The Evolution of E-Money
(presentation at 7th Annual ITWEB Security Summit - Johannesburg South Africa http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48391)

Jon Matonis
2012-05-16

http://www.slideshare.net/jonmatonis/the-evolution-of-emoney

The dramatic fall of Bitcoin: No end in sight

Rowan Puttergill
2012-05-17

http://memeburn.com/2012/05/the-dramatic-fall-of-bitcoin-no-end-in-sight/

...

Proponents of the online currency claim that there is no fault with the currency itself. In principle, they’re right, each of these attacks seem to have been simple theft operations.

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While BitCoin proponents fight hard against any critique of the economic viability of the currency (see comments), some more serious technical challenges are slowly emerging that may not bode well for BitCoin’s long-term survival.

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As researchers spend more time investigating the currency, BitCoin’s future (at least from a technical standpoint) becomes increasingly uncertain.

What The Bitcoin Experiment Started


Charles Peralo
2012-05-16


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-peralo

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The history of Bitcoin is not very pleasant, but it's promising.
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Moving forward -- Bitcoin or no Bitcoin -- a message was sent out. That message is that people need an alternative and they need an answer. This just puts more pressure on the government to fix the financial system and monetary problems. It puts pressure on entrepreneurs to develop new alternative currencies. Bitcoin was just the first innovation in what will be a revolution likely to take place in the next decade.

The Next Money: As the Big Economies Falter, Micro-Currencies Rise
More consumers are walking away from fiat currencies to drive commerce -- and society -- with new ways of buying.


Eric Garland
2012-05-16

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/05/the-next-money-as-the-big-economies-falter-micro-currencies-rise/257216/

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The best way to understand BitCoin is to think of it as something like a gold standard. Unless you decorate state capitol domes for a living, nobody really needs gold -- but it is tangible and limited, though you can mine more if you happen to be really motivated. BitCoin is like that, without the rare metal aspect.
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BitCoin is rapidly gaining adoption, now accepted by a variety of companies selling everything from socks to web server space,  and is inspiring several startups to trade the currency and consult on how to incorporate it into your business plan. On the dark side, some critics of BitCoin say that the system can be gamed by speculators, or used for such nefarious purposes as drugs or sexual services because the currency is difficult for national governments to track or account for -- though it should be noted that the same is often true for a stack of 20 dollar bills
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Anonymous: the most powerful organization in the world?

Here at RT America we try to give our viewers as much information on current events as possible and sometimes our news casts aren't enough. RT Web Producer Andrew Blake joins us with the latest stories on our RT.com/USA.

2012-05-14


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zosnIYjyRd0&feature=plcp

"Bitcoins - big cryptocurrency used online by different people look(?) for different goods and services.
One of their servers for a trading service was hacked over the weekend.
Thousands and thousands of dollars worth of these bitcoins went missing.
We'll show ya what happened.. what we think happened.. what's goin to happen"

(video/podcast)

Bitcoin Exchange robbed again

2012-05-14

Bitcoin part at 0:43:55  to 0:45:26

http://www.geeknewscentral.com/2012/05/15/gnc-2012-05-14-765-final-checkout-is-complete/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wJmevMTNyc


"In the past on this show we've talked about bitcoin a little bit... and from time to time stories are out about bitcoin.. specifically.. usually negative stuff.. and today is no different... the hackers apparently broke into a bitcoin exchange, stealing $90,000 in bitcoins.  This is the bitcoin exchange site Bitcoinica... suspended it's operations this past friday after hackers had managed to steal 18,547 bitcoins.
So apparently the user database was compromised as well - so umm.. it's huge."
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Rally?

Hack and / - Password Cracking with GPUs, Part I: the Setup
Bitcoin mining is so last year. Put your expensive GPU to use cracking passwords.


Kyle Rankin
2012-05-15


http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/hack-and-password-cracking-gpus-part-i-setup

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Then Bitcoin tanked. That's okay though, because I hadn't gotten around to building my mining rig yet, and what's more, I found an even more interesting use for Bitcoin mining hardware: password cracking. Bitcoin mining and password cracking are quite similar operations, and a GPU can crack passwords much faster than a CPU or even a small cluster of CPUs.
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Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable.

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It turns out that cracking passwords is a lot like mining Bitcoins, so the same reasons GPUs are faster for Bitcoin mining apply to password cracking.
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FBI Explores The Implications Of Bitcoin
from the why-that's-so-2011 dept

Mike Masnick
2012-05-15

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120510/10550418870/fbi-explores-implications-bitcoin.shtml

Remember Bitcoin? The online cryptographic currency that got a lot of attention last year, but quickly faded?
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All in all, I actually expected more hyperbole and fear mongering, but seeing as this was meant for internal use, rather than for political gain, it seems like the paper was pretty even-handed. Of course, none of that matters at all if no one is using Bitcoin any more

FBI Confirms Bitcoin Report, But Denies Making It Public

Eduard Kovacs
2012-05-15

http://news.softpedia.com/news/FBI-Confirms-Bitcoin-Report-but-Denies-Making-It-Public-269695.shtml

The FBI’s report entitled “Bitcoin Virtual Currency: Intelligence. Unique Features Present Distinct Challenges for Deterring Illicit Activity” that we presented last week wasn’t classified, but it was labeled as being for “official use only.” FBI representatives confirmed its authenticity, but they claim that they don’t know who leaked it.
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