1. Ross Ulbricht Found Guilty on All Charges

Early Thursday, Aaron von Wirdum reported that a jury found Ross Ulbricht guilty of all charges brought against him by the US government.

“For the past four weeks, prosecutors in New York have sought to prove that Ulbricht is the (in)famous Dread Pirate Roberts, and is therefore guilty of drug trafficking, running a criminal enterprise, orchestrating a conspiracy to sell fake IDs, conspiring to sell hacking tools, and involvement in money laundering. A mountain of evidence was presented throughout the sittings, including Ulbricht's personal diary, loads of chat logs, a trail of hundreds of thousands of bitcoins from the Silk Road to his laptop, confessions of an old friend, and public details about Ulbricht’s life.”

2. Facebook, Spotify, Uber, Airbnb Can Now Accept Bitcoin after BitPay Deal

On Tuesday, Charlie Richards reported on a major deal between BitPay and payment processor Adyen that opens up some big names to Bitcoin acceptance.

“BitPay will be hoping to see conversions among some of Adyen's 3,500 merchants globally including, Groupon, Evernote, Facebook, Spotify, Uber, Vodafone, Booking.com, Yelp, AirBnB, KLM, Abercrombie & Fitch, Soundcloud, Ryanair.”

3. Africa to Hold Its First Ever Bitcoin Conference

On Monday, William Suberg reported on an upcoming Bitcoin conference in Cape Town, scheduled for April 16 and 17 that “will bring together merchants, investors, venture capitalists, start-ups and Bitcoin enthusiasts who are all looking to move Bitcoin forward in Africa.”

“An official gathering for the extremely active Bitcoin community across the African continent has been a long time in the making. Projects such as P2P SMS payments in Kenya and remittance studies in Botswana have gained considerable media attention over the past 12 months, and advocates will eager to gain a further platform through which to showcase the many innovations taking place in Africa as of 2015.”

4. Bitcoin-Friendly Cannabis Vending Machines Make ‘Historic’ Debut in Seattle

On Monday, Allen Scott reported on the installation of marijuana vending machines in Washington, USA, that can accept Bitcoin payments.

“The machines, called ZaZZZ, whose first debut in Colorado was reported by Cointelegraph back in April, 2014, are now being installed in medical marijuana dispensaries in Seattle, Washington. The units accept bitcoin by displaying a QR-code on its native touchscreen and are manufactured by American Green, a company which became the first publicly traded medical marijuana dispensary brand in the world, back in 2009.”

5. ‘Not Publicly Discussed’: European Companies Seeking Privacy from U.S.

On Wednesday, Cheryl Hulseapple published a story that might be flying under the radar for some folks, but it’s one that is definitely worth a read.

“Privacy also matters to people who run companies; in this case, European ones. He says they ‘could see value’ in their financial transactions not only being cheaper, but also ‘being kept far more private and secure than is possible under current processes.’”

Elsewhere

Also:

Market activity

After last week’s spike, Bitcoin prices crashed back down to a range that largely stayed between US$217 and US$237 this week. But, as Tone Vays points out, a continued downward slide is very possible.

Meanwhile, the weekly high and low points for daily transactions continue to decline; just look at that second chart. The highest number of daily transactions we saw this past week was right at 93,500, and Monday’s dip below 80,000 was a low for 2015.

Exchange trade volume was flat all week. The most promising sign in that chart is the fact that the line never drops below US$3 mm.

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