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Anyone here has any feedback on Bitcoinwallet.com?
I've searched the forums but I could mostly found references about the domain name sale, so, any feedback is appreciated.
Have you had any experience with it?
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Flexcoin, a site that described itself as the “world’s first bitcoin bank,” has closed after it got hacked and all of the bitcoins it had placed in online storage were stolen, the site recently announced. Flexcoin was attacked and robbed March 2 of all coins in its “hot wallet”—a term that refers to bitcoin online storage—the site said in an announcement posted to its homepage. The attacker made off with 896 bitcoins, which at current prices across several exchanges would amount to roughly $600,000. Flexcoin also said it will return to their owners the bitcoins it had put in “cold storage,” which weren’t stolen because they’re held offline. The company will shut down immediately because it does not have the resources or assets to recuperate from the loss, it said. Flexcoin will work with law enforcement to determine the origins of the attack. Flexcoin directs affected users to its terms of service. According to that document, Flexcoin transactions were carried out using HTTPS encryption but the company “is not responsible for insuring any bitcoins stored in the Flexcoin system.” Users should also monitor the company’s Twitter account for updates about the situation, according to Flexcoin. In its most recent Twitter message, posted Tuesday, the company announced it would be “shutting its doors” and provided a link to its homepage. Flexcoin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Flexcoin’s closure comes less than a week after Mt. Gox, a prominent Bitcoin exchange, declared bankruptcy following a hacking attack on its own site. Just last week, Flexcoin asserted its strength in the Bitcoin industry. “We hold zero coins in other companies, exchanges, etc.,” the site said in a tweet last week. “While the Mt. Gox closure is unfortunate, we at Flexcoin have not lost anything.” http://www.pcworld.com/article/2104400/bitcoin-bank-flexcoin-shuts-down-after-massive-theft.html |
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Exchange glitches, arrests, government crackdowns, and volatility haven’t been able to stop people wanting to get their hands on the bitcoin, and the CEO of BTC China Bobby Lee told RT the bitcoin revolution will be bigger than the Internet. “I think over the next 25 years, we will see bitcoin evolve and become more mature. It will be a wild ride, it will be exciting,” Lee told RT at the "Inside Bitcoins: The Future of Virtual Currency" conference in Berlin. Lee is optimistic bitcoin isn’t just a fad and will resist recent setbacks. “So that’s what’s amazing about bitcoin, it’s truly a global phenomenon, very resilient and the reason it is resilient is because many people want to buy into it. Whenever the price dips, we see people sitting on the sidelines eager to buy.” The value of bitcoin has always been volatile, but dropped below $500 after one of the world’s largest exchanges, Mt. Gox, experienced a major glitch that forced it to temporarily halt withdrawals. Lee likens the glitches to the early years of the Internet, and like the internet, the uses for bitcoin will evolve over time, saying that when the internet was only 5 years old (the same age as bitcoin) it was met with negative skepticism and very little media coverage. “It’s like the Internet. The reality is that internet penetration is a lot higher than it was 10-20 years ago,” said Lee. http://rt.com/business/bitcoin-revolution-bobby-lee-890/ |
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Bitcoin is under attack by cybercriminals, bringing down some of the world's largest Bitcoin exchanges in the process. Unknown attackers are exploiting a Bitcoin design flaw to record fake transactions, muddying up the Bitcoin system's public accounting and causing widespread confusion for the centers where people trade them. The Bitcoin flaw allows these attackers to make a withdrawal from their own account and tamper with the record of that transaction. So they could cash out, but claim they never got the Bitcoins.Here's how the Bitcoin glitch is exploited: All Bitcoin transactions are publicly recorded and set in stone every 10 minutes. But that leaves a large window for nefarious activity. In this case, attackers were making real transactions then immediately posting fake ones, confusing the exchanges' accounting programs. Mt. Gox, Bitstamp, and other Bitcoin exchanges have temporarily suspended withdrawal transactions after coming under a form of a denial-of-service attack that abuses weaknesses in the way they keep track of fund balances, a security expert said. http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/02/bitcoin-exchanges-buckle-under-strain-of-phantom-transactions/http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/12/technology/security/bitcoin-attack/index.html"What makes it major is that malformed transactions are being injected at a far greater rate than we've ever seen before," Antonopoulos told Ars. "Whereas before this was a few transactions affecting Mt. Gox, now it's a lot of transactions affecting everyone." |
