Why It's So Hard to Make a Campaign Donation With Bitcoin


Bit­coin, the de­cent­ral­ized di­git­al cur­rency, is sur­ging in the bank­ing, com­merce, and tech­no­logy worlds. But when you look to Wash­ing­ton elec­tions, growth is an­em­ic. Only one ma­jor pres­id­en­tial can­did­ate, Rand Paul, ac­cepts bit­coin dona­tions, and just a hand­ful of con­gres­sion­al can­did­ates are do­ing the same. So what ex­actly is hold­ing back the bit­coin wave in cam­paign fin­ance?

Per­haps un­sur­pris­ingly for a di­git­al cur­rency that can trace a lot of its back­ing to the liber­tari­an com­munity, sup­port­ers say it is reg­u­la­tion.

They point to a Fed­er­al Elec­tion Com­mis­sion ad­vis­ory opin­ion is­sued last year as a ma­jor reas­on why bit­coin hasn’t caught on as a mean­ing­ful source of cam­paign fin­ance for the 2016 elec­tion.

In the opin­ion, the FEC un­an­im­ously ap­proved a su­per PAC’s pro­pos­al to ac­cept bit­coins as dona­tions. But the com­mis­sion also capped those con­tri­bu­tions at a value of $100 (based on the mar­ket value of a bit­coin at the time of dona­tion). It also re­quired the or­gan­iz­a­tion ac­cept­ing the bit­coin to be able to prove that the per­son donat­ing the di­git­al cur­rency can show that the coins they are giv­ing are leg­ally theirs.

Those look­ing to ex­pand bit­coin’s role in polit­ic­al giv­ing say this hes­it­ancy stems from fed­er­al reg­u­lat­ors’ doubts about the di­git­al cur­rency’s role in the mod­ern eco­nomy.

“[There’s] a per­cep­tion in the gov­ern­ment that bit­coin is used for crim­in­al pur­poses primar­ily,” said Stan Hig­gins, a re­port­er for the di­git­al-cur­rency-news site Coin­Desk. “Cer­tainly while there are few cases for us­ing bit­coin as a base cur­rency for on­line drug mar­ket­places, the real­ity is that the land­scape of sur­veil­lance is very, very dif­fer­ent from what it used to be two or three years ago. The at­tract­ive­ness of bit­coin as a cur­rency for money laun­der­ing or crim­in­al pur­chases is just not the same game it was a couple of years back. But still, that per­cep­tion is very much in play.”

It’s not just the stigma that’s hold­ing bit­coin back. At a time when a flood of un­dis­closed su­per PAC cam­paign cash is mak­ing trans­par­ency ad­voc­ates nervous, the use of bit­coin adds a new di­men­sion to the struggle to track who’s giv­ing what.

Bit­coins are de­signed so that the trans­ac­tions can be an­onym­ous. Bit­coin trans­ac­tions are re­cor­ded in the cur­rency’s “block­chain”—the pub­lic, “di­git­al ledger” that serves as the back­bone to the en­tire eco­sys­tem—not un­der a per­son’s identi­fy­ing in­form­a­tion like name or ad­dress but un­der a bit­coin ad­dress, which is a pseud­onym­ous string of let­ters and num­bers that is unique to each user. There’s no lim­it on how many ad­dresses a per­son can have.

The au­thor of the ori­gin­al white pa­per that pro­posed the cur­rency even en­cour­aged bit­coin hold­ers to use a new ad­dress for every trans­ac­tion to pro­tect them­selves from hav­ing trans­ac­tions traced back to them. Keep­ing with the theme, the founder of bit­coin is un­known, with that pa­per writ­ten un­der a pre­sumed pseud­onym, set­ting off wild chases to try and un­mask him or her.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/s/125324/why-its-so-hard-make-campaign-donation-with-bitcoin

Hackers Demand Major Bitcoin Ransom From Greek Banks

One Swiss company is reported to have paid the ransom (20 BTC in this case), only to find that the attacks continued.

