LocalBitcoins Coupons - The Most Hassle-Free Way of Distributing Bitcoins to the People

We have introduced a new feature to LocalBitcoins, redeemable coupons. These are great for selling bitcoins with cash to your friends, or even for larger audience. Why do these coupons rock? Reasons below:

• Denominated in local currency, such as EUR, USD, CNY etc. The amount of BTC is determined at the time of redeem. No need for calculations at the time of trade. The rate can be examined at charts.localbitcoins.com - however seller premium might be added on top of that.
• Buyer doesn't need internet connection at the spot. Coupon can be redeemed at home/internet cafe or easily with a smartphone. SMS redeem option coming.
• Approved LocalBitcoins traders can create, resell & redistribute the coupons (application form). The coupons are issued by invidual traders.

The redeem rate is tied up to localbitcoins_sell variable, which accounts for 24 hour market volatility. This makes it safe for the seller, but also fair for the buyer. The seller can specify premium on top of the rate, which is simple percentual fee.

The buyer can verify the validity and rate of the coupon using the verify QR code or address, and redeem the coupon using the redeem QR code or address. Redeeming can be done by just typing LocalBitcoins username, without logging in.

Also necessary customer identification can be done on the spot when coupon is sold, so that the customer doesn't need to upload any documents etc online. This makes the risk of security issues and identity theft smaller.

The traders who have a pro trader badge can already issue coupons. For others, there is an application form.

We really believe this feature can change the Bitcoin sales on areas where smartphones are not that common yet, and where internet connectivity might be lacking. Happy trading!

#BitcoinAfrica proceeds to Namibia!

Namibia seemed to be easy cake to find a Bitcoin trader in, since there was a Bitcoin enthusiast already there.

"Yesterday we managed to do another trade with a Namibian guy, he said that is following all the stories of the trip through your magazine since we started. He took some pictures of our bikes to proof with his friends that it was all real.

He told us that is convincing all his friends to start using bitcoin and after this it would be easier."

Cool story Bro! Next up is South Africa.

#BitcoinAfrica reaches Angola and Cameroon!

So our Bitcoin heroes on motorcycke, Borja and Elvis, have managed succesfully to do two new exchanges in Africa! Story below.

"Greetings from Angola!

It's been a while since we shared our stories. We had difficult days, tiredness and lack of Internet.
But now I will share the experiences we had in the last 6 countries :)

Last update was in Cotonou (Benin), we headed north in the next morning as we wanted to cross to Nigeria, the shortest way was just beside to Lagos but we wanted to avoid some unpleasant experiences so we did an extra 400KM and get to know Benin.
We visited the Kings Royal Palaces in Abomey, 13 palaces in total and 2 available to visit. I was amazed in finding quite a lot of canons and artifacts that were traded by the Portuguese.

After the visit we drove north and do as many km we could, that night we slept in the back of a very important church, something like the Vatican of west Africa, without even knowing. We were very well received and the Priest was very friendly.

Next day after a long and dusty ride we arrived in Nigeria, very small border and friendly police, quick pass but then the roads changed.
We planned to drive another 200 KM but was no road so we managed another 60 Km until we found a very small village and the friendly people invited us to sleep in the Primary School in one of the class room. No much sleep that night, 5 AM we already had some curious visitors, there were missing some windows.

We were amazed with Nigeria, a country that all the people told us not to get in, very friendly people and helpful.
After managing all the non existing roads and arrived to the Tarmac but it was worst then before, I had 4 punctures in 1 day.

But then things changed, we arrived to Abuja, the capital. It was like being in another country, quite developed and very rich people, completely the opposite of the rest of Nigeria.
We stayed 2 days as we needed to find tyres, we met Francis the Gym manager of the hotel, who also loves bikes, he helped us finding the tyres and show us the city and we had a few beers with him and his friends.
Next day all of them join us with their bikes for 60Km, I don't know how they are still alive.

So we starting heading to Cameroon, it took us 1 day. Following day we cross the border with no hassle and friendly police and people but the roads changed again. Rainy season and no Tarmac, you can imagine.

The landscape changed radically, we entered the jungle, 30/40 meters trees it was very dense and beautiful.

After 2 days we arrived to civilization, Douala where we did our fourth bitcoin exchange :) Thanks to our bitcoin contact in Mali, he introduced us Dani who was interested in exchanging. Dani was kind and pay us the bitcoin in advance as we had some technical problems, we made a good friend and spend the weekend "resting".

So it was time to go east and find some Gorilas, we visit them in Lobéké. We spent 2 days in the Jungle and what an adventure, some heavy storm to make it a bit better.
So far was our favorite experience in all the trip.
As we were in the middle of nowhere, the closest bank was 400km away and due some expenses we didn't predict we run out of money.
People told us the next one was just 60Km away and for sure we will find it. Not! No ATM and it was not even a bank. It was just a money gram/western union agent, pity we couldn't trade our bitcoins.
We were stuck with no money, petrol and food. After a few hours we managed to ask a friend in Spain to transfer some € and we managed to continue our journey, we used this service twice due the lack of ATM.
I also had to sell my watch in Congo as it was bank holiday and all the banks were closed and M.G/W.U agents. In French what I don't speak well and made a profit :)

After the amazing Cameroon we had to cross Congo and RDC quick due the conflicts and we are a bit short of time to arrive to Cape Town.
But we managed to visit the Bonobos (Monkeys) in Congo, we spent 2 days with them, as the veterinary is our friend we had the opportunity to be very close and play with them, great 2 days!

The border crossing to RDC was insane, imagine corruption, a passenger boat where it was impossible to fit another person, no ramps for the bikes or even a wheel chair, last boat of the day and it was Friday. We managed and finished the day laughing about it :)

After 11 countries talking in French we finally arrived in Angola, as a native speaker of Portuguese things got easier for me and for our bellies, food is amazing here, like home.