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Bitstamp, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges in the world--if not the largest--today became the second major firm to suspend customer withdrawals of bitcoins from their accounts, or "wallets." The firm's action follows a similar freeze last week by Mt. Gox, another major exchange firm. In both cases the firms attributed the suspensions to the need to address a technicality in the bitcoin system known as "transaction malleability." Neither firm has said when transactions will resume. In simple terms, transaction malleability could allow someone to spend bitcoins twice, which is tantamount to counterfeiting the virtual currency. That's an eventuality that bitcoin aficionados always have suggested is impossible in the algorithm-driven bitcoin system, because every transfer ostensibly has to be validated before it's completed. Plainly, there's a way around the validation, though it's not simple. The Bitcoin Foundation, the informal body that oversees system standards (but has no enforcement capabilities), issued a statement Monday acknowledging that "transaction malleability has been known about since 2011" and that it's "something that cannot be corrected overnight." It urges exchange firms to implement their own validation technologies. Slovenia-based Bitstamp's announcement said specifically that it was suffering "a denial-of-service attack using transaction malleability to temporarily disrupt balance checking." (UPDATE: The Bitcoin Foundation is treating the denial-of-service attacks as akin to malicious mischief, rather than attempts to counterfeit bitcoins or steal users' funds. In a statement issued late today, the foundation said "whoever is doing this is not stealing coins, but is succeeding in preventing some transactions from confirming. It’s important to note that DoS attacks do not affect people’s bitcoin wallets or funds.") A denial-of-service attack usually means that someone is inundating a system with so much online traffic that the system crashes. Reading between the lines, this sounds as though someone is sending so many bitcoin transfer orders through Bitstamp that it can't validate the transactions or be sure about how many bitcoins are in its customers' wallets. So its only option was to shut down bitcoin withdrawals and deposits until it can work its way through the assault. Transaction malleability is not the only technical flaw in the bitcoin system. What's important is that, leaving aside what financial issues might exist at Mt. Gox and Bitstamp that might also interfere with customer transactions, the suspensions suggest that bitcoin trading has now become so big that these flaws matter. At the moment, it's looking as though they matter enough to place a hard limit on the usefulness of bitcoins. The suspensions may be only growing pains, but if they're seen to be serious enough, bitcoin growth may end. And if other flaws in the system become equally troublesome obstructions, bitcoins will be over. As Boston University finance expert Mark T. Williams told us the other day, "the cracks are starting to show." if these problems aren't solved quickly and decisively, customers will evaporate. That points to how the supposedly paramount virtue of the bitcoin system may be its biggest shortcoming: no one's in charge. http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-bitcoin-a-new-rip-20140211,0,1065852.story#ixzz2t72IDpei |
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Starting Wednesday, The D Las Vegas Casino Hotel and Golden Gate Hotel & Casino will begin collecting the digital currency that merchants increasingly are starting to accept. The two downtown Vegas properties, which share an owner, will accept the currency at five locations, including their front desks and the D's Gift Shop. Guests also can use the currency at the D Hotel's American Coney Island hot dog shop and Joe Vicari's Andiamo Italian Steakhouse. Alas, they won't be able to gamble with them just yet. The Bitcoin purchases will be processed through BitPay, which allows merchants to accept Bitcoins just as they would Visa, MasterCard or Paypal. Bitcoins have not yet been widely accepted in the travel industry. But Derek Stevens, CEO of the D and Golden Gate, says he's willing to take a gamble. It is Vegas, after all. "I'm proud that the D and Golden Gate will be the first casino properties to accept Bitcoin," Stevens says. "We're located in the growing high-tech sector of downtown Las Vegas, and like all things downtown, we're quickly adaptive to new technology. The timing is right for us to launch this initiative." Stevens says he decided to accept Bitcoins after several patrons asked him to. Tablets programmed with BitPay will now be installed at each cashier. Perhaps it is apropos for the Golden Gate to adopt the new technology. Built in 1906, it is Vegas' oldest casino. It was also the first property in the city to install a telephone. http://www.usatoday.com/story/dispatches/2014/01/21/las-vegas-casinos-accepting-bitcoins/4713243/ |
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Bitcoin's floor is in the third world where it promises to replace cell phone minutes and bullets as a currency in Africa and reduce foreign currency fees for Assam tea traders.
The bitcoin's value lies in the network, this network enables value transfer across the globe. A bitcoin without network worth nothing, just like a telephone disconnected from the line
These are the kind of thoughts I hoped to be able to read and learn from when I signed up to these forums. I'd almost gave up hope in here but it has definetively been worth the wait, thanks. At the core, his argument is that the dollar has value because it has this specific utility. Well, Bitcoin has (a much broader) utility
Which is/are? Please, I'm sincerely eager to know. If I choose to believe in Bitcoin then I have chosen to believe in the infallible idea that Bitcoin represents and further supports. People will support Bitcoin for as long as they desire freedom.
