In a post on the Ethereum foundation's blog Vitalik Buterin with substantial optimism announced that the Ethereum Foundation has nearly spent down all of its reserves (archived). The Vitalik claims Ethereum Foundation expenses of roughly 410,000 Swiss Francs per month though he assures readers he can bring that down to a third of a million Swiss Francs in the near future and a quarter of a million Swiss Francs per month further into the future. Buterin claims approximate reserves of 200,000 Swiss Francs, 1800 BTC which will continue to be dumped onto the markets, and 2,700,000 of their own Ether tokens. A further amount of roughly half a million Swiss Francs, or nearly a month of their operating costs is claimed to be held in reserve for legal contingencies. Buterin's own estimate for the depletion of his Foundation's funds is June of 2016 though their burn rate suggests insolvency may arrive much sooner. When paired with claims of extraordinarily desperate measures being taken by Confiscatory agents of the state to acquire more Bitcoin (archived), it appears Buterin's Waterfall may be nearing the end of its most effective days.
Category Archives: Fiat/BTC interfaces
Eyewitness: People Walking Out of BitPay Office in Tears
According to a known and reliable eyewitness numerous people have been spotted leaving the BitPay office in tears. This suggests rumors of further rounds of layoffs at BitPay. The witness further suggest that the marketing department was hit hard as many people's phone lines at BitPay no longer work. BitPay's struggles over the last year suggest high burn rate is a severe danger to companies starting up in the Bitcoin space.
Bet Over Ethereum's Survival Rockets Past 100 BTC in Wagers
A six day old Bet on whether Ethereum rides into 2016 as a continuing economically viable thing has managed to so far draw more than 129 Bitcoin in wagers. The criteria assigned for Ethereum to fail include the value of Ethereum tokens falling under 0.001 BTC per Ethereum token during December 2015 or if the volume of Ethereum tokens traded during the month of December 2015 being less than 100 Bitcoin in value. At the present 23 Bitcoin have been staked on Ethereum's failure while 106.11 Bitcoin are staked on Ethereum surviving December. According the the wager on BitBet price information is to be taken from Poloniex. As of this writing Ethereum is trading for around 0.004 Bitcoin per token with an all time low price of 0.00243990 Bitcoin per token on August 10th shortly after Ethereum's release. Continue reading
US Increases Fee to Relinquish Citizenship and Residency
The United States State Department has increased the processing fee for relinquishing United States Citizenship or Permanent Residence through means other than explicit renunciation to 2350 United States dollars from 450 United States dollars (archived). The change brings the fee in line with that for having the State Department acknowledge an explicit renunciation of citizenship even though a number of the acts leading to the relinquishment of citizenship create a loss of United States nationality even without a Certificate acknowledging the loss of nationality from the State Department. A few acts that until recently allowed one to certify their loss of United States nationality at a discount include: Continue reading
CFTC Regulatory Butt Thunder Continues
As Bitcoin continues marching towards its grandiose destiny, it seems we just can’t get enough of the inept US Butt Thunder striking yet another fool boy and his pale imitation of a domestic commodity exchange. Continue reading
BitPay Claims Hack Amounting to 5000 Bitcoins
According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle BitPay Chief Financial Officer Bryan Krohn's loose treatment of email credentials resulted in the transfer of 5000 Bitcoins from BitPay's control (archived). An adversary party who received the credentials from Krohn managed to send emails posing as Krohn which resulted in Chief Executive Officer Stephen Pair sending transactions of 1000, 1000, and 3000 Bitcoin to Bitcoin addresses outside of BitPay's control. BitPay's insurer declined to pay $950,000 requested by the firm to cover the loss. Whether this was an actual attack or internal embezzlement is unknown, and likely unknowable. This is just the latest in a string of problems for BitPay including layoffs, low return yet high cost marketing expenses, and their inability to convert Bitcoin users to retail consumer uses of their coins.
Pascal Reid Pleads Guilty Promising to Service USG "Law Enforcement" – Full Draft Plea Text
Pascal Reid who was charged for his involvement in trading Bitcoin on an individual basis in the state of Florida has announced his intention to accept a guilty plead which compels him to train "Law Enforcement" on Bitcoin related topics. He is further compelled as well to consult with Miami area police and the United States Secret Service on cases involving Bitcoin as they see fit. Reid's efforts to have charges dismissed back in November were denied by Judge Katherine Fernandez Rundle. In addition to working on the behalf of local and federal "Law Enforcement" agencies the plea agreement includes a sentence of 90 days in jail with credit for time served, and the agreement is further conditional on Reid reimbursing Florida $500 for their expenses in prosecuting him. The explicit public disclosure that the plea bargainer must turn stoolie is uncommon, but it highlights that the cost of signing the papers and avoiding trial is your own title to yourself. It is a tremendous credit to the local officers of the court that the explicit nature of this was made available to the public in this rare occasion. All parties involved in Bitcoin are advised against knowingly dealing with Pascal Reid, or any other party know to have entered a guilty plea, either in business or mere conversation for the entirety of the future. The full text of the draft plea agreement is below: Continue reading
Mark Karpelès Charged With Embezzlement in Latest MtGox Criminal Charge
Via the South China Morning Post (archived) news comes that the latest criminal charge Mark Karpelès faces for his role in the MtGox debacle is that of embezzelment.
Coinwallet Turns Stress Test Into Dust Givaway
Spam generator Coinwallet has taken a different avenue to carry out its latest network "stress test" by presenting its latest round as a "giveaway" where they are posting private keys owning numerous dust outputs on the Bitcointalk forum. According to their announcement they intend to distribute roughly 200 Bitcoin in this manner. Attempts to claim these outputs may explain the recent increase in the number of weird non-standard transactions hitting certain Bitcoin nodes. Previously suggested countermeasures for surviving a transaction flood including demands for a higher base transaction fee per kilobyte of transaction data should still work to help keep nodes running happily throughout this event.
Guilty Plea After Package Tracking Breaks Opsec in Darkmarket Drug Case
Harold Bates of Massachusetts plead guilty to drug charges relating to the importation of a half kilogram of methylone from China. Bates was implicated in the case when his residential IP address was discovered to have checked the tracking number on the USPS web portal of a package seized by postal inspectors containing the prohibited drug product. The package was intercepted in Hollywood, Florida. Bates faces three methylone related charges carrying a potential 20 years of prison each along with a separate charge for possessing a prohibited item as an inmate of a prison which carries an additional potential for 10 further years in prison. The three methylone related charges are conspiracy to import, importation, and possession with intent to distribute. Overseeing the case is Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts Patti B. Saris who is also the Commissioner and Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission. Bates is scheduled to be sentenced on December 10th in Boston.