BITCOIN NEWS EVRYDAY! From multiple sources.

[MICRO]

#121 . @Kraken trader. Can u pls unquote whole article, just put #number in front of your comment so we know what article you talking about. Tnx.

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[MICRO]

Bitcoin is Legal, Says Central Bank of Cyprus
Dan Palmer | Published on February 26, 2014 at 15:05 GMT | Bitcoin ATM, Europe, Exchanges, Law, News, Regulation

“Bitcoin is not illegal” say anonymous sources from the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC), according to a report by the Cyprus Mail.

The fact remains that bitcoin is in a grey area for banks – neither a currency nor a financial instrument – and the sources warned that the digital currency isn’t “subject to control or regulation”.

The Cypriot bank has recently indicated disapproval of cryptocurrencies, stating on 7th February that they were not classified as legal tender:

“The CBC does not authorise any activity falling within its mandate unless legal compliance is ensured. Any activity without the required license is liable for breach of law.”

The latest statement should, therefore, come as good news to bitcoiners fearing a government crackdown to limit rampant tax evasion as people desert a banking system they see working against their interests.

In actual fact, as a member of the Eurozone, Cyprus’s banking affairs are overseen by the European Central Bank and any future legislation of digital currencies is likely to be passed down from there.

Cash crisis

During 2012 and 2013, Cyprus experienced crippling financial problems in the fallout from the Greek debt crisis. In the months that followed, it implemented a host of austerity measures, including an infamous one-time levy on all uninsured bank deposits.

Cypriots were enraged by the move, seeing it as a robbery of the people. Interest in alternative currencies rose dramatically, causing a spike in the global price of bitcoin.

The country has a history as a financial centre and, with traditional banking deemed as a failure by much of the population, some expect Cyprus will forge a new future as a centre of bitcoin use and commerce.

Since the crisis, the University of Nicosia has started accepting bitcoin for everything from tuition fees to books and meals, and is even offering a Masters degree in Digital Currencies.

More recently, the world’s first brick-and-mortar bitcoin deposit and financial services portal, Neo, opened its flagship branch in Nicosia, with the aim of being a ‘bank’ for bitcoin.

[MICRO]

Exclusive: State of Bitcoin 2014 Report Analyses Emerging Trends
CoinDesk (@coindesk) | Published on February 26, 2014 at 16:09 GMT | Analysis, Investors, News, Prices

Today, CoinDesk is pleased to release its first ever ‘State of Bitcoin’ report.

This report is not intended to be another guide answering the question ‘what is bitcoin?’, which we cover in detail elsewhere on our site. Instead, the main aim is to provide an overview of key cryptocurrency trends, challenges, and opportunities, while also highlighting the most important developments over the last year.

Earlier this week we published two articles on trends in bitcoin venture capital investment which drew analysis from the report, and additional articles will follow in the weeks to come. CoinDesk will also be presenting highlights from the report at the upcoming CoinSummit conference in San Francisco on 25th – 26th March.

As anyone who follows Bitcoin closely knows, this is an extremely fast-moving space – making the production of a comprehensive while still up-to-date report extremely difficult.

Case in point: the recent developments at Mt. Gox and resultant impact on bitcoin exchanges is still very much a fluid situation. Throughout the report, every effort has been made to provide the most current data available.

Thank you to our readers for making CoinDesk the world’s leading source of Bitcoin news, analysis and perspective. Our intention is to publish the ‘State of Bitcoin’ report on an annual or even more frequent basis, and we very much welcome your feedback and ideas on how we can make it better.

Sincerely,

The CoinDesk Team

Download the full report in PDF form:
Link: http://media.coindesk.com/report/CoinDesk-State-of-Bitcoin-2014.pdf

[MICRO]

Bitcoin Foundation Board Reveals Hopes for Charlie Shrem’s Replacement
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on February 26, 2014 at 17:07 GMT | Bitcoin Foundation, News

Mystery candidates
Following the sudden resignation of founding member and vice chairman Charlie Shrem, the Bitcoin Foundation has initiated moves to fill its first open Board of Directors seat.

The process got under way on 18th February, when it announced a formal schedule for the voting process.

Under the proposed timeline, a new board member will be elected in roughly two months’ time.

Early departures

Shrem’s seat has been vacant since 28th January, when he resigned amid accusations that he helped facilitate money laundering through the notorious and now-defunct online black market Silk Road.

Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles also resigned from the board on 24th February, though no timeline has yet been introduced for vetting his replacement.

In the wake of these events, the remaining members of the board continue to work to promote and protect bitcoin – a task that they say is growing in importance and difficulty in accordance with the community’s own expansion.

For example, in just the last few weeks, the foundation has needed to reassure global consumers of the safety of the Bitcoin protocol, vet local groups that can help it expand its reach, and guard against people whose bitcoin associations might harm its reputation; in addition to dealing with two high-profile resignations.

Key skills

Speaking with current board members, it becomes clear that the organization is in need of a member with a broad-ranging skill set to help the foundation advance its cause, given these new challenges.

When CoinDesk asked Shrem to describe the ideal candidate for his replacement, he said:

“Whoever takes [my] place needs to be a leader. Someone who holds the foundation at a standard of excellence and who realizes that the foundation represents what people think of bitcoin. This power does come with an immense amount of responsibility.”

