Bitcoin News Roundup – 30 Aug. 2015

Posted by: DeepDotWeb

August 30, 2015

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

U.S teenager has been arrested for facilitating ISIS with bitcoins. As Deepak Tiwari of Bitcoinistwrites, Ali Shukri Amin, 17 has been sentenced to 11.3 years in prison for funding ISIS. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Amin was arrested for providing advice to ISIS supporters as well as instructions on how to use the digital currency for funding terrorist activities. Further than his imprisonment, Amin is faced with a lifetime supervision, including monitored Internet activity.

BTCChina backs BIP100 proposal regarding bitcoin block size. Grace Caffyn of Coin Desk reports that the China-based bitcoin exchange supportsJeff Garzik’s bitcoin “market-led” BIP 100 proposal, thus leading to strong support from three major blockmakers, BTCChina, BitFury and BitcoinXT, which cumulatively account for +50% of the bitcoin network. Bobby Lee, BTCChina CEO states“We are in the unique position of seeing this from several sides, a mining pool, a wallet service, and an exchange. So we must come forward with a sound perspective.”

Opposing to BIP 100, leading bitcoin companies stand for BIP 101. As Aaron van Wirdum of Coin Telegraph writes, 8 leading bitcoin companies, BitPay, Blockchain.info, Circle, KnCMiner, Bitnet, Xapo, BitGo and itBit, favor Gavid Andersen’s BIP101 proposal considering that 8MB blocks are already supported by a majority of miners and that BIP101 could be implemented without compromising bitcoin deregulation.

Bitcoin becomes a course at major universities. According to Justin O’Connell of CryptoCoins News, following Duke and New York University that first introduced bitcoin-related courses in their curriculum, now Princeton and Stanford do the same. “Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies” course is offered by Princeton in an effort to help students understand what the bitcoin is and how it works, but also to acquire the theoretical background to be able to “engineer secure software that interacts with the Bitcoin network.” On the same page, Stanford offers “Crypto Currencies: Bitcoin and Friends” course.

Regulation

Japan favors bitcoin regulation. As Katherine Fletcher of Coin Report writes, following Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange collapse and the arrest of Mark Karpeles for manipulation of data and embezzlement, the Japanese government is seriously considering to regulate the digital currency. However, before any regulation taking place, the anti-money laundering law and the law concerning transactions in financial products, should be amended.

Commonwealth Governments are advised to regulate the bitcoin. As Sarah Jenn of NewsBtc reports, in the recently held Commonwealth’s Virtual Currencies Working Group conference in London, attendees reached a common agreement that the digital currency should be regulated. Commonwealth Governments are urged to consider the impact of lack of regulation on sectors with a high potential forgrowth, such as the banking sector or academia, and adjust or launch new regulatory policies to regulate the digital currency.

Payments

CardCash offers the bitcoin payment option via gift cards. As Christie Harkin of Bitcoin Magazine writes, the US-based online company that offers discounted gift cards from thousands of U.S. retailers is accepting bitcoin payments. According to Elliot Bohm, CEO, CashCard seeks to capitalize on the growing acceptance of the digital currency from retailers as well. Consumers already use the bitcoin for their purchases at Overstock or Dell, but CardCash offering will take the digital currency a step further. Furthermore, in September a mobile app will be launched that will allow users with bitcoin wallets to buy and use their gift cards online.

Coinbase offers 3D Secure-enabled cards to its users. As Nikhil Gupta of NewsBtc writes, the digital currency leading company is offering to its Spanish and UK consumers the option to use 3D Secure-enabled credit and debit cards for their bitcoin transactions. The new 3D cards enable the two-way authentication and allows the instant purchase of bitcoins in EUR or GBP with credit and debit cards, without requiring prefunding Coinbase account with a bank transfer.

Updated: 2015-08-30