The Latest
Newegg Considering Adding Bitcoin as Payment Option
Popular online electronics retailer Newegg hinted at potentially accepting Bitcoin payments for products in the future in a tweet. When asked by Twitter user @thedatascape, “Do you have any plans to add Bitcoin as a one of your payment methods?”
The response? Quite simply, “It’s a possibility, #staytuned 
”
Is it definitive proof that they’ll be accepting Bitcoin? We can’t say for certain, but things are certainly looking optimistic. If they do, Newegg will join a landscape of more and more big companies accepting the digital currency. Most recently, Virgin Galactic.
More information as it becomes available.
Mt.Gox Experiencing Performance Issues Today
Mt.Gox bitcoin exchange down for you? No, it’s not your neighbor hogging up all the bandwidth again. It looks like the world’s number two exchange is experiencing a slew of performance issues today.
A number of users on Reddit (in multiple threads — here’s one) are seeing the website up and down, with the usual suspicions that the exchange is being hit with a DDOS attack. This, of course, is pure speculation.
As of current, the company has not made an official statement on the cause of today’s issues.
BitPay All-Inclusive Plans Now Open For Enrollment
Merchants: take not. Announced this afternoon on Twitter, Bitcoin payment processor BitPay has announced that all-inclusive plans are now open for enrollment.
The company allows users to sign up from their “Starter” plan, which has subscription price, but carries a 1% transaction fee. The “Professional”, “Business”, and “Enterprise” carry prices of $30, $300, and #3,000 respectively.
As a merchant, do you find BitPay’s all-inclusive plans of interest?
Stewardess Becomes First to Book Virgin Galactic Flight Using Bitcoin
On Friday, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson announced to the world that his latest and greatest Virgin venture — Virgin Galactic — would be accepting Bitcoin payments.
The spaceline takes passengers to the very edge of space, allowing them to experience 10-or-so minutes of weightlessness. The price of admission? A cool $250,000 USD, or just over 300 BTC.
Surprisingly enough, someone has already booked a Virgin Galactic flight using Bitcoin. A stewardess from Hawaii, who Branson says “made quite a lot of money by getting into Bitcoin early on”, will be taking a ride soon enough, reports The Register.
While Branson is expecting the price of Bitcoin to go up, he says the company immediately converted the Bitcoin payment into fiat currency.
One of the Largest Bitcoin Transactions Took Place Today
An incredibly large Bitcoin transaction took place today, leaving scores of folks in the community left wondering, “what the heck is going on here?”
The transaction amounted to about 194,993 BTC, which at current exchange rates is about $160 million USD, and is one of the largest to take place in the history of the digital currency.
Humorously enough, the transaction is labeled as a ”Shit load of money”, and yes it is. As the Bitcoin currency continues to grow, this amount will become even more impressive than it already is.
BitStamp and Mt.Gox Bitcoin Prices Nearly Equal
Anyone in the Bitcoin community who has looked at charts for longer than a few minutes has noticed that traditionally, Mt.Gox’s price tends to be higher than the other exchanges. In fact, in the past months, it hasn’t been uncommon to see a different of $100 USD between the two Bitcoin exchanges (with BitStamp being the lower of the two).
Today, the prices per Bitcoin on the exchange are just about equal, with the price on Mt.Gox being about $767, and $767 on BitStamp. In fact, the price per Bitcoin at BitStamp has surpassed the price at Mt.Gox today. The amount was rather insignificant (a few USD), but still noteworthy.
Have we reached a point where we’ll see an equilibrium between the two Bitcoin exchanges?
Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Denied Bail
Source: YouTube user Ross Ulbricht
An update to a story recently posted on the topic of alleged Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. After a bail hearing on the 21st of November, the court decided to not grant Ulbricht bail.
Ulbricht’s lawyer, Joshua Dratel set before the court the proposition to grant $1 million bail to Ulbricht (an amount pledged by Ulbricht’s family and friends). The court decided this wasn’t the way to go, particularly after hearing the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s case that Ulbricht would try to flee the United States before it was time for his trial.
Chinese Central Bank “May Adopt a Long-Term Perspective” on Bitcoin
These Chinese are, without any doubt, at the forefront of the price increases behind Bitcoin late this year, and as a result, the cryptocurrency has been making headlines just about everyone. We’re now at a point where huge businesses are accepting the currency, and even governments are recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender.
But for as long as Bitcoin has existed, there’s a been a black cloud above it. Central banks. It’s the exact opposite of what Bitcoin is all about. No authority, no central bank. So it’s interesting to know what the Chinese Central Bank has to say on Bitcoin.
According to the New York Times, the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (and also acts as the director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange) Yi Gang has said that “it would be impossible for China’s central bank to recognize the Bitcoin as a legitimate financial instrument in the near future.”
There’s a light at the end of this tunnel, however. Gang says the Chinese people are more than free to participate in the Bitcoin community and he himself “would personally adopt a long-term perspective on the currency.”
Virgin Galactic to Accept Bitcoin Payments for Space Flights
Some incredible news coming from the one and only Sir Richard Branson today. The founder of the world-famous Virgin companies today announced via Twitter that his out-of-the-world venture — Virgin Galactic — will be accepting Bitcoins for space flights.
The venture has set up a web page titled “Bitcoins in space” dedicated to their decision to accept the digital currency. The opening statement reads:
Virgin Galactic is one of the universe’s most exciting, futuristic companies. Bitcoin, the virtual currency, has really captured the imagination recently as one of the world’s most innovative businesses looking to the future. So we think it is about time Virgin Galactic customers can choose to pay with bitcoins.
Having grown tremendously this year alone, Bitcoin is slowly but surely entering the mainstream, with more and more businesses coming to the decision to accept Bitcoin. In doing so, Virgin Galactic sets a precedent for other cutting-edge companies — particularly those in the tech sphere.
CheapAir.com Lets Users Buy Airline Tickets with Bitcoin
Let’s go ahead and add this one to the “awesome” list of websites out there. CheapAir.com is a travel website that allows users to purchase airline tickets, hotels, and so forth (like Priceline and Orbitz — you get the picture). And yes, the digital currency can be used to buy airline tickets.
It’s one of the first of its kind in the book-your-own-travel industry, and it’s certainly one of the best ways I can personally think of spending your Bitcoins.
The caveat? This site will only accept Bitcoin from users in the United States and Canada. But for now, this is a nice standard to set for the other big travel websites out there.
