A Weekly Update Delivered to your Inbox every Monday View this email in your browser This Week In Digital Currency | BTC:$351.76 (7.30%) | LTC:$3.72 (4.62%) | DOGE:$0.00025 (8.70%) | NXT:$0.022 (0.00%) | PPC:$0.86 (14.00%) | BLK:$0.032 (15.79%) | DRK:$1.91 (13.23%) | Tweet Share +1 We are happy to announce our newest weekly column: Banking on Bitcoin. "Banking on Bitcoin" will explore the potential of Bitcoin and other digital currencies from the perspective of an anonymous Wall Street insider. The first post of the series will be released this Wednesday, and will be featured on our frontpage.



Bob Fogg is an anonymous finance insider and our newest contributor at Coinprices. He works at a large buy-side firm, which provides him with an intimate view of the industry. On the other hand, he does not sport the typical finance background, making his perspective increasingly rare on Wall Street. Due to the nature of his employment, he will be writing under a pseudonym, but his identity and credentials have been confirmed.



Bob is excited about the future implications of Bitcoin and other digital currencies, and he’s found his vantage point to be particularly privileged when analyzing the potential effects of digital currencies on traditional financial structures. Bob believes that digital currencies are poised to severely disrupt the financial industry. He will be contributing an ongoing column at Coinprices, that will analyze the disruption potential of digital currencies. Bitcoin Core Developer, Gavin Andresen, held an online community interview this week, where he discussed all things Bitcoin. The way open source development works, there is no leader in the traditional sense, everybody works together and consensus decides which changes get implemented. That being said, if anyone were to be considered the lead developer of Bitcoin, it would be Gavin Andresen. Not only did Gavin directly communicate with Satoshi, as his right hand man before Nakamoto's mysterious disappearance, he is also the only developer on the Bitcoin Foundation's payroll.



The interview was very informative and we highly suggest you give it a full read. Gavin had some great answers, here's a few we found particularly insightful:

Q: You've long been a proponent of the "Bitcoin is an experiment" line of thinking. While that is technically true, so is "Gravity is just a theory". What needs to happen for you to switch from "Bitcoin is an experiment" to "Bitcoin is established"?



Gavin: We need regulatory clarity, ease of use, and no-single-point-of-failure security.

I think we're very close on all of those things. Q: The eight decimal spaces of Bitcoin stand in the way of the "ease of use" imho. What do you think? Thanks for your time!!! (sorry for bad english)



Gavin: I think everybody should switch to talking in "bits" (millionths of a bitcoin) Q: A common reoccuring theme within anything related to computers seems to be: "Anything can be hacked". Recent incidents like the heartbleed-bug and bash-bug amplify the relevancy. What do you think about possible bugs in Bitcoin?



Gavin: Bugs in "Bitcoin" ? "Bitcoin" isn't software, it is a protocol, so that's like asking "what do you think about bugs in HTTP?"



If there are serious problems with Bitcoin-the-protocol, then we'll fix them. I'm pretty confident there are not any really serious, you-might-lose-your-bitcoins bugs in the protocol.



There will always be bugs in Bitcoin implementations. The best way to mitigate those bugs is with multisignature transactions secured by two different "software stacks." Q: Hi Gavin,

Do you agree with Andreas that development on the Bitcoin protocol will eventually slow to a halt as more and more people begin to use it which makes it hard to actually change...similar to ipv4 vs ipv6? Does this concern you?



Gavin: That's a great question for somebody who has studied how other Internet protocols evolve (or not) over time.

My guess is that protocol change will speed up again when some of the startups grow up a bit and have the time and resources to participate in a more formal standards-making, protocol-evolving process.

And then a few years later it will slow down again. Q: Do you think GHash.io's voluntary decline in percentage of network hashrate is evidence that the current incentive structure for securing the blockchain is "good enough?"



Gavin: Yes, "good enough for now."

Suggestions on making it better are welcome, but I haven't seen any suggestions get traction and consensus. Blockstream released their Sidechains proposal this week. The concept aims to enable alternative digital currencies and crypto-ledger systems to operate in tandem with the Bitcoin Blockchain, rather than as their own digital currency. In effect, the plan aims to take advantage of the "best of both worlds," fostering the speed of innovation that comes with the creation/development of large numbers of competing systems, while leveraging the security and stability of a single underlying network, the Bitcoin network.



Existing altcoins such as Litecoin or Dogecoin could theoretically become sidechains in the future. This would allow users to directly switch between the coins while providing the altcoins with increased network security. A perfect example of a potential use case is a user switching to a digital currency that is better suited for microtransactions because of a large built-in inflation rate, and then switching back to Bitcoin for savings/long-term storage, all at the protocol level. The concept also enables the possibility of decentralized asset/stock exchanges that run alongside the Bitcoin Blockchain, secured by the Bitcoin network.



