Texas has it right on cryptocurrency regulation.

The full text, including introduction and analysis, of the Texas Department of Banking memorandum can be found here:

Regulatory-Treatment-of-Virtual-Currencies-under-the-Texas-Money-Services-Act.pdf

http://www.dob.texas.gov/lg_manual/sm1037.pdf

For a further breakdown, please check out the following article:

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/texas-department-banking-reveals-regulatory-treatment-virtual-currencies-texas-money-services-act/2014/04/03

“We make it easy for businesses like the Sacramento Kings to accept bitcoin as a form of payment both in-person and online,” said Tony Gallippi, co-founder and CEO of BitPay. “As the first professional sports team to accept bitcoin, the Sacramento Kings continue to show that they are at the intersection of sports and technology.”

Also Surpasses 15,500 Merchants

 "This year, the 2013 holiday season was Adafruit's biggest ever. We are delighted to offer bitcoin payments via BitPay to our community and customers. It was fast and easy, hundreds of orders and happy customers getting educational electronics, using bitcoin!" shared Limor Fried, Founder and Engineer with Adafruit.

 Bitcoin has "clear potential for growth and could become a major means of payment for online transactions” a Bank of America analyst told CNBC. As the number of Bitcoin users continues to increase, merchants such as Adafruit, BTCTrip, Alliance Virtual Offices, and Clearly Canadian, see the value of working with BitPay to help expand their business.

 "BitPay is the gateway payment for business that want to accept bitcoin. It's the main player to develop the merchant economy for bitcoin community,” said Martin Fernandez, CEO BTCTrip.

 BitPay has made the process of becoming a merchant simple, hassle free and accessible everywhere. Merchants choose the way they want to accept Bitcoin; either via mobile device in-store, NFC into a POS terminal, online through any of BitPay’s shopping cart partners, or through direct API. Merchants can also choose how they want their funds settled from one of the 40 local currencies BitPay offers including Bitcoin.

 Many of BitPay’s new merchants are “trying to stay ahead of the curve, while expanding our customer base,” says Anthony Gallippi, Owner of Smoke Bourbon BBQ House in Toronto, Canada.

 The recently launched global directory features many of the world’s greatest bitcoin-accepting merchants. The directory gives bitcoin users access to thousands of businesses and charities that now accept bitcoin.  By continuing to add new merchants daily, BitPay continues it mission to expand Bitcoin in the e-payments world.

BitPay Drives Explosive Growth in Bitcoin Commerce

ATLANTA -- December 2, 2013 --  BitPay, the world’s leading merchant processor for virtual currencies, announces that in November it processed a record 55,288 bitcoin merchant transactions, representing a 165% increase from October.  Strong activity from KNC Miner, Gyft, and Amagi Metals led the increase.

 

 

During the Bitcoin Black Friday event on November 29, BitPay processed 6,296 bitcoin transactions in a single day, making it the most popular day in the history of bitcoin commerce.  On November 29, more than 6% of all transactions on the bitcoin network were spent on goods and services through BitPay’s platform.  

“BitPay’s order volume is the most accurate indicator of the real bitcoin economy, and today that economy is soaring higher as merchants are seeing tremendous value in accepting bitcoin payments,” states Tony Gallippi, BitPay Co-founder and CEO.  “We are building the most powerful, reliable, and scalable tools for businesses to accept bitcoin.”

Last year, the Bitcoin Friday event was BitPay’s largest volume day in 2012 and the company processed 99 transactions.  The year-over-year growth of BitPay on Black Friday is 6,260%.

BitPay continues to enroll new merchants at a rapid pace, onboarding over 3,000 merchants in November to exceed a total of 14,000 bitcoin-accepting merchants.  Shopify’s integration of BitPay into its checkout process now makes BitPay available to 75,000 merchants using the Shopify ecommerce platform.

Enrollment in BitPay’s all-inclusive processing plans is also accelerating.  By selecting one of the all-inclusive plans, BitPay merchants can choose the software features they need, and process an unlimited number of transactions with zero transaction fees.  

