By Adrianne Jeffries 6/15/11 1:16pm

New Money

Mr. Carlson.

Original ‘Will Work for Bitcoin’ Coder Calls His Experiment ‘A Success by Some Measures’

Colorado-based Nick Carlson came to fame when he advertised his services as a software developer willing to work for Bitcoin; he posted the ad on a few forums and it was picked up by Launch, which ran a splashy story about the cryptocurrency about a month before Bitcoin really hit mainstream awareness. “I’m testing the waters to see how viable Bitcoin is as a currency for services like software development,” he wrote on his blog. He got an offer for 60 Bitcoins for 12 hours of work, which at the time equated to roughly $30 an hour, well below his normal rate of $75 to $150. “However, I expect Bitcoins to appreciate significantly in value in the coming months,” he told Betabeat at the time. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 11:20am

Cryptocurrency

Nick Carlson, Bitcoin-aire.

Will Work for Bitcoin Coder Says Most People Just Using It as an Investment Vehicle

Colorado-based developer Nick Carlson came to our attention when he was mentioned in a splashy story about the Bitcoin project, an initiative in which savvy techies trade for goods and services using an unregulated, standardized digital currency. Mr. Carlson has been curious about Bitcoins since he read about them in April and realized that “the mathematical principles behind the currency were sound.” He bought some Bitcoins through a private transaction on Reddit.

Barring legal intervention, Mr. Carlson told Betabeat, Bitcoins are a viable currency. But most people are not using them for commerce, he said–they’re trading them to make money. So five days ago he decided to do an experiment to see how Bitcoin stands up to the dollar. Read More