Payment Platform Bitpay Adds Bitcoin Cash SettlementServices

Payment Platform Bitpay Adds Bitcoin Cash Settlement Services

News

On Wednesday, August 29 the Atlanta-based firm Bitpay announced that its merchants can now receive settlement in bitcoin cash (BCH). Not only can Bitpay merchants accept the decentralized digital currency and keep all the bitcoin cash, but they can also split their funds into a fraction of fiat and BCH as well.

Also Read: Nchain Publishes Bitcoin SV Alpha Release

Bitpay Adds Bitcoin Cash Settlement Services

The cryptocurrency payment processor Bitpay has made a lot of changes since its inception in 2011, and just recently the firm added bitcoin cash support for merchant invoices and the company’s debit card loads. On the merchant side Bitpay has always allowed clients to settle in BTC, and now the firm has added support so merchants can settle in BCH. Bitpay merchants can settle for all of the funds in bitcoin cash or they can choose fiat settlement instead in their local currency in order to avoid price volatility. Merchants using Bitpay’s services can also get a fraction of BCH and a fraction of fiat as well.

Payment Platform Bitpay Adds Bitcoin Cash Settlement Services“Most businesses still do business in national currencies — But more are starting to hold and use digital currency, too, from making bill payments to managing their treasuries,” explains Bitpay during the announcement.

Now we’re excited to announce the second digital currency settlement option for Bitpay merchants: Bitcoin Cash.

Payment Platform Bitpay Adds Bitcoin Cash Settlement Services
Users can get 100% BCH or 100% fiat. Or they can settle with their own desired ratio.

Bitpay Wants to Make It Easier to Accept Blockchain Payments

Since bitcoin core (BTC) had severe issues with scaling, which led to network fees rising above $50 per transaction this past December, a bunch of merchants and businesses who accepted BTC in the past have changed over to BCH. Bitcoin cash network fees have remained extremely affordable at $0.003 per transaction, giving many businesses a strong economic incentive to switch from BTC to BCH. This past Spring Bitpay gave people the option to choose either BCH or BTC during the payment invoice process.

Payment Platform Bitpay Adds Bitcoin Cash Settlement Services
Adding a BCH address and selecting the settlement percentage.

In order to use Bitpay’s merchant services and get a settlement in bitcoin cash, users must register with the firm and find their way to the Bitpay merchant services dashboard. From here a merchant simply selects ‘settings’ and then ‘settlement.’ Then, merchants add a BCH receiving address and choose how much bitcoin cash and/or fiat to receive after the sale, as it could be 100 percent or less.

Bitcoin cash fans were very pleased to hear the announcement across Reddit forums and social media platforms. The firm Bitpay emphasized it just wants to make accepting payments easier, noting:

We’re excited to continue our work to make the Bitpay platform the best way to accept blockchain payments – and to accept payments, period.

What do you think about Bitpay now supporting bitcoin cash settlement? Let us know in the comment section below.


Images via Shutterstock, and Bitpay.


Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH, and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.

New 7nm Bitcoin Mining Equipment From Triple-1 Co. Ltd.

Besides Canaan Creative, Bitmain, Innosilicon, & GMO Internet, another company is working on producing 7nm mining equipment. Triple-1 has been working on its 7nm bitcoin mining chips and expects to start shipping the equipment in November, shortly after GMO (a fellow Japanese ASIC Manufacturer)  expects to start shipping its 7nm miners.

Developing 7nm Mining Equipment

Triple-1 Co. Ltd., a Japanese company established in November 2016 and headquartered in Fukuoka, engages in ASIC chip development and cryptocurrency mining farm construction. The company began looking into developing 7nm bitcoin mining chips in February last year.

This week, Triple-1 confirmed that it has completed “the silicon wafer, the sample-chip, the sample-board and the prototype-unit of the mining [7nm] ASIC chip ‘Kamikaze.’”

