Bitcoin press hits, notable sources

[rjk]

The National is an 'Abu Dhabi Media company' English-language publication

Murder now comes as an online option

Tony Glover
2012-03-25

http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/industry-insights/technology/murder-now-comes-as-an-online-option

...
Crucially, the would-be assassin also requests payment in an experimental new internet-based currency called Bitcoin, which uses the same sort of peer-to-peer software employed by digital video pirates to manage transactions and issue payments away from the watchful eye of any central fiscal authority.
...

BMR has been around for a little while, and they only just noticed?

[julz]

A single mention of bitcoins in a Reuters blog post by Felix Salmon: "a financial journalist, formerly of Portfolio Magazine and Euromoney, and a blogging editor for Reuters"

The problem of fake gold bars

Felix Salmon
2012-03-26

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/


Any store of value has problems, be it fiat currency or sovereign debt or bitcoins.

[julz]

Scratches on the Surface of SHA256
A closer look at the cryptography in use for digital currency Bitcoin shows new vulnerabilities in SHA256, says Absa information security researcher Frans Lategan.

Press Release Issued by: ITP Communications, Johannesburg
2012-03-26

http://www.itweb.co.za/office/securitysummit2012/PressRelease.php?StoryID=228225

I thought it notable that a security consultant who works for a bank should choose to mention Bitcoins out of all the usecases for SHA256...

Lategan says his findings nevertheless indicate that vulnerabilities can exist even in trusted algorithms in use to protect currency as valuable and widespread as Bitcoin.

...it makes more sense however when you see the brief bio for Frans Lategan here:

Frans Lategan is a security consultant with Absa Bank. His presentation, titled SHA256 vulnerabilities exposed by Bitcoin, will contextualise Bitcoin, discuss the technical workings of Bitcoin and SHA256, and look at divergences between expected and actual findings for SHA256.

(from http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50468)

Discussion thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74122.0

[phathash]

I thought it notable that a security consultant who works for a bank should choose to mention Bitcoins out of all the usecases for SHA256...

He is taking 15 days to reveal his findings. This is an eternity.

[julz]

Bitcoin: a mobile money alternative

Gareth van Zyl, Editor - ITWeb Africa
2012-03-26

http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52931:[url]bitcoin:-a-mobile-money-alternative[/url]



Virtual currency Bitcoin could be an alternative to mobile phone payment systems in Africa, such as M-Pesa, say experts.
...

Secure to use?
E-money specialist Jon Matonis does, however, say that Bitcoins are safe to use, despite exchanges such as Mt Gox having had its security compromised.
“The cryptography is sound, as it is based on cryptographic primitives that have been peer-reviewed and tested.

Almost comical timing for the quote from Jon Matonis given the previous 'scratches on the surface of SHA256'  
Still - if these scratches do weaken any aspects of bitcoin, they're probably also going to weaken a myriad of other systems that the military and traditional banks rely on. 

[julz]

Introduction To Bitcoins And The Tor Network

Jake Rocheleau
2012-03-26

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/introductions-to-bitcoins-tor-network/

[julz]

Stossel's Currency Conundrum
Former Federal Reserve Economist David Barker discusses whether Americans should be able to print their own currency.

2012-03-02

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1484348139001/stossels-currency-conundrum

I didn't see this reported in this thread earlier this month. (?)

Thanks to Seth King & dailyanarchist...

Former Fed Economist Plugs Bitcoin

Submitted by Seth King
2012-03-26

http://dailyanarchist.com/2012/03/26/former-fed-economist-plugs-bitcoin/

[julz]

Why the P2P Foundation is paying its salaries in Bitcoin

Michel Bauwens
2012-03-28

http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/why-the-p2p-foundation-is-paying-its-salaries-in-bitcoin/2012/03/28

...
It is to demonstrate our commitment to such developments, that we will now pay our collaborators in a mix of currencies, and part of it will be in Bitcoin.
...

discussion: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74404.0

[muyuu]

Pretty good read: http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/03/p2p-botnets-the-bigger-they-come-the-faster-they-fall.ars

[meanig]

Interview with former Harvard President and US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/39962/

Conceptually, money can exist without a central authority. The United States only got a central bank in 1913, and we were a country with a functioning economy before 1913. There are also private issuers of things that function very much like money—think about Crimson Cash here at Harvard, or American Express traveler's checks.

Bitcoin is one of many innovative technologies that are going to seek to take friction out and provide services to people. You can make a priori arguments about how it will work very well, and you can also raise concerns a priori. And I think if we know anything about new technologies, you just have to wait and see what happens in the marketplace. Everyone thought New Coke would be better than old Coca-Cola and take things by storm, and [former IBM CEO] Tom Watson thought there was only demand in the world for 10 or 12 computers. And so I think history teaches that you can't really forecast which kinds of innovations will ultimately become networked and get to scale.

