Modern Banking with Bitcoin

Bangalore Bitcoin Creativity Crew Meet Up

Posted by Benson Samuel on January 12, 2014
Posted in: Alternative Currency, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Event, Companies of the Future, Cryptocurrency, Future Technology, India, IndiaBitcoin, Meetup, Modern Banking with Bitcoin, Payment Technology, Startup. Leave a comment

Date: 11th Jan 2014

Venue: Microsoft Accelerator, Lavelle Road

The meetup website had over 40 RSVP’s for the first Bitcoin meetup that we had at Microsoft Ventures Accelerator. 20 participants came on time to explore some new possibilities in the Crypto-currency space.

Our first Meetup at Microsoft Ventures Accelerator

Our first Meetup at Microsoft Ventures Accelerator

 

As this was the first meetup, we discussed a short presentation, scraped from around the Internet, to introduce newbies to the Bitcoin concept.

Suprisingly, although we have had a healthy ecosystem for Bitcoiners in Bangalore, almost all the people who attended were new. Developers, Entreprenuers, Startup Founders, NGO Workers and more developers gathered to understand the scope of what this technology could offer.

Post a quick sign up at the front desk, we ran through a short presentation that outlined some basic aspects of Bitcoin. Several questions were asked and were answered as to my best ability. The questions ranged from its legality, to its block size to problems associated with it, and opportunities that stem from problems.

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A short little break with soft drinks and snacks, enabled everyone to network a bit and catch up with people.

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The group then came back together for a group discussion which enabled exchange of ideas and an understanding into the application of Bitcoin technology into various aspects ranging from public verification systems to creation of colored coins and creating payment processors!

IMG_0035

As this was the first meetup in the new format, we wound up with some discussions as to how we can proceed with the meetups and we set a short agenda on what can be expected over the next few months.

We get together at the same venue on the 25th of January 2014 at 14:00PM to continue our discussion and try to form groups that can enable various services across the ecosystem.

Several Meetup groups have evolved across India and more are in the Making. If you are in any of the below mentioned cities, do join a bunch of active like minded Bitcoiners and help the Community grow.

Bangalore: Bangalore Bitcoin Creativity Crew, Bangalore Bitcoin

Mumbai: Bombay Bitcoin

Delhi: Delhi Bitcoin

Chennai: Chennai Bitcoin

 

 

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Opportunities in Bitcoin outlined by the RBI

Posted by Benson Samuel on December 27, 2013
Posted in: Alternative Currency, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Regulation in India, Companies of the Future, Cryptocurrency, Finance, Future Technology, India, Modern Banking with Bitcoin, Payment Technology, Reserve Bank Of India. 3 Comments

27/12/2013

The recent events surrounding Bitcoin in India, stemming from a circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India have seen a flurry of confusion across the Bitcoin India Community.

The circular clearly outlines opportunities for Bitcoin in India and sets a firm set of rules to be followed in order for it to gain acceptance outside the community. In no place are there indications of Bitcoin being banned or made illegal. Here are the opportunities to be targetted for Bitcoin to succeed and push forward. Click this link to view the circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India.

  • Keep your software wallets secure. Keep paper wallet backups and follow best pactices. If you do not know how. Ask, there are several forums that help with even the minutest of queries. That being said. Bitcoin is not for zero-knowledge users.
  • Use an arbitrator between transactions. Have a clear cut contract before doing any Bitcoin transaction. There is no central authority that will take ownership of your loss with Bitcoin or the loss arising out of it.
  • Bitcoin is highly Volatile. There are mechanisms in place to bridge that gap as well.
    • Processors: Use a processor if you need to accept Bitcoin for your business. The processor should be able to convert BTC to INR and cover any risk for your business.
    • If you need to send Bitcoin to someone, Buy it and send it within a timespan of 15 – 20 minutes. Avoid holding Bitcoin for too long if you are using it to transfer value.
  • Talk to a lawyer, if you think that is expensive or out of reach, do not start a business to trade Bitcoins. Research and understand the scope of the regulations and take advice when needed.
  • Maintain and share records when requested by the authorities if you run a Bitcoin based business. Pay taxes on gains and check with a CA if needed. Asking the RBI for a statement and acceptance of Bitcoin must be reciprocated with a community effort of keeping an eye out for their interests as well.

