He left a cushy finance job to build the Goldman Sachs of Bitcoin

If you want to work in finance, then you’ve probably got your sights set 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 (cue “One does not simply walk from a job at Citibank” meme).

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 get into derivatives. Building a platform to facilitate that type of transaction – and getting people to trust it – is no light undertaking. But Arthur, along with his co-founders Samuel Reed and Ben Delo, decided they were the right team for the job.
From an idea to $5 million per day

BitMEX – or “Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange” – was first devised by the three co-founders over some beers in early 2014. Within six months, Samuel – the company’s CTO, with a background in creating complex real-time web interfaces – had a beta off the ground. By the beginning of this year, the site was live.

BitMEX is a real-time Bitcoin-based trading platform. As of publication, the service is still limited to currency futures trading, but programs for stock derivatives and other financial products are in the works. For now, BitMEX’s main use is as a Bitcoin-based platform to speculate on the future values of digital currencies.

Even in its early iteration, though, BitMEX has not gone unnoticed. Since launching in early 2015, it has garnered 3,400 registered users. That’s not a huge number, but that small pool of users has traded upwards of US$250 million worth of financial products since the site launched. BitMEX is now trading an average of US$5 million each day, and Arthur says they’re aiming for US$50 million per day by this time next year.

BitMEX charges a commision on each trade – the rate varies – and has already become profitable.

The program has a particular appeal to Chinese users, who are both Bitcoin-savvy and eager for access to international markets.

“A Chinese investor cannot invest in Chinese firms like Tencent or Alibaba that are listed on foreign stock markets,” Arthur says. Currently, most Chinese citizens are cut off from global financial markets. Currency speculation, derivatives trading, and buying non-Chinese stocks are off limits to all but the wealthiest and best-connected Chinese investors.

“China has the most users and traders of Bitcoin globally,” says Arthur. Despite Chinese regulators’ occasional unease with the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has seen a boom in the Mainland. “Chinese Bitcoiners are hungry for more trading products using Bitcoin, and BitMEX aims to serve them.”

https://www.techinasia.com/goldman-sachs-bitcoin-bitmex/

Bitcoin Markets Data Source Challenger Deep Rebrands as Kaiko

hallenger Deep, a provider of bitcoin industry data visualization, has rebranded its service as ‘Kaiko’.

The new name is to emphasize the Kaiko’s effort to dive deep into the data of the bitcoin ecosystem. ‘Kaiko’ was the name of the robot submersible that in 1995 explored Challenger Deep, the deepest ocean point on Earth.

Kaiko claims to serve all industry participants, from investors and traders all the way to consumers and even beginners.

The French company has a bitcoin price index (the Kaiko Index), market feeds from major exchanges, and blockchain explorer. There is also live block size and mining data, as well as various charts to show bitcoin’s finer details like average transaction fees and volumes. Live data feeds will apparently be made available for any party to use via open API access.

http://allcoinsnews.com/2015/12/02/bitcoin-markets-data-source-challenger-deep-rebrands-as-kaiko/

Did ISIS really use bitcoin to fund the Paris attacks?

Shortly after the Paris attacks of November 13th, a number of news outlets began to circulate a story that had been brewing since 2014: ISIS had been using the bitcoin cryptocurrency to surreptitiously fund its terrorist activities around the globe.

The idea first began to propagate in the popular media upon the discovery of an ISIS-linked blog in July of 2014. Entitled "Bitcoin and the charity of violent physical struggle," the blog described the theoretical use of Bitcoin donations to fund jihadist activities in an "untrackable" fashion.

On the strength of that article, the author, a Virginia resident named Ali Shukri Amin, then proceeded to use his Twitter account to encourage his 4,000 followers to donate to Syria-based extremists via Bitcoin. His support of ISIS wasn't just a matter of public record; it was generating a Klout score. Amin, who is all of 17 years of age, has since been arrested and is now facing 11 years behind bars for his efforts.

"[Those] who use social media as a tool to [support] ISIL (ISIS) will be identified and prosecuted with no less vigilance than those who travel to take up arms with ISIL," said the US Department of Justice regarding the case. Now repentant, the erstwhile cryptocurrency enthusiast faces a lifetime of supervised Internet use after his time has been served.

