BITCOIN NEWS EVRYDAY! From multiple sources.

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Australia May Extradite Alleged Silk Road Moderator to US
Daniel Cawrey (@danielcawrey) | Published on March 20, 2014 at 00:08 GMT | BitInstant, Companies, Crime, News, Silk Road News

An Australian man prosecutors allege was one of the moderators of now-defunct online black market Silk Road will likely be sent to the United States for trial soon.

Peter Phillip Nash, a former prison employee in Wacol, Queensland, is said to have operated via nicknames that included “Batman73″ and “Samesamebutdifferent”, on the notorious illicit goods marketplace that boasted an estimated $22m in annual sales.

If the charges are true, Nash was one of the key actors working on Silk Road.

According to the US District Court Southern District of New York indictment from December 2013, his role in the black marketplace was to:

“[Provide] guidance to forum users concerning how to conduct business on Silk Road, and [report] any significant problems discussed on the forum to the site administrators and Ulbricht.”

Nash, 41, waived his extradition rights on Wednesday in the Brisbane Magistrates Court, according to a report from the Australian Associated Press.

He faces prosecution on narcotics and computer hacking charges in the US.

The accused

The case of Peter Phillip Nash is one of  many associated with Silk Road’s demise and subsequent legal proceedings. Four alleged UK users of the site were detained soon after the seizure and arrest of Ulbricht.

Two other people accused of working for Silk Road have been charged with the same narcotics and computer hacking crimes as Nash. Andrew Michael Jones, 24, of Virginia, and Gary Davis, of Ireland are also included in the indictment along with Nash.

Charlie Shrem, co-founder of BitInstant, is perhaps the most notable bitcoin industry figure arrested in connection with Silk Road activities. He is being charged, along with conspirator Robert M. Faiella, with conspiring to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.

US prosecution continues

Now that Nash has waived his extradition rights, he is one step closer to being sent to the United States. The Queensland attorney general, however, needs to approve the process of Nash going to the US to await trial.

In February, Silk Road’s alleged mastermind Ross Ulbricht, known as ’Dread Pirate Roberts’ was indicted on charges related to computer hacking, drugs and money laundering.

Ross Ulbricht was originally arrested in October 2013 and the Silk Road site was seized and taken down by the FBI at that time. Nash had apparently been working with Ulbricht since early 2013, moderating Silk Road’s discussion forums.

Silk Road depended on two new digital technologies in order to facilitate illegal trade. One was Tor, a proxy service that anonymizes its users. The other was bitcoin, although its psuedononymous nature meant that the FBI used it in order to coordinate sting buys, gathering information on criminal activity.


Defense

A number of people have been supporting the cases of those accused of being involved in Silk Road’s impropriety.

Lyn Ulbricht, the mother of Ross Ulbricht has recently been trying to raise funds for her son’s defense. Friends and family raised $1m in bail for Ulbricht last year.

However, US Magistrate Judge Kevin Fox decided to turn down the bail request last November.

A defense fund for Charlie Shrem has also reportedly been set up.

Shrem is currently free on $1m bail and is under house arrest. He faces a lengthy legal road defending alleged Silk Road deeds, much like that of Peter Phillip Nash.

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SEC Making Inquiries Into MPEx, SatoshiDice
Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on March 20, 2014 at 14:37 GMT | Bitcoin Gambling, Law, News, Regulation, US & Canada

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating bitcoin securities exchange MPEx and gambling site SatoshiDice, according to an email exchange posted online yesterday.

The news could have implications for other bitcoin equity exchanges and the people investing with them, especially if they are US residents. Dealing only in bitcoin, the platforms function otherwise as unregulated stock exchanges and usually do not require any identification from users.

A SEC representative sent an email request to MPEx operator Mircea Popescu of Romania. Popescu, known as ‘MP’ to the bitcoin community, is widely known for his outspokenness and offered a lengthy defence of bitcoin in his responses to the SEC’s request.

He was contacted by Daphna Waxman, an attorney with the Enforcement Division of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, on 14th February with a request to release a list of all investors in SatoshiDice before its sale in July last year, and an account history for Erik Voorhees, the site’s original owner.

Jurisdiction issues

It is not clear if MPEx has broken any rules or even whether the US SEC has any official jurisdiction over a company based in Romania, as Popescu pointed out in the conversation. However it can certainly apply extrajudicial pressure, and Waxman requested he “voluntarily provide” the information instead. After denying Waxman a telephone conversation he wrote:

“As you’re soliciting private information you will have to sufficiently establish your authority to do so, which includes defeating specific challenges of jurisdiction that on a cursory examination seem to bar the institution you claim to be associated with from making these specific requests.”

The SEC has concerned itself for some time over whether bitcoin-denominated stock exchanges are illegal, according to a Bloomberg report.

On reddit, users expressed concern that other bitcoin exchanges such as Havelock Investments, their customers, and high-profile bitcoin personalities might be on the US authorities’ radar as well. Waxman requested Popescu identify SatoshiDice’s pre-July 2013 shareholders by “name, address, or BTC address”.

Gaming

SatoshiDice, which Voorhees founded and sold for 126,315 BTC ($11.5m at the time) to an undisclosed party in July last year, is not currently listed on MPEx or any other exchange.

The simple bitcoin betting game of chance has proven wildly popular, even though online gambling is illegal for US residents – at least when it involves what the authorities call ‘real’ currency.

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Bitcoin Payments Startup Coin.ph Launches with Two Major Filipino Merchants
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 20, 2014 at 16:30 GMT | Asia, News, Startups

When daily deals giant MetroDeal, the Philippines’ number two e-commerce website, seemingly went live with a bitcoin payments option last week, it was a clear sign that major merchants in the 97-million-strong nation were beginning to take the digital currency seriously.

However, it turns out, that MetroDeal’s bitcoin payments test only told part of the story.

Coins.ph, the bitcoin payment service powering MetroDeal’s checkout, officially launched today by adding yet another major Philippines-based merchant to its roster – angel-funded flash deals startup CashCashPinoy.