The past few years have seen Bitcoin attract attention from outcast markets and in order to stem the usage of Bitcoin in those markets, the community decided to maintain records, abide by regulatory requirements and keep Bitcoin accessible to everyone.

We are now at the threshold of a point where we either see Bitcoin surface in a controlled, well established manner. Or it may be classified to the cash only markets that India is heavy on.

Bitcoin is not an investment or an asset as yet. It is a high risk experiment on a technology and social level. It requires greater centralization in order to be recognized by the current regulatory regime in India. Crypto-currencies need a new legal framework in order to maintain parity with this technology.

They key here is for us to start talking about the technology behind Bitcoin rather than the ideaology behind it. It does hold a lot of conversational material, but needs to grow beyond that into the technical mammoth that it is.

Bitcoin is not just a store of value and a transfer mechansim, it is also a bountiful library of secure well tested code, that has numerous applications outside of its financial spectre.

Although shaken by the recent events, the core of the community and several intelligent people around the Legal and Intellectual communities are aware of Bitcoins potential. India has the potential to rocket past the rest of the world due to the variety of uses of Cryptocurrencies across our diverse nation.

The RBI are currently going down the correct path of investigating end points rather than stopping Bitcoin itself. This is a futuristic market and any country undergoing a modernization routine cannot afford to stand back or impede growth.

Crypto-currencies that are decentralized and open source, cannot really be shut down. The recent Bitcoin Conference in Bangalore, which had over 200 delegates saw this technology in action as people discussed it and disceted it and still did not have a clear understanding of how to stop it.

The Bitcoin community, now has to ‘wait and watch’ and aid in any way possible to bring about this positive movement for Crypto currencies.

How to accept Bitcoin at your Physical store in India

Posted by Benson Samuel on December 7, 2013
Posted in: Alternative Currency, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Future Technology, India, Modern Banking with Bitcoin, Payment Technology, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , . 2 Comments
Image

Image courtesy: http://www.bitcoin-exchange-berlin.com/2013_04_01_archive.html (Photoshopped Image)

 

In 4 simple steps.

  1. Visit http://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet and select a wallet that suits your requirements.
  2. Once you get a Bitcoin address, your account has been setup. This process is generally completed in 2-3 minutes.
  3. Print out the image below and stick it on your shop window near the cash counter and outside your shop.
Image

Image Courtesy: http://hostquickly.net/pages/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/bitcoin_accepted_here.png

4. Accept Bitcoin using the address created from the wallet of your choice.

Disclaimer: Do read a bit about Bitcoin before diving in.

Talking Bitcoin with Jeff Garzik

Posted by Benson Samuel on February 19, 2013
Posted in: Alternative Currency, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Celebrity, Bitcoin Funding, Bitcoin Regulation in India, Companies of the Future, Cryptocurrency, Finance, Future Technology, India, IndiaBitcoin, Jeff Garzik, Modern Banking with Bitcoin, Outsourcing, Payment Technology, Reserve Bank Of India, Startup, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 7 Comments

Jeff Garzik makes up for a substantial portion of the Bitcoin development team. Self-described as a Husband, father, Linux kernel, cloud computing, Bitcoin, armchair foreign policy nerd & kinda sorta libertarian.

Jeff Garzik Jeff Garzik is an American Red Hat engineer and Bitcoin developer. He studied at the Georgia Institute of Technology and currently is employed by Red Hat as a kernel developer. He is also the founder of BitcoinWatch, a website for statistics in Bitcoin. Garzik wrote the original push-pool daemon used by all of the pooled miners today. He’s also the original author of ethtool. As an advocate of Austrian economics, Garzik argues that the deflationary aspect of Bitcoin makes it a superior currency and that the decentralized nature means it’s a fairer means of commerce.

Bitcoins technical side has been covered in great volume, so I requested a few opinions from Jeff Garzik during our discussion below.

 

Chinwag with Jeff Garzik

Question: What is the most non-technical way to explain Bitcoin?

Answer: A global Internet currency with no central bank or controlling authority.

 

Question: When is Bitcoin-qt likely to come out of Beta?

Answer: When “lightweight client” mode is fully functional and tested.
Perhaps a year or two.

