Cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin

Contents
Cryptocurrency.......................................................................................................................................................2
Defining and explaining Cryptocurrency..............................................................................................................2
History of Cryptocurrencies..................................................................................................................................3
List of cryotpcurrencies........................................................................................................................................3
Criticism................................................................................................................................................................4
Bitcoin......................................................................................................................................................................4
Defining and explaining Bitcoin............................................................................................................................4
History of Bitcoin..................................................................................................................................................5
Prices and value history.......................................................................................................................................5
Bubbles................................................................................................................................................................6
Interesting facts about bitcoin..............................................................................................................................6
10 Scary facts about Bitcoin.................................................................................................................................6
Economics............................................................................................................................................................8
A solution for national Economies?......................................................................................................................8
Increasing concerns.............................................................................................................................................8
Speculations.........................................................................................................................................................9
Wide spread vision...............................................................................................................................................9
Black markets.......................................................................................................................................................9
Money laundering...............................................................................................................................................10
Unauthorized mining..........................................................................................................................................10
Top 10 Bitcoin Merchant Sites............................................................................................................................10
Bibliography..........................................................................................................................................................12

IBM 1st year

Cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin

Cryptocurrency
Defining and explaining Cryptocurrency
According to the Investopedia website, a Cryptocurrency is defined as: A digital or virtual currency that uses
cryptography for security. A cryptocurrency is difficult to counterfeit because of this security feature. A defining
feature of a cryptocurrency is that it is not issued by any central authority, rendering it theoretically immune to
government interference or manipulation. The anonymous nature of cryptocurrency transactions makes them
well-suited for a host of nefarious activities such as money laundering and tax evasion.
A cryptocurrency is a digital medium of exchange. When comparing cryptocurrencies to fiat money, the most
notable difference is in how no group or individual may gain any significant control over the production of money,
instead only a certain amount of cryptocurrency can possibly be produced by the entire cryptocurrency system
collectively, at a rate which is always both prior defined and publicly known, which means it only has value if
people agree to such and use it as a medium of exchange. However, because it is not tied to any country, its
value cannot be affected by a central bank.
Since prices are based on supply and demand, the rate at which a cryptocurrency can be exchanged for another
currency can fluctuate widely.
Techopedia explains cryptocurrency as being an attempt to bring back a decentralized "currency of the people,"
one that is not subject to inflationary moves by a central bank. Because cryptocurrency transactions are
anonymous and virtually untraceable, they have created a niche market for illegal transactions such as in illegal
drugs. Because there is no central repository for the currency, neither law enforcement nor payment processors
have jurisdiction to freeze users accounts. However, for supporters of cryptocurrency, this anonymity is one of
the technologys main strengths, despite its abuse for illicit purposes, because it allows for a power shift from
institutions to individuals.
In cryptocurrency systems the safety, integrity and balance of all ledgers is ensured by miners who are for the
most part general members of the public actively protecting the network by maintaining a high hash-rate difficulty
for their chance at receiving a randomly distributed small fee. Averting the underlying security of a cryptocurrency
is a controversial process called 'derailing'.
Dozens of cryptocurrency specifications have been defined; most are similar to and derived from the first fully
implemented cryptocurrency protocol, Bitcoin. Most cryptocurrencies are designed to gradually introduce new
units of currency, placing an ultimate cap on the total amount of currency that will ever be in circulation. This is
done both to mimic the scarcity (and value) of precious metals and to avoid hyperinflation. Compared with
ordinary currencies held by financial institutions or kept as cash on hand, cryptocurrencies are less susceptible
to seizure by law enforcement.
An article found on Forbes explains that bitcoins derive their value partly through their scarcity, which is defined
not by how much can be dug up with shovels but by a cryptographic lottery. Anyone can get Bitcoins without
paying cash for them by downloading and running Bitcoins mining program. The machines in Bitcoins mining
network, now in the thousands, compute an encryption function called a hash on a set of random numbers, and
coins are awarded every ten minutes to whichever miner happens to compute a number below a certain
threshold. That lottery tightly controls how many Bitcoins are created.
No banker can control it. No evil dictator tyrant can print zillions and destroy the value, says Bruce Wagner,
organizer of New Yorks Bitcoin developers meet-up.
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Cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin

Gavin Andresen, the technical lead at Bitcoin, told Forbes that cryptocurrency is an attempt to bring back a
decentralized "currency of the people," one that is not subject to inflationary moves by a central bank. Bitcoins
must be cryptographically signed each time they are transferred. This means that each Bitcoin user has both a
public key and an individual private key.
Bitcoins anonymity was no accident. The system was originally designed by Satoshi Nakamoto, a mysterious,
privacy-obsessed figure who first described the currencys specs in a series of posts on a cryptography e-mail list
in late 2008. Nakamoto declined to be interviewed for this story, and not even Andresen, who took over the
project as technical lead in May 2010, has communicated with Bitcoins founder except through e-mail and posts
on Web forums. Nakamoto has compared Bitcoin to the systems of anonymous financial transactions sought by
the anarchist cypherpunk movement in the 1990s, whose adherents saw cryptography as a way to shift power
from institutions to individuals.
Bitcoins are completely untraceable, a fact that annoys governments and regulators no end. This libertarian
ethos makes Bitcoin the currency of choice for people trading on Silk Road, the online black market where illegal
drugs and other contraband can be purchased. But not every vendor who accepts Bitcoins is trading in illegal
commodities - a growing number of legitimate vendors are accepting crypto-currencies because some customers
insist on extreme privacy as a matter of principle.

History of Cryptocurrencies
With the arrival of so-called peer-to-peer money transfer, the average person in the street can now directly
participate in banking activities that until recently were the sole province of established banks and financial
institutions. If you have a computer and an internet connection, you can plug yourself into the global economy
and be your own banker.
Western Union is a well-known early example of the traditional method of wiring money to people in other parts
of the world. PayPal has dominated the internet-based money transfer business since being acquired by eBay in
2002. PayPal has extended its reach around the world and now processes transactions in the order of hundreds
of millions of dollars daily.
Now, some new players have taken to the field, their business models having fresh appeal to internet-savvy
consumers such as Google Wallet, Square cash, TransferWise and BitCoin are representative of the growing
number of peer-to-peer money transfer technologies now available to citizens of the online economy.
Early attempts to integrate cryptography with electronic money were made by David
via DigiCash and ecash, which used cryptography to anonymise electronic money transactions.

Chaum,

List of cryotpcurrencies
The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which was created in 2009 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi
Nakamoto. Later on, other major cryptocurrencies such as Namecoin, Litecoin and Peercoin were created.

Cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin

According to coinmarketcap.com there are a number of 52 cryptocurrencies, as being last updated on : Dec 17,
2013 8:18 AM UTC, with a Total Market Cap of $ 9,809,608,824. (All prices based on BTC/USD exchange
rate).
For example Bitcoin, has a Market cap of $ 8,935,974,670 and the Price of $ 736.40

Litecoin has a Market cap of $ 602,015,041 and the price of $ 25.06. Peercoin has a Market cap of $
71,657,716 with a price of $ 3.42. Namecoin has a market cap of $ 34,983,861 with a price of $ 4.66.
There are also other cryptocurrencies, but their value is rather low in comparison to the Bitcoin.

Criticism

Some people, such as bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen, have expressed concern that some
cryptocurrencies might be scams.

Some have expressed concern that the smaller cryptocurrencies are pump and dump schemes.

Some of these coins are pre-mined by parties affiliated with coin, have hidden launches, or have

erroneous rewards for the first miners of the coin.

Many smaller cryptocurrencies have very few users and are only traded on cryptocurrency markets.

Bitcoin
Defining and explaining Bitcoin
The Investopedia website defines Bitcoin as: A digital or virtual currency that uses peer-to-peer technology to
facilitate instant payments. Bitcoin is a type of alternative currency known as a cryptocurrency, which uses
cryptography for security, making it difficult to counterfeit. Bitcoin issuance and transactions are carried out
collectively by the network, with no central authority. The total number of Bitcoins that will be issued is capped at
21 million to ensure they are not devalued by limitless supply. They are divisible to 8 decimal places; Bitcoin
fractions are called satoshis. Users store their Bitcoins in a digital wallet, while transactions are verified by a
digital signature known as a public-encryption key.
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Cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin

History of Bitcoin
In November 2008, a paper was posted on the internet under the name Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peerto-Peer Electronic Cash System. This paper detailed methods of using a peer-to-peer network to generate what
was described as "a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust". In January 2009, the Bitcoin
network came into existence with the release of the first open source Bitcoin client and the issuance of the first
bitcoins, with Satoshi Nakamoto mining the first block of bitcoins ever (known as the "genesis block"), which had
a reward of 50 bitcoins.
The value of the first bitcoin transactions were negotiated by individuals on the bitcointalka forums with one
notable transaction involving a 10,000 BTC pizza. It is widely believed that the first real-world bitcoin
transaction took place on May 21st, 2010. Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer living in Florida, sent 10,000 bitcoin
(BTC), the online-only,open source cryptocurrency, to a volunteer in England, who then spent about $25 to order
Hanyecz some Papa John's. It was a major milestone in bitcoin's short history. And as of right now, it cost
Hanyecz three-quarters of a million dollars. You are looking at a $750,000 pizza. Thanks largely to the financial
crisis in Cyprus, which has spurred Europeans to buy up bitcoins at a blistering rate, a single BTC is now worth a
record 75 US dollars. But three years ago, when the currency was unveiled in February 2010, one bitcoin was
worth just $0.03.
On 6 August 2010, a major vulnerability in the Bitcoin protocol was spotted. Transactions weren't properly verified
before they were included in the transaction log or "block chain" which let users bypass Bitcoin's economic
restrictions and create an indefinite number of bitcoins. On 15 August, the vulnerability was exploited; over 184
billion bitcoins were generated in a transaction, and sent to two addresses on the network. Within hours, the
transaction was spotted and erased from the transaction log after the bug was fixed and the network forked to an
updated version of the Bitcoin protocol. This was the only major security flaw found and exploited in Bitcoin's
history.
Wikileaks and other organizations began to accept bitcoins for donations. In January 2012, Bitcoin was featured
as the main subject within a fictionalized trial on the CBS legal drama The Good Wife in the third season episode
"Bitcoin for Dummies". The host of CNBC's Mad Money, Jim Cramer, played himself in a courtroom scene where
he testifies that he doesn't consider Bitcoin a true currency, saying "There's no central bank to regulate it; it's
digital and functions completely peer to peer". In October 2012, BitPay reported having over 1,000 merchants
accepting Bitcoin under its payment processing service. On February 8th 2013 customers of Coinbase,a platform
for buying and selling the digital currency, have bought or sold more than $1 million worth of Bitcoins. Coinbase
CEO Brian Armstrong told VentureBeat : There is an incredible amount of demand for people who want to buy
Bitcoins now. Coinbase launched last year and aims to be the PayPal of Internet-only currency. The company
has seen huge growth after it started letting users buy and sell Bitcoins by connecting any U.S. bank account.

Prices and value history

Jan 2009 Jan 2010 the bitcoin had no value

Cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin

Feb 2010 May 2010 the price for 1 Bitcoin was less than $0.01
June 2010 in five days the price grew 1000% rising from $0.008 to $0.08 for 1 bitcoin
During Feb 2011 April 2011 Bitcoin takes parity with US dollar
8 July 2011 it rose to 31$ only to drop to 2$ in December 2011
Dec 2012 13$ for a bitcoin,slowly rising for a year
April 11, 2013 266$ the value was growing 5-10% daily
May 2013 - $130 stable and slowly rising
In November exponentially rising to $400, then $600, eventually reaching $900 on 19 and breaking $1000
threshold on 27 November 2013.

Bubbles
Many have mentioned speculative bubbles in connection with Bitcoin,bubble meaning Trade in high volumes at
prices that are considerably at variance with intrinsic values(fundamental values). The value of all the bitcoins in
the world blew past $1 billion for the 1 st time ever. That is quiet an achievement for a purely virtual currency
backed by no central bank or other authority. Were in a middle of a bitcoin bubble at the moment and it will
surely burst because bitcoins are an uncomfortable combination of commodity and currency. The commodity
value of bitcoins is rooted in their currency value, but the more of a commodity they become, the less useful they
are as a currency.
Bitcoin has risen or fallen based on media hype and fallen based on security breaches. The biggest crash came
in 2011, following a hack of the worlds biggest Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox(site). Theft is also a major concern as
Bitcoins in literal form are lines of code, they can be stolen from your computer.

