Friday, January 31, 2014

Briefly Bitcoin - 2/1/14: Chicago Sun-Times micropayments, China & an NBA bitcoin bounty

Your select guide of bitcoin interest since the last time I posted this

* Want a snapshot of bitcoin legality around the world? Forbes has a quick rundown for you. Wait - the French love Jerry Lewis but hate on bitcoin? Quelle bizarre!


* Looks like the Chicago Sun-Times is going to be the first major city American paywall micropayments.
newspaper to experiment with


* Can't keep a good cryptocurrency down: Hong Kong gets a bitcoin exchange, hoping to entice mainland Chinese buyers spooked by the unclear Chinese central bank anti-bitcoin stance.


* Appears that professional NBA sportsbettor Haralabos Voulgaris is fed up with former NBA player/current ESPN color commentator Jon Barry. The challenge he laid at the feet of his 38,000+ followers:



The race is on! Read his Twitter feed from 9:36 to 10:05 PM Pacific Time Friday night to get the full details; he sounds serious. Now if only I knew how to code...

Got anything cool and bitcoin-y to share? Leave it in the comments below or email me at blacksinbitcoin@gmail.com!

What Bitcoin Mining Really Looks Like

http://i.imgur.com/1srrQRV.jpg
Thanks for the lulz, Redditor dustball! Keep those toes warm and beware the NSA!

Monday, January 27, 2014

Briefly Bitcoin - 1/27/14: TigerDirect, Bitcoin browser wallet app, China blocks cash & more

Your select guide of bitcoin interest since the last time I posted this

* TigerDirect now accepts bitcoin. This is a big deal because if you've ever searched for electronics on the internet, you came across one of TigerDirect's dirt-cheap deals. Shoot, even the laptop from which I'm typing this to you was bought on TigerDirect. This is kind of a big deal, you know.


* It's official because they said so: Bitcoin is now a word in the dictionary.


* Got a great idea to help improve bitcoin and/or the community? The Bitcoin Foundation wants to hear it - and fund your project.


* This will blow your socks off: A simple, in-browser app for Google Chrome that allows you to manage a bitcoin wallet! Check out the 3 minute demo below.




* Looks like you'll be able to safely and easily buy bitcoin for cash in 2014. ZipZap is starting off in the UK first, though.


* Not to sound alarmist or anything but China's prohibiting cash transfers for its three busiest days of the year. Yeah, let's just stop ATMs from spitting out cash around New Year's. Or, better yet, let's all just flock to bitcoin!


Got anything cool and bitcoin-y to share? Leave it in the comments below or email me at blacksinbitcoin@gmail.com!

Friday, January 24, 2014

If You Heard This All The Time, It Would Annoy You, Too


You want us in bitcoin, you need us in bitcoin
"Why do we need a 'Blacks In Bitcoin'?"

I would counter, we cannot afford not to have a Blacks In Bitcoin.

In announcing my presence to one of the most popular forces in the bitcoin community, Reddit's r/Bitcoin, I get the typical response that leads this post from someone whom I presume is in bitcoin but perhaps not black. While the bulk of my response can be found in the thread here, I believe the answer to that question requires more exploration.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Briefly Bitcoin - 1/22/14: Vegas (baby), Seattle Seahawks & more

Your select guide of bitcoin interest since the last time I posted this

* For whatever reason, industries like entertainment tend to be on the cutting edge of technology. So it should be no surprise that two Las Vegas casinos now accept bitcoin. While you won't be able to scan a QR code to play craps just yet, you can buy some nifty things at the gift shop or pay for you room right now. This also proves that if you ask for bitcoin, it will come!


* One day, announcements like this will be ordinary, but looks like Toronto has its first bitcoin ATM.


* For the truly paranoid, er, security conscious, ConcealBitcoin.com can show you how to hide your bitcoin wallet.dat file inside an image.


* My hometown Seattle Seahawks now accept bitcoin. As if getting to the SuperBowl weren't good enough news! #GoHawks!


Got anything cool and bitcoin-y to share? Leave it in the comments below or email me at blacksinbitcoin@gmail.com!

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Top 13 Cities For Bitcoin

Ever wondered which cities are bonkers for bitcoin? Here are some of the top ones, below.
 
13.  Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands)

If we're going bitcoin businesses per capita, the Canary Islands puts most other locales to shame. With over 5 businesses in Santa Cruz de Tenerife alone, you can fashion yourself a custom souvenir keychain without reaching for your wallet.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Briefly Bitcoin - 1/20/14: ATMs, Trezor, Richard Sherman & more

Your select guide of bitcoin interest since the last time I posted this

* Robocoin CEO explains how his bitcoin ATM is bringing BTC to the masses.


