Bitcoin Is for Winners: Simon Denny's Crash Course on Cryptocurrency

Support the people heading to #AliceSprings to #ClosePineGap 

A national gathering of peace makers and anti war activists during the 50 Year Anniversary of Pine Gap. A series of independently organised events and artful non violent protest actions in and around Alice Springs. Themed on closing the U.S. spy and drone base at Pine Gap.

WHAT IS PINE GAP?

A US base established by the CIA  to conduct mass surveillance, collecting raw data from satellites, supporting communications of US armed forces, targeting drone attacks and also supporting arms control verification.

You can donate here to a fundraiser for the group.

I am travelling to Pine Gap to join the convergence if you would like to donate bitcoin to help with some of the travelling and internet costs to upload media you can help using the address below. 

Crypto Pioneer Nick Szabo Is Raising Funds for Bitcoin/Blockchain Startup

US Blockchain Company Ripple Raises $55 Mln, Investors Include Major Banks

Thursday, Blockchain company Ripple announced that it had raised $55 mln in funding.Accenture Ventures, SCB Digital Ventures, the venture arm of Siam Commercial Bank and Santander Innoventures are just a few of the investors who participated in the Series B funding.

Additionally, Ripple has secured partnerships with major banks, including  Standard Chartered, BMO Financial Group, and Shanghai Huarui Bank.

In the near future Ripple plans to partner with even more banks, which are planned to use the service it provides to improve cross-border payments.

Overall, Ripple has received over $93 million in funding.

Genesis Mining has successfully settled the first peer-to-peer Bitcoin transaction in space with the help of a weather balloon. A few weeks ago, the team at Genesis Mining, the Bitcoin mining company which was founded in 2013, travelled to the United Kingdom to launch a 3D model of a Bitcoin embedded with a Bitcoin paper wallet into the stratosphere. In its first launch the space balloon reached the Armstrong Limit, or an altitude of 20 kilometers, successfully taking the physical Bitcoin into space to settle a Bitcoin transaction.

A bit of change: Indians using bitcoin to trade, shop, even pay for pizza

Bitcoin Accepted! German Energy Giant Enables Payments.

Enercity CEO, Dr. Susanna Zapreva, who made the announcement, said digitization has already been fixed into various parts of the everyday life of their customers and the introduction of Bitcoin payment is just a step on the road to the digital future.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ confirmed on Tuesday it is conducting experiments on a digital currency utilizing the technology behind the virtual currency bitcoin.

The recent revelation that compliance stickers on chinese made hoverboards were counterfeit raises a question about the integrity of the standards system. 

“Big W has been forced to issue a recall on one of the year's hottest gifts, just over a week away from Christmas.

The retailer has had to recall the Moonwalker 2 Hoverboard, due to a potentially dangerous battery and wiring which could give an electric shock to the user.”

The problem of fake compliance stickers could could easily be solved using qr codes customers could scan that are linked to a transaction in the blockchain. 

Joel Emery's passion is cryptocurrencies, IT and tax law. It's dense stuff, but despite a recent senate inquiry, legal treatment of new financial technologies is in its infancy so Emery's Bachelor of Laws honours thesis at ANU is in some ways ahead of the regulators.

Bitcoin emerged in 2008 as the first decentralised cryptocurrency, a form of cash that uses encrypted records to validate transactions and generate more bitcoin and, although crypto-currencies get a bad rap at times, the industry is estimated to already be worth more than $14 billion.

Every day, ordinary people walk out of the house without a cent, yet buy coffee, lunch and dinner using a digital wallet, and cryptocurrency is accepted as payment by the likes of Dell and Microsoft.

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Patric Lanhed is trying to send one euro worth of Bitcoin from one digital wallet to another. But first, he has to hold a near-field communication (NFC) chip reader against his hand. Underneath his skin is a tiny computer chip, a popular modification among the bodyhacking crowd, which contains the secret key to his Bitcoin wallet.

Once the scan is complete, and custom software written by Lanhed and his collaborator Juanjo Tara—a software developer for Arduino—confirms that the key stored on the chip is legitimate, the pair anxiously watch a screen displaying a Bitcoin wallet, waiting for its balance to go up.

When it does, Lanhed exclaims, “It worked!” and Tara whistles.

Bitnation, an ambitious project for the decentralisation of governance using blockchain technology, is offering victims of the current refugee crisis an emergency digital ID and a bitcoin visa card to receive funds from family in the absence of a bank account.

Susanne Templehof, founder of Bitnation, explained the Blockchain Emergency ID is a rudimentary emergency ID, based on the blockchain technology, for individuals who cannot obtain other documents of identification.

The purpose is to cryptographically prove your existence and family relations, recorded on the Horizon blockchain, a distributed public ledger (like an international public notary of sorts).

The ID form generates a QR code which can be used with a cellphone to apply for a Bitcoin Visa Card which can be used throughout Europe and the UK without a bank account.

Templehof said: "We are providing emergency ID and then this visa card because most refugees will be unemployed. They won't be legally able to get a job for several years and they can't open a bank account."