Such quick merchant network growth may be surprising, especially given that major merchants in developed countries have been relatively cautious about signing up to similar services.

However, Coins.ph co-founder and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ron Hose suggests that the Philippines and other Southeast Asian markets could be prime locations for the expansion of bitcoin.

Explained Hose:

“Less than 5% of people in Southeast Asia have credit cards – the rest end up paying for online transactions next day in line at the bank or COD, a huge pain for both customers and online merchants. Bitcoin solves a real problem here – increasing conversion and lowering transaction cost for the merchant, and providing far more access to customers.”

So far, major merchants, it seems, see this value proposition as well.

Meet the merchants

CashCashPinoy websiteMetroDeal went live with the Coins.ph service on 20th March, although, as previously reported on CoinDesk, MetroDeal had been testing services prior to the launch. CashCashPinoy has not yet enabled bitcoin payment, but Hose indicated that it would do so before the week’s end.

Statistics from web data provider Alexa indicate that both merchants have a sizeable following with local shoppers. MetroDeal is the second most-visited e-commerce site in the country, drawing more than 1.2 million unique shoppers each month.

Likewise, CashCashPinoy is a top 200 website in the country, with more than 575,000 unique monthly visits.

Regulatory environment

To date, the Philippines stands in stark contrast to its Asian neighbours in the way it seems to be approaching bitcoin regulation, a potentially positive sign for Coins.ph.

Though the Philippines issued its first warning on 10th March, it stopped short of the more aggressive statements made by Thailand – which may have ruled exchanges illegal – and Vietnam, which blocked certain financial institutions from working with the currency in late February.

About Coins.ph

Founded in 2013, the company will initially focus on growing bitcoin’s merchant network in Asia, but Hose is expecting quick growth that will allow it to expand, in part due to the high costs of providing payment by other means.

Said Hose:

“At present, it’s too expensive to bank or give credit to [the] remaining 95% of the population with traditional methods. We founded coins.ph because we see bitcoin opening a huge opportunity to provide cheaper, better financial services for millions of people in Asia.”

Hose previously founded Tokbox, a web video communications company, later acquired by Spain-based telecommunications conglomerate Telefonica. His Coins.ph co-founder Runar Petursson has extensive experience with high-frequency trading systems.

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Was This $200 Vending Machine the World’s First Bitcoin ATM?
Roop Gill (@roopgill) | Published on March 20, 2014 at 15:48 GMT | Bitcoin ATM, Lifestyle, News

As a part of a university project in 2012, student Max Albrecht designed a cryptocurrency vending machine that converted €1 coins into bitcoin.

This low-tech version of a bitcoin ATM was built with a modest budget of €150 (around $200 at today’s prices). Furthermore, it was created not as part of a tech, business or computing course, but as an art installation.

To create his ATM, Albrecht bought a second-hand vending machine that cost him roughly €80 ($110). He printed out both private keys and links to individual online wallets, put the paper slips in small cardboard boxes, and put those in the vending machine.

A customer would simply need to insert a coin to get a voucher for their euro’s-worth of bitcoin, which was stored on easywallet.com. The printout also explained what to do with the link, so that newbies could become familiar with bitcoin transactions.

With bitcoin ATMs now popping up all over the world, Albrecht is wondering if his creation was in fact the world’s first bitcoin ATM.

Inspired by crisis

While studying Fine Arts at Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany, one of Albrecht’s assignments was to create an installation that fit the theme of ‘Panta Rhei’ (‘Everything Flows’).

As a part of the course, the students took an excursion to Greece, which had recently been hard hit by the financial crisis. Keeping both of those aspects in mind, Albrecht came up with the concept of the bitcoin vending machine.

“The instability of the euro was part of my inspiration at the time. I thought it would be nice to have an artwork that could address the fact that we have a currency in Europe which is dwindling.”

While the Euro was getting weaker in 2012, bitcoin was ‘soaring’ at $9 apiece. People were starting to hear about bitcoin, but there weren’t many places to spend it at the time.

btm-9

So, Albrecht added a feature to his installation that would allow users to send their euro’s-worth of bitcoin to WikiLeaks.

When the vending machine was first exhibited, Mastercard and PayPal had blocked donations to WikiLeaks, making bitcoin one of the few ways to send funds to the organisation.

During the initial exhibition at the student union bar in Bauhaus, almost 30 people traded their euros for bitcoin. However, Albrecht says that his installation was not about finding a practical solution for converting currency to bitcoin, it was more of a statement.

He said:

“My favourite story about the art project is from a friend of mine who told me, ‘your artwork works because last night I had to explain to some dude in a bar at 3am what the f*** is bitcoin’.”

High-tech newcomers

Albrecht knows that his two-year-old invention is clunky compared to the more practical and advanced solutions on the market now.

Notable amongst these are Robocoin and Lamassu, which have quickly become two of the world’s most popular manufacturers. While Lamassu’s machine only allows users to convert cash to bitcoin, Robocoin’s converts both ways.

atm

Both Lamassu and Robocoin showcased their ATMs at the Bitcoin 2013 conference in San Jose.

Lamassu started selling last October and sold 100 units in just three months. The company’s ATMs are now installed across the globe in places like Helsinki, Bratisalva and even Zurich, where Albrecht currently lives and works at the Zurich University of Arts.

His original vending machine, however, is still in Weimar where it was first conceived. Albrecht continues to supply the bitcoin, which he buys in Switzerland, while his friend Killian Ullmann physically refills the vending machine in Germany.

New machine planned

Even though there are other, more practical conversion solutions around, Albrecht quite likes the simple novelty of his machine.

“I really like this low-tech version of [an ATM] because this can go on forever. It’s not hackable and it doesn’t need electricity.”

He intends on installing a version in Zurich in the future, where members of the bitcoin meet-up group have encouraged him to do so. Albrecht also says he may start to incorporate QR codes and paper wallets, rather than the paper “coupons” used since 2012.

He also wonders if his invention was the first ever bitcoin ATM. Construction took place in July 2012, whereas Robocoin and Lamassu didn’t launch until the following year.