The group issued its threat last Thursday, warning that it would overload the online systems of major Greek banks unless it was paid a ransom.

The police official clarified that the money was not given, but the hackers did not manage to have access to the bank accounts as the electronic safety systems were activated.

Crypto Coins News reported that the Bank of Greece along with a special unit comprising of experts from Greece's National Intelligence Service (EYP) and the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) are on guard and investigating the ransom demands and hacking threat of the Armada Collective. "But we had strengthened our defense in the meantime, so no disruptions took place". Several email providers informed about hacker attacks from the Armada Collective group.

"These attacks now disproportionately affect organizations that can not or have not deployed DDoS mitigation solutions, which are by and large effective against most of these attacks", said Ryan Kalember, senior vice president of Cybersecurity Strategy at Proofpoint to SCMagazine Tuesday in an email. "They claim to be able to do significant amounts of damage".

Mr. Vlissidis added that the relatively low ransom demand - the pattern so far suggests "just" a few thousand pounds are stipulated by the gang - is strategic: they hope to persuade enterprises to "just pay it and make it go away".

"In effect, they say: "Give us bitcoin or we will take you off the internet", he was quoted by the Financial Times as saying. There is a suggestion that someone can simply imitate the group by using "a similar modus operandi".

In June, the Greek government introduced capital controls to back up the country's financial system and avoid the possibility of a Greece leaving the euro.

http://recorderpress.com/2015/12/02/hackers-demand-major-bitcoin-ransom-from-greek-banks.html

Blockchain Startup Chain Kills Free Bitcoin API Service

lockchain technology startup Chain has announced it will be shutting down its free bitcoin API service at the end of this year.

Chain – which raised $30m with support from Visa in September – revealed the news in a email to users yesterday wherein Adam Ludwin, its co-founder and CEO, said it would no longer offer the product as of 31st December.

In his remarks, Ludwin noted that the move is part of Chain's pivot from an API services provider for bitcoin services to a digital asset issuance partner for enterprise financial incumbents such as First Data, Nasdaq and Visa.

Ludwin wrote:

    "As most of you know, over the last year, Chain's focus has shifted to enabling financial institutions to issue and manage digital assets on blockchain networks. As we move into 2016, we will be folding our bitcoin capabilities into this enterprise platform. We will no longer support free projects on the bitcoin network."

http://www.coindesk.com/blockchain-startup-chain-bitcoin-api/

Check Out This Crazy Trailer for a Vietnamese Bitcoin Action Movie

A flashy “action comedy” debuting next year in Vietnam uses bitcoin as a plot element amid a story of international intrigue and crime.

Bitcoins Heist focuses on “a team of criminals” assembled to catch a man wanted by intergovernmental police organization Interpol. As described in the English-language subtitles accompanying the teaser trailer released on 29th November, a “Special Agent Dada” is tasked with putting together a group that includes a hacker, a burglar and a forgery expert.

Bitcoins Heist is expected to be released sometime next year.

The film is directed by Ham Tran, whose previous work, according to IMBD, includes the award-winning independent film Journey from the Fall, released in 2006.

Among the cast members in the film is Suboi, a performance artist who The Guardian dubbed "Vietnam's queen of rap". A representative for Suboi was not immediately available for comment, but in an August interview with Vietnamese lifestyle e-zine AnyArena, Suboi said that the film will "be really fun".

Behind-the-scenes details posted to Instagram, particularly on the account of Saigon-based film editor Alice Tran, showcase the various exotic locations in which the movie was filmed.

Notably, social media posts suggest that Bitcoins Heist wasn’t completed on schedule, which appears to have originally been intended for a November 2015 release.

In one post that contains pictures of the wrap party, actor Petey Majik writes that "If you didn't party that night. You'd be finished already!!!"

