I think he was referring to Bitcoin Markets, or w/e torrents you had up, being the pyramid scheme and not Bitcoins.

Way is the time stamp on this New Yorker article date Oct. 10, 2011?: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_davis

Hey, somebody might even believe you one day... it worked for OJ.

In 2009, a programmer who called himself "Satoshi Nakamoto" created bitcoin. The virtual currency took off, but Satoshi's identity has remained a mystery.

The journalist Joshua Davis tries to track down Satoshi in an article (subscription req'd) in this week's New Yorker.

 
Whoever created bitcoin, it's clear that he (or she, or they) is/are a very clever coder with a deep understanding of cryptography.

An expert tells the New Yorker writer that someone with Satoshi's skills would probably be at Crypto2011, the most important cryptography conference. The writer also notes that Satoshi typically uses British (rather than American) spellings.

So he narrows the field to people from the UK at Crypto2011. He finds one compelling candidate: A guy named Michael Clear.

After I read the article this morning, I called Gavin Andresen, a programmer who has done a lot of work on bitcoin, and who we talked to at length when we did a bitcoin story earlier this year.

I asked Gavin if Michael Clear is Satoshi.

"I have no idea," Gavin told me. "It could be."

Clear was named the top computer-science undergrad at Trinity College in Dublin in 2008. He worked for Allied Irish Banks to improve its currency-trading software in 2009. Also that year, he co-wrote a paper on peer-to-peer technology. (Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer system.)

So Davis, the author of the New Yorker story, emails Clear.

"I like to keep a low profile," Clear replies. "I'm curious to know how you found me."

Davis eventually cuts to the chase:

Finally, I asked, "Are you Satoshi?"

He laughed, but didn't respond. There was an awkward silence.

"If you like, I'd be happy to review the design for you," he offered instead. "I could let you know what I think."

"Sure," I said hesitantly. "Do you need me to send you a link to the code?"

"I think I can find it," he said.

In the end, Clear says he's not the guy — but his denial leaves the door open just a crack:

"I'm not Satoshi," Clear said. "But even if I was I wouldn't tell you."

One other interesting detail: Clear says the bitcoin code is good, but there are some weaknesses. Users store their bitcoins in virtual wallets; the system should automatically provide encryption software to secure those virtual wallets, Clear says.

I didn't bring this detail up when I talked to Gavin today. But when I asked him about news from the bitcoin world, he told me that the latest version of the bitcoin software includes wallet encryption.

and it's worth watching (if you have a leg fetish)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5UaFZSv_YY

I'm not gonna name names, but someone just mentioned paying for weed with a Square account. It'd be equally easy to use Paypal, Venmo, Bitcoin (RIP) or any of the myriad mobile payment systems that allow you to send money from your phone.

I mean, think about it: As long as you don't put some idiotic note on your account like "drugs," virtual currency would be a really easy way for drug dealers to take one very dangerous aspect of trafficking out of the equation—as long as they took some precautions.

So have you ever bought drugs using a mobile payment system? Is this a really tired scheme that a innocent lad like me just hadn't ever heard of? Let us know in the poll.

Cool idea but looks like marketing it will be tough.

You Asked For Change, We Gave You Coins

i have never in all my years on youtube clicked an ad.

has anyone here genuinely been interested in an ad they saw on youtube?
especially interested to hear if anyone has ever clicked an 'overlay' ad on one of the videos.

In the past we’ve reported a couple of attacks involving malware that turns affected systems into Bitcoin miners, and we also said that cybercriminals will increasingly do so in the future. Recently we encountered another malware –a familiar and known malware family — that turns the system into a Bitcoin miner.

TDL4 is a well known variant of the TDSS malware family known for evading detection by antivirus products by infecting affected systems’ boot sector. We’ve been monitoring developments related to TDSS, and earlier this year we saw TDL4 exhibit propagation routines through a worm component that Trend Micro detects as WORM_OTORUN.ASH.

In our research we found that recent variants of WORM_OTORUN.ASH contain code that attempts to participate in a Bitcoin pool, Deepbit.



The screenshot in Figure 1 shows some parameters that include “getwork”, which is a parameter to get a job from the mining pool. A job is a Bitcoin block header which the miner, (in this case the affected system) hashes in order to earn a Bitcoin share. In Bitcoin pools, users sign up and join a network of miners to work on the same jobs for faster payout.


Based on Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ data, WORM_OTORUN.ASH’s distribution has expanded to other parts of the globe in the past few months. The Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ constantly analyzes data from the feedback of millions of customers around the world, including geographic distribution of malware. This allows us to monitor how widespread any particular malware is in real time, as well as determine other steps that can be taken to mitigate the threat.

For a clearer illustration, refer to Figure 2 below.



During our monitoring, we have observed as well that WORM_OTORUN.ASH’s command and control (C&C) servers were hosted by dubious Internet Service Providers (ISPs) located in Europe, particularly in Ukraine, Romania, and the Netherlands.

Is There Something New Here?

Not really. Cybercriminals will continue to find ways to monetize their malicious activities, and Bitcoin is just a new way for them to do so. Bitcoin has earned the attention of crooks for several reasons, one of which is the fact that Bitcoin is a direct source of income.

In addition, the concept of pooled mining complements the nature of botnets – multiple zombie PCs contribute to the generation of a Bitcoin block, and the reward will end up at the hands of cybercriminals – at the infected users’ expense.

This proves to be not very good news for victims, as Bitcoin-mining bots will probably eat up infected systems’ resources. On a more positive note, however, Bitcoin mining will compromise the covertness of a malware since the high CPU usage might lead the user to suspect system infection.

As seen in TDL4 and WORM_OTORUN.ASH, it wouldn’t surprise me if Bitcoin mining becomes a trend in today’s botnets. We might just encounter more BOTcoin miners in the near future.

I don't think anyone here realizes that this is sponsored by socialists and revolutionary Communists using resentment against Wall Street for a recruiting drive...