If there aren’t any other contenders, maybe Albrecht should get the title.

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Saxo Bank CEO: Bitcoin is an Opportunity for Early Adopters
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 20, 2014 at 18:39 GMT | Europe, News

Saxo Bank CEO and co-founder Lars Seier Christensen made headlines in his native Denmark earlier this month when, in his typically outspoken fashion, he revealed his support for bitcoin in an interview with online news site Business.dk.

It was then Christensen acknowledged he has not only bought bitcoins, but that his online investment company is currently exploring bitcoin’s potential use. Unsurprisingly, the announcement that set forth a flurry of conversation about the potential impact Saxo Bank’s stance could have on the perception of bitcoin in Europe and abroad.

However, while some in the bitcoin community were quick to view Christensen and Saxo Bank as potential industry leaders that could expand the popularity of the currency, Christensen is eager to take a more moderate view.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Christensen indicates that he and his company are only trying to analyze bitcoin with an unbiased mind:

“I wouldn’t say we’re taking a lead on it. I’ve taken a personal interest in understanding the space better. [...] We haven’t made that decision yet, but at least we’re not dismissing it out of hand for regulatory reasons or other reasons that banks would completely ignore it.”

Saxo Bank offers customers the ability to trade 179 forex currency pairs, more than 2,500 investment funds and futures contracts in currencies, gold and oil, among other offerings. Founded in the early ’90s as service broker Midas, Saxo Bank had a market value of about $3.6bn as of 2011.

Bitcoin exploration

Though the original report suggested Saxo Bank may be experimenting with bitcoin, Christensen indicates that its plans are currently in an exploratory phase. Saxo Bank’s interest in bitcoin, therefore, extends presently to analyzing whether it could be the next area of interest and innovation.

Christensen said the bank has no plans yet to adopt bitcoin into its platform, though he seems to recognize the potential of such a move:

“I think there’s an opportunity there for banks that are early adopters. [...] The bitcoin community is fairly enthusiastic one, so I’m sure there’s some business to be won and some goodwill to be achieved, plus some interesting opportunities for other clients.”

Personal investment

Due to his libertarian leanings, Christensen indicates that he was aware of bitcoin as far back as two or three years ago, though he didn’t pay much attention to it until the financial crisis in Cyprus last year.

Said Christensen: “I thought what happened in Cyprus was a pretty shocking thing and probably an omen of what is to come more and more often in the future. So, it was interesting to see the attention bitcoin got around the time.”

Christensen later purchased bitcoin through BitcoinNordic, a Denmark-based bitcoin buying and selling service, in order to gain “practical experience” with the digital currency. However, Christensen suggests he was more intrigued by the novelty factor of the technology, noting that it has so far led to several interesting dinner conversations.

As an investment, Christensen reports that he hasn’t had much luck with bitcoin, noting that he quickly learned bitcoin was a two-way market. Christensen notes he bought in prior to the bankruptcy of major Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, and the subsequent decline in bitcoin’s value.

‘Paradigm shift’

Overall, however, Christensen said he believes there is a lot about bitcoin that he finds personally appealing. This includes the 24/7-style of the market, which he notes doesn’t exist elsewhere, as well as its position as a currency free from central bank control.

Said Christensen:

“I think it’s a bit of a paradigm shift. I was in Israel [recently] and they had this beautiful historical collection of coins, and it struck me that this model has been the same for several thousand years so that it might be time for something new to come by.”

Christensen also added that he sees the political appeal of bitcoin: “At the end of the day, my general observation is that the private sector is a lot better at most things that the public sector, so why shouldn’t that also be the case with money?”

The comments suggest that though Christensen indicates his company isn’t “close to doing anything with bitcoin”, this stance may be subject to change.

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Mt. Gox May Still Hold $118 Million (200,000 BTC) in Funds, Report Suggests
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 20, 2014 at 18:52 GMT | Companies, Exchanges, Law, Mt. Gox

A new report suggests that Mt. Gox, the now-bankrupt Japan-based exchange said to have lost 850,000 BTC in customer funds may actually still be in possession of 200,000 BTC ($118m at press time).

The news, published by Yahoo Japan, allegedly comes from the exchange’s bankruptcy lawyer who suggests the bitcoins were found on 7th March in a wallet used by Mt. Gox prior to June 2011.

The 200,000 bitcoins would equate to just over 23% of the entirety of the funds presumed lost by the company in the wake of widespread theft that is said to have occurred on the exchanges for a period of several years. Given the date, these funds may be separate from that money, however.

Though the release does mention that the funds were found, it does not clarify as to whether the company still has access to any bitcoins inside.

Neither Chris Dore, a partner at the Edelson law firm, nor Ted Charney, the lawyer overseeing the Canadian class action, could be reached for comment to verify the report.

Asset freeze relaxed

The revelation that Mt. Gox may still have bitcoins in its possession notably coincided with an additional report that suggests a US judge relaxed restrictions on the movement of Mt. Gox Co. and CEO Mark Karpeles’ assets on 20th March.

That report suggests that Jay Edelson, the lawyer for the US class action, received a letter from US District Judge Gary Feinerman that allows for small amounts of the entities’ assets to be converted back into USD.

This is reportedly a bid to “track its movement and possibly discover assets belonging to Mt. Gox’s American affiliate, Karpeles and another business he owns.”

No connection between the two events has been established.

Speculation runs wild

The news led to wild speculation on reddit as to how the recovered funds would be used, especially in light of the fact that several class action lawsuits are so far suing the exchange for restitution and damages.

Some reddit users expressed optimism that the funds might be used to prop up the exchange’s bitcoin reserves so that it could resume operations, thereby ensuring former users received a greater return.

Screen Shot 2014-03-20 at 1.53.17 PM

Notably, the 200,000 bitcoin figure is similar to the 180,000 BTC reported to be moving in the blockchain earlier this March.

Those funds, however, were said to be rapidly splitting in what appeared to be an automated fashion, while the most recent report suggests the newly uncovered funds had potentially been inactive.