A representative of the company told news.Bitcoin.com, “we have been conducting a verification of the function as well as the efficiency on the sample-chip and prototype unit,” adding that the company’s “partner foundry is TSMC Co. Ltd. (Taiwan).”

The power efficiency of Triple-1’s 7nm chip is listed at 0.05W/GH, which the company claims, reduces power consumption by at least 50 percent over a conventional 16nm chip.

The Kamikaze chip is the same size as conventional chips, but with a circuit density 5.2 times greater, the company claims, which boosts each chip’s performance to 300GH/s or more.

Triple-1 president and CEO, Takuya Yamaguchi, commented, “Although mining capacity is more than four times that of conventional products, power consumption is expected to be halved at maximum.”

Delivery Schedule

According to Triple-1’s development schedule, the sample 7nm mining unit is expected to be completed at the end of September. Mass production of Kamikaze chips is slated to start in the middle of October with the mining units delivered by the end of November.

Yamaguchi told the Sankei Shimbun:

We plan to ship samples in August and mass-produced items from October, and aim for 10 million chips per month in FY 2019.

In June, GMO Internet also unveiled its 7nm bitcoin mining chips and mining rigs. The company now has two models of its 7nm bitcoin miners, B2 and B3. Both are expected to ship at the end of October.

 

A Look at Venezuela’s Other Cryptocurrencies, While thePetro Takes Center Stage

A Look at Venezuela’s Other Coins, While Petro Takes the Center Stage

Altcoins

Financially troubled Venezuela, which is introducing the new, denominated, crypto-anchored “sovereign bolivar” this week, is also the birthplace of a number of alternative coins beside the state-issued, oil-backed national cryptocurrency, El Petro. Crisis-hit Venezuelans are actually using some of them in real life, according to the local crypto community.     

Also read: Coinhive Mints Quarter Million Dollars in Monero a Month, Report Reveals

El Petro in the Spotlight

Public attention is focused on the petro this week, with authorities in Caracas launching the country’s new and denominated bolívar soberano (sovereign bolivar) that has five zeros less than the bolívar fuerte – the current Venezuelan fiat which is going down in history as one of the world’s most depreciated and inflated currencies. What makes the occasion special is that the new bolivar is pegged to the petro – arguably the world’s first national cryptocurrency. From Monday, the two will coexist together and will remain the only two official units of account in the Bolivarian Republic after the old bolivar is phased out.

A Look at Venezuela’s Other Coins, While Petro Takes the Center StageVenezuela’s leftist administration, led by President Nicolás Maduro, looks at the oil-backed petro and now the petro-tied bolivar as crucial instruments in the struggle to overcome the country’s economic hardships. But while the socialist government is obsessed with imposing the state-issued coin and restoring state control over the shattered Venezuelan economy, a growing number of Venezuelans have been seeking refuge in “volatile” cryptocurrencies – a relative notion in this case. With almost 12% of all bitcoins traded on Localbitcoins by Venezuelans, according to a new report, their nation accounts for BTC trade worth over $700 million USD and places fourth in the leaderboard of the peer-to-peer platform, right after the United States, Russia, and the UK.

In a recent radio interview, the president of the Venezuelan Association of Cryptocurrencies “Asonacrip”, Jose Alvarez, spoke about cryptocurrencies in the light of the opportunities they present to his compatriots who have seen the purchasing power of their fiat money literary evaporate before their eyes. Mr. Alvarez claims there are successful developments beyond the petro in Venezuela. Besides bitcoin and the bolivar, Venezuelans have other alternatives at their disposal, and some of them actually already work, with real-life use cases, as the representative of the crypto community points out. They are both local and crypto, like the petro, but not government-issued, unlike the national cryptocurrency.

Meet Venezuela’s other coins.

