Monthly Archives: May 2015

FBI offers $25,000 reward in $4.9 million fake-police gold heist

Posted on by

“The $25,000 reward was announced today in Miami where the gold shipment originated.  The tractor trailer with gold, silver and other valuables stopped on Interstate 95 back on March 1st after one of the guards for Transvalue, Inc. became sick.  The guard was approached by at least two armed men who announced themselves as ‘Policia’. The men gave instructions in Spanish, using zip-ties to tie up the guards. They were led into the woods.  The gunman broke into the trailer, making off with approximately $4.9 million in gold bars. Authorities say they left behind another $5 million in silver.”

http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/4-million-in-gold-stolen-in-heist-on-I-95-in-Wilson-County-294668011.html

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

Decoding the Enigma of Satoshi Nakamoto and the Birth of Bitcoin

Posted on by

“Many in the Bitcoin community told me that, in deference to the Bitcoin creator’s clear desire for privacy, they didn’t want to see the wizard unmasked. But even among those who said this, few could resist debating the clues the founder left behind. As I had these conversations with the programmers and entrepreneurs who are most deeply involved in Bitcoin, I encountered a quiet but widely held belief that much of the most convincing evidence pointed to a reclusive American man of Hungarian descent named Nick Szabo.  Mr. Szabo is nearly as much of a mystery as Satoshi. But in the course of my reporting I kept turning up new hints that drew me further into the chase.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/business/decoding-the-enigma-of-satoshi-nakamoto-and-the-birth-of-bitcoin.html

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

Jeffrey Tucker: Wall Street Discovers the Blockchain

Posted on by

“What happens on the Blockchain is forever recorded on the Blockchain. Even now, you can observe every trade since its inception in January 2009.  What is this technology good for? It’s not just about money. It permits the packaging, titling, and commodification of any bundle of information data. This bundle can be ported from place to place and virtually zero cost. This happens without using a third party. Transactions take place person to person, exchanged just like goods and services.  In other words, the Blockchain allows information to behave exactly like physical property, but with one difference: you don’t have to be physically present to exchange it.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/wall-street-discovers-the-blockchain

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

Fincen Conducting Bank-Style BSA Exams of Virtual Currency Firms

Posted on by

“Financial Crime Enforcement Network Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery said Wednesday that Internal Revenue Service examiners are conducting banklike exams of virtual currency firms for possible anti-money-laundering violations.  Her speech comes just after the agency levied a $700,000 fine against prominent virtual currency company Ripple Labs on Tuesday night for alleged violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, including failing to report suspicious activity.  Calvery first mentioned the exams earlier this year while speaking on a panel at a Council on Foreign Relations event on cryptocurrency policy, but the remarks were not widely known.”

http://www.americanbanker.com/news/bank-technology/fincen-conducting-bank-style-bsa-exams-of-virtual-currency-firms-1074179-1.html

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

Former Bank of England Economist: Make Cash Illegal

Posted on by

“Your current account will no longer be held with a bank, but with the government or the central bank. Banks still exist, and still lend money, but they get their funds from the central bank, not from depositors.  Having everyone’s account at a single, central institution allows the authorities to either encourage or discourage people to spend. To boost spending, the bank imposes a negative interest rate on the money in everyone’s account – in effect, a tax on saving.  Faced with seeing their money slowly confiscated, people are more likely to spend it on goods and services. When this change in behaviour takes place across the country, the economy gets a significant fillip.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/comment/11602399/Ban-cash-end-boom-and-bust.html

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

IBM, central banks adapting bitcoin technology for major currencies

Posted on by

“The company has been in informal discussions about a blockchain-tied cash system with a number of central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, the source said. If central banks approve the concept, IBM will build the secure and scalable infrastructure for the project.  Unlike bitcoin, where the network is decentralized and there is no overseer, the proposed digital currency system would be controlled by central banks, the source said.  According to the plans, the digital currency could be linked to a person’s bank account, possibly using a wallet software that would integrate that account with the proposed digital currency ledger.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/12/us-bitcoin-ibm-idUSKBN0M82KB20150312

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

Bitcoin Startup 21 Unveils Plan For Embeddable Mining Chips

Posted on by

“The world’s best-funded bitcoin startup has revealed plans to market a line of chips to embed in consumer devices, allowing smartphones and other Internet-connected gadgets to continuously earn digital currency through the process known as ‘mining.’  The news from 21 Inc., which is also adding former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers to its advisory board and announcing that tech giant Cisco Systems Inc. and former AMR Holdings PLC chief strategy officer Mark Templeton are investing in the company, ends 18 months of intense speculation within the bitcoin community.  In March, the company said it had stealthily amassed $116 million in fundraising– a record for the sector.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/05/18/bitcoin-startup-21-unveils-product-plan-embeddable-mining-chips/

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

Bitcoin trading launches on Nasdaq Stockholm exchange

Posted on by

“The world’s first bitcoin-based security available on a regulated exchange has launched on Sweden’s Nasdaq.  Bitcoin Tracker One, developed by Stockholm-based firm XBT Provider, is an Exchange Traded Note (ETN) that allows traders to invest in bitcoin and access the returns of the underlying asset in US dollar per bitcoin.  ‘We are proud to offer the world’s first ‘bitcoin tracker’ to be traded on a regulated exchange,’ said Alexander Marsh, CEO of XBT Provider after the tracker was authorised in April 2015.  Nasdaq OMX group announced last week that it will be using bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology to facilitate the trading of shares on its US stock market.”

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/bitcoin-trading-launches-nasdaq-stockholm-exchange-1501772

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

Thousands of pro-govt protesters rally for Macedonian PM

Posted on by

“Tens of thousands of demonstrators came together to show their support for Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski on Monday. The rally follows mass anti-government protests, whose opponents claim are being funded and instigated from abroad. If Gruevski does not resign, ‘Macedonia will face a war, just like Ukraine,’ Opposition Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev threatened over the weekend, as quoted by RIA Novosti. Back in February, Zaev released illegally gathered wiretaps which allegedly exposed the government in breaking democratic rules. The prime minister refuted the allegations, saying the tapes had been doctored.”

http://rt.com/news/259849-macedonia-pro-government-rally/

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

This Bizarre Russian ATM Wants to Lend You Money

Posted on by

“This strange kind of ATM began popping up at railway stations and shopping malls around Moscow last year. It looks like a regular cash machine, but it’s designed to accept loan applications and dole out money on the spot.  There are currently about 20 automated loan machines installed throughout Moscow. They allow customers to request as much as 15,000 rubles ($241) that must be paid back in 20 days or less. The interest rate is 2 percent a day, which works out to 730 percent on an annualized basis. That may seem insane, but some Russians have been willing to embrace the technology to make ends meet between paychecks.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-25/russian-atm-spits-out-loans

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