Impact uncertain

Still, for those who lost funds, the discovery of new bitcoins is unlikely to do anything to stem lawsuits.

As noted by Fortune, former customers of the exchange are not creditors, and would not benefit from repayment via the sale of any assets by Mt. Gox or its related entities in either a liquidation or a rehabilitation.

As such, the lawsuits remain likely the only way these individuals will be able to retrieve any lost money from the exchange.

For creditors of the exchange, the path ahead is less certain, as Mt. Gox may be stuck waiting for approval for its proposed rehabilitation for six months or longer, and even then such actions may be blocked in favor of liquidation.

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SecondMarket CEO Barry Silbert Talks Big Picture Vision for Bitcoin Investment Trust
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 20, 2014 at 21:29 GMT | Companies, Investors, US & Canada

Bitcoin Investment Trust shares now available on SecondMarket
SecondMarket CEO Barry Silbert made news on 19th March when he revealed that Bitcoin Investment Trust, his private investment vehicle for high net-worth investors, would open its doors to the general public as soon as Q4 2014.

The news surprised many, especially given the struggles reported by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, whose Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust has been waiting in regulatory limbo since July 2013 while it waits for SEC approval.

In initial reports, Silbert discussed his intent to list the fund on OTC, an electronic marketplace that offers investors trading through regulated broker dealers, and to leverage his existing bitcoin businesses to bypass more restrictive regulations.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Silbert expanded on the news further, offering up a detailed view of how the expansion of Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) can be expected to take shape, and how these offerings would complement the separate bitcoin exchange that he has applied to run in New York.

How trading will work

The Q4 launch date would be the earliest the company could launch such an initiative, Silbert said, due to unique requirements it needs to meet to remain exempt from the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval process.

The bitcoins that will be made available to general investors will be drawn from those who have held funds with the BIT for more than one year.

At this point, Silbert said SecondMarket will send out stock certificates to the tenured investors, who will be allowed to sell their bitcoins to the public market or redeem them on a monthly basis.

Explained Silbert:

“The people who have already invested, when they decide to sell, they can do so to the public market. So, the amount of shares available to the public market will be dependent on the existing shareholders’ desire to sell shares.”

SecondMarket will continue to source bitcoins for BIT through private sellers, but only high net-worth investors will be able to buy these funds.

SecondMarket’s bitcoin exchange

Silbert also sees the BIT’s expanded goal benefitting from a relationship with the regulated bitcoin exchange he plans to launch this summer.

Silbert, who will serve as CEO for both SecondMarket and the new exchange, indicated that the BIT team currently needs to source the bitcoins for every purchase a new investor makes. Given that the minimum investment is $25,000, this can be challenging, even with the “couple hundred relationships” his team has established.

As such, Silbert projects that the exchange will serve as one of the potential sources of bitcoins for BIT, though he expects some separation between the entities.

“That’s not to say they have to or they will [source bitcoins from the exchange], but they will have that opportunity.”

Ahead of the competition

Because Silbert expects to be able to bypass SEC approval for the plan, SecondMarket also gains a key advantage in that it will be able to enter market far before any competitors.

Explained Silbert:

“Unless there’s another vehicle out there that has launched and has investors that have held shares for longer than 12 months, then we don’t see competition.”

Still, Silbert doesn’t exactly see this competitive advantage as a good thing, adding that he is in favor of the market providing many safe, regulated ways for consumers to access bitcoin.

Hurdles to launch

Though the plan sounds promising, Silbert also revealed that there are a number of steps SecondMarket needs to go through before BIT is allowed to expand its customer base.

First, Silbert said, SecondMarket is in need of market maker support that will come in the form of banks and brokerage firms that are needed to list a fund on OTC. At least one entity in either group would need to put their support behind the initiative.

Next, SecondMarket would require sponsorship from either a law firm or a bank. Then, there’s a formal application process with the OTC, all steps that Silbert cautioned will take time.

However, what is clear, is that if he does succeed, the US bitcoin market could look substantially different by the year’s end.

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Spondoolies-Tech Promises More Power-Efficient Mining
Danny Bradbury (@dannybradbury) | Published on March 21, 2014 at 05:22 GMT | Companies, Mining, Startups

An Israeli company launched a bitcoin mining system this week that promises to eventually double existing power efficiencies. Spondoolies-Tech is touting mining rigs that will offer up to 2.1TH/sec per kilowatt of energy today by the summer.

The company has designed an ASIC chip that it says can achieve a similar performance to the design currently used by ASIC mining manufacturers such as Cointerra. The difference, says Spondoolies-Tech cofounder Guy Corem, is the process node; Cointerra uses a 28nm (nanometer) ASIC chip design, whereas Spondoolies-Tech uses a 40nm design.

The process node in a computer chip is the resolution of the components on the chip. Smaller numbers mean a higher resolution, and hence more microscopic transistors in a certain area. This has two benefits: it increases the speed that the transistors can operate at, and it also lowers the power consumption.

So how does Corem claim to have matched Cointerra with a larger process node? Using smarter code, and better physical design, he explained.

“I have a non-standard implementation of SHA-256 [the cryptographic software algorithm used by the Bitcoin protocol], as well as a very good physical implementation of the engine on the ASIC,” said Corem.

One thing he claims to have done is reduce the ‘toggle rate’ of the chips – meaning the number of times that the tiny electrical components have to switch electrical state.

The company started taking orders this week for its SP-10 unit, codenamed ‘Dawson’. It is targeting consumers with the device, which provides 1.4TH/sec of computing power for 1.2Kw of energy. That equates to 1.17 GH/watt.

This compares to 0.95 GH/watt based on the published specification of Cointerra’s latest TerraMiner IV. Although CoinDesk reported last month that the Cointerra unit had fallen short of that performance figure. Based on reported performance in the field, the true figure would be more like 0.8 GH/watt.

The SP-10 sells for $4,995, while the TerraMiner – which doesn’t ship its next units until June – costs $5,999.

