Bitcoin Now A World Major Currency!

Well, according to exchangerates24.com it is. The following is a quote from the front page of the website (the bold is my emphasis):

Exchange Rates for the world's major currencies which are Australian Dollar(AUD), Bitcoin(BTC), Canadian Dollar(CAD), Chinese Yuan Renminbi(CNY), Euro(EUR), British Pound(GBP), Japanese Yen(JPY), US Dollar(USD) against each others are organised in the table below.

The online forex website offers exchange rates for over 200 currencies, meaning you can easily find the bitcoin conversion rate for almost any currency you might want to acquire for a leisure or business trip. The currency drop down menu on the front page will list only 31 currencies (including BTC) but clicking on "more" will link you to several others.

You can't actually buy foreign exchange on exchangerates24, however. If the site did offer currencies for sale as well as conversion rates, this would potentially make it the largest BTC exchange.

So, if you're planning a trip abroad, don't forget your bitcoins!

Bitcoin - Saying It With Flowers

Flower power meets the future with this new initiative to promote bitcoin. There are quite a few bitcoin giveaway sites already in existence (some you can find listed under the Bitcoin Goodies section in the panel to your right); some services offer a one-off donation to get you started, some will let you earn bitcoin by filling in online surveys, one will let you play games to win bitcoin, and others invite anyone to input their bitcoin address once every 24 hours.

Only one site, however, gives away bitcoin quite so beautifully, invoking nature as it combines with technology to randomly donate one bitcoin a day. And, unlike all of the other giveaway sites, this one actually offers a whole bitcoin, as opposed to the fractions that others offer. The mysterious flower opens its petals once a day to reveal a shiny bitcoin and stays open for just 15 minutes. The first person to see the open flower and click on the bitcoin gets the whole coin!

If you're feeling all hippy-geek, then you can check out the flower here.

Good luck - and peace, love and bitcoin!
:)
xx

Bitcoin ATM

Acquiring and storing them can, for some, seem a daunting prospect and, therefore, the first two hurdles at which the average person will balk at actually dipping their toe in the often rapid ebb and flow that is bitcoin. There are various online exchanges where you can buy and sell bitcoin much like you can any commodity but, if it's really a currency, wouldn't it be easier to just get them the same way you do with normal currency, like, say, from an ATM?

Well, very soon that's exactly what you should be able to do thanks to Todd Bethell of Bitcoin ATM. The machines will take cash and you'll either be able to get your bitcoin sent to any bitcoin address or will be able to get Bitbills dispensed from the machine, giving you something tangible you can hold.

Betting on Bitcoin To The Tune of $10,000!

I'm obviously enthusiastic about bitcoin and hope it will one day attract from beyond the fold of geek and libertarian folk to widespread use across the globe. With the Euro on shaky ground, and getting shakier every time a Eurozone politician opens their mouth to say their country's economy is doing fine and doesn't need bailing out, thank you very much (Berlusconi being the latest, which means we can probably look to Italy to default unless more euros are printed and thrown at it - or at least the banks doing business in it); with the dollar only rallying and looking stronger today than it has done in months because Japan is deliberately devaluing the yen to in order to help fund the rebuild of that country after the natural (and nuclear) disasters that hit both the lives and economy of its people; and with gold surging to new highs every time you blink or exhale...

A Bitcoin For Your Time – The World's First Ever Bitcoin Luxury Watch

Horolotech Watch Company, a specialist company that makes high-grade Swiss Chronographs, has made a limited edition luxury watch that comes with the following specifications:

• Water tested to 10 ATM (100 meters/330 feet)

• Swiss 25 jewel ETA Valjoux 7750 Automatic Chronograph movement with Perlage & Cote de Geneve finish

• “BTC” engraved on the rotor
• Non-glare genuine sapphire glass
• See-through exhibition sapphire glass back
• Black Dial w/ white luminous
• 43mm x 15mm Stainless Steel case 
• Screw down crown
• Di Modell Croco Grain Strap (black w/white stitching)
• Mahogany multi-function winder box
• 3-year warranty
• Limited Edition - 500 pieces

Bitcoin in Berlin - Ich Bin Ein Bitcoiner!

Some time last month I wrote about the first brick and morter restaurant that accepts bitcoin, Meze Grill in Manhattan, New York. However, no sooner had I heard about Meze Grill than I started to hear about other places (in the US) that also took bitcoin.

Of course, there are bitcoin users and enthusiasts all across the globe so it stands to reason that there also various brick and morter merchants who also accept bitcoin and perhaps have been doing so a while now. So it wasn't with complete surprise that, while browsing the bitcoin forum, I came across mention of Room 77, a bar and TexMex restaurant in Berlin.