The resulting appointee will also be the first individual elected to the board since September 2013, when Elizabeth T. Ploshay, manager of communications at Bitcoin Magazine, and Meyer ‘Micky’ Malka, founder and general partner at Ribbit Capital, were awarded an individual and an industry seat, respectively.

With this in mind, CoinDesk spoke to current and past board members about the upcoming election and what attributes they feel the new board member will require.

Leadership qualities

Of course, while leadership is a rather broad concept, current members of the Bitcoin Foundation were able to paint a picture of the kind of person that could most benefit the organisation.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of these qualities were a reflection of its recent objectives and challenges.

Bitcoin Foundation Executive Director and CoinDesk contributor Jon Matonis described his ideal candidate, emphasizing that communication will be a key attribute:

“A good candidate would understand bitcoin’s fundamental importance in the world and have a demonstrated capability of articulating that vision to a global audience.”

Ploshay, Malka and Shrem also stressed that candidates must understand that, as a board member, their actions will have a broad impact on the community. Shrem noted that this is a crucial component, in part, because of some members have erred on this point in the past.

“Unfortunately, some of the current members do not hold this responsibility and bring themselves to meaningless ‘blame games’ and lawsuits, where a real leader would look at the bigger picture,” Shrem said.

While this may seem negative, Shrem sought to be constructive with his remarks, which also cited the hard work that continues to be done by the body and his intention to do everything he legally can to provide it with support going forward.

Global expertise

shutterstock_130558322

Another common response from current board members was that the newest appointee should reflect the foundation’s motto, “Think Globally, Act Locally”.

This objective is top of agenda at the organization, very likely because of the recent addition of approved international chapters in Australia and Canada.

Malka echoed this necessity, saying that he believes his global experience was integral to his election. Malka grew up in Latin America, has lived in Europe, and now calls the US home.

“I believe that the more people with global experiences, or an understanding of global markets, or visions for the protocol, will be welcome,” he said.

Ploshay, however, said that candidates don’t need to have a diverse background to help the organisation improve its position globally, noting that applicants should be evaluated “regardless of where their passport is [from]”. She added:

“The most important thing is that the best candidate wins.”

Community interaction

Ploshay suggested that the election was not only the best way for the foundation to move forward, but for the community to address pertinent issues and ultimately choose an individual who can help lead such group discussions.

The board member continued, saying that the new appointee needs to be willing to share new ideas, interact with the community and operate in environments where their actions are noticed.

Malka suggested that the new member should be able to collaborate on matters of regulation. Noting the divergent opinions of bitcoin users on the subject, he explained that this means striking a sometimes complicated balance:

“You have to understand regulatory environments. I’m not saying going against them, or go for 100% of what they ask you do to [...] but you have to be willing to have that kind of mentality.”

The voting process

Of course, while the board members may have well-defined attributes in mind for an ideal colleague, only industry members of Bitcoin Foundation can vote for the open seat – meaning some of those interviewed here will not have a final say in the appointment.

As Shrem was currently serving a two-year board term set to end in December, a representative from the Bitcoin Foundation suggested the upcoming election may actually be a special election for the remainder of this period, not the full two-years. However, the Bitcoin Foundation has not responded formally to requests for clarification on the matter.

Voting will be held on 21st April. For more information on the voting process, visit the Bitcoin Foundation’s official blog for more details.

[MICRO]

Bitcoin price info: (mtGox removed from blockchain.info markets page)


Bitcoin price average. (bitcoinaverage.com)

[altsay]

Bitcoin is Legal, Says Central Bank of Cyprus
Dan Palmer | Published on February 26, 2014 at 15:05 GMT | Bitcoin ATM, Europe, Exchanges, Law, News, Regulation

...

... and the sources warned that the digital currency isn’t “subject to control or regulation”.

...

OMG OMG WTF WTF

The shocking truth!!!!

[ponjava]

DualMiner The Bitcoin/Litecoin SHA-256 / Scrypt USB Miner

 Scott Fargo  26/02/2014


The new DualMiner USB miner is one of the first entries of ASIC’s into the Scrypt mining domain.

Love them or hate them Scrypt ASIC are here.

In the case of the DualMiner it an easy to afford and use USB ASIC that also brings a vastly lower watt per kh/s ratio to GPU miner setups.

The deal with the DualMiner is it can mine both BitCoin SHA-256 and Scrypt coins (such as LiteCoins) at the same time if desired. With an easy dip switch setting, it will mine Scrypt at nearly double the dual rate making it simple to configure.

Here are some specifications on it.

DualMinerChip
DualMinerChip
It runs in dual mode at 500 MHz SHA-256 and Scrypt mode at 40 kh/s only using 2.5 watts.

It also run’s in scrypt mode only at 70 kh/s at 1.5 watts.
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/DualMinerChip-300x147.jpg

As you can see in terms of sheer speed one unit will not replace one GPU but at a power sipping 70 kh/s at 1.5 watts in Scrypt only mode getting a lot of these can save a huge amount of power costs over the course of even just a month.

Currently at roughly $98 per unit buying a lot of these to replace your GPU rigs won’t happen anytime soon.