* Received this in my email today from Trezor:
For those wanting a simple, plug and play, super-secure bitcoin wallet, looks like the wait is almost over! To boot, they're adding a secure web wallet for Trezor users as well.


* Have you seen our recent addition to Bitcoining While Black, Richard Sherman? Less than 72 hours after we feted him, "the best cornerback" in the NFL became the talk of Twitter for his post-game bravado. Here's a long-read about the humble beginnings that begot an intelligent, unstoppable confidence.
Pay for your tuition in BTC


* Wall Street Journal's "Moneybeat" blog shows the variety of things/experiences you can buy with bitcoin. Only mentionable because, for a change, the finance sector-friendly paper isn't bashing BTC and all its possibilities.





Got anything cool and bitcoin-y to share? Leave it in the comments below or email me at blacksinbitcoin@gmail.com!


Friday, January 17, 2014

Bitcoining While Black: Seattle Seahawks' Richard Sherman


Photo: instagram.com/seahawks

Guess who announced on his Facebook page today that he's taking bitcoin for his website's store? Just your run-of-the-mill, Stanford-educated, All-Pro, NFC Championship-playing defensive back for the Seattle Seahawks, Richard Sherman!


Hey, Federal Reserve:


http://store.richardsherman25.com/products/you-mad-bro-snapback-cap-navy


Thursday, January 16, 2014

Briefly Bitcoin - 1/16/14

Your select guide of bitcoin interest since the last time I posted this

* The U.S. courts basically killed net neutrality, effectively giving big Internet companies the right to cut deals with big media companies to throttle the Internet to their advantage through pricing and access. Just check out these Reddit comments to get a picture of a future of companies picking Internet winners and losers. Very sad. Hope there are more appeals left to straighten this out.


*Further adding to my sadness as a Seattle Supersonics fan, the Sacramento Kings become the first pro sports team to accept bitcoin. Now I've got more reasons to care about them besides former UW stud Isaiah Thomas (can you tell I'm from Seattle??).


*Oh look: Apple's longstanding bitcoin hatin' is because they want all the money for themselves. I'm sure nobody saw this coming...


* Not sure what they're doing over there at Circle, but they're certainly winning the executive arms race before their release as some sort of bitcoin financial services company.


Got anything cool and bitcoin-y to share? Leave it in the comments below or email me at blacksinbitcoin@gmail.com!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Briefly Bitcoin - 1/14/14

Your select guide of bitcoin interest since the last time I posted this

* I will be on Al Jazeera English's "The Stream" today from 11:30 AM to 12:15 PM Pacific Time, talking bitcoin. The show's not available in the U.S. but you can watch online if you have a VPN via stream.aljazeera.com.


* Stopped by Coinmarketcap.com today for the first time in a while. The altcoin market is getting weirder and weirder (RonPaulCoin, throw it up!)...


* Overstock.com's certainly shaken up the retail world with its recent acceptance of bitcoin as a payment option. In fact, the Overstock.com CEO is calling out Amazon. This writer thinks Walmart would be wise to be next, while Business Insider shows a breakdown of Overstock.com's sales via heat map below:


* Hmm - an NSA-proof Twitter? I WANT.


* Apparently, NBC's "The Blacklist" mentioned bitcoin on last night's episode. Time for me to schedule this post and go watch.

Got anything cool and bitcoin-y to share? Leave it in the comments below or email me at blacksinbitcoin@gmail.com!

Top 10 Reasons Why Bitcoin Is Magic Internet Money

Bitcoin believer or bitcoin hater? You are sure to recognize several of these popular arguments...

Sadly, the joke's on US
1. It's not backed by anything. It's "magic Internet money."

Quick question: What is the United States Dollar, currently the world's reserve currency, backed by? Answer: Nothing.

The USD hasn't been backed by the gold standard since the '70s.

Many like to point out that the dollar is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. You mean that same government with the ginormous deficit that shut itself down for no good reason last year?

Well, the US still has the greatest military force in the world. It's backed by that. And this is still true. But if you're depending upon the threat of physical violence to back up the concept of what currency actually is - just a more efficient way to barter/exchange things of value - then your concept is pretty weak.

The real secret behind money is that it's worth whatever we say it's worth. The value of anything is what two people in a transaction agree it to be. What makes bitcoin so special is that this value is being drastically re-evaluated every day in a more peer-to-peer way than we've seen in the central bank era.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

I Come Across This A Lot

I mention bitcoin.

Either a puzzled look wafts over the person's face (never heard of it) or a smirking, dismissive look ("magic Internet money") takes hold. Either way, this person does not own any bitcoin due to ignorance: simply not knowing enough about it.

What hurts me most is that this person I'm speaking to... is black.

Thursday, January 9, 2014