Bitcoin 2013 Conference Roundup

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Gliph had a strong presence at the Bitcoin 2013 conference in San Jose, California in May and we’re just now sharing some of the media and story of the event.

Gliph Co-Founder Nicholas Asch and Gliph iOS Developer Joakim Fernstad in our freshly laid out booth at Bitcoin 2013. (It featured beanbag chairs and foliage)

The company first got involved when your blogger and co-founder (Rob Banagale) accepted a panelist spot on the Law Enforcement and Financial Privacy track at the conference. At this time our development team was working feverishly on the first release of the Bitcoin integration into Gliph.

Wanting to do something special for the earliest and most core Bitcoin adopters, we created custom Bitcoin branded merchandise for the event. This included hats and hooded sweatshirts embroidered with a great looking Bitcoin logo. We sold these for Bitcoin at our booth.

We did our release on Friday, May 17th, which included a feature article in PandoDaily. That article was written by Erin Griffith and included our news of joining the Boost VC startup accelerator. Continue reading →

Bitcoin Enhancements in Gliph for iPhone v1.48

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Today, we’ve released a new version of Gliph for iOS that includes a variety of enhancements related to Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is still fairly new, if you aren’t familiar with it at all, you may want to watch this. If you haven’t heard about Gliph’s recent addition of Bitcoin, you can read about it here, and watch a video of the iPhone app here.

Here are the new Bitcoin-related updates in v1.48:

  • The Bitcoin option in the menu now shows to all new users. We had a bug that was causing this to not be displayed without restarting the app.
  • You can now view the current exchange rate in the Send Bitcoin popover. It is based on the 24-hour MtGox weighted average.
  • Bitcoin payments now have a small Bitcoin symbol next to them. You can also tap on a Bitcoin payment in a conversation view and see it listed in the wallet view.
  • You can now detach a Coinbase wallet from Gliph. If you want to remove your Coinbase Bitcoin wallet from Gliph, use the trash can button in title bar of wallet view. Please note: if you intend to completely remove the connection we recommend you also visit Coinbase and remove Gliph’s access to the Wallet.
  • Wallet view now shows Gliphs of users from prior transactions. Previously Gliph showed Bitcoin transaction IDs.

We made a few other non-Bitcoin enhancements as well: Continue reading →

Gliph’s Responsible Disclosure Program

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Lost among the multitude of announcements and happenings for Gliph this past weekend was the introduction of our Responsible Disclosure Program.

As a platform focused on providing security and privacy, it is important that we involve everyone willing to help us keep the Gliph community safe. We created a page to officially describe our Responsible Disclosure Program for whitehats and announced the first contribution from a security researcher.

Anand Prakash, (@sehacure) a student at Vellore Institute of Technology in kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India has proved a helpful early contributing security researcher to Gliph. We would like to thank him for his work.

If you are a security researcher, we encourage you to check out the program and reach out to us if you have any questions or feedback. You can reach us at security at gli dot ph.

Announcing Simple Bitcoin Payments with Gliph

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Bitcoin P2P payments on GliphWe are proud to announce that Gliph now supports simple peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payments using Bitcoin digital currency. You can now send Bitcoin with other Gliph users using updated versions of our iPhone, Android and web applications.

We have an iOS demo video up if you’re hungry to see how it works.  Also a step-by-step guide to setting it up for Android and for iOS. But this is more than just a new feature for us and we wanted to go into detail as to why we’re adding Bitcoin to the Gliph platform.

Over the past several months the Gliph team has been fascinated by Bitcoin. Bitcoin brings privacy to payments that is unavailable with traditional banking. The software behind Bitcoin is open source and has sustained great scrutiny. The currency itself is distributed, and transfers can take place with little or no fees at all. We love that no one company or government controls Bitcoin, and that even its creator(s) are shrouded in anonymity.

We believe Bitcoin and the ideas behind it have the power to change the world.

But when our team began using Bitcoin every day, we noticed some rough patches. Getting started can be confusing. If you were able to get a wallet set up, it was easy to get stuck asking “what next?” If you wanted to send Bitcoin to a friend, you had to awkwardly copy and paste long wallet addresses into tiny form fields. Existing solutions, even from biggest players, felt too technical and took the fun out of using this amazing new currency. Continue reading →

Using Bitcoin on Gliph’s Updated iOS App

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Today, we’re turning some surprise Bitcoin functionality on for all Gliph iPhone users. The most recent version in the App Store, version 1.47 now allows you to send Bitcoin. This entry goes over how to use Bitcoin functionality in the app.

If you haven’t, you may also want to read about why we added Bitcoin or how to use Bitcoin with the updated Gliph Android app.

 

Continue reading →

Using Bitcoin on Gliph’s Updated Android App

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Today we’ve released version 1.1 of the Gliph Android application to Google Play. Our Android users have been very patient in waiting for updates, and today marks solid progress. This entry covers both the updates and how to use the new Bitcoin functionality in the app. You may enjoy the demo video of how awesome Bitcoin can be on Gliph available here.

What’s New: Visual Updates
Gliph Android Bitcoin Update Screenshot appGliph for Android 1.1 catches up with the mobile web and iPhone application in a number of areas. First, we’ve updated the Activity View to show the actual tags of the connections you’re talking with instead of the Gliphs themselves. The conversation view has been touched up, also bringing connection tag, first name or pseudonym facets into view, rather than the Gliph.