 

Question: Do you see Bitcoin as the end product or are there forked technologies that may take over as the anonymous currency of choice?

Answer: Bitcoin is just the beginning of a brand new category of algorithms. Bitcoin itself may fail, but it is the first of a new category of “crypto-currencies” based on the proof-of-work algorithm method.

 

Question: How is the Bitcoin development team funded?

Answer: Gavin Andresen is very recently employed full time by the BitcoinFoundation.  All other developers are unpaid volunteers.

 

Question: What is your Vision on the future of money?

Answer: Bitcoin, the Euro, the US Dollar, China’s RMB will all exist on an even playing field.  You may choose which type of currency you hold in your wallet, and transact with.

 

Question: Any thoughts on Bitcoin in India?

Answer: Would be great!  Among other things, Bitcoin is great for low-fee remittances from relatives overseas to those at home.

2013 was expected to be a big year for Bitcoin in India, with small Exchanges emerging and IndiaBitcoin coming up fast as a one-stop-shop for Bitcoin in India. As Jeff’s last answer had suggested, remittance is a huge opportunity for Bitcoin in India and there is an initiative being planned for a service rollout this year as well.

 

Remittances is a growing market in India. Currently dominated by banks or Hawala operators (Interpol Hawala Document), Bitcoin can instantly change this market bringing about a tremendous positive change to the way remittances can occur. Thanks to the global ledger capabilities in the blockchain. This change can even be driven and adopted by the remittance companies and banks currently operating in India.

 

As a progressive regulator of this 1.2B population economy, the RBI have recently increased their cap for remittances from US $25,000 to US $200, 000 under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme of USD 200, 000 this was upgraded from the original document that can be found here.

 

Feel free to Donate @ 1NvQuPB4L2hkJtY6NiNw9fLT1HQMYLfC4b

Revisiting – The Legality of Bitcoin in India

Posted by Benson Samuel on February 9, 2013
Posted in: Alternative Currency, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Event, Bitcoin Regulation in India, Companies of the Future, Cryptocurrency, Finance, India, Modern Banking with Bitcoin, Outsourcing, Payment Technology, Reserve Bank Of India, Startup, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 5 Comments
Visit India Bitcoin

Visit India Bitcoin

Over the past few weeks, there has been a surge of queries on my Blog’s public comment board and a stream of e-mails requesting help with a moot proposition. A moot proposition is a fictional case worked out by law students. During one of the moot propositions, Bitcoin made its debut. I am hoping to summarize some of those questions in this post below.

This article will outline the conversations between several students seeking more information on Bitcoins legal status and classification. Links have been provided at the end of this article for further reference, all of which have been studied thoroughly for traces of Bitcoins characteristics. A few of the discussions have already been recorded under the second half of the page’s comments at this link. I am also amending some of the answers that I had replied in order to summarize the posts.

The moot proposition that started it all can be downloaded here as a PDF file.

Common Elimination IX Moot Proposition

Summaries from different individuals, Some of the Questions that came up from this case were:

Question: My moot problem (which is fictitious) is based on a person being arrested for dealing in bitcoins. He exchanged 5000 bitcoins for Rs.36, 00, 000/- you seem to have a lot of knowledge on the subject. Was wondering if you could help? I haven’t really been able to grasp the concept of bitcoins to begin with, secondly as per your blog bitcoins are being mined in India and so could be considered a domestic currency. Is there a limit on how much you can transact of something to that effect?

Reply: Bitcoin can be considered a domestic currency, as it can be mined using Indian Electricity. It is a debatable topic. There are no transaction limits, however there is a finite number of Bitcoins that will ever be mined into existence. As the demand for Bitcoin increases, so will its value.

Question:  I just want to know whether bitcoins are regulated by FEMA, 1999 or RBI regulations. If bitcoins purchased in a foreign nation and exchanging it to an authorised money exchanger in India without special or general permission from RBI amounts to an offence of money laundering?

Reply: It cannot come under FEMA because Bitcoins can be mined in India as well, Making it a domestic software. Anytime Bitcoin comes in Contact with Fiat, it moves into the grey are of the law. However cash and P2P networks are nearly impossible to regulate – Good example would be Bit torrent, we all know that it is used for illegal file sharing, but it cannot be shut down due to its decentralized nature. Even though the authorities and regulators know about it.

