Micro payment service ChangeTip continues to exhibit spasmodic death throes as it announced that users will be required to contact support if they wish to tip amounts in excess of 25 USD. Last week Qntra reported that the service itself is still seeking a buyer after the majority of it's employees were snapped up by AirBNB. ChangeTip support is limiting user deposits to $100 Users of the "service" still seem to be unaware that one can simply send any amount of Bitcoin desired to a person's public address without limits or incurring additional fees.
Darknet Market Nucleus Offline
Popular darknet market Nucleus has been offline for nearly a week, leading many users to speculate that yet another exit scam is in the works. The market was holding roughly 5,000 BTC in deposits for vendors and users. No message from /u/nucleusmarket has been forthcoming on reddit's r/darknetmarkets sub which seems to be the preferred meeting place on clearnet for users of such marketplaces.
FAA Declares Up To 20 Years In Prison For Self Defense Against Drones #DroneLivesMatter
A "magazine" published by the Washington Post is reporting that the United States Federal Aviation Administration has determined the act of shooting down a drone is a felony under rules in 18 USC. 32 against damaging or destroying aircraft. The FAA is advancing this draconian interpretation of the law in spite of most incidents of drones being shot down occurring with responsible gun owners rightly defending their lives and property against menacing drones. With this decision the FAA has valued the well being of fragile chunks of plastic that sell for less than any pickup truck in running condition over the liberty of actual flesh and blood persons. Peace in our time and goodwill to all who aren't men.
Senior Swindler Sentenced
The Florida Sun-Sentinial reports that a Canadian man was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for swindling seniors out of nearly $1 million in funds, some of which were converted to Bitcoin in an attempt to make hiding them easier.(archived). Stephan Moskwyn pled guilty to a money laundering charge at a federal courthouse in Miami. The scheme involved social engineering tactics on Seniors and vulnerable people, often requesting the person send Bitcoin or Moneypaks to assist a relative in financial trouble. Moskwyn was arrested in a Miami International Airport terminal in October of 2015.
A search revealed no Mr. Moskwyn in The Most Serene Republic's Web of Trust.
Docker On List Of Companies Taking Quiet CIA Funding
The Intercept has published a list of 38 companies involved in the datamining business1 that take undisclosed funding from the venture capital arm of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (archived). Among these companies was one not often though of in conjunction with the data mining business, Docker who develops software that leverages containers to ease the automated deployment of various kinds of application software. Docker last attracted the attention of Qntra when their employee and Debian founder Ian Murdock died following a violent encounter with police. Following his death Docker Inc. managed his affairs. Consider Docker harmful. Sorry for your loss. Peace in our time.
Edit: Here is a link to a previous discussion of the CIA money disbursement machine. Many of the funded companies go beyond datamining and in fact engage in all kinds of snake oil. Some even produce products available for "civilian" use. ↩
"Soft" Fork Advocate Proposes Harder Type Of "Soft" Fork
Peter Todd, a noted soft fork proponent and developer currently on contract with the venture at one point known as BTC China, has since January been bringing up the possibility of a new kind of "soft" fork as a potential step towards a hard fork. This new class of turd is being referred to as a "Forced Soft Fork" with the forcing element being that it would become impossible to spend coins from actual Bitcoin clients without signing on to the new, unwanted, steaming pile of shit. Thankfully an actual Bitcoin implementation maintained by Bitcoin purists1 is available.
As opposed to people who like the extant adoption and value of Bitcoin, but want to gradually change everything about Bitcoin other than its name into something completely different. ↩
Bitcoin Difficulty Increased ~7.09%
The latest difficulty adjustment has taken the network difficulty from 166851513282.7771911 to 178678307671.68844604 which is an increase of approximately 7.09 percent.
Voorhees ShapeShift Hit Inside Job?
A recent update from ShapeShit.io owner Erik Voorhees indicates that the recent attack on their service was potentially an inside job. An announcement published earlier on Reddit states that the company has been working with a group of forensic specialists from Ledger Labs to investigate the theft, which involved an undisclosed amount of BTC and altcoins from their hot wallets. Voorhees further stated they are working to restore the service and would publish more information as it becomes available.
Journalist Sentenced Under US Hacking Laws
Journalist Matthew Keys was sentenced to 24 months in prison by United States district judge Kimberly J. Mueller for allegedly turning over a username and password to television station KTXL Fox 40's web content management system. Prosecutors alleged that Keys did this in order to damage his former employer further alleging that Keys turned over the credentials to a fictitious hacker collective called 'Anonymous' and told them to have fun. Keys insists that the overzealous prosecution of the act, one that if he did it could barely be classed as criminal, has been carried out as retaliation for his refusal to abuse his position as a journalist in order to assist the FBI. The minutes of Key's sentencing are presented below: Continue reading
Putin Providing Material Support To Trump-Clinton Candidacy
As the candidacies of Donald Trump-Clinton and Hilary Rodham-Clinton have begun facing struggles these past few week in their respective races to replace Hussein Bahamas as the president of the United States, Russian president Vladimir Putin has decided to give their campaigns a shot in the arm. Putins aid has come in the form of bringing national security back in mix of froth being fed into the social engineering hopper. For the past few days Russian SU-24 warplanes have been making simulated attack runs against the guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cook. The warplanes have been making the passes without any visible armament and have reportedly come within 30 feet of the ship. A Russian KA-27 helicopter has even joined in the fun circling the Donald Cook several times. How much of an effect Putin's intervention in the remaining portion of the primary election process has remains to be seen.