the United States.According to RT, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted an Israeli analyst who claims that he has uncovered “concrete evidence” in an ISIS website that bitcoins are used by the Islamic State as “part of its fundraising efforts” in the US. International criminal law expert, Jimmy Gurule, considers this possible because the bitcoin is not regulated and allows for the transfer of money for criminal or terrorist purposes.

Tembusu Systems, the Singapore-based Bitcoin ATM developer, raised 1.2 million Singapore dollars to finance the TRUST framework. Terence Lee of Techinasia reports that Tembusu plans to develop the “next-generation distributed blockchain technology” by alleviating all concerns about the risks related to anonymous peer-to-peer transactions. According to Tembusu press release “TRUST’s technology can also allow banks, governments and corporations to launch their own asset-backed cryptocurrencies, [which] will likely be much more stable than Bitcoin.”

BitFlyer, the Japanese bitcoin platform, has raised over 130 million Japanese yen (approximately $1.1million) to fund further expansion.Samuel Rae of NewsBtc reports that BitFlyer with Barry Silbert of Bitcoin Opportunity Corp in the lead plans to expand its customer base and establish strong customer relationships to create a broad digital currency network.

Google Now, Google’s mobile personal assistant and information service for Android and iOS, has added support for the leading bitcoin platform Coinbase. As Pete Rizzo of Coin Desk writes, the service update includes a new application that enables Android users to receive updates on the bitcoin price instantly via a card on their mobile.

Regulation

After raising $106 million from institutional investors, including the New York Stock Exchange, banks, and venture capital firms, Coinbase, the leading bitcoin platform, has opened the first U.S. regulated bitcoin exchange. As Jacob Davidson of Time writes, after the failure of the Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox and the UK bitcoin exchange Bitstamp, Coinbase enters the exchange market with the aim to provide security to investors to trade bitcoin and monitor real-time pricing of the digital currency. On the downside, the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) is reluctant regarding Coinbase’s legitimacy. As Katherine Fletcher of Coin Reportwrites, Jan Lynn Owen, DBO’s commissioner stated that the DBO “has not decided whether to regulate virtual currency transactions, or the businesses that arrange such transactions, under the state’s Money Transmission Act” and advises California consumers that Coinbase is not regulated by the State of California. Additionally, according to JP Buntinx of Cryptoarticles, Coinbase is under investigation for providing misleading information to Coinbase Bitcoin Exchange users because it does not meet regulatory requirements in the states of New York and California. In the meantime, David Parker of CryptoCoins News reports thatCoinbase has just passed 2 million users. What remains to be seen is whether these accounts belong to active users or are duplicate accounts.

Digital Securities Exchange (DSX) is the new regulated e-money firm launched by the UK exchange. As Joon Ian Wong of Coin Desk writes, DSX is the agent of ePayments Systems Ltd, which authorizes electronic money transactions to more than 200,000 customers. ePayments has a monthly transaction volume of approximately $50m, which is expected to improve the positioning of DSX in the bitcoin trading market.

LedgerX is a new regulated Bitcoin derivatives exchange and clearing house.According to John D’Antona Jr. of Traders Magazine,Paul Chou, a former Goldman Sachs trader, has already filed registration papers for LedgerX and aspires to launch the first federally regulated and fully- collateralized Bitcoin derivatives platform. The new Bitcoin exchange is sponsored by Google Ventures and LightSpeed Ventures.

Payments

Following a lawsuit by C7 Data Centers for not paying its bills, CoinTerra filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. As Jacob Cohen Donnelly of Inside Bitcoins writes, the Austin-based bitcoin mining company is in default on $4.4m ($4m in damages and 1.4m in unpaid services). In its bankruptcy filing, CoinTerra states that, after compensating all investors, there will be no funds available.

McDonald’s jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon. AmmanChandnani of the Bitcoinist writes that there are many rumors that the fast food chain is seriously considering to start accepting bitcoins soon. Although the company has neither verified nor denied the rumors, if McDonald’s finally accept the digital currency it will definitely contribute to the bitcoin’s mainstream adoption as very likely more fast food chains will take a similar approach.

Gatecoin, the digital currency exchange platform, launches bitcoin exchange with segregated bank accounts. According to the Bitcoins Channel, the Hong Kong-based exchange aims to offer to its customers in 40 countries around the globe the security of keeping their funds in separate accounts than Gatecoin’s accounts, thus minimizing “counterparty risk.”

Updated: 2015-01-31