Lamborghini and McLaren Dealerships Drive Bitcoin Adoption in USA

If buying a few drinks or gadgets with your bitcoin stash doesn’t get your heart racing, a Los Angeles-based car dealer will be happy to exchange your coins for a motor – and not just any motor at that.

Bitcoin classifieds site Eggify has struck a deal with McLaren and Lamborghini dealerships in California to offer a number of exotic vehicles for petrol heads through its platform. Of course, these aren’t everyday cars so they’re not exactly designed for shopping outings or family trips to the beach.

Fast payments, fast cars

The first dealership, McLaren Newport Beach, claims to have the largest selection of McLaren MP4-12Cs on the West Coast – and a few Spider models, too. Needless to say, they don’t come cheap.

The 12C spider is powered by an eight-cylinder, 3.8-litre twin turbo engine and features a number of pricey extras, like carbon ceramic breaks, a lightweight carbon fibre engine cover and plenty of high-tech goodies. The list price clocks in at 387.40 BTC, but you can try haggling.

If that’s a bit too steep, you might want to check out a 2014 Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Spyder. It packs a 5.4 litre V10 engine and comes with plenty of extras, all for the bargain price of 310 BTC.

Back to the Future fans might want to grab a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 which is also available on Eggify for 24 BTC.

If you can get hold of Doc Brown’s flux capacitor, you could even travel back in time to mine a few bitcoins back in 2010 – which would be much easier than betting on a bunch of football games.

Four-wheel drive

‘Outdoorsy’ types may be interested that another car dealership, Land Rover of Redwood City, began accepting bitcoin payments via BitPay just yesterday. The dealership chose to accept bitcoins after it was approached by a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who wanted to buy a vehicle using the currency.

Doug Doyle, the dealership’s general sales manager, said:

“Realizing we need to be ready to accept change in this constantly broadening virtual community, we agreed to our first bitcoin sale.”

He added: “Although the concept of bitcoin is hard to grasp, the process as put forth by BitPay is quite simple. Just send an invoice and the money shows up in your account. Simple and seamless, just as they said.”

The company has dealerships in California and Florida. In addition to brand new Land Rovers and Range Rovers, it also offers a choice of used vehicles.

Moving up a gear

This is not the first time a car dealership has chosen to accept the fledgling currency.

Last year, Lamborghini Newport Beach promised to accept bitcoins, but it later emerged that the dealership required buyers to convert their bitcoins into dollars – which doesn’t exactly qualify as a bitcoin deal. Now, however, it is offering its vehicles through Eggify.

Meanwhile, in Florida it is possible to charge electric cars for bitcoins, using Coinbase. Additionally, last December, UK car classifieds site Auto4You began allowing sellers to list their cars in bitcoin instead of pounds.

Source: http://www.coindesk.com/lamborghini-mclaren-bitcoin/

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Mint personal finance tool embraces Bitcoin, but as an investment - not cash

Las Vegas may not be interested in letting gamblers use Bitcoin, but in yet another sign that the crypto currency is edging into the mainstream, Mint.com now lets you track your Bitcoin wallet. The new feature for the online personal finance tracker integrates exclusively with Coinbase—a popular web-based Bitcoin wallet hosting service.

Mint won’t treat Coinbase wallets as cash, the way it does savings and checking accounts from banks. Instead, Bitcoin is treated as an investment account, sitting alongside mutual funds and stocks.

A Mint user is more Bitcoins as a payment method than other "investments," but Bitcoin’s tendency for wild fluctuation makes it more at home among stocks and bonds. A single Bitcoin hovered around $20 last February and is now worth nearly $800, according toCoinbase.

Coinbase showing the per-Bitcoin price over the past months: That sure is a volatile "currency." 

Mint’s acceptance of Bitcoin as a legitimate part of a person’s financial picture may not have the same impact as major retailers like TigerDirect and Overstock accepting the digital currency. Nevertheless, with more than 14 million users, Mint’s integration is another positive step for wider acceptance of Bitcoin.

“We felt like it was something we couldn’t ignore anymore,” Mint product manager Vince Maniago recently told Venture Beat. “And this is a good time to go out and support the currency as it becomes more legitimate.”

Mint's new Bitcoin integration. (Click to enlarge.)