"How about if you guys didn't get so far behind in production, I would've been done two weeks ago!" Tran responded, followed by an emoji string.

http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoins-heist-action-comedy-film-to-debut-next-year-in-vietnam/

GreenAddress: Increasing Bitcoin's Block-size Limit is not Scaling; it's Pivoting

Bitcoin wallet provider GreenAddress was always critical of raising Bitcoin's block-size limit. As one of the first in the space in May of this year, the European multisig-wallet and software company publicly opposed Bitcoin XT and Bitcoin Core developer Gavin Andresen's initial plans to increase the maximum block size.

Now, more than six months later, GreenAddress CEO Lawrence Nahum still holds firm, telling Bitcoin Magazine, “We are approaching this issue with an open yet conservative mind, and with the idea that first and foremost Bitcoin should be censorship resistant, and thus decentralized to achieve that. In the future it may be possible and healthy to increase the block size without compromising Bitcoin’s decentralization, but we're not convinced solutions such as BIP [Bitcoin Improvement Proposal] 101 fit the bill.”

The long-lasting block-size dispute, representing a trade-off between thenumber of transactions the Bitcoin network can handle and its decentralization, might be entering a decive month. A large segment of Bitcoin's academic and engineering community will discuss this and other issues at the upcoming Scaling Bitcoin workshop in Hong Kong on the 6th and 7th of December, while several prominent Bitcoin companies have stated they intend to change their code to allow for bigger blocks this month.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/greenaddress-increasing-bitcoin-s-block-size-limit-is-not-scaling-it-s-pivoting-1449088752

Bitcoin mining companies charged over scam

New York - Two bitcoin mining companies and their founder used the lure of quick riches from virtual currency to defraud investors in a $20 million Ponzi scheme, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday.

The commission charged GAW Miners, ZenMiner and founder Homero Garza with civil fraud, according to a complaint filed in the US District Court for the District of Connecticut

Garza is disappointed that the SEC has filed suit against him, said his lawyer, Marjorie Peerce in New York. Any further comments will be through the court process, Peerce said.

Efforts to locate the two companies were not successful.

Garza, 30, carried out the fraud by selling investment contracts, which he called “Hashlets”, that represented shares in profits the companies claimed would come from using their purported computing power to “mine” for virtual currency, the SEC said in the complaint.

Unlike traditional currency, bitcoins are not distributed by a central bank or backed by physical assets like gold, but are “mined” by users who use computers to calculate increasingly complex algorithmic formulas.

When a user solves a formula, the bitcoin system awards that user a set number of bitcoins. As time passes and more bitcoins are mined, the codes become more complicated and require more-powerful computers to solve them.

Garza, who now lives in Brattleboro, Vermont, and the companies, based in Bloomfield, Connecticut, did not have enough computing power to mine for the currency it needed to back up the contracts, or “Hashlets” it sold, the SEC said.

As a result, many investors paid for computing power that never existed. Moreover, Garza paid returns to some investors from proceeds generated from sales to others.

Garza and the companies sold $20 million in investment contracts to 10 000 investors between August and December 2014. Investors typically bought their Hashlets through a web-based shopping site.

“Most Hashlet investors never recovered the full amount of their investments, and few made a profit,” the SEC said.

The agency is seeking penalties and the return of profits the company made through the fraud, among other relief.


http://www.iol.co.za/business/international/bitcoin-mining-companies-charged-over-scam-1.1953786#.VmANYuLQjNs

The Rediscovery of Bitcoin's Blockchain: The World's Most Powerful Anchor

Blockchains are set to go mainstream. As opposed to bitcoin – the currency – the underlying blockchain technology is embraced by prominent companies, banks, and even governments. A brand new industry is emerging based on this technological advancement that allows multiple entities to agree on a single version of a database with no need for a trusted third party.

However, much of this blockchain industry does not actually use Bitcoin's blockchain. Rather, several startups are building various types of blockchains, or shared-ledger technology that uses some of Blockchain's efficiencies. There is a simple reason for this strategy: Bitcoin's architecture is limiting in scope.

