Cryptocurrency round-up: Branson's island bitcoin summit April 28, 2015 15:48 BST Bitcoin price $223.49 (£146.14, €204.41)Bitcoin held steady on Tuesday, slipping to around $223 by mid-afternoon in London, roughly where it began the week.Dogecoin bounced back from a six-month low, while dash coin (formerly known as darkcoin) was trading around 20% down.Branson to host bitcoin summit on private islandCyrptocurrency champion and billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson announced a bitcoin summit on his private Necker Island next month.Branson's event will run from May 25 – 28 and will feature discussions, debates, and speeches from high-profile guests.Long-time bitcoin supporter Branson welcomed guests with a call to improve humanity through the blockchain, no less."Comevisit Sir Richard Branson on his private island for a set of intimate discussions highlighting critical issues and solutions and to lay out the framework for a world where the humankind is fully benefiting from the amazing technology behind the blockchain," the invite said, as quoted by Coin Desk.

Richard Branson will trade you space travel for bitcoins See all Editor's Picks See all Popular About Jobs Well, future space travel, to be precise.circle for bitcoin itunesBillionaire Richard Branson’s space tourism venture Virgin Galactic now accepts Bitcoin, CNBC reported.ethereal projection guideApparently, the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group has sold a ticket to space to an early Bitcoin investor for $250,000 worth of the volatile digital currency.bitcoin heistThe woman was apparently a flight attendant who, in Branson’s words, made “quite lot of money getting into bitcoin early on.” So here’s a sentence to read twice: A flight attendant bought a quarter-million-dollar ticket to space from a private-island-owning billionaire using a digital currency prone to weekly price swings of up to 80 percent.

First off, these tickets to space are to suborbital space, which is nothing to scoff at, but it’s not the moon either.Second, lest we ratchet up our galactic expectations, none of these commercial space flights have actually happened yet.Third, Branson cashed in the Bitcoin immediately after the transaction, which makes the transaction more akin to a digital PayPal payment than an embrace of the new Fed-less currency.So why the spin?But for one thing, Branson himself is an early investor in Bitcoin.One of the major criticisms of the currency is that few businesses actually accept it.In fact, most bitcoins—64 percent—aren’t spent at all, they just sit in wallets as their owners, including Branson, hope they will appreciate.In “accepting” bitcoins, Branson makes them seem like a viable form of payment, which will no doubt cause more people to buy them.And the more investors there are scooping up the coins, the fewer there will be on the market, causing demand—and thus the value of bitcoins—to rise.

Of course, the flip side of this strategy is that by cashing them in immediately, Virgin Galactic is not only showing that it doesn’t actually have all that much bottom-line faith in the currency, it’s also putting more Bitcoins back on the market which, on a large enough scale, causes their value to drop.That said, it’s unlikely the billionaire takes all that much time away from his space entrepreneurship to sit on his private island and mull over how to game the Bitcoin market.He probably just thinks it sounds cool to trade space tickets for an Internet currency.And, of course, it does.Photo by Sweetie187/Flickr Up next after the break: BusinessA deep, engaging story!Bitcoin Billionaire from Noodlecake Studios has none of those.Yet, it's still somehow addictive and... I don't know if I'd say fun, but something resembling a type of fun.Here's how you play Bitcoin Billionaire—tap.Each tap earns you (not real) Bitcoins based on how powerful your mining rig is.You can also tap with more than one finger, or even both hands if you're really into it.

Your coins can be spent on miner upgrades and better stuff for your pad.There are also Amazon delivery drones dropping off random bonus packages and a variety of other events to keep it interesting.If you've ever played Cookie Clicker, this is similar.This is a free-to-play game, but I have to hand it to Noodlecake for not being jerks about it.There are in-app purchases for special premium currency (hyperbits), but you earn a lot of them from playing, and there's very little push to spend money.Additionally, it's clever how Bitcoin Billionaire will offer you the chance to get bonuses by enabling banner ads for a few seconds or watching a short video.It's not really annoying at all because the ads feel like part of the game.Bitcoin Billionaire Developer: Noodlecake Studios Inc + [Deal Alert] Unlocked Sony Xperia XA1 $250 at Amazon ($50 off) Finish off the week with 26 temporarily free and 45 on-sale apps [Update: Now $317 and $323] Deal Alert: Casio WSD-F10 outdoor Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch $330-$340 at Amazon ($60-70 off) [Deal Alert] Get a 16GB Moto G4 Play for $99.99 from B&H [Deal Alert] New members can get a year of Audible for $99.99 ($50 off) How much did you pay for your current smartphone?

More than $800 $600-799 $400-599 $300-399 $200-299 $100-199 Less than $100.My phone's cost was subsidized by my carrier I am leasing my smartphone View Results Loading ... Discuss This Poll OnePlus 5 review: Proof that OnePlus is here to stay ZTE Quartz review: Missing a few features, but an impressive value HTC U11 review: A pretty good phone, if anyone's still listening Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 review: For those who dream of owning an iPad mini that runs Android Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom review: A promising phone that falls victim to bad software and cut corners 21 new and notable Android games from the last week (6/14/17 - 6/20/17) 10 new and notable (and 1 WTF) Android apps and live wallpapers from the last week (6/13/17 - 6/19/17) 12 new and notable Android games from the last week (6/7/17 - 6/13/17) 10 new and notable Android apps and live wallpapers from the last week (6/6/17 - 6/12/17) 22 new and notable Android games from the last week (5/31/17 - 6/6/17) WhatsApp lets you send any file type, bundles shared media, and modifies the call screen IFTTT updated with more than 30 new data sources, Google Photos support, and VoIP Action Launcher gets a huge update with new icon, more free features, animated clock icon, and more [Update: It's Live] Google Wallet v20 is getting ready to add fingerprint support and replace its own PIN codes with Google Account PIN [APK Teardown] Finish off the week with 26 temporarily free and 45 on-sale apps Exclusive: Google is building a live support app with screen-sharing for Nexus devices [No] Growing Conspiracy On Facebook Claims NFC Stickers On Smartphone Batteries Are Government Surveillance Devices Riptide GP2 Developer Prematurely Publishes Changelog, Basically Confirms That AndroidTV Is Coming Tomorrow Sony Xperia Z Jelly Bean 4.2.2 Update Rolling Out In Austria, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Spain, And Taiwan Sony's Internet Player Will Launch July 22nd Globally, Be The First Google TV Device Available In The U.K.