For smaller setups or people just getting into mining, this is a great entry level product that is both simple to setup and use.

I have had mine for about 2 weeks now and have been pleasantly surprised at its performance.

My first surprise was that it worked. I was a bit skeptical and with the added SHA-256 element added to it I figured they were hedging their bets against it not operating properly or possibly just under performing.

Instead, it is a miner that runs as advertised.

The install was easy on both my Windows 8.1 system and my Windows 7 system. In both cases, it was detected and automatically setup with no drivers to download or to configure. I do not have any other O/S’s to set it up on at this time, but from what I have been reading of others, experiences that it has been mostly smooth sailing with the drivers available on the DualMiner website. They are also working on a Linux version and at this time some people have been having success getting them to run on Rasberry Pi setups.

On their site, they also have the Windows GUI software which is what I used.

It is a custom GUI version of cgminer that has been compiled to run the dual miners.

The interface is very easy to use and setup.

As you can see a simple check box to tell it if you are using Scrypt only or leave it empty for dual mode.

DualMiner GUI
DualMiner GUI interface for cgminer.
Easy entry boxes for your pool setups and worker information. There is also a “Param” box for adding overclocking arguments.
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/DualMinerPanel1-300x228.jpg

For those who prefer the command line version of cgminer you can run it from the DualMiner software directory, just enter your information as you would in any cgminer setup.

On a side note, BFGMiner and MultiMiner support is almost here, as well. Nate Wools and Luke Jr have been working hard on getting it integrated and have some beta testing going on now.

Once you have your information in you just hit the start button. It will connect and mine. There are several tabs where you can see what and how it is doing in each version SHA-256 and Scrypt as well as a cgminer output scroll just like in the command line version.

In my use of it, I only used dual mode for a day to see how it worked. I both worked at the advertised speeds. What I was more interested in was Scrypt only mode.

It runs at a steady 70+ kh/s in stock settings.

With the setting in the “Param” box of “–dualminer -pll 850” I typically get up to 93 kh/s averaging about 86 kh/s. This is in Scrypt only mode as I have not tried any SHA-256 overclocking.

This has been a solid first entry into ASIC Scrypt mining. With 5 chip units, also out now as well the Scrypt world is going to be changing much like when they hit the SHA-256 and Bitcoin scene last year.

ASIC’s for Scrypt mining has polarized the Scrypt mining communities, as well. Many believe it will ruin Scrypt mining for the masses much like they feel it did with Bitcoin mining turning it into a rich mans game and others embrace it as the iteration of it and love the lower power consumption and setup.

I am on the fence on if it is good or not.

On one hand, I love the ease of use and a smaller power draw and see it as a money saver over having to buy massively over priced GPU’s that the use an awful lot of electricity. As future generations of this keep developing, they are going to get even more powerful. Yes, there are those with $1000′s in huge GPU mining rigs but it is still accessible to almost anyone with basic setups, as well.

On the other hand, I do see it quickly becoming like the ASIC SHA-256 Bitcoin miners. It has quickly turned into a rich mans game where those who either had made a lot of Bitcoin or can buy it are the one’s that can afford the hugely overpriced ASIC miners. Leaving those with less income to buy older outdated equipment that cannot compete in the race to mine the next Bitcoin. Some are even calling for a fork in LiteCoin and other Scrypt coins to stop ASIC’s from taking hold.

So overall I see it as DualMiner and as dual edged sword both good an bad.

From a pure product standpoint, I think this is a great little miner and excellent first step into Scrypt mining ASIC’s.
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/DualMiner1-e1393367987175-225x300.jpg

DualMiner
DualMiner in Hub
The DualMiner has run well with a simple setup. DualMiner is actively supporting the miners recently setting up their own forum to provide support. They have also been active in the development communities as on BitCoinTalk and have provided info to people like Nate Wools and Luke Jr to get support into more mining software packages quickly and efficiently.

I am looking forward to more product offerings from DualMiner in the future, as well. My only regret with my DualMiner is I did not have any money to buy more than one. I have been pleasantly surprised.

[causevd]

Thanks for the news I love reading them. Definitely will bookmark your thread, and don't disappoint me, because I love reading news about BTC.

[MICRO]

@ wallert Don't spam pls. U can't invest safely into ponzi. And especially that one that started round 2 and fucked up many people from round 1 . So don't spam pls.

[MICRO]

Thanks for the news I love reading them. Definitely will bookmark your thread, and don't disappoint me, because I love reading news about BTC.

Tnx for support.

[MICRO]

Reminder: Bitcoin Doesn’t Need Centralized Exchanges or Online Wallets
Kyle Torpey  26/02/2014 ,Posted 7 hours ago

Bitcoin Holy Grail
Decentralized exchanges and hardware wallets will make Bitcoin practical and secure.
Although the current situation at MtGox does not reveal any real issues with the Bitcoin protocol, it’s important to realize that, at this moment, centralized exchanges and online wallets are still necessary for someone to experience this new technology in a user-friendly manner. While many Bitcoin proponents will talk about cold storage and paper wallets all day long, the reality is using those forms of storage aren’t that practical for real world situations. When you move your bitcoins to your phone, you then have to deal with with the fact that your private keys are being stored on a device that is compromised by default. The Bitcoin protocol is all about avoiding third parties and allowing users to transact with each other directly, but the technologies to actually make this work in an easy-to-use fashion are still missing. Having said that, decentralized exchanges and practical hardware wallets are on the way.