Question: If a person making transaction in Bitcoin is arrested by economic offences wing of police and charged for the offences of FEMA and prevention of money laundering stating that dealing with Bitcoin using fiat needs permission of RBI, then how could he defend himself from?

Reply: But where does it state by the RBI that Bitcoins cannot be used? Once again Bitcoin to Fiat rests in the grey area of the law. As far as money laundering is concerned, this is more prevalent with cash than Bitcoin. As long as taxes are paid and income is declared and nothing illegal is undertaken, why would Money Laundering come into the picture as well? There is nothing related to Bitcoin in any countries laws. Bitcoin was developed to solve these problem.

Question:

  1. Does dealing in bitcoins violate the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 specifically Section – 3, 4, 7, 13 and moreover does it violate any Foreign trade and exchange laws or any RBI regulations or guidelines.
  2. Is Bitcoin a currency under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and if not then why?

Reply:

  1. As Bitcoin can be mined in India itself, it cannot be classified as an International currency. Even if the coins are mined outside the country, it is very easy to mix the coins and anonymize the transaction. This typically cannot be regulated.
  2. Bitcoin can be termed as a currency as can Rice and Salt.  At the same time, all these currencies can be termed as commodities as well. Bitcoin is a unique set of characters which have value due to the fact that they are scare and hard to mine.

There is nothing like Bitcoin in any current Indian regulation.

Question: Can Bitcoins be termed as currency under the definition provided by FEMA. On this line, if we can prove that they are Currency and FEMA is attracted, then we can go on to say that some RBI regulations are required to make such currency legal in India. Therefore, mainly I wanted your opinion on the issue whether Bitcoins can be covered under the definition of currency provided under Section 2(h) of the FEMA.

Answer: Bitcoin is an item of trade used to buy and sell various goods and services. It is also a piece of software that can be sold or bought by anyone who puts a price on It gathers value from the users and people who create and mine Bitcoin. If a currency needs to be issued by a governing body the Bitcoin cannot be classified as a currency.

Bitcoin is a commodity and a currency. It is the same as Gold or Precious stones.

My Views

As Bitcoin is open source and unregulated, it is free game for everyone. It has been a tremendous investment in 2012 and surges forward in 2013 as well. Any government that decides to regulate, control or outlaw Bitcoin only faces the problem of creating more value in Bitcoin due to its uniqueness. Bitcoin is nothing more than a unique and secure way of sending a string of numbers from one person to another. Due to tremendous merchant adoption as a token of value, Bitcoin races the charts at all the global exchanges every single day. The Bitcoin network is the strongest combined computational force in existence. Strengthened by millions of users, this network cannot be hacked into or have any of its parameters changed.

The importance of leveraging the economics of Bitcoin is more valuable today than the technology side of it. It was compared to the internet by Aaron Koenig, when he said “Bitcoin is like the decentralized internet. Not everyone knows how the internet works, packet switching, TCP/IP, etc., but we all know how to use the internet. And we do it every single day.

I plan to stay on course with my dedication to Bitcoin, expanding into newer and deeper economics and application development. As long as Bitcoin is not used illegally and taxes are paid in a currency accepted by the Government, It is cross border open-banking at its finest.

With Indiabitcoin.com all set to integrate India with Bitcoin, one can only hope that more adoption will follow.

Links

Foreign Exchange Management Act

Prevention of Money Laundering Act

Definitions in the PMLA

India’s Portal to the Bitcoin world

Decentralizing Energy With Bitcoin

Posted by Benson Samuel on January 29, 2013
Posted in: Alternative Currency, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Celebrity, Bitcoin Event, Bitcoin Funding, Companies of the Future, Cryptocurrency, Finance, Future Technology, India, Meetup, Modern Banking with Bitcoin, Outsourcing, Payment Technology, Startup, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Gogreensolar Logo

 

 

 

Energy decentralization has been a dream for several worldwide organizations and communities supporting a clean green environment.

Gogreensolar.com is a market leader in solar panels, batteries, charge controllers, and solar mounting hardware. Loaded with an energy savings calculator and technical support for installation and troubleshooting, this could be the answer to Bitcoins electricity hungry nature.

I caught up with the COO of Gogreensolar for a quick Chinwag on their initiatives and Business model.