All of this makes Spondoolies-Tech an appealing unit, at least in theory. The company opened its store on Wednesday, and appears to be enjoying early successes.

When CoinDesk spoke to Corem last week, he said that he expects to sell around 20 of these units in March, and around 2-300 of them in April, with more coming in May, based on deliveries of chips from TSMC subsidiary Global Unichip. Based on those numbers, he’s done very well, as after his first day he is now displaying a May shipment date.

Spondoolies-Tech has raised over $5.5m in funding. This came from two Israeli venture capital firms: Genesis Partners, and BRM. $1m came from a group of angel investors.

This will help it to develop and promote its second unit, the SP-30, codenamed Yukon, which promises a bigger power-performance jump. This will deliver 5.4TH/sec of computing power using 2.4Kw, the firm says. On the site, it publicizes a 2.1TH/Kw (2.1 GH/watt) performance figure for the box, which is scheduled to ship in August.

The power boost there comes from the process node improvement; that $11,995 unit will contain 30 28nm chips, compared to 192 40nm chips in the SP-10.

Counterintuitively, these boxes are being targeted at consumers, but they’re designed for datacentres; they’re provided in a 1.25u rack-mountable server format.

“Later on, we will serve to vendors like CloudHashing, or whoever wants this very dense miner. Then we will develop special software for the datacentre,” Corem said.

For now, though, he’s focusing on making the box consumer friendly, with a user interface designed for newcomers.

[jsgayo]

Well then this is a good idea I wish you good luck!

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Mt. Gox Confirms Discovery of 200,000 BTC in ‘Old-Format’ Wallet
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 21, 2014 at 13:49 GMT | Exchanges, Law, Mt. Gox, News

Embattled Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has released a new press release confirming that it found an old-format bitcoin wallet on 7th March containing 199,999.99 BTC ($113.9m at press time).

Mt. Gox further confirmed it reported the finding to its bankruptcy counsels as required by its civil rehabilitation proceedings.

The release states:

“A hearing took place on March 8 where a detailed explanation of the situation was made to counsels. Immediately on Monday (March 10), counsels reported the existence of the 200,000 BTC to the Court and the Supervisor.”

The exchange revealed it now has a total amount of 202,000 BTC, a figure which includes the 200,000 BTC recently found, as well as an additional 2,000 BTC ($1.1m) in funds.

Mt. Gox confirms money movement

The release, penned by CEO Mark Karpeles, indicated that the wallets were moved from online wallets to offline storage from 14th March to 15th March. Further, he confirmed that the courts were aware of this activity.

“These bitcoin movements (including the change in the manner in which these bitcoins were stored) has been reported to the Court and the Supervisor by counsels.”

The confirmation would suggest reports that Mt. Gox funds have been moving through the blockchain were valid, though the dates of the movement do not coincide.

Missing bitcoin figures revised

Mt. Gox indicated that with the finding, the amount of bitcoins it reported as lost or stolen needs to be revised, suggesting that this wallet, and the funds therein, were factored into the original estimate.

Said the statement:

“Taking into account the existence of the 200,000 BTC, the total number of bitcoins which have disappeared is therefore estimated to be approximately 650,000 BTC.”

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BTC Price Declines Following False Report of Bitcoin Ban in China
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 21, 2014 at 15:50 GMT | Asia, News, Regulation

A false report published on a financial news feed run by Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo was responsible for the sharp decline in bitcoin prices across China’s biggest exchanges today (21st March).

At 10:22 am GMT, Sina’s financial live feed issued a now-retracted news report indicating that China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), would move to halt all bitcoin transactions in the country effective 15th April.

If true, the news would have interrupted a period of improved relations between the burgeoning bitcoin ecosystem and the nation’s lawmakers, but coincided with the PBOC’s temporary ban on QR codes issued last week.

Read the initial news statement from Sina:

“It is rumored that on March 18th the PBOC had issued a notice calling for all bitcoin transactions to be halted by April 15th. As of today the PBOC has not confirmed nor denied the statement.”

The story was later retracted by the news site following clarification from Chinese regulators, in a release issued more than an hour later at 11:48 GMT on 21st March.

Read a translation of the updated post:

“Regarding the PBOC statement issued on 3/18 requesting all bitcoin transactions to be halted before 4/15, those close to the regulatory body told Sina Finance on Friday, the PBOC did issue a document, but it was not to ban/halt bitcoin transactions, instead to strengthen regulatory oversight of bitcoin transactions, circulation and redemptions.”

The PBOC later took to the Weibo platform and Twitter to clarify the news.
“The report by certain media that ‘PBOC has issued a document as of 3/18, requesting all bitcoin transactions be halted by 4/15′ is in error. The attitude of the PBOC towards bitcoin has been clearly stated by the [5th December] document issued by the PBOC and five other agencies.”

The company acknowledged the damage its report caused, noting that it “quickly caused panic in the bitcoin community”, and that “bitcoin’s domestic prices [were] likely to fall significantly” as a result of its error.

CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index indicates that the price of bitcoin was down 2%, or roughly $12 on the news, though prices were impacted more severely on China-based bitcoin exchanges.

Price decline

Sina indicated that its report caused the price of bitcoin to fall 5%, dropping from 3,691 yuan ($592.99) to 3,400 yuan ($546.24), though a closer look at bitcoin price data across the major China-based exchanges shows the damage was far worse for certain investors.

Data from Bitcoincharts suggests the price of bitcoin on BTC China hit a low of 3,301 yuan at 11:00am GMT, dropping from 3,568 in just 30 minutes.

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BitcoinWisdom shows that China-based exchange OKCoin experienced a more aggressive fall in price, crashing from around 3,600 yuan to 3,100 and below from 10:30am GMT to 11:00am GMT.

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BitcoinWisdom’s Huobi data shows a similar decline on this exchange, from roughly 3,600 yuan to a low of approximately 3,200 yuan within the same time window.

Screen Shot 2014-03-21 at 10.40.40 AM

Community reaction

Community members reactions ranged from begrudgingly bemused to irate, with some reddit users falling into the former camp given the fact that China’s stance on digital currencies has seemingly changed frequently over the last few months.