Beautiful country and friendly people, no corruption so far and lots of ATM, everyone is very helpful as well.
After 4 days in Luanda with some friends, we are on the road again, today we did 515 Km to Lobito where we met a contact to do our fifth exchange, this time to Angolan Kwanzas.
Another successful transaction, the Internet is getting faster as we head south.

In 3 days we will enter Namibia, more stories will come soon."

Invite friends to LocalBitcoins and have trusted trades

LocalBitcoins has launched a new Invite Friends feature. You can invite your friends to join to LocalBitcoins and if they decide to do so, the friends are automatically added to your Trusted people list.

You can create special bitcoin trade advertisements which are only available to your trusted people. This makes some things easy

• Introduce your friends to bitcoins by selling small amounts of bitcoins to them with very good rate.
• Having a connection to people outside LocalBitcoins makes them more trustable and you can have less risk premier in your trusted advertisement prices.
• Trusted advertisements are suitable for selling bitcoins on some high risk payments methods to your friends; you would not necessary sell bitcoins on these payments methods for public audience due to associated risk.

You can find Invite Friends feature in under your dashboard.

SMS Notifications Now Free For New Contacts

We have upgraded our SMS notification message fee schedule. Now all notifications except for messaging are free. Fee for messages is lowered to 0.00015 BTC/msg. We plan to move to dollar-base pricing, which should be more fair to the users.

It is recommended to turn on the new contact notifications, because you won't want to miss out those precious deals flowing in.

Here is my personal setup - I will receive a SMS message each time someone contacts me, so I won't miss a single deal. The settings can be changed from "Edit Profile" in the upper right corner, when you are logged in.

Automate Bitcoin Cash-Outs via LocalBitcoins API

As it takes ages to get money from mtgox and some other exchanges, there are opportunities for providing speedy "cash-out" services to the Bitcoin community. Recently we added some features to LocalBitcoins which makes acting as a liquidity provider easier and more streamlined.

First feature is account details validation. At first this functions for SEPA cashouts. The form validates account details, so that the buyer saves the hassle of checking the proper format. This validation has been added to some other payment methods as well, and will be extended.

The other feature is API functions for getting online buying contacts, and marking them complete. These methods can be used to automate online buying on LocalBitcoins.

For listing online buying: https://localbitcoins.com/api-docs/#api_toc4
For marking the payment as complete: https://localbitcoins.com/api-docs/#api_toc5

We will be also providing bounties to people who write open source automation scripts for different payment methods. More on those later.

Happy trading!

Ripple's Director of Business Development: Major Players to Adopt the Network in Near Future

Ripple Labs has been on a massive hiring spree, recently boosting their payroll to 30 employees:

We're a team of 30 now! Meet the latest additions to our tech team: http://t.co/9KJgsXcLX7 #ripple
— Chris Larsen (@chrislarsensf) November 6, 2013

Occasionally they'll use their blog to profile a new hire; this time it was Welly Scully, their new "Director of Business Development."

When answering the last question, "what do you think will be the tipping point for merchant adoption," he dropped this bomb:

"Once merchants realize that the network is secure and stable, and that the value proposition is viable, there will be a race to join the network.

The signal will be clear when the first major merchants go live on the network. Based on the response we have received so far from some of the largest actors in the ecosystem, this event will be around the corner."

Just who is Ripple Labs in discussion with? Sounds like we might find out soon... and it could be big.

Who do you think it could be, and when Welly refers to "actors in the ecosystem," is he talking about banks, or is he talking about merchants? Please comment below!

This Will End Poorly

I don't care how awesome Bitcoin is; all signs point to a massive bubble:

tradingview.com

You can't go parabolic forever!

"Bitcoin Black Friday" Parters with "Fight for the Future"

Site: http://bitcoinblackfriday.com
Site: http://www.fightforthefuture.org/

BITCOIN BLACK FRIDAY PARTNERS WITH FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE

Energizing Bitcoin’s Second Annual Black Friday Event

Bitcoin Black Friday (formerly known as Bitcoin Friday) announced today a partnership with Fight for the Future, a digital rights advocacy group best known organizing the first massive protests against SOPA in 2011. Fight for the Future will be providing Bitcoin Black Friday with resources, viral organizing knowledge, and grassroots experience. Through this partnership, Bitcoin Black Friday aims to appeal not only to Bitcoiners, but to any internet user looking for a better way to pay for goods online.

“Before Bitcoin Friday, in early 2012, people were wondering whether Bitcoin could even exist as a currency, whether people would ever spend their hoarded bitcoins.” The founder of Bitcoin Friday, Jon Holmquist, remarks, ”Last year’s wildly successful event alleviated those fears.” The idea is simple: Bitcoin merchants opt-in for a free listing on the site and list their ‘deal’ that is only redeemable during Bitcoin Friday. Last year’s deals were wide-ranging from 20% off a WIKISPEED car to 25% off VPN services. Participating merchants saw anywhere from 2x as many sales to some merchants having their best single day of sales ever. BitPay, the largest Bitcoin payment processor, recorded their largest amount of orders placed in a single day during Bitcoin Friday, and other Bitcoin payment processors universally reported similarly high results.

This year, Bitcoin Black Friday is occurring on November 29th, the same day as Black Friday, and will include a much larger selection of merchants. Instead of being able to fit all participating merchants on one page, the website will now be split up into categories. About 500 bitcoin-accepting merchants are going to be participating.

New this year for Bitcoin Black Friday is a charity section. If Bitcoin consumers have a few bitcents in their wallets after their shopping sprees, they can donate directly to one of the many charities and nonprofits accepting bitcoin, such as the Internet freedom group Fight for the Future or Sean’s Outpost.

