Simon Fraser University Bitcoin ATM Vancouver – SFU in Vancouver, Canada becomes the first major academic institution in the world to install bitcoin ATMs on campus.The ATMs, dubbed ‘Bitcoin ATM Vancouver’ is installed next to the SFU’s main bookstore and many more bitcoin ATM installations are planned according to Simon Fraser University Bitcoin Club president Michael Yeung.He insisted that in the upcoming months or weeks, a few more bitcoin ATMs are expected to show up all over campus.The current single bitcoin ATM Vancouver on campus can be used to exchange any cash or currency for bitcoins, donate bitcoins to the university and other charitable organization or simply send and receive bitcoins from students, friends or family members.MUST READ: What is a Bitcoin ATM and How to Use Bitcoin ATM Machines Yeung says that some time this fall, the bookstore will begin accepting Bitcoins for textbook and other purchases.SFU Ancillary Services executive director Mark McLaughlin says at this point, the university is still looking at feasibility: “By the end of September I’d say we are going to be in a position to say whether we will want to proceed and go further.” He adds the university is planning a conference on digital currency later this year.

Yeung expects Bitcoins to spread if accepted at the bookstore.“[SFU is] looking to place Bitcoin ATMs on each of their campuses for students to try out,” he says.As for paying for tuition by Bitcoin, Yeung wouldn’t comment, and McLaughlin says it’s not on the university’s radar.“If we accept it at the bookstore it’s for small transactions, $10, $50, but tuition is a different story,” he said.Digital currency is an attractive way to do business according to Yeung, who points out Bitcoin donations to the university are automatically converted using a payment processor—a better option than credit cards that take a cut of up to 3.5% per transaction.Yeung explains it’s similar to exchanging U.S.cash for Canadian dollars and allows 100% of funds to go to the university.ALSO SEE: How to Get Free Bitcoins with Bitcoin Faucets That Really Pay Are you a student on a university or academic institution that have have bitcoin ATMs or accept bitcoin as payments for books, merchandise, or even tuition like the bitcoin ATM Vancouver movement?

If so, please share with us on the comment section below with exact location and your name for credit.About Latest Posts Latest posts by Jonas Chokun (see all) Bitcoin Investment 2016: Is It Worth It?Bitcoin Founder, Satoshi Nakamoto Net Worth Reaches $700 Millions!litecoin mining businessCaricoin Brings Bitcoin To The Caribbeanbitcoin mission statementWeakening Chinese yuan pushes Bitcoin to hit $500 sweet spot BY ON May 30, 2016 It was a great weekend for bitcoin.achat bitcoin prixLast week, we saw the price of a single bitcoin slowly creep up to reach $467.50 on Thursday night.bitcoin casino apiBut that was nothing compared to Friday, when the price of the digital currency surged by as much as 15 percent and briefly reached $530, according to Quartz.when will bitcoin bubble pop

This is bitcoin’s highest price since August 2014, when it was traded by about $532.CoinDesk had slightly lower values for the digital currency.According to the site’s price index, bitcoin hit a high of $479.39—a value not seen since September 2014, when bitcoin went on a free fall from more than $1,000 per single bitcoin.ethereum studioThe verdict is still out on the exact reason behind the surge.bitcoin bronx nySome market participants believe Friday’s spike was caused by the devaluation of Chinese yuan, pointing out that bitcoin prices had already reached $500 on two of China’s largest bitcoin exchanges, OKCoin and Huobi.wd bitcoinTrades involving Chinese yuan are believed to account for about 95 percent of the current bitcoin trading volume this year, according to a CoinDesk research.cote du bitcoin

Petar Zivkovski, director of operations at bitcoin trading platform Whaleclub, had a different analysis.In an interview with CoinDesk, Zivkovski contributed bitcoin’s price surge to “a short squeeze” and the inadequate sell orders that fail to match the buy orders.Another potential factor is digital finance platform ethereum and its virtual currency ether.The digital currency also had a great week before its price fell more than 10 percent on Friday, prompting many traders to speculate on the possible link between the two.Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of bitcoin start-up Coinbase, said in a blog post that even though etherium couldn’t have existed without bitcoin, ethereum is now already “ahead of bitcoin in many ways and represents the bleeding edge of digital currency.” Bitcoin still hit the $570 mark on Sunday before settling in at $531.15—a 0.3 percent day-on-day spike—while daily transaction volume reached $134,056,000 with a total of 15,600,900 bitcoins in available supply, according to Coin Telegraph.

