1. NXT Decentralized Exchange Launches With BTC and LTC
Ian DeMartino reported Tuesday that NXT’s exchange, Multigateway, had launched.
“Unlike Ripple's Asset Exchange that essentially relies on IOUs, the Multigateway works by requiring each coin issued is backed up by an actual version of that coin. This means that if you buy bitcoins from someone on Multigateway, those bitcoins are held in a multisig wallet controlled by multiple servers.”
2. The Russian Ministry of Finance one step closer to banning Bitcoin
On Friday, the Russian Ministry of Finance stated that it wants to ban Bitcoin transactions. It proposes to limit not only the ‘substitutes’ of money, but also transactions with them, including their use as payment for goods and services.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Finance proposes administrative and criminal punishment for the issue of money substitutes and transactions with their use. Also, the institution plans to restrict access to information sources, which produce Bitcoin and carry operations with their use, with the establishment of appropriate administrative sanctions, reports "Interfax."
3. Coinapult Introduces Feature That Lets Users Send BTC via Email
William Suberg reported Tuesday that Coinapult was about to unveil its wallet, at the center of which is its Locks technology.
Coinapult Lock is “a tool which allows Bitcoin funds to be locked in to assets with a more stable exchange rate such as EUR, USD or gold. This can be done for any period of time, meaning that BTC balances will retain the same value available at the time of locking.”
4. Knowledge for Bitcoin: Wikipedia Taking BTC Donations
The Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that runs Wikipedia and over a dozen other free educational-content web projects, announced Wednesday that it has started accepting Bitcoin donations.
Lisa Gruwell, Chief Revenue Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation, said in a statement:
“Currently, we accept 13 different payment methods enabling donations from nearly every country in the world, and today, we’re adding one more.”
5. BitPay Now Offers Free Unlimited Service to Bitcoin Merchants
On Tuesday, the company unveiled a new pricing plan that includes basic payment processing free of charge. The company stresses that this is not a limited time only offer. The basic service will remain free to merchants forever.
Executive Chairman Tony Gallippi said in a press release:
“We have set a goal to enroll one million merchants by the end of 2016. When we started BitPay in 2011, we saw an opportunity to finally give merchants around the world relief from interchange fees. By offering a basic plan that is free and unlimited, forever, we give merchants yet another reason to be excited about Bitcoin.”
Elsewhere
- The /r/Bitcoin subreddit and CoinDesk both had posts this week about easyHotel Netherlands accepting Bitcoin payments. It turns out the franchisee, Danzep Hotels, had been processing Bitcoin payments for some time. “BitPay is our payment processor for Bitcoin transactions, and we decided to start accepting Bitcoin payments approximately one year ago in order to give our guests their preferred option of payment,” the company’s manager of operations, Lucas Drewes, told Cointelegraph. “Since then, we have some regular guests that always opt for paying with bitcoins.”
- This one is a couple of weeks old now, but if you haven’t read Vice’s “What I’ve Learned As An Internet Drug Dealer,” bookmark it for some fun weekend reading.
- CryptoCoinsNews analyzed on Wednesday why Bitcoin’s price is falling.
Market Activity
And falling is exactly what Bitcoin’s price has done this week. Just look at that first graph: That’s almost a 45-degree downward slope during this week. Saturday was the last time Bitcoin had an average exchange rate of US$600. On Monday, the average price had fallen to about US$590, and the drop toward US$570 has been steady all week. Early Saturday, however, the price started inching back closer to the US$600 mark.
Since last Friday, the Bitcoin market has seen three of its highest spikes in trading volume for the month of July, so the falling price has generated more activity. Still, the number of transactions per day is dutifully following the same seven- or eight-day cycle of peaks and valleys we’ve seen all month.
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