2020 was an exciting year for Bitcoin. We saw large price movements, increased adoption, and despite memes to the contrary, major advancements in the development of the Bitcoin protocol and software projects in the surrounding ecosystem. At higher layers, improvements were made upon the lightning network, statechains, sidechains, discrete log contracts, RGB and more.^1,2,3,4,5 There was notable progress in the development of Stratum v2, a protocol to enhance mining decentralization.⁶ Software which improves the security of key management has advanced at blistering speeds.⁷ Even low-level cryptographic libraries continued their march forward.⁸ Underpinning it all of course is Bitcoin Core, which saw changes to nearly all major components of the codebase.

Keeping up with just some of these projects can be a full time job, let alone directly participating in their development processes...

Buying Bitcoin doesn’t have to be hard. CardCoins makes it easy!

Find a location near you and purchase a Visa, Mastercard or American express branded gift card, then follow these simple steps:

1. Start your order and confirm your phone number
2. Submit your card details and Bitcoin address
3. Upload three images of your card, its packaging and receipt.

In the first image you will be asked to arrange the front of the receipt, the back of the card’s packaging and the back of the gift card as follows:

In the second image you will write a quick handwritten note with pen on the front of the receipt and sign the signature panel on the back of the gift card. The exact note you are asked to write will be displayed on your order page, what you see here is just an example. Make sure to sign it with our 3 loop signature!

In the third and final image you’ll flip over the receipt, gift card and...

In many ways gift cards are much like Bitcoin–they are “bearer assets” and offer a mechanism for financial inclusion to those who are unbanked.¹ These similarities create an amazing synergy together!

The FDIC conducted a household survey in 2017 and found that approximately 8.4 million households in the United States were unbanked,² a number that is likely to have increased during the novel coronavirus pandemic of 2020.³ Open loop prepaid cards are particularly important for e-commerce as most online retailers expect customers to use credit or debit cards. Instead of waiting to get approved for a credit card or bank account, unbanked households can grab a prepaid card off the rack and use it with minimal friction. Here we begin to see the similarities with Bitcoin, as the protocol was designed in part for this exact purpose– to create a permissionless online payments mechanism.

So...

The most common question we receive is: which gift cards does CardCoins accept? When you walk up to a gift card rack there are dozens of options, so it’s no surprise that you might be confused!

The short answer is, CardCoins accepts open loop non-reloadable gift cards. But if you’d like to learn more about what that means, let’s take a look at the different types of gift cards on the rack today.

There are two primary types of gift cards: “closed loop” and “open loop.” Closed loop cards, also known as “single purpose” or “store cards,” can be redeemed only with specific merchants or groups of affiliated retailers. They bear the issuer’s branding and can be purchased directly or from participating retailers with shared distribution agreements.

“Open loop” cards are general-purpose prepaid cards that are “network branded,” meaning they carry their “card organization’s” logo such as...

Bitcoin has been compared to a chorus composed of many voices, with each member producing something unique for the wider network. Miners and node operators provide security, traders inject liquidity, exchanges build on/off ramps, merchants offer outlets to spend Bitcoin and users pay fees to access block space. Open source developers are also fundamental to Bitcoin’s success. They bring peer review, documentation, improved operability and new functionality to Bitcoin’s technology.

Each of these actors have economic incentives which drive their behavior. Funding for open source projects is traditionally derived from companies who benefit from that software, and CardCoins is no exception. Bitcoin Core is an essential piece of our infrastructure. Without carefully tested “full-node” software, neither the Bitcoin network nor our business would be possible.

To that end, CardCoins and...

CardCoins is proud to serve all demographics, including those commonly referred to as cash-preferred or underbanked. This group potentially stands to gain more than any other from the advent of cryptocurrency, yet they also face some of the most daunting challenges when it comes to accessing the crypto economy. After studying the marketplace, CardCoins identified non-reloadable prepaid gift cards as an immediate solution to bridge the gap between cash and Bitcoin.

We’ve put together an interactive map packed with location data to help you find some retailers in your area which stock gift cards accepted on CardCoins. Keep in mind this map only represents a fraction of all available locations, and it’s already up to 59,000 today.

You will find the locations clustered–either use your scroll wheel, tap/click, or double tap/click the clusters to zoom in. Once you’ve zoomed in to see...

Over the last month the CardCoins team has closely tracked the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the United States. On March 16th 2020, the White House released guidelines which include specific recommendations about social distancing and discretionary shopping.

Here at CardCoins we’re especially honored to serve those for whom cryptocurrency is a financial necessity. Many retailers which stock other essential items, like gas stations, supermarkets and pharmacies, also have gift card sections where gift cards accepted at CardCoins can be found. Phone ahead to confirm opening hours and supply stocks for all items in order to minimize travel between locations.

In addition to observing all local and federal guidance, we recommend the following safety measures specific to gift card handling:

• Wear gloves while in contact with gift card packaging, or consider sanitizing with...

Incomm prepaid gift cards are currently experiencing a system wide outage which is preventing them from being successfully used or activated. The issue was confirmed by our merchant services provider as well as directly by Incomm.

Incomm was unable to provide a timeline for resolution. You may still be able to check your card balance online. To find out more information, please call the customer support hotline listed on the back of your gift card.

The Bitcoin Cash network will be subject to two competing consensus-breaking rule changes on November 15th, 16:40:00 GMT (timestamp 1542300000). Both Bitcoin ABC v0.18.3 and Bitcoin SV v0.1.0 contain modifications to consensus critical code that are incompatible with one another and the preexisting rule set. These hard forking changes could produce up to 3 independent blockchains: one which follows the old ruleset, another which follows BCHABC and a third which tracks BCHSV.

While CardCoins does not accept user deposits, we do make outbound payments to our customers. To eliminate the possibility of broadcasting transactions that are replayed or made stale by way of reorganization, CardCoins will temporarily suspend Bitcoin Cash orders until further notice. Outstanding Bitcoin Cash orders that have not completed payment before November 15th 12:40:00 GMT will be cancelled.