Others suggested that the digital currency’s susceptibility to such negative news is a weakness that will hinder adoption.

Screen Shot 2014-03-21 at 11.12.37 AM

Reaction in China’s bitcoin community leaned more toward outrage at the news organization’s seemingly negligent reporting.

VC investor and CoinDesk contributor Rui Ma took to Twitter to clarify the news, and voice her frustrations about the actions of the social media giant.


At press time, the price the price of bitcoin on BTC China had recovered to a low of 3,519 ($565.36 at press time), though this was down from an opening low of 3,654 yuan, suggesting that the damage from the report was still impacting the market.

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Financial Faux Pas Highlight the Need for Decentralised Currencies
Nermin Hajdarbegovic | Published on March 21, 2014 at 18:03 GMT | Analysis, Europe, Regulation

The failure of Mt. Gox attracted a lot of media attention on the world of digital currencies; it quickly became the most popular argument used and abused by bitcoin detractors. Though much of the criticism wasn’t misplaced, the “we told you so” gloating was.

First of all, Mt. Gox is not and was not the future of bitcoin. To the contrary, it will go down as a good example of what not to do.

piggy bank

Its failure does not have much to do with any inherent weaknesses attributed to digital currencies. The company was mismanaged and it was clearly in over its head. It would have been run into the ground even if it was a traditional financial institution and it would not be the first time.

Banks issue non-performing loans, credit card companies get scammed, insurers get defrauded – all this happens on a regular basis. When any of them happen to be run by incompetent people, they go under.

In case the ripple effect of their collapse is too big for the economy to take, governments get involved – usually with heaps of taxpayer money. So why all the focus on bitcoin?

Your money is safe, unless the government wants it

“Money invested in banks, stocks, bonds or commodities is safer than money invested in speculative assets.” This is another argument used by bitcoin critics, and it usually happens to be true. However, bank deposits aren’t entirely safe.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne recently gave the HMRC the power to access private bank accounts to look for money that might be owed in taxes. The rule will only apply to Britons who have been asked to pay their taxes multiple times and who owe more than £1,000.

Debt collectors can seize money straight from the accounts, but they have to leave at least £5,000 in the targeted account.

While the move may surprise some Brits, many countries (including France and the US) have similar laws on the books and they routinely enforce them.

Civil rights advocates don’t like the idea, as they believe it is an encroachment on liberties and privacy. They also question the legality of such plans, as they effectively allow the executive branch to “raid” accounts and seize people’s money. They believe this is something for the judiciary to decide, as some tax debt could be disputed.

Richard Murphy, director of Tax Research UK, told the Huffington Post that the two issues need to be separated:

“One is about people not paying tax debt. Measures to help recover this are reasonable, including the power to take assets. The other is taking payment when the debt is disputed. That is unacceptable.”

Acceptable or not, the HMRC now has the power to do so. If the debt is disputed, the taxpayer will be able to appeal, but by then the money will probably be seized. Once it is seized, the taxpayer will have 14 days to contact tax authorities and arrange a payment plan, or the taxman will keep the money.

Tax havens aren’t what they used to be

There is a bit of a problem though. Tax dodgers tend to be aware of what they are doing and they go to great lengths to hide their money. This includes stashing it somewhere warm, with plenty of sunshine, in an offshore account. However, this is no longer as safe as it used to be.

A year ago the IMF agreed to help out Cyprus with a €10bn package, but in return it asked the government to do something that did not go down well with thousands of depositors.

The government was strong armed into imposing a one-time levy of 6.7% on deposits up to €100,000 and 9.9% on larger deposits.

“Why would anyone use digital currencies to dodge taxes, when it can clearly be done without them?”

That wasn’t the end of it. The Central Bank of Cyprus then went to impose a levy of up to 47.5% on uninsured deposits. Account holders were supposed to compensated by bank stock equivalent to the levied amount, but in reality there was not much interest in holding stocks in a basket case banking sector.

Still, the big depositors in Cyprus (mostly Russian nouveau riche) should consider themselves lucky. In the early nineties many banks in Eastern Europe collapsed, leaving depositors to pursue compensation from the government. Some got bonds years after the fact, others got nothing. Depositors in Argentina, Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe and many other countries were exposed to hyperinflation, which ate up their life savings in no time.

However, the Cyprus levy did not do much to deter tax dodgers looking for untouchable offshore accounts. The Tax Justice Network estimates $21 – $32tn of hidden and stolen wealth stashed largely tax havens around the world. The bitcoin market cap stands at about $7.2bn.

So why exactly would anyone use digital currencies to dodge taxes, when it can clearly be done without them?

Digital currencies are not the answer

In some circles, digital currencies are viewed as a way of keeping the government out of the whole process, but this view is based on ideology rather than fact.

We would like to claim otherwise, but that would be disingenuous. Ideology and economics don’t tend to mix well, much to the detriment of many totalitarian regimes and advocates of various utopian ideas.

For example, gold bugs came out of the woodwork following the 2008 financial crisis, but most of them have been silenced over the past year or two. The reason is simple: their predictions didn’t pan out and people who invested in stocks over the last couple of years are now much better off than those who mixed ideology with economics and invested in gold.

gold

Besides, if fear of big government is driving people to invest in gold or digital currencies, they might want to take a history lesson and read Roosevelt’s Executive Order 6102, which criminalized the possession of monetary gold by citizens and non-governmental institutions.

The Roosevelt administration had good reason to do so and it acted in the interests of the people, during the worst economic crisis of the 20th century. If a totalitarian government turns against its people, strings of digits that rely on electricity the internet to make any sense won’t help. A few cans of beans or any item that can be bartered would be more helpful than all the bitcoins out there.

Digital currencies should not be viewed as a hedge, nor are they a viable alternative to traditional long-term investments or even national currencies backed by central banks.

