CryptoKids: Altcoins, Apps And Authors Aim To Bring Bitcoin To Children

forbes.com / Anthony Cuthbertson / 7/29/2014 @ 9:30AM

Cryptocurrency is child’s play, at least that’s what a new wave of educational programs, apps and even kid-friendly cryptocurrencies would suggest.

While most adults may still be baffled by bitcoin and bemused by blockchains, a new generation is being introduced to this alternative form of finance by advocates aiming to bring about a “digital currency revolution”. Their belief is that our current financial system can be overthrown by those who don’t even yet have bank accounts.

The latest initiative comes in the form of ‘The Bitcoin Alphabet – For Kids and Everyone Else’, a recently launched app that sets out the A to Z of bitcoin through a mixture of illustrations and text explaining everything from ‘altcoin’ to ‘zero-confirmation transactions’.

The author of the app, Chris Bozak, came up with the idea in the belief that cryptocurrency is a “wonderfully inevitable rabbit hole” that will force the world to re-learn everything that is currently known about money. - READ MORE

Apple Allows the World’s Most Popular Bitcoin Wallet Back Into Its Store

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Ariel Zambelich/WIRED | wired.com / KLINT FINLEY / 07.28.14 7:11 PM

It looks like Apple has finally changed its stance on bitcoin.

Six months after Apple removed Blockchain from its online App Store—effectively preventing people from using the popular bitcoin wallet app on the iPhone and the iPad—the tech giant has now allowed the app back into the store. “This seems to be the first strong and real sign they are ready to accommodate future digital currency development,” the makers of Blockchain said a statement, referring to Apple. “It goes a long way to legitimizing bitcoin and now provides hundreds of millions of iOS users access to bitcoin applications.”

The news arrived on the heels of Apple approving a newer wallet app called Coinpocket for inclusion in the App Store, and for Blockchain CEO Nicolas Cary, this proves that Coinpocket is no fluke. That’s a big deal for the world of bitcoin, a currency that exists only on the internet, independent of governments and free from the control of big banks. The currency entered the consciousness of the general public last year—in a very big way—but has since struggled to significantly expand its reach, due to various setbacks. Maybe the iPhone and the iPad can help restart its engines.

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BitBeat: New York Getting Tough On Bitcoin; Ecuador Getting Tougher

Megan Miller | blogs.wsj.com / PAUL VIGNA and MICHAEL J. CASEY / Jul 28, 2014 2:02 pm ET

The public-comment period for Ben Lawsky’s bitlicense proposal opened on Wednesday, and the initial comment from the bitcoin faithful seems to be: too much proposal, not enough time.

“We’re getting the sense that people are concerned about the extent of these regulations,” Jim Harper, global policy counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation, told MoneyBeat. “It’s a really big thing the DFS has proposed to do here.”

The major sticking point for those opposed appears to be the degree to which the bitlicense will stifle innovation, he said. Many are arguing the requirements for obtaining one of the licenses will apparently be too onerous for small start-ups, codifying in effect only larger players. It could lead to a dynamic Mr. Harper said he’s heard discussed: “geofencing,” in effect start-ups would use filters to keep out any New York IP addresses.

Mr. Lawsky has held, most recently in a reddit thread he started earlier this month, that “we have sought to strike an appropriate balance that helps protect consumers and root out illegal activity – without stifling beneficial innovation.”

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