Danny, given the recent news from Coinbase and Coinkite, are there any plans to offer a Neo API that can help us compete in the spaces they are exploring? A simple deposit-only API, to start with, to send BTC to a merchant's Neo account (from their website or their proprietary platform) might help drive innovation and allow Neo to compete with the likes of BitPay.  

Ok, I guess that kinda proves you were there.  

Oi Ukyo!

Can you prove you were in Cyprus at the Neo office? Photos? 

I have a question about dividends and tax.

LMB Subsidiaries is a UK company, so does this mean future divs will be paid net of any UK withholding tax or will they be paid in full without deductions at source? For example, if my cut of Neo & Bee's profit distribution for Q1 2014 is 1 BTC, will the full 1 BTC be sent to my address or should I expect less than 1 BTC?

That's unfortunate, because if you insisted this was true, I'd be more likely to believe the story 

"Bitcoin, Limitless Potential". Nice.

The second half of the Keiser show (the interview with the University of Nicosia CFO) is fascinating. The government is being lobbied to make Cyprus the global Bitcoin hub for business, banks and trading. "A once in a lifetime opportunity" is how he describes it.

This looks great!

Are there any plans for a smart phone wallet/app? If I could withdraw cash from an ATM, top up at my nearest payment centre, then buy my bitcoins before I leave the store, I would be very impressed. 

As a man of extreme leisure, you surely have both the time and money to fly to Cyprus for a short fact-finding mission? 

Unfortunately, many of the things we might naturally rail against, such as the concept of an Accredited Investor (WTF? The government will tell me how I can invest my money?!) have evolved because a) scammers like to scam, b) bad investors spawn regret by the litre and c) the government. Really, at this point, it isn't clear how we should proceed.   

crumbs is merely here to entertain himself. Direct engagement is usually futile, he will often change tack on a whim. I do find it interesting, though, that les trolls-de-jour have chosen this thread over others. Possibly because Neo & Bee have started to make waves.

Danny, I'd like to say thank you for stepping in to to help sort out this mess. I realise you working with Jon improves the odds of the return of my coins. If no one had stepped in to lend a hand, I doubt I'd get anything back.  

Unfortunately, people who don't know shit are both writing and reading pieces just like this in the FT. In large numbers. People with a great deal of influence in finance, whose actions have real life consequences. Still, the joke will probably be on them, but that doesn't mean we should relax nor discount the possibility they launch an attack on Bitcoin, probably via reputation. But I suspect they have left it too late.

There is also an interesting Editorial discussing Bitcoin:

Banking on Bitcoin - Virtual currencies could rival banknotes, but not bankers

If a small city state had adopted Bitcoin as its national currency, it would now be in the grip of deflation as foreign speculators siphoned away its supply of the virtual currency. Money would be scarce, and prices would fall dramatically. Authorities might try to lift prices but they would lack one of their most powerful tools. Central bankers can create money at will, by printing notes or creating deposits. Bitcoin is based on digital tokens, which are generated at an unalterable rate by cryptographic algorithms running on the computers of volunteers, making it impossible to match supply to demand. This is an improbable fantasy. But Bitcoin’s undulating value makes it unsuitable for all but the most limited purposes. Speculators are the keenest acquirers of the currency. For some, it is a way of stashing wealth where authorities cannot find it. Others want to make purchases without leaving an obvious trace. Silk Road, the online contraband emporium that was closed by authorities last month, was one of the few businesses to insist on payment in Bitcoin. But many prices were pegged to the dollar; the virtual money served merely as a way of disguising the flow of hard currency.

Still, if Bitcoin’s applications are limited, its emergence as a workable means of exchange nonetheless reveals something surprising. Friedrich Hayek argued that the government should cede its monopoly over the money supply, leaving consumers free to choose between competing currencies. It turns out that they were already freer than they thought. Authorities have so far tolerated the virtual currency. Yet the product of the state-owned incumbent has proved more attractive than Hayek expected.

The experiment is an indication of how monetary systems might change in future. Many believed it impossible to create a form of electronic cash that did not rely on a bank to keep tabs on account balances. Bitcoin proved them wrong. But many are uneasy about reversing the technological accident that has made financial transactions more traceable in the era of electronic banking.

Some see tamper-proof virtual currencies as preferable to physical ones that central bankers can easily debase. The island of Alderney is in talks with Royal Mint to make physical coins backed by Bitcoins in its electronic vault. But enthusiasts should be careful what they wish for. An unstable price level is dangerous. Removing the steering-wheel is the wrong way to prevent central bankers from driving the economy off the road.

This is stretching it a wee bit crumbs. Apple Records used Apple Computer as a cash cow for many years until it was finally settled and Jobs was allowed to rename his company  'Apple, Inc'.

If Neo conclude they must ask Nio to cease and desist, I doubt that would be the end of it if the later refused.

Nor VIZA 

Bookmarked. I will send this to people who ask me about Bitcoin as part of a general briefing. Even if they don't live in Cyprus

Possibly he means 'Force majeure'.

What was this supposed to prove exactly? Ukyo is on IRC, posting to the forum and it is known he is working with Neo to try to resolve the situation. Is cold calling him supposed to speed up resolution of the situation? 

A monolithic aggregation of BTC capital in one place won't require the SSTT to be an unresponsive or wasteful bureaucratic entity, interested only in its own survival at the expense of its mission. We often associate ineffective institutions with massive pots of capital because that is they way things have been until now - Bitcoin lets us break that link.

I'd say you want as much money as possible held by the SSTT so it is taken extremely seriously from the get-go. We need scientists and technologists who volunteer their skills to be confident a non-state actor is capable of funding incredible, world-changing research. What better way than keeping the equivalent of hundreds of millions to billions of USD on deposit? Ofc, it will be helpful to employ a few frugal accountants to oversee the funds and there is always blockchain.info which will let us watch how they are spent