In this week’s bitcoin review, we take a look at the debut of Circle’s product and BitPay’s funding round.Everyone’s been wondering about what serial internet entrepreneur Jeremy Allaire had up his sleeve when it came to cryptocurrency.His bitcoin startup, Circle, revealed its new product in Amsterday today: a consumer banking platform.Allaire says it’s aimed squarely at ordinary folks who are “terrified” by the far-out features of crypto-coins.That’s why it has many of the same features of traditional online banking: easy interface, insured deposits, high security and even friendly phone operators to hold your hand.While a first-glance makes it look like little more than a very nice UI on top of a traditional bitcoin wallet service like Coinbase, I’m sure we’ll see more from Allaire’s team than first meets the eye.It all comes down to the push to get bitcoin in a usable form to the consumer — whether it’s through giving it away to college students or making it easy to purchase goods off Square with the cryptocurrency.

As big players like Allaire enter the space, big funding rounds are happening too.BitPay announced a $30 million Series A funding round  — which the company claims is the largest bitcoin funding round ever — this week from Index Ventures, which previously backed DropBox and Skype, alongside other investors like Richard Branson.The e-commerce platform already processes more than $1 million in bitcoin payments a day from clients like WordPress and TigerDirect.The market swung $20 this week, but closed around $444.It’s fairly consistent with where it’s been in the month of May.For background on why we’re using Coindesk’s Bitcoin Price Index, see the note at bottom of the post.Other news we covered this week: Here are some of the best reads from around the web this week: A note on our data: We use CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index to obtain both a historical and current reflection of the Bitcoin market.The BPI is an average of the three Bitcoin exchanges which meet their criteria: Bitstamp, BTC-e and Bitfinex.

To see the criteria for inclusion or for price updates by the minute, visit CoinDesk.Since the market never closes, the “closing price” as noted in the graphics is based on end of day Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or British Summer Time (BST).Venezuelan police have arrested eight bitcoin miners in the last two week, and the country's leading bitcoin exchange announced yesterday that it's suspending operations because its bank account was revoked.The recent spate of incidents is causing members of the country's bitcoin community to take new measures to conceal their activities.Yesterday the Policía Nacional Bolivariana (PNB) announced that two men identified as Adan Erick Tapia Salas, 37, and Edwald Antonio Tapia Salas, 31, were arrested in Caracas.PNB officers caught the two men through the online marketplace MercadoLibre, where they were attempting to sell bitcoin mining equipment.Bitcoin mining and the buying and selling of computer equipment isn't illegal in Venezuela, and it's not clear if the authorities have filed formal charges in the case.

In a separate incident, the PNB raided a warehouse in the city of Valencia last Friday with 11,000 bitcoin mining computers.They arrested Eusebio Gómez Henríquez, 51, and Andrés Alejandro Carrero Martínez, 35, who were accused of cybercrime, financing terrorism, stealing electricity, and exchange fraud.An official statement linked the two men to a criminal network operating from Poland.As the Venezuelan bitcoin news site CriptoNoticias reports, apparently the basis for this claim is that many of the discovered mining computers were purchased from a Polish seller, who advertised them through the online forum BitcoinTalk in August of 2015.is bitcoin like barteringOne of the arrested miners, Andrés Carrero, attended Miami Dade College and worked on and off in commercial real estate sales in the Miami area for over a decade before "disappearing about a year ago," according to the leasing manager at his former company.bitcoin hash usb

Carrero also ran a company called North American Merchant Services headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida, which offered foreigners the opportunity to set up mining computers in his operations center in exchange for a revenue split.In yet another incident, agents from the Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas Penales y Criminalisticas (CICPC) arrested four bitcoin miners in the town of Charallave on January 25.The discovery of the massive mining facility in Valencia is causing a backlash that's making it harder for Venezuelans to exchange bitcoins for local currency.ethereal gem trailSurBitcoin, the country's leading exchange, announced yesterday that its bank account was being revoked and that users should withdraw their money from the service immediately to avoid losing funds.dogecoin crypto walletThe company says it expects to be operating again in "approximately two weeks."bitcoin mining gpu nvidia

In the meantime, it encouraged customers to use the peer-to-peer trading site LocalBitcoins.Rodrigo Souza, the founder and CEO of the company that runs SurBitcoin's exchange platform, attributed the temporary closure to the recent arrests in Valencia."When it was found that there were 11,000 mining computers consuming the energy to power a whole town at a time when there are severe electricity shortages, it triggered a reaction," he said."We were not contacted by the government, but our bank is revoking our account because it doesn't want to be involved.bitcoin alma siteleriWe are currently reaching out to other banking partners."bitcoin is halalPrior to January 25, Venezuela's only known bitcoin-related arrests occurred in March of 2016, when three men were detained in separate incidents by the Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional (SEBIN).ethereum dev

(They've all since been released.)With the recent incidents, there are now three separate law enforcement agencies that have arrested bitcoin miners in Venezuela.Bitcoin is proving to be a potentially life-saving technology in a country experiencing severe shortages of food and medicine.Many Venezuelans are using the internet-based currency to circumvent the country's currency countrols and import essential goods, including groceries and pharmaceuticals.win free litecoinBitcoin also provides a way for Venezuelans living abroad to send money home to their relatives.Bitcoin mining, an energy-intensive process in which computers solve complex equations and get rewarded in newly minted currency, is unusually profitable in Venezuela because electricity is heavily subsidized by the socialist government.As I argued in a January 2017 feature story, bitcoin mining in Venezuela is turning "socialism against itself."For more on the impact cryptocurrency is having in this crumbling South American nation, read "The Secret, Dangerous World of Venezuelan Bitcoin Mining" from our January 2017 issue.