No More Goxxing

Decentralized exchanges have been talked about in the Bitcoin space for years, and the reality that they are needed for the Bitcoin ecosystem to turn into a success has never been more obvious. Both NXT and Mastercoin are releasing their versions of decentralized exchanges over the next month or two, and there are a countless number of other projects, most notably Open Transactions, that will also provide solutions for people who wish to buy or sell bitcoins in a decentralized manner. Whether it’s Open Transactions, Mastercoin, Ethereum, Colored Coins, Invictus Innovations, or any other project that gets the job done doesn’t really matter. The point is that we are going to be able to exchange bitcoins for other assets in a P2P manner, just like Bitcoin, in the near future.

The main issue with buying and selling bitcoins on a liquid exchange right now is that you need to trust a centralized third party. This goes against the entire point of Satoshi’s invention of the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin has allowed people to sent funds directly to each other in a P2P manner, so there is no reason that the same concept cannot be applied when it comes to trading any other kind of asset. If we can trade bitcoins in a P2P manner, then there is no reason that we cannot trade some other type of crypto-asset in the same way. Anyone in the world will soon be able to trade bitcoins for euros, dollars, gold, Google stock, or anything else on a decentralized exchange. There will be no reason to use MtGox. In fact, there wouldn’t really be a reason to use any other centralized exchange either. While most of the other exchanges are run by seemingly trustworthy individuals, there’s no reason to trust someone when that trust is not necessary in the first place. Even if you feel like you could trust another individual with your life, not having to trust them at all is still a much better option.

A Secure Bitcoin Wallet You Can Hold in Your Hands

Although decentralized exchanges are an incredible option for people who want to hold their bitcoins on their own computer, there are still many security concerns with that proposal. The reality is that most people don’t know how to secure their own personal computers, and the revelations from Edward Snowden have continued to show that the NSA is working day and night to make truly secure and private data an impossibility. This is where the hardware wallets come into play.

With a hardware wallet, such as TREZOR or Pitbull, you don’t have to worry about anyone gaining access to your private keys. All transactions are sent to a secondary hardware device connected to your computer that does nothing but sign transactions with your private keys. This means that we will eventually have a situation where people are able to use Bitcoin with the convenience of Kryptokit or blockchain.info and the security of cold storage. This holy grail is what will make Bitcoin a practical option for the masses, and it will finally allow us to use this currency and payment system in the way that Satoshi intended.

Bitcoin’s Upper Layer of Failure

With these two technologies, many of the businesses built on top of the Bitcoin protocol will no longer be necessary. The points of failure built on top of the Bitcoin network have always been the main thing holding back mass Bitcoin adoption. Many people have talked about creating trustworthy, reputable replacements for those current, centralized structures, but the real solution is to make the base layer of Bitcoin practical and secure for everyone to use on their own. Let’s not forget the original intentions of the Bitcoin protocol. The Bitcoin experiment will only be a success if we can remove all the middlemen and put the control over currency and finance in the hands of the individual.

[MICRO]

US Senator Calls for Bitcoin Ban in Letter to Top Federal Regulators
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on February 26, 2014 at 21:01 GMT | Regulation, US & Canada

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a democrat from West Virginia, has formally sent a letter to federal regulators calling for an outright ban on bitcoin and suggesting that the failure of immediate action could negatively impact US consumers.

Manchin most recently made headlines for allegedly saying that he would vote to repeal the US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), a hallmark law of the Obama administration aimed at expanding public and private insurance coverage, though he later backtracked on the statements.

The letter, which was sent to Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, among other top regulators, called the digital currency “unregulated and unstable”, and cited increasing warnings from central banks around the globe.

Said Manchin:

“I am most concerned that as bitcoin is inevitably banned in other countries, Americans will be left holding the bag on a valueless currency.”

Notably, this is not the first time the senator has spoken out about bitcoin, having written a lengthy letter on the now-defunct online black marketplace Silk Road last June.

Black market connections

Manchin began the letter by providing a background on bitcoin, before addressing his laundry list of concerns about its use.

The senator suggested that bitcoin’s features make it inherently attractive to criminals, who have used the currency to “steal millions from bitcoins users”, and to buy drugs and weapons illegally. Further, he critiqued the irreversible nature of bitcoin transactions as the primary contributor to such issues.

“Bitcoin’s ability to finalize transactions quickly, makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to reverse fraudulent transactions,” the Senator said.

Consumer protection issues

The senator also suggested that bitcoin’s price volatility adds to its dangers, and he cited recent developments at troubled Japan-based exchange Mt. Gox as an example. Manchin painted a picture of bitcoin as an elaborate scheme in which only early buyers, investors and miners benefit. Said Manchin:

“There is no doubt average American consumers stand to lose by transacting in bitcoin.”

