05 June 2014 / CNBC – It’s not surprising Apple is rethinking its policy to allow its apps to accept virtual currency payments. Retailers, including Lord & Taylor, Overstock and TigerDirect, are syncing operations to make it easier for consumers with digital wallets to transact business with the cryptocurrency. The trend has venture capitalists bullish on bitcoin. Already, San Francisco Bay-area bitcoin start-ups have received more than $200 million in VC funding, and the number continues to grow.
Why is this happening? There are three aspects to bitcoin that have investors particularly excited today, and it all begins very simply with speculation of the cryptocurrency’s value.
Mining pools, such as the heavily funded super-secret 21E6 in San Francisco, are apparently going long on bitcoin by mining as many bitcoins as they can, making the bet that its value will exceed mining costs. 21E6 has raised at least $5 million in venture funding.
Another bitcoin start-up getting big dollars is Palo Alto, California-based Vaurum, which recently announced seed funding of $4 million from Battery Ventures, Tim Draper, RRE Ventures and Steve Case. Vaurum runs an exchange that facilitates over-the-counter bitcoin trading for institutional traders….. Read more
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101711220
