First Difficulty Drop of the ASIC Age

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Today's difficulty change marks the first time since the introduction of Bitcoin mining ASICs that the network difficulty has dropped. Network difficulty went from 40,300,030,328 to 40,007,470,271 which is a loss of 0.73 percent. The first difficulty decrease happened in 2011 when pool operators discovered the existence of botnet miners for the first time and banned several. Other difficulty decreases happened during the GPU mining era when price dips made the energy cost of mining unprofitable in the near term. Since January 2013, the month before the introduction of the first commercial ASIC miners by Avalon mining difficulty has increased by more than 1,300,000 percent.

Australia: The Tax Institute Calls for 'Voluntary' Bitcoin Registry, Treating Bitcoin as Currency

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In a filing with the Australian Parliament the Tax Institute proposed a number of changes and suggestions for future measures the Australian Government could consider with respect to Bitcoin. Among those changes were treating Bitcoin as a currency rather than a good which would end the burden of processing GST taxes on Bitcoin purchases, a bane which has lead at least one startup to leave Australia. Also proposed is a "voluntary registry" of Bitcoin addresses in order to: Continue reading →

United Kingdom Severely Constrains Porn Production

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Today an amendment to the 2003 Communications Decency act went into effect that severely limits the acts that can be portrayed in pornography produced in the United Kingdom. The changes apply restrictions that the United Kingdom has placed on content produced for DVD porn and extends those restrictions to Video on Demand Porn. Pornographer Erika Lust regrets the changes as: Continue reading →

Project Longstrike Launches, Meanwhile Australian Citizen Extradited To United States Over Silk Road Charges

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Reuters reports that an unnamed Australian law enforcement agency is investigating the use of bitcoin in organised crime. It's unknown whether the LEA conducting the investigation, named Project Longstrike, is one at the state or federal level. Given the project's scope for local and international crime, it's likely to be the later of the two. Continue reading →

MasterCard's Submission To Economics References Committee Now Available

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A copy of MasterCard's submission to the Economics References Committee held by the Australian Senate on the 26th of November 2014 is now available to the public. Within the submission, MasterCard argues that the Australian regulators must address the pseudonymity of Bitcoin as it can be used to facilitate the purchase of illegal goods and services, launder money as well as finance terrorism.

MasterCard stated that for Australia to have an effective regulatory system for Bitcoin, it must make it a requirement for all transactions to go through regulated and transparent administrators rather than just the blockchain itself. The company also claims that Australia must address the risks that harm consumers and enable criminal behaviours through the use of digital currencies such as Bitcoin if the country is to take a market leadership position going into the future.

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MoneyBeat, A WSJ Blog, Confirms GAW Miners Is A Ponzi

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MoneyBeat, a blog hosted by the Wall St Journal, has published a second article discussing accusations levied against Josh Garza's GAW Miners. Michael J Casey, who authored the piece, concludes that his research is unlikely to placate the "highly vocal critics" of GAW Miners. Garza appears to be quite happy with the article, proudly tweeting it to his followers via @gawceo. Continue reading →