Bitcoin News
Daily diary of what's happening with Bitcoin.
NPR aired a Morning Edition segment with host Cyrus Farivar (@cfarivar) in which Jerry Brito (@JerryBrito) was interviewed about online gambling and Bitcoin. Excerpt:
“The U.S. Justice Department has made it very clear you can’t just open an offshore casino online and start taking bets using actual money from the United States. But last year a couple of entrepreneurs asked themselves ‘what if you were only betting with Bitcoin?’.”
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“Noone knows if bitcoin is money, a financial instrument, or something else.”
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“[Bryon Micon of SealsWithClubs.eu] says it might be tough for the feds to regulate what is just a piece of computer code and not real money.”
- http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/02/06/171182974
- http://bit.ly/UXWzZ4 (MP3 download)
- http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=141530.0 (Further discussion of this broadcast)
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A post on Bitcoin Money (@BitcoinMoney) blog points out the reason why Bitcoin’s transaction volume has gone stratospheric. Excerpts:
“While the daily transaction volume had been steadily growing at a casual pace since October, there’s been a development in the past weeks that has had a significant impact. The ten-day-old service SatoshiDice.com has been growing at a blistering pace.”
“There to be nearly four thousand blockchain transactions resulting from Satoshi Dice for the most recent 24-hour period.”
Satoshi Dice allows the Bitcoin wallet, whether it be the standard Bitcoin.org client or a hybrid Javascript-based browser wallet like My Wallet from Blockchain.info, to function as gaming terminal. What sets Satoshi Dice apart from most other Bitcoin-based online gaming services is the ability to play in an instant and to receive winnings back within seconds.”
“What may be occurring then is that Satoshi Dice is seeing some level of participation by those intending to alter the makeup of the coins held in their wallets. Satoshi Dice in its present form makes a poor solution for mixing however.”
BitMadness has launched another public pool that is free to enter — the March Madness Sweet 16 Pool. The pot will be distributed among multiple winners, the first place winner will receive 10 BTC.
Previously, BitMadness offered a 100 BTC pot for the NCAA’s full Men’s College Basketball Tournament pool which they call the March Madness Global Bracket Pool. Entries needed to be in before the first of the regional games and the winners won’t be known until the tournament championship game occurs.
BitMadness also operates a public pool for the Sweet 16 tournament with a 1 BTC wager per entry. Those wishing to operate their own betting pool for their office or other social circle may use BitMadness to manage that as well.
- http://www.bitmadness.com/pool.php?g=UC27YF84 (Free to enter pool)
- http://www.bitmadness.com/pool.php?g=B99SNG25 (Public pool, 1 BTC)
- http://www.bitmadness.com/standings.php?g=RJLCGV4Y (Standings after regionals)
Josh Strike, operator of the Bitcoin-only Strike Sapphire online casino (@StrikeSapphire), posted an article in Casino Meister. For the post, the operator opens the books — showing total drop, customer counts, deposits and the bottom line (a net loss). The service is not accessible by those in the U.S. due to online gaming regulations. Excerpts:
“I thought I’d share the results of my little experiment. Keep in mind this doesn’t include the external costs — I spent 3 years programming it on my own time, then about $7k before opening it, plus $15k in for the initial float, and I’ve dropped $8K on servers and other bills since it opened”.
“[The deposits per member metric has] a lot to do with Bitcoin’s instant deposits and withdrawals, and the fact that there’s no minimum deposit. Players can deposit as little as $0.05”.
“I just need to be able to take other payment methods, to reach a bigger audience”.
Excerpts from a post on Bitcoin Money blog:
“Crowdpark, the maker of the Bet Tycoon game on Facebook may be considering adding Bitcoin as a virtual currency used by the game’s half million users. Louis Bedigian (@LouisBedigian), on staff at Benzinga, writes that the startup’s Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer “would love to [implement bets made with bitcoins]”.
“The report follows Crowdpark’s announcement that it had received $6 million in new funding.”
The article further addresses other services in the same space but which already accept bitcoins.
- http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/11670058837
- http://bit.ly/qFNRnu (Article on Benzinga)
