How geeks do charity: Use your GPU to churn out goats

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Your computer’s graphics processor might be more charitable than you think. CoinLab, a Seattle-based tech startup that focuses on the Bitcoin digital currency, has come up with a way for PC users to take advantage of their spare GPU cycles to raise money to buy goats for impoverished families around the world. Yes, real goats…. Read More…

New Bitcoin Foundation aims to bring legitimacy to digital currency

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A new foundation will seek to rally support for Bitcoin, aiming to overcome the challenges faced by the digital currency and boost its use in the long run. Peter Vessenes, the entrepreneur behind the CoinLab incubator in Seattle, is the executive director of the newly launched Bitcoin Foundation. “My hope is that the Bitcoin Foundation… Read More…

You are the machine: CyborgCamps to probe human-technology interaction

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Drop the word “cyborg,” and most casual conversations will take a jarring turn toward Star Trek, Terminator, or Battlestar Galactica, where beastly human-machine hybrids threaten to take over the world. But that’s not what cyborg means anymore — at least not to Amber Case and organizers of two upcoming CyborgCamps: one happening this weekend in Seattle (it’s not too late to snag… Read More…

CoinLab: New center for Bitcoin projects in Seattle

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A group of Seattle entrepreneurs is forging ahead into the uncertain and intriguing world of Bitcoin with a new center for incubating projects and potential businesses involving the digital currency. Called CoinLab, it’s the creation of Peter Vessenes, Mike Koss and Tihan Seale, housed inside the StartPad co-working space that Koss oversees in downtown Seattle…. Read More…

Bitcoin: Tech vets explore potential of digital currency, try to avoid pitfalls

Peter Vessenes and Mike Koss (Erynn Rose photo)

Seattle tech startup entrepreneurs Mike Koss and Peter Vessenes joined us on the latest GeekWire radio show and podcast to talk about Bitcoin, the digital currency that has been getting lots of attention lately, good and bad. Koss and Vessenes have been exploring the world of Bitcoin and  thinking about starting a Bitcoin-related development center… Read More…

GeekWire Radio: Sex, phones, Internet Explorer and Bitcoin

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This week on the GeekWire radio show and podcast, we assess a new study that demonstrates just how devoted (or addicted?) many of us have become to our smartphones — to the point that some people wouldn’t give them up for anything. Seriously, not for anything. We also talk about the hoax that fooled many… Read More…

Bitcoin befuddles U.S. customs agents, thwarting Seattle visit by digital currency guru

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A developer who specializes in the Bitcoin digital currency says he was sent back to China last week after he arrived at Sea-Tac Airport with only $600 in cash and wasn’t able to convince U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents that he would be able to fund his two-month visit using Bitcoin. The developer, who… Read More…