And I'm Back...

Philosophies aside, nine months later and I'm back into Bitcoin. I am a trader after all, am I not?

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Meanwhile in the Capital of Slovenia...

Bitcoin in Ljubljana from Bitnik on Vimeo.

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Anyone Still Around from 2011?

I can't believe I started blogging about Bitcoin over three years ago! Are any of my original readers still out there?  Who knew we'd go from a market cap of under $50 million to over $5 billion! Crazy!

Anyway, please share your stories in the comments below.

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Testing 1, 2, 3...

Hello, hello.  Testing 1, 2, 3.  Is anyone still out there?  Still awaiting the Bitcoin Renaissance... I think it's coming but not just yet.

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Marketing Guru? Earn BTC With the LocalBitcoins Affiliate Program!

We just improved LocalBitcoins Affiliate Program a little bit. Now you can get a CSV, which includes information about your converted users. Also a short list of your latest converted visits are included on the affiliate page. Using this info, you can improve your targeting.

Next we plan to implement a tracking pixel for the affiliate program. If you have ideas or feedback related to the affiliate program, comment below!

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Accept bitcoin - send invoices, get paid in bitcoin

You can now use LocalBitcoins to accept bitcoins and send bitcoin invoices to your customers. LocalBitcoins has opened Merchant tools section on the site where you can send and manage  invoices.

 

The invoiced amount to pay can be denominated in any currency. When the recipient opens the invoice, the price is converted to bitcoins using the current exchange rate.

Each invoice has a unique bitcoin address as the payment reference. The payment can be made with any bitcoin wallet, including QR code compatible mobile wallets.

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Easier reporting of suspicious user activity

LocalBitcoins site has now a new user reporting feature. You can find the user reporting link from the public user profile page. The new feature makes it easier to report suspicious users, though this option has been always available through the support ticket system.

LocalBitcoins support team checks the reported users and may take necessary action to suspend the user account if there is evidence of breaking the site rules and good trade etiquette. Potential reasons to report a user may include

• Fraudulent activity
• Violating LocalBitcoins terms of service
• Misleading information
• Abuse

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Buying and Selling Steam, Amazon, Apple etc Gift Cards on LocalBitcoins.com

Gift cards are a nice way to buy stuff froom your favourite store, which doesn't accept bitcoin yet. There has been some gift card trading on LocalBitcoins, but now we have added couple of new features which should make gift card trading much easier.

Contacters can select the amount with dropdown.

Several Gift Card types have been added, you can also select the generic option and name your own.

Type the nominations as comma-separated list.

Remember to add "Track liquidity" to remove your sellable amount automatically as orders roll in.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Happy trading!

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LocalBitcoins ATM:s comes out of the oven and goes on the tour

It has been a long time since there have been any news regarding our ATM project which aims to provide automatization for converting cash to bitcoins and vice versa. Another perks of the Localbitcoins ATM:s are the moderate price and the fact that the device works completely offline. ATM:s are integrated to Localbitcoins website, and the actual bitcoin trade happens on Localbitcoins.com; the ATM only takes care about the fiat handling.

There have been two beta versions of these ATM:s in real life testing at the center of Helsinki, Finland. One of them is in a bitcoin accepting restaurant and another one in 24h kiosk. So far there haven't been any major problems, and minor ones have been carved out during the testing process. If you are visiting Helsinki, you can find those ATM:s from here, and here.

Expect to see more of these ATM:s soon, since we are getting our first production batch out soon, and we are putting one of them on the bitcoin tour, held by Finnish bitcoin company Bittiraha.fi. They will be driving around Finnish archipelago and testing how well Localbitcoins bitcoin ATM performs on the road.

Eventually you will be able to purchase these ATM:s directly from Localbitcoins website. The price of the ATM's is 1500 eur + VAT and shipping costs.

Specifications of the ATM

Buying process: Buyer feeds banknotes to the machine, and gets a secret code in return. The code is used to claim the corresponding amount of bitcoins to your localbitcoins.com account. The exchange rate is defined at the moment the code is used.