A very romantic point of view.  |
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Economist Brad DeLong poses a question about Bitcoin: Underpinning the value of gold is that if all else fails you can use it to make pretty things. Underpinning the value of the dollar is a combination of (a) the fact that you can use them to pay your taxes to the U.S. government, and (b) that the Federal Reserve is a potential dollar sink and has promised to buy them back and extinguish them if their real value starts to sink at (much) more than 2%/year (yes, I know). Placing a ceiling on the value of gold is mining technology, and the prospect that if its price gets out of whack for long on the upside a great deal more of it will be created. Placing a ceiling on the value of the dollar is the Federal Reserve’s role as actual dollar source, and its commitment not to allow deflation to happen. Placing a ceiling on the value of bitcoins is computer technology and the form of the hash function… until the limit of 21 million bitcoins is reached. Placing a floor on the value of bitcoins is… what, exactly? At the moment, it’s only a $10 billion bubble–or, if you are going to convince me that it is not a bubble, you are going to have to find me a market player willing to become a bitcoin sink… http://equitablegrowth.org/2013/12/28/1466/watching-bitcoin-dogecoin-etc |
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Income Tax Treatment
“Companies which are in the business of buying and selling bitcoins will be taxed based on the gains from their sales of the bitcoins. On the other hand, if the bitcoins are part of the company’s investment portfolio acquired for long term investment purposes, the gains from the sales will be capital in nature and thus not taxable for the company.”
GST Treatment
“The sale (including the exchange) of bitcoins in return for a consideration in money or in kind is a taxable supply of services subject to GST. If the seller is a GST-registered person, he would have to account for output tax on the sale of bitcoins made in the course or furtherance of his business. “
“Where bitcoins are accepted as payment for real goods or services (e.g. digitized items like online music), such transactions are treated as a barter exchange. GST should be accounted for on the individual supplies made (i.e. the supply of bitcoins and the supply of real goods or services) if the parties involved are GST-registered persons. However if the bitcoins are used to exchange for virtual goods or services within the virtual gaming world, as a concession, the supply of bitcoins will not be taxed until the bitcoins are exchanged for real monies, goods or services.”
“As bitcoin does not fall within the definition of ‘money’ or ‘currency’ under the GST Act, a supply of bitcoins is not a supply of money and would not be disregarded for GST purposes. The supply of bitcoins would be treated as a supply of services as it involves the granting of the interest in or right over the bitcoins.”
“The GST treatment of the supply of bitcoins will depend on whether the company is acting as an agent or principal in the transaction. If the company merely facilitates and is acting as an agent in the bitcoin trade (e.g. bitcoin exchange transfer bitcoins directly to the customer’s wallet), GST is chargeable only on the commission fees received. However if the company is acting as a principal in the bitcoin trade (e.g. buys and onward sells bitcoins to the customer), GST is chargeable on the full amount received, i.e. the sale of bitcoins and commission fees. “
“Under section 13(4) of the GST Act, a supply of services shall be treated as made in another country if the supplier belongs in that other country. In this case, if the company belongs outside Singapore (i.e. there is no business or fixed establishment in Singapore), the supply of bitcoins shall be treated as made outside Singapore. Accordingly, GST is not chargeable on the supply of services (i.e. bitcoins) made outside Singapore. “
“Overall, the GST treatment of bitcoins will depend on the business arrangement and contractual terms between the parties involved.”
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Could anyone provide a LTC/BTC chart that covers the whole 2013?
