Cryptocurrency Round-Up: PayPal Founder Sceptical of Bitcoin and Bitnet Receives $14.5m Funding

Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrency markets remain stable, as Bitnet secures Series A funding.(IBTimes UK)

The price of bitcoin has remained relatively stable over the past 24 hours, shifting by less than 1% in value since yesterday.

Most other major cryptocurrencies have followed in bitcoin's lead, with litecoin, dogecoin and peercoin all moving by between 0% and 2%.

The biggest mover across all digital currency markets is uro, the "hybrid commodity token" that pegs its value to the fertilizer urea. Uro's price jumped by 45% to take its market capitalisation up above $1.5 million for the first time since July.

The co-founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel has said that despite bitcoin being founded on the same set of ideas as PayPal, the two have developed in very different directions.

"Bitcoin is the opposite of PayPal, in the sense that it actually succeeded in creating a currency," Thiel said in a talk at the Booth School of Business in Illinois.

"However, its payment system is lacking, and it is often used to make illegal transactions, such as to buy heroin. Until bitcoin is used to make more legal transactions, I am a bit sceptical."

Thiel has previously described bitcoin as "badly lacking", saying in a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) last month that he would become "more bullish" on bitcoin when the payment volume of bitcoin significantly increases.

Bitnet secures $14.5m Series A funding

Bitcoin payments processor Bitnet has raised $14.5m in a Series A funding round that it hopes will go some way to enticing major merchants into using its payments software.

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Cryptocurrency Round-Up: PayPal Founder Sceptical of Bitcoin and Bitnet Receives $14.5m Funding