Venezuela’s Private Cryptocurrencies

A Look at Venezuela’s Other Coins, While Petro Takes the Center StageBolivarcoin – Talking about bolivars, maybe we should mention this one first. There’s not much information about it but let’s summarize what’s available. According to some older forum posts, the Bolivarcoin (BOL) is a crypto inspired by Bitcoin and based on the Litecoin script. The authors say everyone is invited to mine and use “the main virtual currency in Venezuela.” Bolivarcoin’s website, however, does not have the looks of a well marketed project. It gives you the option to ask questions and that’s about it. The last post on Bolivarcoin’s Facebook page is from a couple of years ago. BOL currently ranks 1,265th among digital coins tracked by Coinmarketcap. It has a market capitalization of 17 BTC (~$108,000) and costs $0.009528 USD per coin at the time of writing.

A Look at Venezuela’s Other Coins, While Petro Takes the Center StageOnixcoin – Marketed as “Venezuela’s first cryptocurrency,” it has a decent website. Its team has set a goal to “bring financial tools to all Venezuelans and Latin Americans” by providing access to international transfers, unlimited credits and currency trading. The project is actually targeting people with little financial history – recent graduates, students and entrepreneurs were mentioned in a Steemit post earlier this year. ONX, the crypto that “anyone can mine or buy,” currently costs $0.002914 USD. It has a market cap of $312,048 USD and ranks 957th on the Coinmarketcap platform.

A Look at Venezuela’s Other Coins, While Petro Takes the Center StageRilcoin – Another Venezuelan cryptocurrency that according to Alvarez is used in the tourism industry, the goal stated by its team on the coin’s website. Its developers say Rilcoin has been created as a fast, safe and simple cryptocurrency to be used daily in stores and help improve Venezuela’s economy. And because of the crisis, the company is distributing a percentage of the coins mined each month to local charities. There is no data on Coinmarketcap about Rilcoin, but according to the calculator on its website, 1 Rilcoin currently costs $0.003 USD.

A Look at Venezuela’s Other Coins, While Petro Takes the Center StagePerlacoin – The president of “Asonacrip” mentions there have been some developments with this cryptocurrency in Margarita. Earlier this year, the island was designated as a special economic zone by Maduro’s administration along with Los Roques, Paraguaná, Ureña, where the government wants to stimulate the circulation of the state-issued petro. Not a lot of information is available about Perlacoin and the crypto is not listed by Coinmarketcap either. The last activity on the project’s Twitter page is from early March.

Beside these privately-issued cryptocurrencies and the state-emitted oil-backed petro, the government also had plans to create another coin – Petro Oro (petro gold), to be backed by precious metals like gold. In February, right after the launch of the petro, President Maduro announced authorities were preparing to issue the “even more powerful” Petro Oro as well. No details were provided as to whether the second national Venezuelan coin would be backed by the gold reserves of Banco Central de Venezuela or the country’s mineral deposits. Months later, the fate of the project remains unclear.

On August 20, Venezuela devalued the national fiat currency. The new, petro-pegged “sovereign bolivar” has five zeros less than the current “strong bolivar”. The monetary reform was announced as part of a package of measures to improve the socio-economic conditions in the country and restore government control over the economy. The minimum salary will be raised 60-fold to 0.5 PTR, or $30 USD a month, but VAT will jump from 12 to 16 percent. Maduro also vowed to restore the price ceiling mechanism which is supposed to allow authorities to limit inflation.

What do you think will happen with Venezuela’s private cryptocurrencies? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.


Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Binance, Adab Solutions.

 

Coingeek Speaks on Consensus Changes and Next-Gen ASICChip

Coingeek Speaks on Consensus Changes and Next-Gen ASIC Chip

News

Last week, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the proposed consensus changes published by the Bitcoin ABC development team, and the opposition towards certain elements of that proposal from a few BCH community members. Now the blockchain firm and mining organization Coingeek, led by the billionaire tycoon Calvin Ayre, has revealed some different proposed changes to the BCH protocol that the group would rather support. Moreover, Coingeek also explains the company has designed a next-generation ASIC chip that will be unveiled during the last week of November in London.