Countries around the world are split on how to handle Bitcoin. In August, Germany decided to recognize Bitcoin as a financial instrument. China has already banned the crypto currency as has Thailand. More recently, the Canadian government appeared to give Bitcoin the cold shoulder—althoughBitcoin entrepreneurs up north don’t appear to be discouraged by the government’s position.

In the U.S., Washington is still mulling how to deal with Bitcoin , while states such as New York are also grappling with the issue of regulating Bitcoin.

For now, however, Bitcoin remains something of an untamed wilderness where finance and technology meet.

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Legal Online Gambling is Next Major Bitcoin Market

The international online gambling industry is an estimated $30bn market, and growing. More importantly for Bitcoin, it’s a global market that depends on fast, irreversible payments.

Just like a ordinary casino chip in any land-based casino, digital bitcoin provides privacy, immediacy, and payment finality. Unlike most typical consumer purchases (where returns and chargebacks are usually legitimate), a wager is a one-way transaction. Of course, you may be dissatisfied with the outcome, but that does not justify a reimbursement. The online gambling industry has struggled with this fact for years.

Plagued by chargebacks and fraudulent transactions, specialized payment methods and payment companies have sprouted up around the online casino world to address the problem of payment finality.

iGaming and bitcoin

For the first time ever, the world’s largest and most comprehensive trade event in gaming, ICE Totally Gaming 2014, will feature a half-day seminar on bitcoin in the iGaming environment on 4h February. The London-based conference represents every gambling sector: betting, bingo, casino, lottery, mobile, online, and social gaming.

“We are now witnessing the long-awaited arrival of mainstream online casinos into the bitcoin universe.”

Organized by Gran Via’s Willem van Oort, the seminar features two extraordinary panels: ‘Regulatory Aspects’ and ‘Bitcoin’s Competitive Edge’. I will also be speaking on the evolution and future of bitcoin as a new monetary unit.

Moderated by iGaming attorney David Gzesh, the regulatory panel will assess the compliance challenges in dealing with bitcoin payment processing applications, including currency conversion, reduced transaction costs, payment finality, Know Your Customer rules, and coin management techniques.

Panelists include; Stuart Hoegner, managing director at Gaming Counsel PC; Steve Beauregard, CEO and founder ofGoCoin; and Michael Ellen, director of licensing and strategy at Alderney Gambling Control Commission.

The second panel of the day focuses on the competitive advantages offered by bitcoin in the iGaming industry and will explore potential for new games, new jurisdictional regions, and unique investment opportunities on the horizon.

Stellar panelists include; Esteban van Goor, indirect tax lawyer at PwC; Ivan Montik, CEO and founder of Softswiss; Erik Voorhees, founder of SatoshiDice; Brock Pierce, managing director at Clearstone Global Gaming Fund; Jiten Melwani, founder of Bitgame Labs; and Gabriel Sukenik, director at Coinapult.

Into the mainstream

We are now witnessing the long-awaited arrival of mainstream online casinos and betting establishments into the bitcoin universe. This is the beginning of the second-generation bitcoin gambling sites – the first generation exemplified by sites like SatoshiDice, BitZino, and Seals With Clubs.

CoinDesk reported on Wednesday that Malta-registered casino Vera&John has become the first of the major licensed and regulated online casinos to accept bitcoin deposits. The gaming operator accepts inbound customer payments which are then processed and converted into euros via Panama-based Coinapult service.

Following a trend common among existing online poker sites like WinPoker, Vera&John will only permit wagering in national currency units. The strategy of utilizing bitcoin only as a customer payment transfer mechanism eliminates the exchange rate risk for the operator and the player.

Alternatively, if the player uses bitcoin for deposit, betting, and withdrawal, then the exchange rate risk stays with the player. Examples of that approach include CloudBet and CoinBet.

Sports betting site Cloudbet claims to have revolutionized the online betting experience by introducing the world’s most advanced bitcoin betting platform accessible from desktop and mobile devices. Users can browse an intuitive, elegant site to place immediate and discreet bets on any world event – at zero fees.

CloudBet currently deploys 100% offline cold storage for all bitcoin assets and the site has received excellent reviews.

In addition, Costa Rica-registered CoinBet offers casino gaming, poker, and sports betting all under a simple email registration with password. CoinBet claims to be the first legitimate, licensed entity to re-enter the real money online gambling space since Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker all had their sites shut down by the US Department of Justice in April 2011. However, that particular claim may actually go to Costa Rica-registered Infiniti Poker.