In summation, Manchin again returned to the issue of bitcoin’s deflationary nature, comparing its 98% deflation to the 1.3% inflation shown in the Consumer Pricing Index. Manchin used this data to suggest spending bitcoin now would cost users wealth in the future.

“This flaw makes Bitcoin’s value to the U.S. economy suspect, if not outright detrimental,” said Manchin.

Regulatory impact

Manchin is not the only lawmaker weighing in on bitcoin in the wake of issues at Mt. Gox. The Texas State Securities Board and the Alabama Securities Commission have each published consumer warnings in the recent days.

However, this letter, addressed directly to new Federal Reserve Chairwoman Yellen, is unique as it will likely add fuel to speculation that the US central bank head will issue a comment or statement on digital currencies soon.

My toughs: Go fuck ur sister, or doughtier or something ! Fucking retard.

[Waca Recargas]

Hi friends...

As Bitcoin have big news everyday... in Colombia is more easy to buy BTC online without a credit card... by cash, always a local payment.

BTC's Colombian people! www . wacarecargas . com

[ponjava]

Bitcoiners Are Unfazed As Senator Manchin Calls For US Treasury To Ban Bitcoin

 Caleb Chen  26/02/2014


Those who truly comprehend Bitcoin’s technology are aware of the futility in trying to “ban Bitcoin.”  I might be more inclined to believe the possibility of Bitcoin being banned when,if ever, I see BitTorrent banned.

Earlier today, Rob Wile of BI published this article detailing Senator Joe Manchin III (D-WV) and his call for the US Treasury, and a host of other financial regulatory bodies within the United States, to ban Bitcoin.  That’s right, Senator Manchin sent a letter to a long list of important names in the US government asking them specifically to ban Bitcoin.

The overzealous call for Bitcoin’s ban obviously comes on the heels of Mt. Gox shuttering its doors.  The mainstream media is reeling in self-induced confusion and chaos; Bitcoiners on the other side of the coin, have actually seen a double digit rise in the exchange rate since the news that the damning document leaked from Mt. Gox was actually authentic.

These types of poorly researched publications about Bitcoin is getting very, very, very, very, very, very dated.  Even the newest Bitcoiner with but a few satoshi to his name and one Moronic Monday Bitcoin thread under his belt, can spot all the blatant lies in Senator Manchin’s piece of “work.”

Senator Carper, made a more reasoned statement regarding recent events where he asked the government to look into regulation.  Even this might be too much political involvement for some Bitcoiners’ tastes; however, the differences between Senator Carper’s understanding of Bitcoin and Senator Manchin’s understanding of Bitcoin are abundantly clear.

If you enjoyed Kyle Torpey’s thorough trouncing of Professor Bitcorn, stay tuned to CCN because I believe he has some words for Senator Manchin forthcoming as well.

 

Read the full text of Senator Manchin’s letter on his website. 
I’ve highlighted a few talking points for us all to discuss.

manchin on Bitcoin
Senator Manchin has revealed just how little he knows about Bitcoin. Photo from AP
“It also means that Bitcoin provides a unique digital fingerprint, which allows for anonymous and irreversible transactions.”

I love Bitcoin’s irreversible transactions, and if you’ve ever paid with cash to save 5% at a brick and mortar location then you also like irreversible transactions.  1% of the worlds GDP is lost on an annual basis due to fraud and chargebacks, Bitcoin would alleviate that problem in ways people like Senator Manchin clearly can’t even understand.

More importantly, “unique” and “anonymous” don’t always mix very well; in fact, they actually contradict each other most of the time.  This is exactly why Bitcoin isn’t “anonymous” such that it will forever hinder law enforcement activities; rather, Bitcoin is merely “pseudonymous”.  The privacy of individuals are protected in ways that the current financial system cannot provide.

 

Indeed, it has been banned in two different countries—Thailand and China—and South Korea stated that it will not recognize Bitcoin as a legitimate currency.

Thailand just had a bank run, good thing Bitcoin was clarified as legal there. China only banned third party payment processors to work with Bitcoin, and the major Bitcoin exchanges have long since found a way to service their customers.

 

“I am most concerned that as Bitcoin is inevitably banned in other countries, Americans will be left holding the bag on a valueless currency.”

Besides the cold hard fact that China and Thailand haven’t banned Bitcoin it any way shape or form, claiming that other countries will ban Bitcoin and Americans would somehow be buying the entire time shows an utter lack of appreciation for the driving factors being Bitcoin adoption (Here’s a hint Senator, money laundering isn’t the primary concern).

Needless to say, Bitcoin won’t be banned in other countries for the same reason it won’t be banned in the United States.  Not unless the politicians there are all carbon copies of Senator Manchin.  That reason is simply this: Bitcoin is good for the people, Bitcoin is good for every business, and most of all Bitcoin has the potential to break the hegemonic hold that the US has on the world financial system.

 

“As of December 2013, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows 1.3% inflation, while a recent media report indicated Bitcoin CPI has 98% deflation. In other words, spending Bitcoin now will cost you many orders of wealth in the future. This flaw makes Bitcoin’s value to the U.S. economy suspect, if not outright detrimental.”

Let’s take a step back from the whole Bitcoiners vs. unenlightened Bankster paradigm and examine these statements through the lens of logic and the English language.  Spending Bitcoins now will only cost you many orders of wealth in the future, if Bitcoin is worth many orders of wealth in the future.

