Weekend Roundup: KnC Miner’s Series A Round, a Gold/BTC Marketplace Launches, and Lots of Stories Involving Young Bitcoin Adopters
1. KnC Miner Close $14 MM Funding Round
Diana Ngo reported Thursday that Sweden’s KnC Miner had raised millions in a Series A funding round.
“[L]ed by Nordic-based venture capital firm Creandum and advised by technology investment bank GP Bullhound, the funding will be dedicated to expand operations from hardware design into software, app and cloud services, as well as accelerate KnCMiner's growth in general.”
2. Students in Switzerland Unveil NFC Bitcoin Payments Device
Alyssa Hertig reported Wednesday on a near-field communication tool for Bitcoin payments created by students at the University of Zurich.
“Swiss doctoral students released an open source tool that relaxes mobile payment process. The mobile payment wallet can still be useful when one user has a patchy Internet connection.”
3. On-Campus Business at MIT Accepting Bitcoin
Carlo Caraluzzo reported Friday that MIT campus store the COOP has begun processing Bitcoin payments.
“Earlier this year the Bitcoin Project announced a plan to give every MIT undergraduate $100 in Bitcoin. This new arrangement with the COOP will now give the students a handy place to spend those free Bitcoins and save money on books and materials at the same time.”
4. Survey Says: 43% of Young People Would Buy Bitcoin
Alyssa Hertig reported Monday that a survey from the Conference of State Bank Supervisors revealed that people in the 18-24 age range were much more open to using Bitcoin.
“43% of 18-24 year old participants indicated they were "very likely’ or ‘somewhat likely’ to purchase Bitcoin, while only 8% of respondents older than 55 said the same. [...] But there's still a long way to go. The bulk of participants (65%) want to stay clear of the currency for the time being.”
5. DigitalTangible Launches Bitcoin/Gold Marketplace
Tone Vays reported Wednesday that trading platform DigitalTangible is introducing a marketplace that will allow investors to exchange bitcoins for gold in real time.
“This initiative seeks to use the Bitcoin blockchain to provide a low-cost system for precious metal dealers and experienced traders to instantly swap gold’s volatility for that of Bitcoin’s.”
Elsewhere
There is so much good reading out this week that takes a macro view of decentralization and cryptocurrencies. Grab a drink and a comfortable seat:
Start with Max Borders’ series “The End of Politics” over at Fee.org. Part 1 and Part 2 are already up.
Check out “The Case for a Decentralized Food Supply,” which was published a couple of weeks ago at the blog The Art of Not Being Governed.
Mihai Alisie has a good post called “Crypto Resistance” on the Ethereum blog.
Joon Ian Wong at CoinDesk has a nice story on Bitcoin brokers.
Market activity
Bitcoin fell against the dollar last weekend and never recovered a position above the US$500 mark during the week.
Trade volume held relatively stable against the price drop, maintaining a daily average around the US$4 million mark, though it did dip Thursday to around US$2.5 million. That’s not a historically low number or anything — it’s par for the course, really, over the last six months — but it’s nothing compared to those trade volume spikes we saw in mid-August of around US$12 and US$13 million.