Bitcoin Black Friday is not only online. The digital currency Bitcoin is gaining an increasing amount of ‘meatspace’ businesses. To celebrate Bitcoin brick-and-mortar merchants, Bitcoin Black Friday Parties will be occurring around the globe at locations that accept bitcoin payments in person. In Berlin, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and in other major cities, these parties will bring Bitcoiners in the community together, to bond over cocktails and love of cryptocurrency.

“We are extremely excited to be helping with this year’s Bitcoin Black Friday,” said Fight for the Future co-director Holmes Wilson, “Bitcoin is so close to mainstream adoption, and moments like this can help push it over the edge.”

Over the last year, Bitcoin has risen in value, popularity, and adoption. The growth of Bitcoin is being tracked by the massive growth in merchant adoption. Last year’s event drew in about 75 merchants. This year’s event will pull in more than 500. More and more people around the world are turning to bitcoin as an exciting, secure, and innovative online currency. Bitcoin Black Friday will help rally the growing bitcoin community and help merchants connect to a new vibrant and global market.

---
1 For more specific numbers: http://codinginmysleep.com/bitcoin-friday-results/

Put that Obsolete Bitcoin Mining Hardware to Good Use and Earn XRPs!

Ripple Labs just announced another XRP giveaway:

While you donate computing power to useful projects such as testing HIV and cancer drugs, or discovering new materials for renewable energy applications, you will earn points which can be exchanged for Ripples (XRPs).

Those of you with obsolete Bitcoin mining hardware (i.e. GPUs) can once again earn money by joining the Ripple Labs Team in the World Community Grid. Note that not all projects support GPU mining, but definitely CPU mining.

While I doubt this was an intentional jab at Bitcoin, it's sort of making a point that Bitcoin mining is a little wasteful.

Giveaway instructions can be found here.

Bitcoin Revolution Spreads to Togo! #BitcoinAfrica

After reading the following trip report I can just say WOW! It is awesome how the information about new technology is spreading, and even more awesome when people are so quick to see the benefit for them.

Below is quote from Elvis, who is helping Borja on the #BitcoinAfrica tour.

"I'm Elvis, the travel mate of Borja and I am also helping with the bitcoin project. Today I will be sharing the last stories until Cotonou (Benin) where we arrived today.
We crossed Burkina Faso in just 2 days, after being in Mali where we had an amazing experience, kind people, beautiful scenery, Burkina was quite a change for us.
People were friendly sometimes and the scenery was nice in the north but after the capital it changed a lot and we didn't even stop for a single picture.

But luckily things changed again, after entering in Togo I felt for the first time that I was in the real Africa, the dense forests, tall trees, no tarmac and the people seem very nice and friendly. The border crossing was fast and easy and no bribes.

We started driving trough the big dust of the big trucks crossing the pistes of orange soil, it was beautiful but after 30Km and the sun going down the visibility was pour so we decided to stop and look for a place to sleep.
The scenery was great around us and we spotted a little tribe with bambo/mud houses so we quickly decided to approach the chef of the tribe and ask for permission to camp with them. After talking in their local language and many people giving their opinion they said yes.


The chef initially told us to sleep in his house with his 2 wife's but they had suck a nice big tree in the back so we mounted the tents there and during the process of mounting everything we had half of the tribe looking at us, amazed with our gear and us, the way people looked at us was funny, all the kind of reactions and I believe some of them never seen a white person or motorbikes like ours.

So after a long day we had to shower and we pretty much showered around the manual water pump in the middle of the field and it was already dark, but it was better than many crappy hotels we were.

The sky was amazing, for the first time we saw it so clear and full of stars and after a nice meal time to recharge batteries.

Next day we headed south and Borja was unlucky with another puncture, but all good and we quickly found a "mechanic" to fix it. During the process we had the opportunity to listen to the stories of some people that were surrounding us and we were amazed with the difficulties that this people have to make a living. So we share some ideas and explain them how things work in Europe and they kept saying, "This is Africa"! A place with loads of corruption and where you need to have contacts to be able to accomplish your business goals.
So it was a good opportunity to explain about BitCoin and they were amazed and some of them even wrote down the website of localbitcoins.

Pucture fixed and we headed to Lomé and found a place at the beach. We stayed a few days to service the bikes and some administration. We also visit the Fetish Market, only white magic is what they say and visited the waterfalls in Kpalimé, all very nice experience.

During our stay, we luckily found a person interested in buying bitcoins and it was a pleasant transaction, just a few delays due the Internet, (we had dinner while the trade was done) in Africa you need to be very patient.

So this is it, we just arrived in Cotonou and more stories will follow."

Up to date, the success rate for spreading Bitcoin to Africa has been pretty good! Please if you know any people willing to exchange from the next locations, contact Borja on LocalBitcoins or create your own ad to your country for free.

Benin -Cotonou
Cameroon -Douala
Nigeria -Abuja
 Republic of Congo -Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of Congo -Kinshasha
Angola -Luanda
Namibia -Windhoek
Bostwana -Gaborone
South Africa-Cape Town

 

Bitcoin Price Charts

Thanks to dc-charts.com for the new Bitcoin price chart that can be seen on the right-hand side of this blog. If you're a webmaster or a blogger, I highly recommend dc-charts!

There are many other options available, including charts and widgets for the most popular alt-coins.

Bitcoins Exchanged succesfully in Mali #BitcoinAfrica

Our Africa motorcycler and Bitcoiner, Borja reported a new exchange story from Africa, this time from Mali.

"We just arrived to burkina faso, and crossed an incredible border from Mali. 3 really kind polices and thats all, they did it very easy and without bribes. Asking us about the trip and smiling all the time.