What isn't clear is whether any Bitcoin was ever actually collected by the blogger and subsequently turned over to ISIS. It seems useful to consider this, since the blog entry puts forth a financial strategy that could be quite damaging if put in to widescale practice. But based on the DOJ's summary ruling, this line of questioning is probably beside the point.

http://www.rappler.com/technology/features/114676-bitcoin-terrorism-feature

Chris Odom: Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work Will Win Over All Other Consensus Systems and Altcoins

During a recent panel discussion on the future of Bitcoin at the Bitcoin Investor Conference in Las Vegas, Stash Founder and Open Transactions Creator Chris Odom shared his view on where Bitcoin, as a technology, could end up over the next ten years. While most people were expecting an answer related to bitcoin’s future value or the proliferation of bitcoin wallets, Odom decided to focus on Bitcoin’s use of proof-of-work. In his eyes, this is an innovation that will not be defeated by any other method for gaining consensus in a decentralized system.

[Read More: Chris Odom Explains Why Monetas is Not Based in the United States]
Proof-of-Work as a Physical Hard Limit

During his remarks on proof-of-work, Chris Odom indicated that this function for deterring denial of service and other spam attacks may be a hard limit for consensus systems. The Stash founder discussed how other methods for coming to consensus in a decentralized manner always seem to come with problems:

“It seems to me that proof-of-work is actually a hard limit — like a physical hard limit, like the speed of light or the uncertainty principle or something like that because when you look at other consensus systems, they [only] look great in theory. I’ve actually built one myself before, just on my own time. They look great in theory, and they basically work properly, but then there’s always these niggling little attacks. And whenever you work through the effort of solving those attacks, you always arrive back at proof-of-work.”

Proof-of-stake is often viewed as a possible alternative to proof-of-work, but the vast majority of Bitcoin developers do not think such a system could ever work as well as what Bitcoin uses right now. Multiple papers have been written on the problems associated with proof-of-stake, although Ethereum plans to eventually implement their own proposal for a workable proof-of-stake system.

http://insidebitcoins.com/news/chris-odom-bitcoins-proof-of-work-will-win-over-all-other-consensus-systems-and-altcoins/36062

Bitcoin Heist: The Full Length Crypto-Themed Film

A new full-length cryptocurrency feature film is coming to Vietnam in 2016 called “Bitcoin Heist.” The movie starring Suboi, Kate Nhung, Thanh Pham, and Petey Majik Nguyen is a tech-based thriller with an ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ twist. Written by Ham Tran the director of the award-winning “Journey from the Fall” the film creates a planned heist with a futuristic digital touch. 

The teaser released on December 1st revealed an action packed movie filled with fighting and QR codes. ‘Bitcoin Heist’ shows a team of crooks together on a mission to catch a kingpin through the streets, clubs and financial centers of Saigon. The clips show multiple Bitcoin transactions throughout with fancy gadgets and ambient fluorescent lights. Special agent Dada has to form a group of quirky criminals to help find Interpol’s most wanted individual and each person has a particular talent. There’s a trickster, hacker, forger, cat burglar and an inside man all on a mission to find the criminal mastermind.

One of the lead characters Suboi, the critically acclaimed rap star from Saigon plays the hacker and tells Anyarena that she was excited about her role. The hip-hop queen who Anyarena says “switches flows between English and Vietnamese” also can play the part of a qualified programmer. The musician/actress says: “It’ll be really fun, but I can’t give away any more than that.” The action comedy shows the entire group combatting twists and turns the whole way. ‘Bitcoin Heist’ seems to have some decent amount of special effects and quite a bit of technological influence throughout. Lots of stunts and virtual reality with some humor on the side sends this heist-movie into a rollercoaster of energy.

http://bitcoinist.net/bitcoin-heist-full-length-crypto-themed-film/

Bitcoin cloud miners a '$20m Ponzi scheme – there was no cloud at all'

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against two bitcoin mining businesses it says operated as illegal Ponzi schemes.

According to a complaint [PDF] the watchdog filed with the US District Court in Delaware, GAW Miners and Zenminer, both controlled by Josh Garza, stand accused of taking money intended for mining operations and using it to pay other investors.

The SEC alleges that the two companies, who billed themselves as cloud computing operations devoted to mining bitcoins, never actually had the hardware necessary to perform the computing tasks associated with cryptocurrency mining.

Both GAW Miners and ZenMiner charged customers for the rights to use dedicated bitcoin mining "hashlet" hardware hosted remotely. Users were led to believe that they were purchasing access to the cloud-based mining machines, with the promise that their money would be returned when the cryptocoins were mined.