This has been a big week for Bitcoin.On Monday, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held the first-ever Congressional hearing on Bitcoin.Later in the day, the currency's value reached an all-time high of more than $800.That has left a lot of people scratching their heads.How do you use it?And why would anyone want to?Read on for answers.(Inspired by Max Fisher's classic explainer on Syria) Bitcoin is an online financial network that people use to send payments from one person to another.In many ways, Bitcoin is similar to conventional payment networks like Visa credit cards or Paypal.But Bitcoin is different from those and other payment networks in two important ways.First, Bitcoin is decentralized.For-profit companies own the Visa and Paypal networks and manage them for the benefit of their respective shareholders.No one owns or controls the Bitcoin network.It has a peer-to-peer structure, with hundreds of computers all over the Internet working together to process Bitcoin transactions.

Bitcoin's decentralized architecture means that it is the world's first completely open financial network.To create a new financial service in the conventional U.S.banking system, you need to partner with an existing bank and comply with a variety of complex rules.The Bitcoin network has no such restrictions.People don't need anyone's permission or assistance to create new Bitcoin-based financial services.The second thing that makes the Bitcoin unique is that it comes with its own currency.Paypal and Visa conduct transactions in conventional currencies such as the U.S.The Bitcoin network, however, conducts transactions in a new monetary unit, also called Bitcoin.That seems really weird!Why would anyone use a payment network based on an imaginary currency?Almost everyone who encounters the idea for the first time (including me) has the same reaction: That can't possibly work.) This graph shows the price of one Bitcoin since the start of 2011, when the currency began to adopt mainstream attention.

The price has been extraordinarily volatile -- it lost more than 90 percent of its value between June and October 2011, for example.But there's also been an unmistakable upward trend.Notice that the chart is on a logarithmic scale.It shows the currency's value rising from around $0.30 at the start of 2011 to around $600 today.There are almost 12 million bitcoins in existence, so the Bitcoin "money supply" is now worth around $7 billion.Bitcoin has captured the imagination of venture capitalists.A startup called Bitpay, which processes Bitcoin payments on behalf of vendors, raised more than $2 million earlier this year.Coinbase, a startup that helps consumers buy and sell bitcoins, has raised $5 million.And last month, a Bitcoin startup called Circle raised $9 million.Why are people so excited?Bitcoin enthusiasts believe that Bitcoin's peer-to-peer architecture and low barriers to entry will allow the creation of a new generation of innovative financial services, in much the same way that the Internet's open architecture led to innovative new online services.

There are also many Bitcoin fans who see the currency as an antidote to the inflationary tendencies of central banks, though, as we'll see later, this argument for Bitcoin is misguided.This just sounds like a bubble.Do people use the currency for anything besides speculation?I just mentioned Bitpay.It provides a good sign of Bitcoin's growing popularity for "real" transactions.In September 2012, the company announced that it had signed up 1,000 merchants to use its service for accepting Bitcoin payments.Just a year later, the company said, it passed 10,000 merchants.Bitpay works with a wide variety of merchants.Some sell online services like Web hosting or virtual private networks.Others sell jewelry and electronics.There are even restaurants and cupcake shops that sell their wares for bitcoins.And yes, Bitcoin has significant illicit uses.Programs like Satoshi Dice allow people to gamble online.Until recently, a Web site called Silk Road helped dealers sell millions of dollars of illicit drugs.