What Senator Manchin has revealed here is a blind adherence to CPI data without even a second thought to how the data is collected or what it must mean for Bitcoin adoption.

 

If you live in West Virginia, I apologize but it is your civic duty to contact your Senator and tell him to rescind his statements before they damage his credibility… Just this American’s patriotic perspective.

[E.exchanger]

under bitcoin discussion there is a separate press section in this forum to post news about crypto currencies you can post your news there !!

[MICRO]

under bitcoin discussion there is a separate press section in this forum to post news about crypto currencies you can post your news there !!

I know. We talked about it here. But looks like people love more to have all news in one thread. And nicely organized , nice timeline. For me that press board is just a mess. You can take look at poll. People love this idea. And i will keep doing it. 

[KrakenTrader]

Unilateral Statement Regarding Mt. Gox from an Insider
(Jesse is CEO of Kraken.com and Payward.com - largest BTC / EURO exchange http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/currency/EUR.html)

I am deeply saddened to hear of the tremendous loss suffered by the Bitcoin community today.  Undoubtedly, thousands of lives have been destroyed and innocent people have been left in financial ruin.  I’m not often short on imagination but how the damage got to be so severe without anyone noticing is unfathomable.  I can’t help but be angry, and frustrated and depressed.  All the hard work we’ve done to bring Bitcoin in to the mainstream and now this, and the people.  Fuck.

read more:
http://jesse.forthewin.com/blog/2014/02/unilateral-statement-regarding-fucked-up-shit-and-the-greater-good.html

[MICRO]

How To Prove That Exchanges Really Have Your Money
Danny Bradbury (@dannybradbury) | Published on February 27, 2014 at 05:19 GMT | Analysis

From all the news surrounding Gox’s demise, it seems pretty certain at this point that it was operating with a fractional reserve, trading with only a small proportion of the money that it was supposed to have. The question now is, how can we be sure that others aren’t doing it, too?

Whether you’re a straightforward bitcoin wallet or an exchange, the hope is that you’ll have enough bitcoins to cover everyone’s accounts, should they all decide to empty their funds at once. This week, large bitcoin companies seemed eager to persuade people that they did.

In their joint statement condemning Gox, five major exchanges explained that they would be “coordinating efforts over the coming days to publicly reassure customers and the general public that all funds continue to be held in a safe and secure manner”. How do they do that, exactly?

“I imagine that would be handled by the MTL regulators as they require permissible funds and when they come onsite to do the audit it would be apparent,” said Megan Burton, the CEO of exchange CoinX, which is taking a state-by-state approach to getting its money transmission license in the US.

“Most companies will perform self-audits in the near term and potentially hire an outside auditing firm when appropriate,” said Jaron Lukasiewicz, the founder of New York-based exchange Coinsetter. “We are also discussing creative ways we can give customers greater transparency, and we will announce them once those plans are finalized.”

Neither Coinsetter or CoinX were cosignatories of the joint statement released this week. Coinbase came closer to an audit than anyone. It blogged, already discussed here, in which Andreas Antonopoulos, the CSO at Blockchain.info, visited the office to check things over.

He published a short, six-paragraph report describing how he checked the firm’s cold storage addresses in the block chain. He also made Coinbase conduct a transaction on a random address in its block chain to ensure ownership.

Is this enough?

Financial audits can be extensive affairs, in which beancounters nose their way through reams of paperwork relating to accounting practices and financial controls. There is generally an audit committee which oversees the whole process. By the time that the audit is done, the likes of EY and PwC have gone over things with a fine toothcomb.

Barry Silbert, the head of the Bitcoin Investment Trust, who is now said to be preparing an exchange. Silbert has said that many auditors aren’t well-equipped to deal with bitcoin, not least because bitcoin addresses are anonymous.

“Access does not equal ownership, so you cannot prove title,” he told CoinDesk late last year. Nevertheless, he has enlisted one, so it can be done, apparently.

Blockchain transparency

Coinkite is doing its best to provide customer accountability. The Canadian company, which operates wallets for its users, released a link to what it calls an audit, although this isn’t verified by a third party. Instead, it’s a listing of the individual inputs and outputs contained within the user’s own wallet, and it’s drawn from the block chain.

Rodolfo Novak, co-founder of the firm, says that it’s able to do that because it relies on the block chain for its data. All transactions are conducted on the block chain, he explains, which makes it easy for users to see what’s going on. “We don’t have any off-chain transactions. Even the fees you pay to us are block chain transactions.”

Novak wonders why anyone would want to resort to a centralized audit at all. After all, his argument goes, wasn’t bitcoin supposed to be about decentralized trust?

“We decided to do this in a way that there is no need for an old system,” Novak says. “You are the owner of your money, and you can check it. I could call PwC or whatever, and they could sign off that they saw it. But we don’t need that.”

CoinDesk asked Coinbase about the access and ownership question, but it directed us to its blog post and refused further comment.

Coinkite’s block chain-based transparency is one of the things that sets it apart from the co-signatories to the joint statement. These companies don’t seem to run their operations in the same way.

