Category: Software

Finance, Software

BitIndex Launched By Pantera to Track Bitcoin

Pantera Capital, an investment fund that focuses on bitcoin, has announced an index it says will allow investors to track the cryptocurrency over a medium-term timeframe. Dubbed the BitIndex, it takes into account seven different factors that Pantera believes accurately charts bitcoin’s overall progress.

What’s interesting is Pantera Capital is not including price in the BitIndex, instead tracking other data sources that it believes lends to bitcoin’s technological progression. Pantera states unequivocally in its letter that the BitIndex gives people a longer-range view of bitcoin than what price indexes offer.

In the fund’s monthly report for June, Pantera stated: “While some other indices also offer guidance (such as trade in USD), we chose not to include them because of unreliable data, limited availability, or other statistical problems.”

News on Bitcoins

Pantera’s letter does not indicate how it calculates the merchant adoption metric, although statistics for hashrate, user adoption by wallets and transaction volume are publicly available from a number of different data sources. Information from websites such as GitHub for developer interest, as well as Wikipedia and Google to identify mainstream interest and popularity, is also readily available.

BitIndex offers a different look at technological aspects of bitcoin rather than infatuation with the cryptocurrency’s valuation. In fact, the firm says that it is value distortions that influenced the creation of BitIndex, specifying, “price manipulation at Mt. Gox and/or the Chinese and in the first quarter of 2014 due to the collapse of Mt. Gox”, as problems defining bitcoin’s true worth.

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Richard Atkins
Finance, Software

Bitcoin News: Wikipedia Now Accepts Bitcoin Donations

Open-source online encyclopedia Wikipedia is now accepting bitcoin through a new partnership with Coinbase. With the integration now active, all users have to do is go to Wikipedia’s donation page and opt to pay in bitcoin. Like with any option, users can choose to make either one-time or recurring donations to the free encyclopedia.

The Wikimedia Foundation, which owns and curates Wikipedia, announced on its official blog that it is now accepting donations in the digital currency. The organization cited grassroots community support for the integration, saying that demand for bitcoin support led to discussions on the leadership level.

The announcement is notable given the Foundation’s past apprehension toward the idea of accepting bitcoin. In March, the organization announced that it was beginning to discuss bitcoin donations, but co-founder Jimmy Wales later commented that Wikimedia was taking a “cautious” approach.

News on Bitcoins

In the blog post, Wikimedia chief revenue officer Lisa Gruwell said that the discussion process was in-depth, but with more clarification available on the legal status of digital currency, Wikimedia was able to move forward. She wrote: “Currently, we accept 13 different payment methods enabling donations from nearly every country in the world, and today, we’re adding one more: Bitcoin.”

In a separate email sent to Wikipedia supporters, the organization said that the goal is to offer “flexible” payment options to those who donate to keep the online encyclopedia running. With bitcoin, the Foundation declared, Wikipedia supporters can enjoy greater versatility in their donation options.

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Richard Atkins
Finance, Software

easyHotel Franchisee Now Accepts Bitcoin for Room Reservations

Travelers to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague can pay for hotel bookings in bitcoin at any of the Holland’s three easyHotels. The easyHotel Holland website offers a ‘pay in bitcoin’ option upon checkout that generates a BitPay invoice, QR code and wallet address included, to settle the payment.

The easyHotel brand has become increasingly popular in Europe, following the success of UK-based easyGroup’s airline and airport transfer brands, easyJet and easyBus.While the easyHotels in the Netherlands have embraced bitcoin as a payment option, other members of the hotel family in Europe and the UK have not as yet.

The easyHotels integration highlights the continuing growth of bitcoin into the hotel and travel industries.

News on Bitcoins

Last month online travel giant Expedia also began accepting bitcoin payments, but for hotel reservations only. The company has since announced that its bitcoin profits have exceeded expectations. Travel agency CheapAir, which initially began accepting bitcoin for flight bookings, began integrating bitcoin payments into its booking system this February, making the service available to 200,000 hotels and Amtrak rail reservations.

Although the easyHotels franchise is not an intermediary site like Expedia or CheapAir, it is a prominent and trusted name in low-cost travel options in the UK and Europe, and the company could see a lot of the same customers paying in bitcoin. Whether easyJet and the other easyGroup brands will follow suit remains to be seen. The Benelux region easyHotel franchisee acts under the holding company DanZep Hotels.

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Richard Atkins
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DoCoMo Reports In-Line Fiscal 4Q, but Provides Lower Guidance; Under Review

NTT DoCoMo DCM reported fiscal year-end results that were generally in line with our expectations, but margin guidance for this year was lower than we anticipated. We have put our fair value estimate under review as we revise our model projections. There is no change to our economic moat rating. Revenue grew 5.4% year over year, a bit below our projection of 6.5%. DoCoMo increased … Continue reading DoCoMo Reports In-Line Fiscal 4Q, but Provides Lower Guidance; Under Review

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Finance, Software

‘Virtual Bitcoin ATM’ Apps Released by CoinSafe

US-based company CoinSafe says its new mobile and desktop apps can turn any local business into a ‘bitcoin ATM’, or face-to-face bitcoin exchange. The CoinSafe apps are free to use and allow businesses to trade bitcoins directly with walk-in customers.

After registering their business name for inclusion in CoinSafe’s directory, owners then link the app to a Blockchain, Coinbase or Bitstamp account and can start trading bitcoins face-to-face.

CoinSafe says the software is “designed to be used by someone who has no idea what bitcoin is”, and that a staff member merely needs to confirm that funds have been received before releasing the payout amount in either bitcoin or cash.

News on Bitcoins

CoinSafe co-founder and CEO Michael Flaxman said the software provided business owners with a less risky, more flexible option for getting bitcoin into their customers’ hands without having to purchase or maintain ATM hardware. He further said that CoinSafe would provide a map on its website showing the locations of businesses who had signed up to the service.

The company will not have access to any user’s private keys and will encrypt all customer information in transit to its services, its website says. It also recommends that businesses keep larger amounts of bitcoin in cold storage. Businesses paying out cash for bitcoins only do not have to give API access to CoinSafe at all, so long as they provide a bitcoin address by which the transaction can be confirmed. The service uses standard transaction fees of approximately 0.0001 BTC (about 6 US cents).

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Richard Atkins
Systems Software WAN Optimization
Finance, Software

Software Stocks to Watch : NQ Mobile, FireEye Inc, Adobe Systems

In this Article, let us take a look at three very promising Stock Market scripts in the field of Software: NQ Mobile, FireEye Inc, Adobe Systems. Let’s take a close look at what might be in store for the three given stocks. NQ Mobile (NQ) recently responded to a Muddy Waters’ research report dated Jul 7, 2014. The company cited a report from an independent … Continue reading Software Stocks to Watch : NQ Mobile, FireEye Inc, Adobe Systems

Richard Atkins