Instead, the SEC charges, Garza and his two companies used the estimated $19m that the 10,000 customers paid for the hashlet rights to line their own pockets or pay out returns to early investors rather than actually mine bitcoin.

Ultimately, the SEC alleges, Garza's companies never owned the hardware needed to deliver the promised payouts, and instead reverted to a Ponzi scheme operation where income from new investors was used to pay out other backers.

"In reality, GAW Miners and ZenMiner did not own enough computing power for the mining it promised to conduct, so most investors paid for a share of computing power that never existed," the financial regulator said.

The commission is asking for a jury trial for Garza and the two companies for violations of the SEC Act. They seek civil penalties and a permanent injunction on the business, as well as disgorgement of the $19m in revenues plus interest.

Garza and his various operations have long been a controversial topic amongst those who follow the bitcoin markets. Multiple community sites have expressed skepticism over the legitimacy of Garza's operations. In August, the SEC issued a subpoena to Garza's brother as part of the GAW Ponzi investigation. ®
Tips and corrections


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/01/bitcoin_cloud_miner_ponzi_scheme/

Over 10,000 people were duped by Bitcoin mining startup, feds say

On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued the founder of a now-shuttered Bitcoin mining company, alleging that it committed $19 million worth of fraud in a Ponzi scheme.

According to the SEC’s civil complaint, Homero Joshua Garza and his companies, GAW Miners and ZenMiner, sold more than 10,000 "investment contracts representing shares in the profits they claimed would be generated from using their purported computing power to ‘mine’ for virtual currency."

Between August and December 2014, the companies sold $19 million worth of these contracts, dubbed "Hashlets."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/12/feds-sue-yet-another-cryptocurrency-startup-alleging-19m-ponzi-scheme/

SEC Targets Connecticut Bitcoin Companies

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged two Connecticut-based Bitcoin mining companies and their founder with running a Ponzi scheme that defrauds investors.

Homero Joshua Garza allegedly committed the fraud through two companies, one called GAW Miners and the other ZenMiner, by purporting to offer shares of a digital Bitcoin mining operation, according to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Connecticut.

The complaint describes “mining” for Bitcoin or other virtual currencies as applying computer power “to try to solve complex equations that verify a group of transactions in that virtual currency.” The first computer or collection of computers to solve an equation is awarded new units of that virtual currency.

Garza allegedly lied to investors about his companies’ ability to mine for Bitcoin. In a statement, the SEC said GAW Miners and ZenMiner in fact didn’t own enough computing power for the mining they promised to conduct, “so most investors paid for a share of computing power that never existed.”

In classic Ponzi scheme form, returns paid to some investors came from proceeds generated from sales to other investors, according to the SEC.

 “As alleged in our complaint, Garza and his companies cloaked their scheme in technological sophistication and jargon, but the fraud was simple at its core: they sold what they did not own, misrepresented what they were selling, and robbed one investor to pay another,” said Paul G. Levenson, director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office.

The SEC’s complaint charges that from August 2014 to December 2014, Garza and his companies sold $20 million worth of purported shares in a digital mining contract they called a Hashlet.

Investors were misled to believe they would share in returns earned by the Bitcoin mining activities when in reality Garza’s companies “directed little or no computing power toward any mining activity,” according to the SEC.

Garza and his companies allegedly sold far more computing power than they actually owned and paid out daily returns collected from other investors rather than from currency derived from “mining” for currencies. Most Hashlet investors never recovered the full amount of their investments, and few made a profit, the SEC said

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/12/01/sec-targets-connecticut-bitcoin-cos/

where is the link for website

SEC charges bitcoin mining companies in $20 million scam

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 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday.

The commission charged GAW Miners LLC, ZenMiner LLC and founder Homero Garza with civil fraud, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. 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.reuters.com/article/2015/12/01/bitcoin-sec-idUSL1N13Q24R20151201

Scaling Bitcoin Gears up for Hong Kong

The Scaling Bitcoin workshops are gearing up for their second phase. After the initial conference in Montreal in September, Bitcoin's engineering and academic community will gather in Hong Kong later this week to discuss how best to scale up the network to allow for more than a handful of transactions per second.

To get a feel for what to expect from the workshop, Bitcoin Magazine spoke with Pindar Wong, co-founder of Hong Kong's first licensed ISP and the Scaling Bitcoin Hong Kong planning committee chair, and MIT Digital Currency Initiative's Neha Narula, Scaling Bitcoin Hong Kong program chair .

