Bitcoin press hits, notable sources

[julz]

Researcher discovers distributed bitcoin cracking trojan malware

19 August 2011
http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/20211/researcher-discovers-distributed-bitcoin-cracking-trojan-malware/

A Symantec security researcher is reporting the discovery of a trojan that infects and adds users' computers to a processing swarm designed to brute force decrypt the bitcoin electronic currency system, generating as much as $150.00 per infected computer every month.

" brute force decrypt the bitcoin electronic currency system" ?
" decrypt the bitcoin algorithms in the background" ?

What a ridiculous way to describe it.
It's tempting to assume deliberate FUD - but I guess this is just incompetent journalism.

[1714009016]

1714009016

[1714009016]

1714009016

[1714009016]

1714009016

[1714009016]

1714009016

[1714009016]

1714009016

[Piper67]

Researcher discovers distributed bitcoin cracking trojan malware

19 August 2011
http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/20211/researcher-discovers-distributed-bitcoin-cracking-trojan-malware/

A Symantec security researcher is reporting the discovery of a trojan that infects and adds users' computers to a processing swarm designed to brute force decrypt the bitcoin electronic currency system, generating as much as $150.00 per infected computer every month.

" brute force decrypt the bitcoin electronic currency system" ?
" decrypt the bitcoin algorithms in the background" ?

What a ridiculous way to describe it.
It's tempting to assume deliberate FUD - but I guess this is just incompetent journalism.

Never attribute to malice what can be successfully explained by incompetence, ignorance or stupidity 

[TECSHARE]

A friend of mine told me that he saw a bump on Adult Swim on TV mentioning Bitcoin. I can not personally confirm, has anyone else heard of or seen this? I thought it was kind of cool because I sell their toys here for Bitcoins

[julz]

Adrianne Jeffries from the Tech newssite Betabeat (part of The New York Observer) has been writing Bitcoin articles for a while now..
(She appeared recently on the Bitcoin Show - Episode 34)
Betabeat even has a 'Bitcoin Wire' section with a bitcoin icon on the front page. (http://www.betabeat.com)

For some reason these articles haven't always turned up in searches and aren't posted here..

Some of the recent articles:
2011-08-19 Search for Owners of MyBitcoin Loses Steam
2011-08-15 You Can Now Buy Bitcoin With Cash at Any Chase or Wells Fargo
2011-08-09  Upcoming Bitcoin Conference and World Expo Upgrades Venue

Today also, within 'Rumors & Acquisitions: Now, Flex'

#BITCOIN-RUMORS. The mystery of the epic MyBitcoin whodunnit continues, although energy is flagging among the Bitcoin community. Word on the street is, MyBitcoin.com may have some connection to that most underground of ecommerce, the website where you can OMG buy drugs known as the Silk Road, which would give the owners another motive to build the easy-to-use wallet service in order to make it easy to get Bitcoin to spend on weed and mushies. Betabeat called our local Federal Bureau of Investigation today to file a complaint and find out if there was an investigation ongoing. “I’m sorry, I can’t help you on this,” a press representative said, declining to either confirm or deny whether the FBI was looking into the matter.

[neofutur]

interesting article on :

http://www.canadianlawyermag.com/3826/are-virtual-currencies-akin-to-trading-cards-or-the-way-of-the-future.html

[julz]

interesting article on :

http://www.canadianlawyermag.com/3826/are-virtual-currencies-akin-to-trading-cards-or-the-way-of-the-future.html

Yes.. already reported in this thread. Please do a search before posting.

The writer doesn't seem to understand the 21Million limit, or divisibility.. so the trading card analogy is pretty useless really.

[julz]

Just a blog item.. but makes an excellent point on people's assumptions about political aspects.

Bitcoin and ethics
August 20, 2011
http://presentcynosure.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/bitcoin-and-ethics/


" So what is the Bitcoin ethic? Bitcoin structures relationships between individuals and computers by putting them into a relatively distributed network. Bitcoin is the most successful attempt to date of a peer-to-peer currency.

The ethic of Bitcoin:
1) is universalist (potentially everyone with an Internet-enabled computer or handheld digital device could use Bitcoins);

2) diminishes the need for mediation (one individual can send another person on the other side of the globe Bitcoins without the mediation of a bank, another individual, or institution);

3) privileges transparency (the code is open-source and the process and rate of minting coins is known in advance); and immanent (the value of Bitcoin is restricted to the actions of those who participate directly in the market and does not depend on a central bank, government, or other external institution).

These are the basic features that structure relationships between Bitcoin users no matter what their political persuasion might be."

