— LA Times
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed bills that recognize the legal use of Bitcoins and other digital currencies in California, repeal a requirement for food handlers to use gloves, and keep minor truants out of lockup facilities, his aides announced Saturday.
In all, the governor signed 15 pieces of legislation into law, including one that reflects the changing way that technology has Californians doing business.
By Noah Robischon — Fast Company
Think of Oxford University and the image that is most likely comes to mind initially is something out of a Harry Potter movie – ornate dining rooms, formal dress and, of course, outstanding academics. What probably doesn’t first occur to you is the tradition-crushing, fast-moving, hoodie-wearing world of startups. But the university’s Saïd Business School is trying to change that.
— Coin Desk
E-commerce giant Amazon has been awarded a bitcoin-related cloud computing patent that envisions the use of digital currencies as payment for cloud computing services on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Amazon’s cloud is by far the biggest remote computing service on the market. Market research firm Gartner estimates AWS annual revenue at upwards of $3bn, and it believes Amazon’s cloud has five times the capacity of its next 14 rivals.
Brian Fung — Washington Post
We’ve been talking for months about how Bitcoin has been slowly getting more integrated into the mainstream. Well, now the cryptocurrency is taking a bigger step in that direction: Beginning this summer, Dish Network, one of the largest satellite TV operators in the country, is going to start accepting bitcoins as a form of payment.
The company said Thursday that it’s partnering with the virtual wallet company Coinbase to help process the transactions. Users who want to pay with bitcoins will do so through Coinbase, which will instantly convert the bitcoins into dollars and forward them to Dish.
“Bitcoin is becoming a preferred way for some people to transact and we want to accommodate those individuals,” said Dish executive vice president Bernie Han in a statement.
http://cdni.wired.co.uk/620x413/d_f/darkcoin.jpg”‚“width”:620,“height”:413},{“url”:“http://cdni.wired.co.uk/111x74/d_f/darkcoin.jpg”,“width”:111,“height”:74},{“url”:“http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1920x1280/d_f/darkcoin.jpg”,“width”:1920,“height”:1280},{“url”:“http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1240x826/d_f/darkcoin.jpg”,“width”:1240,“height”:826}]}” />
Someone out there likes anonymous money.
In only a month, the little-known bitcoin alternative known as Darkcoin has rocketed nearly tenfold in value — from around 75 cents a coin (44p) to almost seven dollars (£4). Its selling point: Darkcoin offers far greater anonymity than bitcoin, mixing up users’ transactions so that it’s incredibly difficult to trace a payment to a person. And though few have yet to accept that more-anonymous coin for actual goods and services, the promise of Darkcoin’s privacy features seems to have sparked a miniature boom. It’s one of the fastest growing among the wave of cryptocurrencies that’s followed bitcoin’s success, with the total value of its combined coins topping out at nearly $30 million (£18 million).
— LA Times
Halsey Minor, founder of CNET and an early backer of Salesforce.com, is launching bitcoin platform Bitreserve.org.
The site aims to address the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency by providing real-time transparency, transaction traceability and proof of solvency.
“Bitcoin is a remarkable innovation, created and supported by lots of very smart people,” Minor said. “Bitreserve is built on top of the bitcoin network, allowing members to convert bitcoin into money they know, trust and understand.”
By Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey — The Wall Street Journal
When payment processor Bitpay announced the biggest-ever funding round for a bitcoin company earlier Tuesday it was was Richard Branson’s presence in the investment group that drew the most attention.
But while the Virgin Group chairman’s remarks about Bitpay leading a “currency revolution” were lapped up by bitcoin enthuisasts, we thought the comments from some of the lesser known investors were as, if not more, illuminating. They helped frame what might be called the emerging venture-capitalist vision for bitcoin: That its promise lies in disrupting an antiquated, inefficient and expensive global payments system more than as a revolutionary challenger to traditional currencies.
Matt Rocheleau — Boston.com
Each of the 4,500-plus undergraduates at MIT will soon get $100 in bitcoin as part of a project launched by a pair of students who announced today that they’ve raised a half million dollars to fund the effort.
Organizers said they hope to establish “an ecosystem for digital currencies” at the Cambridge campus that will allow professors and researchers to study how students use bitcoin as well as to promote other academic and entrepreneurial activity around bitcoin.
Cyrus Farivar — Ars Technica
For many crypto-minded libertarians, Bitcoin is the future of money. But that dream hasn’t been helped much by the numerous high-profile legal cases involving the currency in recent years: The Bitcoin Savings and Trust hedge fund collapsed; uncertainty fueled the implosion of Mt. Gox, the currency’s largest exchange; and the high-profile Silk Road takedown is a treacherous story combining Bitcoin, drugs, and alleged murders.
For now, though, one company sits above all others when it comes to cultivating a new level of direct customer mistrust in the Bitcoin community: Butterfly Labs.
![http://cdni.wired.co.uk/111x74/d_f/darkcoin.jpg”](http://cdni.wired.co.uk/111x74/d_f/darkcoin.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1920x1280/d_f/darkcoin.jpg”](http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1920x1280/d_f/darkcoin.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1240x826/d_f/darkcoin.jpg”](http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1240x826/d_f/darkcoin.jpg"){kind=link}