Also read: The Opposition Towards Bitcoin ABC’s Proposed Upgrade Changes

Craig Wright: The Plan is 128MB This November

Coingeek Speaks on Consensus Changes and Next-Gen ASIC ChipThree days ago we reported on the proposed changes being added to the next full node client published by the Bitcoin ABC development team. The new code changes should be in the next codebase release which is expected to be ready on August 15 for testing. As we discussed, the ABC developers plan to add canonical transaction ordering, a minimum transaction size of 100 bytes, activation of OP_CHECKDATASIG and OP_CHECKDATASIGVERIFY (CDSV), and push-only mandatory for scriptsig.

However, Nchain’s Craig Wright explained that CDSV would not happen while also detailing that friends like Calvin Ayre would not support the change. A few days later on August 11, Wright explained his preferred consensus changes that he would like to see implemented on the BCH chain this coming November. Wright states:

The plan is 128MB this November — 512MB in May 2019 — 2.0 GB in Nov 2020 and – after this, it is unbounded. There will be NO limits ANYWHERE in bitcoin. We expect 337k USD in fees a block just from one use case. That will then fuel BCH to become global money.   

Coingeek’s Statement Against Certain Changes and the Mining Pool’s November Suggestions

Coingeek Speaks on Consensus Changes and Next-Gen ASIC ChipFollowing this, on August 13 the mining organization Coingeek, which captures over 20 percent of the BCH hashrate, once again made a statement concerning Bitcoin protocol changes. The company starts off by explaining that it is fully committed to the global success of the original Bitcoin protocol which is “now restored in the form of Bitcoin Cash BCH.” Furthermore, Coingeek emphasizes that as a “significant miner” there are a few consensus changes they plan on supporting that are different than the changes proposed by Bitcoin ABC. The Coingeek proposal shows three features they would like to see implemented this November:

  • Continuing the program to re-enable the original set of opcodes. Specifically for November, CoinGeek supports re-enabling OP_MUL, OP_LSHIFT, OP_RSHIFT, and OP_INVERT.
  • Removing the current limit of 201 opcodes per script.
  • Raising the maximum block size to 128MB.

Additionally, Coingeek notes some changes within the Bitcoin ABC proposal that the organization will not support. Coingeek agrees with Craig Wright, and explains they will not “commit their hashpower” to any software implementation that supports “canonical transaction ordering and OP_CHECKDATASIGVERIFY (CDSV).”

“In the longer term, Coingeek will continue to support only consensus changes that restore the original Bitcoin protocol, and those that may be demonstrated as absolutely necessary to meeting the goal of massive on-chain scaling to terabyte+ blocks,” the mining pool details.

Coingeek Speaks on Consensus Changes and Next-Gen ASIC Chip
Coingeek’s hashrate over the last seven days.

Coingeek Emphasizes It Will Support the Best Interest for All Enterprise Bitcoin Cash Miners, and Plans to Unveil a “Next Generation ASIC Chip Design” This November

Coingeek also says it encourages the development of plug-in transaction selection, removing transaction delays, free and cheap fees, computational cost-based fee calculation, and the implementation of a secondary transaction cache to allow double spend monitoring for transactions. The firm says it will continue to support the original vision of Bitcoin and says other mining pools should join them in taking a stance.

“Coingeek’s suggested path is in the best interest of all enterprise-level mining operations and we welcome working together to support this now,” the company notes.

Coingeek Speaks on Consensus Changes and Next-Gen ASIC Chip

Following the statement toward enterprise mining operations, the company has also revealed it has designed a “next generation ASIC chip.” According to Coingeek, the chip will be optimized for enterprise-level mining on the Bitcoin Cash network. Coingeek details it will be showcasing the new technology at a booth during the organization’s London conference in November. The BCH mining pool says they invite all miners to join them at the even so they can plan for the future of the industry.

What do you think about Coingeek’s statements and proposals for the upcoming November Bitcoin Cash hard fork? What do you think about Coingeek announcing next-generation enterprise-grade mining chips? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comment section below.


