VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Using Bitcoin as a form of reward to programmers working in open-source software projects is rapidly gaining popularity, a report in The Wall Street Journal Blog Venture Capital Dispatch said.

The D and the Golden Gate casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada will be accepting Bitcoins to pay for goods and services beginning on Wednesday, January 22, RT reported.

Investors see in Bitcoin the potential to provide a payment technology that could undermine the dominance of Visa Inc, Western Union or Citigroup Inc in the industry, Bloomberg reported.

The UK website of e-commerce giant eBay will soon allow the sale of Bitcoins and other digital currencies under the Virtual Currency category, CNET reported.

South Korea-based Bitcoin startup Korbit raised $400,000 in funding from several Silicon Valley investors including Tim Draper, Naval Ravikant, David Lee, and Barry Silbert, for the company's growth.

The Bank of Finland said that digital currencies like the Bitcoin cannot be considered an official currency but is more comparable to a commodity, Bloomberg reported.

Professional basketball team Sacramento Kings is the first team in the US to accept the Bitcoin, highlighting its fascination with the digital currency, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Paying online purchases with Bitcoin is not something new but paying taxes using the digital currency is and SnapCard is the startup that makes that possible, according to Forbes Contributor Ben Kepes.

The mining pool GHash.io run by a secretive company known as CEX.io which has links to Ukraine nearly controls 45% of Bitcoin network's processing power, according to a report by Bloomberg View contributor Leonid Bershidsky.

The value of the Bitcoin has soared in recent months, but can the technology also help make predictions? A research team from a venture capital firm lists top 10 predictions for the digital currency in 2014.

While other governments have not provided regulations about the digital currency, Singapore has issued regulations about how merchants can manage Bitcoin taxation and related transactions.

Utah-based online retailer Overstock.com struck a partnership with California-based bitcoin wallet Coinbase in a deal that made it the biggest online seller to embrace bitcoins as payment.

Reuters Breakingviews Economics Editor Edward Hadas said the Bitcoin is nearing its end. Before it becomes forgotten, he gives five lessons that can be learned from the Bitcoin mania.

The government of Taiwan said no to American firm Robocoin's installation of Bitcoin ATMs in the country because it believes Bitcoins are not real currencies, according to a government officer.

US-based social games maker Zynga is testing Bitcoin payments for in-game purchases in some of its popular titles including FarmVille 2 and ChefVille, and has partnered with BitPay to handle the transactions.