Unlike other regulated gambling jurisdictions issuing licenses, Costa Rica does not require operators to obtain and verify the identity of its players. On the policy of accepting US players, John Bauer, senior vice president of gaming at CoinBet, proudly emphasized:

“Look, to take away a person’s fundamental right to spend their money on whatever they choose is wrong, unconstitutional, and without question, an un-American thing to do.”

He continued: “We are not here to engage in a legal debate, we are here to serve up the very first legitimate workaround to the complex online gambling laws in this US market. We are returning to Americans their freedom to choose and giving them their power back!”

Internet gambling in the US operates in a legal grey area. Other gaming operators in the near future may come to appreciate Bauer’s statement because the US jurisdiction has yet to see a clarifying test case in the matter of bitcoin-only wagering without conversion.

Source: http://www.coindesk.com/legal-online-gambling-next-major-bitcoin-market/

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Mint.com will see your bitcoins now

• BY BRIAN FUNG

(btckeychain)

If you're one of the millions of people who use Mint, you know the personal finance tool does an effective job at tracking your credit card spending, bank account balances and investment performance. But now Mint is adding support for another type of financial instrument: Bitcoin.

Mint has reached an agreement with one of the Bitcoin market's most popular virtual wallet companies, Coinbase. Now that the two are linked, users who own bitcoins can add the alternative currency to their dashboard and track the value of their holdings, just like any other investment, according to VentureBeat.

Coinbase shows up on the tool as a line item beneath your 401(k), IRA and related accounts, but it might disappoint Bitcoin purists — as it calculates your stash as dollars.

The deal brings Bitcoin one step closer to Wall Street as another project — a bid to create the first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund — steadily advances. Experts believe both will bring greater stability to the currency, making it a more viable platform.

Meanwhile, other countries have made warnings about the currency, or even issuedoutright bans against integrating it into the banking system. It's unclear whether these countries' regulatory authorities might reconsider their stance if Bitcoin becomes more widely accepted.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/01/30/mint-com-will-see-your-bitcoins-now/

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Casino to Accept Bitcoin

    Vera&John Becomes First Licensed Casino to Accept Bitcoin

Danny Bradbury (@dannybradbury) | Published on January 29, 2014 at 07:39 GMT | Lifestyle, News

Large online casino Vera&John has become the first licensed and regulated online casino to accept bitcoin deposits.

The Malta-registered site began taking deposits from customers on Tuesday, automatically converting them to Euros which would then be paid into customers’ accounts on the site. Customers making bitcoin deposits made at Vera&John will only be able to withdraw those deposits in bitcoin.

This online casino is different to the many bitcoin gaming sites that are found on online, said Johannes Klasson, an SEO consultant who has been working with Vera&John for two years, and consulted with the casino on the two-month bitcoin project.

Sites like SatoshiDice use bitcoin transactions as the basis for bets. They use the block chain, or an algorithm for proving off-blockchain bets, to prove that their bets are fair.

Instead, Vera&John is an established online casino, presenting bitcoin as way to pay for existing games on the site, rather than as a basis for new online games. Customers can make deposits in bitcoins, which are converted in real time at current Euro exchange rates. This means that the casino doesn’t hold bitcoins, and isn’t exposed to market risk.

A customer’s account can be used to play over 200 slot games on the site. The back end software that runs the games therefore doesn’t have to be adapted to work with bitcoin in any way.

Vera&John has over 100 employees. “They have the same software providers as the land-based casinos in Vegas do,” said Klasson. “In order to host them, you have to be huge.” These companies include Play’n GO, Betsoft, IGT, Nextgen Gaming, Bally Technologies and Three Pigeons. He added:

“Even SatoshiDice would get turned down if went to IGT and said, ‘hey, give me your games to host on on my page’. It doesn’t work like that.”

Vera&John is a EU-based casino, regulated by Malta’s Lotteries and Gaming Authority, and as such as required to provide fair bets, and are frequently audited, said Klasson. Bitcoin players will trust the online site’s fairness as fiat customers would.

Gamers can win up to 5,000 BTC in a single bet, according to a statement from the firm today.

The European online casino is working with Coinapult, which Klasson says is acting as a payment processor for the bitcoin element of the casino’s business.