Images via Shutterstock, Coingeek logo, Nchain logo, Coindance, and Pixabay. 


Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.

Blockchain Data Now Has Legal Bearing in the State of Ohio

Blockchain Data Now Has Legal Bearing in the State of Ohio

News

Governor John Kasich from the Midwestern state of Ohio signed a bill this week that formally recognizes data recorded on a blockchain and electronic signatures as having legal bearing in a court of law. The state joins Vermont and Arizona, two states that have already passed laws that recognize blockchain-based transactions.

Also read: Philippines Building Crypto Valley of Asia

Blockchain Records Now Recognized in Ohio Law

Blockchain Data Now Has Legal Bearing in the State of Ohio Lately, politicians from many of the states in the US have been talking about how to handle blockchain technology and cryptocurrency transactions. About a month ago bureaucrats from Ohio ushered in a new bill (SB300) that would acknowledge blockchain ownership. Since then a fraction of the bill made its way into the state’s Uniform Electronic Transactions Act which states:

A record or contract that is secured through blockchain technology is considered to be in an electronic form and to be an electronic record.  

The Jobs Ohio financial services managing director, Valentina Isakina, believes Ohio lawmakers have made the right decision to include blockchain in this legislation. “Many companies looking to expand their blockchain and R&D operations are rapidly growing job creators, and Ohio is now even more attractive to these businesses,” Isakina explains.

Senator Matt Dolan who introduced the original bill stated:

In order for Ohio to compete for new investments and jobs, we must welcome innovation, new technology, and advanced energy. Embracing blockchain technology is a step forward to achieve these goals.

Blockchain Data Now Has Legal Bearing in the State of Ohio
Senator Matt Dolan and the group Jobs Ohio believe laws that recognize blockchain data could help the state with innovative tech jobs.

Ohio Joins a Few States with Blockchain Legislation

The news is positive for blockchain and cryptocurrency advocates as there are only a few states that have passed legislation that recognizes distributed ledger recorded data and electronic signatures. While blockchains like the Bitcoin Cash protocol provide a peer-to-peer version of electronic ownership with the use of digital signatures, certain state laws may not extend towards legitimate ownership within the regional court system. Both Vermont and Arizona enacted trailblazing blockchain and cryptocurrency legislation (with S. 135 & AZ H.B. 2417).

With projects like Cincinnati’s Smart City initiative, quite a few politicians want Ohio to be a hub when it comes to financial technology. Jobs Ohio believes that blockchain data and electronic signatures will be used for records within the state and touted Ohio as the “financial services industry fifth-largest state” in the US. So if you are a resident from Ohio and you secured ownership with a blockchain transaction, it will have legal bearing in a court of law.


Images via Shutterstock, Cleveland.com, and Wiki Commons. 


 

ShapeShift Acquires Tool That Quickly Swaps Bitcoin forOther Cryptos

ShapeShift has acquired a startup that developed a tool for exchanging cryptocurrencies more efficiently.

The company said Wednesday that it acquired the Texas-based Bitfract after it made the tool – allowing for the exchange of bitcoin for “dozens of digital assets in a single transaction” using the company’s API. The idea is that the tool makes it easier for crypto-buyers to switch up their portfolio without having to execute numerous transactions.

“This demonstrated a great alignment of strategy and thinking, and their execution was so exceptional that we wanted to bring their talented team and technology on board,” CEO Erik Voorhees said in a statement.

The tool works by letting investors choose what percentage of their holdings should be in a particular asset, add the destination wallet addresses and send bitcoin in a single mass transaction.

ShapeShift intends to continue operating Bitfract’s tool in its present form “as a demonstration of the power of ShapeShift’s open API.” However, the exchange will also integrate the platform’s mechanism into its own platform, creating a native “multiple output transactions” function.

“We believe in a decentralized future where individuals freely control their digital wealth, and our team is honored to work alongside Erik and everyone at ShapeShift to make this a reality,” Bitfract co-founder and CEO Willy Ogorzaly said of the acquisition.

