The following was received from Kinnard Hockenhull today:


** Changes at BitBox

------------------------------------------------------------
Hi BitBox users!

There are going to be some changes at BitBox. Our Chief Technical Officer will be leaving the team. I expect he will go on to do big things.

For the time being, we will be suspending trading at 5:00 PM PST Wednesday September 25th. You can still login, view your account and process withdrawals for the next 90 days. After then withdrawals will be processed manually while we build our new trading system.
It’s notoriously difficult (http://qr.ae/NKgZC) to predict software development timelines but we will be working very hard to get the new site up and running by the end of November. It’s been a blast serving you since BitBox re-launched in May.

Per this analysis at bitcoinmagazine:

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/7064/

Sadly, seems Mt. Gox is out for the count at the moment. Luckily, there are more alternate exchanges these days.

I've been wondering lately what might be the best way to legally challenge regulation of BTC exchanges in the US. Clearly, a large operating business can ill afford to be shut down, and so those have been scrambling to figure out how to stay roughly in compliance with FinCEN guidance.

One idea seems like it could be setting up an exchange which will plan on presenting a challenge by only obeying what the law appears to be as written, interpreted in the most favorable light for the exchange. This process would seem to have a few implications.

1. It may need to be only a cash<->BTC exchange. Any interface with the banking system will likely collapse under the slightest regulatory pressure, unless an organization like the IAFCU would be willing to serve as the bank.

2. Legal venue seems like it should be in a state where either there is no MSB regulation, or alternately, where BTC would not be subject to such regulation based on the definition of currency and money used in that state.

3. It should have sufficient assets isolated from any seizable deposit accounts to be able to make any transactions whole in the event of a legal attack.

4. It should plan on a legal fight and having sufficient funds for such a fight as well as good legal representation.

5. It should be operated as a corporation to provide limited liability to the operators.

What are people's thoughts on the feasibility and method of setting up such an exchange.

Just heard about this on NPR last night, as also reported in the Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/07/somalis-money-transfers-barclays-lifeline)

Evidently new money transmission regulations in the UK are a serious problem for Somalis trying to get funds back home.

Sounds like a possible opportunity for bitcoin !

What is the state of BTC in Somalia?

Apparently the big U.S. bank chains (Wells Fargo, Chase, BOA, USBank) are becoming increasingly hostile to bit coin related transactions.

I just recently had a US Bank account closed due to international wires going to/from bitcoin exchanges. I've been shopping around with smaller local banks, who all also report that they can't do these, usually for vague reasons, like they are nervous about AML etc. They continue with these vague reasons even when I explain that it is all my money that I am dealing with!

Anyone having luck with a U.S. bank that will explicitly allow international wires to/from BTC exchanges?

Hi All,

I'm trying to figure out what happened to the private keys which were used by the older iPhone bitpak client. I know this client is no longer supported, but I had a few BTC in its wallet prior to an iPhone upgrade and a change in main Mac laptop that was used to sync the iPhone with iTunes, and they don't seem to be showing up anymore, even after I let the bitpak client gather all the blocks.

In looking at the file system with iExplorer, I see there was a wallet.dat file in that applications documents folder. If I copy this and use it in Bitcoin-QT, I also see an empty wallet.

So this raises the question of when a file like this would have been backed up, and possibly over-written.

thanks,
Peter

I have no personal experience but assume others do.

Is Mt. Gox refunding funds which were locked up in the Dwolla account seizure. Certainly it seems feasible for them to determine which accounts had funds seized, and it would boost their reputation to take responsibility in this way.

Can any users comment on this?

BTC-e is reporting on their page the Vircurex was hacked. Vircurex says that receiving wallet addresses have been changed due to a security problem.

Does anyone have further news about what is happening with that exchange?

I've moved this discussion here as it is more of a legal matter.

The real damages are irrelevant, what matters is the expectation when they entered into the agreement since those expectations were codified in the contract.

I've requested exhibit a (the original contract) so we can take a look at what was really promised.  What they're stipulating is "breach of contract" and since the contract has a "in the event of breach of contract" clause, I don't see how Gox get's out of the 50 million.

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer either, just a person with a fair amount of experience in business law.

As I said, it will be interesting to see how that claim plays out. Although there may be a stipulated damages clause, there may be some other factors that come into play:

Did Coinlab completely fulfill their end of the bargain? If not, they themselves may be liable for a counter-claim and it could weaken the stipulated damages clause.

Were there acts beyond Mt. Gox's control that affected their ability to perform? Such as the DDOS attacks and a massive increase in trading volume and value.

Does the massive increase in volume at Mt. Gox make the terms of the original agreement with Coinlab unconscionable?

There may be a variety of defenses by Mt. Gox, so we'll need to hear the other side of the story. Of course, that is what depositions and trials are for.

Hopefully Coinlab will move on and create a new U.S. market, rather than trying to quickly turn a $500k VC investment into $50M of stipulated damages.

Why on earth are they still directing people to Mt. Gox to trade?

allinvain, firstly sorry to hear about this theft.

This is theft, and on a major scale, so I suspect it would be best to call the RCMP or other appropriate law enforcement.

We always hear about how BTC are really just pseudonymous. This case will be a good check on that. Hopefully it will be possible to track down who did this and put them behind bars.