In particular, it can be difficult for exchanges to achieve block chain transparency. “The main thing is that the order book can’t be block chained. It needs to be fast. The actual settlement of that order book could be block chained, but it takes a phenomenal amount of technology to be written and to achieve that,” Novak muses.

Decentralized audits

Is there a way, then, to create decentralized means of proving a non-fractional reserve? The brouhaha around Gox has rekindled interest in a proposal by Gregory Maxwell, one of the core developers.

In a traditional exchange, it may be difficult to publicly state how much the exchange should have, and then publicly prove that they have it, without listing all of the account balances for proof. That’s a privacy nightmare, of course.

Maxwell’s proposal uses a node – think of it as a leaf on a tree – with two things in it: a hash indicating the specific account, and a value of bitcoins in that account. All the nodes connect back to a central node (call it the trunk of the tree, which knows about all of the leaves).

The exchange or wallet publishes the central node, which gives the entire value of all the nodes in the exchange, and then it gives the owner of a ‘leaf’ its value, while also confirming that it has also checked all of the leaves between it and the trunk.

The user wouldn’t know anything about the other accounts, but it could compare its own value with the exchange’s total reserves, to make sure that it had enough to cover at least that account’s value.

As Maxwell says: “It doesn’t prevent fractional reserve — but if used well, it prevents dishonest fractional reserve.”

Bitcoinity, which monitors various exchanges, likes the idea so much that it wants to promote the first exchange to use it, on its site.

Any takers?

[MICRO]

How Bitcoin Smashes Mobile Payments Barriers
Jon Matonis (@jonmatonis) | Published on February 27, 2014 at 08:00 GMT | Analysis

Open Letter to the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona 2014, from Jon Matonis, Executive Director, Bitcoin Foundation

I have worked in the currency, payments, and cryptography business for over 20 years, at businesses including Visa, Sumitomo Bank, VeriSign, and Hushmail.

The technological developments now occurring in peer-to-peer payments and online distributed trust ledgers will shake the current financial system to its core. Ultimately, this will be a good thing for society and, therefore, it should not be feared or resisted.

Of course, I am speaking about the bitcoin network and the bitcoin monetary unit which runs over that network.

If I had to describe bitcoin in just three words, I would say it is: Money Without Government.

Alternatively, I could say bitcoin is Survivable Digital Scarcity. In just five short years, bitcoin has unequivocally demonstrated that we don’t need kings to coin our money and we don’t need central banks issuing debt-based paper notes and deciding what our money should be. Money is anything we collectively determine it to be.

Ladies and gentlemen, the fiat emperor has no clothes. The illusion of legal tender has been exposed.

Just like the untainted child in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, some of us are beginning to notice. It’s not the illusion itself that so offends our sensibilities, but more the notion that a competitive illusion is not to be permitted. If a free market illusion voluntarily agreed to from the bottom up is so desperately feared, then the protectors of the state-sanctioned illusion must not have the most benevolent of motives in store for us.

At some level, all money is an illusion that we share and as such we must be free to determine that shared illusion from the bottom up, rather than have it dictated to us from the top down. Even with gold, the most tangible of all monies, it is estimated that 95% of its value is attributed to its illusory monetary exchange properties.

With a bitcoin monetary unit, seigniorage becomes a thing of the past. And, as users of the monetary unit, we are not insulted by the insidious practice of having zeros added to the left of the decimal point. Bitcoin is infinitely sub-dividable to the right of the decimal point, as it should be.

Governments are not opposed to a shared illusion, they only want it to be their shared illusion.

Just as the copyright world is being radically transformed by distributed file-sharing protocols like BitTorrent, the legal tender facade will be transformed by decentralized survivable cryptocurrency because, in the end, legal tender is simply an unearned copyright privilege over money.

Additionally, most governments are sorely mistaken when it comes to bitcoin because, in order to thrive, bitcoin requires only market-based legitimacy – not government-sanctioned legitimacy. This is enormously frustrating for them and it is something not witnessed on this scale before.

OK, now that we have placed bitcoin in that proper monetary context, we can turn our attention directly to mobile.

For some in the mobile payments space, the following will be difficult to hear.

Traditionally plagued by a variety of barriers, mobile payments have seen lacklustre adoption around the world. This is particularly true in the developed economies, where a trio of competing interests breeds perpetual infighting and stagnation.

The holy trifecta in mobile payments includes governments, banks, and operators – each trying desperately to secure their own piece of the coveted payments pie, exerting maximum influence along the way. This, in my opinion, has strangled mobile payments progress and adoption.

Fortunately, bitcoin and its decentralized network bypass these three quarreling constituencies.

First, the bitcoin monetary unit is nonpolitical in nature and it doesn’t require an intermediary for issuance, authorization, clearing, and settlement functions. Those are performed via the public block chain.

Second, bank accounts and card networks are not required for clearing bitcoin transactions, eliminating the need for those silly dongles and awkward squares.

Third, since bitcoin wallets can run as standalone apps on smartphones utilizing QR codes, specialized accounts with operators become unnecessary, as does specialized hardware at the point of sale.

Guess what? These point-to-point bitcoin-powered mobile payments are already happening today. Furthermore, they are happening over your networks or at the very least over optional Wi-Fi.

