Tag Archives: Technology

Overstock Unveils Blockchain Trading Platform at Nasdaq Event

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“Patrick Byrne, CEO of US online retailer Overstock.com, unveiled tØ today at the headquarters of the major US stock market Nasdaq in New York today.  The announcement marked the formal debut of tØ (pronounced tee-zero), Overstock‘s long awaited blockchain-based private and public equities trading platform first announced in 2014.  Byrne also unveiled a ‘big surprise’ in the form of the platform’s Preborrow Assured Token, which Byrne suggested would democratize securities lending. The product, he said, is already being used in an enterprise pilot program, and is the subject of interest by major banks.”

http://www.coindesk.com/overstock-unveils-blockchain-trading-platform-to/

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Xapo Moves to Switzerland Citing Customer Privacy Concerns

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“The bitcoin services and security firm said the transition was put in motion three months ago at the request of customers, and that now, Xapo‘s operations in Palo Alto are in the process of being reduced. As part of the transition, Xapo will hire new finance and legal staff in the central European nation while still keeping a small US presence.  Xapo moved its deep cold storage vault servers to an unspecified location in the European nation in January, but continued to face pressure from customers for more privacy guarantees, Casares said.  ‘We decided to do what they had been asking us to do for a while, move our main company to Switzerland and benefit from the safeguards,’ Casares explained.”

http://www.coindesk.com/xapo-switzerland-privacy-concerns/

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State Regulators Force Vermont’s Only Bitcoin ATM Offline

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“Vermont’s first digital currency ATM has been ordered closed by state regulators who say the company operating the cash machine is violating state law.   The move by the Department of Financial Regulation has disappointed the tech enthusiasts who used the new currency service.  PYC CEO Emilio Pagan-Yourno admits the company doesn’t have any Vermont-specific licenses. But he says his company is licensed federally through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).  The letters from the department warn Blu-Bin and PYC that they may be in violation of the law. But they also seem to show a lack of clarity about what, exactly, the two companies are even doing.”

http://digital.vpr.net/post/state-regulators-force-vermonts-only-bitcoin-atm-offline

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Vermont Considering Blockchain Tech for State Records, Smart Contracts

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“Vermont has recently taken some legislative steps that could see the state using Bitcoin’s technology for state records, smart contracts and other applications in a drive to become ‘a leader in the field.’  Neither the bill nor the amendment reference ‘Bitcoin’ but rather the distributed immutable worldwide ledger database that Bitcoin runs on – the blockchain.  Legislation such as that from Vermont seems to follow this same path of burying Bitcoin and at the same time embracing it. This also has to do with the recent Bitcoin 2.0 awakening that the Bitcoin blockchain public ledger is not merely a rail to move virtual currency, but a powerful means to transmit information.”

http://cointelegraph.com/news/115064/vermont-considering-blockchain-tech-for-state-records-smart-contracts

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Citibank Is Working On Its Own Digital Currency, Citicoin

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“In a move that should be of no surprise to anyone familiar with the space, Citibank has admitted to running a test platform for digital currencies and is pondering its own solution, CitiCoin.  According to the International Business Times, Citigroup has built its own digital currency based on bitcoin and the blockchain. Kenneth Moore, head of Citigroup Innovations Lab, saw this as a way to move money from country to country and foresaw an internal ‘mining’ network that allowed endpoints to generate the work necessary to maintain the ledger.  While it’s noble for banks to attempt these systems – and they will be attempted again and again – it’s important to note that banks want control.”

http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/07/citibank-is-working-on-its-own-digital-currency-citicoin/

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Police Confiscate 11,000 Bitcoin Wallets; Shut Down Dark Web Site

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“As the final legal chapters close on Ross Ulbricht’s Silk Road website held within the ‘Dark Web’, the proliferation of many, many more dark markets is making international news. Authorities have closed down one of these Dark Web havens, and have confiscated thousands of bitcoin wallets in association with its use.  Under code name ‘Operation Babylon’, Italian officials have shut down the site that hosted over 14,000 members, performing over 170,000 transactions using Tor’s web browser.  Over 200 drug dealers are claimed to have used the site for trafficking purposes, but this may be only one site of its kind out many. The website is said to have been masterminded by an Italian near Naples.”

http://cointelegraph.com/news/115043/police-confiscate-11000-bitcoin-wallets-shut-down-dark-web-site

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Court Rules Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking Violates Fourth Amendment

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“A divided appellate court panel in Richmond, Virginia, ruled on Wednesday that citizens do not give up their privacy rights just because their mobile-phone providers know where to reach them.  The decision is the strongest assertion of the Fourth Amendment rights of mobile phone users out of three appellate court decisions on the matter, setting up a likely Supreme Court hearing. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling rejected the ‘third party doctrine,’ a legal theory that private information held by a company is not protected by the Fourth Amendment’s prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure.”

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/08/05/court-rules-warrantless-cell-phone-tracking-violates-fourth-amendment/

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The Gig Economy Makes Karl Marx’s Dreams Come True

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“Marx should be delighted — oh, except that it’s capitalism, not communism, that’s allowing Joe to be a fisherman and a critic on his own terms.  The sharing or ‘gig’ economy is not only disrupting the way people live and work; it’s dividing the left considerably.  On the one hand, you have the nostalgic leftists who want Joe to work a nine-to-five job and skip the fishing. You know, like people did in the 1950s. [..] Should we be upset that the guy who founded Lyft is getting rich from the tech? Some people see the accumulation of wealth as taboo. But Joe’s life is better than it would have been in the absence of Lyft. The company allows him to live more of the life he wants to live.”

http://fee.org/freeman/detail/the-gig-economy-makes-karl-marxs-dreams-come-true

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Once a sure bet, taxi medallions becoming unsellable

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“Until recently in America’s big cities, purchasing a taxi medallion—the city-issued license to operate cabs —was about as sound of an investment as they come.  But with the rise of Uber and other ridesharing services, the value of taxi medallions are plummeting, leading cabbies and fleet owners throughout the USA worried that their industry will be decimated if local and state government doesn’t intervene. Charles Goodbar, a Chicago attorney who helps secure loans for medallion owners, said that financing has all but dried up. At the same time, new regulations, as well competition from ridesharing services, has reduced how much fleet owners can lease their vehicles to cabbies.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/17/taxi-medallion-values-decline-uber-rideshare/27314735/

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How Life Finds a Way in the Regulatory State

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“Instead of calling it the sharing economy, perhaps a better name for these phenomena might be the ‘gap economy’ — the economy that grows like a weed in the interstices of regulated markets and incumbent cartels. In an interventionist, mixed economy, it’s not hard to find examples of both ‘differentiation from generality’ and ‘life finds a way.’ It’s in the spaces left free from arbitrary government constraint and meddling where the ingenuity and resourcefulness of ordinary people are comparatively free to do extraordinary things.”

http://fee.org/freeman/detail/how-life-finds-a-way-in-the-regulatory-state

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