This week, the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a relative newcomer on the scene, announced registration to form a PAC to increase the lobbying power of Bitcoin-related interests in the US political space. Reuters is running an article talking about big merchants such as Expedia, Overstock, and others and what they see in the future of bitcoin—to them it’s looking good.

Coinbase has announced that it has insured its holdings showing some good risk management—while the wallet and merchant services company has not suffered a loss, in the past few years several Bitcoin services did implode due to mismanagement and theft.

Finally, BitQuick exchange has launched services directed at the Middle East; and Korean exchange Korbit just received $3 million in Series A funding.

Al this and more in this Bitcoin Weeky.

Chamber Digital of Commerce forms a PAC for Bitcoin-friendly politicians

The Chamber of Digital Commerce, a bitcoin advocacy group based out of Washington D.C. started about a month ago, announced the formation of a political action committee (PAC) and registered with the Federal Election Commission this month. The purpose of this PAC would be to allow the CDC to donate to political candidates that support digital currency.

Because of its nature, Bitcoin has continued to garner attention from politicians across the world and especially the United States. Examples include New York State’s BitLicense proposal for Bitcoin-related regulation and the IRS choosing how to tax bitcoin holdings. As a still-evolving technology, consumers who hold bitcoins and merchants who exchange in the currency exist in a still-forming regulatory and political framework.

As reported by The Hill, Chamber of Digital Commerce CEO Perianne Boring believes that the formation of the PAC shows that politicians could now face pressure to support digital currencies.

The Chamber of Digital Commerce joins groups such as the Bitcoin Foundation in advocacy but is gearing up for a more political stand.

Now may be a good time for Bitcoin-related interests to get into the political scene, especially with reports that credit card companies such as MasterCard are lobbying the US government about digital currencies, according to The Hill. Credit card processors in particular sit in a market space that could suffer from disruption from a technology like Bitcoin.

Reuters reports bitcoin accepting merchants see promise in BTC

Reuters is reporting that online merchants expect acceptance of bitcoin to grow. Many merchants cite the reduced transaction fees as a primary reason that the digital currency is useful to them. And while bitcoin purchases make up only a fraction of a percent, for merchants such as Overstock.com .25% in daily sales still represents over $2 million in sales.

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne told Reuters recently that bitcoins sales added 4 cents per share to its earnings this year.

Of course, Overstock isn’t the only large merchant affected by bitcoin.

“Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere; it’s here to stay,” said Michael Gulmann, vice president of global products at Expedia Inc.

“From the first day…we saw traffic at the site, it has been growing since,” said Paul Walsh, chief information officer at Dell Commerce Services in Texas. He went on to cite a $50,000 server purchase paid for with bitcoins. Dell started accepting Bitcoin in July.

Merchant processor services Bitpay and Coinbase continue to sign on larger merchants—TigerDirect, Overstock, DISH, Expedia, and Dell serve as only a small number of the biggest examples. The number of bitcoin wallets on sites such as Blockchain.info and Coinbase increased by seven fold to over five million from 800 thousand between 2013 and 2014, according to a CoinDesk report; and over the same period industry venture capital jumped by seven times to $200.7 million from $17.1 million.

Coinbase is getting insured

Popular provider of Bitcoin wallet and merchant services, Coinbase, has announced that it holds insurance against theft or loss of its bitcoins.

Coinbase is insured against theft and hacking in an amount that exceeds the average value of bitcoin we hold in online storage at any given time.  The insurance covers losses due to breaches in physical or cyber security, accidental loss, and employee theft.  It doesn’t cover bitcoin lost or stolen as a result of an individual user’s negligence to maintain secure control over their login credentials.

The company partnered with Aon plc, a London-based business insurance provider, to provide risk management and insure the bitcoins held by Coinbase. In 2011, Aon was ranked as the largest in the world based on revenue.

The Coinbase FAQ details that the company has held insurance since 2013 and that insurance covers the company’s holdings against coins lost or stolen via “result of a breach of our physical security, cyber security, or as a result of employee theft.”

However, individual user bitcoins are not insured against loss—for example, if a specific user gets hacked and their bitcoins taken by an attacker, Coinbase’s insurance does not cover this.

Bitcoin exchange news: BitQuick.me launches for Middle East, Korean Korbit raises $3M

This past week, BitQuick LLC launched BitQuick.me to provide BTC exchange services to the Middle East, announced on Reddit—this expands their services already available for the regions of Taiwan, India, and USA/EU. The Middle East service of BitQuick focuses on Jordan, Egypt, Palestine, and the United Arab Emirates.

BitQuick’s beta launch happened in July 2013 and since then the company has slowly expanded its services across the globe. The addition of the Middle East should be an interesting experiment in showing what audience is available there while other exchanges have been spreading into Africa.

The company said that a separate subsidiary is being planned for Israel.

Korean Bitcoin exchange Korbit raised $3 million in Series A funding led by SoftBank Ventures Korea and Pantera Capital, according to TechCrunch. Also involved in the funding is BAM Ventures, Bitcoin Opportunity Corp., Tim Draper, Pietro Dova, and Strong Ventures.

Bitcoin Weekly readers will recognize Tim Draper as the anonymous bidder who won the US Marshals Service auction of bitcoins sized from the Silk Road.

Korbit offers not only just BTC exchange services but also competes with Coinbase and Bitpay with wallet and merchant services localized specifically for the Korean market.

In a statement, Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead said “South Korea has a booming e-commerce market and was an early adopter of virtual goods. The government supports innovation and even the banking foundation is invested in Korbit.”