“No merchant service provider riding on the traditional interchange rails can offer all-inclusive pricing because there are three or four middlemen who take a cut of every transaction,” says Gallippi. “Some processors tease merchants with flat-rate pricing, but there are many hidden fees and limitations that make flat-rate offers an illusion.”

Square, which offers a flat-rate credit card processing plan for $275/month, recently announced they would be discontinuing this plan on February 1, 2014, and would charge merchants a 2.75% or 3.5% processing fee on every transaction.

BitPay, in keeping with its mission to build a better e-payments world, has launched a new global bitcoin directory which features many of the world’s greatest bitcoin-accepting merchants. Shoppers looking for everyday goods and services or unique gifts will find a wide variety of places to spend their bitcoins in the bitcoin directory.

“We are often asked where to spend bitcoins and this global directory allows bitcoin merchants around the world to get discovered,” says Tony Gallippi, BitPay Co-founder and CEO. “With this service we will be linking over 5 million bitcoin users with merchants and we will continue adding more merchants.”

The directory gives bitcoin users access to thousands of businesses and charities that now accept bitcoin. Some of the most popular categories include Web and IT Services, Electronics and Precious Metals. BitPay has also included a Travel and Tourism section for bitcoiners looking to plan their next vacation and a search feature that shows them where to spend bitcoins with local merchants.

Bitcoin Magazine

Original author:  Elizabeth Ploshay

The Bitcoin economy has now surpassed 2 billion USD and transactions sizes between USD and BTC continue to rise. Just this morning, lead Bitcoin payment processing company, BitPay, announced the processing of the largest Bitcoin merchant transaction ever of 1 million USD. BitPay not only set a record, but also processed, cleared and settled this transaction next business day for Butterfly Labs. BitPay, unlike PayPal, the lead USD payment processing company, guarantees no reversibility or chargeback of payment.

BitPay issued the following press release:

BitPay Processes $1 Million Bitcoin Merchant Transaction  

Processes, Clears, and Settles to Merchant’s Bank the Next Business Day

ATLANTA — October 29, 2013 — BitPay, the world’s largest payment processor for virtual currencies, announces that it has processed its largest bitcoin merchant transaction ever, a single order for $1,000,000 for Kansas City-based bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer Butterfly Labs.  BitPay  processed, cleared, and settled the transaction within their normal one business day time frame directly to Butterfly Labs’ bank account.

 “The speed, reliability, and certainty of payments over the bitcoin network is expanding at a rapid pace, and in many regards has already surpassed the functionality of our 60-year old credit card networks,” states Tony Gallippi, co-founder and CEO of BitPay.  “Butterfly Labs can now ship this merchandise with confidence that there will be no reversibility or chargeback of the payment, which is a significant risk found when accepting credit cards online or PayPal.”

Butterfly Labs sells bitcoin mining hardware, which is part of the distributed computing network that secures the bitcoin accounting ledger.  The amount of computing power of the bitcoin network has grown exponentially this year, from 20 Terahashes per second (Th/s) on January 1, 2013, to 3000 Terahashes per second today.  The network took 4.5 years to reach 1000 Th/s, then one month to reach 2000 Th/s, then and week to reach 3000 Th/s.  

BitPay has also expanded the translations of its checkout process into 40 languages, with new additions including French, Chinese, and Portuguese.  Customers making a bitcoin purchase with BitPay can now view and complete the entire checkout process in their native language. Business selling electronics, jewelry,  and  computers can now increase their exports to emerging markets as these items tend to be the most often purchased internationally.

For businesses reaching international customers, accepting bitcoin through BitPay offers a tremendous value.  The business can accept a payment from customers in any country on earth, with no risk of fraud or chargebacks, which makes it ideal for businesses selling high-priced items online.

CEO Tony Gallippi will be speaking on Bitcoin’s Place in the Global Financial Market at Webit Congress November 6th in  Istanbul, Turkey.

About BitPay

BitPay is a Payment Service Provider (PSP) specializing in eCommerce, B2B, and enterprise solutions for virtual currencies. Visit https://bitpay.com.

