Coinbase joins powerful DC special interest group “The Internet Association” alongside Google and EBay. Coinapult teams up with Factom in technical collaboration. Internet sleuth tracks down one winner of the Federal Marshall's Bitcoin auction, and much more news that happened on March 11.

Coinbase joins Washington DC's “The Internet Association”

Coinbase has taken a step in the direction of legislative legitimacy by joining a major internet representation group in Washington DC. Sitting alongside the likes of Google, Facebook, and EBay, the group works to fight for the proper representation of internet rights in legislative regulation.

“The Internet Association represents America’s leading Internet companies and their global community of users. We are dedicated to advancing public policy solutions to strengthen and protect Internet freedom, foster innovation and economic growth and empower users.”

Coinapult and Factom announce collaboration

Digital exchange and wallet service Coinapult has announced a partnership with digital services company Factom. Aiming to integrate Factom's data layer technology for the blockchain into Coinapult's commercial offering the two companies both expect to receive technology benefits from the deal.

“Coinapult and Factom are excited to announce their strategic partnership. Coinapult will leverage the Factom technology to enhance their transparency efforts, and Factom will use Coinapult as an important part of hedging value collected during its factoid software sale.”

One winner of the Fed's Silk Road Bitcoin auction revealed

The winner of 27,000 of the bitcoins recently auctioned by US Marshalls following their seizure from Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht is alleged to be property developer Larry Silvey. The slightly tenuous detective work shows that the 27k bitcoins passed through a wallet previously tweeted about by Silvey's relative Kyle Silvey.

“[T]he identity of the winner of the largest sum of bitcoins in the auction held by the USMS on the

5th of March 2015. That person's identity can now be revealed as real estate advisor, property manager, investor and entrepreneur Larry Dean Silvey.”

Cointelegraph interviews Cuba's AnarchoCapitalists using Bitcoin

Speaking to Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview, a group of Cuban AnarchoCapitalists and BitcoinCuba founder Fernando Villar have outlined how they use Bitcoin as a way of increasing the power of their organization. Attempting to leap-frog the issue of low bank account ownership in the country, the group sees a unique opportunity for the digital currency in the country as relations with America ease.

“Although the future of Bitcoin in Cuba may be bright, at the present time it is somewhat bleak. We are talking about a country in which the vast majority of Cuban families use a government issued ration book “Libreta de Abastecimiento” for food and basic necessities.”

OKCoin publishes its cold wallet design and protocol

Citing a desire to promote transparency, the exchange and wallet provider OKCoin has taken the step of publishing details of its security design protocol, and private key generation techniques.

“We hope to help promote best practices amongst new entrants in the industry and to also explore new ideas with partners to ensure we stay a leader in Bitcoin security. We are always receptive to new suggestions from experts in the community, and look forward to operating the safest and simplest Bitcoin wallet.”

Winklevoss Twins in a “difficult, awkward stage”

Speaking to Business Insider, the Winklevoss twins have admitted that Bitcoin's current pricing has put their plans for a regulated Bitcoin investment fund in a “difficult, awkward stage”. Citing problems with the level of interest in America, and the current price instability, their project Gemini aims to be one of the first “mature financial tools” in the Bitcoin space.

“This is, in the twins' eyes, a "difficult, awkward stage" — but they also "don't see how it gets much more awkward." There "is no market in America right now," they assert”

T-Mobile Poland offers 20% more credit to those paying in Bitcoin

Following yesterday's news that T-Mobile Poland was now publicly accepting Bitcoin as payment for credit, users have also noted they receive 20% more credit by using the Bitcoin payment platform. The move is aimed at attracting more users to the low-payment processing fee platform.

“T-Mobile Poland, which currently serves nearly 15.7 million customers, has started a three-month trial period aimed to gauge the popularity of bitcoin payments among Polish prepaid telephone users […] T-Mobile further said that customers paying with bitcoins will receive 20% additional calling time.”

Snapcard Bitcoin wallet listed as second best launch on ProductHunt

New release listing site ProductHunt listed the Snapcard Bitcoin wallet as the second hottest tech release of the day. The site is based upon user recommendations and a curated selection of new offerings, and SnapCard received 249 user recommendations.

“Hey hunters! One of the founders here. Thanks so much for all of your support :) We've been working very hard on making instant buying a reality using a bank account. From start to finish, you can (actually) purchase $50+ worth of bitcoin in under 1 minute.”


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