Blockchain’s wallet service exceeded two million users this week, showing a clear continuing interest in Bitcoin. Tipping in bitcoin has extended beyond Reddit bots and into social media in general as ChangeTip expands out into YouTube, G+, and Twitter. Britain could be looking into regulating Bitcoin as money instead of property as favorable words are spoken by the country’s politicians. Much of the news is looking good for bitcoin adoption in general.

Bitcoin mining takes on a practical image as a reporter from The Coinsman goes to China to look at a bitcoin mining operation (see picture below.) And Dell received a $50k order in bitcoin for a server.

This and more in today’s Bitcoin Weekly.

Blockchain exceeds 2 billion wallet users

This week, the popular Bitcoin wallet service Blockchain surpassed two million users. The service hit this milestone after only about six months since reaching one million users.

Coinbase hit one million wallets in February  2014. MultiBit wallet passed 1.5 million downloads in March 2014. Blockchain wallet has become the first to boast over two million users. The wallet service also claims to have processed an estimated $22 billion in bitcoin transactions since launch making it an industry force to be reckoned with.

The continued, and increasing, popularity of Bitcoin wallets, apps, services and adoption in general appears to be taking off in 2014. The past six months have been host to numerous major retailers announcing their acceptance of Bitcoin (from Overstock.com to Dell). BitPay and Coinbase continue to woo more merchants and services, which is continuing to drive adoption as well as more interest in web and mobile wallets.

Bitcoin tipping service ChangeTip expands across social media

ChangeTip, a social media powered bitcoin tipping service, announced Tuesday the expansion of its services across YouTube, Google Plus and Tumblr giving the service purchase across a multitude of relevant social media platforms.

As a tipping service, ChangeTip allows users to instantly reward, or “tip”, any video or content across the web. The service launched in February on Twitter, StockTwits, Reddit, and GitHub.

“We believe people are basically good and we let them show their appreciation directly in everyday social media interactions,” said Nick Sullivan, ChangeCoin’s founder and CEO.

On social media, ChangeTip acts like a normal tipping bot by detecting activity from users that request tips sent via text messages. For example, a user can write a comment on YouTube with the text, “Thank you for that awesome video +Kyt Dotson, here’s a $1 tip from +ChangeTip!” and the bot will do the rest by transferring approximately 3.5 mBTC to me.

The bot can also recognize particular phrases or “monikers” as references to amounts of money such as “1 beer,” which translates to $3.50 USD, or “1 upvote,” which is apparently worth 10 cents. Users can add their own monikers to a list of bookmarked values so that they can tip their own interesting and weird values to friends across social media.

There is a 1% fee for withdrawing BTC from the ChangeTip wallet (which is currently waived until September 15, 2014.)

Next hopefully ChangeTip will integrate with Twitch so that those of us who livestream can get in some of this bitcoin tipping action.

Britannia shows interest in embracing Bitcoin as legitimate currency

Business Insider reports that Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, may be leaning towards proposing that the government there look into the benefits (and risks) of virtual currency. In a speech about the FinTech (Financial Technology) sector and London’s place in the world, he mentioned an interest in forwarding an exploratory program.

“The world of finance as we know it is changing in front of our eyes,” Osborne said. “I can today announce that the Government will start a major programme of work exploring the potential of virtual currencies and digital money.”

The regulation would be set in place such that “that virtual currency business can continue to set up in the UK, and for people and businesses to use them safely” which seems entirely sanguine about Bitcoin in Britain.

Although this clearly shows positive interest in Bitcoin in Britain, the Business Insider article argues caution. Even Britain’s newfound interest in FinTech the British government does not ride boldly into new prospects and, of course, Osborne spoke of addressing and understanding the risks of virtual currency while also looking into their benefits.

Inside the strange world of a Chinese bitcoin mining operation

The Coinsman has published an amazing article profiling a Chinese Bitcoin mining operation. The writer, Bitsmith, travelled to northeast China to get a look into what it takes to run a nigh-industrial-scale Bitcoin mine and the results are impressive.

Not to mention the electrical bill:

The place consumes a massive amount of electricity. The operators told me that the power bill of this specific operation is in excess of ¥400,000 per month (that’s about $60,000 USD).

The mining operation itself is an industrial-like datacenter built into a warehouse. The hardware is constantly massaged by massive banks of fans—adding to the ubiquitous roar of machines in action. Bundles of cable snake everywhere, power and Ethernet. There’s even a graveyard for obsolesced machinery; a room filled with old Avalon machines that no longer have the strength to keep up with current block difficulty.

The entire operation contains 2,500 machines providing 230 Gh/s each.

That’s a lot of hashing power all under one roof.

There are many more photos and a full description of the operation over at The Coinsman.

Dell receives $50k server order in BTC

First reported by NewsBTC, Michael Dell tweeted Saturday that a PowerEdge server order had sold for more than 85 BTC (approximately $50,000 USD).

Recieved PowerEdge server order @ http://t.co/IeJK4FTDCV for more than 85 #bitcoin (~$50K USD) http://t.co/lLkmK4K8Z1 #Dellbitcoin

— Michael Dell (@MichaelDell) August 9, 2014

Dell is credited for recently beginning to accept bitcoin orders on its site for computers and electronic merchandise. Like other merchants before it, Dell is beginning to reap the benefits; Overstock CEO noted that approximately 0.25% of sales are made in bitcoin (which still represents approximately $2 billion since January.)