We had today quite a hard day, we had two punctures in my bike, first one in my front tyre and when i realized it was too late, very difficult to control and i fell, around 70km/h
Everything ok! Really good luck.

After fixing the first puncture, with the help of two guys that saw us and came to help. I had another puncture, this time of my back tyre, and with better luck, I felt it before it was too late. 

Before that in Mali,we where a bit scared with the news of Al Qaeda and the Touregs in the north, and we discovered an amazing country. Everybody smiling, saying "bonjour" every time you cross with someone, in the road, everybody saying hello with their hands and supporting us. The south of the country was so beautiful, a lot more water and trees than what we thought. A bit more to the north the city of Djenné (World Heritage) with a really beautiful mosque made of mud, the biggest in the world, and was made around 1180.

We were for 3 days in Bamako, visiting our friend "Curro" that works there for a spanish company.

He never heard before about bitcoin and we explained what it was, and he is so interested, so he opened a new account, he let us money for that three days, and we are going to pay him in bitcoins. There and in many other countries people use FRANC CFAS."

Next steps on the trip:
Burkina faso -Ouagadougou 
Togo -Lomé
Benin -Cotonou
Cameroon -Douala
Nigeria -Abuja
 Republic of Congo -Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of Congo -Kinshasha
Angola -Luanda
Namibia -Windhoek
Bostwana -Gaborone
South Africa-Cape Town
If you are in these country or know a willing exchanger from these countries, please contact Borja on LocalBitcoins or create your own ad to your country for free.

No One Understands Bitcoins

#BitcoinAfrica - Bitcoins exchanged succesfully in Morocco

Motorcycle trip through Africa continues - and Bitcoins were exchanged succesfully!

Read the Bitcoin Magazine Story about the trip.

Next steps on the trip:
Western Sahara
Mauritania  -Nouakchott
Senegal  -Dakar 
Mali   - Bamako
Burkina faso -Ouagadougou 
Togo -Lomé
Benin -Cotonou
Cameroon -Douala
Nigeria -Abuja
 Republic of Congo -Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of Congo -Kinshasha
Angola -Luanda
Namibia -Windhoek
Bostwana -Gaborone
South Africa-Cape Town

If you are in these country or know a willing exchanger from these countries, please contact Borja on LocalBitcoins or create your own ad to your country for free.

#BitcoinAfrica - touring the Africa continent using #Bitcoins - help needed!

LocalBitcoins.com is sponsoring a motorcycle trip throughout Africa. The idea is to find an willing exchanger (Bitcoins -> Cash) from each country/city during the trip and blog about the experience. Therefore we are in an urgent need of exchangers, who would like to exchange bitcoins to cash in each country.

We need local contacts in the following African countries for an extremely interesting upcoming adventure. If you know anybody in these countries/cities, or if you are in them, please spread the word:

Morocco -Casablanca -Marrakech
Western Sahara
Mauritania  -Nouakchott
Senegal  -Dakar 
Mali   - Bamako
Burkina faso -Ouagadougou 
Togo -Lomé
Benin -Cotonou
Cameroon -Douala
Nigeria -Abuja
 Republic of Congo -Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of Congo -Kinshasha
Angola -Luanda
Namibia -Windhoek
Bostwana -Gaborone
South Africa-Cape Town

To contact the motorcycler (Borja) directly to set up an exchange: borjaserra@hotmail.com
You can set up an exchange advertisement here.
If you have any problems setting up an ad for your local place, tell us about them on the localbitcoins forums.

The motorcycle used on the trip - with Bitcoin and LocalBitcoins stickers!

One Step Back, Two Steps Forward: Digital Currencies Making Headway Through Regulation

The April Bitcoin bubble was exciting, really exciting. From the moment the old $32 record was broken, to the days after the $266 bubble popped, I think I slept no more than five hours a night, and that was for a month straight. In fact, I still find it difficult to fathom that I can type out a number like "266" and actually be referring to reality. It wasn't that long ago that $20 seemed like a figure we'd never see again.

But what the hell has happened since? It's been five months, and frankly things around here have gotten really quiet. I almost feel like shouting, "last one out, get the lights!"

Mt.Gox is on life support, to the point where today's volume on BitStamp was nearly 200% greater than volume on Mt.Gox. The Silk Road is gone, though that gap will no doubt be quickly filled. Trading on Tradehill has ground to a halt until regulatory issues are sorted out. BitInstant is still nowhere to be seen, though rumor has it they'll be resurrected shortly, which will be a relief to the Winklevoss twins.

As of today, US residents are no longer allowed to use BitFunder. Similarly, all trading has halted on BTC Trading Corp.

Lets face it, the wild wild west era of Bitcoin is over. Cracking that billion dollar market cap was the death knell for anyone handling money without the proper licensing. For all you "crypto-anarchists" out there who were hoping to give the government the middle finger and construct a new financial paradigm, sorry, but it just doesn't work that way.

The digital currency economy is now re-building itself, but this time it's being done properly. Bitstamp now requires proper verification before money can be moved into and out of the exchange, even if it's via Ripple. Kraken ensured it had the proper licensing before even launching the site. As a result, many would-be clients find themselves unable to use its services for the moment, but that's better than being able to use the site and then having your funds locked up due to a regulatory violation. From Kraken:

"Our business is compliance, and we have this exchange we sometimes work on in our spare time.  Payward has led the charge in the formation of DATA and we are committed to operating only where we can operate legally.  As a consumer, you may find this inconvenient and as a business it does put us at an immediate competitive disadvantage.  The industry has, unfortunately, seen where shortcuts take us and our long view is that the only way out is through."

You might just say Kraken knew what it was doing. As a result of putting regulation first, they've been able to open themselves up to certain US customers, and even just announced a partnership with a real, licensed, insured, regulated bank in Germany, Fidor Bank AG, which will pave the way for mainstream adoption of Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ven, and Ripple.

Similarly, Ripple just announced a partnership with ZipZap, another regulated entity that competes with the likes of Western Union. Just today, CoinX, launched their "compliant" Bitcoin exchange, with emphasis on compliance.

So all that to say, yeah, Bitcoin had an exciting couple of years, but it really wasn't possible to move forward without taking a step back to sort out the regulatory issues. Now, Bitcoin and other digital currencies can thrive, and will really prove their value in the coming months and years.

Kraken.com to Offer Digital Currency Trading Services in Exclusive EU Partnership with Fidor Bank AG

PRESS RELEASE

Kraken.com to Offer Digital Currency Trading Services in Exclusive EU Partnership with Fidor Bank AG

London, 9 October 2013 

Payward Ltd., the developer of the Kraken digital currency exchange, today announced plans to partner with Fidor Bank, the Munich-based leader in innovative online banking, to give Kraken’s customers in the European Union access to a full suite of traditional financial services. The partnership will be the first of its kind between a licensed, insured, and regulated bank and a digital currency exchange.

‘From the beginning, our goal has been to establish Bitcoin and other digital currencies as legitimate complements to the euro, the pound and other traditional, government-issued currencies,’ said Jesse Powell, CEO of Payward Ltd. ‘In Fidor Bank we’ve found our ideal partner: a responsible, forward-thinking financial institution looking to combine the predictability and stability of traditional banking relationships with the social and economic benefits of new digital currencies. We’re thrilled to bring these services to our customers in the EU and look forward to making them available globally in cooperation with financial industry partners and regulatory authorities around the world.’

Fidor’s partnership with Kraken fits with its business strategy. ‘Our long-term goal is to bring important market innovations to our business partners and private clients’, explained Matthias Kröner, CEO of Fidor Bank AG. ‘Digital currencies are emerging as serious and useful alternatives to government-issued currencies. With Kraken, we can enable our customers to trade Bitcoin and other digital currencies just as securely, easily and flexibly as they trade other foreign currencies today.’

Pursuant to the proposed partnership agreement, Kraken will become Fidor Bank’s exclusive provider of digital currency trading and payment services throughout the EU (except in the German market, where Fidor has a limited existing partnership with a German exchange), while Kraken gains the ability to offer a full suite of Fidor banking services to Kraken’s EU customers.

Mr. Powell envisions more such partnerships to come. ‘Once they see Fidor entering the digital currency space, I’m sure many other banks will want to follow suit. The use of digital currencies in financial services has potential to benefit customers and businesses all over the world. This partnership marks an important step down the path of bringing those services to the global financial service marketplace in full compliance with applicable law and regulation.’ 

About Payward Ltd.:

Payward combines years of experience in the virtual goods and currency markets with a highly skilled engineering team and a host of carefully cultivated banking and finance relationships. Kraken (http://www.kraken.com), Payward’s full-featured professional digital currency exchange and trading platform, offers advanced trading tools, a sophisticated user interface, robust technical security and full regulatory compliance to traders in digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ripple, and Ven. Since its public launch on 9 September 2013, Kraken has enrolled thousands of users to its platform. Kraken attributes this success to its robust user interface, strict regulatory compliance and professional array of advanced order types, the result of two years of development.

Press contact:

Ayako Miyaguchi | Payward Ltd.| London | info@payward.com 

 - Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/krakenfx) 

 - Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/krakenfx)

About Fidor Bank AG:

Fidor Bank AG (http://www.fidor.de) is an internet-based direct bank licensed in Germany. With its FidorPay account the bank addresses private and corporate clients. The FidorPay account is a primary bank account, offering a combination of a classical bank account with internet payments and innovative banking services. The services on offer to corporate clients include selected financing products and a FidorPay business account especially created for e-commerce. Fidor Bank AG makes consistent use of Web 2.0 mechanisms. To interact and communicate with users the bank leverages its own community as well as all popular social media platforms, including:

 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/FidorCommBanking) 

 - Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/fidorbank) 

 - Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/ficoba) 

 - XING (https://www.xing.com/net/ficoba)

Buying Bitcoins the smart way - tracking liquidity

Today we launched a new minor feature on LocalBitcoins, which should make certain type of trading much easier. It is the "track liquidity" option, which is possible to enable for buy ads.

Example scenario: I want to invest 1000 USD each month from my paycheck to Bitcoins. What is the smart way to do this? I create an advertisement with max amount 1000 USD for the payment method of my choice, and offer speedy payouts. Each time an order comes in, my max sellable amount is automatically deducted, meaning that I can't buy more than I have.

Good buying equation for this kind of trading is for example min(min(bitstampUSD, USD_24h), mtgoxUSD). See more examples in the pricing guide.

LocalBitcoins now available in Spanish

LocalBitcoins is now available in Spanish. You can access the Spanish version of the website through this link: https://localbitcoins.com/es/

Currently 99% of the site is translated. You should manage to use the site even if you do not speak any English. LocalBitcoins team is still working on minor issues. For example, the name of the places are still available only in English. If you spot any missing translations you can report those to our support team.

We have also Spanish support staff working for us to answer the support requests and resolve disputes. Also don't forget our Spanish community discussion forums!

LocalBitcoins.com en español

LocalBitcoins.com está ahora disponible también en español. Para acceder a nuestras páginas en español, puedes utilizar el siguiente enlace: https://localbitcoins.com/es/

Por el momento, tenemos disponibles el 99% de nuestras páginas en español. El uso de nuestra web debería ser posible sin ningún conocimiento de inglés. El equipo de LocalBitcoins.com está aún trabajando en algunos pormenores con la traducción, por lo que puede haber fallos en las traducciones o algunas frases pueden estar aún en inglés. Si encuentras alguna de estas frases, por favor, notifícalo a nuestro equipo de soporte.

