April 2, 2018

Menlo Ventures Leads $40 Million Series B in Bitcoin Firm BitPay

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One of Silicon Valley’s oldest venture capital firms is dipping its toe into the blockchain ecosystem with an investment in cryptocurrency payment processing startup BitPay.

The investment, announced on Monday, came as part of a $40 million funding round, the largest in the Atlanta-based company’s nearly seven-year history. It also constituted the first time Menlo has acquired a stake in a cryptocurrency-related startup.

Founded in 1976, Menlo was one of the first Silicon Valley venture capital firms and has counted among its portfolio companies tech darlings such as Uber, Roku, and Tumblr. However, it had not yet joined so many of its peers in gaining exposure to the burgeoning blockchain sector — until now.

The funding round was BitPay’s first since 2014, when it raised $30 million in a round that included Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, AME Cloud Ventures, and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.

According to tech outlet Recode, several high-profile venture capital firms passed on the current funding round because they believe the prevailing trends in the cryptocurrency industry — that cryptoassets are primarily commodities, not currencies — create uncertainty for the payment processing firm, despite its leading role in this sector.

The publication also noted that BitPay had made the unusual move of announcing the funding round before it had closed, which some observers took as a potential indication that the firm was having trouble reaching its target. BitPay CEO Stephen Pair denied these rumors.

“We wanted to make sure that anybody who wanted to participate could, and announcing it serves that purpose,” he said, noting that the company raised $40 million despite initially targeting $30 million and has been profitable for a year and a half.

And while bitcoin’s transaction fees have declined over the past several months, BitPay — which processed more than $1 billion worth of payments in 2017 — has begun making moves to support additional payments-focused cryptocurrencies. Last week, the company upgraded its merchant tool to accept Bitcoin Cash payments, and it has said it will add support for more altcoins in the future.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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Published at Mon, 02 Apr 2018 18:45:17 +0000

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April 1, 2017

More Dangerous Than The NSA? The Massive Spy Agency You Haven’t Heard Of

zerohedge.com / by Tyler Durden / Mar 31, 2017 5:57 PM

Authored by Alice Salles via TheAntiMedia.org,

If you’re one of the countless Americans who was distraught to learn of the revelations made by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, the mere idea that there might be yet another agency out there – perhaps just as powerful and much more intrusive – should give you goosebumps.

Foreign Policy reports that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA, is an obscure spy agency former President Barack Obama had a hard time wrapping his mind around back in 2009. But as the president grew fond of drone warfare, finding a way to launch wars without having to go through Congress for the proper authorization, the NGA also became more relevant. Now, President Donald Trump is expected to further explore the multibillion-dollar surveillance network.

Like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), the NGA is an intelligence agency, but it also serves as a combat support institution that functions under the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).

With headquarters bigger than the CIA’s, the building cost $1.4 billion to be completed in 2011. In 2016, the NGA bought an extra 99 acres in St. Louis, building additional structures that cost taxpayers an extra $1.75 billion.

Enjoying the extra budget Obama threw at them, the NGA became one of the most obscure intelligence agencies precisely because it relies on the work of drones.

As a body of government that has only one task — to analyze images and videos captured by drones in the Middle East — the NGA is mighty powerful. So why haven’t we heard of it before?

The Shadow Agency That Sees It All

Prior to Trump’s inauguration, the NGA only targeted the Middle East or whatever spy satellites orbiting the globe captured. As far as most of us knew, the agency refrained from pointing its ultra-high-resolution cameras toward the United States. That alone may be why the NGA has been able to stay out of scandals for the most part.