Now you can pay for travel with Bitcoins

Move over Visa, MasterCard and PayPal. More travel companies these days are adding a new form of payment to their roster: Bitcoin

LOT Polish Airlines announced it will start accepting the digital currency through a third-party service provider. LOT's not the first airline on the bandwagon, however. Latvia's AirBaltic and Mexico's regional carrier TAR Airlines already accept Bitcoin. The news is pretty surprising considering  all the problems the currency had in 2014.

Got some Bitcoins stockpiled for a rainy day? Here's a list of how you can spend them on a vacation:

Expedia:Last year Expedia became one of the largest companies to open itself to the virtual currency. So far, customers can only pay for hotel bookings, though and they must have an account with its partner, Bitcoin exchange service Coinbase.

PrivateFly: This global jet charter company calls Monaco-based tech entrepreneur Olivier Janssens among its customers. Last year, the Bitcoin millionaire made a big fuss about paying for a flight from Brussels to Nice using his virtual funds.

CheapAir: The online travel agency was one of the first to start accepting Bitcoin in November 2013, and now takes the currency for hotel bookings and flights. According to USA Today, CheapAir's done $4 million in total Bitcoin sales to date.

Virgin Galactic: Yup, that's right. Sir Richard Branson will even let you up into space (eventually) for the equivalent of $250,000 in Bitcoins. It could be a better deal too, depending on that gnarly fluctuating exchange rate, of course.

bitcoin.travel: It may seem like a no-brainer, but this travel site features everything from accommodation to attractions, bars and more all accepting the crypto-currency.

There's still many more travel companies accepting Bitcoins, too. To find out what's near you, check out Coin Map's directory.

Professor bitcoin' and the rise of crypto-currencies

SAN FRANCISCO —Gregory Maxwell, a co-founder of the digital currency startup Blockstream, sat in front of a crowded room of Bitcoin experts and investors in a conference room of San Francisco's Kabuki Hotel this week and answered a question that many came to hear:

Should development of "blockchains"—the globally-distributed encryption technology at the core of the Bitcoin currency—remain united?

Or is it better to have many so-called "sidechains," each with its own rules?

While the latter approach could boost Bitcoin innovation, it might also result in competing standards, slowing the commercialization and adoption of the currency.

A wide range of startups are now developing products based on the Bitcoin protocols, on the hope that it will compete with other global payment systems.

These new software companies and their future rivals look likely to do more than transform online payments.

They may one day transform stodgy business processes such as escrow, insurance and incorporation.

All thanks to a core Bitcoin principle: When a business or a person can run machine learning software on a massive computer network to prove that a financial transaction occurred, they won't need to pay humans to guarantee that it did.

TRUST IS SO 1987

In the view of crypto-currency believers, trust is an anachronism of the analog age, ill-suited to digital commerce.

"The price of trust just fell to pennies," said Andrew Barriser, a proponent of a unified currency approach who sat to Maxwell's right on the panel, and spoke just before him.

Money is now pouring into this disruptive software innovation, with some coming from traditional venture capital investment and much of it from crowdfunding.

Ethereum, founded by Vitalik Buterin as a teenager, raised the equivalent of $15 million worth of Bitcoin in a crowdfunded campaign reported in September.

Its software research has led to the notion of "smart contracts," which could guarantee digital transactions quickly and at little cost.

Then there's ChangeTip, a peer-to-peer, social-media-based tipping service that raised a $3.5 million seed round led by San Francisco's Pantera Capital on Dec. 2.

Pantera invests exclusively in Bitcoin startups, says CEO Dan Morehead, who expects total Bitcoin investment to exceed $300 million this year.

Last month, Blockstream raised a huge seed investment round of $21 million.

The sidechains that Blockstream and others are developing could be efficient platforms for conducting fast, low-cost, secure transactions over the Internet.

But the competing efforts also risk Bitcoin splitting into multiple competing currencies.

That could slow its adoption rate and open the door for any of the dozens of other digital currencies out there, including a notable one from Ripple Labs.

Back in Japantown, Maxwell was treated with noticeable deference by attendees.

'PROFESSOR BITCOIN' SAYS STANDARDIZE

His reputation for finding security holes in Bitcoin code of all types has earned him a reputation one attendee described as "Professor Bitcoin."

In the end, he told Bitcoin fans in the audience what they wanted to hear: Support for a standardized approach.

Sacramento Kings to accept Bitcoin for purchases

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Sacramento Kings are set to become the first major professional sports franchise to accept Bitcoin virtual currency for ticket and merchandise purchases.