It's hardly unusual for new payment technologies to attract illicit use.Pornography was a big draw for both the first VCRs and the early consumer Internet.New payment technologies often attract criminals looking for new ways to move their funds without government scrutiny.Another application for bitcoins that is expected to become more important in the future is international payments.Right now, wiring money internationally involves slow, expensive and inconvenient services like Western Union.Bitcoin is international, and its fees can be much lower than conventional wire transfer services.There's still work to be done to make such a system affordable and user-friendly.But it has the potential to disrupt the international payment industry.No one knows for sure.The currency was created by a person who indentified himself as "Satoshi Nakamoto."While the name sounds Japanese, Bitcoin's creator never provided any personal details.He collaborated with other early Bitcoin fans through online forums but never met with other members of the Bitcoin community face to face.

Then, starting in 2010 he gradually reduced his involvement in the currency's development.His last known communication came in 2011.We don't know who Satoshi Nakamoto is, but we do know that if he ever surfaces, he will be an extremely wealthy man.Millions of bitcoins were created in the currency's first two years, and Satoshi likely owns hundreds of thousands of them.At today's prices, he would be a millionaire many times over.Before leaving the scene, Nakamoto passed his torch to a mild-mannered developer named Gavin Andressen, who is currently the project's lead developer.Andressen now works under the auspices of the Bitcoin Foundation, the closest thing the anarchic Bitcoin community has to an official public face.Where do bitcoins come from?In a conventional financial system, new money is created by a central bank, such as the Federal Reserve.But the Bitcoin network doesn't have a central bank.So the system needed an alternative mechanism for introducing currency into circulation.Bitcoin's designer solved this problem in a clever way.

As I said above, hundreds of computers scattered around the Internet work together to process Bitcoin transactions.These computers are called "miners," and Bitcoin's transaction-clearing process is called "mining."It's called that because every 10 minutes, on average, a Bitcoin miner wins a computational race and gets a prize.Currently, that reward is 25 bitcoins, worth around $12,500.These prizes provide a strong incentive for more people to join in Bitcoin's transaction-clearing process, helping the currency to remain decentralized.This reward declines on a fixed schedule: Every four years the reward falls by half.So, from 2009 to 2012, it was 50 BTC, now it's 25 BTC, and starting in late 2016 it will fall to 12.5 BTC, and so forth.If you do the math, you'll find that there will never be more than 21 million bitcoins in circulation.Right now, there are almost 12 million bitcoins in ciruclation, so the Bitcoin money supply will never be more than twice its current size.Isn't that a huge problem?

I learned in economics class that deflation can cause economic problems.It's true that deflation has traditionally been associated with economic problems, but there's little reason to think this will be a problem for Bitcoin.That's because deflation is only a problem if it is what economists call a "unit of account" for a nation's economic system.Right now in the United States, salaries, mortgage payments, rents and other long-term financial commitments are priced in U.S.As a result, if the value of the dollar rises unexpectedly, these "sticky prices" can cause severe economic distortions.Unable to cut wages, employers have trouble making payrolls.Unable to renegotiate their debts, homeowners have trouble making their mortgage payments.Tenants get stuck with rents they can't afford.The result is a recession.Hardly anyone uses Bitcoin as a unit of account.You'd be insane to sign a contract promising to repay a loan of 100 BTC in 10 years or to take a job where your salary was priced in bitcoins.

Even the Bitcoin Foundation, which pays its employees in bitcoins, still sets its employees' salaries in dollars, converting employees' dollar-based salaries into the corresponding number of bitcoins on each payday.As a result, fluctuations in the value of bitcoins don't cause the kinds of economic disruptions that fluctuations in the value of traditional currencies do.How do I get bitcoins?One option is to mine them yourself, but that's not a good choice for beginners.For everyone else, your best bet is to purchase them with a conventional currency.Web sites known as exchanges will let you trade bitcoins for conventional currencies with other users.Even more convenient are companies like Coinbase, which will withdraw cash from your bank account and convert it to bitcoins at the current exchange rate.A few Bitcoin ATMs are popping up, which will directly trade paper money for Bitcoins.Here's a video of someone using a Bitcoin ATM in Vancouver: 8.Okay, I bought some Bitcoins.Next you'll need a place to store them.

