Monthly Archives: March 2014

Financial Considerations for Expats

Posted on by

“On one hand, online banking and voice over IP (VoIP) calling have made it easier for Americans to manage their money and stay in touch with financial advisors or accountants from anywhere in the world.  But the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act  has created additional headaches for many. In fact, CNN Money reports that 3,000 Americans renounced their U.S. citizenship last year, three times as many as the average over the previous five years, a fact it attributes in part to these new regulations.  The financial impact of moving overseas will, of course, vary depending on the laws in your new country and other factors, but here’s a look at areas to consider.”

http://www.mainstreet.com/print/31389

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Revelations of N.S.A. Spying Cost U.S. Tech Companies

Posted on by

“Microsoft has lost customers, including the government of Brazil.  IBM is spending more than a billion dollars to build data centers overseas to reassure foreign customers that their information is safe from prying eyes in the United States government.  And tech companies abroad, from Europe to South America, say they are gaining customers that are shunning United States providers, suspicious because of the revelations by Edward J. Snowden that tied these providers to the National Security Agency’s vast surveillance program.  Even as Washington grapples with the diplomatic and political fallout of Mr. Snowden’s leaks, the more urgent issue, companies and analysts say, is economic.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/business/fallout-from-snowden-hurting-bottom-line-of-tech-companies.html?_r=1

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

BitPay Opens Offices in San Francisco and New York

Posted on by

“BitPay has expanded its operations by opening offices in San Francisco and New York.  The new offices will help the company to bring in new business and offer operational support to the merchants it currently works with.  ‘BitPay is happy to announce two new office openings in San Francisco and New York City. Our San Francisco location hopes to leverage the existing tech and bitcoin communities throughout the area,’ said Stephanie Wargo, BitPay’s VP of Marketing.  BitPay now employs 31 full-time workers across the world, with 22 of these employees located at the company’s headquarters in Atlanta, six in Argentina, two in San Francisco and one in New York.”

http://www.coindesk.com/bitpay-opens-offices-san-francisco-new-york/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Facebook Security Director, Amazon BD Director Join Coinbase

Posted on by

“Ryan McGeehan has recently announced on Facebook, fittingly, that he is leaving his role at Facebook as its Director of Security Incident Response, and taking up a security-related role at Coinbase.  His job, according to his posting, will be to ‘build [Coinbase’s] security program.’  Another senior Amazon director, Todd Edebohls, is also joining the company as its new vice president of business development.  Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam said the company continues to use a cold storage system with multiple distributed keys.  ‘The industry is continuing to evolve,’ he said. ‘We’re attracting very, very top talent from prior rocketships that were successful.'”

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/19/facebook-security-director-joins-bitcoin-startup-coinbase/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

SecondMarket Seeks to Open Bitcoin Fund to Ordinary Investors

Posted on by

“The Bitcoin Investment Trust buys and sells bitcoins, allowing investors to place bets on the digital currency without owning it directly. SecondMarket is seeking approval from OTC Markets and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a self-regulatory body, to market the trust to investors. The New York firm is lining up investment banks that would act as market-makers, or make commitments to buy or sell shares in the fund, and is screening law firms to act as a securities expert.  If OTC Markets and Finra approve the plan, the fund’s shares could become publicly available as soon as the fourth quarter to investors with less than $1 million in assets and annual incomes below $200,000.”

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304026304579449782511589924

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Bitcoin hedge fund launches with Silicon Valley and Wall St. support

Posted on by

“Fortress has invested directly in Pantera Bitcoin Partners, the limited liability company overseeing Pantera’s Bitcoin fund. Moreover, all future purchases of Bitcoin or other crytpocurrencies by Fortress and its principals will be made via Pantera.  In addition to Fortress, Pantera has received investments from venture capital firms Benchmark and Ribbit Captial. Those three firms also recently partnered to invest $20 million into Bitcoin ‘vault’ company Xapo, which happens to hold Pantera Bitcoin Fund’s assets (Pantera also made a small co-investment on that deal, which had not been previously disclosed).”

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03/18/bitcoin-hedge-fund/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Bitcoin bugs invest $10m in China’s largest exchange

Posted on by

“Despite China’s recent crackdown, Bitcoin has been given a new lease of life in the world’s second largest economy.  The company that claims to be China’s largest Bitcoin exchange by volume has announced a $10m Series A funding round. Venture Capital firm Ceyuan led the way and was followed by Mandra Capital, Ventures Lab and a string of other Angel investors.  This amounts to one of the largest cases of Bitcoin financing so far.  The investment in the exchange will be used to expand the team, increase security and product research.”

http://www.cityam.com/blog/1395060855/bitcoin-bugs-invest-10m-chinas-largest-exchange

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Another Bitcoin exchange implodes: Vircurex freezes accounts

Posted on by

“Vircurex is the latest company to join the growing list of insolvent Bitcoin exchanges, according to a statement issued on its site today.  Vircurex announced that it will immediately stop withdrawals of Bitcoin, Litecoin, and other virtual currencies, reports The Next Web. Starting tomorrow, Vircurex plans to freeze all user accounts.  Plagued by two hacking incidents last year, Vircurex previously pledged to cover its user’s losses via its own income. Due to ‘large fund withdrawals in the last weeks,’ however, Vircurex claims it has taken the above actions to prevent the service from shutting down entirely.”

http://venturebeat.com/2014/03/23/yet-another-bitcoin-exchange-implodes-vircurex-will-freeze-accounts-tomorrow/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Breaking: CoinEx.pw hacked, all coins stolen

Posted on by

“Another one bites the dust. CoinEx.pw seems to be the next exchange that became the victim of a successful hack.  Three days after the site went down, Erundook finally released an update concerning the CoinEx situation. It seems the exchange was definitely a victim of a hack. The wallet server was hacked and all coins were withdrawn.  Whether CoinEx will be able to recover all lost funds from their own pockets, remains to be seen. Selling shares may be a solution, but the community will only ease once they have definite proof that all coins are restored to the right users.”

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2014/03/19/coinex-pw-hacked-all-coins-stolen/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

10,000 Linux servers hit by malware serving spam and exploits

Posted on by

“Until now, publicly known details of the attack were largely limited to its use of a self-injecting rootkit—Phalanx or Phalanx2—to infect kernel.org servers known as Hera and Odin1, as well as personal computers belonging to senior Linux developer H. Peter Anvin. The malware had access to potentially sensitive information stored on the infected machines. A follow-up advisory a few weeks later opened the possibility that still other developers may have fallen prey to the attackers.  According to Eset, kernel.org servers were probably infected by a second piece of malware dubbed Linux/Ebury, an OpenSSH backdoor used to keep control of the servers and steal credentials.”

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/03/10000-linux-servers-hit-by-malware-serving-tsunami-of-spam-and-exploits/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet