In contrast, BTC China has not received a notice from its bank, notes CoinDesk. Bitcoin prices are plummeting as the news emerges – the price is down to $410 right now on London-based Bitstamp.
This corroborates what we reported on 27 March. China was a huge market for bitcoin because of its facility for evading currency controls.]]>
The only solution Kroll sees is to rewrite the rules of the currency. “It would need some kind of governance structure that agreed to have a kind of tax on transactions or not to limit the number of bitcoins created,” he says. “We expect both mechanisms to come into play.” Won't be popular.]]>
This was to be part of the ‘Hull People Premium’ scheme, aimed to help the people of Hull save money, and gain access to advice and aid for food, fuel and finance. The first, and one hopes the last. "Hull residents in financial distress can take part in voluntary activities and receive HullCoins in exchange," it explains. So people who are poor get stuff stored in digital wallets that need comparatively expensive computers and high levels of expertise to access? ]]>
But in following the clues that led me to Finney, I found something equally significant: a dying man who had been something like a far-more-brilliant Forrest Gump of cryptographic history: a witness to and participant in practically every important moment in the recent history of secret-keeping technologies. From the development of the first widely used strong encryption software known as PGP, to early anonymity systems, to the first Bitcoin transaction, Finney was there. Must-read.]]>
Shit!
He was tumbling our stolen bitcoins a second time, and a tumbler is unbeatable....
Unless you guess which one it is, nearly all the coins belong to the person you're tracking, jump in with him, and get jumbled up through the same wallets using the same algorithm.]]>
Early one October morning two years ago, Lee unleashed his project, Litecoin, onto an online universe that was still coming to terms with its more famous progenitor, and though Litecoin is still firmly rooted in the Bitcoin code base, it has found a place in the world, showing just how strong the appetite is for a new breed money.
Bitcoin has had an extraordinary run this year, but if you’d sunk your money into Litecoin instead of Bitcoin on January 1, it would have done better. The pitfalls of geekdom: there's always going to be a new thing to splurge on.]]>
…It is clear that Bitcoin can be used as money. It can be used to purchase goods or services, and as Shavers stated, used to pay for individual living expenses. The only limitation of Bitcoin is that it is limited to those places that accept it as currency. However, it can also be exchanged for conventional currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, Euro, Yen, and Yuan. Therefore, Bitcoin is a currency or form of money, and investors wishing to invest in BTCST provided an investment of money. That's a precedent.]]>
According to a notice posted by the agency, the DEA seized 11.02 BTC, worth about $814, from a 31-year-old South Carolina man, Eric Daniel Hughes, for violating the Controlled Substances Act on Silk Road.
Little else is yet known for certain about the case. But since news of the seizure broke, several parties have begun trying to piece the details together. Would it be surprising if the DEA were infiltrating Silk Road? Not at all.]]>
On Thursday Mt. Gox announced that it would begin requiring “verification” for all accounts seeking to deposit or withdraw currencies other than Bitcoin, a measure that means users would need to submit government identification and a utility bill or information about the company they work for to trade Bitcoins for traditional money, in effect ending anonymous use of the service.]]>
BitPay CEO Tony Gallippi told me that Thiel invested because he saw how the company could help ease online commerce across borders; the company already handles $5m in transactions each month and says the figure is growing. “Traditional payments such as credit cards don’t even work in half the world, so companies just choose to not service international customers,” Gallippi said. “That leaves a big opportunity.” He plans to take further investment later this year but told me it will be more for reasons of making strategic contacts than a need for cash, since he and his cofounders have significant Bitcoin holdings.
One reason Bitcoin is interesting, says Jeremy Liew, a partner with Lightspeed Venture Partners, is that it could displace the practice of wiring money across borders, which underpins much international trade today and can be onerous. “If I’m trying to wire a supplier in China it’s a three- or four-day process with heavy fees,” he says. “Bitcoin transactions can be instant and free.” Bitcoin will work in places where credit cards won't, seems to be the suggestion.]]>
We believe that Bitcoin represents something fundamental and powerful, an open and distributed Internet peer to peer protocol for transferring purchasing power. It reminds us of SMTP, HTTP, RSS, and BitTorrent in its architecture and openness. Like what happened with those other low level protocols, entrepreneurs and developers are now building technology on top of Bitcoin to make it more useful, more accessible, and more secure. He has a good track record on investments.]]>
A pallet of $100 bills that disappears in Iraq is a socialized loss against everyone who holds dollars. A million dollars of lost bitcoin carries its identity, at least as a traceable taint. This loss remains privatized, and it can be sued for, forever.
There are a small number of choke points, which someday may be asked to honor these thefts. Will the currency translators accept the money? Will the mining pools? It’s really an open question. We just don’t know.
Perhaps the best way to think of stolen bitcoin is as stolen art. Sure, we can hang it anywhere. Don’t expect to sell it at Christie’s. A resource that loses its value as soon as it is stolen, may be one that isn’t stolen. Smart and realistic.]]>
The mining started on April 13 and may have affected as many as 14,000 gamers. Possibly illegal. Isn't it time someone wrote a book about "rogue employees"? News International, Google, and now ESEA...]]>
Researchers at Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab discovered the Bitcoin malware campaign last week, which had been targeting would-be victims in Russia, Poland, Costa Rica, Spain, Germany, Ukraine and other countries.
Potential victims are encouraged to install a file that is included with messages like "this my favourite picture of you". If the malicious file is installed, one of its features is to turn the machine into a Bitcoin mining slave.
Does it pay better than spam? One has to assume so.]]>
Why is that a problem?
To understand that, you just have to read what may be the most famous column by Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman: the baby-sitting co-op. Understand the co-op example, he says, and you understand monetary policy. And then you understand why Bitcoin is fatally flawed. It's not fixable for Bitcoin, but could be fixed for another cryptocurrency.]]>
1) BitForce SC Jalapeno: a USB powered coffee warmer providing 3.5 GH/s, priced at under $149
2) BitForce SC Single: a standalone unit providing roughly 40 GH/s, priced at $1,299
3) BitForce SC Mini Rig: a case & rack mount server providing 1 TH/s, priced at $29,899
“Butterfly Labs has always considered itself a serious manufacturer in the SHA-256 hardware industry and our customers are leaders in providing hashing services for some of the world’s great technological challenges,” noted Nasser G, BFL CTO. “We see the BitForce SC lineup as the natural next step in continuing to meet our customer's needs.” Now you know: there's a hardware ecosystem around Bitcoin. Though we do hope Butterfly Labs has more than one customer. (Thanks @kentindell on Twitter for the pointer.)]]>
Along comes Bitcoin, a currency in which every transaction is stored by the entire network and every coin has its own story. There’s nothing to trust but math. Suddenly an idea that sounded terrible — a totally decentralized currency without a central authority, where semi-anonymous parties exchange meaningless tokens — becomes almost comforting, a source of power and authority.
That’s where Bitcoin thrives: where people would prefer to throw in their lot with anonymous strangers instead of the world economy. It’s gold-bug thinking reinvented for an age of fluid transparency and instantaneous transactions. And as such it’s an excellent indicator of anxiety. Where you see Bitcoins in action you find a weird and heady mix of speculative angst, a fear of being left behind, and people who appear to have lost faith in institutions, who feel most left behind.]]>
Bitcoinica was launched by Zhou Tong, who claimed to be a 17-year-old based in Singapore and communicated primarily through blog and forum posts. People trusted him with their money despite his lack of experience, in part because of Bitcoinica's clever feature that allowed speculators to short, or bet against, the digital currency. By this point your natural reaction should be closing your eyes, shaking your head and exhaling.]]>