It’s going to be hard to top the fact that the New York Department of Financial Services and Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky released the final draft of the proposed BitLicense regulation for New York today. In fact, if there’s anything that Bitcoin readers pay attention to, it should be this, today and possibly for the rest of the week. See below for a link to the Wall Street Journal’s coverage and expect that the fallout will be imminent.

To many in the Bitcoin community the BitLicense regulation is not finished and, while many Bitcoin-related businesses have weighed in to suggest alterations and fixes and shown regarded for the need for regulation, none have said the regulation is perfect.

Amid other news, the Block Chain Summit took place last week amid much fanfare, Mai Tai’s, and crashing surf, check out the social media from numerous Bitcoin luminaries who attended (and even listened to actor Lucy Liu from Elementary talk about blockchain technology.)

Worried about Bitcoin regulation in your state? Look to Coin Center’s state-by-state regulation tracker below.

Swiss mining hardware manufacturer Bitmine AG has gone bankrupt.

And finally, Itch.io, an indie game sales platform now supports Bitcoin payments via Stripe.

Welcome all to this Bitcoin Weekly.

New York’s BitLicense final draft released

In what could be a first line to a Douglas Adam’s book: New York’s BitLicense final draft was released, an act considered quite unpopular by many. To say that there are mixed feelings in the Bitcoin community about BitLicense would be an understatement; these regulations have been criticized up and down since they were first drafted and continue to be a frustration for many for almost two years.

The New York Department of Financial Services will require certain Bitcoin-transacting companies to register for a special license, particularly “those with custody of customers’ funds and which exchange virtual currencies for dollars and other fiat currencies.”

According to Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky, author and promotor of the regulation, the most recent version is much lighter on regulation than previous drafts and carves out an exemption specifically for software developers.

Jerry Brito, executive director of Washington think tank the Coin Center, expressed both praise and misgivings for the final draft to The Wall Street Journal, saying that the final draft is improved but not perfect. To read a detailed explanation of the issues involved, follow up on Coin Center’s blog.

John Collins, head of policy and government affairs at bitcoin consumer-services and exchange operator Coinbase, seconded those concerns and added that it seemed unfair that the Bitcoin industry would be subject to harsher regulation than the current financial industry. In particular, Coinbase spent a great deal of time and money launching what the company claimed is the first regulated US exchange (which must now also abide by the BitLicense regulation as well.)

The Block Chain Summit

Last week a great deal of highly placed individuals from across the Bitcoin community gathered together on Necker Island—the almost-literal James Bond villain private island retreat of Richard Branson, mega-investor and founder of the Virgin Group. This event was called the Block Chain Summit and lasted from May 25 to May 28.

For those who have missed the boatloads of news coming out of Block Chain Summit there’s a few highlights to keep up with.

First, BitFury Group, designer of ASIC bitcoin mining chips and provider of blockchain infrastructure, teased the eventual release of light bulbs that would mine bitcoin when screwed in.

Hernando de Soto, MaiTai Global’s Bill Tai & BitFury’s George Kikvadze at the @BlockChainSum via @ILDthinktank 

Hernando de Soto, president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, demonstrated a blockchain digitizing a 400-year history of Peru and spoke about how blockchain technology could be used to manage land ownership by establishing title chains (a case similar to the government of Honduras using Factom for a similar purpose.)

Lucy Liu joined in via Skype to a panel conversation about how blockchain technology could be used to provide proof-of-existence and digital citizenship to undocumented individuals as well.

For other highlights and social media check out SiliconAngle’s coverage and for even more take a look at this detailed commentary on Follow The Coin.

State-by-state Bitcoin regulation got you down? See Coin Center

Coin Center, the leading non-profit research and advocacy center focused on the public policy issues facing cryptocurrency technologies such as Bitcoin, just released a tracker that describes bitcoin regulation efforts in the United States in a state-by-state listing.

With New York’s BitLicense just released, regulatory concerns continue to frustrate much of the Bitcoin industry.

Virtual reality simulation and blockchain mining mixed in Decentraland

It’s hard to exactly what the developer team at Decentraland is doing, but the mission statement says, “Decentraland is an open-source initiative to build a decentralized virtual reality. Blockchain technology is used to claim and transfer land, keeping a permanent record of ownership.”

You can play the alpha stage right now which at first looks like Conway’s Game of Life, but really is just all about mining pixels to claim ownership in a vast sea of unclaimed pixels.

Developers Manuel Araoz and Esteban Ordano hope to develop the game out in stages to move from a 2D map to a 2.5D isometric world (dubbed “Bronze Age”) and eventually to a fully 3D world with full Oculus Rift support (dubbed “Iron Age.”) One can only imagine what the “Information Age” will be for this fledgling virtual world.

The game’s alpha stage can be played right now on the Decentraland.org website.

Bitcoin mining outfit Bitmine files for bankruptcy

Bitmine AG, a Swiss Bitcoin mining hardware producer has just announced bankruptcy, according to a report in Cryptocoins News. The ailing company had been the subject to numerous lawsuits as to undelivered mining equipment and broken promises.

The Bitmine website now hosts a lengthy explanation as to the reasons for the company’s insolvency.

We are sorry to announce that on the 20th of May 2015 at 9:00, BITMINE AG has been officially declared bankrupt from the local competent court of Bellinzona.

 

It was publicly known that BITMINE AG was in a difficult situation from several months, but despite our biggest attempts to save the company by restructuring its product and services and seeking for new investments, all without success, left us no other chance than the road to bankruptcy. The accounts, assets and all company documents are now in hands of the Swiss justice and will be under inspection and investigation.

 

We all, both as former directors of the company and as individuals, make our deepest apologies to the many customers and suppliers that were patiently waiting for a refund or a compensation. As BITMINE AG’s board, we have always acted in our best good faith, within the limits of our skills and in the interests of the company and, therefore, its customers.

The open letter to customers and investors includes commentary on subjects such as the fall of Bitcoin market value and the increase in mining difficulty, the collapse of a deal with chip maker Innosilicon, and finally how engineering difficulties led to production losses on deliverable product lines.

Indie games sales platform Itch.io accepts bitcoins

Itch.io, an indie games store platform, announced Bitcoin support via Stripe in a recent blog post.

As a store, Itch.io provides a platform for indie games developers to publish their games and have customers purchase them. Currently, Itch.io supports payments via PayPal and Stripe.

“itch.io supports accepting Bitcoin payments via Stripe for USD currency,” reads the FAQ on Bitcoin support. “The buyer is redirected to a similar checkout page with a bitcoin URI, a QR code, and has 10 minutes to transfer a certain amount of BTC to a temporary address.”

For Bitcoin transactions, Stripe does take a 0.5% fee for every transaction.

Speaking on a Reddit announcement post, /u//fasterthanlime who claims to be an Itch.io employee, said that integration with Stripe was almost frictionless and that Stripe handled the abstraction for Coinbase.

Fasterthanlime added that they weren’t altogether totally pleased with Itch.io’s current Bitcoin integration, but only because “ideally, there would be an option for sellers to keep BTC if they don’t want an immediate USD conversion.”

photo credit: Bitcoin IMG_1924 via photopin (license)