While we love the Gliphs, and know some people use them as their central identifier for other people, we have also gotten feedback that it is hard to keep track of who is who when you have many contacts. So now there is more consistent styling across iOS, Android and the web.

What’s New: Image Viewing
While we weren’t able to get image attach into this update, you can at least now view image thumbnails sent by your web using and iOS using connections. We hope to get uploading into an upcoming update. Continue reading →

Gliph Joins Boost VC Startup Accelerator

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Gliph joins Boost VC Startup AcceleratorWe are happy to announce that Gliph has joined the Boost VC startup accelerator. Gliph will join around a dozen other companies in a business incubation that includes mentorship, seed capital and a heavy focus on product development.

Beginning late June, Gliph’s founders (Rob and Nick) will relocate to Boost’s provided housing and office space in San Mateo, California. There we will join a group of startups specifically focused on the Bitcoin digital currency. The team will be working throughout the summer to refine the Gliph experience and further integrate Bitcoin into Gliph’s digital identity platform.

We chose Boost because founders Adam Draper and Brayton Williams have shown themselves to be early advocates for the Bitcoin currency. They’ve also put together a stellar program for startups that is a great fit for Gliph’s stage as a company. Continue reading →

Stuff you Can Buy Today with Bitcoin on Portland’s Craigslist

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Things you can buy off craigslist with Bitcoin

Bitcoin burning a hole in your e-wallet? With a growing number of craigslist sellers stating they’ll trade in Bitcoin, we thought we’d share a fun snapshot of what you can buy on craigslist with Bitcoin in Portland, on Monday, April 8th, 2013. Prices calculated at current $184 / 1 BTC.

Item Name Price USD Price BTC Satoshi Location
Freshwater Crystal Red Shrimp $3 0.01639344 1,639,344 Battle Ground
Freshwater Blue Tiger Shrimp $8 0.04371585 4,371,585 Battle Ground
Montague Folding Mountain Bike $850 4.64480874 464,480,874 N Portland
AT&T Mobile Hotspot $100 0.54644809 54,644,809 Clackamas
Logitech 880 Harmony Remote Control $80 0.43715847 43,715,847 Oak Grove
Starbucks Verismo 585 Coffee Maker 250 1.36612022 136,612,022 Oak Grove
Schwinn S-15 Bike 169 0.92349727 92,349,727 Mcminneville
Sunlight Grow Light Controler $120 0.6557377 65,573,770 Hillsboro
Native Instruments Drum Machine $330 1.80327869 180,327,869 Beaverton
Yamaha APX500 Acoustic Electric Guitar $220 1.20218579 120,218,579 Beaverton
Kindle Keyboard $100 0.54644809 54,644,809 Portland
Nike Aero Thunder Fuse Baseball Bat $60 0.32786885 32,786,885 Corvallis

Many cities on Craigslist have stuff for sale in exchange for Bitcoin. At the time of our snapshot it appeared Los Angeles has the largest number of different sellers. Austin is distinguished in that it is the only city selling not one, but two different types of fertilized chicken eggs available in exchange for Bitcoin:

Update: Hello Digg and other folks. Gliph is a technology startup based in Portland, Oregon. If this is your first time hearing about Gliph, welcome!

Gliph is a digital identity platform that lets you send secure messages and complete transactions with people.  You can download our iPhone or Android app. We also have a great mobile web application.  You can follow the company on twitter @gli_ph.

Something awesome you can do right now with Gliph is protect your email address from spammers and scammers using Cloaked Email. Try it out!

New Gliph Facet: Bitcoin Wallet Address

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Bitcoin Wallet Address Facet GliphWe’ve added a new Facet to Gliph accounts that lets you save and share a Bitcoin wallet address.

This means you can connect with another Gliph to discuss at transaction. If you decide to go through with it, you can use Gliph to securely share the wallet address.

New users signing up for Gliph will see “Bitcoin Address” in the list of Facets that may be bound. For existing users, you can now add a bitcoin address using the following steps:

On iPhone:
  1. In the Menu, choose Settings
  2. Tap the Edit button
  3. Scroll down to “Bind additional facets”
  4. Find “Bitcoin Address”

Gliph is Now Accepting Bitcoin Payments

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We’re pleased to share that we now accept Bitcoin as a payment method for Gliph products, in addition to In-App Purchases (IAP) and traditional credit cards. Today, that means you can purchase additional Cloaked Email addresses, and add upgrades to your account using Bitcoin.

What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a new kind of money that is decentralized and not controlled by a single organization or government. You can send Bitcoins to other people and businesses around the globe without going through a bank. This means Bitcoin can be used in any country, and fees for sending the currency are very low.

Why did you decide to take Bitcoin?
Many of our users are privacy and security conscious folks and we have had requests for the company to take payment over Bitcoin since we launched Cloaked Email Pro. We also appreciate the following aspects of the Bitcoin currency:

  • Privacy - While Bitcoin was not designed for anonymity, it can be used in a way that abstracts transactions away from identity.
  • Security – Bitcoin uses mathematics to allow the network to create Bitcoins and validate transactions. The currency itself is not controlled by any particular institution.
  • Trust – You don’t need to trust anyone other than yourself and the person you’re sending money to. No one can get in the way of your transactions.

How do I pay Gliph with Bitcoin? Continue reading →