Hasta La Gadget!

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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PayPal CEO John Donahoe is considering ways of implementing BitCoins into PayPal’s digital transaction network. He says that he’s watching Bitcoins very closely and expects that the virtual currency, or virtual currency in general, will be here to stay. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Donahoe stated that within 5 years, Bitcoins and other virtual currencies will be able to be converted into cash and be used in the real world.

The value of Bitcoins has skyrocketed, with its current value being around $140 last time I checked (but considering how quickly its value changes, it may be different now). If Bitcoins were able to be converted into real cash, the U.S. Treasury Department would apply certain money-laundering rules to regulate the exchange of the currency. The regulations would treat Bitcoins in a similar fashion as regular money-order transactions.

Donahoe says that by implementing Bitcoin into PayPal, the company would be able to persuade more retailers to use PayPal’s payment system in their retail stores. PayPal and eBay are already attempting to persuade more physical stores to implement PayPal into their payments system. eBay plans on pushing into the offline market this summer by bringing lifesize touchscreen store windows to New York, giving shoppers a new way of offline shopping.

While PayPal is considering adding Bitcoins as a payment option, nothing is set in stone yet. Many other companies have entertained the thought of accepting Bitcoins as payments. Western Union and MoneyGram International are currently figuring out ways to allow customers to transfer money worldwide with the virtual currency. If PayPal does allow customers to pay for things using Bitcoins, that would open a whole new and exciting chapter for the virtual currency.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

PayPal considers accepting BitCoin payments is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’ve already explained everything there is to know about Bitcoins and Bitcoin mining, except the most important question that homeowners across the country are asking: how many Bitcoins can I get for my house? More »

The active mining of virtual currency in the online world for real world profit is nothing new. This has been a common process in a number of online video games, especially World of Warcraft where an entire economy has sprung up around the mining and selling of in-game currency. With the rising popularity of the digital currency Bitcoin, attempts to digitally mine the currency are increasing all around the world.

According to TechCrunch, the mining of Bitcoins is performed by unlocking blocks of data that “produce a particular pattern when the Bitcoin ‘hash’ algorithm is applied to the data.” Considering that a single Bitcoin can be worth hundreds of dollars depending on the exchange rate, there are number of people all around the world keen on mining the virtual currency. However, reports indicate that as more of the virtual currency is mined, it becomes more difficult to find the next block of coins.

With increasing difficulty as time goes by, TechCrunch reports that many digital prospectors will spend more to find bitcoins than they can ever hope to make back. Reports indicate that bitcoin miners are using 1005.59 megawatt hours of electricity each day in their mining efforts. That works out to about $150,000 in electricity costs per day.

However, despite the high cost of electricity associated with mining activities reports indicate that on average most miners make money overall. Miners are reportedly generating $470,000 in revenue each day. Odds are that a number of large miners are making the bulk of that money. Some users have reported that the cost of electricity to operate a computer that continuously runs a mining algorithm costs more than digitally unearthed bitcoins are worth.

[via TechCrunch]

Bitcoin mining costs real world money is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Bitcoin is a rather interesting form of currency. It’s a virtual currency not issued by any government and can only be spent online. The currency has been very hot with the total value of Bitcoin passing $1 billion late last month. However, things haven’t been going so well for Bitcoin recently.

This week the value of Bitcoin crashed significantly after reaching $265 per unit on Wednesday before crashing to $105 per unit the same day. The price eventually stabilize at around $150 per unit, still making it worth $100 less than where it started the day. To help preserve the market, Mt. Gox, the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world halted trading recently to allow the market to cool down in the wake of the price drop.

Another interesting thing about Bitcoin has come to light recently and has to do with the Winklevoss twins. You may recognize the name from the Facebook battles where the twins attempted to lay claim to some Facebook technology. The twins have now claimed that they own 1% of all Bitcoins in circulation.

There are currently 10.8 million Bitcoins in circulation meaning that the Winklevoss duo owns approximately 108,000. With a significant price drop this week, it probably doesn’t seem like the best time to own such a huge chunk of the virtual currency. However, reports indicate that the duo begin purchasing the digital currency last summer when the highest value reached was $15.40. That means the twins are still doing very well with their virtual currency investment.

[via Business Insider]

Winklevoss twins claim to own 1% of all Bitcoins is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.