When customers make a bitcoin deposit at Vera&John, the bitcoins are sent to Coinapult, converted into Euros and deposited into their Vera&John account.

“Vera&John have been extremely excited to get bitcoin payments up and running,” said a spokesperson at Coinapult, who said that the fact the bitcoins were immediately converted into Euros meant that bitcoin was being used as a payment network, rather than as a currency.

“They understand that it’s only a matter of time until other gaming operators recognize the benefits of bitcoin technology and realize the actual ease of integration.”

Vera&John does not accept business from US customers, due to the stringent anti-gambling legislation there. Coinapult’s operation operates under the laws of Panama, the spokesperson said, adding that launching a lawful and compliant business relationship was particularly timely, given “recent events and today’s NYC hearings”.

“Being able to build business relationships like these – in jurisdictions and with banks that have clear, market-friendly regulatory frameworks – is why Coinapult opted to leave the US and establish itself in Panama,” the spokesperson concluded.

Source: http://www.coindesk.com/verajohn-becomes-first-licensed-casino-accept-bitcoin/

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New York Bitcoins

New York to regulate Bitcoins following hearing where Winklevoss twins testified about the risks of digital currency - just days after their business partner was arrested on money laundering charges

• New York could become the first state to regulate digital currency
• The Winklevoss twins' business partner in the Bitcoing business was arrested over the weekend on money laundering charges
• Authorities say Charlie Shrem conspired to launder money by helping to funnel cash to illicit online drugs bazaar

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER and REUTERS

New York's top bank regulator on Tuesday revealed new plans to regulate businesses handling transactions in bitcoin this year, saying the state may issue new financial services licenses tailored to virtual currencies.

Benjamin Lawsky, New York's financial services superintendent, raised his idea for a "BitLicense" in a hearing a day after a prominent bitcoin entrepreneur was arrested on money laundering charges.

'The first job is to get rid of money laundering,' said Lawsky, speaking to panelists at the hearing whose panelists included the investor twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and the venture capitalist Fred Wilson.

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Winklevi: The Winklevoss brothers testified during the hearing about regulating Bitcoins just days after their business partner was arrested

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Virtual currency: New York will be one of the first state's in the country to regulate the use of virtual currency, widely known as Bitcoins

The Winkelvoss' testimony comes just days after their business partner in the digital currency business, Charlie Shrem - the vice chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, which has the financial backing of the famous twins - was arrested on charges that he conspired to launder money by helping to funnel cash to illicit online drugs bazaar Silk Road.

The 24-year-old entrepreneur, who lives above a bar he jointly owns in Manhattan that accepts bitcoins as payment, was CEO of BitInstant, a bitcoin exchange company that closed last summer.

According to prosecutors, Shrem conspired with a Florida resident, Robert Faiella, who ran an illegal exchange, to sell more than $1million in bitcoins to users of Silk Road, which was shuttered by authorities last year.

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Regulations: Benjamin Lawsky announced potential plans to offer licenses for businesses that deal in Bitcoins

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Busted: 24-year-old Charlie Shrem was arrested over the weekend on money laundering charges

Faiella, 52, is also charged in the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan with conspiring to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. He was arrested at his home in Coral Gables, Florida. 

Officials from New York's Department of Financial Services asked panelists how they could best imagine businesses handling bitcoins meeting regulatory requirements equivalent to those directing other financial firms to combat money laundering and keep track of customer activity.

While bitcoin experts testifying in the hearings said they agreed with the need for regulation, they warned an overly arduous system could stifle innovation and push startup companies and bitcoin transaction activity offshore.

The dialogue exposed a core conflict in the relationship between regulators and bitcoin enthusiasts. When it was first created in 2009, the digital currency, which is not controlled by any company or central bank, appealed mostly to a group of tech specialists, many of whom harbored strong mistrust in governments and were looking to escape government control.

 

More...

• Two top American bankers commit suicide in London as one jumps 500ft to his death from JP Morgan skyscraper and another hangs himself in luxury home
• Is the economy to blame for rising divorce rates? How couples that 'couldn't afford' to break up waited until the recession cleared

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Experts: Regulators brought together experts in the Bitcoin industry to participate in a hearing to determine how to govern digital currency

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Fame: The Winklevoss brothers are best known for suing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, claiming he stole the idea for Facebook from them

The investors at Tuesday's hearing acknowledged activity in the bitcoin community has shifted away from this sentiment and said they wanted regulators to step in with rules for bitcoin businesses to follow. But, they said, too much regulation would damage bitcoin's growth.