I can feel a change in the way that media is treating Bitcoin. It's not so long ago that Paul Krugman said Bitcoin was a bad idea and now we have a big shot like Summers saying that Bitcoin is "innovative". It's only a matter before some Wall St hotshot starts to publicly pump Bitcoin!

[cypherdoc]

Interview with former Harvard President and US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/39962/

Conceptually, money can exist without a central authority. The United States only got a central bank in 1913, and we were a country with a functioning economy before 1913. There are also private issuers of things that function very much like money—think about Crimson Cash here at Harvard, or American Express traveler's checks.

Bitcoin is one of many innovative technologies that are going to seek to take friction out and provide services to people. You can make a priori arguments about how it will work very well, and you can also raise concerns a priori. And I think if we know anything about new technologies, you just have to wait and see what happens in the marketplace. Everyone thought New Coke would be better than old Coca-Cola and take things by storm, and [former IBM CEO] Tom Watson thought there was only demand in the world for 10 or 12 computers. And so I think history teaches that you can't really forecast which kinds of innovations will ultimately become networked and get to scale.

I can feel a change in the way that media is treating Bitcoin. It's not so long ago that Paul Krugman said Bitcoin was a bad idea and now we have a big shot like Summers saying that Bitcoin is "innovative". It's only a matter before some Wall St hotshot starts to publicly pump Bitcoin!

real good find.  someone at his level with his kind of influence is big.

Summers is also known for his interpretation of Gibson's Paradox.

[cbeast]

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion+++Analysis/Online+currency+faces+challenges+++/-/539548/1375432/-/1l2quhz/-/

In some places, large networks of illegal money changers are used for cross-border payments.
That situation is part of the reason for the early success in Africa of mobile-phone payment systems such as Kenya’s Mpesa, which allows users to send each other money using text messages.
Koch believes that mobile payments built around Bitcoin could be even more useful.
“It’s interesting to see how creative Africans can be about transferring money,” says Koch. “They really think seriously about a cashless society.”

Necessity is a mother.

[julz]

What Does “the Market” Mean to You?

Joel Bowman for The Daily Reckoning
2012-03-28

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-does-the-market-mean-to-you-2012-3


A recent column that appeared on Forbes.com went all the way to synthesizing two aspects of this market that your editor has addressed in these pages before: System D as a market itself and Bitcoin, the bare-knuckeled cyber-cryptocurrency tapped by adherants as the answer to the tyranny of central banking, as a viable currency to carry and facilitate transactions within it.
Both topics are relatively new; Bitcoin is barely 3 years old and, although System D has been around since people first began contracting and exchanging goods and ideas — or rather, since people claiming the right to do so began trying to regulate and tax them — Neuwirth’s book, published just last year, is the first real effort at quantifying it.

[Technomage]

This is not actual news but I just want to say that I attempted a positive Bitcoin submission at Slashdot. It did not reach front page however and I'm disappointed. I'll link my submission anyway, if you guys want to look at it.

http://slashdot.org/submission/1999883/the-former-us-treasury-secretary-calls-bitcoin-an-innovation

[k]

What price for a truly flexible online currency?
DANNY O'BRIEN in the Irish Times.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0329/1224314044691.html

Just a brief reference to bitcoin -

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, an underground economy swiftly emerged around BitCoins, which might be best described as the minimal viable model for an unregulated electronic currency.

[CMyers]

http://www.rdmag.com/News/Feeds/2012/03/general-sciences-bitcoin-currency-system-offers-negative-incentive/

Interesting...  this information was presented at an e-commerce convention in Valencia, Spain in July.  Now someone in Spain has a large amount of hashing power that is solving blocks with no transactions.  I don't understand the system quite well enough to know if it's the same concept being applied.  The Microsoft researchers proposed a solution where the block solver only gets half the reward, and the other half is divided among the nodes who passed along the transactions (is that how it works?).

[LightRider]

Visa and MasterCard warn of "Massive" Breach at Card Processor

http://majorgeeks.com/story.php?id=34000

No mention of bitcoin, but it's nice to see the competition have their fair share of problems.

[proudhon]

Visa and MasterCard warn of "Massive" Breach at Card Processor

http://majorgeeks.com/story.php?id=34000

No mention of bitcoin, but it's nice to see the competition have their fair share of problems.

Maybe the dollar will fall 90% after this.

[BrightAnarchist]

Visa and MasterCard warn of "Massive" Breach at Card Processor

http://majorgeeks.com/story.php?id=34000

No mention of bitcoin, but it's nice to see the competition have their fair share of problems.

Maybe the dollar will fall 90% after this.

lol

[julz]

Bitcoin, the City traders' anarchic new toy

(Reuters) - Financial traders have a new toy: Bitcoin, a digital currency variously dismissed as a Ponzi scheme or lauded as the greatest invention since the Internet.

Naomi O'Leary
London, 2012-04-02

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/01/traders-bitcoin-idUSL6E8ET5K620120401

Bitcoin: Digital Currency Attracts Financial Traders

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/02/bitcoin-digital-currency-traders_n_1395359.html

discussion thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=75015.0