Bitcoin Yearly 2014: A retrospective monthly look back at bitcoin (Part 1: Jan Jun)

Bitcoin News For 2014 With SiliconANGLE

The year 2014 has been long on Bitcoin news. For the most part it has been good, the industry has grown by leaps and bounds as more investment pours into Bitcoin projects, merchants from Dell to Microsoft have accepted bitcoins for services, and even PayPal partnered its way in. It has not been all rainbows and roses, however, with several hacks, arrests, and the fallout from Silk Road 1.0.

In light of the past year, though, its been an amazing ride.

Below is a month-by-month highlight of adoption events, hacks, and big news as seen by the Bitcoin community. This post is split into two parts, this is Bitcoin Yearly January through June, keep reading for July through December.

By January 2014, Overstock.com launches availability of bitcoin transactions for merchant products in what seemed to be a first-to-market coup shortly after announcing that the company would be accepting BTC. Soon after going live with bitcoin payments, Overstocks CEO Patrick Byrne announces $124,000 in bitcoin sales in 24 hours.

BitPay teams up with Zynga Inc. to experiment with BTC for cow-clicking and TigerDirect also joins BitPay. TigerDirect soon reveals over $500,000 USD worth of products bought with BTC in the first three days.

In crime news, BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem is arrested on charges of money laundering and possible connection to the activities of Silk Road.

New York States superintendent of financial services, Benjamin Lawsky, announces his intention to create BitLicense, a regulatory framework designed to encompass Bitcoin-related business ventures in New York. This entire endeavor will not go over well in the coming months. The proposal is released in July and thats when the fireworks start.

February marks the end of the Mt. Gox troubles as the teetering exchange finally topples and numerous problems are revealed in the aftermath. By the end of February, much of the Bitcoin industry of the day is calling Mt. Gox insolvent and month-long troubles comes to an end. Mt. Gox officially files for bankruptcy in Japan on Friday, February 28th.

During this month the transaction ID malleability exploit is also discovered, which involves poor programming on the part of exchanges that do not double-check transaction IDs. Many exchanges discover they were vulnerable and malicious parties attempted to take advantage by DDoSing exchanges. Mt. Gox also blamed this exploit for its troubles. However, a multitude of exchanges also promote rapid fixes or prove they are not vulnerable.

See original here:
Bitcoin Yearly 2014: A retrospective monthly look back at bitcoin (Part 1: Jan Jun)