Tenemos también un nuevo miembro del equipo que se encarga de las solicitudes de soporte en español, por lo que no dudes en contactarnos también en castellano para responder a tus dudas y resolver disputas. Y por supuesto, ¡no te olvides de nuestros foros de discusión en español!

Why Spanish?

Bitcoin has proven itself as the digital currency without borders. We see a lot of Bitcoin related activity in South America where Spanish is the dominant language. There, the internet infrastructure is quite well developed, but online payment options might be limited. Bitcoin, as the inflation safe way of storing value, may be a better tool for the savings than the government issued fiat currency.

Some highlights

• How LocalBitcoins works even when Western Union doesn't
• LocalBitcoins.com listings in Argentina and Argentina currency controls
• Documentary about bitcoins in Argentina

Affiliate bonuses

To celebrate the opening of Spanish version of the site and drive Spanish speaking traffic to the site, LocalBitcoins.com has almost doubled its affiliate bonuses for the next two months.

Previously the affiliate revenue was 20% for each trade participant (buyer and seller) for one year - You could earn 40% from the trade revenue this way.

Now affiliate payouts will be 35% from each referred trader up to two months, so you can earn up to 70% if both the buyer and the seller join LocalBitcoins.com through your link.

Read more about this in LocalBitcoins.com affiliate program. We have updated the affiliate info page for Spanish linking tips and Spanish <iframe> banners. We suggest you advertise in Spanish speaking medias and link using the address https://localbitcoins.com/es/ which takes the users directly to Spanish version of the site.

Programa de afiliados

Para celebrar el lanzamiento de nuestras páginas en español, y generar más tráfico hispanoparlante a nuestro sitio web, en LocalBitcoins.com tiramos la casa por la ventana y casi doblamos nuestras bonificaciones de afiliados.

Previamente, los ingresos de afiliados eran de un 20% por cada participante (comprador y vendedor) por un periodo de 1 año. Es decir, nuestro programa de afiliados te ofrecía la posibilidad de llevarte un 40% de nuestra comisión por intercambio.

Durante los próximos 2 meses, te ofrecemos la posibilidad de llevarte el 35% de los ingresos por cada participante comercial que atraigas a nuestro sitio, con lo que puedes conseguir el 70% de nuestros ingresos comerciales si tanto el comprador como el vendedor se registran a nuestro sitio a través de tu enlace de afiliado.

Infórmate sobre el programa de afiliados de LocalBitcoins.com. Hemos actualizado nuestro página de afiliados con consejos para enlaces de afiliados en español, y ahora también proporcionamos versiones en español de nuestros banners <iframe>. Te recomendamos la promoción en medios hispanoparlantes y enlazarnos utilizando la dirección https://localbitcoins.com/es/, que dirige a los usuarios directamente a nuestras páginas en español.

LocalBitcoins wants to go further, to every city in the world

Now when the Spanish is done, the next big localization goal of LocalBitcoins team is Chinese. If you have insight in Bitcoin and want to help LocalBitcoins to reach Chinese users,  please contact our team.

Affiliate bonuses raised

To celebrate the opening of Spanish version of the site and drive Spanish speaking traffic to the site, LocalBitcoins has almost doubled its affiliate bonuses for next the months. However this change affects everyone, not just new/spanish affiliates.

Previously the affiliate revenue was 20% for each trade participant (buyer and seller) for one year - You could earn 40% from the trade revenue this way.

Now affiliate payouts will be 35% from each referred trader up to two months, so you can earn up to 70% if both the buyer and the seller join LocalBitcoins.com through your link.

Read more about this in LocalBitcoins.com affiliate program.

XRP Surges Nearly 300% in Just Over a Month, and the Real Reason Why!

The last couple of months have been a little painful for all but the most patient of traders, as XRP fell from a high of just over $0.02 USD (two cents) to less than $0.0025 (a quarter of a cent). Now, and seemingly in tandem with an announcement that Ripple may be open-sourced by the end of the month, XRP has surged back to just under $0.01 USD, or approximately 300% higher than the mid-August lows.

Personally, I think there's a more important reason why XRPs are trading higher as of late, and that's this little hint of an announcement hidden in the Ripple Blog post about the Developer Conference taking place next month:

10:25-11:20am – Integrating with Ripple for Merchants and Gateways, Bob Way and Brian Keller-Heikkila 

Integration Engineer Bob Way will explain how merchant and gateway integration works. Brian Keller-Heikkila, CTO of ZipZap, will join Bob on stage to share special news.

What special news could the CTO of ZipZap be announcing? Well, considering they operate a global cash transaction network of 700,000 payment centers, perhaps they're going to be integrating with Ripple to become a massive multi-currency gateway?

That's just a guess, but I can't imagine any other reason why the CTO of ZipZap would make an appearance with Bob Way, the Integration Engineer for OpenCoin.

If ZipZap is indeed becoming a gateway, it'll be a massive win for OpenCoin, and a huge vote of confidence for the technology.

Post-mortem: bitcoin stealing attack against LocalBitcoins

There was an attack against LocalBitcoins.com on Friday 13.9.2013 to steal bitcoins from the wallets of LocalBitcoins.com users. Thanks to the responsive LocalBitcoins community, the attack was quickly detected, the support team was notified and the attack was blocked. All affected users have now been reimbursed for their losses.

A user using a relatively old LocalBitcoins.com user account sent maliciously file attachments through LocalBitcoins.com internal messaging to the traders. People opening the attachment might have lost bitcoins they had in their LocalBitcoins wallet. This was due to an error in LocalBitcoins.com messaging system which should block all kind of malicious file attachments. Total 82 bitcoins was stolen.

