Bitcoin press hits, notable sources

[julz]

Bitcoin will revolutionize how Africans transact

2012-02-21
Rudiger Koch

http://mobilemoneyafrica.com/bitcoin-will-revolutionize-how-africans-transact-rudiger-koch/


Rudiger Koch, IT Consultant,Intersango Ltd, London.
He will be speaking on Bitcoin at the MobileMoney WestAfrica summit on March 5th & 6th in Lagos.

[HostFat]

http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/bitcoin-%E2%80%93-finally-fair-money

[molecular]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ClNCOSS4nGs#t=766s

Max Keiser talks to David Hales about ending top down Central Bank imposed financial and economic systems with peer to peer economics

Allright, David Hales, peer to peer currencies, p2p currencies, like ripple, what are they? Are they similar to bitcoin? How do they operate? How could they alter the financial ecosystem as we see around us?

Ok, well, many people are familiar with bitcoin, you mentioned it on your show previously. Bitcoin is a system which maintains a kind of centralized trust trhough a distributed algorithm in order to limit the amount of currency - bitcoins - that can be in circulation at any one time.
So, what's special and neat about bitcoin is the distributed algorithm, which is very difficult to hack, which means that it's very difficult to forge bitcoins. In fact you need to take over the majority of the bitcoin network to do this.
However, this is a particular function, so bitcoin's useful for a payment or transfer of value function, but other kinds of p2p systems are looking at different kinds of functions that are currently supplied by, say, banks for example...

EDIT: rough summary: due to the loss of trust in traditional banking system and central banks, there will be a new currency/banking competition flourishing.

[Vernon715]

Cleveland, Ohio Plain Dealer Paper, Feb 2012



found via facebook,
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=319829911387000&set=a.319829908053667.65607.134466763256650&type=1&ref=nf

Epic. Nuff said.

[ArticMine]

This can become huge. http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2012/02/bitcoin-quickly-becoming-western-union.html The virtual goods market can be worth $16 billion in 2012 http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2011/10/ogrrcom-launches-massive-bitcoin.html

[ripper234]

Google's Eric Schmidt just mentioned Bitcoin in his keynote! (via reddit)

7:36 pm Q: If it comes to real democracy, payment has to be peer-to-peer. Would you like to know about my technology called FairCash?
7:37 pm A (Schmidt): Are you familiar with BitCoin? There are some issues with peer-to-peer money. In most cases it's illegal, besides that it's a great idea. We had our own proposal called Google Bucks, but we didn't want to get into these issues. Most of these systems will have regulatory issues.

[MoonShadow]

Google's Eric Schmidt just mentioned Bitcoin in his keynote! (via reddit)

7:36 pm Q: If it comes to real democracy, payment has to be peer-to-peer. Would you like to know about my technology called FairCash?
7:37 pm A (Schmidt): Are you familiar with BitCoin? There are some issues with peer-to-peer money. In most cases it's illegal, besides that it's a great idea. We had our own proposal called Google Bucks, but we didn't want to get into these issues. Most of these systems will have regulatory issues.

Proof that Google had considered creating it's own digital currency, but backed away from it for fear of opening up another battle front with governments.

[cypherdoc]

Google's Eric Schmidt just mentioned Bitcoin in his keynote! (via reddit)

7:36 pm Q: If it comes to real democracy, payment has to be peer-to-peer. Would you like to know about my technology called FairCash?
7:37 pm A (Schmidt): Are you familiar with BitCoin? There are some issues with peer-to-peer money. In most cases it's illegal, besides that it's a great idea. We had our own proposal called Google Bucks, but we didn't want to get into these issues. Most of these systems will have regulatory issues.

Proof that Google had considered creating it's own digital currency, but backed away from it for fear of opening up another battle front with governments.

look at what else he says:

9:38 am Q: You're talking about the internet almost like a human right?
9:39 am A: If the current governance is working pretty well, then I wouldn't move it. There's a lot of concern that moving governance would further balkanize the internet, and that would be a disaster. The core thing that the internet has done is flatten access.
9:40 am A: The internet is one of the greatest achievements of mankind. DO NOT GIVE THAT UP EASILY. I cannot be more emphatic. Be very careful about moves that seem logical but balkanize the internet.

some will say the only way to shut down Bitcoin is to shut down the Internet.  Google won't let that happen.

[jjiimm_64]

I just read the article...wow..

