Bitcoins Exchanged succesfully in Mali #BitcoinAfrica

Our Africa motorcycler and Bitcoiner, Borja reported a new exchange story from Africa, this time from Mali.

"We just arrived to burkina faso, and crossed an incredible border from Mali. 3 really kind polices and thats all, they did it very easy and without bribes. Asking us about the trip and smiling all the time.

We had today quite a hard day, we had two punctures in my bike, first one in my front tyre and when i realized it was too late, very difficult to control and i fell, around 70km/h
Everything ok! Really good luck.

After fixing the first puncture, with the help of two guys that saw us and came to help. I had another puncture, this time of my back tyre, and with better luck, I felt it before it was too late. 

Before that in Mali,we where a bit scared with the news of Al Qaeda and the Touregs in the north, and we discovered an amazing country. Everybody smiling, saying "bonjour" every time you cross with someone, in the road, everybody saying hello with their hands and supporting us. The south of the country was so beautiful, a lot more water and trees than what we thought. A bit more to the north the city of Djenné (World Heritage) with a really beautiful mosque made of mud, the biggest in the world, and was made around 1180.

We were for 3 days in Bamako, visiting our friend "Curro" that works there for a spanish company.

He never heard before about bitcoin and we explained what it was, and he is so interested, so he opened a new account, he let us money for that three days, and we are going to pay him in bitcoins. There and in many other countries people use FRANC CFAS."

Next steps on the trip:
Burkina faso -Ouagadougou 
Togo -Lomé
Benin -Cotonou
Cameroon -Douala
Nigeria -Abuja
 Republic of Congo -Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of Congo -Kinshasha
Angola -Luanda
Namibia -Windhoek
Bostwana -Gaborone
South Africa-Cape Town
If you are in these country or know a willing exchanger from these countries, please contact Borja on LocalBitcoins or create your own ad to your country for free.

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No One Understands Bitcoins

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#BitcoinAfrica - Bitcoins exchanged succesfully in Morocco

Motorcycle trip through Africa continues - and Bitcoins were exchanged succesfully!

Read the Bitcoin Magazine Story about the trip.

Next steps on the trip:
Western Sahara
Mauritania  -Nouakchott
Senegal  -Dakar 
Mali   - Bamako
Burkina faso -Ouagadougou 
Togo -Lomé
Benin -Cotonou
Cameroon -Douala
Nigeria -Abuja
 Republic of Congo -Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of Congo -Kinshasha
Angola -Luanda
Namibia -Windhoek
Bostwana -Gaborone
South Africa-Cape Town

If you are in these country or know a willing exchanger from these countries, please contact Borja on LocalBitcoins or create your own ad to your country for free.

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#BitcoinAfrica - touring the Africa continent using #Bitcoins - help needed!

LocalBitcoins.com is sponsoring a motorcycle trip throughout Africa. The idea is to find an willing exchanger (Bitcoins -> Cash) from each country/city during the trip and blog about the experience. Therefore we are in an urgent need of exchangers, who would like to exchange bitcoins to cash in each country.

We need local contacts in the following African countries for an extremely interesting upcoming adventure. If you know anybody in these countries/cities, or if you are in them, please spread the word:

Morocco -Casablanca -Marrakech
Western Sahara
Mauritania  -Nouakchott
Senegal  -Dakar 
Mali   - Bamako
Burkina faso -Ouagadougou 
Togo -Lomé
Benin -Cotonou
Cameroon -Douala
Nigeria -Abuja
 Republic of Congo -Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of Congo -Kinshasha
Angola -Luanda
Namibia -Windhoek
Bostwana -Gaborone
South Africa-Cape Town

To contact the motorcycler (Borja) directly to set up an exchange: borjaserra@hotmail.com
You can set up an exchange advertisement here.
If you have any problems setting up an ad for your local place, tell us about them on the localbitcoins forums.

The motorcycle used on the trip - with Bitcoin and LocalBitcoins stickers!

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One Step Back, Two Steps Forward: Digital Currencies Making Headway Through Regulation

The April Bitcoin bubble was exciting, really exciting. From the moment the old $32 record was broken, to the days after the $266 bubble popped, I think I slept no more than five hours a night, and that was for a month straight. In fact, I still find it difficult to fathom that I can type out a number like "266" and actually be referring to reality. It wasn't that long ago that $20 seemed like a figure we'd never see again.

But what the hell has happened since? It's been five months, and frankly things around here have gotten really quiet. I almost feel like shouting, "last one out, get the lights!"

Mt.Gox is on life support, to the point where today's volume on BitStamp was nearly 200% greater than volume on Mt.Gox. The Silk Road is gone, though that gap will no doubt be quickly filled. Trading on Tradehill has ground to a halt until regulatory issues are sorted out. BitInstant is still nowhere to be seen, though rumor has it they'll be resurrected shortly, which will be a relief to the Winklevoss twins.

As of today, US residents are no longer allowed to use BitFunder. Similarly, all trading has halted on BTC Trading Corp.

Lets face it, the wild wild west era of Bitcoin is over. Cracking that billion dollar market cap was the death knell for anyone handling money without the proper licensing. For all you "crypto-anarchists" out there who were hoping to give the government the middle finger and construct a new financial paradigm, sorry, but it just doesn't work that way.

