1. Russia to Issue Ban and Fines for Cryptocurrency Use
On Friday, William Suberg reported on news out of Russia that the country’s Ministry of Finance has put forward a ban on the use of digital currency, and the implementation of fines as an appropriate deterrent.
“It is expected to include penalties for the use and creation of methods of generating cryptocurrencies, specifically 50,000 rubles (US$1,260) for individuals, 100,000 rubles (US$2,507) for officials and up to one million rubles (US$25,200) for businesses.”
2. Reddit Gets $50 MM Series B, Considers Launching Its Own Cryptocurrency
On Wednesday, Carlo Caraluzzo reported on the massive funding round for Reddit, which valued that site at a half billion USD. That money will be used to fund a number of new efforts, including perhaps a cryptocoin launch.
“‘We are thinking about creating a cryptocurrency and making it exchangeable (backed) by those shares of Reddit, and then distributing the currency to the community,’ Reddit CEO Yishan Wong said in a blog post. ‘The investors have explicitly agreed to this in their investment terms.’”
3. Circle Opens to Everyone
On Tuesday, Ian DeMartino covered the launch of Circle.
“Circle is still the digital equivalent of handing someone your money to look after it for you, but like a bank, they bring services and guarantees that go a long way to building consumer confidence and trust. Most significantly, insurance.”
4. Showroomprive Becomes the Largest Retailer in Europe to Accept Bitcoin
On Thursday, Alyssa Hertig reported that an online shop specializing in ready-to-wear fashion and cosmetics, Showroomprive.com, had begun accepting bitcoin payments.
“For now, Showroomprive accepts Bitcoin on its French and Dutch websites. Belgium, Italy, Spain, Poland and United Kingdom will soon follow suit.”
5. Swedish Central Bank Downplays Bitcoin; Bitcoin-Only Candidate Wins Seat in Swedish Parliament
Just days after Sweden’s Riksbank said Bitcoin was having no tangible effect on the Swedish economy, parliamentary candidate Mathias Sundin — whose campaign was entirely funded with bitcoins — won a seat in parliament.
William Suberg had the story on Monday:
“In addition to his current post as Deputy Mayor of Norrköping, Sundin will now be able to work on his election promises of, amongst others, ‘resist[ing] knee-jerk regulation of Bitcoin, other digital currencies, and disruptive innovation in general.’”
Elsewhere
- Bitcoin Boulevard in Cleveland Heights gets some nice local press. [WKYC]
- Darkcoin’s exchange rate takes a hit after its big release. [CryptoCoinsNews]
- The Atlantic reports that Darknet markets are booming in the wake of Silk Road’s closure last year. [The Atlantic]
- Defense Distributed sells out of its first batch of Ghost Gunner machines in 36 hours. Ghost Gunners allow users to build their own guns without any prior gunmaking expertise (and without serial numbers, too). [Wired]
Market activity
Bitcoin’s price against the US dollar continues its downward trajectory, despite last week’s brief uptick on news from PayPal. We started the week right at US$380, and after a slight upward move through midweek, the price has broken through that floor into the US$360 range.
For the third week in a row, Cointelegraph analyst Tone Vays was on top of it:
“As much as this analyst hopes to be wrong, Bitcoin’s price is sitting at its most vulnerable point of the year. The highest probability move is the creation of new lows in the mid US$370’s and the most likely target for a potential stop to the slide in price is the US$340-350 area matching the lows of April. Falling below that zone we are looking at US$260-270 for the next high probability reversal.”
UPDATE 10/5/2014: In the time between when this piece was written and when it went live, the price of 1 BTC fell another US$40-plus on most exchanges.