A post by Adrianne Jeffries (@ADRJeffries) on BetaBeat reports that an FBI representative has confirmed that the previously leaked report did in fact come from the agency. Excerpts:
“The report, titled ‘Bitcoin Virtual Currency: Intelligence. Unique Features Present Distinct Challenges for Deterring Illicit Activity,’ was the FBI’s first research report on Bitcoin. The report was not classified, but it was marked ‘for official use only.’
“Betabeat, Wired, and a number of blogs ran with the story without confirming the report’s authenticity, but today we got a call back from the FBI. ‘It is legitimate, but it was not leaked by the government,’ an FBI representative told Betabeat.”- http://bit.ly/J6eet6
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/0nc35rpevjcu9p4/Bitcoin%20FBI.pdf
A number of hours per week for me are spent reading through various pieces of sell-side & independent economic and macro research. The merits of such a practice can be debated, but it no question provides me a “consensus” view of current economic views. Over the last week or two the sell-side has…
The founder of Bitcoinica, Zhou Tong, explains in a forum post what will happen going forward following the firm’s recent security incident, the second of which that resulted in major amounts of the company’s bitcoins being stolen. Excerpts:
We are building an account claim page. You can submit your account information, financial information (balances) and trading information to verify your identity. We will then match with the records we have. If they have matched, we will [return funds].Current positions will all be liquidated at a settlement price [that has yet to be determined].The [claim] page will be up in a few days but I don’t have accurate information on this.If this process rings familiar to Bitcoiners it is because it is nearly the same type of account recovery that Mt. Gox’s customers were required to follow after their June 2011 security breach.
It has not yet been determined if the service will continue to operate after returning funds. ”Likely we will either shut down the platform or re-develop entirely” Zhou writes in another post.
Zhou sold his holdings of the company in 2011 (though at the time hadn’t been forthcoming with many details, even being opaque months afterwards) and last month the company re-emerged as a company out of New Zealand that has registered as a Financial Services Provider there. Zhou is now attending college and after helping during this shutdown will no longer be involved in the company nor will be participating in any other Bitcoin-related projects.
The type of trading offered by Bitcoinica is referred to as a Contract For Difference (CFD), a financial offering where settlement for price movements occurs in cash. The regulations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prohibit firms from offering CFDs in the U.S.
Bitcoinica’s trading volume had been been very significant from late 2011 through early 2012 thanks to larger swings in the BTC/USD exchange rate that rewarded speculators whose positions happened to be on the right side of the trade. As the BTC/USD exchange rate became more stable in recent months, Bitcoinica’s volume had dropped significantly with daily averages a quarter of the levels previously common.
Another service, Kronos.io, reportedly will launch soon and will fill the gap that this Bitcoinica shutdown created. Another service offering that competes to some degree with Bitcoinica is the CALL and PUT options offered on MPEx. This might be a useful alternative for those who were using Bitcoinica to hedge.
So if or when Bitcoinica does restart, it will no longer benefit from being the only game in town.
GoWest (@GoWestBTC) posted an alert that Bitcoinica was brought offline by its founder after the second major successful hack against the service. Excerpt:
“Bitcoinica has been shutdown until further notice, following a theft of 18,000 BTC.”
“Bitcoinica was also the victim of a 43,000 BTC ($215,000 USD) heist back on March 1st.”
GoWest (@GoWestBTC)reports that Bit-Pay processed its largest Bitcoin transaction to-date, a purchase for 3,095 BTC (which is worth over $15,000 USD at current exchange rates). Excerpt:
“The merchant? Butterfly Labs, selling one of its 25 Giga Hash mini-rigs.”
A post on the Bitcoin Miner (@BitcoinMiner) blog features a photo from a commercial mining operation which helped to contribute to the latest difficulty adjustment increase. Excerpts:
“The leading GPU farms use economies of scale combined with low power costs to solve blocks at a lower cost than any solo miner paying residential rates could ever hope for.”
“The recent difficulty threshold for generating bitcoins went from 1,508,590 to 1,733,208, representing nearly a 15% increase in just over 12 days.”
“This increase is the biggest, in percentage terms, since June, 2011.”
“The capitulation by the small miners suffering electric utility bill pain is benefiting these commercial operators whose facilities can accommodate further expansion and letting the overhead costs be spread out over a growing number of producing rigs.”
“If hardware costs are amortized much past when the upcoming drop in the block reward is expected to occur (sometime around December), then these commercial operators could be facing a rude awakening.”
c-base is holding a day on p2p technologies on the 11th. From 20:00 will be the section on Bitcoin. If you want to do a talk, then email me (genjix@riseup.net) and I’ll add you to the schedule. 11th May (Friday) at 20:00. For help, you can call
– Bitcoin intro and talks in Berlin (11th May at 20:00)A post on Bitcoin Money (@BitcoinMoney) blog points out the reason why Bitcoin’s transaction volume has gone stratospheric. Excerpts:
“While the daily transaction volume had been steadily growing at a casual pace since October, there’s been a development in the past weeks that has had a significant impact. The ten-day-old service SatoshiDice.com has been growing at a blistering pace.”
“There to be nearly four thousand blockchain transactions resulting from Satoshi Dice for the most recent 24-hour period.”
Satoshi Dice allows the Bitcoin wallet, whether it be the standard Bitcoin.org client or a hybrid Javascript-based browser wallet like My Wallet from Blockchain.info, to function as gaming terminal. What sets Satoshi Dice apart from most other Bitcoin-based online gaming services is the ability to play in an instant and to receive winnings back within seconds.”
“What may be occurring then is that Satoshi Dice is seeing some level of participation by those intending to alter the makeup of the coins held in their wallets. Satoshi Dice in its present form makes a poor solution for mixing however.”
PayPal, well renowned as a major headache for many online retailers, has been less than ideal for this business model, in part due to their percentage cut and questionable business practices. New technologies have always had a
– Patronage, Bitcoin and Scientific Music: My StoryWith the recent announcement of a potential joint-effort to mine asteroids, in combination with the acceleration in efforts toward commercial space-flight, some interesting tertiary considerations arise - especially in relation to the fundamental
– Off-Planet EconomicsAbout me
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency. P2P means that there is no central authority to issue new money or keep track of transactions.
