Enter the Dragon: BTCChina's Volume and Exchange Rate Suddenly Explode Higher

The Bitcoin community has been abuzz over the last 48 hours as trading activity on the only Chinese Bitcoin exchange, BTCChina, has gone stratospheric, with volume 700% above the norm and prices skyrocketing more than 10% higher than the Mt.Gox exchange rate.

Traders on the Chinese exchange are showing no signs of relenting, with 7698 BTC traded yesterday and 8495 BTC already traded today. The last trade was for 35.8 RMB or $5.64 USD, significantly greater than the $5.12 rate on Mt.Gox. With this activity, BTCChina has, at least for the moment, thrust itself into position as the second largest Bitcoin exchange.

Possibly related, earlier this month, Roger Ver (memorydealers.com) and Yifu Guo (BitSyncom) organized a Bitcoin meeting in China. With only 24 hours notice, over 30 people showed up to learn about and discuss applications for Bitcoin, including opening an exchange in Macau to facilitate the movement of currency to and from "China's Las Vegas."

Also coming out of Roger and Yifu's visit to China was a contract with a tablet manufacturer to produce a sub-$100 tablet running two Mali-400 processors and sporting a 1200x600 IPS screen. Taking a step toward realizing BitSyncom's Meshnet project, each tablet will run Bitcoin relay node and wallet software. The manufacturer, hearing about Bitcoin for the first time, considered loading all of his tablets with Bitcoin software (over two million per year), which could spawn others to do the same. Expect to see BitSyncom's tablet on the market by the end of the calendar year.

Is the activity on BTC China related to the development of these projects? Hard to say, but hopefully we'll find some answers in the coming days.

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Roger Ver's Fantastic Bitcoin Interview

Osmosis brings us this story:

If you haven't yet heard the interview, you should definitely have a listen:



Roger Ver is the owner of Memory Dealers.

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Free State Project Giving Away Bitcoins to 15,000

Excerpts from the press release:

In one week, the non-profit organization – which is an effort to encourage 20,000 “liberty lovers” to move to New Hampshire to work toward greater individual and economic freedom – will send a fraction of a Bitcoin to over fifteen-thousand subscribers on its mailing list. Each recipient will get exactly 0.01 Bitcoins, worth approximately $0.04 at current exchange rates.

This simply couldn’t have been done with US dollars and traditional banking systems,” says Roger Ver, the FSP member who donated the Bitcoin funds for the promotion. “I currently live in Japan, and this initiative required transferring the donation internationally, and then dividing that money into thousands of micropayments, all going to different people in different places. A bank wire from Japan to the US would’ve taken at least three days plus fees. With Bitcoin it took less than three seconds with no fees. Try to send someone a nickel with Paypal and you’ll find the fee itself is more than a nickel.

From the Bitcointalk Forum:

Free State Project's Liberty Forum will be accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for registration (this event occurs in February at the Crowne Plaza in Nashua, New Hampshire - past speakers have included Ron Paul, Judge Napolitano, John Stossel, Cato staff, etc.) Further, future events and FSP's online store will accept Bitcoin shortly.

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A Business Owner's Bitcoin Lament

Don't believe that doing business in Bitcoin will save you money? Read this quote from Roger Ver, CEO of Memory Dealers:

"If all of my overseas vendors agreed to accept Bitcoins, or even MTGOX vouchers, I could save over a thousand dollars a month in bank fees.

All of my vendors in China would also be paid more securely and not have to worry about any foreign exchange controls being imposed on them.

It would be a win-win situation for everyone involved.

I'm even more eager to have my customers start paying with Bitcoins rather than Paypal or credit cards.

There are thousands of dollars in fees per week that can be saved."

Now go help Roger and buy some memory, with Bitcoins of course.

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Bitcoin Radio Commercial

Anyone listening to any of these radio stations will hear an actual Bitcoin commercial starting today. Radio hosts will read out the same lines that you hear in this YouTube video.

The commercial is funded by Roger Ver of Memory Dealers, famous for, among other things, his $10,000 bet that Bitcoin will outperform gold by 100x over the next two years.

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