The Blockstream team held an online community interview about Sidechains this week. It was very informative and we highly suggest you give it a read. Snapcard is giving away 500 of their digital currency Point-of-Sale units to businesses in San Francisco. The promotion should significantly jump start digital currency adoption in the city. Not only are the units free, but the company is promising to never charge businesses any transaction fees. Snapcard terminals currently accept Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Ripple payments. This week, the NY Times explored the use of civil asset forfeiture by the IRS to seize the bank accounts of law abiding businesses and individual citizens. The article identifies rampant abuse by the tax agency and highlights the need of people worldwide for a more secure wealth storage system.



“They’re going after people who are really not criminals,” said David Smith, a former federal prosecutor who is now a forfeiture expert and lawyer in Virginia. “They’re middle-class citizens who have never had any trouble with the law.” Using a law designed to catch drug traffickers, racketeers and terrorists by tracking their cash, the government has gone after run-of-the-mill business owners and wage earners without so much as an allegation that they have committed serious crimes. The government can take the money without ever filing a criminal complaint, and the owners are left to prove they are innocent. Many give up.“They’re going after people who are really not criminals,” said David Smith, a former federal prosecutor who is now a forfeiture expert and lawyer in Virginia. “They’re middle-class citizens who have never had any trouble with the law.” --NY Times One of the most interesting concepts that digital currencies tend to bring up is the idea behind, and the differences of, currencies, commodities, and different stores of value. With the main question always being, how do we classify Bitcoin in the traditional financial model? In some ways it behaves as a currency, but in other ways it behaves as an extremely volatile commodity. The confusion arises in the desire to fit Bitcoin into the existing norms, Bitcoin isn't just a currency or a commodity, it's a little of both, it's Bitcoin. But how could Bitcoin be a store of value if it doesn't physically exist? The value of Bitcoin lies with its unique value proposition, put simply, it's just better money. Bitcoin technology makes it possible, for the first time in human history, for individuals to store their wealth and transfer it around the world without the need or permission of a third party, such as a bank or government.



Last week, we explored how Bitcoin empowers people worldwide in the fight against oppressive government, including the use of civil forfeiture laws. CoinPrices is now available on Android! We plan to update it with an even more user friendly layout shortly. We also have an iPhone app in the works, but for the time being, all smartphone users can take advantage of our completely redesigned mobile website. Let us know what you think. The public comment period for the NYDFS Bitlicense Guidelines ended this week. You can read all public responses and learn how to send in your own response at our



According to Superintendent Lawsky, the next steps are as follows:

1) NYDFS will read and make public all comments.

2) NYDFS will release redrafted guidelines.

3) NYDFS will open up another public commentary period. You can read all public responses and learn how to send in your own response at our Bitlicense Hub 1) NYDFS will read and make public all comments.2) NYDFS will release redrafted guidelines.3) NYDFS will open up another public commentary period.

4) NYDFS will release final regulations with 45-60 days for companies to comply.



The above is all supposed to happen before February, according to a timeline put forth by Lawksy at an event on Oct. 15th.





The New York State Department of Financial Services' Bitlicense Guidelines are meant to be the model for future federal Bitcoin regulations and are now under a community review period

Want to make sure you didn't miss a single thing this week? You can view every top digital currency related story of the last 4 months, on our website and in our Android app. Still in the News... Check out our new layout! We just rolled out the new version of CoinPrices. Our homepage is meant to be your central hub to all things digital currency.



Our redesigned news feed tracks all of the most important digital currency news from around the web, linking directly to the primary source whenever possible. Many of our competitors use automated algorithms to populate their respective news feeds, choosing quantity over quality, but our feed is curated by our editorial team ensuring higher quality links. Our feed never has duplicate items, only links to reputable sources, and includes all major news items occurring throughout the day. The entire news feed archive will be easily searchable, coming soon.



We have upgraded our graphing capabilities, giving you more customization, and making it simple to compare digital currency performance to other asset classes. All of the coins we track can now be plotted directly against the performance of major indices, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nikkei 225, popular commodities such as Gold or Oil, and most major stocks. We are also now tracking the 24hr volatility for all coins. There are still many glitches with our new graphing implementation, and we appreciate your patience as we work through the issues. We plan to add many more features over the coming days/weeks.



We'd love to here your feedback on the changes. Let us know what you think on twitter or by email. The long awaited Bitcoin documentary, The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin, is now available online (iTunes and Vimeo) and on DVD/Blu-Ray. The film isn't merely for the Bitcoin community, serving as a great introduction to Bitcoin.



Three weeks ago, we caught up with Michael Murphy, President of Gravitas Ventures, and Nikhil Chand, Founder of CoinNEO, to discuss the film's release.

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