An interesting article and discussion today over at BleepingComputer.com.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/editorial/security/with-the-looming-threat-of-ransomware-should-companies-stockpile-bitcoins/#cid3169

This article by Mark Nestmann is mostly about negative interest rates and the government's incentive to penalize cash, but it does mention Bitcoin as something worth investigating, indicating that Financial repression laws are leading people who wouldn't otherwise be interested in Bitcoin to consider it as a means to avoid repressive laws.

Finally… there’s no question that technologies  that will render obsolete central banks and indeed banks themselves are rapidly advancing. Bitcoin is a great example that’s worth looking into.

http://www.nestmann.com/will-central-banks-abolish-cash#.VUoEW5PzfYm

"In New Jersey, if you accept bitcoin as a retailer, you must collect sales tax — twice."
http://www.pymnts.com/news/2015/new-jersey-wants-to-tax-bitcoin-transactions/#.VSZ0OZPzfYk

This is very confusing, and I'm not sure I understand it correctly. Neither the article nor the technical advisory has any examples to clarify how it might work. But if I understand it correctly, it requires the retailer to collect sales tax from the purchaser for the dollar value of goods sold, which is standard. But it would also require the customer to collect sales tax from the retailer, because in effect he sold bitcoins to the retailer in exchange for the products he purchased.

Popular blogger Mike Shedlock includes a long thoughtful post from a crypto-currency advocate, but nevertheless concludes that government will be able to crush Bitcoin even though it hasn't been able to crush Uber. He says the difference is that the masses demand Uber but the masses don't demand Bitcoin or even know what it is.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/03/bitcoin-vs-uber-bitcoin-lovers-respond.html?#echocomments

Five minute video where Bryan Micon (Chairman of Seals With Clubs) talks about the armed raid on his home to serve a warrant from the Nevada Gaming Commission. He says  they broke down his door while his wife and 2-year-old were present and that he was led out in handcuffs in his underwear and they confiscated his computer equipment and that he was not charged with any crime. Video was shot in Antigua and he says SWC 2.0 will re-open soon.

http://www.coinbuzz.com/2015/02/22/video-seals-clubs-raided-10-men-guns/

FWIW, I have played at SWC and found it to be a very reputable company. The speed with which they processed payouts speaks volumes about their company compared to some shadier companies operating in the online poker space. I look forward to them reopening.

http://247cryptonews.com/bter-got-hacked-7000-bitcoins-stolen-7-different-accounts/

We have a suspect! With help from Franko Collective people who started as well to research on this horrible situation of BTER. His name is Woźniak Sebastian he is the guy that owns the server in Switzerland with the IP 46.28.204.193. Why do we believe it’s a suspect? Well, he seems to be a hacking & Bitcoin enthusiast having an article on Hacking9 & a profile on Bitcoin Foundation. Also, he scammed people in the past on Bitcointalk and has a scarce information on his Facebook account. We have a strong belief that in a way or other Wozniak Sebastian is implied in this hack. Until future investigation he will remain “suspect” and not guilty also we have a strong belief that isn’t the guy that has Bitcurex, it would be awful, but somebody using this name for his online assets. We will keep you updated on our tracing to the guy who robbed BTER, again this is “Wozniak Sebastian” is just a link, a hint, a suspect.

On Friday, Merchants Bank of California is expected to close the accounts of all Somali-American money transfer companies on its books.

Yet another reason why cryptocurrencies are not just for libertarians, but more importantly for the un- or poorly banked across the world with access to the informational ether via smartphones or computers.

http://reason.com/blog/2015/02/11/us-makes-another-awful-decision-to-harm

Melbourne-based start-up Bitcoin Group told Reuters in December it hoped to raise A$20 million ($15.6 million) on the Australian Stock Exchange and has been seeking expressions of interest from potential investors from the Chinese community through Wechat, China's hugely popular instant messaging service.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said on Friday it was prohibiting Bitcoin Group from making any further statements about its planned listing until it had filed a prospectus.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/13/us-australia-bitcoin-idUSKBN0LH0EU20150213

Report Title is "Digital Disruptor"
Subtitle: How Bitcoin is Driving Digital Innovation in Entertainment, Media and Communications (EMC)

This is the same 19-page report covered in a recent Coin Desk article, but the link given in the original article was no longer valid. Mostly positive - well-written and easy to read. Contains some interesting statistics, graphics, survey results, and analysis.

http://www.finextra.com/finextra-downloads/featuredocs/pwc_bitcoin.pdf

At least as far as I can understand it, the benefits of using the blockchain as a kind of Digital Asset Register (DAR) through a scheme like Mastercoin  or colored coins make a compelling use case.  Assuming this is true, what, if anything does this imply for the market price of bitcoins?