 

Harold Tan: COO of Gogreensolar

Harold Tan: COO of Gogreensolar

1.       Tell us a bit about your vision and mission for Gogreensolar.com.

Hi Benson, our vision is simple – change the world with green energy.  Our environments are toxic, communities are exploited, and we’re on a collision course for a dead end if things don’t change.  We’re here to help make that change, and our mission achieves it by bringing awareness and access to effective green energy solutions.

 

 2.       Would be great if we could see a graph of Gogreensolars growth since inception.

Unfortunately we can’t provide that graph, but we can say that we’re undergoing tremendous growth and can always utilize more team members!

 

3.       How did you hear about Bitcoin? How did you’ll make the decision to go with it as a payment option?

From a good friend in the financial services industry.  The values of Bitcoin and energy independence seem to be aligned.  Bitcoin is a decentralized economic tool, and we see energy moving toward a decentralized model.  We support systemic decentralization (like the internet), and partner with entities of similar values.

 

4.       Any Bitcoin orders so far?

Yes!  Big thanks to Redditors for helping get the word out.  Sorry for any initial confusion on the checkout process, we’re waiting for Shopify integration to have the purchase experience completely seamless, but we definitely do accept Bitcoins for any orders by phone or email.

 

5.       What plans are in store for 2013-2014?

We have some very big projects lined up with major municipalities that I can’t talk about quite yet.  But it will make news headlines. We have a lot going on behind the scenes beyond just selling parts 😉  We are also in talks with traditional investors regarding these big projects, but are exploring new investment models like crowd-sourced funding.

 

6.       Any plans to go international with Gogreensolar?

We currently already service international clients, but don’t have any physical presence overseas.  If there’s anybody international reading this article that would like to partner, drop us a line!

 

7.       Any partnerships planned in the near future?

Many!  The growth of our business ultimately depends on partnerships and relationships.  Without people, without an integrated web of support, we would just be another retail shop buying and selling matter.  We’re here to do much more than that, we’re here to improve the way we produce and consume energy.  Join us!

 

That was a nutshell of Gogreensolars plans, vision and dedication to Energy and Decentralization. I am hoping that a few Business cases can emerge based on this adoption of Bitcoin.

 

Gogreensolar Payment Options

Gogreensolar Payment Options

An Introduction to Bitfilm & Bitcoin in Bangalore, India

Posted by Benson Samuel on January 25, 2013
Posted in: Alternative Currency, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Celebrity, Bitcoin Event, Bitcoin Regulation in India, Bitfilm, Companies of the Future, Crypto Anarchy Manifesto, Cryptocurrency, Finance, Freetown, Future Technology, India, Meetup, Modern Banking with Bitcoin, Outsourcing, Payment Technology, Startup, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . 4 Comments
Aaron Koenig: DIrector Of Bitfilm

Aaron Koenig: Director Of Bitfilm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A superb event at the Centre for Internet & Society was organized on the 23rd of January 2013. The all star team at the CIS (http://cis-india.org/) was awesome at organizing this event for Bitcoin. Live Streaming, Mainstream Newspaper coverage and Twitter based Q&A made this the first Bitcoin Event in India that leveraged these mediums of information transfer.

Aaron Koenig gave a talk on the creation and use of Bitcoin, and on a payment system designed for the voting process of the Bitfilm Festival for Digital Film. Since the year 2000, the Bitfilm Festival has been showcasing films that use digital technology in a creative and innovative way. It takes place on the Internet. However, physical screenings of the films will be held in Bangalore and in Hamburg. Each of the 59 nominated digital animations has its own Bitcoin account, and users worldwide may vote by donating Bitcoins to the films they like anonymously and without any transfer costs. The donated money will be divided among the most popular films (the films with the most votes/Bitcoins).

A strong knowledgeable speaker, Aaron brought forward his tremendous knowledge of Bitcoin, Art & Economics.