The Kings announced Thursday that fans will be able to buy gear from the official team store and pay for tickets with the digital money beginning March 1. Purchases will be processed through BitPay, which accepts the digital dollars and pays the Kings in cash.

Bitcoin users buy digital money and load it onto a virtual wallet. Unlike government-issued money, the value of Bitcoin fluctuates rapidly. At one point Thursday, the value of one Bitcoin was worth nearly $850.

Kings owner Vivek Ranadive said the new payment method is part of his model for "NBA 3.0, which focuses on investments in technology, globalization and deep community partnerships."

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Australian claims he is the founder of Bitcoin

Have we finally discovered the mysterious founder of cryptocurrency Bitcoin?

Australian businessman and computer scientist Craig Wright claimed Monday he created the digital currency. If true, the claim would end one of the biggest mysteries in tech. But Wright's claim carries a big "if," raising the possibility the news is simply one more red herring in one of the Internet's favorite whodunnits.

In a blog post published Monday, Wright said he is behind the online alias Satoshi Nakamoto, the name identified with the creator of the digital currency, which aims to replace cash and the traditional financial system with unique codes shared between users.

Bitcoin prices have been on a roller coaster during the past three years, bid up by the currency's potential and then pummeled by the collapse of an exchange and bitcoin's connection to criminal activity. But the currency's associated blockchain technology, which acts as a public ledger, has been increasingly sought after by large financial institutions.

Wright's post is largely technical, explaining how through cryptographic keys — a key element in the technology — he can prove he is the founder.

"Satoshi is dead," says Wright in the post. "But this is only the beginning."

According to the BBC, Wright says he wanted to end the speculation surrounding the identity of Satoshi. BBC, The Economist and GQ were given access to Wright and reviewed evidence Wright says proves he founded Bitcoin.

Wright also told the BBC he did not want to step forward to "be the public face" of Bitcoin. "There are lots of stories out there that have been made up and I don't like it hurting those people I care about," he says. "I don't want any of them to be impacted by this."

The online identity Satoshi amassed roughly 1 million Bitcoins, which are worth $450 million if converted to cash, according to the BBC.

In a separate post published Monday, Bitcoin Foundation chief scientist Gavin Andresen says he is "convinced beyond a reasonable doubt" Wright is the founder after a recent meeting in London. Andresen says Wright used cryptographic keys only Satoshi would own.

"I am very happy to be able to say I shook his hand and thanked him for giving Bitcoin to the world," writes Andresen.

However, doubts continue to linger over whether Wright is really Bitcoin's founder.

Cornell University computer science professor and cryptocurrency expert Emin Gun Sirer disputed Wright's claims, noting he failed to provide a "free-standing signature" from Satoshi.

"We have yet to see proper cryptographic proof," said Sirer in an email interview. "Even with cryptographic proof, there's still the possibility that the real Satoshi's keys may have been compromised or reverse-engineered. But we have not even seen that yet. What we've seen looks like a deliberate attempt to mislead."

This would not be the first time the elusive founder of Bitcoin was identified incorrectly, if that ends up the case. In 2014, Newsweek claimed they discovered the founder: Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto from Temple Hills, Calif.  The magazine's disclosure set off a bizarre chase in the Los Angeles suburbs as reporters raced to Nakamoto's house. Days later, in an interview with The Associated Press, Nakamoto denied any role.

News reports had also previously identified Wright as Bitcoin's founder. Reports last December from Wiredand Gizmodo point to Wright as Satoshi. A report from Wired soon after said new clues suggested Wright was attempting a hoax.

Price of Bitcoin drops after breach at exchange

The price of Bitcoin plunged Wednesday after a key exchange confirmed a security breach and theft of the currency worth millions.

In a statement, Bitcoin exchange index Bitfinex says they've halted trading and taken down their website after revealing hackers accessed the service and stole bitcoins from users. Reports suggest the value of the bitcoin stolen is roughly $70 million.

According to CoinDesk, the price of Bitcoin fell about 14% before creeping upward.

"We will look at various options to address customer losses later in the investigation," reads a statement on the Bitfinex website. "While we are halting all operations at this time, we can confirm that the breach was limited to bitcoin wallets."

Bitfinex says it is cooperating with law enforcement.

Bitfinex is the latest in a series of hacks targeting bitcoin exchanges. According to CoinDesk, similar breaches impacted exchanges Gatecoin and Cointrader.