A repost... along with the "What is Bitcoin?" video.

http://owni.eu/2011/08/26/bitcoin-and-ethics/

[julz]

More on the recently reported Hakin9 Magazine special here:

http://theinterw3bs.com/?p=577

[julz]

This guy  is definitely enthusiastic:

BITCOIN Your Way to Wealth and Power
http://bobhurt.blogspot.com/2011/08/tor-silk-road-bitcoin.html

"Bob Hurt's Highest Recommendation

RUN, don't walk, to get invested in and use BITCOINS for your commerce, and encourage others to do so too.  Sure, bitcoins can fail to provide stable value, but for the immediate future they suffer from NO government intrusion, NO banking industry finagling, and NO issue authority mismanagement. 
"

He's also mentioned bitcoin in the lawmen news group:
http://groups.google.com/group/lawmen/browse_thread/thread/a6622e0f63e89a97

and of course received some skeptical feedback:

http://groups.google.com/group/lawmen/browse_thread/thread/1f8c3b571a3aea3d/128722167e3a4e2d
"Bitcoin cannot take over the complex interactions that the national currency alone can serve.   Like buying gold it is a dead end and a waste of time and creative effort that should go to a system that really fixes the problem of organized crime owning our money.  Bitcom looks at organized crime and says, "if you can't beat them, join them."  I say that is not the way to go -- at least for me. "

[S3052]

Without this being a real press coverage, the launch of bitcoindeals.com is in my p.o.v groundbreaking, and this was announced at the bitcoin conference.

People have asked for a long time, about when can we buy real stuff with bitcoins, and here it is. Just have a look.

[julz]

Bitcoin’s Deflationary Economy Not A Problem In Itself

http://falkvinge.net/2011/08/21/bitcoins-deflationary-economy-not-a-problem-in-itself/

"When discussing the distributed cryptocurrency Bitcoin, I frequently get the question from reporters and economists if a deflationary currency really can survive."

[Bigpiggy01]

Looks like the conference is starting to push stuff into the press 

http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=22882

This is oldish news in terms of bitcoin but NEW in terms of mainstream media 

[julz]

Somehow I thought the first conference news hit might come via betabeat!

Bitcoin Enthusiasts Gather in NYC to Meet IRL and Show Off Bitcoin Start-Ups
Adrianne Jeffries
2011-08-22
http://www.betabeat.com/2011/08/22/bitcoin-enthusiasts-gather-in-nyc-to-meet-irl-and-show-off-bitcoin-start-ups/

[julz]

The Future of BitCoin and Digital Currencies
Paco Ahlgren | Aug 22, 2011 |
http://www.pacoahlgren.com/the-future-of-bitcoin-and-digital-currencies/

"But for now, I see BitCoin as little more than a store-of-value — much like gold; yes, it’s valuable, but what can you do with it?"

[julz]

The New Reality of Virtual Currencies..
2011-08-22  Kris Hansen
http://www.corebankingblog.com/2011/08/the-new-reality-of-virtual-currencies/

"With Bitcoin: everyone knows what everyone else is doing — but nobody knows who anyone else is."

"What I am seeing happening is a theme of convergence:  Bitcoin is a combination of technology and currency where technology is filling some of the gaps and voids previously held by clearing houses and dedicated networks."

[julz]

A brief case study of the recently reported GPU mining malware

Bitcoin Mining Malware
MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2011
http://research.zscaler.com/2011/08/bitcoin-mining-malware.html

"Recently, Symantec released a report on "Trojan.Badminer" - discovered 11 days ago, affecting most Windows systems that has the ability of running one of two Bitcoin mining programs depending on the infected host's configuration: Phoenix Miner (uses the system's GPU on graphics card) or RPC Miner -- the mined Bitcoins are then sent back to a location for the attacker to retrieve the generated currency. When you think about it, this type of revenue generation is perfect for a botnet."


"It took me virtually no time at all to find a quick case study of such a malicious Bitcoin miner in our logs from yesterday."

[julz]

I often wonder how much bitcoin interest there is in Asia..
This japanese article talking about bitcoin and Radeon cards in China and Japan suggests there is indeed some growing interest.

Though it's hard to make sense of some of it via google translate....  I have no idea what the title means!

The reason for selling is stupid in China for 70,000 yen fine Grabowo

http://ascii.jp/elem/000/000/628/628976/

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fascii.jp%2Felem%2F000%2F000%2F628%2F628976%2F&act=url

"Selling in China terrifying Radeon HD 6990 video card with such powerhouse. Anything, distributors and parts manufacturers, such as GIGABYTE town ASUSTeK Computer, or that the customers often come together to buy a dozen to several dozen video cards with Radeon HD 6990.

If the cause is neither imposed by increased competition from Internet cafes and online game center, not a professional gamer training institutions has increased. It "Bitcoin" that is involved."



"Bitcoin and P2P-based e-money is circulating in the world, Japanese people have become key players."

[Grouver (BtcBalance)]

Posts

Your doing a great job on news reporting.
Just wanted to give you that.

[jorijnsmit]

Great thread, thanks!

[jgarzik]

MIT Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/38392/?p1=Mag_story1

Cryptocurrency

The bitcoin, a virtual medium of exchange, could be a real alternative to government-issued money—but only if it survives hoarding by speculators.