Today’s Bitcoin Weekly shows that once again Bitcoin is proving to be a powerful alternate payment system to traditional credit and debit processors (such as Visa and MasterCard) as the Argentinian government attempts to push ridesharing app company Uber Technologies, Inc. out by shutting down payment avenues. Bitcoin wallet service and processor Xapo Ltd. has inked a deal that will keep Uber driving in Argentina, at least for riders who can pay in bitcoins.

Cryptocurrency identity company Netki, Inc. raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round to add human readable names to Bitcoin (and other crypto) wallet addresses. John McAfee’s company MGT Capital Investments, Inc. has announced a hydroelectric powered datacenter in central Washington state that is expected to provide two petahash of mining power.

Hong Kong-based Gatecoin Ltd. is still recovering from a hack in May that lost 15 percent of the company’s crypto-assets. As part of its recovery, the company has fired its CTO and hired a replacement and has raised $500,000 from undisclosed Japanese investors.

Finally, the Bitcoin Halving happens in approximately three days (on July 9, 2016) when the Bitcoin block reward will drop to 12.5 BTC from 25 BTC. Are you ready? Keep reading to the end of Bitcoin Weekly for a list of Bitcoin Halving parties happening around the world.

As for the Bitcoin market, current market value is $677 USD (weighted global average from BitcoinAverage.com) and this is up from last week’s $639. They market has seen some volatility during the past seven days, exceeding $700 on July 2nd, but falling again to below $660 a day later, only to climb once again to today’s value.

Photo by Ernest via Flickr CC

Bitcoin payments coming to Uber in Argentina thanks to deal with Xapo

Passengers using the ridesharing service Uber in Argentina will now be able to pay for rides with bitcoin thanks to a deal with Bitcoin wallet service Xapo. This deal comes on the heels of the Argentinian government attempting to shut down Uber by closing off payment avenues—such as banning credit and debit cards from processing payments for the company.

According to SiliconANGLE reporter Duncan Riley, Xapo can bypass these bans on debit cards because the company issues cards from Hong Kong and not Argentina. Furthermore, payments are not processed through local banks.

“Since last week, all Uber users in Argentina have been able to use their Xapo Bitcoin Debit Cards to pay for their Uber rides,” head of Xapo debit cards Anni Rautio told Brave New Coin. “This is a win for all local Uber users and drivers, and for Uber as a company, as they are able to continue operations in Argentina through Xapo’s Debit Card.”

Xapo’s deal with Uber only started July 3 of this year, thus it’s too early to tell if it will become a widespread payment method. Uber also faces further regulatory strife in Argentina as the increasingly popular company (seeing 550,000 users and over 37,000 drivers) has brought on a backlash from the local taxi companies.

Netki seed funding round raises $3.5m for cryptocurrency digital identity

Digital identity startup Netki has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round led by O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. This round was also joined by Donuts, Colle Capital, The Husseini Group, Digital Currency Group, Plug and Play, Base Ventures, Tom Turney, and Bitcoin exchange Bitfinex.

Netki intends to use the money to help expand its digital identity service for cryptocurrency wallets, which enables developers to use human readable names for wallet addresses, similar to how the Domain Name Service (DNS) produces human readable names for web addresses.

These human readable addresses are provided by Netki’s API using the Namecoin blockchain and Secure DNS (DNSSEC) and delivered via the company’s “Wallet Name Lookup” service.

Image of John McAfee courtesy of John McAfee.

John McAfee’s MGT announces upcoming hydroelectric Bitcoin mining facility in Washington state

John McAfee, ex-CEO of McAfee Antivirus and extraordinary man-of-the-world, made news last month when announcing his takeover as CEO of newly minted John McAfee Global Technologies, Inc. (MGT), a company intent on providing cybersecurity to cryptocurrency businesses. Now MGT has announced that the company is opening a hydroelectric powered Bitcoin mining datacenter in Washington state expected to generate over two petahash of mining power.

The facility is expected to go online August 1, 2016 and has the operational capacity to expand to nearly 10 petahash of mining power.

To put this into perspective, the current Bitcoin mining network currently runs at approximately 1,500,000 terahash per second. Two petahash per second would represent around 0.13 percent of the total network power and 10 petahash would represent 0.66 percent of total.

“In order to meet the processing demand for our future cyber security products that are Blockchain based, MGT will need a large number of ASIC computers,” McAfee, MGT’s proposed CEO, said in a statement. “Our announced strategy is particularly cost effective, as mining computers are perfectly suited for this task and can earn a great ROI until we utilize the processing power of these super-fast machines to support the future revenue streams of our products. Further, we pleased that Robert has agreed to join us and use his expertise to grow the project.”

The company claims that it has already run tests with that reached 100 terahash mining power that allowed MGT to optimize its production software. MGT also sees the current pricing environment of bitcoin and other digital assets tied with the release of new 16 nanometer ASIC chips would provide an “opportunity to generate excellent profit margins.”

Post-hack Gatecoin raises $5k and fires CTO as part of recovery efforts

In May of this year, Hong Kong-based Bitcoin exchange Gatecoin suffered a massive hack to the tune of 250 BTC and 185,000 ETH (approximately $2 million USD total). The losses were valued by the company at around 15 percent of the company’s total crypto asset deposits. SiliconANGLE’s Duncan Riley and Bitcoin Weekly both covered the news of the hack and the fallout and recovery for the fully regulated exchange has been slow, but now it’s coming together.

Although the exchange has been offline since the hack, customers have been able to log onto the platform since May and withdraw BTC from existing accounts.

The exchange now has plans to fully reopen in August 2016 and has raised $500,000 from an undisclosed Japanese investment company with the intent to recoup losses. Also, according to Bitcoin.com News, the company also partnered with multi-crypto exchange Poloniex, Inc. to recover some of the hijacked ETH. That partnership has netted approximately 5,000 ETH. Although Poloniex had offered top help for free, Gatecoin has promised to pay a 25 percent bounty to anyone with useful information.

Additionally, Gatecoin has fired the CTO who presided over the hack and has hired a replacement.

“Firstly, once it became clear that the system breach was in large part due to his negligence and failure to uphold his responsibilities as a CTO, there was no question about terminating his employment,” Gatecoin CEO Aurélien Menant told Bitcoin.com News. “Secondly, as a potential suspect in the breach, we could not risk keeping him on. The criminal investigation is still ongoing and hopefully we will have some further details to share in due time.”

Along with the current investment, Gatecoin has stated that the company is seeking out other fundraising options in order to raise enough money to recover ETH and reimburse customers for losses. This may become easier in recent days due to the hack of the Ethereum-based DAO, which has led to an almost 50 percent decline in market value to $10.50 USD today from $20 USD in mid June.

Photo by Nana B Agyel via Flickr

Bitcoin Halving Day arrives July 9, 2016: Is there a Halving party happening near you?

The Halvening is coming. Bitcoin’s block discovery rewards will be cut in half to 12.5 BTC from 25 BTC on July 9, 2016 marking the end of the current Bitcoin mining era. This will no doubt drive a change for miners, who rely on the Bitcoin block reward to make money, and probably cause a reaction in the market.

Meanwhile, as this era comes to an end and a new one begins with the lower block reward, people are organizing parties across the globe to celebrate this event. The Bitcoin network has been operating since 2009 when it was activated by its mysterious inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, and has seen over seven years of continuous, effective operation.

For citizens of the U.S. parties will be held in Albany, NY; Ashville, NC; Atlanta, GA; Clearwater, FL; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Nashville, TN; New York City, NY; Omaha, NE; Jacksonville, FL; St. Louis, MO; and San Francisco, CA. Across the world there is also a party in Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Barcelona, Spain; Warsaw, Poland; Milano, Italy; Dublin Ireland; Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece; Karlsruhe, Germany; Paris and Toulouse, France; Jyväskylä and Helsinki, Finland; Zagreb, Croatia; Montreal, Canada; Porto Alegre and Campinas, Brasil; Vienna and Graz, Austria; Brisbane and Melborne, Australia; and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

For the full list of potential parties in 2016 visit TheHalvening.com blog.

The current estimated time the Halving will occur is Saturday, July 9, 2016 at 15:33:08 GMT.

Featured image credit: Associated Press