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The up-and-down course Bitcoin has followed in recent months continued on Monday as Square Inc. announced it has started accepting the digital currency on Square Market, the online marketplace it unveiled last June. The news lent some legitimacy to Bitcoin just as the currency was reeling from an Internal Revenue …
Read More »Eye on Bitcoin: It’s Not a Currency, the IRS Says; Jumio Launches Security Network
By Linda Punch Those looking for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to give Bitcoin legitimacy as a currency when the agency issued its guidance earlier this week were sorely disappointed. The IRS said the digital cash will be taxed like property, not currency. But the quest for legitimacy may be …
Read More »Hopes for a Battered Bitcoin Buoyed by Major Merchant Announcements
Despite Bitcoin’s recent travails, the fledgling digital currency has begun to win support from some of the nation’s best-known merchants. This week came news that department-store chain Lord & Taylor will start accepting Bitcoin through a mobile app called Pounce. The news followed upbeat Bitcoin results released by online retailing …
Read More »Mt. Gox Bitcoin Exchange Goes Dark, Leaving Bitcoin Owners With Questions
Mt. Gox, a well-known Bitcoin exchange, has shut down, leaving investors who had Bitcoins at the digital-currency exchange wondering what’s next. Bitcoin is a decentralized digital-payment system based on mathematically derived new Bitcoins coming into circulation by so-called “miners” using computers. News service Reuters reports today that the exchange …
Read More »Lamassu Claims First U.S. Bitcoin ATM Deployment with Installation in New Mexico
What is said to be the first ATM for Bitcoins in the United States was announced on Tuesday by Lamassu Inc., which made the machine. The ATM is installed in a cigar bar and lounge near the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, according to a news release from Lamassu. …
Read More »Revel Systems Adds Bitcoin Support to its iPad POS System
Revel Systems Inc. is the latest payments organization to support Bitcoin with the announcement Tuesday that consumers can use the digital currency with its iPad-based point-of-sale system. San Francisco-based Revel is working with Bitcoin wallet provider Coinbase to integrate acceptance. Revel added Bitcoin acceptance because of about 30 requests from …
Read More »Apple Bans Another Bitcoin Wallet, Stirring Protests But Perhaps Boosting Its Own Wallet
Apple Inc. removed from its vast mobile-applications market called the App Store the Blockchain mobile wallet for accessing the Bitcoin virtual currency, an action Blockchain claims will leave no native Bitcoin options for users of Apple’s iOS mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad. Apple’s move quickly stirred protests …
Read More »Online Game Provider Zynga Looks to Diversify Its Payment Options With a Bitcoin Test
The Bitcoin virtual currency continued its march toward the payments mainstream with the recent announcement by online game developer Zynga Inc. that it would test Bitcoin acceptance with some of its popular games. n “In response to Bitcoin’s rise in popularity around the world, Zynga, with help from BitPay, is …
Read More »Senate Hearing Recognizes Bitcoin’s Strengthening Toehold in Electronic Payments
Might the Bitcoin digital currency be heading toward legitimacy among skeptical regulators and law-enforcement officials? Testimony at a U.S. Senate committee hearing Monday indicated that government may be ready to make peace with Bitcoin and, by extension, other new digital forms of payment, though if and when these new systems …
Read More »Somewhat Warily, Payments Execs Acknowledge That Bitcoin Will Make Its Mark
By Jim Daly A summer poll of payments executives found that less than a third think Bitcoin and other so-called math-based virtual currencies will greatly change how money is moved within 10 years. But majorities, some strong, also think that Bitcoin will spur responses from PayPal Inc., the big wire-transfer …
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