10 Exciting Things About Bitcoin - Right Now

1) The success of Bitmit - Bitcoin's eBay. Over 550 listings and growing rapidly.

2) The boom happening over at Silk Road. While I don't condone the illegal applications of Bitcoin, the site's success if further proof that Bitcoin is a technology that fills a gap.

3) The appeal and rapid growth of Ogrr.com, which is bringing in hundreds of new users each month and expanding exponentially.

4) Mt.Gox is about to launch "e-commerce solutions" this week.

5) Recent discussions regarding making Bitcoin truly anonymous.

6) The upcoming completion and launch of Bitcoin.com by the good folks at Tradehill (currently down).

7) The popularity of coinworker.com.

8) The announcement of the upcoming Bitcoin Conference in London.

9) Through no fault of their own, tens of thousands of Bitcoins were stolen from various high profile Bitcoin businesses. Why is this good news? Not a single user was impacted as the owners chose to absorb the losses. It was also the first time that a major hack or closure didn't impact Bitcoin's market value.

10) And the most exciting news of all: you can now tip cows for Bitcoins.

Read more »

BitInstant Now Facilitating Withdrawals from Mt.Gox and Tradehill to PayPal

In what can only be described as a major breakthrough for Bitcoin traders and merchants, BitInstant is now facilitating withdrawals to PayPal from the two major exchanges, Mt.Gox and Tradehill.

The one-two punch of the announcement of Roger Ver's investment in BitInstant and this announcement could only mean further great things are to come from BitInstant CEO, Charlie Shrem.

How long before BitInstant allows for transfers from PayPal to Mt.Gox and Tradehill? Is it just a matter of time? One can only imagine the explosion in Bitcoin usage that would occur as a result. Stay tuned; our fingers are crossed.

Read more »

Bitcoin: The Best Investment in 2012

Let's look at some of the factors at play here:

1) The hacking is over with. Between Mt.Gox, Tradehill, Intersango, Cavirtex, and the other reputable exchanges, we've seen a reliable streak. Amateur night is done.

2) There are reliable ways to store your Bitcoins. With the exchanges mentioned above, e-wallets like Stongcoin, and secure wallets like Electrum and the Satoshi client, securing your investment is no longer a crapshoot. It's incredible to think how far we've come.

3) Publicity, publicity, publicity. In two days we've heard from Max Keiser, Fox, and Fred Wilson, and all in a positive light. Right there we've had three of the largest bouts of publicity for Bitcoin since its inception. What's coming in the next year? The sky's the limit, really.

4) Development. Mt.Gox is about to unleash a new round of products and services, one of them probably being their point-of-sale device, as was promised back in July. Tradehill is working bitcoin.com. Others promise easy ways to buy Bitcoins with credit cards; Crypto X Change is making it much easier, on a global level. FeedZeBirds is innovative. What's next? 2012 will be an amazing year for Bitcoin development.

5) Existing business is recognizing Bitcoin. Switch Poker was the first already-existing poker site to start accepting Bitcoin. Other online casinos have their eyes on Bitcoin and don't want to lose ground to the competition. Okpay started accepting Bitcoin deposits just recently. They'll soon be releasing Bitcoin merchant services and permitting Bitcoin withdrawals. Okpay is fairly large, with half-a-million accounts, but it's just a matter of time before even larger dominoes start to fall. These payment processors are seeing Bitcoin as another opportunity to make money, and like the casinos, they won't want to fall behind.

6) Global financial trouble. The Euro is done, kaput, over with, but it's not the only one. The Occupy movement is waking people up to the deceptive practices of banks. Financially-aware people will want to re-gain control of their money and diversify out of fiat currencies into alternatives like gold, silver, and Bitcoin. I already know a lot of people who invest in Bitcoin to hedge against holdings in their national currencies; more people will be doing it.

When you have a bubble like we've had, and then a crash, but then a definitive rise from the ashes, it's going to generate some serious publicity. Once investors realize that Bitcoin acutally ISN'T going away, they're going to pile on, and it will make the June 2011 bubble look like a speed-bump.

Read more »