However, some properties of Bitcoin's blockchain are unmatched; it is, by far, the most secure open and decentralized ledger out there. That's why a new wave of blockchain-startups, including companies such as Factom, Tierion and DocuSign, is now seeking to marry the best of both worlds.

They use Bitcoin as an anchoring technology, used to secure alternative chains and data layers.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/the-rediscovery-of-bitcoin-s-blockchain-the-world-s-most-powerful-anchor-1449084048

Ukraine’s KUNA Bitcoin Exchange Crowdsale Begins

The largest Ukrainian BitcoinCT r:  8 agency KUNACT r:  102 announces the launch of a crowdsale campaign for its cryptocurrency exchange. KUNA’s Bitcoin exchange was launched in March 2014 to allow customers easily and safely convert digital currency in local (UAH). The founder of KUNA agency Michael Chobanian announced the preparation of required financial documents for the crowdfunding on the December 2.

However, considering the centralized control over cryptocurrency exchange services in Ukraine, KUNA exchange found it difficult to continue its work without major innovations. Secondly, there is no legal model for the cryptocurrency exchange that would not require strict limitation of turnover. Thus, Bitcoin exchange market in Ukraine is one of the most expensive in the world – fees for exchange are 3-5%.

KUNA have found a legal solution that allows to create Ukrainian Bitcoin exchanges that has need to use centralized bank accounts and restrictions on turnover. This will lower the overall fees to 1% for exchanges between BTC\UAH. Moreover, exchange will create a center of liquidity and will become Ukraine’s basic infrastructure for FinTech projects development (like BTMs, remittance services, payment providers, banking etc) for local and foreign markets.

The crowdsale begins on December 13, 2015 and will last till December 24, 2015. During the investments seed round KUNA will offer 10% shares of the future Bitcoin exchange. The minimum required amount for this round is 100 BTC.
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http://cointelegraph.com/news/115783/ukraines-kuna-bitcoin-exchange-crowdsale-begins

The Czech Republic’s GoPay Adds Bitcoin


GoPay the Czech Republic version of PayPal has announced it will be integrating Bitcoin into its system. Servicing as a payment gateway for Slovakia and the Drupal Commerce sectors the company is a very popular provider in the region. The business motto claims it allows customers to shop, sell, and transfer wealth with a “few simple clicks.”

Also read: VTech Hack Illustrates Need For Decentralized Data Solutions

CRXZcslU8AA6BDS.png-largeThe leading third-party payment service focuses in on business payments, online payments and mobile solutions through its network. Since 2009, GoPay has enabled quite a bit of e-commerce so businesses can transact with its protocol for settlements. The service is licensed by the Czech National Bank and has provided SSL secured data transfers within its platform and plug-ins. GoPay also enables a new “Inline Gateway” feature that keeps customers on the initial site when transacting as opposed to being sent to other domains. This latest move made by the business is in cooperation with BitcoinPay. The team from BitcoinPay has also initiated their service with MoneyPolo and the Czech ATM maker GeneralBytes. The company announced its integration with Bitcoin over its Twitter page saying:

    “The leading Czech payment gateway provider Gopay is now accepting Bitcoin in cooperation with Bitcoinpay. More than 2000 merchants can accept Bitcoin now.” ~ GoPay Via Twitter

For merchants who want to use GoPays services they simply register their shop within the company’s portal. From there e-shops are given a GoID identifier, and client credentials enabling a person to deploy their own business. The provider claims the service is easy and anyone can operate its various gateway functionalities saying: “It does not make any difference whether you prefer shopping, earning money or just transferring money back and forth. You can enjoy all of that even more with GoPay.” Through GoPay’s application, the website explains it allows shoppers to conveniently purchase without remembering account numbers. If a seller wants to offer its services on the web, GoPay removes high commissions found elsewhere online and with its transfer system the company claims is effortless.

http://bitcoinist.net/czech-republics-gopay-adds-bitcoin/

Asia’s Largest Blockchain Conference to be Hosted in Seoul

Blockchain Agenda, a global blockchain conference that is now meeting in 10 major cities in the world, will be held at KINTEX in Ilsan for three days from Dec. 9.

