Monthly Archives: November 2013

iGolder Shuts Down, Recommends Using Bitcoin Instead

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“As of August 1st, iGolder is no longer accepting new accounts and balances can only be redeemed. During the past months, we have been recommending Bitcoin more than our own payment system. We believe in physical gold ownership, and developed iGolder as a mechanism for people to acquire physical gold by trading with one another. Since iGolder has a central point of failure (our server may be raided by thugs wearing some kind of uniform), we feel it is safer for us to cease operations. The iGolder experiment has been personally rewarding as we met many gold enthusiasts and also learned about Bitcoin in the process.  Bitcoin is far superior to iGolder in every way, both in privacy and security.”

http://www.igolder.com/

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Coinsetter Launches US Bitcoin Exchange With Cross-Exchange Liquidity

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“Coinsetter is taking a unique approach to facilitating trading on their exchange. Rather than directly trading bitcoin and fiat, customers use their account balance to trade in a derivative product that reflects the price of bitcoin.  Coinsetter is launching with bitcoin deposits and withdrawals for US customers as they finalize a strategy with their legal team and US banking partner that will enable ACH deposits over the coming weeks. Coinsetter has taken a unique approach to offering liquidity to its customers by building a single platform that enables clients to trade not only Coinsetter’s books, but eventually those of other exchanges as well.”

http://thegenesisblock.com/coinsetter-launches-us-bitcoin-exchange-cross-exchange-liquidity-coming-soon/

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Bitcoin rapidly approaching $500 price tag, $5 billion market cap

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“At a $400 exchange rate and a $4.6 billion market cap, Bitcoin is booming. More skeptics, cheerleaders, and curious potential investors are talking about it than ever before.  As the world wonders why it’s doing so well, the peer-to-peer currency is on pace to hit two major milestones in the near future.  Bitcoin’s market cap, which is more than double what it was just three weeks ago, is on pace to hit $5 billion around the time bitcoins hit $417, based on the current bitcoin count. As time passes and more bitcoins are mined, that magic number will go down.  In Germany, a party is being planned in Frankfurt for the day bitcoin hits $1,000.”

http://www.dailydot.com/business/bitcoin-boom-500-market-cap-5-billion/

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What Will Kill Bitcoin First?

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“Next week, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is holding a hearing on the ‘potential risks, threats, and promises’ of cryptocurrency, and the Senate banking committee plans to follow suit. This is real big-boy stuff for Bitcoin, which once just looked like a nerdy novelty. Up until now, one of the main selling points of the cryptocurrency is the extent to which it existed outside of government control, but, if the Senate does decide to get more involved, that honeymoon may soon be over.  Inevitably, a bunch of senators who might not even understand how cryptocurrency works might cast the deciding vote.”

http://gizmodo.com/what-will-kill-bitcoin-first-1463639878

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Lavabit Owner Faces $10K Fine For Protecting Users From Federal Spying

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“Ladar Levison had a thriving business.  His encrypted email service was heavily used by corporate users that valued protecting their trade secrets.  The Obama administration, however, stepped in and crushed this American success story.  The DOJ is looking to nail Mr. Levison with the $10,000 fine.  In a just-filed appellate brief it writes: ‘Mr. Levison [illegally] alerted all of Lavabit’s users, including the target of the investigation, that Lavabit was engaged in litigation with the government and that, rather than comply with the court’s orders, he decided to shut down his business.  [..] It was within the district court’s power to compel the production of those keys.'”

http://www.dailytech.com/Owner+of+Lavabit+Faces+10K+Fine+For+Protecting+His+Users+From+Federal+Spying/article33743.htm

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Our Government Has Weaponized the Internet. Here’s How They Did It

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“The internet backbone — the infrastructure of networks upon which internet traffic travels — went from being a passive infrastructure for communication to an active weapon for attacks. According to revelations about the QUANTUM program, the NSA can ‘shoot’ (their words) an exploit at any target it desires as his or her traffic passes across the backbone. It appears that the NSA and GCHQ were the first to turn the internet backbone into a weapon; absent Snowdens of their own, other countries may do the same and then say, ‘It wasn’t us. And even if it was, you started it.’  All cleartext traffic is not just information being sent from sender to receiver, but is a possible attack vector.”

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/11/this-is-how-the-internet-backbone-has-been-turned-into-a-weapon/

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The secret second OS that makes every mobile phone insecure

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“Take your smartphone, for instance. There’s definitely a primary OS — Android, iOS, Windows Phone — but there’s also at least two other operating systems: The baseband OS and the SIM card OS, both of which run on their own processor that’s separate from the SoC.  [..] REX OS automatically executes any commands that it receives over-the-air from the carrier’s base station — and yes, in case you were wondering, there are commands that perform a variety of heinous acts, such as turning on auto-answer, executing arbitrary code, or simply bricking your device. It goes without saying that, in theory, you could set up your own base station and cause a lot of havoc.”

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/170874-the-secret-second-operating-system-that-could-make-every-mobile-phone-insecure

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Cypherpunks, Bitcoin & the Myth of Satoshi Nakamoto

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“For those wary of Bitcoin’s pedigree, it may comfort them to know that it emerged directly from a culture of programmers who champion open-source software (also known as free software) like Sir Tim-Berners Lee, who invented the World Wide Web. The ‘shadowy hacker’ label that is sometimes ascribed to Satoshi Nakamoto is fair in some ways because that’s the way he intended it. Satoshi thus embodies all the things that the original Cypherpunks were trying so hard to impress upon us: our fundamental right to privacy. It is Bitcoin’s capacity to protect some aspects of our privacy from GCHQ and the NSA that makes it valuable – to a degree. But it’s more than that.”

http://www.cybersalon.org/cypherpunk/

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Why One Los Angeles Restaurant Started Taking Bitcoins

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“Celine Sopelo, the owner of Le Petit Jardin, started taking bitcoins a few months ago for her business that is one part French-inspired bistro and one part flower shop. Sopelo says that a friend visiting from Germany introduced her to bitcoins and suggested that she started accepting the currency from her customers. She says she’s still learning about bitcoins, but she already sees some big pros as a small business owner: ‘No bank fees, it’s very easy, it’s easier than taking credit cards.’  She’s also noticed an interesting phenomenon: She says that while not many of her customers have been paying with bitcoins, some people come to her just so that they can pay using bitcoins.”

http://laist.com/2013/11/12/local_restaurant_starts_taking_bitc.php

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Virtual cash is no threat to the real thing, Bank of Canada paper says

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“The case of Bitcoin – a fully convertible, pure digital currency – is more problematic. Earlier this year, the U.S. Treasury department started requiring that all virtual transactions worth more than $10,000 (U.S.) be reported to authorities to prevent virtual currencies being used for money laundering and other illegal purposes.  The authors don’t reach a firm conclusion on whether governments should crack down on virtual currencies, pointing out that regulation might stifle innovation. At the same time, they warn that ‘multiple competing platforms creates inefficiency’ that will dissuade people from embracing them.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/virtual-cash-is-no-threat-to-the-real-thing-bank-of-canada-paper-says/article15410873/

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