Bitcoins are stored in "wallets," which in this case are just files that contain encryption keys, or secret codes that allow you to transfer your bitcoins to other people.There are several options.One is to store them yourself using one of the Bitcoin programs available for Mac, PC and Android.Another option is to entrust them to a third-party Web site known as a "online wallet."A third option is what's known as a "paper wallet," where you print out your encryption keys and store them in a safe place, such as a safe deposit box.If you choose to store your bitcoins yourself, then you could lose them to a hacker, a hard drive crash or a lost mobile device.But if you choose to use a third party, you need to worry about that third party swindling you or becoming bankrupt.The Bitcoin market is largely unregulated, so there are few legal protections if you happen to choose the wrong online wallet service.Paper wallets avoid the pitfalls of other methods, but they're tricky to set up correctly, and of course you're out of luck if you lose the piece of paper.

Okay, I have some bitcoins and found a secure way to keep them.What do I do with them now?There are thousands of Bitcoin merchants online who will sell you everything from jewelry to electronics to illegal drugs.You can also spend bitcoins in "real life."To spend them in person, you need a Bitcoin mobile app.Generally, the store you're buying from will show you a QR code representing the Bitcoin transaction.You then scan that QR code with your phone, and the mobile app will send the required number of bitcoins to the store.Then you walk out the door with your purchases.Of course, right now the options for face-to-face Bitcoin transactions are rather limited.Earlier this year, Kashmir Hill of Forbes lived on Bitcoin for a week.Because she lived in tech-savvy San Francisco, she was able to find enough Bitcoin-accepting merchants to get by, but just barely.So Bitcoin is far from being a practical currency for day-to-day use.Should I buy bitcoins?There are two reasons you might want to buy bitcoins: to purchase goods and services or for speculation.

Right now Bitcoin isn't a very practical payment technology for ordinary users.The software is too complicated, and the risk of loss due to hackers, forgotten passwords, hard drive failures and so forth are too large.Also, Bitcoin is extremely volatile right now, so your wallet could go from having $100 worth of Bitcoins one day to $50 the next.And right now, as Hill discovered, the technology just isn't used widely enough to make it a useful option to have in your pocket or purse.For most people, conventional payment technologies like credit cards are going to be more convenient.What about speculating on Bitcoin?Once again, the currency probably isn't a good choice for ordinary users.The security and reliability risks of Bitcoin loom much larger if you invest thousands of dollars in the currency.You don't want to run the risk of losing thousands of dollars because you forgot a password or had an unexpected password failure.And the currency is extremely volatile.It might keep going up, but it could also lose 90 percent of its value next week.

In other words, you should only jump on the bandwagon if you have a strong stomach.If people shouldn't buy bitcoins, then what is all the fuss about?Once again, the analogy to the Internet is instructive.Until the 1990s, the Internet wasn't a practical technology for ordinary folks to use, either.It used complicated text-based programs, and you had to be a computer expert to use it effectively.But it would have been foolish for an observer in 1990 to dismiss the Internet as too nerdy for mainstream use.Over time, entrepreneurs took the basic infrastructure of the Internet and built innovative and user-friendly online services such as Google, Facebook and YouTube.Bitcoin boosters are betting that the same will happen with Bitcoin.The "raw" bitcoin network isn't very accessible, but startups like Coinbase and Bitpay are slowly fixing that.Some day soon, someone may develop Bitcoin's "killer app," a program that provides a financial service that has clear advantages over conventional banking.

That might be an international money-transfer network with lower fees, a practical system for online micropayments, or something else that no one has thought of before.Could bitcoins ever replace conventional money?It's possible, but it doesn't seem very likely.People want to use the currency that most other people use, and in the United States that's going to be US dollars for the foreseeable future.And that's a good thing: if Bitcoin became the standard currency of the US economy, then its fixed money supply would create a serious risk of the next economic downturn snowballing into a depression.However, there could be a lot of room for Bitcoin to complement conventional financial networks.After all, Paypal gained traction because the conventional financial networks of the day weren't meeting all of users' needs.Bitcoin's open architecture could allow it to be even more disruptive.People are unlikely to ever eschew conventional financial networks altogether, but there could be a substantial market for Bitcoin-based services that perform certain services more effectively or affordable than conventional alternatives.