After the failed Breakout Gaming ICO managed only to raise 80.71 BTC of the 10,000 BTC they were aiming for, the team behind the coin are planning to pull a bait and switch in hopes of salvaging what's left of the non-existent casino. Some of poker's biggest names, such as David Benyamin, Todd Brunson and Johnny Chan have been used to promote the coin and gaming network. Continue reading
Ayo, I'm Tired Of Hearing People Saying Blockchain Technology
If 2013 was the year of "the other 6 billion", 2014 is the year of "blockchain technology". This hysteria, culminating with the Wall St Journal's latest piece which goes so far as to just drop the name Bitcoin altogether in favour of Blockchain1, is yet another attempt to do the impossible – stop Bitcoin. Continue reading
An attempt to remove Bitcoin from the vernacular. ↩
BitPay Lets Bitcoin Customers "Make It Rain"
Tampa, Florida is home to 2001 Odyssey, a strip club which also services user through internet services. Bitpay has partnered with the the club to allow users to pay with Bitcoin for these online services including a feature known as the "Make It Rain Machine." Continue reading
FinCEN: Payment Processors, Others may be Regulated Money Transmitters
FinCEN issued two administrative rulings in regards to "Virtual Currency." The first concerns "exchanges" and supposes they may be regulated as Money Transmitters under the Banking Secrecy Act. The second though supposes that payment processors like BitPay may similarly fall under their purview. This shift comes contrary to the expectations BitPay had disclosed anticipating from FinCEN.
PDFs of the rulings are available here: ruling 1, ruling 2. Extracted plaintext is available below. Continue reading
Blackmailers: Pay Us One Million Euro In Bitcoin Or We Will Spread Ebola
The AFP today report that an individual or group are threatening to release Ebola1 throughout the Czech Republic unless the equivalent of one million Euros in bitcoin is paid to them from the Czech Republic government. Continue reading
Good luck, Ebola-chan! ↩
TorrentLocker Hits Mildura Based Businesses
Yesterday Qntra reported on the ransomware known as TorrentLocker spreading through Italian local councils. Today come reports of what is likely the same ransomware affecting local businesses in the region of Mildura, Australia. Continue reading
DailyDot: What Happened to the Ulbricht Murder Charges?
The DailyDot has a story about the disappearance of the murder charges which notably were used to deny Ulbricht bail in the Silk Road case. Of the original six murder charges five indictments have quietly disappeared uncharged, while the sixth indictment remains on file in Maryland as opposed to New York, where the drug trafficking trial is occurring. The five uncharged allegations have been reduced to overt acts under the trafficking charge allowing prosecutors to use them against Ulbricht at trial without proving them to the jury. The sixth indictment in Maryland sets Ulbricht up for a potential second trial in that jurisdiction later.
Italian Municipal Councils Targeted By TorrentLocker
An article from VPN Creative reports that some municipal councils across Italy have fallen victim to a variant of CryptoLocker called TorrentLocker. The ransomware demands a bitcoin payment equivalent to 400 Euros, which doubles in three days if payment is not received. Continue reading
JWT Intelligence Discuss Bitcoin In Latest Report
JWT Intelligence, a department of the JWT marketing brand, has released a report titled "The Future of Payments & Currency" in which they discuss the latest payment trends and what they see as the case against cash and physical cards. The 62 page report, which focuses on payment methods other than just Bitcoin, also includes reports on mobile, wearable and biometric payments. Produced by by Deborah Baxley1, Rob Girling2, Craig Erickson3 and Bill Maurer4, the report claims to be the result of quantitative, qualitative and desk research conducted throughout 2014. Continue reading
Conformal Release Bitcoin Transaction Simulator
Conformal Systems, creators of the alternate Bitcoin full-node implementation written in Go, has released a bitcoin transaction simulator called btcsim. Created by interns Javed Khan and Michalis Kargakis, the transaction simulator has been used by Conformal to test a variety of claims about how the Bitcoin network might function when transaction volume mirrors that of the 3000 transactions per second credit card companies such as Visa and Mastercard process. Continue reading