They can, however, complement national currencies, reduce transaction fees, make microtransactions possible and change the way content is monetized. It is their efficiency makes them interesting and potentially very useful. They should derive their value from their efficiency and their ability to save value rather than store it.

As for bad apples, it’s the government’s job to weed them out whether they run dodgy bitcoin exchanges or dodgy investment firms.

Nermin Hajdarbegovic is a freelance opinion and news writer for CoinDesk: his opinions do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk.

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Roger Ver, Bobby Lee Top Speaker List for China’s Global Bitcoin Summit
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 21, 2014 at 18:56 GMT | Asia, Events, News

Global Bitcoin Summit (GBS) 2014, an event billed as China’s first global bitcoin conference, will be held from 10th-11th May in Beijing at the China National Convention Center.

Speakers for the inaugural event include noted bitcoin investor Roger Ver; BTC China CEO Bobby Lee (billed as Nicholls Yuan); co-founder of Fire Coins Network Li Lin; Canadian Bitcoin Alliance director Anthony di Iorio; Ethereum founder Charles Hoskinson; and OKCoin founder Xu Star.

Event organisers say the goal of GBS is to shed light on bitcoin’s future in China and to promote digital currency innovation in the Asian market and abroad.

The official invitation letter from Li Xiaolai, founder of event organizer BitFund.PE, explains:

“The Summit will be a consortium of prominent Bitcoin leaders, scholars, startups and businesses around the globe, and will also serve a stage where the world comes to witness the progress that China has made.”

The event is being produced by bitcoin-related private equity fund BitFund.PE and China’s largest commercial exhibition organiser UBM China.

BitFund.PE has provided funding to such notable bitcoin projects as BitShares, a decentralized cryptocurrency and derivatives trading system.

Itinerary

Screen Shot 2014-03-07 at 9.53.32 AMThe initial event announcement indicates the first day will feature a keynote address, panel discussions, an investment and cooperation workshop and a VIP banquet.

Day two will host content related to bitcoin applications and digital currency mining.

The official website lists a number of topics that will be discussed further at the conference, including trading platforms, distributed autonomous systems, application development and more.

Event organiser Hitters Xu told CoinDesk the event will include both Chinese-language and English-language speakers:

“[GBS] will open a window for both Chinese bitcoin fans and world bitcoin fans, updating them on the newest ideas and technologies in bitcoin field, [while letting the world] know what is really happening in China.”

Further information about topics can be gleaned from viewing the full list of event speakers here.

More to come

BitFund.PE said that while the event is scheduled for May, there is more work it needs to complete before the May run date. In particular, a finalized agenda has yet to be released.

More speakers are also expected to be added to the current lineup, which organisers estimate is “90% complete”.

Event tickets are now on sale, and those who register before 25th March will receive discounted admission.

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DirectPool Aims To Prevent 51% Attack with Community-First Mining Pool Approach
Tom Sharkey | Published on March 21, 2014 at 19:52 GMT | Companies, Mining

There’s no shortage of mining pools in the digital currency community, but a new mining pool named DirectPool has just launched with a notable mission to give back to the bitcoin community and redistribute the network’s computing power.

DirectPool bills itself as being a “next-generation mining pool”, with its focus on preventing any one existing pool from gaining more than 50% of the network’s hashing power. DirectPool hopes to work with miners and industry leaders alike to actively contribute to the stable growth of the bitcoin community.

Josh Harris, DirectPool’s Media Director, spoke with CoinDesk about the motivations for starting DirectPool, and explained that the idea was conceived as a response to mining pools like Ghash.io, which recently gained nearly 50% of the network’s hashpower:

“When we saw pools getting closer to 51% of the network power, we were really surprised to see the community reaction, and how miners voluntarily distributed themselves to other pools.

The problem was, there weren’t many reliable and efficient alternatives to the larger mining pools.”

Harris explained that DirectPool’s team of developers have been working diligently to program a stable and user-friendly mining pool that is open to the public, and following its launch earlier this week, registration is now enabled on DirectPool’s website.

A “community mining pool”

DirectPool is working closely with industry organizations like the Bitcoin Business Alliance (BBA) to actively engage with the entire bitcoin community, and the mining pool plans to help fund bitcoin startups and offer donations to charities through the generosity of its miners.

Said Harris:

“We haven’t seen any other mining pool that is dedicated to helping the bitcoin community. We will be pooling donations from our miners to donate to charities and help offer funds to startups in the crypto community through our partnership with the BBA.”

In addition to engaging with the entire digital currency community, Harris explained that DirectPool also wants its miners to interact with each other and ultimately help decide which charities receive donations or which startups get funded from the community donations.

Preventing a 51% attack

DirectPool was initially founded with the hope to further redistribute the relative network hashing power that is shared amongst the large mining pools like Ghash.io and BTC Guild, Harris said. A “51% attack” could theoretically allow an entity that gained more than 50% of bitcoin’s total network hashpower to double-spend bitcoins, reverse transactions and prevent block confirmations.

Harris told CoinDesk that while nobody knows for certain what the implications of a 51% attack would be, DirectPool hopes to prevent the situation from ever unfolding:

“We haven’t seen what could really happen if one pool amassed more than 50% of the computing power. Although it’s hypothetical, it’s unsettling to think what would happen if one of the major pools somehow went down, and where all of its miners would move to.

We wanted to create a mining pool that matches the services of the larger pools while helping to distribute the hashing power even more.”

A warm response

In the few days that DirectPool has been open to the public, Harris says that a respectable amount of miners have already registered, and that there have already been donations coming in from generous miners.

DirectPool plans to offer Litecoin mining in the next couple of weeks, and is currently set up for merge mining of Namecoin so that miners have options when receiving their rewards.

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Report Claims Colombia’s Central Bank May Enact Bitcoin Ban
Stan Higgins | Published on March 21, 2014 at 21:15 GMT | News, Regulation

The Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (SFC) may be close to outlawing bitcoin transactions in the South American country, a report from a major nationally distributed newspaper claims.