'I sympathize with Jamie Dimon,' Wilson said at one emotional moment during the hearing, which he later described as a 'rant.'

'He runs an overregulated business,' Wilson said of Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co, which paid nearly $20 billion over the past year to resolve various regulatory and legal problems.

'I'm not sure I share all the sympathy,' Lawsky said, adding he believed that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 would have been more difficult to carry out if better anti-money laundering laws for financial firms had been in place.

An effort similar to New York's to regulate virtual currencies is underway in California, according to a source familiar with a series of private meetings between bitcoin business leaders and state officials

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2547880/Winklevoss-twins-testify-hearing-aimed-regulating-Bitcoin-industry-just-days-partner-virtual-currency-business-arrested-money-laundering-charges.html

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Bitcoin License

New York announces plans for bitcoin ‘license’ amid high-profile arrest

Published time: January 28, 2014 22:35

New York plans to create regulations that will guide virtual currency firms that operate in the state, possibly requiring them to hold a “BitLicense,” the state’s top banking regulator said Tuesday, one day after a major arrest in the bitcoin universe.

Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services, said such regulatory guidelines would seek to bar misconduct like money laundering while not cornering in booming cryptocurrency technology. His comments came during the start of hearings this week - organized by the New York Department of Financial Services - on the future of online currencies.

“Ultimately, it’s our expectation that the information we’ve gathered in this fact-finding effort will allow us to put forward, during the course of 2014, a proposed regulatory framework for virtual currency firms operating in New York,” Lawsky said in his statement, according to MarketWatch.

While advocating clear rules for digital currencies, Lawsky emphasized how quickly this new financial realm is evolving.

"That is, in part, why we're evaluating whether our agency should issue a so-called 'BitLicense' specifically tailored to virtual currencies," he said, according to Reuters.

Lawsky and his colleagues were joined by a panel of bitcoin investors. Fred Wilson, of Union Square Ventures, said the advent of bitcoin reminded him of a similar meteoric rise in peer-to-peer, distributed-system technology with global implications: the commercial internet.

“Virtual currencies, particularly bitcoin, remind me so much of that time,” he said.

Twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss announced at the hearing plans to create an exchange-traded fund for bitcoin. They warned in a pre-written statement that "over regulation could cripple its development."

The Winklevoss brothers were investors in BitInstant, a bitcoin exchange service based in New York that suspended operations last July.

On Monday, BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem was arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Those charges carry a maximum of 25 years in prison. He was also charged with one count of willful failure to file a suspicious activity report, which carries a maximum sentence of five years.

Shrem resigned Tuesday from his post as an executive of Bitcoin Foundation, a bitcoin-use advocacy organization.

The arrest and charges Shrem faces are another chapter in the digital currency’s fight for legitimacy amid scrutiny for its lack of regulation, fluctuating value and associations with money laundering and unlawful activity, such as the Silk Road. The online bazaar was shut down by the FBI last year for facilitating sales of illicit materials like illegal drugs and weapons.

Lawsky acknowledged Tuesday Shrem’s arrest and the negative associations virtual currency may incur as a result. But he said the industry may offer many benefits for the financial system, pushing banks, for instance, to improve its services.

"It could force the traditional payments community to 'up its game' in terms of the speed, affordability and reliability of financial transactions," he said.

The arrest was the topic of the first question posed to the invited panelists. According to MarketWatch, Barry Silbert, chief executive of SecondMarket, said the arrest indicated the current regulatory system was effective. And Jeremy Liew, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, insisted the character of bitcoin enthusiasts and investors has changed since its creation.

The Bitcoin Foundation said Shrem submitted his resignation Tuesday morning effective immediately. The organization said in a statement its mission was to help legitimize and protect bitcoin, and that a"prolonged legal dispute would inevitably detract from advancing that core mission."

Shrem and virtual currency trader Robert Faiella “schemed to sell over $1 million in bitcoins to criminals bent on trafficking narcotics on the dark web drug site, Silk Road,” Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement Monday.

Source: http://rt.com/usa/bitcoin-regulations-new-york-320/

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