The move comes just less than a year after ShapeShift announced the acquisition of KeepKey, a bitcoin hardware wallet startup. ShapeShift raised a $10.4 million Series A funding round in March 2017.

ShapeShift image via Piotr Swat / Shutterstock

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Bitcoin ATMs Now In The Thousands Around the World

Bitcoin ATM's growing

Coinatmradar.com reports a milestone of the 3,500 threshold being crossed for bitcoin ATMs (BATM) installed across the globe. One of the goals behind bitcoin automated teller machines is ease of onboarding to the world of crypto. A bear market – a protracted Crypto Winter – appeared to slow BATMs’ placement. And for sure it just might have, but numbers remain relatively strong considering, with the greater worry among BATM operators being US federal regulations preventing innovation.

Also read: Queensland, Australia Invests Portion of its $6.1Mil Ignite Ideas Fund in Crypto Startup

3,500 Bitcoin ATMs Installed Around the World

Coinatmradar.com announced this week a psychological milestone for the ecosystem had been reached: more than 3,500 bitcoin ATM machines are now installed all over the world. Not so long ago, BATMs were thought to a perfect onboarding tool, and especially in the United States.

Bitcoin ATMs Now In The Thousands Around the World

Americans are already trained on the basic tech, having had decades of automated ways to snag cash. That such machines could be placed where consumers are, rather than the customer having to seek it out, meant BATMs would be put in liquor stores, fast food restaurants, shopping malls, movie theatres, etc. It was just a matter of time until such convenience caught on.

That was before prices soured and the US federal government began cracking down on BATM operators. “No doubt, US regulations play a huge role in our business,” head of marketing at Blockchain BTM, Tim Curry stressed. “We would be able to provide many more services, and for much cheaper, were it not for a myriad of regulations we must comply with,” Mr. Curry explained to News.Bitcoin.com at this year’s Comic Con in San Diego, where his company was an exhibitor.

9 Per Day

Still, the fact so many BATMs are up and running, with a heavy concentration of those in the United States, and all this during a bear market, is testimony to BATMs’ potential power. “It’s a bank in a box,” Mr. Curry noted. “We can onboard someone faster than Coinbase, and in about two to three minutes from start to finish. No having to wait up to a week. No linking your personal bank account.” Blockchain BTM is largely focused on the California market at the moment, from the border with Mexico to about as far north as Bakersfield.

Bitcoin ATMs Now In The Thousands Around the World

Just shy of a year and a half ago, the ecosystem celebrated BATMs reaching four digits, 1,000, around the world. Of the approximate 3,500 installed across the globe, over 1,800 support alternative coins such as litecoin and ether. North America retains the greatest concentration of machines, with close to 2,600 installed between the United States and Canada.

At present, something on the order of 9 BATMs are being installed per day. Genesis Coin and General Bytes make up over half of all installations. Most machines are set to offramp from fiat, government paper, and onto crypto. However, markets seem to be seeking two-way alternative machines, allowing users to jump in and out of fiat and crypto, as those BATMs are growing in total market share.

Read the original post here 


Images via Pixabay. 

Coinbase Seeks Online Merchant Crypto Adoption by the Millions

Coinbase announced digital payment system for woocommerce

Adoption news keeps flowing this week, from Wall Street to Australia, and now San Francisco. The United States largest cryptocurrency bank, Coinbase, announced it is expanding its commerce section to include Woo Commerce via a plugin downloadable from Github. It could be just what more online merchants need to get comfortable with cryptocurrency.

Coinbase Seeks Online Merchant Crypto Adoption by the Millions

More than a quarter of all online merchants use Woo Commerce. It’s easily one of the most popular payment platforms around. This week, Coinbase announced it is releasing a Woo Commerce plugin as part of its proprietary Coinbase Commerce offering which can be downloaded from Github.

