Monthly Archives: November 2013

Banks Squander Opportunity in Bitcoin

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“With the breakthrough development of digital money, banks have the opportunity to lead the industry once again. Yet instead, banks appear paralyzed about understanding and harnessing this emerging technology. Just as they block and freeze the accounts of competitive money transmitters in the U.S., banks routinely freeze the bank accounts of innocent bitcoin exchanges and consumers. Interestingly enough, because of their regulatory status, refined customer identity procedures and global infrastructure, banks could actually brand and offer bitcoin exchange services themselves, quickly becoming the de facto leaders of modernizing financial services.”

http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/banks-squander-opportunity-in-bitcoin-1063722-1.html

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As Bitcoin Surges, Here’s How It Compares to Gold

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“So far this year, gold (GLD) has fallen 23% relative to the U.S. dollar (UUP), while bitcoin has risen 4,600%. This is quite the precipitous contrast.  Perhaps this is just coincidental. Gold, after all, has always been volatile and subject to multiyear cycles relating to many factors including demand, inflation, the economic cycle and investor perceptions of global political stability.  And maybe bitcoin is just a speculative bubble marked by illiquid parabolic lunacy. As more fast money piles in, the higher it goes, with the price flying above $600 Monday.  Though some might argue, of course, that this is what things look like when the world moves away from old physical money to new electronic money.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/chart-of-the-day–comparing-bitcoin-and-gold-145744537.html

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Bernanke: Bitcoin ‘May Hold Long-Term Promise’

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“The beautiful thing about Bitcoin, digital currency enthusiasts will tell you, is that it doesn’t have a central bank.  So with eyes on today’s Bitcoin Senate hearing, where does the world’s most powerful central banker stand on the elusive cryptocurrency?  Now we know. Ahead of the meeting, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has released a letter to help guide the senate. Quartz’s Zachary Seward called it a ‘cautious blessing,’ with Bernanke acknowledging the Fed doesn’t have the authority to supervise virtual currencies, but that they ‘may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system.'”

http://www.businessinsider.com/ben-bernanke-on-bitcoin-2013-11

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Bill Bonner: Paddywhacking

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“Last week, Janet Yellen told the Senate what everyone wanted to hear: that the Fed would continue to support asset prices. With the ‘Yellen put’ in their pockets, investors bid up the Dow to over 16,000 by the end of the week.  What to make of it?  Although we have no doubt that Fed policies will prove disastrous, we have nothing but doubts about what form the disaster will take. John Williams of ShadowStats.com recalculates the Consumer Price Index, official unemployment rates and GDP figures based on more honest data and alternative methodologies. What he discovers is that the CPI is higher, unemployment is higher and the GDP is lower than the feds would have us believe.”

http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/paddywhacking/

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Bitcoin Mining Chips, a High-Tech Arms Race

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“Mining Bitcoins is already a specialist’s game. Butterfly Labs and KnCMiner build special Bitcoin-mining hardware that they sell to individuals and groups of people who pool their money to amass lots of computers. Then there’s the Bitcoin discussion forum user known as BitFury, believed to be a self-taught chip designer from Ukraine, who ‘designed a chip at his kitchen table,’ de Castro says. ‘He’s made a huge pile of cash’ by selling machines using the chips on his website.  BitFury and other first-wave Bitcoin hardware makers will face competition in 2014 from a second wave of designers, who aim to speed the mining process with special chips known as application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs.”

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-14/2014-outlook-bitcoin-mining-chips-a-high-tech-arms-race

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Aussie car start-up hits the road with Bitcoin

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“At a time when Australia’s biggest vehicle manufacturers have to be subsidised to the tune of $200 million a year to survive, how is it that a mere slip of a car maker based in Melbourne says the sky’s the limit?  Tomcar Australia just may be the future of manufacturing – small and focused on niche market segments to cater for individual needs rather than the mass market. Tomcar sees itself as a disrupter – no car showrooms, no dealers, no middlemen. In this light, it’s perhaps no surprise that it also accepts virtual currency. The company, which has fewer than a dozen staff, is the first car maker to accept the internet currency known as Bitcoin.”

http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/entrepreneur/car-startup-hits-the-road-20131107-2×498.html

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Meet “Bitcoin Jesus” Roger Ver, the millionaire who distributes free Bitcoins

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“While in college in 1999, he founded MemoryDealers.com, a site that sells discounted computer parts. Clients past and present include HP, Cisco and Vodafone. He’s a self-confessed ‘voluntaryist’ who believes that the government should have no control over your money. In 2000, he ran for California State Assembly as a Libertarian and came under fire for calling the ATF bureau a ‘bunch of murderers’. He then served 10 months in federal prison for selling firecrackers used by farmers to scare deer and birds away from their cornfields. However, he believes he was made a target because of his comments on the ATF. He moved to Tokyo after his federal probation ended.”

http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business-news/tech/meet-bitcoin-jesus-roger-ver-the-millionaire-who-distributes-free-bitcoins/5951.article

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Meet The ‘Assassination Market’ Creator Who’s Crowdfunding Murder

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“According to Assassination Market’s rules, if someone on its hit list is killed–and yes, Sanjuro hopes that many targets will be–any hitman who can prove he or she was responsible receives the collected funds.  For now, the site’s rewards are small but not insignificant. In the four months that Assassination Market has been online, six targets have been submitted by users, and bounties have been collected ranging from ten bitcoins for the murder of NSA director Keith Alexander and 40 bitcoins for the assassination of President Barack Obama to 124.14 bitcoins–the largest current bounty on the site–targeting Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/11/18/meet-the-assassination-market-creator-whos-crowdfunding-murder-with-bitcoins/

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Why Obama Can’t Just Uncancel All Those Insurance Plans

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“State insurance commissioners are not enthusiastic. They’re the people who are actually in charge of approving the plans and rates that private insurers offer in each state. The regulators association threw tepid water on the plan in a statement Thursday, saying the decision ‘threatens to undermine the new market, and may lead to higher premiums and market disruptions in 2014 and beyond.’ These officials can nix the idea at the state level, as Washington state’s regulator already has.  Even if it works, the fix is not a fix—it’s a delay. Whenever the administration does start enforcing that piece of the law, people are going to get another round of cancellation letters.”

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-15/why-obama-cant-just-uncancel-all-those-insurance-plans

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Why We’re Not Sneering at the Averages

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“As we can see with modern equity markets, common sense is taking a back seat to pump-priming. There is indeed a Wall Street Party going on, as we’ve pointed out, and the IPO market, in fact, is a large part of it.  When markets are stuffed with money, volatility certainly becomes a concern. We recall the 1987 Crash was brutal, yet markets gradually climbed afterwards, culminating in the tech boom of the late 1990s. Loose money is generally a powerful support for higher averages and stronger numbers.  And yes, this could continue for a while because the REAL economy has not yet felt the full impact of what’s going on in the stock market.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/34758/Why-Were-Not-Sneering-at-the-Averages/

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