This Week In Bitcoin: State of Bitcoin, Regulation, & Radical Transparency

Another exciting bitcoin newsweek, here is what you need to know.

State of Bitcoin Report

CoinDesk released their 59-slide State of Bitcoin Q2 2014 Report. Highlights include:

• 4x increase in mainstream media mentions from last year

• 63K merchants accepting bitcoin

• 5.3 million bitcoin wallets

• 2014 VC investment run-rate larger than 1995 internet

• $546 billion potential financial services market cap disruption from bitcoin

• Bitcoin’s Wikipedia page had 889K views in the last three months

• 340 iOS bitcoin apps & 250 Android bitcoin apps

• Bitcoin is 4000x cheaper than a typical remittance transaction

Bitcoin Functioned as Money Says Judge

“The money laundering statute is broad enough to encompass use of Bitcoins in financial transactions. Any other reading would—in light of Bitcoins’ sole raison d’etre—be nonsensical,” reported Wired. This order sets the stage for the Silk Road case which may have far reaching consequences for the bitcoin ecosystem. Until specific digital currency regulation is enacted, regulators are interpreting how existing regulations apply to bitcoin companies and users.

Related: $16.7 Million Government Auction Did Not Cause Panic Selling

Bitcoin Foundation Hires Lobbying Firm

The Bitcoin Foundation hired lobbying firm Thorsen French to “introduce Bitcoin and the foundation to Capitol Hill offices.” The firm will discuss the benefits bitcoin promises to bring humanity and the firms that are delivering those benefits. These efforts are important as it is widely expected governments will craft digital currency regulation in the near future.

5,000 Terminals Enable Ukrainians to trade Cash for Bitcoin

CoinDesk reported that Ukraine’s National Credit Bank has 4,900 payment BNK-24 terminals, which are used to pay for a variety of goods and services like utility bills, mobile phone credits, and now bitcoin vouchers. Users redeem vouchers at the bank’s website.

Bitcoins.com on Auction Block

Bidders will be able to try and win the bitcoins.com website until July 23rd at 10:00 PM Central Time. The site used to evangelize bitcoin and educate potential users. The proceeds of the auction will go to repay Mt. Gox creditors according to Forbes.

New Index Ignores Bitcoin Price

Pantera Capital has created a new index to help investors understand the evolution of the bitcoin ecosystem. Other indexes focus on price. This year bitcoin’s price has declined while the bitcoin fundamentals are stronger than ever. Pantera feels with their index ignoring price it will be a better tool to gauge the growth and adoption of bitcoin.

Related: Was Bitcoin's All-Time High Fraudulent?

Illegal French Bitcoin Exchange Closed

Although most people think bitcoin is unregulated, French police closed a French bitcoin exchange operating illegally. Authorities closed the exchange, seized 388 bitcoins, computer hardware, and €9,000 cash according to Coindesk.

Bitcoin Exchanges Provides Unprecedented Transparency

Hong Kong exchange Coinport enables customers to validate the exchange’s reserves. Coinport’s innovative website provides never before seen transparency for customers to self verify the exchanges funds. Bitcoin enthusiasts expect this type of transparency will permeate the industry and prevent catastrophes like Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi Scheme.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, David Smith has a long bitcoin position and owns So What’s Bitcoin?