Interesting facts about bitcoin

1. No more than 21 million bitcoins will ever be created
2. One bitcoin can actually be divided up to 0.00000001
3. Bitcoins are created by computational calculations called mining which has become a very competitive
industry over time.
4. Bitcoin is international and allows sending any amount of money anywhere, instantly and cheaply
5. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible

Cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin

6. The network holds all transactions in whats called the blockchain, which is 100% transparent
7. The network is also responsible for verifying that no one is cheating the transactions. The network has
no transaction errors up-to-date
8. Bitcoin is not anonymous by default but it is the most private way to send money online
9. Bitcoins value is regulated purely by free market
10. Bitcoins value is very volatile but that is also what allows it to gain value
11. Most of all, bitcoin is very secure

10 Scary facts about Bitcoin

1. Digital Bitcoin wallets are stored unencrypted by default
Many in the current Bitcoin community are well-versed in technology, and would opt in to encrypt their
wallets as soon as they register. However, Bitcoin in the past six months has turned the corner into the
mainstream, and will continue to attract the attention of those who are not as tech-savvy as its early
adopters
2. Bitcoin thefts have occurred, sometimes in large quantities
In June 2011 one user in the Bitcoin forum claimed that 25.000 Bitcoins, the equivalent of $375.000 was
stolen from his wallet. Mt.Gox leaked 60.000 user names, passwords hashes and email addresses, they
reversed the trades and fixed the problem but the leak led to the theft of Bitcoins from about 600 users
who used the same user names and passwords for their MyBitcoin accounts.
3. Old wallets, and their contents can be retrieved pretty easily
Another potential issue for those who are less educated on technology is what changing the password
means for and eWallet. An old copy of a wallet with its old password is often easily retrievable via an
existing backup facility (particularly Apple Time-Machine): draining that old wallet, with its old password,
drains the current wallet with the current password
4. DoS is possible on Bitcoin, just like any other site.
Just like banking websites, which have been the target of denial-of-service attacks in the past, Bitcoin
services are susceptible to DoS attacks.
5. There are no guarantees that any eWallet service wont one day take al your bitcoins and disappear
That quote is taken directly from the Bitcoins Wiki on anonymity, alongside a warning to use at your
own risk.
6. Speaking of legal issues, it is a bit murky
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an early adopter of Bitcoin for its donations page, stopped
accepting the currency in June 2011, citing the complex legal issues involved with a currency system
as its top reason. The EFF did, however, reverse that decision just a couple of weeks ago, after
spending two years researching Bitcoin and how it relates to the complex regulation of currency on a
global scale.
7. Bitcoin is not really all that anonymous.
Sure, Bitcoin transactions are conducted anonymously, without any names or a bank tracking your
move. But that doesnt mean they cant be tracked.
8. Hoarding could pop Bitcoins bubble
Hoarding, or saving, in the Bitcoin community is a highly debatable issue. Harvey, when asked about
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Cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin

hoarding and the fact that many Bitcoin users have stashed the currency away, says its good for a
community looking to establish savings rather than rely on credit. A research found that 78% of all
Bitcoin were not being used in circulation and if the users begin exchanging their coins for U.S. dollars
the value could plummet and may have difficulty rising again.
9. If Bitcoin fails, it has no safety net.
Another much-discussed attribute of Bitcoin is that it doesnt rely on a governing body, like the U.S.
dollar. That prevents it from being subjected to inflation and transfer fees for international
purchases.However, the support of a governing body comes in handy when someone needs to bear the
brunt of a drop in value.
10. Leaders in the Bitcoin community call it risky
In 2011, after the data leak at Mt. Gox wreaked havoc on Bitcoins value, Gavin Andresen, a lead
developer on the Bitcoin Project, issued a stern warning to those caught up in the hype of the currency.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Bitcoin is an experiment. Treat it like you would a promising
Internet start-up company: maybe it will change the world, but realize that investing your money or time
in new ideas is always risky.
Economics
Large fluctuations in the value of Bitcoin have led to many questions regarding its ability to function as a
currency since people may be scared to hold onto their money in the form of bitcoin for fear that it can lose
exchange power. Stability in a currency's value plays a very important role in people's choice of whether they will
use it or not. However, the volatility has little effect on the currency's utility as a medium of transfer from one
currency to another since the amount of time money is stored as bitcoin is small so fluctuations should also be
minor.
The fees and delays involved in transferring money across borders via bitcoin are small compared to
those imposed by banks and their intermediaries in the standard way: pennies compared to dollars and minutes
compared to days. As of November 2013, the main use for bitcoins was likely for international money transferring
purposes.
For the moment, bitcoin is an encouraging exchange tool. By November 2013 there were about 1000
businesses willing to accept payment in bitcoin, and more than 20 000 merchants online. For example, a NGO,
the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Monica accepts donations in bitcoin.
Economic emergence
JPMorgans intervention strengthens the argument that something like Bitcoin will eventually become a
serious part of the online economy. The price of a bitcoin reached previous all-time high of US$1124.76 on 29
November 2013, up from just US$13.36 of 5 January at the start of the year; an 84.19 times increase.