Coinbase Commerce is itself a payment solution focusing on getting more online merchants to use cryptocurrency. Woo Commerce businesses will “have access to cryptocurrency payments from customers around the world,” Coinbase stressed. “This increased access will lead to more widespread adoption, and ultimately, moves us closer to our goal of an open financial system.”

At present, ethereum and bitcoin cash (BCH) are still being tested on the platform, but users who hold bitcoin core (BTC) and litecoin can send theirs from Coinbase Commerce. The team is working on building similar functionality for bitcoin cash and ethereum.

Huge Market

Merchants who use the payment button React now have the option of embedding Coinbase functionality as well. The San Francisco-based crypto bank is also incorporating programming languages such as Python, and are said to even be considering Ruby. The idea seems to be keeping merchants happy by not asking them for acceptance payment fees.

Coinbase logoThese are just a scant few moves Coinbase has been making as a unit this year. They are now involved with institutional financial products, and are launching a crypto index fund, gobbling up licenses such as the Bitlicense, have purchased Paradax exchange, and are plotting a move into Japan.

The payment processing market is a giant one. All the proof anyone would need to measure just how huge is, say, the recent announcement by Wall Street and its entrance into all things retail with Bakkt (includes Microsoft and Starbucks). And while the space is getting crowded a bit, Coinbase has a built-in advantage being a relatively early mover in the ecosystem, a very positive brand identification, and a host of lincenses and general trust among weathermen.

Do you think Coinbase’s new plug-in will encourage merchant adoption? Let us know in the comments section below. 

Images via Pixabay. 

Original Article can be found here

People might think it’s crazy to order & pay for coffee with Bitcoin, but Starbucks Corp. may be changing everthing.

Starbucks considering bitcoin payments

People might think it’s crazy to order & pay for coffee with Bitcoin, but Starbucks Corp. may be planning to change the way you think.

The coffee giant is partnering with one of the world’s biggest exchange operators, Intercontinental Exchange Inc., which just created a venture called Bakkt designed to bring digital currencies closer to global commerce.

Even with Bitcoin’s astronomical surge last year, it’s still barely used to buy and sell actual goods in most countries. Many startups have sought to take cryptocurrencies mainstream by developing exchanges or payment gateways for merchants, but few have had success connecting all of the necessary players. ICE wants to help change that.

“Bakkt is designed to serve as a scalable on-ramp for institutional, merchant and consumer participation in digital assets by promoting greater efficiency, security and utility,” said Kelly Loeffler, the chief executive officer of Bakkt who was until recently head of communications at ICE. “We are collaborating to build an open platform that helps unlock the transformative potential of digital assets across global markets and commerce.”

Original Post can be found here

Introducing the World’s First Television with a Bitcoin Mining Twist!

New Bitcoin Mining TV by Canaan Creative

One of the leading manufacturers of Bitcoin mining hardware has announced a new product aiming to bring Bitcoin mining to people’s homes. Canaan Creative is working to promote greater Bitcoin network decentralization with the launch of a 4k television set with mining capabilities.

This leaves people wondering will Bitcoin Miner’s Inside a TV Help to further Decentralize Bitcoin?

The television set announced today contains an Avalon Miner Inside. According to the rumors It possesses a reasonable hash rate of 2.8 TH/s. To put this into perspective, the current most powerful piece of mining hardware (Avalon 841) made by Canaan Creative is capable of performing 13.6 trillion hashes each second.

The Avalon Miner Inside is powered by artificial intelligence and according to a report in the South China Morning Post, also has voice activated functions. In addition, the television set has a built-in mining profitability calculator powered by an Android operating system (Unconfirmed rumor) to help users determine how well the device is hashing.

The Bitcoin mined by the Avalon Miner Inside will be able to be spent on various items in a designated store platform provided by Canaan Creative. These will include entertainment packages and physical gifts.

Canaan Creative’s newest product will be distributed to retail businesses who will supply the product to customers. The company also have plans to launch additional blockchain-related appliances in the future.

The Original post can be found here