Full Transcript of US Commodity and Futures Trading Commision Bitcoin Session

As announced earlier, the United States Commodities and Futures Trading Commission dedicated a portion of their meeting today to the subject of Bitcoin derivatives. The full video won't be released for a few days, but the full transcript of the session on Bitcoin derivatives is below. Continue reading

Ulbricht Attorneys File Response to Government

Attorneys filed a response following the 48 hour deadline imposed for the Ulbricht defense team to respond to the Justice Department's rejection of the Horowitz Declaration and assert 4th Amendment rights. The reply asserts the Justice Department's response failed to address any technical analysis or conclusions from the Horowitz Declaration, and that the government claims the right to "engage in criminal conduct with impunity in its pursuit of investigative objectives, and not be held accountable therefor." The reply also hammers on the discrepancy of the government's position in the case versus the Auernheimer case. Continue reading

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Meeting on Bitcoin Derivatives Today

The United States CFTC will be meeting today and one of the topics for discussion is derivatives contracts that reference Bitcoin and whether or to what extent the CFTC may perceive to have juridiction on the subject.  Also on the agenda is the separate discussion of Non-Deliverable Forwards and whether or not a clearing mandate may be appropriate. The meeting states at 1:30 PM US Eastern Time and continues to 5:00 PM with the Non-Deliverable Forwards discussion preceding the Bitcoin Derivatives discussion. There will be a live webcast at www.cftc.gov and video should be posted in two days on their site. Members of the public are welcome to also listen via conference call toll free at 1-866-844-9416 or one of several other international numbers.

James' Home Services To Begin Trialling Bitcoin

James' Home Services, which is an Australian cleaning and home services business, is to begin trialling bitcoin payments. The company recently released an app which allows customers to book house cleaning, lawn mowing plus more from their phone or tablet and pay with credit card or cash. Bitcoin payments are currently being trialled and are due to come online soon. Continue reading

Bitcoin Foundation's Financial Standards Working Group Publishes Agenda

In a press release published October 7th, the Bitcoin Foundation's Financial Standards Working Group outlined a trio of priorities for the last and first quarters of 2014 and 2015, respectively, to include "consensus driven" attempts to alter the way Bitcoin is labeled and represented. Bitcoin Foundation Executive Director Jon Matonis suggested the proposals to recommend Bitcoin subunits and a unicode symbol as well as to apply for ISO 4217 approval for a standard currency code beginning with "X" were "important step[s] towards removing obstacles for mainstream adoption." Continue reading

Boost VC and ZapChain Team Up To Create The Bitcoin Course

Zapchain, a Bitcoin social network1 and Draper University, an "innovative and disruptive school for entrepreneurs" have teamed up to offer a free online course on Bitcoin. Zapchain features "Bitcoin Influencers" such as Jackson Palmer2, Adam Draper3 and others such as Jesse Powell4. Continue reading


  1. Which requires Facebook login to create an account. 

  2. Dogecoin. 

  3. Boost VC. 

  4. Founder of Kraken.