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Counterparty, one of the first Bitcoin 2.0 platforms in existence, has come a long way since its flaming entrance into the market in 2014. To create Counterparty on top of the Bitcoin blockchain, 2,100 bitcoins were “burned.” Since then, Counterparty has established itself as a go-to platform for p2p digital asset exchange. In fact, almost two-thirds of Bitcoin 2.0 startup crowdsales have been completed on the Counterparty platform in a never-before-seen, decentralized manner.

Japan’s largest Internet company Rakuten Inc., announced today it has started to accept Bitcoin as a payment option on its American portal Rakuten.com. The company said this first integration should be followed closely by other global marketplaces integrations, including its German and Austrian e-commerce portals

It is a well-documented fact that Africa has a huge number of unbanked, which in some countries goes beyond 70%, and also incurs very high costs of money transmission. It follows then that when Bitcoin is mentioned in the same breath as Africa, it is often as a technology that is in a position to help solve these problems.

The Californian state assembly is considering legislation that would require all “virtual currency” businesses to acquire a US$5,000 license to operate legally.

The European Union (EU) Parliament, on the advice of Pablo Zalba, will vote on Tuesday, March 17, on whether credit card transaction fees should be arbitrarily capped at 0.2 %. The legislation, which would govern both domestic and cross-border transactions, is being pushed as a “cost saver” for consumers and retailers.

Local Government authorities in Victoria, Australia announced today they are looking to sell US$7.1m worth of bitcoins on the open market in the coming months.

California is discussing a license for businesses in the cryptocurrency sector, leading to fears of a New York-style BitLicense proposal. Victoria, Australia to auction off US$7.1 million in bitcoin after a Silk Road dealer has his assets liquidated. Privacy-centric messenger app Wiper pulled from Chinese app store after including Bitcoin payment option, and much more news that happened on March 15.

As a lead developer that has worked on Bitcoin for many years, Gavin Andresen has seen his share of mishaps and debates. In the early days of 2011, one faulty transaction created some billion bitcoins out of thin air—“which was bad,” he said at DevCore Boston. The developer-minded talk dove into the early days of Bitcoin, including the thornier coding problems that they encountered. Andresen also shared some opinions about Bitcoin’s mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

CoinDaddy is making Bitcoin 2.0 technology user friendly. Cointelegraph interviews developer Jeremy Johnson about how the project started and where it is going.

Weekend Roundup from Cointelegraph

Storing a document on the blockchain is one of those crypto promises that people have been waiting for a while. The Blockchain Factory is set to actually bring it to the user with iNation.

China, with its high-pace economy, certainly plays a significant role in the Bitcoin space, but with the recently released Goldman Sachs report, it is becoming even clearer just how much impact the country has on the nascent cryptocurrency industry.

Cointelegraph launches dedicated Indian site, as Bitcoin spreads around the world.

After just 2 years, the charity Sean’s Outpost has fed its 150,000th meal to the homeless today using Bitcoin.

While we all live in societies where money is mostly considered as a mean to bring wealth and prosperity, there are other factors and aspects in life that all people appreciate. One of these elements is reputation.

Bitcoin core developer Jeff Garzik has signed a deal to have his full-node satellites built, ready to be launched into orbit. IBM is rumored to be working on its own version of Bitcoin designed to introduce instant euro and dollar payments. Large sybil attack discovered as huge node network found to be working to undermine blockchain anonymity, and much more that happened on March 13.

The team behind the “blockchain-based anti-counterfeit solution,” Block Verify, wants to have a global, positive social impact by using blockchain technology to “make the world more honest.”

The Wall Street Bitcoin Alliance (WSBA), a trade advocacy group composed of financial market professionals, is looking to “guide and promote comprehensive adoption of digital currency and blockchain technology across financial markets.”

When Bitreserve’s CEO Halsey Minor made a blog post comparing Bitcoin to Netscape, it made a lot of people upset. Why, many thought, would the CEO of a Bitcoin company compare Bitcoin to the long defunct web browser? Does he not believe in Bitcoin? If that is the case, what is he doing in the industry?

Coinbase joins powerful DC special interest group “The Internet Association” alongside Google and EBay. Coinapult teams up with Factom in technical collaboration. Internet sleuth tracks down one winner of the Federal Marshall’s Bitcoin auction, and much more news that happened on March 11.

Popular chatter has it that Bitcoin will be most helpful to people in “developing countries,” because they’re “unbanked” and “undocumented.” Poor souls.

Proof that Bitcoin can empower the minority, independent of political will or regulatory circumstance, is coming to light in 2015 – in Cuba.

T-Mobile Poland has entered into a partnership with local payment processor InPay S.A, allowing customers to top-up their cellphone credit using bitcoins.

The world’s most visited Bitcoin news site has decided to implement a deal section full of “exclusive” offers. The problem is, they don’t accept Bitcoin and the offers don’t appear to be exclusive.

Bitcoin is a virus spreading with no cure. It transmits itself through the ideas of others and travels via digital networks of information. Eating up the processing power of computer systems and decaying the roots of analog money, Bitcoin is the spread of a benevolent virus.

FibreCoin, which has been a member of the Blocknet community since October 2014, developers of anon-centric OS, and anti-key-logger password interface, has left the 2.0 platform to join the SuperNET.

Secretive Bitcoin company 21 Inc., becomes the world’s most funded digital currency startup, founders of Counterparty announce the first issuance and trading platform for “smart securities,” former JP Morgan Chase & Co. executive and high-profile Wall Street banker joins digital currency startup, and more top stories for March 11.

BitPay the Bitcoin payment processor continues building on its relationship with Ayden, the payment processor behind AirBnB, Facebook, Uber, Spotify and Facebook. Its latest integration is with 3D Hubs.

21 Inc., formerly 21e6, announced it had raised US$116m in venture capital, the largest investment yet accumulated by a startup in the digital currency industry.

A list was recently published by the Crypto Economics Consulting Group (CECG) of all the dangerous men who are currently (or may soon be) in prison for bitcoin-related crimes.