MIT to Take Over Funding of Three Bitcoin Core Developers

Former lead developer and chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, Gavin Andresen, announced on a blog post that the three Bitcoin core developers who were funded by the Bitcoin Foundation, will join the MIT Media Lab's newly established Digital Currency initiative.

Talking to Cointelegraph, Digital Currency Initiative's head, Brian Forde, said:

"The Digital Currency Initiative is not hosting a development NOR a standards body. [Andresen, Van der Laan and Fields] have accepted positions at the Media Lab to continue developing [Bitcoin core]—a community-driven free software project. [...] The Bitcoin Foundation was never the center of development; the Bitcoin core open-source software project has been the center, and like most open-source software projects, the developers who work on Bitcoin core are supported in many different ways."

This Chip Turns a Dumb Phone Into a Bitcoin Wallet

BitSIM, a dual-chip overlay that is physically placed atop a phone's regular SIM card, will turn your phone – even if it's a "dumb" phone – into a Bitcoin wallet.

Founder Leon-Gerard Vandenberg, said:

"[BitSIM] interposes SIM commands between the original SIM and the phone. So the phone thinks there's a SIM there, and the original SIM thinks there's a phone there – it's a SIM port redirector for SIM commands."

US Government Subpoenas Bitcointalk for PMs, Affecting 600 Users

Bitcointalk forum administrator "theymos," aka Michael Marquadt, announced that the government has subpoenaed the site for access to private messages relating to the Butterfly Labs case (FTC Case No. 14-CV-2159-KHV-JPO).

Marquadt wrote:

"[U]sers of any website should be aware that it is basically impossible for any service to completely protect data that you give them access to. [...] I think that I fought for user privacy much more vigorously than most sites would in this situation, and I still had to release a lot of private data. [...] Don’t trust third-parties with anything important."

Blocktech Introduces Uncensorable Peer-to-Peer Media 'Library' Alexandria

San Diego-based blockchain startup Blocktech, launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund Alexandria, a decentralized, open-source, peer-to-peer “library” for all sorts of media.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Blocktech CEO Devon Read, said:

"You can compare Alexandria to YouTube or Soundcloud, but by making use of various peer-to-peer networking technologies, the platform relies on no servers. Users can self-publish anything they'd like, and they — only they — have complete control of how their works are published."

Bitcoin Acceptance Highest in Turkey, Says ING Survey

A recent survey from ING aiming to gain better understanding of retail customers' banking and spending habits, suggests that Turkey is not only set to embrace the mobile banking era at a faster pace than the USA or the UK, the country is also home to the largest share of digital currencies enthusiasts.

"While the vast majority of respondents are rather pessimistic about the future of digital currencies, 45% of respondents from Turkey believe that "digital currencies, such as bitcoin, are the future of spending online," against a slim 16% from Australia and 28% from the USA.

Turkey is followed by Italy (43%), Spain (33%), and Poland (31%)."

Elsewhere

  • Addressing the crowd at a California Bitcoin job fair, Balaji Srinivasan the chairman of secretive digital currency startup 21, has shed a little more light onto the nature of their work, suggesting that the company is looking closely at Bitcoin's decentralized technical framework.
  • Following an attempt by a group of activists to declare a small parcel of land by the Danube between Serbia and Croatia as an independent country, the team has announced the new "Liberland" country will use digital currencies as their monetary basis.
  • Speaking during a Dow Jones risk and compliance meeting, New York Department of Finance Superintendant Benjamin Lawsky, suggested that the controversial BitLicense bill will be finalized at the end of May.
  • Major UK payment processor NorthPayments, announced it has partnered with BitcoinPayGate.com to add bitcoin to its roster of 220 existing payment options.
  • Merchant payment processor Coinzone continues its global expansion, announcing earlier this week that it has opened its operation to Czech customers.

New Bitcoin ATMs

In light of Cointelegraph's partnership with CoinATMRadar, we have compiled a list of the latest bitcoin ATMs that went live this week.

In Australia, the bitcoin ATM initially located at the Roastery Cafe, was returned to its proprietaries following a seizure part of drug trafficking investigation.

The device, a Genesis Coin two-way multi-crypto ATM, is now located at Posoz, 123 Melbourne Street, in South Brisbane.

Operated by Bit2Bit, the machine is limited to AU$4,900 per person per day for bitcoin transactions, AU$300 for litecoin and AU$50 for dogecoin. Bit2Bit charges 6.75% per transaction.

In Japan, a new bitcoin ATM was installed last week at Coconuts Stage, B1.B2, 34−6, M & I building, Udagawacho, Shibuya, Tokyo.

The Genesis Coin Satoshi1 one-way ATM is limited to JPY 1,000 for per day, with buy limit at JPY 500,000 and sell limit at JPY 2,000.

On Saturday, the Philippines welcomed its first two-way bitcoin ATM in the city of Makati.

The Genesis Coin two-way bitcoin ATM is located at Sunette towers, Makati Ave, 1210 Metro Manila. The device has a daily limit of PHP 50,000.

Market Activity

The bitcoin price continued to decline this week, oscillating between 219 and 237 USD/BTC, according to Blockchain.info data.

On Friday, Hong Kong Starbucks branches announced they were now accepting bitcoin payments and offering 20% off for purchase using a specific mobile app. Despite the positive news of a relatively big name embracing the digital currency, the bitcoin price didn't significantly move in regard to the favorable event.

Our weekly price analysis published earlier this week, suggests that all three trends charts, as of long-term, mid-term and short-term, confirm the bearish scenario, an outlook that has remained unchanged for the last couple weeks.

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