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New Money

By Jessica Roy 10/09/12 3:58pm

New Money

These people have monies. (Photo: Wealthfront)

Wealthfront’s New Service Helps the Tech Set Easily Dodge Taxes

You work hard for that six-figure salary. Heads down and standing desk up, evening coding sessions bleed into all-nighters with the ease of a mouse click. So when it comes time to hand over some of that hard-earned cash to the government for taxes, it’s understandable that you’d be a little ruffled. “Why can’t I find tax loopholes like that guy Mitt Romney?” you might wonder angrily as you zip down the 101 in your company-leased BMW. “Life is just not fair.” Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 6/18/12 4:25pm

New Money

(Photo: Facebook)

Brooklyn-Based Kurrenci Debuts ‘Money for the Internet’ for Hipsters at Northside Fest

Nathan Hecht figures there were about 200 early adopters and potential investors in the room at Northside Festival when he demo’ed Kurrenci, a new digital money—”with a ‘k’ and an ‘i,’ as the perky demo video explains—that can be bought with a credit card, unused gift card or cash, and eventually, its creators hope, with airline miles and credit card rewards points. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 4/04/12 4:28pm

New Money

mintchip people

Royal Canadian Mint Announces Digital Currency

Did you know the Royal Canadian Mint, the agency that produces Canada’s money, has been “actively monitoring the evolution of currency and payment technologies for a number of years”? They have! And they’ve developed their own digital currency, the MintChip.

Apparently the Mint recently diverted some of its research and development funds—who knew mints had these?—into coding MintChip, which uses NFC technology similar to Google Wallet. Today the Mint announced a competition for developers in North America. Build apps with MintChip, which is still in the experimental phase, and you can win $50,000 in gold bullion. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 3/21/12 9:53am

New Money

Mr. Kortina. (Twitter)

Hello Venmo! Peer-to-Peer Payments Startup Picks Up Steam

The Venmo team is up to 23 “young, passionate people,” as Mr. Kortina said, in an office in Chelsea and is processing $10 million in transactions a month. (Investor Ben Lerer predicted the startup will handle $250 million next year.) “It’s not really stuff that would be captured somewhere else,” he said. “Like if someone’s friend had a bachelor party and they couldn’t go, they could Venmo $20 to get drinks on them because they couldn’t be there. People are using this to share the experience they have when they go out with Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 3/06/12 1:04pm

New Money

jered-kenna-ben-milne

Dwolla Being Sued by Bitcoiners for $2 M.

The proprietors of a major Bitcoin exchange have filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California alleging that racketeering, intentional misrepresentation, false advertising, breach of contract and other violations by payments startup Dwolla have cost them at least $2 million in damages, with the final amount to be decided by the court.

The plaintiff is TradeHill, a Bitcoin currency exchanger based in San Francisco and Chile that was at one time the second-largest processor of Bitcoin currency trades, but which recently shut down. The shutdown was largely due to losses sustained because of “chargebacks” or payments that cleared and then were rescinded by Dwolla, said TradeHill cofounder Jered Kenna, although other reasons were given at the time.

“We’ve been trying to resolve this for eight, nine months and they ignored all communication,” Pierre G. Basmaji, the Santa Monica-based attorney for TradeHill, told Betabeat by phone. “I have no idea why. I think… they don’t know how to handle it and were just hoping we would go away.”

Dwolla did not respond to requests for comment. UPDATE, 6:13 p.m.: Dwolla just released a statement. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 8/15/11 8:36am

New Money

exchblogo

You Can Now Buy Bitcoin With Cash at Any Chase or Wells Fargo

The Redwood City-headquartered ExchB, founded in May 2011, just started accepting cash and check payments via brick-and-mortar banks to speed up the sometimes-lengthy process of crediting an account with USD in order to buy BTC. “ExchB customers can walk up to any of over 15,000 locations nationwide and make a cash deposit at any Chase or Wells Fargo branch,” president David Sterry wrote last week. “Simply walk up to the teller, deposit your cash or check, and e-mail us an image of your receipt. Cash clears when we verify your e-mail and check deposits typically clear overnight.” Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 8/02/11 11:31am

New Money

vcbar_nyc_seedangela

Early Stage Investing in New York Got Supercharged Mid-2009

What the hell happened in the middle of 2009? Jerry Neumann, an early stage investor in such companies as 33across and BankSimple, couldn’t sleep last night. So he decided to play with investment data from Crunchbase, TechCrunch’s crowd-sourced, somewhat spotty record of start-up rounds. “New York City is on a roll, right? Right,” he writes. Looking at the data, New York VCs like Betaworks, the sleeper Great Oaks Venture Capital, Greycroft Partners, Hudson Ventures, DFJ Gotham, Union Square Ventures and Village Ventures doubled their efforts in early stage investing since the end of 2009 and they haven’t slowed down. Read More