Selling process: Seller logs in to his/her localbitcoins account, and goes to the URL of the ATM he/she aims to use for withdrawal. The seller selects the amount he/she wants to withdraw from a dropdown menu. After selecting the withdrawal amount, corresponding amount of bitcoins are reduced from the seller's localbitcoins wallet and the user will receive a code, which is given to the ATM through the keyboard. After the code has been inserted, the ATM will give corresponding amount of notes to the customer.

Capacity: Capacity: note recycling unit can hold 30 bills and cash box 300 bills.

Accepted bills: All banknotes where the size is inside of the range (width) 60-82 millimeters, and (length) 115-150 millimeters. The device can accept 6 different kind of bills from the selected currency. The device can be programmed to handle almost any known currency, but only one can be used at the time.

Size(w/h/d): 318 x 340 x 264 millimeters

Display: 87.3 x 41.8 mm one color lcd display

Weight: 15 kg

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Bitcoin Payment Debuted on Physical Stores in Shenzhen, China

Since August of this year, stores accepting bitcoin payment have been emerging in Kexing Science & Technology Park, Shenzhen, where is full of Internet companies. These stores are mainly restaurant. In China, the central bank stated that bitcoin is not currency, but admitted that trading with bitcoin is legal. Although China is one of the biggest markets for bitcoin trade, its bitcoin payment market is still on infancy stage.

Stores: Currently bitcoin payment volume is still small

On the Yuanwei street of Kexing Science & Technology Park, several restaurants have accepted bitcoin as payment. Since the business is just started, cashiers are not familiar with the payment process yet. For example,  'Accept Bitcoin' label has been put on the front door of Cafe de Flore. However, when customers ask if they can pay with bitcoin, cashiers are still muddle-headed. They need time to skilfully process bitcoin payment.

As to Maggies's Club, another bar on the same street, the cashier clearly expressed that they accept bitcoin payment, but customers need download a third bitcoin payment platform, 'Btct' App. Customers transfer bitcoin to their Btct account to finish payment, which is like Paypal in Bitcoin world.

The CEO said she likes the convenience of third payment platform, which has no big difference from Group-Buying platform. Launching bitcoin payment for her bar is icing on the cake, and at least can attract btcer to expand customer pool, even though currently the volume is still very small.

Payment Platform: Still on user development stage

In December of last year, the statement of Central Bank of China has emphasised that bitcoin is not real currency, and forbidden financial institutions and payment institutions to price products or services with bitcoin, but admitted the legitimacy of trading bitcoin, which made bitcoin purely an investment product in China. After experiencing ups and downs, bitcoin price is stabilising between 3589.00 ~ 3634.92 CNY. Bitcoin payment in physical store is still rare. Some bitcoin insider claimed that currently the number of physical stores accepting bitcoin in China is less than 30.

As a third payment platform for promoting bitcoin, the main purpose of Btct is to change the atmosphere of bitcoin speculation in China to the original nature of bitcoin as a payment method. One of the co-founders of Btct said although the number of physical stores accepting bitcoin is still small, Shenzen where has strong Internet cogitation has advantages to promote bitcoin payment. Moreover, Btct provides CNY exchange, which shares the risk of bitcoin fluctuation.

Source: http://news.ifeng.com/a/20140805/41442467_0.shtml
Pictures: http://www.btcside.com/new/detail/1670

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HMAC authentication option recommended for API users

It is now possible to access the LocalBitcoins API using HMAC authentication instead of OAuth 2. This new authentication method is more suitable and secure for your own scripts and non-distributed applications. We suggest to use it whenever possible.

API tokens will now also reset on account security changes. If you change your password or if you enable login guard or two-factor authentication, the API access credentials are reseted. This means deleting all API clients, tokens, and authentications.

In the future, console authorization of OAuth 2 will be disabled and all who use API for scripting access are recommended to migrate to HMAC authentication.

Please see the API documentation for instructions how to update your scripts and API clients.

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Introducing quick sell: Sell your bitcoins faster and safer

LocalBitcoins has released a faster and safer way to sell your Bitcoins: Quick sell. The new feature is especially helpful when paying bills with Bitcoin.