The digital currency economy is now re-building itself, but this time it's being done properly. Bitstamp now requires proper verification before money can be moved into and out of the exchange, even if it's via Ripple. Kraken ensured it had the proper licensing before even launching the site. As a result, many would-be clients find themselves unable to use its services for the moment, but that's better than being able to use the site and then having your funds locked up due to a regulatory violation. From Kraken:

"Our business is compliance, and we have this exchange we sometimes work on in our spare time.  Payward has led the charge in the formation of DATA and we are committed to operating only where we can operate legally.  As a consumer, you may find this inconvenient and as a business it does put us at an immediate competitive disadvantage.  The industry has, unfortunately, seen where shortcuts take us and our long view is that the only way out is through."

You might just say Kraken knew what it was doing. As a result of putting regulation first, they've been able to open themselves up to certain US customers, and even just announced a partnership with a real, licensed, insured, regulated bank in Germany, Fidor Bank AG, which will pave the way for mainstream adoption of Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ven, and Ripple.

Similarly, Ripple just announced a partnership with ZipZap, another regulated entity that competes with the likes of Western Union. Just today, CoinX, launched their "compliant" Bitcoin exchange, with emphasis on compliance.

So all that to say, yeah, Bitcoin had an exciting couple of years, but it really wasn't possible to move forward without taking a step back to sort out the regulatory issues. Now, Bitcoin and other digital currencies can thrive, and will really prove their value in the coming months and years.

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Kraken.com to Offer Digital Currency Trading Services in Exclusive EU Partnership with Fidor Bank AG

PRESS RELEASE

Kraken.com to Offer Digital Currency Trading Services in Exclusive EU Partnership with Fidor Bank AG

London, 9 October 2013 

Payward Ltd., the developer of the Kraken digital currency exchange, today announced plans to partner with Fidor Bank, the Munich-based leader in innovative online banking, to give Kraken’s customers in the European Union access to a full suite of traditional financial services. The partnership will be the first of its kind between a licensed, insured, and regulated bank and a digital currency exchange.

‘From the beginning, our goal has been to establish Bitcoin and other digital currencies as legitimate complements to the euro, the pound and other traditional, government-issued currencies,’ said Jesse Powell, CEO of Payward Ltd. ‘In Fidor Bank we’ve found our ideal partner: a responsible, forward-thinking financial institution looking to combine the predictability and stability of traditional banking relationships with the social and economic benefits of new digital currencies. We’re thrilled to bring these services to our customers in the EU and look forward to making them available globally in cooperation with financial industry partners and regulatory authorities around the world.’

Fidor’s partnership with Kraken fits with its business strategy. ‘Our long-term goal is to bring important market innovations to our business partners and private clients’, explained Matthias Kröner, CEO of Fidor Bank AG. ‘Digital currencies are emerging as serious and useful alternatives to government-issued currencies. With Kraken, we can enable our customers to trade Bitcoin and other digital currencies just as securely, easily and flexibly as they trade other foreign currencies today.’

Pursuant to the proposed partnership agreement, Kraken will become Fidor Bank’s exclusive provider of digital currency trading and payment services throughout the EU (except in the German market, where Fidor has a limited existing partnership with a German exchange), while Kraken gains the ability to offer a full suite of Fidor banking services to Kraken’s EU customers.

Mr. Powell envisions more such partnerships to come. ‘Once they see Fidor entering the digital currency space, I’m sure many other banks will want to follow suit. The use of digital currencies in financial services has potential to benefit customers and businesses all over the world. This partnership marks an important step down the path of bringing those services to the global financial service marketplace in full compliance with applicable law and regulation.’ 

About Payward Ltd.:

Payward combines years of experience in the virtual goods and currency markets with a highly skilled engineering team and a host of carefully cultivated banking and finance relationships. Kraken (http://www.kraken.com), Payward’s full-featured professional digital currency exchange and trading platform, offers advanced trading tools, a sophisticated user interface, robust technical security and full regulatory compliance to traders in digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ripple, and Ven. Since its public launch on 9 September 2013, Kraken has enrolled thousands of users to its platform. Kraken attributes this success to its robust user interface, strict regulatory compliance and professional array of advanced order types, the result of two years of development.

Press contact:

Ayako Miyaguchi | Payward Ltd.| London | info@payward.com 

 - Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/krakenfx) 

 - Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/krakenfx)

About Fidor Bank AG:

Fidor Bank AG (http://www.fidor.de) is an internet-based direct bank licensed in Germany. With its FidorPay account the bank addresses private and corporate clients. The FidorPay account is a primary bank account, offering a combination of a classical bank account with internet payments and innovative banking services. The services on offer to corporate clients include selected financing products and a FidorPay business account especially created for e-commerce. Fidor Bank AG makes consistent use of Web 2.0 mechanisms. To interact and communicate with users the bank leverages its own community as well as all popular social media platforms, including:

 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/FidorCommBanking) 

 - Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/fidorbank) 

 - Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/ficoba) 

 - XING (https://www.xing.com/net/ficoba)

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Buying Bitcoins the smart way - tracking liquidity

Today we launched a new minor feature on LocalBitcoins, which should make certain type of trading much easier. It is the "track liquidity" option, which is possible to enable for buy ads.

Example scenario: I want to invest 1000 USD each month from my paycheck to Bitcoins. What is the smart way to do this? I create an advertisement with max amount 1000 USD for the payment method of my choice, and offer speedy payouts. Each time an order comes in, my max sellable amount is automatically deducted, meaning that I can't buy more than I have.

Good buying equation for this kind of trading is for example min(min(bitstampUSD, USD_24h), mtgoxUSD). See more examples in the pricing guide.

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