Coinbase expands to further European countries and announces shutting down its tipping button, BitQuick planning to ‘kill LocalBitcoins,' Bitnet partnering with UATP to enable Bitcoin payments for 260 airlines, and more news from February 11.

Coinbase news

Coinbase announced in a blog post that it had expanded its buy and sell functionality to 5 European countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Norway, and Croatia.

On the same say, the company also announced it will shut down its 'Tip Button' on April 1, following ChangeTip's success.

Coinbase wrote:

"The project has seen some good usage since we launched it, with about 10,000 users accepting bitcoin tips across a variety of websites.

However, another excellent tipping service in the bitcoin community, ChangeTip, has gotten some even better traction, and done a great job at pushing the tipping ecosystem forward.

ChangeTip is an excellent example of a company which uses our APIs, and we’d like to support them instead of competing with them."

Coinbase will refocus its energy on its core business as to provide Bitcoin infrastructure, notably APIs for bitcoin storage, exchange, wallets, and merchant tools.

UATP partners with Bitnet to enable Bitcoin payments

Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP), a global payment network dedicated to the airline industry, announced it had partnered with Bitnet to offer its network of 260+ airline companies, the ability to accept payments in the digital currency.

Ralph Kaiser, president and CEO of UATP, commented:

"We are very happy to be partnering with Bitnet to add Bitcoin to our payment platform. We are always looking for skilled partners to bring additional forms of payment to the UATP processing platform and Bitnet fits the bill well."

BitQuick emerges as an ardent competitor to LocalBitcoins

Ohio-based BitQuick, plans on raising OTC Bitcoin trading standards and "kill LocalBitcoins."

The company had implemented extra security measures to dissuade bad players on using its exchange. BitQuick was selected to integrate the prestigious Bitcoin accelerator program at Boost VC.

Glenn Beck believes blockchain tech can help fight fascism

Controversial public figure Glenn Beck, recently expressed his belief that Bitcoin, and more specifically the blockchain technology, could be a great tool in the fight for freedom.

Beck stated in a BlazeTV episode that he felt a perceived degradation of culture is leading to the end of shame in our society. The silver lining to this, in his eyes, is that secrets will be more open. He sees the blockchain as an incredible tool for doing just that.

New tipping service 'AutoTip' released

AutoTip, a new P2P Bitcoin tipping service, released its Chrome extension.

AutoTip is taking a new take on Bitcoin microtipping and hopes to prove that automation and decentralization are the key elements that had been missing from existing tipping services.

Websites wishing to use AutoTip need to implement the relevant script, and visitors wishing to automatically tip websites they are visiting, need to fill up their AutoTip account with bitcoins.

When someone visits the website with the Chrome extension installed, the visitor will automatically send a small tip (default amount is around 5 cents).

BTM company Unbank.World: 'Manhattan is a huge area for Bitcoin'

Unbank.World, a Bitcoin ATM company aiming to place devices in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, said Manhattan has been a very lucrative place for its business.

Founder Pagan-Yourno, told Cointelegraph:

"My initial thoughts were that each machine in Manhattan would make around US$8,000 [per month]. Those were my predictions about a year ago, when I first got the idea to just put these machines all over. They’ve exceeded that. Manhattan is a huge area for Bitcoin. It’s funny because there are more people that buy Bitcoin from the ATM than there are businesses that accept Bitcoin."

Read his full interview here.

"Bit Drop" giveaway party in Dominica canceled

The Bit Drop, an island-wide party that would include free Bitcoin giveaways to residents of Dominica, had been cancelled due to "country-specific logistical decisions."

Project manager Sarah Blincoe suggested that the Dominica government never met certain project deliverables and indicated that an election cycle on the island nation complicated matters, reported CoinDesk.

ChangeTip adds new feature to direct tips to charity

Popular micropayments startup ChangeTip, announces the 'tip-redirect' function, a new feature that allows users to automatically direct the tips they receive to charity organizations.

The company had partnered with BitGive Foundation, enabling users to automatically send their bitcoins in support to the organization, reported CoinDesk.

SWIFT Business Forum to discuss the potential impact of cryptographic protocols on the banking industry

The Society for World Wide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), will hold a Business Forum on March 3 in New York on the future of the banking and financial industries.

The event will include a panel of cryptocurrency experts who will discuss "crypto-protocols" and their potential impact on the correspondent banking model.

The panel description reads:

"Every day we read announcements in the press about new entrants, start-ups and crypto-protocols challenging correspondent banking. The payments industry is closely watching these developments, as many commentators believe that "the wire" is no longer fit for purpose to meet today requirements for real-time, low-cost, transparent transactions - in particular for low value person-to-person but also to some extent for corporate payments.

With the continued de-risking, closing of nostro relationships and more examples of global direct-to-ACH payments, some even declared that "correspondent banking is dead".

Hear from this panel of experts who will help you understand the latest forces that could be disruptive to the global corresponding banking business - and, if that model is considered no longer future-proof, what the new model could look like."

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