Only the users who had not enabled two-factor authentication were affected. LocalBitcoins.com always reminds the users who have bitcoins in their wallet to enable two-factor authentication which protect against both technical and social account hacking attempts.

LocalBitcoins.com security has now been strengthened and similar attacks are not possible in the future. LocalBitcoins.com internal messaging is safe and the users are encouraged to use it. People should be always very careful when communicating outside localbitcoins system.

 

LocalBitcoins reimbursement policy

LocalBitcoins credits the lost bitcoins to its users when there is a clear error in LocalBitcoins.com service, allowing somebody who is not authenticated on the site to access the wallet.

LocalBitcoins.com does not credit the lost bitcoins when the loss is caused by the actions of user. Usually actions like this include, but are not limited to,

• Giving username and password to some external (phishing) site or losing the control of the password when having the computer infected by malware.
• Releasing bitcoins from an escrow to a buyer even though the payment is not properly confirmed and cleared.
• Payment problems outside LocalBitcoins control, such as afterwards reversed transactions

LocalBitcoins.com cannot protect the users against phishing and file attachment attacks outside LocalBitcoins.com service. Thus, always be careful when opening emails, SMS messages, links and attachments coming directly from another person. Always enable the two-factor authentication when you are actively dealing with bitcoins on any services you are using.

 

Attack details

The attack was performed by uploading a specially crafted image file. The file attachment had PNG image file headers, but contained HTML payload and .htm extension. The HTML payload included JavaScript code performing HTTP POST request to send bitcoins out from LocalBitcoins wallet.

• LocalBitcoins.com uses Django web framework which includes security features to block invalid image uploads. However, in this particular case, the image verify method let the specially crafted file through because it contained valid PNG headers. The standard Python Imaging Library verify method does not check for extra payload at the end of image file.
• When the web browser downloaded the file, it interpreted the attachment as a HTML file, even though the beginning of the file was garbage due to PNG headers.
• Because the file was served from LocalBitcoins.com domain, the download was considered as safe and it passed through cross-site request forgery protections.
• When the user opened the attachment, the web browser executed JavaScript inside the file and managed to perform a Send from wallet action if the two-factor authentication was not enabled. With two-factor authentication an additional security code is needed to execute a wallet transaction.

 

Actions taken to prevent further attacks

Since the attack, LocalBitcoins.com team has strengthened the site security with additional layers to prevent similar attacks in the future.

• Uploaded image files are rewritten to be clean image files, so that any extra payload or codec bug exploits in the web browsers are not possible.
• Extra checks are performed to make sure that the image content matches the attached file extension.
• LocalBitcoins wallet pages performs more aggressive HTTP referrer checks to prevent triggering wallet actions from JavaScript code.

OpenCoin Aiming to Open Source Ripple by September 26th

Start watching at 27:06, where Patrick Griffin reveals that Opencoin is targeting September 26th to release the source code for the Ripple server software!

Release the Kraken!

After what felt like an endless wait (in Bitcoin time), Kraken has finally come out of beta and now allows real money trading!

At the moment you can trade in EUR, BTC, and LTC. XRP and CAD will be coming very soon.

I expect Kraken will quickly become the major player in the new era of regulated digital currency trading.

Edit: here's the official announcement.

Adventures in Alternative Currency

I published an epic 4200 word article on alternative currency in Aeon magazine. Take a read if you're having a lazy weekend afternoon and wish to casually reflect on the nature of economic reality. I believe that coming to basic grips with money itself is a good foundation for making further explorations into the financial system, and economic systems more generally. As I say in the article:

"The financial system exists, above all, to mediate flows of money, not to question what money is. Investment banks create financial instruments that steer money from one place to another, with built-in sub-conduits to siphon it back... To draw an analogy with computer coding, we might say that financial instruments are analogous to ‘high-level’ programming languages such as Java or Ruby: they let you string commands together in order to perform certain actions. You want to get resources from A to B over time? Well, we can program a financial instrument to do that for you... By contrast, money itself is more like a low-level programming language, very hard to see or to understand but closer to gritty reality. It’s like your computer’s machine code, interfacing with the hardware: even the experts take it for granted.

The piece has been pretty well received. I'll leave you with some Twitter recommendations, to convince you to read it. The first comes from Izabella Kaminska of FT Alphaville

Nice and very accessible piece by @Suitpossum on the nature of our modern monetary universe... http://t.co/15Gc2oGc2l
— Izabella Kaminska (@izakaminska) August 30, 2013

So you want to invent your own currency http://t.co/wiaUyB0xTd truly amazing post by @Suitpossum that helps you understand #money
— Simone Cicero (@meedabyte) August 30, 2013

Mind-blowing article on the future of currencies - by Brett Scott http://t.co/gso1hmObvG
— Matteo Bianchini (@matteobianchini) August 30, 2013

Tune up your Bitcoin trading with market-based pricing

Hey traders,

If you've ever dug deeper in our ad options, you may have found the price equation field. The innocuous premium field above actually creates a basic, functional price equation for the ad. That's where the magic happens. But how to improve on the equation? Maximizing risk and profit, or playing it safe? Perhaps even both?

Price equations as used on LocalBitcoins.com have been somewhat of an arcane art so far, especially for advanced use.

We don't like features that don't create value for us and our customers. In part of this effort to suck less, we've just published a guide to using price equations more effectively. Although it is mostly a technical reference at this time, I hope it will be useful! As always, we will consider any feedback to improve our service.

Bitcoin market data available on Bitcoin Charts

LocalBitcoins.com team has implemented Bitcoin Charts integration. Now you can see LocalBitcoins.com market data with other big exchanges.

This data includes online trades and excludes cash trades. LocalBitcoins.com is not an order book based exchange. For the order book asks and bids data we provide online selling bitcoins and online buying bitcoins advertisement values.