The weekly Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Meetup Group will be meeting this Tuesday, October 1, 2013, at 7:00 pm at Central Market. Feel free to stop by and join the conversation.

Adds Support for Quickbooks Import of Bitcoin Sales

ATLANTA -- September 16, 2013 -- BitPay Inc, the world leader in business solutions for virtual currencies, announces it has over 10,000 approved merchants in 164 countries using its service to accept bitcoin payments. This milestone was reached almost exactly one year after the company approved its 1,000th merchant.

The merchants in BitPay’s directory are diverse internationally, with approximately 50% located in North America, 25% in Europe, and 25% in the rest of the world. eCommerce merchants account for over 90% of the business, including consumer electronics, precious metals and IT services. Bitcoin lowers the risk and cost of accepting payments in a card not-present situation, such as eCommerce.

BitPay’s merchant service continues to expand its feature set at a rapid pace. Merchants using the popular Quickbooks small business accounting software can now download and import their BitPay sales into Quickbooks.

“Our merchants are thrilled with this ability to import into Quickbooks,” says BitPay CFO Bryan Krohn. “It makes reporting their bitcoin sales just as frictionless as the payment itself.”

The month of August was another record month for BitPay, processing over 10,000 merchant transactions worth over $6.4 million. Year-to-date in 2013, over $34 million worth of Bitcoins have been spent on goods and services through merchants using BitPay’s platform.

BitPay’s story is unique in the start-up space. Founded by two graduates of Georgia Tech, the company built a working product, acquired customers, and achieved profitability with only the two founders.

After raising their round of seed capital, BitPay has chosen to establish their roots in Atlanta and build their company culture in a city known for innovation, but often overlooked by the Silicon Valley insiders.

“Atlanta is a hub for financial technology, especially in the payment and merchant acquiring space,” states BitPay CEO Anthony Gallippi. “There’s a cluster of amazing companies here, focused on delivering real results through innovation.”

With pre-built plugins or embedded solutions for 20 of the most popular shopping cart platforms, adding bitcoin as a payment option to a merchant’s web store can be done in a few minutes, without any programming code.

About BitPay
BitPay is a Payment Service Provider (PSP) specializing in eCommerce, B2B, and enterprise solutions for virtual currencies. Visit https://bitpay.com.

Original Article Link

The weekly Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Meetup Group will be meeting this Thursday, August 29, 2013, at Central Market.  If you are interesting in Bitcoin mining, Cointerra is scheduled to attend this meeting too.  Please feel free to stop by and join the conversation.

The Austin Bitcoin Meetup group will be presenting a Mini Bitcoin Conference this Saturday, August 17, 2013, from 5pm to 7pm at the JJ Pickle Research Campus in Austin, Texas.  This conference will be free and open to the public.

Capital Coin and Bullion of Austin, Texas, is now accepting Bitcoin via BitPay.  They feature a great selection of high quality coins, precious metals, discounted premiums, appraisal and consignment services, Berkey water filtration products, Youngevity nutritional supplements, Patriot Safes, ammunition and IRA funding services.  Capital Coin and Bullion's mission is to be the preferred shopping destination by delivering excellent customer service and outstanding value at an affordable price.

Their location, hours and phone number:

7304 Burnet Road
Suite A
Austin, Texas 78757
(512)371-5884

Hours:
Monday - Friday
10 - 6
Saturday
10 - 2
Closed Sunday

Austin Bitcoin has become a certified integration partner with BitPay.com, the largest Bitcoin payment processor.  This partnership will help local Texas merchants start accepting Bitcoin as payment for goods and services.  The best part about BitPay's service is that merchants do not have to carry Bitcoin on their ledgers.  Since the business does not hold actual Bitcoins, this makes it much easier for accountants to maintain their books without needing to create a new entry for Bitcoin.  This also takes away the risk involved in accepting a fluctuating cryptocurrency.

Austin Bitcoin is excited to help businesses start accepting this emerging technology.  Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have about Bitcoin payment integration.