Monthly Archives: November 2013

Bitcoin gets ready for the government

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“Officials from the Treasury, Justice Department and the Secret Service are scheduled to testify at Monday’s hearing.  Amid the flurry of activity, the nonprofit Bitcoin Foundation has taken on a lead role as the technology’s champion before the federal government. In October the group hired Jinyoung Lee Englund, a former aide to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) who has also worked at The Heritage Foundation, to direct its public affairs efforts in Washington.  The foundation also tapped law firm Perkins Coie to help with an effort to convince the Federal Election Commission to allow the use of digital currency for federal political contributions.”

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=56018484-75CE-4626-A492-EA07C8FD874F

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Bitcoin Boomtown: Digital Currency Tops $400, Mining Rigs Sell for $3M

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“Several companies now offer mining services in the cloud, and many others are selling specialized bitcoin mining rigs, hardware that generates bitcoins by helping to drive the distributed software system that oversees the digital currency. One company, KnCMiner, says it took in $3 million in mining rig orders in just four days last week. Three young entrepreneurs in Vancouver fired up an ATM that trades cash for bitcoins and vice versa. They say they did $100,000 in exchanges on their first day. It’s the kind of gold rush speculation that counld inspire a penny stock mining company like Alix Resources to start its own exchange. But it’s also an area that poses serious risks for investors.”

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/11/400-bitcoins/

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These Guys Made $3 Million In Four Days From The Bitcoin Craze

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“Mining a Bitcoin is hard for a typical computer to do. A computer has to solve a series of difficult cryptography problems and most computers don’t have the computational power to do that.  So companies like KnCMiner developed special Bitcoin computers using custom computer chips. (Such chips are called ASICs which stands for ‘Application-Specific Integrated Circuit.’) These computers do only one job: mine Bitcoins.  We asked cofounder Andreas Kennemer about the business of Bitcoin computers.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/guys-made-3m-from-bitcoin-craze-2013-11

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Ten teenagers arrested for child porn production via Snapchat

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“Ten teenage boys were arrested Thursday in Quebec in connection with their use of the app Snapchat, according to CTV Montreal. All of the boys are suspected of producing and distributing child pornography, thanks to photos obtained via Snapchat.  CTV reports that the boys allegedly lured seven girls into sending pornographic photos to them, using the fact that Snapchat messages self-destruct as bait. What the girls apparently did not know (or trusted would not happen) is that there are a slew of ways to preserve Snapchat messages.  The boys are set to appear in court on charges of the production, possession, and distribution of child pornography.”

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/11/ten-boys-arrested-for-child-porn-distribution-connected-to-snapchat/

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Feds get in on 3D-printed firearm game

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“On Wednesday, the American federal agency released three videos and a photo of its Liberator, which was created in conjunction with the Transportation Security Administration and the FBI.  ‘The bottom line is, the penetration results demonstrated that the Liberator is a lethal weapon,’ Earl Griffith, chief of ATF’s firearms technology branch, said at a press conference, according to theHuffington Post. ‘The .380 bullets fired from the Liberator penetrate sufficiently to reach vital organs and perforate the skull.’  ATF officials clarified, however, that it created several versions of the Liberator, including one using ABS plastic. The only one that exploded was the one made of Visijet plastic.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/11/feds-get-in-on-3d-printed-firearm-game-but-one-gun-exploded-instantly/

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Coin: improving credit cards, not replacing them

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“Coin, a new company today announcing that its first product is available for pre-order, intends to solve those problems while preserving everything that makes credit cards so popular.  That product is an augmented credit card that can store multiple cards’ information, notify its owner when it’s been left behind, and disable itself when it’s far enough away from its owner’s smartphone. It’s basically an entire wallet condensed into a single card that complements smartphones without relying on them beyond its initial setup. Merchants won’t notice the difference, and consumers won’t have to struggle as they try to use their smartphones to pay for goods.”

http://pandodaily.com/2013/11/14/coin-bets-that-the-future-of-payments-can-be-found-by-improving-credit-cards-not-replacing-them/

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Bitcoin Transcends Novelty Status

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“We live in a world of fiat currencies subject to monetary adjustments or downright manipulations that many of us have no say in. Frequently, the decisions that are made for us negatively impact the very foundation that we’ve worked so hard to build. Bitcoin is a known quantity in a world full of unknowns. It travels globally without the processing fees of PayPal, Western Union or the banking industries. In fact, the current banking systems’ loss of processing fees is both a boon to Bitcoin business as well as the reason for the most vocal arguments against it. After all, JP Morgan has to recoup the $8 billion they’ve received in regulatory fines over the last two years somehow, right?”

http://www.insidefutures.com/article/1105748/Bitcoin%20Transcends%20Novelty%20Status.html

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Investment Manager Explains Why 99.5% Of Americans Can Never Win

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“The bottom line is this: A highly complex set of laws and exemptions from laws and taxes has been put in place by those in the uppermost reaches of the U.S. financial system. It allows them to protect and increase their wealth and significantly affect the U.S. political and legislative processes. They have real power and real wealth. Ordinary citizens in the bottom 99.9% are largely not aware of these systems, do not understand how they work, are unlikely to participate in them, and have little likelihood of entering the top 0.5%, much less the top 0.1%. Moreover, those at the very top have no incentive whatsoever for revealing or changing the rules. I am not optimistic.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/an-investment-managers-view-2013-11

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New York May Require ‘BitLicenses’ For Bitcoin Companies

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“New York’s financial sheriff Benjamin Lawsky announced plans to hold a hearing to ‘consider the possibility and feasibility of NYDFS issuing a ‘BitLicense’.’ That ‘BitLicense’ would allow virtual currency companies to do business in New York and send currency to New Yorkers, and would require compliance with anti-money laundering and consumer protection requirements. But what would a ‘BitLicense’ do that existing regulations don’t already provide for?  NY’s financial regulator says it plans to determine that at a hearing in ‘coming months.’ Among the issues are which entities would need to get a BitLicense and what kind of ‘specifically tailored examination requirements’ they would need.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/11/14/new-york-may-give-bitlicenses-to-virtual-currency-companies/

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Bitcoin mining rig firm claims $3m revenue in just FOUR DAYS

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“It is said that during a gold rush, the people who make the real money are the ones selling the spades.  The same appears to be true with Bitcoin, judging by the whacking great revenues announced by a firm which makes computers dedicated to mining the cryptocurrency.  KnCMiner, a Swedish manufacturer of Bitcoin mining machines, told us it made $3m worth of sales in just four days earlier this month.  During this bumper sales period, which started on November 7th and ended on the 10th, the value of Bitcoin skyrocketed from $264 to $336.  KnCMiner was founded in April this year and is one of the victors in what it described as a ‘digital gold rush’.”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/14/firm_makes_3million_during_bitcoin_gold_rush/

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