Category: Uncategorized

Wednesday Jan. 7th, 7pm.

Wednesday, Dec. 17th. 7pm to 10pm.

This Wednesday, our meet-up will be full of festive cheer and fun with refreshments, decorations, and – of course – lots of bitcoin conversation.

While you’re here, check out some of our cool BTC merch – like coins, pins, t-shirts and Simple Coin Cards. (Great for gift-giving!)

Sign up for free on the Decentral Meet-up site.

As part of its bid to become the premier news and information site with video content related to cryptocurrencies and decentralized tech, decentral.tv is launching Decentral Talk Live, a daily show about bitcoin, blockchain technologies, and all things decentralized. Interviews with prominent personalities, innovators, and entrepreneurs will be the key focus, along with product reviews and general news and discussion of current events in the cryptocurrency and decentralized tech space.

 

Hosted by Anthony Di Iorio and Ethan Wilding, Decentral Talk Live will also feature an assortment of guest hosts including specialists in legal, accounting, security, and tech development from the Decentral space. The first installment will feature Patrick Murck, the executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation as he answers questions from Anthony and Ethan, as well as guest host, Michael Perklin. Next on the schedule is a series of interviews focusing on various bitcoin ATMs, including BitAccess, Lamassu, and BitX. Look for more episodes when Decentral Talk Live talks with Jordan Kelly of Robocoin, Dmitry Murashchik of Mycelium, Matt Schlich of ZapChain, and many other well-known names in the bitcoin community.

 

New episodes will air weekdays at 3:00 pm EST on decentral.tv.

 

Decentral.tv is a 24-hour interactive internet dashboard that’s packed with video segments, curated news and information, a Twitter feed, interviews, feature programs, charts, and customizable exchange tickers. It delivers globally relevant content with news about decentralized and disruptive technologies around the world. Its most prominent feature provides a playlist of quality videos, including live broadcasts of the weekly Decentral Toronto meet-up events, as well as other unique and curated programs.

Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, Decentral is a home to disruptive and decentralized technologies. It offers co-working space and a bitcoin teller machine, and numerous tech companies are headquartered here.

For media and partnership inquiries or to suggest news and story ideas, please contact Christie Harkin or Anthony Di Iorio at info@decentral.ca or call +1-416-831-9593.

Note: Shu Wang, the founder of Simple Coin Card, will be at the Decentral meet-up tonight (December 10) to answer your questions.

 

Gift cards are a convenient and simple way to give people what they want while also allowing them to make choices in their purchases. Now, Simple Coin Cards make it easy to give the gift of bitcoin.

 

Simple Coin Cards look like regular plastic gift cards and come in a variety of pre-set amounts that match Canadian currency denominations: $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. They have a one-time key on the back that is activated on purchase. All you do is scratch and reveal the key, visit simplecoincard.com, enter the key, and deposit your coins to the wallet of your choice. Don’t have a wallet? You can easily click on the link provided to create your own Rushwallet in seconds.

 

After the recipient has deposited their gift in their wallet, they can start spending their coins.
The website also has a list of links to places where you can spend your bitcoins.

 

Because Simple Coin Cards come in a variety of denominations, they are a fantastic way to introduce your family and friends to bitcoin. Anyone who has ever used a gift card or a phone card will find the card platform familiar and safe.

 

While Simple Coin Cards make excellent gifts, they are also a year-round alternative to using a bitcoin ATM to purchase bitcoin in person. The fees are comparable at 10% (deducted at the time of redemption) and the rate of exchange is derived at the time of purchase from the best available price among the Canadian exchanges. Cards are portable and don’t require a prolonged Internet connection to get your coins.

 

Security

All funds that support any activated Simple Coin Cards are stored in a secure hot wallet, while funds for unactivated cards are kept in cold storage. Each card has a unique, one-time use key on the back. Once the key has been entered into simplecoincard.com and the bitcoins have been transferred into the user’s wallet, the card is no longer active and can be discarded. Cards are not refillable or reusable.

 

Where to purchase Simple Coin Cards

Right now, Simple Coin Cards are available to purchase in person exclusively at Decentral Toronto, 64 Spadina Ave. Simply come in during our regular office hours and ask for Simple Coin Cards at the front desk.

After the frantic spending hype of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday is a welcome palate-cleanser. And just as we did on those first two days, the Bitcoin community is holding its own event: Bitcoin Giving Tuesday — a project organized by Bitcoin Black Friday, the BitGive Foundation and the Bitcoin Foundation.

 

The number of charities accepting bitcoin donations is on the rise. It’s one more way that they are able to engage with a set of committed donors while reducing their overhead costs. Donated bitcoin can be recorded as a non-cash gift and then exchanged for fiat, without the high transaction costs normally associated with credit card payments.

 

Bitcoin donations also have the capacity to reach farther around the world. Many remote territories, especially in the developing world, do not have access to the infrastructure needed to run credit card or PayPay systems. But they can accept bitcoin.

