Bitcoin Jesus is Getting Ready to Perform Another Miracle

Roger Ver, a.k.a. "Bitcoin Jesus," is on a mission to get Bitcoin into the big time:

"What sort of bounty is still available if I can convince the following company to accept Bitcoins publicly on their website?

Publicly traded on the Nasdaq
Stock price currently over $40
Market cap of over $500,000,000
Anual sales of over $300,000,000
Worldwide customer base.
Would greatly benefit from accepting Bitcoins as a payment method."

Who could it be???

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Bit Parcel Express Company

I have no idea what this is all about, but it was just recently tweeted. My curiosity has definitely been piqued.

Update: The fine people at BPEx.co elaborated on their services in the comments below. For those of you on the front page, here it is:

Hello Everyone!

Bit Parcel Express is a mail management and parcel forwarding service based entirely on Bitcoin transactions. Initially, there will be a 'beta' launch for the parcel forwarding service (similar to MyUs.com and other services). This beta launch will involve those who have requested an invite -- BPEx.me -- at discounted pricing. Once the beta users and BPEx have approved the service for release, it will be open to the general public.

Once the parcel forwarding service has been rolled out, our mail management offering will undergo a similar process. In the genre of Earthclass Mail with a few enhancements, BPEx's mail management will put mail back in the user's hands (paper shredders will collect dust). Using Bitcoin, the user will have a smooth experience maintaining their account. Additionally, encryption features will be available to allow users to receive their mail communications safe and securely.

Please be patient, this is a service that is specifically for the growing Bitcoin community. We not only welcome but appreciate feedback, opinions and ideas.

Team BPExCo - Im-Next@BPEx.Me

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New Site Launched: Bitcoin Cigarettes

It was just a matter of time, of course, before Bitcoin found this application. The site offers shipping to the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

There is a huge market for this sort of thing, which is especially obvious when we look at what people currently pay for cigarettes around the world (prices are in USD for a pack of 20 Marlboro cigarettes):

Country/State	Price
Australia	$14.90
Norway	$13.80
Ireland	$12.10
Canada	$10.30
New York	$10.00
New Zealand	$9.90
United Kingdom	$9.60
France	$7.90
Iceland	$7.70
Netherlands	$7.40
Sweden	$7.30
Finland	$7.30
Denmark	$6.70
Germany	$6.70
Belgium	$6.50
Italy	$6.40
Austria	$6.00
California	$6.00
Portugal	$5.20
Spain	$5.20
Hong Kong	$5.10
Japan	$3.90
South Korea	$3.00
Bitcoin Cigarettes	$2.59
Mexico	$2.50
Brazil	$2.40
China	$2.10
Russia	$1.60
Saudi Arabia	$1.60

Of course, this site is illegal, though laws may vary from country to country. In Canada, it is illegal to import cigarettes, save for the usual duty free entitlement when returning from abroad.

Edit: I have been corrected in the comments. It is not illegal to import cigarettes into Canada, only to do so without paying the appropriate taxes (i.e. smuggle).

As I said in my recent post about Bitcoin adoption, the illegal and international markets will be two of the five prime drivers of Bitcoin adoption. Bitcoin Cigarettes takes advantage of two of these at the same time.

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New Sites - Week of October 30th, 2011

Sports Trading Exchange - Unlike most Bitcoin gambling websites, Sports Trading Exchange was a pre-existing gambling site that decided to start accepting Bitcoin. As a result, it's a fully developed site with lots of action.

Bean BitMarket - A guy in Greece selling 2kg bags of Greek beans to anyone in Europe. I featured this site in my article, "Geeks and Greeks."

Bitcoin Community Ads - A new advertising service for Bitcoin websites. Looks like Operation Fabulous will finally have some competition. Launching in December 2011.

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New Sites - Week of October 23rd, 2011

Blue Canary Night Light - Obscure? Yes, but, if you're in the market for a nightlight, and you have an affinity for blue canaries, this site has the product for you! You will receive a 10% discount when using Bitcoin, of course. These lights use $0.25 worth of electricity per year, which is the equivalent to the cost of expeditiously sending $27 million worth of Bitcoins to any location on Earth, 14 times over. Just saying.

Nerd Merit Badges - Now offering the "Bought This Bitcoins Badge With Bitcoins" badge for 1 BTC. I recommend also getting the "laptop sash" for mounting your Nerd Merit Badges, although the picture shows the sash on a MacBookPro, which should disqualify you from being allowed to own such badges. I digress...

Constant Sail - The Pirate and Trading Game - I'm also going to link to a forum topic posted by the owner because the site is currently down while being upgraded to support Bitcoin. Based on the screenshots, it kind of looks like a cross between Ultima Online, Tradewars 2002, and the map screen from Super Mario Brothers. In other words, "awesome!"

Bittit - Warning: Not Safe for Work. If anything, Bittit is an experiment demonstrating the versatility of Bitcoin. As people contribute to a Bitcoin wallet associated with a picture, the resolution of the picture improves. I could see this being a great way for an artist to sell their artwork. There are a lot of possibilities here. Be forewarned, some of the pictures are of an adult nature.

Bitzaar - Bitcoin merchant services. Bitzaar provides payment processing and e-wallet services for merchants, currently supporting WHMCS and OSCommerce. If you don't already have a shopping cart, they provide nine lines of code for you to paste to your website, thus giving you an instant shopping cart.

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