There you go:  |
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What's with writing HODL instead of HOLD? Is it a forum joke or what? |
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Platinum Asset Management founder and billionaire Kerr Neilson has acknowledged the “fantastic rise” of the virtual currency Bitcoin but predicts its meteoric climb will be ultimately felled by the acts of global regulators. In Platinum Capital’s quarterly report to investors, Mr Neilson - who has been named one of the world’s 99 greatest investors - opines on Bitcoin extensively in a twist on his regular and closely followed commentary about global equities. He describes the Bitcoin structure as “a remarkably clever concept, seductively so for tech geeks” but is also mindful of its shortcomings including the volatility that has seen the value of the units rise from $US12 to more than $US1000 in the space of 12 months. “One suspects that the heavy hand of State will nip this tulip in the bud and if not, it will probably prove an interesting marker for current market excesses, complementary to the art market and high-end property,” he said. Platinum Capital had a stellar year for its investors, recording a return of 50.1 per cent before tax, which beat the MSCI World Index by 7.6 per cent. Among its trades, it sold Adidas and Sotheby’s and bought or added drug makers Sanofi, Novartis, AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo. Source: http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/bitcoin-will-be-felled-by-regulation-kerr-neilson-20140110-30ljr.html |
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What's a reliable mining profit calculator? I tested a few but all give very different results.  |
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Woodland Patchwork is a newly created micronation in Japan. A micronation is a microstate which is not officially recognized by a nation-state. Most micronations and microstates come about when someone takes a shine to a little patch of dirt somewhere, or perhaps an oil rig or an old military fort. This one's a little different. The founder of Woodland Patchwork, Hideyuki Yoshida aka "ken elwood", has claimed 2.5 million acres of unused land in Japan, using acquisitive prescription (legal squatting). According to the Micronation.org wiki page, 20% of this land is arable, which should provide more than enough food for the residents of the new micronation. Further dispensing with tradition, the official currency of "the Patch" is Bitcoin. No need for the big banks to come and build branches in these mountains - WP will be able to collect their taxes and pay their vendors over the Internet from day one. Details on the government structure of Woodland Patchwork are still hazy - it's governed by the Laws of the Universe and Free Thought, apparently. There appear to be seven administrative districts which encompass the widely non-contiguous territory claimed (in red, orange and yellow on the map above), each with a head who participates in a central council. No word on democratic structures yet. The government of Japan has yet to respond publicly to their new neighbor. Currently, only 11 “Woodlanders”, “Woodlander” being the demonym for a resident of Woodland Patchwork, reside within “The Patch.” They often gather at the first established hamlet in “The Patch,” Yakozue, which is located on the east side of the Hida Mountains in Shinshu. 80% of the land is dense forest while 20% of the land is arable, which is enough to support this fledgling micronation’s food needs. While no actual nation has given official recognition to the micronation, Woodland Patchwork has made international headlines with their choice of official currency. Many Bitcoiners, including myself, thought that the Principality of Sealandia would be the first state entity to recognize Bitcoin as their official currency; unfortunately, they have not yet started using Bitcoin as their official currency. There are several other potential jurisdictional areas that could be utilizing Bitcoin as their official currency in the coming years. Edan Yago of Honduras writes about startup cities that may soon become a reality. Blueseed, a Cruise Ship Startup Community, received a large some of Bitcoin funding directly from the Bitcoin Foundation. While Woodland Patchwork may not be a micronation targeted at startups specifically, the fact that they have decided to choose Bitcoin as their official currency speaks volume to the penetration of Bitcoin into the minds of forward-thinking individuals. Maybe Satoshi Nakamoto is one of the 11 “Woodlanders” currently residing in “The Patch.” http://www.wallstreetcrypto.com/2013/12/a-bitcoin-micronation-woodland-patchwork.htmlhttp://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2013/12/15/woodland-patchwork-bitcoin/http://mw.micronation.org/wiki/Woodland_Patchwork |
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The New York Department of Financial Services just emailed the full information for their upcoming hearings about Bitcoin: SUPERINTENDENT LAWSKY ISSUES NOTICE OF INTENT TO HOLD PUBLIC HEARING REGARDING VIRTUAL CURRENCIES ON JANUARY 28 AND 29 IN NEW YORK CITY Benjamin M. Lawsky, Superintendent of Financial Services, today issued a notice that the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) will hold a public hearing on the regulation of virtual currencies on January 28 and 29 in New York City. In August 2013, NYDFS announced that it had launched an inquiry into the appropriate regulatory guidelines for virtual currencies. As part of an ongoing fact-finding effort informing that inquiry, NYDFS subsequently announced its intention to hold a public hearing on this issue, including the potential NYDFS issuance of a ‘BitLicense’ specific to virtual currencies. The hearing is open to the press and public, however, space is limited. Members of the media and public interested in attending the hearing should RSVP no later than January 27 at 2:00 PM to Caitlin.Ferrell@dfs.ny.gov. Additional details on the hearing, including witness lists and the timing of specific panels, will be announced in the near future. The witnesses providing testimony at the hearing are expected to include a broad cross-section of industry participants, investors, academics, and other individuals involved in the virtual currency industry. Logistical Details Time: Tuesday, January 28 (Expected Start Time: 10:00 AM) Wednesday, January 29 (Expected Start Time: 10:00 AM) Location:90 Church Street 4th Floor Board Room New York, NY Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-all-the-details-about-the-upcoming-new-york-bitcoin-hearings-2014-1 |
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