The price of bitcoin has crashed to below US$290, its lowest since November 2013, and far below its all-time-high of $1 242 later that same month. For about three hours the price sat below $300. This relatively mundane observation is actually merely the tip of the iceberg for bitcoin
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South Africa’s first Bitcoin vending machine has been installed, giving users the ability to get Bitcoin in exchange for rand. The difference between a Bitcoin ATM and a Bitcoin vending machine is that the former dispenses cash for Bitcoins
One of South Africa’s biggest online payment gateways, PayFast, has announced that it will now accept crypto currency Bitcoin as a payment method. The integration is being done in partnership with the BitX exchange and allows buyers to purchase
Local smart meter developer Invirohub has integrated Bitcoin into its systems, allowing consumers to buy electricity using the digital currency. Once enabled on its smart meters, any user who has Bitcoins will be able to pay the Bitcoin address associated with each meter. Each meter has a built-in 3G Sim
No one is really sure who created it. Financial regulators, including our own Reserve Bank, do not like it. But its proponents believe it could revolutionise international monetary and payment systems, in the same way the Internet changed how the world communicates. It is Bitcoin, the virtual or crypto-currency that has gripped the imaginations of technophiles and
Standard Bank has no plans to launch a Bitcoin trading portal after all. Bank spokesman Ross Linstrom has poured cold water on speculation that it is gearing up to launch the platform, saying it was part of a pilot project that was shelved
It appears that Standard Bank is developing a Bitcoin trading portal of some kind. A discussion forum on Reddit suggests that a company called Switchless developed a “full operational and integrated Bitcoin portal system” for the South African
It’s a familiar story: a young computer nerd creates a new online service that attracts nearly a million customers in a couple of years and has earned tens of millions of dollars. Except that the service in this case – Silk Road – was not only secret, it was also illegal. Started in early 2011, Silk Road was designed as a marketplace
In June this year, James McCarthy, a British expatriate living in China, was turned away at Seattle airport for not having sufficient funds to enter the US. This seemed odd considering he had arrived in the country to start a currency business. According to The Economist
All currencies are based on trust. In the days of the gold standard, that meant trusting that paper money was backed by bullion in a reserve. Centralisation was necessary in order to prevent counterfeiting and ensure money wasn’t simply printed on a whim. Of course, experience