Lifeboat Foundation

Tom Cheredar — Venture Beat

Even though Bitcoin has suffered some security setbacks over the last few months, many retailers still seem happy to let customer pay with the controversial crypto–currency.

The latest of these retailers is online tech store Newegg, which today announced plans to begin accepting Bitcoin for purchases on the site. To make this happen, Newegg is teaming up with virtual currency processor Bitpay.

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Patrick McGreevy — LA Times

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed bills that recognize the legal use of Bitcoins and other digital currencies in California, repeal a requirement for food handlers to use gloves, and keep minor truants out of lockup facilities, his aides announced Saturday.

In all, the governor signed 15 pieces of legislation into law, including one that reflects the changing way that technology has Californians doing business.

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By Noah Robischon — Fast Company

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Jessica Stillman — Forbes

Think of Oxford University and the image that is most likely comes to mind initially is something out of a Harry Potter movie – ornate dining rooms, formal dress and, of course, outstanding academics. What probably doesn’t first occur to you is the tradition-crushing, fast-moving, hoodie-wearing world of startups. But the university’s Saïd Business School is trying to change that.

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Nermin Hajdarbegovic — Coin Desk

E-commerce giant Amazon has been awarded a bitcoin-related cloud computing patent that envisions the use of digital currencies as payment for cloud computing services on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Amazon’s cloud is by far the biggest remote computing service on the market. Market research firm Gartner estimates AWS annual revenue at upwards of $3bn, and it believes Amazon’s cloud has five times the capacity of its next 14 rivals.

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Brian Fung — Washington Post

We’ve been talking for months about how Bitcoin has been slowly getting more integrated into the mainstream. Well, now the cryptocurrency is taking a bigger step in that direction: Beginning this summer, Dish Network, one of the largest satellite TV operators in the country, is going to start accepting bitcoins as a form of payment.

The company said Thursday that it’s partnering with the virtual wallet company Coinbase to help process the transactions. Users who want to pay with bitcoins will do so through Coinbase, which will instantly convert the bitcoins into dollars and forward them to Dish.

“Bitcoin is becoming a preferred way for some people to transact and we want to accommodate those individuals,” said Dish executive vice president Bernie Han in a statement.

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by Andy Greenberg

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Someone out there likes anonymous money.

In only a month, the little-known bitcoin alternative known as Darkcoin has rocketed nearly tenfold in value — from around 75 cents a coin (44p) to almost seven dollars (£4). Its selling point: Darkcoin offers far greater anonymity than bitcoin, mixing up users’ transactions so that it’s incredibly difficult to trace a payment to a person. And though few have yet to accept that more-anonymous coin for actual goods and services, the promise of Darkcoin’s privacy features seems to have sparked a miniature boom. It’s one of the fastest growing among the wave of cryptocurrencies that’s followed bitcoin’s success, with the total value of its combined coins topping out at nearly $30 million (£18 million).

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Andrea Chang — LA Times

Halsey Minor, founder of CNET and an early backer of Salesforce.com, is launching bitcoin platform Bitreserve.org.

The site aims to address the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency by providing real-time transparency, transaction traceability and proof of solvency.

“Bitcoin is a remarkable innovation, created and supported by lots of very smart people,” Minor said. “Bitreserve is built on top of the bitcoin network, allowing members to convert bitcoin into money they know, trust and understand.”

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By Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey — The Wall Street Journal

When payment processor Bitpay announced the biggest-ever funding round for a bitcoin company earlier Tuesday it was was Richard Branson’s presence in the investment group that drew the most attention.

But while the Virgin Group chairman’s remarks about Bitpay leading a “currency revolution” were lapped up by bitcoin enthuisasts, we thought the comments from some of the lesser known investors were as, if not more, illuminating. They helped frame what might be called the emerging venture-capitalist vision for bitcoin: That its promise lies in disrupting an antiquated, inefficient and expensive global payments system more than as a revolutionary challenger to traditional currencies.

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