Even though Bitcoin Charts only displays EUR, we have data available for  ARS, AUD, BRL, CAD, CHF, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, ILS, INR, MXN, NOK, NZD, PLN, RUB, SEK, SGD, THB, USD, ZAR (or any currency our users trade).

You can also pull the data with HTTP  in JSON format as described in LocalBitcoins.com API documentation.

LocalBitcoins.com Public JSON API released

Hey developers!

I'm proud to announce the second iteration of our API. The focus of API 2.0 is public browsing APIs. There's a whole slew of different ways to find good deals on LocalBitcoins.com -- almost all of them are now also available in JSON. Please have a look at our Public API documentation!
Changes and additions include:

• A new API to query profile information with
• JSON versions for most of our listings (full list of them are in the docs)
• Supporting APIs that facilitate searching through our listings, including the lists of currencies, payment methods and countries our service recognizes.
• Corner case issue fixes in existing APIs

About our API

We first introduced a small API last month, with the goal of enabling traders to release their escrows with an application. Although the scope was small, the response was good. Thank you for your interest!

Our bounty program for API implementations and clients is a rough start, but we'll keep doing them in the future. The experience in the pilot bounties is important to us as we want the bounty program to be a good experience for everyone involved.

Future of our API – You're invited

I'm already looking forward to our 3.0 API. We'll be setting our foot in the sprawling Bitcoin market data field. The exact details and breadth will be decided at a later time. API development right now is focused on troubleshooting the current API and grabbing all the low hanging fruit.

The design decisions are still malleable. Now it is the time to contact us and help us make the new APIs useful from day one. You can discuss it in public on our forums or contact our support in private if you prefer.'

Pie-in-the-sky requests are also considered for later planning, please do come forward with them. I want to keep the API simple and powerful: having as many concerns as possible known well in advance helps keeping it all in harmony.

Monday API update

Hey developers!

We've received lots of good feedback on our API. That's a really good reason to pay attention to how useful it is.

Particular attention was paid to the Escrow API that now provides amounts for each escrow. I hope that'll make trading life easier. The API now also supports OAuth2 better, with bearer tokens supported.

The API documentation was also updated to reflect the minor enhancements and corrections implemented. Please direct your concerns about the API either to our forums (public) or support (private).

P.S. Special shout-out to this gem of an API client! Gems are the fancy name for Ruby packages.

Private and Trusted Trading on LocalBitcoins.com

Ever wanted to convert customers met and identified in person into long-term online trading partners? Or have good prices for and from your friends? It is now possible to do private trading as well on LocalBitcoins.com! 

By leaving a Trustworthy feedback after a trade, you actually add that trading partner to the Trusted whitelist. You and your trading partners can make Trusted only advertisements which show up only to trusted buyers in the trusted offers page (LocalBitcoins.com login required). Trusted offers page is also available in the top bar when you're logged in. With the advertisement available only to known and reliable partners, there are many benefits.

• Special pricing and terms for your highly-valued trading partners/customers
• High-risk payment methods such as paypal to trusted traders
• Liquidity to your trusted trading partners

These advertisements don't show to anyone else but trusted buyers. You can change your trust of another person anytime from his profile page using the feedback form. You need to have finished at least one trade to leave the initial feedback.

After I work out the kinks in trusted trading, I'll be rolling out an alternate way to enable trust on people you know personally without committing in a trade first.

Regional and trading bitcoin discussion forums opened

We has just opened our new discussion forums at LocalBitcoins.com.

The purpose of forums are many-fold

• Enable bitcoin traders to share best practices
• Promote bitcoin regionally (post about your events, etc.)
• Guide bitcoin novices (especially ones from non-English speaking regions like South America). We have Spanish translations under way.
• Receive feedback on LocalBitcoins.com
• Coordinate joint efforts with developers using our API and affiliates who wish to promote LocalBitcoins.com

The mobile friendly forum platform is based on the technology from moot.it. 

Bug regarding advertisements in African countries fixed

There was a bug, which prevented users from creating ads to many African countries, and other small countries around the world. The bug should be fixed now, and adding advertisements should work now. You can add advertisements using the "Post a trade" button in the upper bar.

African countries are very important to us. If you are planning to set up an exchange to some new location, and are having a problem, drop us a message at our forums: http://localbitcoins.com/forums/#!/general-discussion

Automate your trading with LocalBitcoins API

Tired of checking your accounts manually? Now it is possible to automate your trading processes using the LocalBitcoins API.

Currently you can get the list of your active escrows, and release escrows. This functionality is enough to automate the online selling process. Online buying process automation will come later. Read the documentation here and get your API keys. There is small example attached, which shows how to authenticate and use the API using python programming language.

Are you a programmer and capable of implementing the automation script for a specific payment method? We are giving out 2 BTC bounties for each new payment method automation script, which is published on github. Only 10 first, however, and suitable README should be included about how to use the script. Also we will review if the code looks clean and trustable. If you manage to develop a script, contact us at support@localbitcoins.com so we will reward you the bounty after examination.

We are especially interested in scripts, that automate the popular payment methods used on localbitcoins.com.

Happy automated trading!

Trading Bitcoins using M-PESA in Kenya and Tanzania

We have added M-PESA option to traders in Kenya and Tanzania. M-PESA is a very popular payment method in those countries. If M-PESA to Bitcoin traders begin to emerge, it will mean effortless and friction-free connection from Kenya and Tanzania to the global economy, and low-cost remittance.

Currently there are no M-PESA traders on localbitcoins.com, but we hope to attract more soon. If you know someone who would be interested doing this kind of trade, note that we have a new affiliate program. This means that you can earn commission from the fees of traders you refer to LocalBitcoins.com.

Happy global trading!