 Quick sell is visible in your dashboard after logging in.

 

How quick sell works

 

Start by selecting payment method, currency and country (if required). Next, choose the amount you wish to sell. At this point, Quick sell shows the estimate how many Bitcoins would be needed for the transaction. Finally fill in the required details and click “Send trade request”.

Quick sell goes through all matching LocalBitcoins bitcoin buy advertisements from reputable traders. It chooses the advertisement with the best exchange rate and then makes a trade request .

The bitcoin buyer pays the transaction with the payment details you provided. If you have bills you can directly give the bill payment details in the quick sell form. (This works very well with national bank transfers, but may not be available in every country yet.)

Please note that some advertisements require SMS verification and other verifications - enable them to get access to advertisements with better prices.

Paying a 100 € phone bill.

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Secure your account with login guard

Login guard is the latest account security feature on LocalBitcoins. If your LocalBitcoins account is being accessed from a web browser or a device not seen before an email confirmation is required when logging in.

Login guard is automatically enabled for all new users. The old users can enable the login guard in their profile settings.  Login guard is effective protection against phishing attacks and we hope to see the reduction of successful phishing attacks targeting new users.

LocalBitcoins works actively towards making it safer to purchase and use bitcoins. During this year there has been visible increase in attack against bitcoin users in all major bitcoin services and local bitcoin wallets stored on your computer.

Below are some highlights of LocalBitcoins security progress.

Two-factor activation rate progress

Two-factor is one of the most effective ways to prevent account hacks. Even online games incentive players to activate two-factor for their in-game accounts.

The above chart shows the percentage of the LocalBitcoins users who activated two-factor authentication after the email verification. One can see there is clear progress going on and educating the new users is working. Some methods how we have achieved this are explained below.

A security brief for new users

After the email verification every new user is presented a choice for two-factor activation. We cannot force the users to activate the two-factor authentication, but we very clearly state one should do so.

Weak account security is highlighted

If the account security settings are weak this fact is highlighted to the user all the time they are logged in.

Two-factor email reminders

If anybody has bitcoins in their wallet and never activated two-factor authentication a reminder email is sent.

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Thousands of websites from South Korea will embrace Bitcoin due to Galaxia Communications

After the South Korean payment gateway giant, Galaxia Communications, announced to join Bitcoin payment method, thousands of websites from South Korea will embrace Bitcoins.

Galaxia Communications is one of the top three online payment companies in South Korea. This company has more than 10,000 customers both inside and outside of South Korea. It also is the top seller for mobile gift card and coupon in South Korea. The cooperated Bitcoin payment processor is Coinplug, which provides technology support for Bitcoin transaction.

The vice president and COO of Galaxia Communications, Yongkwang Kim, said the first time he heard about Bitcoin is just last year. Now he already has his own Bitcoin wallet. Kim also stated that persuading other staff of the company to accept Bitcoin is still challenging, since there is lots of negative news about digital currency, which makes bitcoin look unreliable. Kim also emphasised that there is no big problem in technical implementation:"We have operated many other payment methods. The operation of Bitcoin payment is relatively easier."

Source: http://www.8btc.com/koreans-have-thousands-new-online-bitcoin-opportunities-thanks-galaxia

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Culturecom, co-founded by Jay Chou, will accept Bitcoin

When Bitcoin is rejected by giant technology and Internet companies which are qualified with finance business in China, the game platform UCAN under Culturecom, co-founded by Jay Chou, one of the most famous superstar in Asia, believes that Bitcoins, as a transaction channel, will especially benefit SMEs. The CEO Cheng Peng said the zero transaction cost of Bitcoin is much more attractive than credit card.

The CEO also pointed out that if mobile game companies publish games through iTunes, they need pay one third of their revenue to iTunes as operating fee. If customers use Visa or Master card for payment, companies also need to pay 3% - 10% of their revenue as cross-border service fee. After the payment, game companies usually can only get 10% of the revenue for profits. Although there are other open publish channels like Google, the limited operation of Google in mainland China will affect sales. On the contrary, with zero cost and open environment, Bitcoin largely attracted game companies as a transaction channel.