A solution for national Economies?

Bitcoins are accepted even in the Netherlands with many more countries aligning themselves in the
pursuit for currency stability method.
Some have suggested that Bitcoin is gaining popularity in countries with problem-plagued national
currencies, as it can be used to circumvent inflation, capital controls, and international sanctions. Bitcoins are
used by some people in Argentina as an way of coping with the inflation and strict capital controls. Also, some
people from Iran use bitcoins to evade currency sanctions.

Cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin

Financial journalists and analysts have suggested that there was a link between higher Bitcoin usage in
Spain and the 2012-2013 Cypriot financial crisis.
Increasing concerns
Many have mentioned speculative bubbles in connection with Bitcoin. Professor John Quiggin of the
University of Queensland has noted that since Bitcoin by design has no intrinsic value, it is "perhaps the finest
example of a pure bubble" currently known and "represent[s] the sharpest ever refutation of the efficient-markets
hypothesis", but cautions that we have no way to predict when the value of bitcoins will return to zero.
Nick Colas, a market strategist for ConvergEx Group, has stated out the effect of increasing use of
Bitcoin and its restricted supply, noting: "When incremental adoption meets relatively fixed supply, it should be no
surprise that prices go up. And that's exactly what is happening to BTC prices."

Speculations
Bitcoins are often traded as an investment by speculators who expect the currency to increase in value
as its popularity widens. Bitcoins have been described as lacking intrinsic value as an investment because their
value depends only on the willingness of users to accept them. Their vulnerability to hacking also makes their
use as an investment more questionable.
Derivatives of bitcoins are in short supply. One organization offers futures contracts against multiple
currencies.
Certain investment funds have shown interest in Bitcoin with Peter Thiel's Founders
Fund investing US$3 million, and the Winklevoss twins making a US$1.5 million personal investment.
Wide spread vision
Bitcoin's association with criminal activities has historically hindered the currency from attaining
widespread, mainstream use and has attracted the attention of financial regulators, legislative bodies, and law
enforcement.The Washington Post has labeled it "the currency of choice for seedy online activities," and CNN
has called Bitcoin a "shady online currency."
Its links to criminal activities have prompted scrutiny from the FBI, US Senate, and the State of New
York. The FBI stated in a 2012 report that "Bitcoins will likely continue to attract cyber-criminals who view it as a
means to move or steal funds".
In March 2013 the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) established regulatory
guidelines for "decentralized virtual currencies" such as Bitcoin, classifying American "Bitcoin miners" who sell
their generated bitcoins as money services businesses (or MSBs), that may be subject to registration and other
legal obligations.
In August 2013 the German Finance Ministry characterized Bitcoin as a unit of account, usable
in multilateral clearing circles and subject to capital gains tax if held less than one year. The New York State
Department of Financial Services, citing its authority to regulate money transmissions and its concern with
criminal activity (Silk Road in particular), announced an inquiry in late 2013 into possible regulations and
guidelines for Bitcoin (a "BitLicense") and the holding of public hearings in New York City. The US Internal
Revenue Service has also stated that it is actively working on its own rules for Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin

Black markets
Several news outlets assert that the popularity of Bitcoin hinges on the ability to use them to purchase
illegal substances. In 2013 The Guardian reported that the currency was primarily used to purchase illegal drugs
and for online gambling, and The Huffington Post stated that "online gambling accounts for a huge portion of
Bitcoin activity."
An experiment, conducted by two young American citizens last year ended with the conclusion that
bitcom is actually not that highly secure and private. They bought marihuana from three other countries, using
bitcoin and the result was that they got caught. If anyone were to pay close attention to the entries and goings of
bitcoin tracers, it would be really easy to identify the culprits.
Legitimate transactions are thought to be far less than the number involved in the purchase of drugs,
and roughly one half of all transactions made using Bitcoin are bets placed at a single online gaming website. In
2012, an academic from the Carnegie Mellon CyLab and the Information Networking Institute estimated that 4.5
to 9% of all bitcoins spent were for purchases of drugs at a single online market, Silk Road.
As the majority of the Bitcoin transactions were at this time speculative in nature, this academic asserts
that drugs constituted a much larger percentage of the products and services bought using the currency,
however. The Huffington Post stated in 2013 that online gun dealers use Bitcoin to sell arms without background
checks.
Money laundering
While some regulatory authorities, including the European Banking Authority, feel Bitcoin may be used
for money laundering. A 2012 report by the FBI acknowledged such fears but stated that there were no known
instances of this occurring. Some say one obstacle to bitcoins becoming widely used to launder money may be
the fact that the transaction history is public.
During the US Senate hearing in 2013, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, director of the Treasury Department's
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said that despite the possibility for using Bitcoin that "Cash is probably
still the best medium for money laundering."

Unauthorized mining
In June 2011, Symantec warned about the possibility of botnets engaging in covert mining of
bitcoins, consuming computing cycles, using extra electricity and increasing computer temperatures. Some
malware used the parallel processing capabilities of the GPUs built into many modern video cards.
In mid-August 2011, bitcoin miner botnets were detected again, and less than three months later
Bitcoin-mining trojans infecting Mac OS X were also discovered. In April 2013 electronic sports organization ESports Entertainment were accused of hijacking 14,000 computers to mine bitcoins; the case was settled in
November with the organization fined US$1 million if it breaks the law within the following ten years, or $325,000
if it does not.
There are guidelines for Bitcoin (a "BitLicense") and the holding of public hearings in New York City. The
US Internal Revenue Service has also stated that it is actively working on its own rules for Bitcoin.

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Cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin

The Norwegian Tax Administration stated in 2013 that they don't define Bitcoin as money but regard it
as an asset. Profits are subjected to wealth tax. In business the use of Bitcoin falls under the sales tax regulation.
Some have suggested that due to its close association with illegal purchases, governments could
outlaw Bitcoin. This assertion has been made by Steven Strauss, a Harvard public policy professor, and was also
mentioned in 2013 SECfiling made by a Bitcoin investment vehicle. Bitcoins are not currently illegal, however.
FBI Special Agent Christopher Tarbell has stated that "Bitcoins are not illegal in and of themselves and have
known legitimate uses".

Top 10 Bitcoin Merchant Sites

1. WordPress.com Site offers free blogs managed by the developers of the WordPress software and includes
custom design templates, integrated statistics, and automatic spam protection. WordPress announced their
decision to start accepting bitcoin in November 2012.

2. The Pirate Bay As a large BitTorrent directory for music, movies and software, The Pirate Bay
started accepting bitcoin for donations in April 2013.

3. Reddit The social news and entertainment site focuses on user-generated news links with votes promoting
top stories to the front page. Reddit started accepting bitcoin for the purchase of reddit gold in February 2013.

4. The Internet Archive The Internet Archive is a nonprofit organization established to provide a permanent
digital library by preserving Web sites. The Wayback Machine provides links to older versions of various
webpages. They started accepting bitcoin donations and paying some employees in bitcoin in February 2013.

5. OkCupid The free friendship, dating and social networking site started accepting bitcoin to pay for bonus
features in April 2013.

6. 4chan.org 4chan is a simple image-based bulletin board where anyone can post comments and share
images without a requirement to register. The boards are dedicated to a variety of topics, from Japanese
animation and culture to video games, music, and photography. They started accepting bitcoin for premium
subscriptions in December 2012.

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Cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin

7. Namecheap it offers affordable domain name registration, parking, e-mail, URL forwarding, and SSL
certificates. They began accepting bitcoin in March 2013.

8. EZTV It is your one-stop source for all your favourite TV shows and they started accepting bitcoin donations
in April 2013.
9. Mega.co.nz MEGA offers 50 GB of free storage space and uploaded files are encrypted with only the user
holding the decryption keys. Processed by Bitvoucher, the Kim Dotcom site started accepting bitcoin for private
package upgrades in February 2013.
10. Lumfile It is a free cloud-based file server that has been accepting bitcoin for premium accounts since at
least December 2012.

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