Reports Of Peter Thiel’s Big Bet On Bitc…
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To continue reading this article, please exit incognito mode or log in. Visitors are allowed 3 free articles per month without a subscriptionand private browsing prevents us from counting how many stories you've read. We hope you understand, and consider subscribing for unlimited online access. The idea of digital currency is more likely to last if mainstream reports of peter thiels big bet on bitcoin sends cryptocurrency higher take an interest.
News today from OpenCoina startup that today launched its own digital currency called Ripple and tools for making transactions in other currencies, including Bitcoins, suggests that may change. Ripple, the currency developed by OpenCoin, is similar to Bitcoin in that it uses math to prevent reports of peter thiels big bet on bitcoin sends cryptocurrency higher and fraud.
However, Ripple has features intended to make it more practical to use, and that enable Ripple to be used to make transactions with existing currencies. One major difference is that transfers made with Ripple can be confirmed in seconds; Bitcoin transfers take, on average, 10 minutes to be confirmed, and many sites that accept Bitcoins make users wait an hour for confirmation of their transaction.
OpenCoin currently has 14 employees. As well as sending Ripples to other people, users can also send and exchange U. Tools are also available to allow others to offer software or websites that make use of Reports of peter thiels big bet on bitcoin sends cryptocurrency higher. Transferring Ripples is free, while transactions that involve converting between currencies involve small transaction fees—typically 0. If math-backed currencies are made useful, as OpenCoin is trying to do, they will last, he says.
In recent years, technology investors have shown a lot of interest in payments companies such as Square and Dwollaeyeing the lucrative transaction fees levied by credit-card companies. However, OpenCoin has a very different business model, since the company does not control Ripple even though it created it. OpenCoin plans to hand out some 50 billion Ripples in coming months, and more in the future, in an attempt to get the currency to function independently.
Larsen says his company aims to turn a profit by retaining a chunk, likely 25 percent, of the total billion Ripples that will ever exist, in the expectation that the currency gains value. There are already signs that Ripple is finding favor with some devotees of Bitcoin, yet convincing people and companies outside that community to start using currency not issued by any government will be a tough sell.
Liew, of Lightspeed, notes that Bitcoin has already made significant progress. Catch up with our coverage of the event.
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