A blockchain is a public ledger that is viewable by anyone in the world, and is distributed via the torrent protocol. A key example using this technology is virtual currency bitcoin. Since it can store any form of data and can be directly transacted by users, it is also used in stock trading in the U.S.-based NASDAQ.

The event will host speeches from 50 global leading guest speakers, two track 40 sessions and technology exhibitions, attended by both virtual money and fintech startups. Also, it will be largely divided into two sections; exhibition and international conference.

The first day of international conference will be the tutorial day to offer basic instructions like foreign currency remittance and investment, by making use of bitcoin and blockchain. On the second day, bitcoin billionaire Roger Ver will deliver the keynote address and about 30 speakers will appear in the two track of 17 sessions in total.

On the last day, fintech special sessions will take place which is officially sponsored by Global Fintech Advanced Research Institute. Starting with the keynote speech of Simon Dixon, a fintech expert who worked for years at the UK Crowdfunding Association and the UK Digital Currency Association, there will be debates on various fintech-related topics, including the IoT payment settlement, fintech security, non-face-to-face authentication system and online-to-offline (O2O) commerce platform establishment.

Those interested in joining the conference should register in advance on its official website www.insidebitcoins.co.kr.


http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/english/news/ict/13167-bitcoin-conference-asia%E2%80%99s-largest-blockchain-conference-be-hosted-seoul

Mycelium’s Dmitry Murashchik: All Assets and Identities on the Blockchain Within 10 Years

At the recent Bitcoin Investor Conference in Las Vegas, one of the panel discussions focused on what will happen with Bitcoin over the next ten years. Mycelium’s Dmitry “Rassah” Murashchik was one of the participants on this panel, and he offered an interesting perspective from a company that is focused on offering Bitcoin-related products and services that retain the digital cash system’s promise of decentralization. Although he was not willing to make any serious predictions on the bitcoin price, Murashchik did make one bold claim about how many people will be using the blockchain by 2025.

[Read More: Dmitry Murashchik on the Future of Mycelium and Bitcoin Wallets]
All Asset Ownership on the Blockchain

The idea of smart property has been around in the Bitcoin space for quite some time, and Dmitry Murashchik believes this idea of putting all of one’s assets — physical and digital — on the blockchain is one that will take over the world in ten years time. During the panel discussion, he noted:

“I expect that people’s identities, money, [and] any kind of asset ownership will all be registered in the blockchain within 10 years.”

Any asset can be securely stored and transferred via the blockchain, and one’s identity can also be viewed as an asset in certain respects. Companies already working on these particular use cases of the Bitcoin blockchain include Onename and Coinprism.

http://insidebitcoins.com/news/myceliums-dmitry-murashchik-all-assets-and-identities-on-the-blockchain-within-10-years/36056

Legal Limits with Remittances in India Affect Synergies with Bitcoin and Blockchain

BitcoinCT r:  8 and Blockchain technology are very young and novel for millions of people all over the world. Moreover, several countries are still arguing about the status of this FinTech innovation, and how they could use it in the local financial industry. The same situation applies to India where Bitcoin and Blockchain face a miryad of problems in the country.

Vishal Gupta is the Founder of Bitcoin Alliance India, CEO at SearchTrade, and Director at Moving Trumpet. CoinTelegraphCT r:  24 turned to Vishal Gupta to find out what are the main problems with Bitcoin and Blockchain development in India.

CT: How difficult is it to promote Bitcoin and Blockchain in India? Which problems do these technologies face in the country?