The Twitter based Q&A can be viewed on the Twitter ID’s of

@pranesh_prakash

@cis_india

@bensonsamuel

The Newspaper Articles where Bitfilm & Bitcoin made their news in India were

Deccan Herald – http://www.deccanherald.com//content/306184/a-view-digital-short-films.html

The Hindu – http://goo.gl/YJYni

The Bangalore Mirror – http://www.bangaloremirror.com/article/31/2013011620130116192721769fafd9b65/Chinwag-withAaron-Koenig.html

Bitcoin Resources In India

Local Exchange – LocalBitcoins.com

India Fourms –   https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=89.0

https://plus.google.com/communities/107097658582969818131

Blogs – bensonsamuel.com

Unocoin.com

Services – indiabitcoin.com – Official Partners of Bitpay USA in India

Meetup Group – http://www.meetup.com/Bitcoin-Bangalore-Meetup-Group/

Bitfilm Festival to Launch Worldwide Film Competition in Bangalore

Posted by Benson Samuel on January 15, 2013
Posted in: Alternative Currency, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Celebrity, Bitcoin Event, Bitcoin Funding, Bitfilm, Companies of the Future, Cryptocurrency, Finance, Future Technology, India, Meetup, Modern Banking with Bitcoin, Outsourcing, Payment Technology, Uncategorized. 1 Comment

blink_04_cover_e_400

Blink.li is a new magazine that is in its 4th publication.

Blink is being maintained and published by the MD of Bitfilm.com

The main topic of new BLINK issue will be the new digital currency Bitcoin.

With articles by Thorsten Polleit, Rick Falkvinge, Mike Hearn, Dominic Frisby and many others.

 

Bitcoins will be used for the voting and as prize money for the Bitfilm Festival Awards
The Bitfilm Festival for Digital Film will be the first film festival worldwide that uses Bitcoins for its online voting and as prize money. Its opening event will take place in Bangalore at Jaaga Art Space (68, KH Double Road, Shantinagar) on January 17, 2013, 6.30 p.m. This event will mark the beginning of a worldwide online voting action for the Bitfilm Awards in 3D animation, 2D animation, hybrid digital films and Machinima (films shot live in computer games).The worldwide audience will decide which films will win the Bitfilm Awards, to be handed over at the  Bitfilm closing event in Hamburg (Germany) in April, 2013.”Our closing event for 2011 was in Bangalore, and we have met so many interesting and creative people here, that we decided to come again to do our opening show this year”, explains Aaron Koenig, Bitfilm’s founder and director, who is in Bangalore for the Launch of the Competition.

Bitfilm has been showing films that use digital technology in a creative and innovative way since 2000. For the first time, Bitfilm will use the new digital currency Bitcoin for the voting process and as prize money. Each of the 59 nominated films has its own Bitcoin account, to which film fans may transfer money anonymously and without any transfer costs. The film with the highest number of donated Bitcoins and votes per category will receive the award. The donated money will be divided among the three best-ranked films per category.

“We are very fascinated by Bitcoin. It is a new kind of money, which has the potential to revolutionise the world as much as the Internet did”  says Aaron Koenig. “Bitcoin is an open source currency that needs no central bank and knows no inflation. It is also a new worldwide payment system that makes money transfers around the globe cheap and fast.”

In Bangalore, Bitfilm will present a selection of 12 nominated films which represent a huge variety of genres and styles. There will also be a talk about an Indo-German co-production by Aaron Koenig and Vijayaraj D. from Bangalore, who have been working on a number of short animated films together, the most popular one is about Bitcoins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb0xHN1Dq7M

More information on the Bitfilm Festival: http://www.bitfilm.com/festival

More information on Bitfilm production: http://www.bitfilm.com

More information on Bitcoin: http://blink.li/current-issue

Press images for free use: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hvpe5llkxvzpryi/dL0ZtBKDeo?m

Universal Bitcoin Exchange

Posted by Benson Samuel on January 1, 2013
Posted in: Alternative Currency, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Celebrity, Bitcoin Event, Bitcoin Funding, Companies of the Future, Cryptocurrency, Finance, Future Technology, India, Modern Banking with Bitcoin, Payment Technology, Startup, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 3 Comments

http://www.localbitcoins.com

Localbitcoins.com has easily been the most pervasive Bitcoin Exchange of 2012. A Plug and Play system which allows for Face to Face or Local area transactions.

Localbitcoins.com comes with an inbuilt Escrow, multi-factor authentication and an inbuilt wallet. Built on GPS technology, this nifty service tracks the location of users who wish to buy and sell Bitcoin.

