One Year a (Two-Bit) Idiot

Dear fellow Bitcoin Idiots:

Today is my one year Bitcoin anniversary.

While I may have first heard about bitcoin in late 2012, and made my first Coinbase purchase my first last Septembebr, I read the white paper, and started falling down the Bitcoin rabbit hole on Nov. 3, 2013. I had just shut down my startup, was coming off a two day bender that led to my then-fiancee making me sleep on the couch, and realized I had to figure out what would be next for me career-wise.

Eight white pages, six hours of youtube tutorials, and an all-nighter of r/bitcoin later, and the twobitidiot was born as a reddit throwaway account. The rest, as they say, is history.

And given that I’m at Money 20/20, and many of my readers are at Money 20/20, and many people I would like to sign-up for this blog outside of bitcoin are at Money 20/20, I’ll give a short recap of my blogging bona fides in the hope that you all will forward and RT and recommend without the fear that people won’t take you seriously for net promoting such a sparsely designed and free-wheeling blog headlined by a caricatured South Park avatar.

Forgive the shameless self-promotion, I’ll go back to self-deprecation tomorrow. For now, a year in review:

November: The genesis post. The Daily Bit gets named.

December: First inside look at Circle. Helped break the news of Fortress/Pantera’s bitcoin fund.

January: Started freelancing for CoinDesk and wrote some of their top-performing posts includinga wide-ranging interview with Roger Ver about Blockchain.info

February: Broke the Mt. Gox story. For better or for worse, the biggest story of the year.

April: Wrote the go-to (4,000 word!) post on individual tax treatment for bitcoin transactions forInvestopedia.

May: Recognized by the broader industry as Bitcoin’s Most Insightful Journalist.

July: Wrote the most widely-circulated breakdown of the BitLicense within 24 hours of the draft’s release. Even Ben Lawsky read it and retweeted it.

September: Broke (kinda) the news of Adept: IBM and Samsung’s blockchain-based solution for the internet of things.

October: Started working with Barry. Now have a financial incentive to continue putting out smart research / analysis and helping entrepreneurs in the ecosystem. So if you’ve enjoyed this blog to date, it’s only going to get better.

I think that’s a pretty solid resume for a non-journalist, and if you agree, I’d appreciate your sharing the Bit with colleagues and friends outside of the Bitcoin faithful.

Thanks for reading. I’ll continue to work hard to stay relevant and helpful, and I’m excited to continue this wild ride to the moon with all of you.

Cheers,
Ryan / TBI

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Have a position you’re dying to fill? You can post it here. It’s free, and already helped placed some candidates in new jobs. I’m here to help.

Student Bitcoiners: Circle, the Boston-based digital currency venture, is looking for campus reps across the country to participate in a social media marketing program this fall! Each rep will receive a Circle account with $250 in Bitcoin to spend over the course of the semester. Reps are required to post at least five stories about using Circle and Bitcoin to their Facebook accounts (and/or other blogging platforms like Tumblr) and to cross promote these via Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and other social channels. To apply, send your resume to reps@circle.com click onthis link to be redirected to the brief application.

Today’s Tid Bits

Bitcoin Startups May Get Transitional License in New York
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-03/bitcoin-startups-may-get-transitional-license-in-new-york.html
Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s superintendent of financial services, said at the Money 20/20 conference in Las Vegas that New York might grant transitional licenses to let small digital currency firms and startups grow before facing the full burden of the BitLicense. The transitional license will allow startups to operate in a more flexible framework for a set period of time. Lawsky still intends for the BitLicense to protect people without stifling innovation.
Fidor, Kraken Unite to Launch ‘World’s First Cryptocurrency Bank’
https://www.coindesk.com/fidor-kraken-digital-currency-banking/
Fidor, a German Internet direct bank and Kraken, a digital currency exchange, are partnering up to form what they describe as the first “specialized bank for cryptocurrencies.” Kraken will develop the technology aspects of the project, while Fidor will handle regulatory and licensure logistics. The platform will begin to be developed by the end of the year. Ultimately, the goal of the bank is to create a marketplace for digital currency services.
Added Regulatory Oversight Wins Unisend New Banking Partner
https://www.coindesk.com/added-regulatory-oversight-wins-unisend-new-banking-partner/
Unisend, an Argentinian bitcoin exchange is now working with Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, a state-backed bank, to enable Argentina-based users to fund exchange activities through bank transfers. The news comes three months after Unisend lost its accounts with previous banking partners Banco Santander Rio and Banco Galicia, limiting the company’s services, and causing the exchange to lose costumers. Unisend and its seven-person company emphasized compliance with local regulators and managed to gain a banking partner back.
Bitcoin Brothers Aim to Disrupt Bitcoin Mining with New, More Powerful, Supercomputers
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/02/bitcoin-brothers-aim-to-disrupt-bitcoin-mining-with-new-more-powerful-supercomputers/
Bitcoin Brothers, a bitcoin mining supercomputer manufacturer, is launching its hosted bitcoin mining services powered by faster machines in hopes of making mining more efficient. The Berlin-based company is offering to sell mining services using its supercomputers, which have processing capabilities of over 6 petahash and 256,000 3D 16nm FinFET application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). This is the company’s first phase of its plan to sell cloud-mining services.
Malaysian Taxi Customers Can Now Pay with Bitcoin
http://www.coindesk.com/malaysian-taxi-customers-can-now-pay-bitcoin/
Taximonger, a taxi booking service in the Malaysian cities of Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru, is now giving taxi passengers the option to pay in bitcoin. For Malaysia, this is the first cashless payment system for cabs. Bitcoin users send their payment to the app itself, and the BTC is converted to the Malaysian ringgit and the drivers receive a daily payment. No QR code required.

Tips Are Always Appreciated

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