Netherlands Repatriates Some Gold

There are reports that the Netherlands has repatriated a substantial portion of its gold holdings from the Federal Bank of New York to their own physical custody. This move changes their allocation of gold held at home from 11% to 31%, and the portion held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 51% to 31% while the remainder of their holdings are split between the Bank of England and Canada. There is no news yet as to whether they've drilled the bars and found tungsten.

US Department of Justice: Kim Dotcom can't challenge asset forfeiture

In its continuing case against Kim Dotcom, lawyers for the United States Department of Justice are proposing that Dotcom's objections to seizing his assets around the world be completely tossed aside under the doctrine of fugitive disenfranchisement. This is in spite of the fact that Kim Dotcom is not under any reasonable definition a "US Person" who reasonably could be a fugitive. A few points: Continue reading

After Survery Vessenes' Foundation "Pivots"

In a blog post the communications and marketing director of Vessenes' Bitcoin Foundation Jinyoung Lee Englund announced that they would be shifting their focus almost entirely towards the goal of funding "core development" in the wake of results from a member survey. In the past this Foundation has engaged in a mix of activities including lobbying, marketing, and "outreach" in addition to providing Gavin Andressen a salary to work on the Foundation's fork of Satoshi's Bitcoin codebase. After justifying the move in their post they offer the following: Continue reading

Buterin Beats Zuckerberg for Award

Vitalik Buterin beat Mark Zuckerberg for the 2014 World Technology Network award in IT software. The award is presented for Buterin's role as co-creator and inventor of Ethereum which has yet to exist and co-founding Bitcoin Magazine. The event was held at the Time & Life building which no longer houses Time Inc. Time was of course spun off Warner Communications earlier this summer to a chilly reception by investors.