It may be cliché, but perhaps no single word sums up bitcoin quite as well as “disruptive”. Computer scientists have been trying to create secure and sustainable digital cash since the earliest days of the Internet, and until Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper introducing bitcoin was published in 2008, their efforts were in vain.

While the public may still be polarized by the digital currency, most people who take the time to learn about bitcoin and the block chain come to realize the significance of a decentralized, trustless network and the impacts it could potentially have in many areas of everyday life.

The use cases of such a technology are only beginning to be explored, but the bitcoin protocol has already proven to be a game-changer, allowing its users to do things that had previously been thought impractical or even impossible.

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Previous forays into online-based currencies have resulted in failures like e-Gold or centralized currencies often found in gaming communities, but bitcoin is the first digital-only currency that is completely decentralized to gain significant traction. There are many implications of this, but one key value of a decentralized digital currency is that anyone can create a bitcoin wallet to hold their money, without needing to rely on a bank’s approval or their government’s issued currency.

It’s no secret that money transfer services like Western Union and Moneygram are flawed. These companies often take days to transfer money across the globe, and they charge a hefty service fee for their work. Bitcoin, on the other hand, allows anybody with Internet access to send any amount of money anywhere in the world. The notion of smart contracts—contracts that can be digitally created and verified—has been around for years, but is now being approached in a whole new light in the face of bitcoin.

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Given that the design of bitcoin’s peer-to-peer system was partly inspired by gold, it’s not a surprise that many bitcoin enthusiasts are also fans of the precious metal. Both gold and bitcoin are scarce commodities used as stores of value by those who might be distrustful of fiat currencies.

The bitcoin community has long been interested in courting gold users – Ripple, for example, recently introduced gold trading to its platform. Even so, gold enthusiasts have not always been bitcoin champions. Some even go so far as to vocally oppose bitcoin as an investment vehicle.

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It’s important to establish why bitcoin users believe the digital currency could take the place of gold in the global market. One of the main reasons is because some see bitcoin as an investment without the common pain points associated with gold. In addition, significant investment capital pouring into the bitcoin market could make it more valuable than gold. The high-water mark for those who share this value belief took place on 29th November, when the price of bitcoin on then-operational Mt Gox exchange reached a high of $1,242, trading two cents above gold’s $1,241.98 at the time.

That price similarity was short lived, however. Soon after the start of 2014, bitcoin’s price fell due to uncertainty in the Chinese market – along with the collapse of Mt Gox. Despite a brief correlation in price, high volatility is the reason some still think that most gold bugs don’t believe in bitcoin as an investment.

Gold prices fluctuate too, but not as much as bitcoin has this year. BTC has seen an over 62% drop in 2014 after hitting a high of $951.39 in early January down to $360.84 in April.

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BitPay executive chairman Tony Gallippi announced today that his company paid for its upcoming college football bowl game sponsorship in bitcoin. The surprise news came at a press conference held by BitPay and the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce to promote the upcoming Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl.

There, Gallippi revealed that BitPay paid ESPN Events, a subsidiary of the popular US sports network ESPN, in bitcoin in order to secure the sponsorship, a company spokesperson confirmed. Notably, Tampa Bay Business Journal has estimated that its full contract with the broadcaster is estimated at roughly $1.5m over the course of three years.

The event was held at the St. Petersburg Museum, which has announced that it will accept bitcoin as part of BitPay’s wider promotion for December’s main event, joining a list of merchants that includes Ferg’s Sports Bar and Grill, Green Bench Brewery Co and Hotel Zamora.

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In addition to Gallippi, BitPay CEO Stephen Pair and BitPay executive director of the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl Brett Dulaney were also in attendance. The Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl will be held on 26th December.

The news is the latest update on BitPay and its work to promote bitcoin through the major televised sporting event. Announced on 18th June, the promotion was widely covered by the mainstream media, including The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated and the editorial arm of ESPN.

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The Australian Tax Office (ATO) recently released its long-awaited guidelines on how bitcoin businesses and individual users will be taxed in Australia. The guidelines are similar in nature to those issued by Singapore in January, which received a mixed response from the bitcoin community.

In summary, bitcoins will not be regarded as ‘money’, and will be taxed in a similar way to other non-cash or barter transactions. As in Singapore, this raises the specter of double-taxation for some bitcoin transactions. Likely to be impacted most are businesses who have been transacting in bitcoin and treating it equally to the national currency, the Australian dollar (AUD).

Titled Tax treatment of crypto-currencies in Australia – specifically Bitcoin, the four-page guideline document is a “general in nature” draft version only, and not yet legally binding. The ATO has also not indicated when the rules will begin to apply, or whether (in the case of IRS guidelines in the US) they will be applied retroactively.

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“Transacting with Bitcoin is akin to a barter arrangement, with similar tax consequences”, the paper noted. “The ATO’s view is that Bitcoin is neither money nor a foreign currency, and the supply of Bitcoin is not a financial supply for goods and services tax (GST) purposes. Bitcoin is however an asset for capital gains tax (CGT) purposes.”

Items such as shares, bonds, loans, derivatives and foreign currencies are regarded as ‘money’ or ‘financial supply’ under existing regulations, and are not subject to GST (similar to sales tax or VAT in other jurisdictions).

These definitions are bound to cause some controversy. The bitcoin industry had argued that the broad definition of money could also include bitcoin, and asked for it to be defined as such. Were bitcoin to be defined as ‘money’, ‘foreign currency’ or even ‘financial supply’, exchanging it would not incur GST. This may, however, require legislative change and would likely have wider implications for other forms of non-money units, such as store loyalty points.

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Coins has launched its second bitcoin startup in Southeast Asia with the formal opening of Coins.co.th in Thailand. Led by CEO Ron Hose, Coins launched its Philippines-based bitcoin exchange and merchant processing service Coins.ph in March, at the time enrolling two larger merchants – MetroDeal and CashCashPinoy – in its services. While coinciding with fewer supporting announcements, its entrance into Thailand’s market, however, may ultimately prove more telling for bitcoin’s progress in Asia as a whole.

Coins.co.th has been exchanging baht and bitcoin in Thailand since its soft launch in June, when it received its e-commerce registration from the Huay Khwang District Office. A report by Bangkok Post states that the district office has deemed bitcoin as a form of commodities trading, clearing the way for the company’s regulatory approval.

Jaturong Jantarangs, the Bank of Thailand’s senior director of the payment systems policy department, reportedly told the media outlet that trading bitcoins for baht does not require approval or a license from the central bank. As such, Coins.co.th claims that its exchange is now ‘fully legal’ under Thai law.

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The move can be seen as a positive sign for bitcoin’s progress in Asia, given that the Bank of Thailand was widely believed to have banned bitcoin in 2013. The determination also follows statements from the Bank of Thailand issued in March that suggested it did not consider bitcoin a currency.

While it is not being treated as a money services business, Coins.co.th indicated that it does need to follow related laws such as Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code and Consumer Protection Act, as well as its anti­-money laundering (AML) regulations. Topp Jirayut Srupsrisopa, who will manage Coins.co.th, added that he expects bitcoin’s legal situation in Thailand to become more clear over time, as local regulators learn more about the market and its potential.

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