 

Now that the start of holiday gift shopping has officially begun, this is the day that we’re encouraged to think about giving a gift to a worthy cause. The bitcoin community has often expressed the desire to change the world for the better. Bitcoin Giving Tuesday is another way that we can do this.

 

For a list of organizations that accept bitcoin, visit bitcoingivingtuesday.org. You can also donate directly through the website: 100% of all donations will go to the non-profit of your choosing.

 

You’ll also find more inspiration at the Twitter hashtag #BitcoinGivingTuesday and on the main thread at /r/Bitcoin.

It’s Cyber-Monday — want to take advantage of some deals AND spend your bitcoins? There are a few options.

 

Perhaps the easiest thing to do is use bitcoin to buy electronic gift cards for some of your favourite online stores and then shop as usual. There are some excellent sites out there that offer gift cards. Even if you don’t take advantage of Cyber Monday sales, these are still great options for online holiday shopping with bitcoins.

 

YesToBitcoins.com offers gift cards in a dozen different countries – just select your country from the drop-down list to see which stores are offering cards. Depending on where you live, there is a good selection of retailers to choose from; for example, there are offers from Roots, Lululemon, Amazon, and Starbucks. E-cards will be sent to your email address within 24-hours, so you might still be able to get it in time to shop today. If not, there are still plenty of deals to be found in the next few weeks — or save it for Boxing Week specials!

 

Purse.io lets you use bitcoin to buy anything from Amazon at a discount — first-time users get a discount of about 8% on top of any Amazon savings — so you can take advantage of Cyber Monday sales and then some. The process is a bit convoluted to set up but once you sort it out, the deals are excellent. (Hint: you will need to uncheck the “Don’t Spoil My Surprises” button which is NOT where they tell you it is. Go to the wishlist drop-down menu labelled “List Actions” on the right side of the page — NOT near your profile picture — and select “Update list profile.” There you can uncheck the box.)

 

Gyft has a Cyber Monday promotion happening, but it’s only available in the US. If you are in the US, you can get 5% Points back on any purchase plus an extra $50 for every $1,000 you spend with Bitcoin. Like YesToBitcoins, Gyft allows you to buy gift cards to many online retailers like Best Buy, Sears, Game Stop, and The Gap.

 

Want to book a getaway? Expedia has several Cyber Monday deals today and they’ll let you pay in bitcoin.

 

Do you have any other suggestions for shopping online with bitcoins? Let us know in the comment section below!

 

Image credit: By Rexhep-bunjaku (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Wednesday Dec. 10th. 7pm.

This week we are pleased to announce that Martin Fernandez, the Founder and CEO of btctrip.com, will join us at 7:30pm during the Decentral Toronto Bitcoin Meetup Group.

Mat Cybula wants you to help spread some cryptocurrency love around on social media. That’s why he and his team have come up with Cryptiv (www.cryptiv.com), a social microtransaction platform that facilitates transactions of digital currencies of social media like Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch.

 

Cybula says he started Cryptiv as a tipping service — “like a thumbs-up with money attached” — but found that with the limited number of people who use and understand bitcoin and other digital currencies out there, it was hard to get it off the ground. He decided that what was needed was a way to incentivize people to use digital currencies.

 

He noted that one of the beauties of Cryptiv is that you can send coins to people who don’t even have a wallet yet. They receive a notification that someone has sent them some coins and then they will look into what it is they just got. It’s a way to get new people started so they can “learn and earn” and hopefully explore the space.

 

Cryptiv started about five months ago, and since then, the team has worked closely with its users to improve on the product and find better ways to achieve their goal of wider cryptocurrency adoption. The results of their market research will result in a new and improved Cryptiv website, due to launch in a few weeks.

 

Other plans for the future include the expansion of its social media reach. Cybula hopes to add Github, Reddit and Facebook tipping options over time. At the moment, Cryptiv uses a Chrome extension to integrate its functions with its social media partners, but it plans to roll out a Firefox extension as well, with a Safari extension sometime down the road.

 

Cybula walked the meet-up crowd through a Cryptiv transaction. Once the user downloads the Chrome extension, a little “giftbox” icon appears right on the social media postings. So if you want to tip someone’s tweet, for example, you just click on the little giftbox and send them a set amount. They are notified about the tip and invited to collect it — even if they don’t have an existing wallet already.

 

There is no charge for anyone to send or receive coins with Cryptiv.To avoid fees on micropayments, all transactions are done off the blockchain.

 

According to Cybula, Cryptiv has noted that there is a high rate of acceptance among people who receive tips, and that they in turn are likely to pass along their tips to someone else. However, should any coins go unredeemed, they are returned to the sender after 30 days.

 

Where Cybula sees some of the most interesting potential for micro-incentivization is among the content creators of the world: bloggers, journalists, musicians, artists etc. He recognizes that these creators are rarely compensated appropriately for their work. Tipping could be a “godsend” for them and allow those of us who consume content to support their efforts more easily.

Wed. December 3rd. 7pm

Sign up on meetup.com