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/scaling-bitcoin-gears-up-for-hong-kong-1448997197

SEC alleges bitcoin investment was Ponzi scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged two bitcoin mining companies and their founder on Tuesday with defrauding investors.

The SEC’s complaint accuses Homero Joshua Garza and his firms of running a Ponzi scheme that used “mining” for bitcoin or other virtual currencies as a front to steal investor funds. “Mining” means applying computer power to try to solve complex equations. The first computer or collection of computers to solve an equation earns the bitcoin currency.

From August to December 2014, the SEC alleges in its complaint Garza sold $20 million worth of shares in a digital mining contract he called a Hashlet through his digital bitcoin mining companies GAW Miners and ZenMiner. But those companies did not own enough computing power to solve the problems. Garza and his companies sold far more computing power than they owned, so some investors received proceeds generated from sales to other investors.

“Garza and his companies cloaked their scheme in technological sophistication and jargon, but the fraud was simple at its core: they sold what they did not own, misrepresented what they were selling, and robbed one investor to pay another,” said Paul G. Levenson, director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office, in a press release.

The SEC is looking for the court to stop the operations as well as force the companies to forfeit any allegedly illegal gains plus interest and penalties.

Garza’s attorney, Marjorie Peerce of Ballard Spahr, told MarketWatch, “Josh Garza is disappointed that the SEC has filed suit against him. Any further comment will be through the court process.”

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sec-alleges-bitcoin-investment-was-ponzi-scheme-2015-12-01

Top 8 Bitcoin Apps for iPhone

Are you ready to put your new iPhone 6S to good use? If you love Bitcoin, it is time to fill the iPhone with the best Bitcoin apps on the market. Use your Bitcoins anywhere you go, with the best wallets, games, and convenient services that the world’s most advanced currency provides. Apple struggled with the new Bitcoin currency app concept, but got on board last year and are finally offering great apps for the Bitcoin community.

Read the full story below.

Here are the Top 8 Bitcoin Apps that work on your iPhone, and are free, with convenient links to them.

http://dcebrief.com/top-8-bitcoin-apps-for-iphone/

Bitcoin Trading: Frustrated Sell-Off

Bitcoin trading saw the bulls make a second unsuccessful attempt on the $380 and 2480 CNY level today. Frustrated, the market sold off to support at $355 and 2300 CNY.

This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3-hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member? Join now and receive a $29 discount using the code CCN29.

From the analysis pages of xbt.social, earlier today:

Price was sold off and found support at the level of the previous consolidation that acted as spring-board for the attack on $400 (Bitstamp) and 2480 CNY.

The chart setup and outcome reminds of early 2015 when price rallied (parabolically) above $300 in January but then failed to get above $300 in March - despite a relentless effort by the bulls. Subsequently, price retreated - failed on a second attempt - and fell away strongly - similar to today's sell-off.

The wave down is a typical bitcoin wave C sell-off in a textbook Elliott impulse wave. Note the 5 subwaves with wave 3 making up the bulk of the move. The strong decline must have had many traders jumping into the wave, but the risks are many: Where would it stop? Is a halt just a correction or is it a reversal? How deep will it correct?

The benefit of hindsight shows us a large wave down that was signaled in the 5min chart, yes, but there are few signaled trades in the 5min chart that cover more than $5 price? If you review the chart, you'll agree that it's fewer than what the effort justifies.

Price has, for now, avoided avoided covering the distance to the red 1-hour 200MA at the red arrow. Yet, the market is attempting to trade price above the Fib line (origin: Jan 2015). Holding above it should support price for the moment, but the larger move down seems incomplete. A return to the support floor (should it transpire) will be signaled in the 4hr chart. For now, best to sit out.
Summary

If you seized the opportunity and profited from today's decline - congratulations. If you feel that you missed an opportunity - don't hold on to regret - there is always another opportunity in the market. Guaranteed.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-trading-frustrated-sell-off/

there is lot of company support it
depended on post type and post count per limited time

this thread may help you
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=615953.0

Not in Your Grandma’s Wallet: Bitcoin Redefining Money

Will Bitcoin replace paper money? During an interview on the FOX Business Network’s Mornings With Maria ,Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert, who’s considered the most active investor in Bitcoin companies, said: “[Bitcoin] it’s going to change the way that people send money, spend money -- even think about money. It’s kind of redefining what is money.”

As an investor of companies in over 20 countries, he sees the most Bitcoin action in places where people use mobile devices for transactions.

