We really like Bitcoin here at Guerrilla Mail.

We first blogged about it in June 2011, when we were excited to propose a novel system for email stamps: https://www.guerrillamail.com/blog/stamps-for-email/‎

Since then, we have seen Bitcoin decline, rise again, decline and rise again. Each time, coming back stronger than ever.

We’re not talking here about the price of Bitcoin on the exchange. Bitcoin is not for investing, or at least investing is not why we care about Bitcoin. So why do we like Bitcoin?

The answer is that Bitcoin: 1. solved a very difficult problem of tracking decentralized transactions, 2. It plays well with the internet (after all, it’s just another protocol, as HTTP and SMTP are), 3. is easy to program and integrate in to many different applications, some that were not possible before.

The former reason is probably the most important. Bitcoin can be used for much more than just payment. For example, applications can include micro-payments, contracts, proof of ownership, automated meditation, escrow, authentication, and more. These features are there now laying dormant in the protocol, ready to be used by the next generation of the economy of the internet.

The adaption of Bitcoin is growing fast, and we can tell. As you may have noticed, we have added a bitcoin donation address. To our surprise, we have received quite a few more donations than expected! This could be because bitcoin removes a lot of the friction. Instead of the hassle of clicking on a button, going to another page to checkout, taking out a card, typing in the card, filling in the billing address, etc, … all users only do is scan a QR code and send a Bitcoin transaction instantly in one step!

(We really want to thank all of those unknown people who donated. With your donations, we were able to sit back with nice cold beer, purchased directly with Bitcoin! )

Bitcoin donations beat Flattr.com too. (And there was one mistake donation for 1.8 BTC was was promptly returned. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible, unlike credit cards which can be charged-back). What’s amazing is that people can send us their donations, almost instantly, from anywhere in the world, without the need for for trusting any intermediately such as a bank or a postal service. And yes, we can really spend our bitcoins on legitimate, common, every-day items, such as beer or a meal!

We are very interested in developing Bitcoin apps too. This year, we have seen the launch our first Bitcoin service: Ability to send Bitcoin via email, without the need to know someone’s email address: https://www.guerrillamail.com/bitcoin – which was a good warm-up in to the bitcoin services.

Development is now under way on a brand new Bitcoin application, something that’s never been tried with Bitcoin yet. The application is due to be unveiled in about a month from now.