I was fortunate to catch up with Jeremias Kangas (Chief of Localbitcoins) for a quick interview on his initiatives for Bitcoin.

 

Interview with Jeremias Kangas @kangasbros

Jeremias Kangas

Tell me a bit about yourself. Where are you from? What was the tipping point for you to get involved in Bitcoin? How big is your team?

I’m from Finland, been programming since I was a kid. I first heard about Bitcoin on november 2010, just before I went backpacking to India for a month. After that I started working on various bitcoin projects as a hobby, and soon noticed that it is consuming 90% of my time. Then I decided to go full-time retard on Bitcoin, move on from my previous work. Now I’m trying to make a living as a bitcoin entrepreneur 🙂

Our team consists of me, my brother and couple of part-time freelancers. My brother is currently doing a master thesis at university, so I have loads of work trying to keep this going forward! I hope my brother completes his thesis quickly 🙂

 

Do you think that Bitcoin is ready for the mass adoption and use? If No, Why not? If Yes, How can it spread faster?

I personally believe in solving the scaling problems as they come. Engineers tend to overstress scaling issues, even when they aren’t a real problem yet. Look at twitter, for example – it was constant failwhale when the site was becoming popular, still the concept succeeded pretty heavily.

I think the best marketing strategy for Bitcoin is to market it towards startups and innovative small companies. I have been myself doing this kind of promotion in the finnish startup scene. I’m pretty sure that soon we will be seeing startups popping up around bitcoin like mushrooms!

Big companies tend to be conservative and slow, and one of Bitcoin’s strengths lies in enabling new kind of business models. This is the reason why I believe that startups will bring the change faster.

I see that you are involved in several Bitcoin projects. Would you be able to give us a short summary of all the initiatives that you are working on.

 

– LocalBitcoins.com – our main effort currently, and probably the most known project

 

– Django-bitcoin – open source bitcoin library for the django web framework – https://github.com/kangasbros/django-bitcoin

 

– Easywallet.org – started as an instawallet clone, now has lots of different features that make it quite distinct

 

– Acceptbit.com – developed as a joint venture with Stefan Thomas in Berlin bitcoin hackathon (weusecoins.com) – https://github.com/kangasbros/electrumpos

 

– Bitcoin/payments-hackathon – Have been organizing these events in Finland and once in Berlin. The idea is a weekend of completing some Bitcoin-related project, and publishing it. I really like this kind of “hacker events”.

 

As Localbitcoins is a well known site, any future plans of adding an international online exchange as well?

We are doing tools for those who want to do online trade as well. However not traditional order-book-based exchange. More like a toolset for setting up a fixed-rate online exchange – allow anyone to setup fixed-rate online exchange in any country, with any payment methods! That is the vision anyway, let’s see how it will look in practice.
We just recently released this “escrow” feature in localbitcoins. It basically tries to automate the selling process, making it both safe, efficient and quick for both participants. We have been getting some good feedback, and plan working on the concept based on how people use the feature etc.

 

Any road map for 2013? Any partnerships envisioned?

I will be working 24/7 on everything bitcoin related, but localbitcoins will be the main focus. No partnerships yet, however we are open to any ideas.

 

Any thoughts on Bitcoin in India?

I love India! Have been backbacking there couple of times. I think bitcoin would be much more revolutionary in country like India, than for example country like Finland. Some things:

 

– When I was traveling there, smaller shops had often change problems. Bitcoin could solve this in the future 🙂

– Online bookings (hostels, trains, etc) were pain in the ass, I never got my international visa working. Bitcoin could help with this as well.

– I’ve heard India has nowadays more and more native, born-global startups, and there is strong startup movement emerging. Bitcoin could be really the technology to get Indian startups off the ground! Cost-effective way to pivot your product on global marketplace.

 

I hope that I will be able to do my next backpacking trip to India with Bitcoin! 🙂

 

 

Localbitcoins.com is the most recommended Exchange in India right now. This has enabled a lot of trades and people get onboard every day.

Wishing everyone a Happy and prosperous 2013 and hopes of effective solutions to enable the permeation of Bitcoin into our everyday lives.

Buy Gold with Bitcoin – Seriously?