“We are seeing dramatic adoption in places like Kenya, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa -- places where people have mobile devices, but they don’t have bank accounts,” he said.

He also discussed how regulation is impacting the digital currency.

“[Regulators] are certainly paying attention… I used to think that regulation was Bitcoin’s biggest threat -- I actually think it’s the biggest opportunity now… Running a bank, operating a bank -- you cannot be innovative. You can’t think outside the box. You can’t do anything creative. Whereas you have hundreds of thousands of startups around the world that are looking to, again, kind of disintermediate… It is really going to eat banks alive.”

With only $5B in market cap, Silbert believes Bitcoin’s technology is very valuable.

“I’ll be the first to admit that Bitcoin as a digital currency is either going to be worth zero or it’s going to be worth a whole lot more money than it is today… it’s a very, very, risky investment. But this ecosystem is amazing that’s being built. There’s been a billion dollars in investment by venture capital in this industry so far.”

He also discussed how the financial services industry will change in the next 5 to 10 years.

“The definition of a bank is going to change. Banks are being disintermediated -- they are being attacked from every different angle… from startups, all the way up to different types of approaches, to finance like Bitcoin.”

http://www.foxbusiness.com/investing/2015/12/01/not-your-grandmas-wallet-bitcoin-redefining-money-dcg-ceo/

nice and new idea for faucet

when the counter will stop ? so I can transfer it to my balance ?

i don't know any such app can do something like this
but there is problem, that faucet site, should have to show them ads to support them (I know there is some trick to avoid this , but don't know if migrate it with application)

there is some bots in other sites can do some of your ida but afraid from them may contain virus

if you can do demo will be nice for test

Bitcoin vs. Blockchain: Inside Bitcoin Speakers Weigh In

Bitcoin startups (and the inevitable venture capital funding), have seen a trend away from Bitcoin and a new focus on the underlying technology, the blockchain. Are these indicators that spell the end of Bitcoin, or just a short-lived fad?


The blockchain right now is used for storing transaction information from the blocks miners mine, creating a chain of blocks (hence the name). Transactions are secured based on how many “confirmations” they have, or how many blocks in the past it was broadcast to the network. Once six confirmations for a specific transaction has been reached, it is considered to be digitally set in stone.

The blockchain has always had the ability to append additional information into blocks, such as what BTC (blockchain technology corporation) is doing with their blockchain-based voting machine, as well as allowing users to build layers on top of the blockchain, in the form of colored coins and other digital assets.

The blockchain movement is not limited to Bitcoin startups either, with companies like NASDAQ, VISA, and American Express venturing into blockchain. R3, a coalition of over 20 of the biggest international banks, is a huge testament of how seriously the financial industry is taking blockchain technology. Unfortunately for Bitcoin, most of these institutions are interested only in the blockchain, so steps toward making their own “permissioned ledger” are occurring in an attempt to remove Bitcoin entirely out of the equation.

With less talk about Bitcoin as a currency, and more about the blockchain, some wonder if this is the beginning of the end of Bitcoin as a monetary vehicle.

http://bitcoinist.net/bitcoin-vs-blockchain-inside-bitcoin-speakers-weigh/

KeepKey and Trezor: Bitcoin Vaults in Your Pocket

SatoshiLabs presented Trezor in the summer of 2014. It was the first hardware wallet or so-called cold storage ever which provided the unprecedented possibility to store all private keys offline. That was quite an innovation in the crypto security space. KeepKey released its wallet in September this year. Some say it is just an expensive copy of Trezor. But is that so indeed? CoinTelegraphCT r:  15 conducted a small research of the main features of both wallets to help our readers make the right choice between them.
Trezor: the First and the Safest

Back in 2014 it became a revolutionary solution, which allowed you to store all the important data off the Internet, making it impossible – or nearly impossible – to steal it. By the way, the developers state “not a single Trezor has been hacked since its launch”.

Indeed, the wallet isn’t vulnerable to stealing malware as it has no Internet connection. It means your data never leaves the wallet while conducting transactions. It’s compatible with multiple wallets and coins so your choice of currency isn’t limited just to BitcoinCT r:  8. It is also compatible with Windows, OS X, Linux, Chrome OS and Android, so you’ll probably have no problems using it with any device you own. Furthermore, it was designed for an average PC user so you don’t need to be a computer genius to use Trezor.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/115772/keepkey-and-trezor-bitcoin-vaults-in-your-pocket