Bitcoin in the News : 2017-01 More++

After the topic in the previous post, Bitcoin in the News : 2017-01 Price, were there any other new stories in the bitcoin space that grabbed everyone's attention in January? No, there weren't. I did, however, pick up on one theme : how well bitcoin is accepted by national authorities. Here is a list of stories in chronological order.

• 2016-12-31: Superintendencia de Sociedades Bans Bitcoin in Colombia (newsbtc.com) • 'The news was announced few days before the new year by the country’s regulatory agency -- Superintendency of Corporations'
• 2017-01-07: Could bitcoin be the solution to governments' "war on cash"? (qz.com) • 'Cash has the advantages of being accessible, inclusive, and largely surveillance-free. It also has a tendency to leak into unexpected places, which makes governments uncomfortable. They say killing off cash plugs the leaks, and besides, it’s technological progress.'
• 2017-01-18: Nigeria's Central Bank is warning local banks against trading in bitcoins and other digital currencies. (qz.com) • 'While China appears to be worried about bitcoin being used to avoid the country’s capital controls, for its part, CBN [Central Bank of Nigeria] cites the possibility of exploitation by criminals and terrorists.'
• 2017-01-26: Venezuelan authorities arrest 4 bitcoin miners (marketwatch.com) • 'They were charged with cyberfraud and stealing electricity' (but the charge of cyberfraud isn't explained in the story).
• 2017-01-26: Stricter Bitcoin Regulation, Ban on Mixers Recommended at Interpol, Europol Conference (bitcoinmagazine.com) • 'It appears the global fight against Bitcoin money laundering has turned up a notch.'
• 2017-01-29: Bitcoin wallets get a key approval in Switzerland (engadget.com) • 'One company can hold your digital currency without having to serve as a bank.'

Would you trust your retirement savings to bitcoin? Some people would. I bet that those who would are nowhere near retirement age.

• 2017-01-20: Wall Street Journal features Revolutionary Retirement Strategy From Bitcoin IRA and Reports Bitcoin up 123% in 2016 (PRNewswire -> finance.yahoo.com) • 'BitcoinIRA.com, the first and only bitcoin-based retirement investment company, today announced the completion of a new milestone.'
• 2017-01-25: Bitcoin Price Fluctuations Taken Into Account When Saving For Bitcoin-Funded Retirement (cointelegraph.com) • 'What are the odds that Bitcoin can be adapted to serve social purposes, namely reshaping national welfare systems?'

Short takes: Things I learned from this month's news exercise.

• 2017-01-10: What Is One Of The World's Largest Derivatives Exchanges Doing With Bitcoin? (forbes.com) • 'CME Group started more than a century ago in Chicago as a place where farmers could lock in prices for their crops. Today, its exchanges -- CME, CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade), NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) and COMEX (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) -- cover every major asset class, such as metals and energy and U.S. Treasury bonds. And now it’s making a foray into bitcoin. This past November, CME launched both a once-a-day bitcoin reference rate (BRR) and a bitcoin real-time index (BRTI) that updates every second.'
  
  
• 2017-01-16; High-Speed Traders Are Taking Over Bitcoin • 'The reality is that professionals armed with cutting-edge technology now drive as much as 80 percent of bitcoin trading, mimicking strategies honed by some of the biggest players on Wall Street.'
  
  
• 2017-01-18: Bitcoin is mostly traded in China (businessinsider.com) • 'From less than a 10% share in January 2012, the yuan now makes up nearly 100% of all bitcoin trading.'
  
  
• 2017-01-25: Bitseed Review - A Plug & Play Full Bitcoin Node (99bitcoins.com) • 'Bitseed – a product that claims to be a "plug n play" node for the average user. Just plug it into your router at home and you are instantly a part of the Bitcoin network by running your own personal node. Of course you can always use your personal computer for this but then you’d have to give away a large chunk of space from your hard drive in order to download the Blockchain to your machine.'

And that's a wrap. See you again at the beginning of March!