BitLicense Comments, Coinbase, BTC China and Radical.FM

NEW YORK (InsideBitcoins) — From worldwide sources, these are the latest bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry developments to cross our news desk:

The proposed BitLicense rules should exempt businesses “that store or transmit virtual currency and do nothing else,” according to the Chamber of Digital Commerce in comments filed with New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). The Digital Chamber also maintained that the regs should not limit the freedom of virtual currency businesses to invest capital as they wish. The organization also said that the “Existing Exchange Services” exemption, as proposed, discriminates against non-New York City persons.

The Chamber of Digital Commerce also endorsed an extension of the 45-day comment period “to allow the industry more time to submit alternative proposals.”

Coinbase has acquired Blockr.io, a popular block explorer service, for an undisclosed amount.  Blockr.io parses the bitcoin blockchain and presents the data to users in an easy to read fashion.

“As part of the acquisition, we’re able to welcome two of its exceptionally talented employees to the Coinbase team: software engineer Sašo Matejina and designer Samo Drole,” a Coinbase release stated. “The pair recently moved from Slovenia to join our staff of 40 full-time employees here in San Francisco. Saso and Samo will be focused on continuing to make the Coinbase API the premier tool for developers who want to build on top of bitcoin. They’ll also work on building out Coinbase’s own bitcoin node.”

BTC China has launched the latest version of its iOS app, Mobile Exchange 2.0 with “all the features currently present in its cross-platform HTML5-based offering,” which was released in late July. It is the first mobile app offered by a Chinese exchange to allow its users to trade in three trading pairs: BTC/CNY, LTC/CNY and LTC/BTC.

An iOS version of BTC China’s wallet and person-to-person bitcoin trading app, Picasso, is also awaiting approval by Apple. Both iOS apps are available in ten languages.

The company also reduced the fee for sending bitcoin to an external address from a user’s Picasso wallet — from 0.0005 BTC down to 0.0001 BTC per transaction.

Radical.FM, an ad-free music service, has begun accepting Bitcoin donations through payments service provider BitPay. Donations will help the service continue to offer its 25-million-song library commercial-free.

“Bitcoin is redefining currency for the Digital Age just as Radical.FM is redefining radio.” said CEO Tom McAlevey in a release. “So for Radical to pioneer Bitcoin acceptance in the streaming industry was a no-brainer, and BitPay is an experienced partner, secure, and well suited for making online donations.”

The company claims that, unlike “typical tech and algorithm-heavy online radio services, Radical.FM is programmed by hand, by human beings.”

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