As long as the bitcoin mining bounty plus transaction fees are valuable enough that people will be incentivized to mine them at a sufficient rate that the block chain can’t be easily compromised, then it seems to me that the block chain’s utility as a DAR wouldn’t necessarily have any direct impact on the price. On the other hand, if the block chain were widely used as a DAR, that would probably mean that bitcoins would have become widely used  as a monetary unit, which implies a high value for btc.

Is my understanding correct?

[Using The Nash Equilibrium and Mutually Assured Destruction To Bypass Bitcoin Currency Exchanges]

Using The Nash Equilibrium and Mutually Assured Destruction To Bypass Bitcoin Currency Exchanges
http://www.libertariannews.org/2013/05/03/using-the-nash-equilibrium-and-mutually-assured-destruction-to-by-pass-currency-exchanges/

In browsing some of the development posts I repeatedly come across these acronyms, but I haven't seen any definitions either here or on the wiki. I gather that UTXO means something like the total blockchain. Does anyone know what these acronyms stand for?

A very disappointing article by hard money advocate,  Hugo Salinas Price.

What worries me is not how the speculators will fare; what worries me is: how are the masses going to behave toward me and my family when the fraudulent currencies of the world, Bitcoins included, have turned those masses into hungry beggars?

http://thedailybell.com/28968/Hugo-Salinas-Price-Of-Bubbles-and-Bitcoins

Interesting article on Lew Rockwell by the CEO of Cryptohippie USA, a provider of Internet privacy technologies.

Summarizes some important qualities of bitcoin and then talks about how and why authorities might want to attack it.

http://lewrockwell.com/rosenberg/rosenberg-p14.1.html

I sent .17 BTC from my wallet on blockchain.info to a receiving address 1NLQZ7ZUA4JcoYU7uKTX3FDJ3buLinNJK8 contained in my installation of version 0 .7.2 of the Satoshi client. If I look this transaction up on blockchain.info there are 7 confirmations. When I open the Satoshi client  my wallet shows a zero balance even though my blockchain database is completely up to date and there is a green check mark in the bottom right of my bitcoin software.

Have I somehow lost these coins? Is there a way to make them appear? Thanks very much.

Say you have two computers with bitcoin software running on them and two separate wallets.  How would you consolidate all of your coins into one wallet? I suppose you could send them to yourself at the second computer. Is there a more straight forward way to merge the two bitcoin wallets into one?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504943_162-20069780-10391715.html?tag=strip

At about seven minutes into this interview, Jeff Garzik makes the following statement:

We’re working with the government to register bitcoin exchanges as MSBs (Money Service Businesses) to make sure that the long arm of the government can indeed reach bitcoin. A lot of bitcoiners are diehard Ron Paul libertarians, who might not necessarily agree with me but the only way bitcoins are going to be successful is working with regulation and with the government. And that’s what we’ve been doing specifically with the bitcoin exchanges, that’s where you exchange your US dollars or Euros to Bitcoins and back again, is that all of these are fully regulated with the government, fully complying with all the anti-money laundering and know-your-client laws.


Earlier in the interview he dismisses organizations like Silk Road as being “pretty bleeping dumb”.

One of the things that attracted me to Bitcoin in the first place was its potential for circumventing all of these oppressive and totalitarian laws. It was a real pleasure registering with Mt Gox as compared to opening a new brokerage account. As is usually the case, when a new industry takes hold and is threatened by government, they partner with government in a well-known phenomenon known as regulatory capture [think pharmaceuticals]. They raise costs and conspire to legislate advantages for themselves to keep out upstart competitors. So it seems likely to me that regulation of the bitcoin exchanges will take place. While I’m disappointed that one of the most prominent bitcoiners has this pro-regulation attitude, there are still a number of other advantages to bitcoin, even if the exchanges become regulated. I have two questions:

1) Will cooperating with government make bitcoins go up in value because it may result in their adoption by the mainstream, or will it make bitcoins less valuable because it diminishes financial privacy which is a very important motivation for a lot of people.

2) Assuming that companies like Mt Gox become registered MSBs, what are the prospects for outlaw exchanges and a successful black market in bitcoins where you don’t have to present your papers in order to transact business?