This week, Latvia’s national airline, airBaltic, confirmed that it is now accepting bitcoin, and that in doing so, it became the first airline that accepts bitcoin directly, rather than through a third party. By becoming the first airline to accept bitcoin, airBaltic has surely stolen a march on everybody else.

This is a positive move for those that want bitcoin to evolve into a mainstream currency that can be used for the purchase of everyday goods and utilities, and it could lead competitors to also offer a bitcoin payment option.

The immediate knock-on effect could be that Expedia will start accepting bitcoin for flight bookings, in addition to hotel bookings that you can already make with the cryptocurrency.

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The Airline airBatic has become the first Airline to allow Bitcoin as a mode of payment. However, airBatic is charging a transaction fee for any payment made through Bitcoin. A processing and handling fee typically is meant to cover costs from processing the payment. So, where in this case there is practically none, it is not clear why this expense still applies.

Surely, the handling of the booking itself would already be accounted for in its salaries and expenses, as this is the main purpose and reason for the business’s existence, so it would seem pretty odd not to have this factored into its costs already. There is no transaction fee when using an airBaltic card, for example, which demonstrates that the main purpose of these fees are deterrents, aimed to encourage customers to avoid other payment methods and to take advantage of the benefits of being an airBaltic cardholder.

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As the Winklevoss twins attempt to get regulatory approval for their bitcoin exchange-traded fund, we now have another fund that revolves around the crypto-currency. According to FINalternatives, Coin Capital Management has launched the new fund. Managing Partner Samuel Cahn said they see the digital currency as “an exciting payment technology.”

The new hedge fund which has been launched, can do buying and holding of bitcoins for clients. This is the first fund to hold the digital currency in “an institutional grade hedge fund using the same types of checks and balances that investors have come to expect,” according to Cahn. A family office is seeding the new hedge fund, which Cahn founded with his brothers Drew and Sigmund Sommer.

Cahn is an attorney who also has worked at the White Bay Group, serving in both an investment management advisory role and as counsel for the firm. He managed Combinations Capital Partners as well. Sigmund Sommer has been investing in, trading and mining bitcoin for years.

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Cahn described their strategy for buying and holding the crypto-currency. He said it’s based on supply and demand. Since there will only ever be a certain amount of bitcoins in existence, the price of the digital currency will rise along with demand.

According to Cahn, the market is “really on the cusp of consumer adoption.” He noted that online retailer Overstock.com decided to start accepting bitcoin as payment starting this year. Also the Federal Election Commission ruled that the digital currency is an acceptable type of currency in which to make contributions to political campaigns.

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Bitcoin wallet and block explorer provider Blockchain has unveiled its latest Android wallet update, announcing the news at The North American Bitcoin Conference (NABC), an ongoing two-day industry event taking place in downtown Chicago.

Bitcoin wallet provider Blockchain.info is releasing a major new version of its Android app, allowing you to store, receive and send bitcoins directly from your Android phone. The key thinking behind the update is to make bitcoin more accessible. It hides the complexity of the protocol in order to encourage mainstream user adoption.

The official launch follows the release of early previews provided by the company in June, a leak that coincided with Blockchain‘s debut of its new customer onboarding tool, Bitcoin.com.

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Blockchain CEO Nicolas Cary framed the announcement as part of a broader update to the company’s wallet service that will find it issuing more news through the summer. Combined, this initiative will help the company better meet the scale that it excepts as more consumers join the bitcoin ecosystem.

“Our Android app has to do with making bitcoin so easy to use that people don’t even have to think about addresses for example,” co-founder and CEO Nicolas Cary told me in a phone interview. “That stuff exists in bitcoin, but just like there are complicated things happening in email, they are hidden.”

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Germany-based digital currency bitcoin ATM and point-of-sale (POS) solution provider BitXatm has announced a new partnership that will find the company shipping 1,000 units to the US in a bid to build the country’s largest bitcoin ATM network.

For the initiative, BitXatm will partner with Los Angeles-based CryptVision, a startup that itself is seeking to build the largest network of bitcoin ATMs around the globe. As part of the deal, CryptVision will become the exclusive provider of BitXatms in the US and Canada.

The announcement follows BitXatm’s May upgrade to its Sumo Pro ATM product, and was issued at The North American Bitcoin Conference (TNABC), a two-day community event being held in downtown Chicago

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Sergey Yesayan, president of CryptVision, framed the move as one that will find the new company moving quickly to gain a foothold in the bitcoin market. “In terms of positioning our products all over the country, we’re planning to have most of them in place by the end of the year, and are looking for location partners in shopping malls, restaurants and night clubs”, he said in a statement.

Yesayan said that the bitcoin ATM units will be available for free to qualified operators, with the qualification process for operators beginning 25th July. CryptVision plans to treat the units as vending machines and manage the associated financial responsibilities and licensing.

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PayFast, a leading South African payment processor, started offering the digital currency bitcoin as a payment option, making it available to the firm’s 30,000 merchant customers. It becomes the first payment processor in South Africa, and one of the first anywhere, to offer the cryptocurrency as an option.

The subject of Africa and developing markets is a big one in bitcoin circles; the currency is viewed as a solution to the problems of high money-transfer fees, as well as an opportunity to offer banking services to the billions of so-called “unbanked.”

So far, though, it’s all mainly experimental. A Kenyan startup, BitPesa, began offering a remittance service earlier this year, and there are exchanges in Mexico, Argentina, China, and elsewhere trying to spread adoption of bitcoin.

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The company is partnering with BitX, a South African digital-currency exchange, for the bitcoin integration, but PayFast founder and managing director Jonathan Smit acknowledged the move was largely exploratory. He noted that consumers and merchants know very little about bitcoin in the young market.

“We are not really seeing a demand for bitcoin from customers per se, but bitcoin is very much a hot topic on South African lips,” he said in a conversation on Wednesday. Like many other traditional companies that take on crypto currencies, Mr. Smit is essentially launching an experiment. “The position we are taking is not necessarily driven by a clear business case but we are always on the lookout for alternatives and we are always looking for ideas that could become something,” he said.

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Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) officially announced it accepts Bitcoins for online purchases. This includes purchases on all items on Dell.com. The retailer is accepting Bitcoins as part of a pilot program for U.S. based consumers and small businesses. Should the test go well, the option will expand outside the United States. Dell has just announced that it’s online store now accepts Bitcoins from U.S. consumers and … Continue reading Bitcoins to be Accepted by Dell For Online Purchases