Last week on Tuesday Gizmodo and Wired speculated to much derision a new candidate to correspond in meatspace to the ephemeral Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Both outlets ended the week by each publishing their own pieces resembling admissions of doubt about their initial reports in varying degrees. Wired came closer to doing the right thing by admitting (archived) they were in all likelihood attention scammed by Hoaxtoshi. Gizmodo on the other hand, lacking in humility and journalistic sobriety, in their piece work to salvage the narrative they presented with an appeal to mystery (archived). Continue reading
Category Archives: Fiat/BTC interfaces
Generally Upward Price Volatility At fiat/Bitcoin Interfaces Continues
After the reported exchange rate offered on fiat/Bitcoin spiked last month, they have spiked again this past week hitting approximately 450 United States dollars per Bitcoin. Following last months spike prices have settled in to a band between 300 and 400 United States dollars before climbing again to this latest apex. Earlier in 2015 Bitcoin as reported by fiat/Bitcoin interfaces had been holding in a boring and steady band between 200 and 300 United States dollars for nearly the entire year. Increased buying pressure is leading some exchanges to criminally reckless coping mechanisms as their thin order book sell sides are exposed. Continued caution in dealing with all fiat/Bitcoin interfaces is advised as noise about particular exchanges being "Big" is no reliable indicator of their safety.
Craig Steven Wright Raided By Australian Police
Hours after Wired and Gizmodo reported on the same day that Craig Steven Wright is their best guess for a likely Satoshi Nakamoto, Australian Federal Police began reportedly began raiding residences and businesses associated with Wright (archived). Mainstream media are parroting police assertions that the raids are unconnected with the possibility Wright may be Nakamoto but instead related to Australian Taxation Office matters. Given the timing of the raid however it is exceedingly likely police, the tax office, and other agents of fiat when reading the recent speculation did as a point of fact become aroused on rumors of Satoshi's hoard. Continue reading
Sound Money > Everything Else You Got
Find below notarized a copy1 of the sentencing memorandum filed with the SOPS on behalf of Shaun W. Bridges, yet another (recall DEA agent Carl Mark Force IV ?) USG agent that stole as much Bitcoin as he could the very second he could steal any Bitcoin whatsoever. Continue reading
With special thanks to asciilifeform! ↩
Silk Road Fallout Updates
This week United States Secret Service operative Shaun Bridges was sentenced to 71 months in prison for his theft from the Silk Road, the exact amount sought by the prosecution. Back in October more interesting Silk Road thief Carl Mark Force IV received 78 months in prison while prosecutors requested he received 87. Meanwhile last week the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation managed to have a Canadian citizen arrested in Thailand for consulting on the design of a website which happened to be used as a drug marketplace by others. The arrest of a Canadian in Thailand is consistent with the severe clinical depersonalization revealed by the United States Government's consistent pattern of having foreign nationals in still other foreign countries arrested with the aim of prosecuting them in the United States.
F2Pool Lashes Out When Called Out For SPV Mining
Late last week some minor drama occurred on the old forum when a certain large SPV mining pool which has caused headaches for Bitcoin's network stability before had some of their IP addresses published publicly.
Bitcointalk user Kano revealed that a part of the SPV mining process used by F2Pool (nee. Discus Fish) and likely others involves connecting miners to other pools in order to more rapidly detect block changes and generate an empty block header to feed to their miners sooner than they could otherwise. The connected listening "miners" at least as implemented by F2Pool at the time of this outing did not actually mine on the connected pools making their detection easier. Continue reading
US Securities And Exchange Commission Indicts GAW Over Ponzi
More than a year after GAW Miners was initially indicted on Qntra following earlier skepticism, the United States Securities and Exchange commission has finally decided to follow suit by issuing charges against GAW's Homero J. Garza. Email dumps beginning in March 2015 offered particularly damning evidence on Garza and GAW's operations. It seems however the Preet Bhararas of the United States criminal production system were too busy to act on anything until a year after the GAW scam had begun collapsing on itself and a full 10 months after GAW's last shills were silenced by a lack of payment.
Two Cans And String Support XTCoin Revival
Bitstamp, the first and only fiat/bitcoin interface built out of two cans and a string, has announced they are moving their cans to new software which would put them on an XTCoin fork of the Bitcoin blockchain. The XTCoin effort has been dead in the water since September when MIT sacrificed their "technology review" in an attempt to make XTCoin politically palatable. There is no word on any potential plans by Bitstamp to add a third can or more string.
Forever 21 Inc Tries Preventing Other Raspberry Pis From Running Software
Forever 21 Inc. raised $116mn in venture funding before a product or business plan was even announced. Earlier this fall the company announced the 21 Computer, a Frankenstein creation using a Raspberry-Pi 2 and a proprietary ASIC which will be obsolete soon given the continual difficulty increases. This computer can be bought for the low price of $400, which allows users to connect to 21 co.'s API a bastardization of the already functioning Web of Trust. Recently code was independently released allowing individuals to run the 21 co. software stack on a $40 Raspberry Pi, to which the CEO of 21 Inc. responded on reddit stating they will be patching the code to prevent non-21 Co. from connecting to their marketplace. Continue reading
Venture Capital Fuels Stupidity In Bitcoin Not Innovation
Venture Capitalists have been flocking to Bitcoin recently in what seems to be a poorly orchestrated fiat invasion. They intend to bring the problems of too much money to Bitcoin and its related "businesses". A very small fraction of the VC capital is hitting the market for Bitcoin, which may be an attempt to assert some sort of fiat control over Bitcoin through price suppression. Continue reading