Vishal Gupta: Key challenges in promoting Blockchain is around educating people about how it works to start with. Bitcoin on the other hand is very easy to promote but existing capital controls and lack of investment in mining has hampered the growth of the bitcoin market. Of course, there is general fear amongst investors and users around the legality of the use of bitcoin.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/115776/legal-limits-with-remittances-in-india-affect-synergies-with-bitcoin-and-blockchain

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Class Action Lawsuit Against Bitcoin Exchange Cryptsy

Anonymous user of the controversial bitcoin exchange Crypsy known as Thrillhou has filed a lawsuit against the Cryptsy team, for allegedly manipulating cryptocurrency accounts, user funds and illicit use of personal information including the Social Security Number (SSN) of users.

“About this time, I was also receiving private messages about Cryptsy using account verifications as phishing material, and I had personally been told by Cryptsy that they thought my SSN was incorrect, revealing/strongly suggesting/indicating their attempt to use my SSN illegally,” Thrillhou stated on a forum.

However, over the past few months, the exchange has received an increasing number of complaints from users on bitcoin forums including bitcointalk and bitcoin reddit.

Cryptsy users including LeChatNoir, ThrillHou, and Kn_os experienced similar problems with their accounts – the Cryptsy tech support team asked their users to change the passwords of their accounts every time it was “inaccessible.”

The Cryptsy team told users that the accounts were locked due to security maintenance and checkups, while manipulating cryptocurrency accounts without notifying its users.

“As you can see earlier in this forum, BitJohn asked me to “be cooperative” and solve the problem out of public eye…. Since then, they have forced me to password reset no less than 3 times, and then randomly locked me out of the same password which they forced me to reset to. So, in other words, they repeatedly change the password behind my back in an endless cycle without notifying me, and then pretending it is a “server issue”,” Cryptsy user by the account ThrillHou wrote on the thread.

http://www.newsbtc.com/2015/12/02/class-action-lawsuit-against-bitcoin-exchange-cryptsy/

This entrepreneur wants to build the Goldman Sachs of Bitcoin

f you want to work in finance, then you’ve set your sights on institutions like Citibank or Deutsche Bank. Those are the kind of places where, once you’ve got a foot in the door, you’re not going to leave without a good reason.

That’s what makes the story of BitMEX co-founder and CEO Arthur Hayes interesting. After graduation from Wharton Business School in 2008, Hayes moved to Hong Kong to work in both Deutsche Bank and Citi. But he left the big banking world in mid-2013 to devote his time and energy into what he thinks will be the future of finance: Bitcoin. Specifically, Bitcoin financial products.

It’s one thing to swap out some USD for the digital currency and use it to buy items online, but it’s quite another to use Bitcoin to play the stock market or enter derivatives. Building a platform to facilitate that type of transaction – and getting people to trust it – is no light undertaking. But Arthur, along with Samuel Reed and Ben Delo, decided they were the right team for the job.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/meet-the-goldman-sachs-of-bitcoin-115120200459_1.html

Lightning Network Implementation ‘Amiko Pay’ Currently in Development

The Lightning Network is a design improvement for Bitcoin that could allow users to make micropayments in a decentralized manner and help the entire network scale more efficiently over time. While this proposal has received a large amount of attention in the Bitcoin community, there is another, similar option currently in development by C.J. Plooy.

Plooy recently gave a presentation on his alternative implementation, Amiko Pay, at Scaling Bitcoin Montreal. During his talk, Plooy noted:

“If you look at the basic design of the Lightning Network -- a network of payment channels. This is actually quite an old idea. There have been several variations of this, and the Lightning Network just happens to be the best so far.”

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/lightning-network-implementation-amiko-pay-currently-in-development-1449073678

looks fine for me
lets see some more screen or just demo for it

a) The Jogging Raccoon

What is AsMoney?

AsMoney is an online currency convertible into crypto currencies, it is an online wallet and easy payment gateway to send and receive various popular digital coins common in the internet. In a word, its a comprehensive solution for using the most popular digital coins. Currently, AsMoney supports Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Peercoin, and Darkcoin.


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