Bitcoin is the quintessential disruptor, for not only does it disrupt established primary-level players in the field of payments, like Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal, but it elegantly disrupts the very nature of monetary authority. Bitcoin is disruption within disruption.

Money naturally operates like a virus and that makes bitcoin potently viral. It is viral cubed, in fact – money on the Internet with a network effect. A monetary unit does not stop expanding until it runs into artificially delineated boundaries or achieves widespread dominance.

An undisputed early advantage will be bestowed upon those that recognize and harness bitcoin’s transformative role in mobile.

It is my sincere hope that we will never again have to sit through a “disruption in payments” conference without hearing the phrase bitcoin.

Thank you.

Jon Matonis

[MICRO]

Leaked Mt. Gox Document Linked to Consulting Firm Mandalah
Ryan Galt (@twobitidiot) | Published on February 27, 2014 at 11:00 GMT | Companies, Exchanges, Mt. Gox, News

Earlier this week, I published a document I received from a reliable source entitled “Crisis Strategy Draft”, which was allegedly a roadmap to show how Mt. Gox could recover from insolvency despite the mind-blowing loss of nearly 750,000 customer bitcoins.

Since that initial leak, I have had a number of conversations with industry insiders who have spoken about the situation both on and off the record.

They have confirmed the best news possible for Bitcoin given the damning evidence documented in the leaked presentation: Mt. Gox acted alone in its deceit, and ultimately failed in its desperation, to find an investor willing to bail them out.

Although Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles would only admit that the leaked document was “more or less authentic” during a chatlog obtained by Fox Business, I have confirmed that it was, in fact, prepared by Mt. Gox representatives.

Mandalah’s role

The presentation was created (at least in part) by employees at global consulting firm Mandalah.

The actual author(s) of Mt. Gox’s 27-page business plan (another leaked Mt. Gox document – seen below) may be ambiguous, but the final publisher of this latest file was revealed to be one of Mandalah’s junior employees in Tokyo.

Representatives from Mandalah declined to elaborate on any specifics regarding its relationship with Mt. Gox, citing confidentiality agreements, but they did claim to have never been contracted by Mt. Gox to do “strategic planning” and say they lacked access to sensitive financial information or customer data. A representative clarified:

“Our mission with MtGox has always been to help them create better products and services…our main interest is in bitcoin and creating amazing experiences with it, and MtGox’s customers are the #1 thing on our minds these days.”

A source claims that the same junior staffer who published the business plan document also attended an alleged emergency investor meeting just one day after the “Crisis Strategy Draft” was created.

According to that source, it was at this meeting in which Karpeles and colleague Gonzague Gay-Bouchery first outlined the extent of Mt. Gox’s losses.

The fallout

The chain reaction that followed was rapid. The solicited investors rebuffed Karpeles and his colleagues’ pleas for a bailout, demanded the company come clean to customers and stakeholders immediately, and then notified other industry executives, including those at the Bitcoin Foundation, of the catastrophic losses at Mt. Gox.

These executives promptly reached out to regulatory authorities and began crafting a joint statement condemning Mt. Gox.

Sources also tell me that multiple investors who were approached restricted their own employees from buying or selling bitcoin themselves as soon as they realized the extent of the damage at Mt. Gox.

Further allegations

Mt. Gox has allegedly never conducted a single audit of its customer deposits, and it is believed that Karpeles may have been the only one within the company to have knowledge of how to actually tap the exchange’s cold storage.

It remains unclear exactly how this type of storage leak could have happened over a multi-year period without any knowledge on the part of the executives at Mt. Gox.

As a result of Karpeles’ apparent “Wizard of Oz” status within the organization, it also appears unlikely that the true technical cause of the leak will be fully understood until the embattled CEO speaks. Whether that will happen during an interview or a possible criminal case is unclear.

The latter seems likely, however, as one source believes that Karpeles knew about the pervasive damage of the transaction malleability attacks for several weeks and was engaging in an arbitrage scheme that leveraged the depressed Mt. Gox price to reap gains on other exchanges.

This was allegedly happening well before the exchange’s breaking point this past weekend.

Going forward

Mark Karpeles and Mt. Gox representatives were unreachable for comment, despite repeated attempts.

However, three major industry players that were initially tied to Mt. Gox “acquisition” rumours have either released statements or confirmed (via backchannels) unequivocal denials of any improper ties to Mt. Gox.

The Bitcoin Foundation, Blockchain.info and SecondMarket have by all accounts acted ethically and professionally in the face of a serious scandal. Their speedy clarifications and apparent cooperation with authorities is commendable and suggests that Mt. Gox was a mere bad apple in an otherwise good bunch.

Mt. Gox lived among the Bitcoin community for several years as an early pioneer. Luckily for the industry, it appears to have died alone.

Business Plan MtGox 2014-2017 by twobitidiot
Link: http://www.scribd.com/document_downloads/209535200?extension=pdf&from=embed&source=embed

Ryan Galt is a blogger, entrepreneur and freelance opinion writer for CoinDesk. His opinions do not necessarily reflect CoinDesk’s. You may email him at 2bitidiot@gmail.com, or follow him on twitter @twobitidiot.