Schmidt also revealed that Google wanted to create a rival to Internet peer to peer currency Bitcoin. The company planned to call it "Google Bucks." Though Schmidt said peer to peer currencies like Bitcoin are "a great idea," Google Bucks never got off the ground because these currencies are illegal in many countries.

[Isosceles]

FT : Sean Park, co-founder of investment firm Anthemis, predicts a future of "billions of currencies" - including Bitcoin.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2012/02/29/895801/space-opera-beyond-finance-edition/

[julz]

The March 2012 issue of The New Yorker has a piece with a single mention of bitcoin

Net Gain
How “The Good Wife” became the first great series about technology.

2012-03-05  (published 2012-03-01?)


http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2012/03/05/120305crte_television_nussbaum?currentPage=1

This season alone, Lockhart Gardner took a case involving the online currency bitcoin; used Twitter to upend British libel laws; handled a military case involving drone warfare; litigated crimes featuring violent video games and a “date rape” app; and dealt with various leaked-image disaster

[julz]

Another slashdotting for the wrong reasons...  and that title was clearly written before the much larger loss from Bitcoinica was reported.

Linode Exploit Caused Theft of Thousands of Bitcoins

2012-03-01

http://slashdot.org/story/12/03/02/0059202/linode-exploit-caused-theft-of-thousands-of-bitcoins

"Popular web hosting service Linode had a serious exploit earlier today. Apparently the super admin password for their server management panel was leaked and allowed a malicious attacker to target multiple Bitcoin-related servers. The biggest loss happened to a major Bitcoin mining pool that lost over 3000 BTC, which is currently worth almost 15 000 USD. Now the question is, will Linode compensate for lost bitcoins?"

[bearbones]

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/03/bitcoins-worth-228000-stolen-from-customers-of-hacked-webhost.ars

[Matthew N. Wright]

When the first issue of Bitcoin Magazine gets published, is this thread going to start filling up quickly with every article we have? 

[Technomage]

Another slashdotting for the wrong reasons...  and that title was clearly written before the much larger loss from Bitcoinica was reported.

Please explain your statement about the wrong reasons? I made the submission so I would be interested in knowing what the problem is.

The submission was made before Bitcoinica revealed what happened to them, that's true. I've asked them to add an update to the submission regarding Bitcoinica.

[julz]

Another slashdotting for the wrong reasons...  and that title was clearly written before the much larger loss from Bitcoinica was reported.

Please explain your statement about the wrong reasons? I made the submission so I would be interested in knowing what the problem is.

The submission was made before Bitcoinica revealed what happened to them, that's true. I've asked them to add an update to the submission regarding Bitcoinica.

Oh.. only that I don't recall any positive stories recently in slashdot regarding bitcoin.  I'm not saying it shouldn't be reported though!

[Technomage]

Oh.. only that I don't recall any positive stories recently in slashdot regarding bitcoin.  I'm not saying it shouldn't be reported though!

This is true and I don't like it either. I just don't think that there have been good news of similar magnitude recently. Once there is, I'm sure me or someone else will submit them also. We have seen lots of smaller positive news but I've been skeptical that submitting those would ever reach the front page of Slashdot, that's why I haven't submitted them.

I see a lot of potential stuff going on though, for example when the Bitcoin Magazine is finally published, that could work. Also when P2SH is finally enabled to Bitcoin protocol, that could work also. Hopefully there is a lot of other great things coming that I'm not yet aware of.

Regarding the Linode hack, the update I submitted has now been added to my earlier submission. It links to the Ars Technica article which covers the whole thing fairly well.

[ribuck]

I don't recall any positive stories recently in slashdot regarding bitcoin.

The good news is implicit. People can see, despite the stream of bad news stories on SlashDot, that Bitcoin keeps functioning.

[julz]

Linode hackers escape with $70K in daring bitcoin heist
Compromised servers ransacked for digital cash

John Leyden
2012-03-02

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/02/linode_bitcoin_heist/

[julz]

The hosting industry newssite  'WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW' covers the linode hack story

Hackers Break Into Web Host Linode, Steal $228K in Bitcoins from Customers

Nicole Henderson
2012-03-02

http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/hackers-break-into-web-host-linode-steal-228k-in-bitcoins-from-customers

According to a thread on WebHostingTalk, the issue with the Linode management console could potentially put all VPS web hosts at risk. One user suggested hosts using Linode check their systems for reboots and change root passwords as soon as possible to prevent a security breach.