http://moneyandtech.com/July-23-news-update/
In the wake of the New York Department of Financial Services’ announced BitLicense regulations for Bitcoin businesses, the newly formed Chamber of Digital Commerce put a call out today for the community to submit their comments on New York’s rules, calling them “severely debilitating to the digital currency industry” and “potentially seriously injuring legitimate applications of this valuable emerging area.” The Digital Chamber is also helping to petition an extension of the 45 day public comment period, which President Perianne Boring calls “severely inadequate to proposed regulations of this scope”. We spoke with Perianne here at Coin Congress in more detail about her goals with the Digital Chamber, and their plans to keep the BitLicense conversation moving forward. We’ll have that interview available on our website in the next few days.
Leading global cash payment network ZipZap has announced their expansion into Europe in 34 countries, offering free sign up, free wallet and free deposits. In the words of Business Development SVP Simon Nahnybida, “We are now enabling more consumers with the power to easily, safely and securely buy digital currencies at affordable prices using multiple payment options”. We also spoke with ZipZap CEO Alan Safahi here at Coin Congress about this development and the future for ZipZap and Bitcoin in general, and will have that interview available for you soon as well.
IdentityMind Global announced today the international expansion of their Anti-Money Laundering solution for bitcoin and alt coins throughout the 28 nations in the European Union, thanks to newly awarded European Union Safe Harbor certification. The risk management and payments solutions provider already provided Bitcoin compliance solutions to customers in North America, Hong Kong, Australia, South America and the Caribbean. Now, CEO and President Garrett Gafke says, “we’ve built a platform that can support Bitcoin companies nearly anywhere in the world.”
Silicon Valley’s premier jewelry house Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry announced today a new partnership with digital currency payment platform GoCoin to accept Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin payments at its new retail store. As chairman and CEO Stephen Silver puts it, “most of our clients are VCs and in the technology industry, so we’ve naturally become early adopters.”
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are opening up the API on their bitcoin price index WinkDex for developers to build on top of it. As Cameron Winklevoss says, “even though ostensibly an API of a pricing product is not super sexy, this matters to the Bitcoin community.” This appears to be the next step in the twins’ long-term plan to become major arbiters in the Bitcoin community. The Winklevoss’ also plan to release iOS and Android apps for their index, which they hope to have traded on NASDAQ shortly, and ultimately, hope to release their much-anticipated Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust.
The Inside Bitcoins conference in Tel Aviv has been postponed given logistical issues arising from the ongoing military crisis in the Gaza Strip between the Hamas and Israeli military. Specifically, several international flights have been canceled due to rocket attacks on the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, restricting many of the conference’s international speakers and attendees. In addition, several conference participants are reportedly currently on active duty with the Israeli Defense Force for the duration of the military operation. So the conference will been held off until an undisclosed, and as yet unclear further date.
Money & Tech will be covering the action here at the Coin Congress conference in San Francisco today and tomorrow, and bringing you exclusive interviews and news updates in the coming days. So stay tuned on our website for more coming soon.
http://moneyandtech.com/July-23-news-update/