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It's All About the Bitcoins

By Jessica Roy 5/15 1:17pm

It's All About the Bitcoins

Mr. Karpeles (Photo: Twitter)

Warrant Reveals Homeland Security Seized Mt. Gox’s Dwolla Account for ‘Unlicensed Money Transmitting’

Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security shut down Bitcoin trading platform Mt. Gox’s ability to accept or send transfers using Dwolla, a mobile payment service. A representative from Dwolla told Betabeat that the DHS had sent them a “seizure warrant” for the account, but declined to provide further detail. Now, in the warrant, obtained by Ars Technica, the reason for the seizure has been revealed: DHS believes Mt. Gox is operating an “unlicensed money transmitting business.” Read More

By Jessica Roy 5/14 4:07pm

It's All About the Bitcoins

(Photo: Silicon Angle)

Department of Homeland Security Shuts Down Dwolla Payments to and From Mt. Gox

Update: Warrant Reveals Homeland Security Seized Mt. Gox’s Dwolla Account for ‘Unlicensed Money Transmitting’

The Department of Homeland Security appears to have shut down the ability to use Dwolla, a mobile payment service, to withdraw and deposit money into Mt. Gox, a Bitcoin trading platform. A Dwolla representative confirmed the move to Betabeat. Chris Coyne, cofounder of OKCupid, posted a screenshot of an email he received from Dwolla, stating that due to recent orders from the Department of Homeland Security, Dwolla cannot complete the bank transfer to Mt. Gox. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 5/08 9:45am

It's All About the Bitcoins

(Photo: Flickr/Zach Copley)

Union Square Ventures, Other Investors Pump $5M Into Bitcoin Startup Coinbase

Fred Wilson has just broken his two-year, no-investment streak. The Wall Street Journal reports Union Square Ventures is leading a $5 million round in Y Combinator-backed Coinbase, which allows you to buy, store and pay with Bitcoin. Also participating: Ribbit Capital, SV Angel and Funders Club.

These being the self-styled gentleman scholars of USV, there’s some philosophizing to justify the investment. Read More

By Jessica Roy 12/07/12 8:51am

It's All About the Bitcoins

Mr. Francois (Photo: Paymium)

Bitcoin-Central Becomes First Bitcoin Exchange to Operate as a Bank

Big news for Bitcoin today: in a post on Bitcoin Talk, Paymium CTO David Francois announced that Bitcoin-Central, an exchange operated by Paymium, has scored a partnership with Aqoba and Credit Mutuel that will allow it to operate as a bank. The move will provide Bitcoin-Central with protections afforded to payment service providers in Europe, including insurance on Bitcoin accounts worth up to 100,000 Euros.

The insurance on deposits is only for euro-denominated deposits, and funds in euros are stored at the bank. Bitcoin balances are not stored at the bank, and are not insured. Read More

By Jessica Roy 11/16/12 8:56am

It's All About the Bitcoins

(Photo: Wordpress)

WordPress.com Is Now Accepting Bitcoin Payments

WordPress.com, which hosts close to 58 million blogs across the world, announced last night that it will now accept payments for upgrades via Bitcoin, the peer-to-peer digital currency. The blog hosting platform says its mission is to “make publishing democratic,” and because PayPal and other payment companies block access in a fair amount of countries, the company has decided to accept Bitcoin, enabling users without access to PayPal to still purchase WordPress upgrades. Read More

By Jessica Roy 11/12/12 9:49am

It's All About the Bitcoins

Mr. Wong (Photo: Quora)

Reddit Considering Accepting Bitcoin as Payment for Subscriptions

With 3.8 billion pageviews in October alone, Reddit is still far from profitable, so it’s betting on a subscription model to keep the site free of traditional advertising. Last week, the site began ramping up its efforts to convince users to invest in Reddit Gold. For $3.99/month or $29.99/year, users can buy a Reddit Gold account that affords them extra features like the ability to turn off ads and view more comments and subreddits per page. Read More