TextCoin - Bitcoin Via SMS

If you've found your way here, chances are you've already looked into ways to acquire bitcoin or are still in the process or researching it. Chances are, also, that you've figured that CPU mining is too taxing for your computer, GPU mining is too expensive, and buying via the various bitcoin exchanges is just too time-consuming and inconvenient. But wait! Don't give up on joining the bitcoin community just yet. If you have a mobile phone (and, really, who doesn't these days?) then TextCoin is the thing for you.

Spending, Mining, And Receiving Bitcoin Payments On Your Android Smart Phone

With new places to shop with bitcoin gradually popping up, both online and in  brick and mortar establishments, the bitcoin economy is slowing picking up pace. But, even as the "well you can't use bitcoin to buy regular stuff in a regular store" is being countered, this still leaves most non-geeks wondering how, or if, they can use their bitcoin on the go, much like you can with any fiat cash based system. Obviously, the sooner this is able to happen, the sooner people will start looking at bitcoin as a viable option to paying for goods and services from anyone happy to recieve bitcoin right?

Well, apparently, that time has arrived! 

And Where Do You Go For A Bitcoin Shopping Bargain...?

Wow, this is turning out to be quite the retail therapy weekend for bitcoiners. Earlier I mentioned the launch of upscale BitCoin World Market, and now BitCoinz SuperStore!

Based in Canada, BitCoinz SuperStore is reaching out to the masses with its claim to offer a marketplace where users can purchase items at rock bottom prices. And, if it's successful in attracting an audience beyond current bitcoiners, then it'll certainly work wonders for bitcoin as an exchange medium/currency, as they only accept bitcoin for payment. 

So Where Do You Go For A Bitcoin Shopping Spree...?

No, you don't have to take a dicey trip (no pun intended) to Silk Road. For a vast array of goods, from chocolate, to spices, organic and gourmet foods, beauty treatments, small electronics and gadgets, clothes... you can spend your bitcoins, or US dollars, at the recently launched BitCoin World Market.

BitCoin World Market was founded by Dan McDonley and Jonathan Stack, two San Francisco entrepreneurs who have registered and licensed BitCoin World Market in California, US. They come from a background of other successful internet business in retail and marketing combined with the technical programming background to interface Bitcoin into an e-commerce platform.

What Is Money? And Who Do You Trust?

OK, so maybe you didn't have time to sit through the whole 2 hours or so of "Money As Debt II," the documentary film I posted at the end of last week.

Well, in less than 3 minutes, below is a simple abridged history and projection of money, from gold through to bitcoin, as well as a brief comparison between what has been the trusted store of value for millions of years, gold, and the new digital currency that many are staking future store in, bitcoin.

Bitcoin: Sex, Drugs And... Baklava And Crepes?

New York – crazy people, crazy city. Gotta love it though and, if the song is to be believed, if you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere – which bodes well for bitcoin!

If you've only recently come across bitcoin, chances are you've heard that it can only be used for paying for porn and buying illicit drugs.True, bitcoin, much like all major fiat currencies, has been used for both. But, hey, let's not forget that, when it comes to being an early adopter of new technology, the porn industry is no slouch.  Remember the fight for dominance of the video industry in the '70s/'80s between VHS and Betamax? The porn industry had a LOT to do with that outcome. While you might titter at the nostalgic attachment anyone might have to a VHS VCR, you can't but help pointing and laughing hysterically at anyone with a Betamax VCR in their attic.

Coming Soon: Bitcard - Bitcoins In The Palm of Your Hand!

Well, if this doesn't help bitcoin go mainstream, I don't know what will.

Much media and online commentary on bitcoin has painted it to a passing fad, used thus far by computer geeks and perverts. Well, yes, it has been used to buy drugs and pay for porn but, last I heard, so has every major fiat currency out there. A "concern" by some is that it isn't tangible and that most people will not be able to understand how to use it securely without learning about encryption using memorable 20 character passwords.

Well, have no fear, Bitcard is here! Almost.

Friday Matinee - "Money As Debt II"

I'm obviously an advocate of digital currency and it's my view that a vast amount of vitriol that Bitcoin, possibly the most successful digital currency to date, seems to garner has a lot to do with ignorance and fear: ignorance of history, combined with a refusal to even try to understand the current monetary system beyond the superficial PR crap that gets meted out by Big Finance and mainstream media, and fear of changing the status quo (regardless of how much of the short end of the stick you get shoved up your ass) due, in part, to ignorance of history.

Money as Debt II - Promises Unleashed is an animated documentary and 2010 winner of the Best Documentary Feature award at the American International Film Festival. The film sets out to explain the fraudulent nature of the current monetary system we all labour under, from how it started, to how it was made legal, and to how the idea of perpetual debt to sustain growth (to the detriment of the many and the profit of a few) is a time bomb waiting to explode unless some serious monetary reform happens pretty darned soon.