Although supervision authorities in mainland China forbid financial institutions and giant IT companies from being involved in or using Bitcoin, Cheng Peng believes that this instead is an advantage for SMEs to explore Bitcoin transaction. When dealing with Bitcoin, since supervision authorities regard Bitcoin as commodity, UCAN will categorise Bitcoin to inventory in financial statements.

UCAN planned to launch Bitcoin payment for mobile game in July or August. The next step is to promote Bitcoin to offline products and Apps. Cheng Peng emphasised that his company will not speculate or arbitrage Bitcoin, but only use it for daily business transaction.

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Choir Spreads Bitcoin Love to Japan, Japanese Translations to LocalBitcoins

Finnish academic male choir KYL has been touring Japan. The tour included 5 concerts, from which 4 were fully booked. The tour also included lots of other finno-japanese cultural exchange.

The special kicker in this case was that at the same time, the Choir was spreading Bitcoin propaganda to Japan, as LocalBitcoins was sponsoring the concert. LocalBitcoins was prominently displayed in the tour t-shirts, as well in the concert promotional material.

At the same time, Japanese translation was made to LocalBitcoins, making it more usable for Japanese audience.

Localから始まる世界革命。

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Unexpected Downtime Solved, Infrastructure Upgraded

Our server had gone down yesterday. The reason might be hardware failure. We are researching the issue and trying to get the site back up.

The LocalBitcoins Team

Update: the service is now up. The reason behind the downtime was network hardware failure. Now we have moved our servers to another hosting provider.

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New Market Variables for Pricing : Coinbase, Bitpay, Kraken

The following variables were added to localbitcoins pricing engine:

- Kraken (EUR)
- Coinbase (USD)
- Bitpay (multiple currencies)

You can see the list of all possible variables in the pricing guide.

Happy trading!

If you can't invent a good price equation yourself, you can always ask a wizard. [picture unrelated]

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LocalBitcoins Trading API

Hello developers,

LocalBitcoins is proud to announce automated trading support on both online and local trades. Previously only buying Bitcoins with cash was supported through API.

In addition there is a full dashboard API available to cultivate and monitor your currently active and past trades.

The expanded API is available immediately. Please refer to the API documentation for the up-to-date details.

The API enables faster, more reliable trading. You can use the API to automate and enforce your business logic and earn more, or just to lose the hassle in filing the tax report.

Your feedback is important in the direction and focus of the development of the API. Please do continue to contact about your issues and wishes about the API as well as about your use cases either to our support form or by joining our chat.

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Attack against LocalBitcoins infrastructure 3.5.2014

LocalBitcoins received a very dangerous attack against the site infrastructure on Saturday 3.5.2014.
For now

• All user data and Bitcoins are safe;
• The site will be down for a while as the system is being rebuilt

Details

LocalBitcoins hosting provided received a request to restart the LocalBitcoins.com website server and give access to the server console (root) on Sat May 3 13:32:27. LocalBitcoins team did not initiate this request. For now, it looks like the request was made using spoofed email addresses and other weakness in the hosting provider support system.

• LocalBitcoins team was alerted about the abnormal activity when the hosting provider restarted the server.
• The attacker gained a root access to the server for ~40 minutes before the attacker was kicked out and the server shutdown.
• All data on the website server is encrypted. Manual actions are needed to make this data readable, so the attacker could not gain access to the data even when having a server console access. 

It is very unlikely that the attacker gained access to any data;  LocalBitcoins is still performing full investigation on the matter.

• Bitcoins in hot wallet and cold wallet are safe, as LocalBitcoins runs its bitcoind and wallets on a separate server.
• LocalBitcoins team has started to rebuild the website server on fresh hardware.

LocalBitcoins team will make further announcements when the investigation proceeds and the site becomes available again.  We expect to spend at least 24 hours on this. LocalBitcoins team apologizes the issues the downtime may cause to the users.

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