Posted by Benson Samuel on December 19, 2012
Posted in: Alternative Currency, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Celebrity, Companies of the Future, Cryptocurrency, Finance, Future Technology, India, Modern Banking with Bitcoin, Payment Technology, Startup. Tagged: , , , . 6 Comments
Coinabul

Coinabul

 

Yes, Seriously. WordPress and Paymium aside, Coinabul is a Bitcoin company that provides more validation to the success and stability of Bitcoin. Coinabul is the first Bitcoin to Gold resource available to the Bitcoin marketplace.

I caught up with the Chief of Coinabul Jay Shore and got a few thoughts from him about Coinabul, Bitcoin & regulations.

1. Tell me a bit about yourself. Where are you from? What was the tipping point for you to get involved in Bitcoin? How big is your team?

I’ve got a background in computer science dating back more than a decade, with an emphasis on web application development. We’re based in the USA, and the key figures in our team have been involved in Bitcoin for years- I personally have always found the technology appealing from a development and day-trading viewpoint ever since I heard about it around the later part of 2010.

2. Do you think that Bitcoin is ready for the mass adoption and use? If No, Why not? If Yes, How can it spread faster?

Bitcoin is certainly ready for widespread adoption. Whether it’s viable for someone who is not technically inclined to become a Bitcoin user is relatively undetermined- as young as Bitcoin is there are a lot of services which make it easy for new users who are not technically savvy to use the platform, and large corporate supporters such as WordPress who advocate for and provide tools for widespread adoption. The main thing that will bring Bitcoin into a more widely consumed state will be market stability, I feel- this will let new users feel more confident, veterans less skittish, and new businesses join in without hesitation.

3. Any big news to be announced to the world? Something new from Coinabul which is right around the corner?

There is nothing particularly new happening for Coinabul customers with the exception of even faster processing times, as well as cheaper shipping for all of our international clients. We have recently renegotiated rates with our shipping carriers such that we are able to bring our rates for clients down a fair bit.

4. What is your roadmap for 2013-2014?

Mainly, our goal for 2013 is to increase efficiency as we scale, and continue to grow as substantially as we have in 2012. This entails a huge amount of work in various ways, which I won’t get into here as it’s really quite mundane and tedious. However, I will outline some of our primary goals: grow the amount and variety of stock we have on hand at any given point, increase the number of employees and premises we have, decrease processing times, and increase the frequency as well as size of orders which we process.

5. Any Partnerships that you envision to enable faster growth of Coinabul?

We are exploring critical growth partnerships with various entities to help us continue to improve our product offering, although I cannot really get into that in a public medium.

6. What are the legality aspects of Coinabul? Does Metal to BTC/ BTC to Metal rest in the grey area of law or is it unregulated?

BTC/precious metals exchange is a very complicated endeavor both from a legal and a logistics perspective. We encounter huge amounts of legal constraint as a fringe service operator in a regulated market, but we have amazing legal minds who keep us compliant within, and voluntarily above and beyond, the bounds of regulations that we are obligated to follow.

7. What kind of effort goes into running a growing business like Coinabul? Any challenges that are pressed at you every day?

The primary hurdles we overcome tend to be fairly standard in terms of a company experiencing massive and rapid growth. As a fixture in the Bitcoin community for more than a year, we have established a huge amount of trust which generates larger and larger daily volumes for us. While we grow, we have to do all of the fun things that are required for expanding businesses but on a much more accelerated curve.

8. What advice can you share for budding entrepreneurs?

As far as advice I can give to budding entrepreneurs, I can only recommend a few things:
Do what you love;
Stay dedicated to your projects, but if it’s not taking off you have to cut your losses and move forward or reformulate your model;
Don’t quit your day job until your startup requires you to do so;
Build the right team early on since you can’t do every task by yourself as you scale;
Don’t be afraid of change- it is innovation as well as hard work that powers your startup.

9. Any thoughts on Bitcoin in India?

India is a growing Bitcoin market, and I see more and more services and users coming out of India day to day.

 

In a world of Bitcoin entrepreneurs, Coinabul seems to have taken some of the biggest risks in the market and listening to Jay talk about their viral growth, there is no doubt that they are an entity to watch as Bitcoin covers the globe.

Maintaining 24/7 updated prices, a provision for voice based customer service, dipping shipping costs and a well accredited team makes these guys one of the earliest Bitcoin success stories.

 

Links:

Coinabul Website