The arrest of Michael Murgio was made last Thursday, as the FBI took him into custody. Apparently, the law enforcement agency indicted Murgio as a defendant in the Coin.mx case. Moreover, there is a bribery scheme claim against both Michael and Anthony Murgio as well. The FBI believes Coin.mx was owned by an Israeli internet criminal by the name of Gery Shalon, who was part of a massive hacking scheme involving several others.

http://themerkle.com/fourth-arrest-made-in-fbi-case-against-coin-mx-exchange/

To be more precise, Carte Blanche openly stated how Bitcoin is not anonymous. They did mention how all Bitcoin transactions are recorded extensively, and users can take additional precautions to ensure their privacy is respected. However, anonymity is not an attribute people should associate with cryptocurrency, and it is good someone in the media decided to set the record straight.

http://themerkle.com/south-african-news-outlet-writes-honest-bitcoin-article/

Although that may not sound out of the ordinary per se, the whitepaper also states how there is “potential for real growth of Bitcoin in its current operational environment.” This seems to indicate the South African Reserve Bank has no negative feelings toward Bitcoin, as they merely seek to establish some ground rules and warn customers as to how it is issued.

http://bitcoinist.net/south-african-reserve-bank-sees-potential-for-real-bitcoin-growth/

In the end, the user retrieved 3 Bitcoin from his 21.9 BTC balance on the exchange,  and the rest of the money was never heard from again. This has some people quite upset, as exchange should not make money unavailable to its users. Then again, people who store their Bitcoins on an exchange platform, especially knowing they are underage and breaking TOS, will not get much sympathy from these companies.


http://themerkle.com/underage-user-breaking-exchange-tos-loses-majority-of-bitcoin-balance/

Andreas Antonopoulos is the voice of reason in this discussion, as he pointed out this is a smart way for Vitalik Buterin to diversify his portfolio. No one is holding onto just one cryptocurrency with all of their money, as they either hold other coins, precious metals, fiat currency, or any other commodity as well. Diversification is a solid investment strategy for everyone.

http://themerkle.com/ethereum-developer-vitalik-buterin-sold-25-of-his-coins/

This is also one of the factors, which make Vaultoro an attractive platform: Bitcoin aficionados can easily exchange part of their portfolio to gold whereas gold bugs can get into Bitcoin without converting bullion to fiat currency first. Due to this overwhelming demand, the plans have been drafted to open a Euro/gold order book shortly. Moreover, this gives investors a way to buy gold, which can be kept or converted to either EUR or BTC whenever they want to.

https://news.bitcoin.com/vaultoro-additional-funding-euro-market/

Right now, this particular “Creation Module” will be integrated by Gatecoin and Bittrex shortly. Additionally, these two platforms want to make all of the DAO tokens on their exchanges tradable sooner rather than later. Users of these exchanges would then be able to create a DAO, and accept all of the supported cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies as payment.

http://bitcoinist.net/ethereum-standard-dao-framework-gains-support-from-major-exchanges/

got my tracking numbers, really liking this service so far!

There is a particular tradeoff to be made between full financial control and little anonymity, compared to hand-holding and no transparency whatsoever. For some unknown reason, most of the consumers seem to prefer the latter, despite them trusting banks a lot less in recent years. Mental barriers are a valid excuse, but there will be a point where consumers have to make a choice and deal with the consequences.

http://themerkle.com/the-role-of-bitcoin-in-a-digital-cash-society/

Until the show airs, it is hard to gauge how Crackle will attempt to portray the world of alternative finance. Startup can either describe Bitcoin correctly or completely miss the point. Depending on whom one asks the question to, the latter option seems far more likely. But people should at least give it a try, before putting it on the stake to burn.

https://news.bitcoin.com/crackle-bitcoin-startup-tv-series/

Among the security vulnerabilities Nuclear attempts to exploit are Flash security flaws, as well as a Javascript weakness targeting Internet Explorer 10 and 11 users specifically. Moreover, a VBScript vulnerability is being looped in as well, which is – according to the security experts – most likely used to execute phishing attacks.


http://bitcoinist.net/inner-workings-nuclear-exploit-kit-spreading-crypto-ransomware/

For quite some time now, various companies have been exploring the boundaries of blockchain technology outside of the financial sector. Land titling is an area well worth exploring, as a secure property registration service on top of the blockchain can bring the much-needed accountability and transparency to the table. In fact, BitFury Group hopes to secure billions of dollars in assets with this system over time.

http://bitcoinist.net/bitfury-group-to-develop-blockchain-based-land-titling-project-in-georgia/

Among the questions asked in the 2016 Bitcoin Survey are topics such as the gender of the user, how they use Bitcoin, and whether or not they have gotten other people to use it as well. Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool in the world, and taking Bitcoin to mainstream adoption levels will require existing users to convince others throughout the years.

https://news.bitcoin.com/2016-bitcoin-survey-11-languages/

Nope, doesn't load, says my IP is banned for some unknown reason, which is probably why I'm not seeing the site image either.

Blockchain.info really has no love for me, should resolve itself rather soon i hope

Excellent, appreciate the update!

Placed my first order, documenting the experience as part of a future review

Will try again and let you know!

Maybe I assumed it was 15%, I'm just getting old lol


EDIT: Still no QR code, switching browsers

EDIT2:  still a broken image in both Chrome and Edge...derp

CryptXXX has been discovered a few weeks ago and is spread through the Angler Exploit Kit. Using exploit kits to spread ransomware is becoming the new norm in recent times, as these “sets of tools” will look for various weaknesses found in computer and software security. With the recent Adobe Flash vulnerability being fixed, there are still millions of servers connected to other systems at risk of infecting computers with crypto ransomware


https://news.bitcoin.com/cryptxxx-ransomware-steals-bitcoins/

Looks like there is an issue with the QR generation on the payment page, it's not loading

Also, my personal discount code dropped from 15% to 10% for some reason? Not a dealbreaker, just wondering

The sponsored article for LEOCoin has gone live!