El Tiempo reported on 20th March that the SFC, in conjunction with Banco central de Colombia, Colombia’s central bank, and the Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público, the executive body responsible for budgetary concerns, is preparing to issue a document outlining the government’s stance on bitcoin and bitcoin-related activities.

According to El Tiempo, the SFC is set release the circular outlining the ban as soon as Tuesday of next week

The Colombian government is expected to cite a lack of effective market protections as one of the core reasons for the measures when it publishes the document, the report suggests. Additionally, the media outlet alleges that bitcoin is viewed by the Colombian government as a threat to the country’s financial system.

However, there remains disagreement among South American bitcoin community members as to whether the restrictions will go as far as the report suggests, with some optimistic that the measure will simply amount to a stern warning.

Government opposition to digital currencies

An informal translation of the report indicates that senior Colombian officials such as Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas have been working in recent weeks and months on an overarching policy for bitcoin. Research from the US Law Library of Congress, corroborated by BitLegal, indicates this would be the first time the country has spoken publicly about digital currencies.

El Tiempo quoted Cardenas during a recent speech before the country’s national legislature in which he touted the strengths of the Colombian peso compared to digital currencies.

“Our currency is reliable, safe and generates no risk, while other forms of money [like Bitcoin] do not have the same level of support and guarantees,” he remarked.

A source connected to the Colombian Ministry of Finance told El Tiempo that the ban may very well focus on Bitcoin handling activities rather than outright purchase by consumers.

“With bitcoin no illegal recruitment, because ultimately what you are doing is buying a product. But when others are offered to collect money from others to invest in that currency, there is already an illegal recruitment, and this brings many risks.”

Colombia’s central bank has also reportedly weighed against bitcoin, saying that it is not a real currency and therefore receives no institutional backing.

The Colombian Ministry of Finance nor the Superintendency of Finance have responded to press inquiries.

Community reaction

Sebastian Serrano, CEO of Latin American-focused payment gateway BitPagos, suggested that the initial reports may not be as ominous as they sound.

Speaking to CoinDesk, he said:

“What we know so far is that the government is going to issue a warning similar to the one issued by the Central Bank of China. Most likely not making bitcoin illegal but just restricting financial institutions from trading Bitcoin in attempt to stop speculation over the currency and avoid the effects of a crash.”

Serrano added that while the news certainly isn’t encouraging for the local Colombian ecosystem, the extent of any damage won’t be known until the report is released on Tuesday.

Ulf Kuhn, founder of Chile-based telemarketing business Telemarketing Facil, indicated that he was unsure of what exactly to make of the report.

“First they say bitcoin and EVERY transaction is illegal. Then they say that offering investing services for bitcoins is illegal. Then they say they worked together with banks, but it’s just a financial department statement.”

Carlos Mesa, of local bitcoin advocacy group Bitcoin Colombia, took to reddit to discuss the news, suggesting more details would be forthcoming after he had an internal meeting with the SFC.

More central banks weigh in worldwide

While the Colombian government has not released its official document outlining the details of a ban, such a move would add to a growing chorus of governments and central banks worldwide that have moved against the Bitcoin.

Earlier this month, the Bank of Mexico banned domestic banks from handling bitcoin. The Mexican central bank cited its risks to the general public but did not directly outlaw consumer purchases of the cryptocurrency.

Other central banks, including those from Russia, Hungary, Cyprus and the Philippines, have issued warnings about bitcoin but have not moved to ban it, despite sometimes harsh rhetoric.

If as extensive as the report suggests, Colombia’s policies would be among the most restrictive enacted worldwide.

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Apple Approves bitWallet iOS App With BTC Sending Function Blocked
Daniel Cawrey (@danielcawrey) | Published on March 21, 2014 at 20:40 GMT | News, Technology, Wallets

Apple has approved a bitcoin wallet app for the iPhone and iPad, though not without a key restriction: App users will not be able to send BTC.

bitWallet, made by a company called Sollico, is now available in the Apple App Store. The listing is notable given the struggles of high-profile bitcoin wallet providers such as Coinbase and Blockchain to have their apps remain in the store. Both companies saw their apps removed in events that outraged the wider bitcoin community.

A company representative from Sollico says it submitted the wallet to Apple under the notion that it might be approved if sending capabilities were prohibited:

“We assumed Apple’s objection is primarily sending bitcoins directly from the app, so we decided to submit the full-featured wallet app, but disable sending bitcoins.”

The prescence of bitWallet’s app suggests that Apple may be willing to allow bitcoin apps that cannot send or receive bitcoins directly. The app focuses on mobile security as well as privacy protection for bitcoin storage.

As it stands, bitWallet is a lone App Store option available on iOS for wallets.

bitWallet Features

Although the lack of a send function is an inconvenience, users can transfer funds via other methods with a wallet’s private key.

According the Sollico:

“As long as you have the private key, you can use any client to send your bitcoins – using Blockchain.info is easiest.”

bitWalletwatchlistiphoneBitWallet goes to lengths to ensure bitcoin wallet privacy on the iPhone. The app guards against the threat of memory scraping by clearing all sensitive information when the app is running in the background. Private keys remain encrypted.

bitWallet’s Watchlist feature allows users to track blockchain address transactions. The wallet uses Blockchain.info to retrieve data, and the company says it plans to bring on other sources of ledger information in the future for redundancy purposes.

Another company called Pheeva is planning to distribute a fully functional as a workaround to Apple’s bitcoin ban. A members-only private distribution method, cooperatives are commonly used in organizations to distribute internal company-only iOS app.

The bitWallet developers say that the approval process took Apple about three weeks, which is longer than usual.

Apple’s stance on bitcoin

Apple has taken a harsh stance against bitcoin apps since last December. That’s when when the company required messaging app Gliph to remove its bitcoin “attachment” sending feature. The Cupertino company most recently asked e-commerce app Fancy to remove bitcoin payments from its iOS app.

Popular wallet Coinbase had its iOS app pulled last November.

Likewise, in February, Apple removed the Blockchain.info iOS wallet from the App Store. This caused consternation among some users, with one particularly angry Blockchain.info mobile wallet user shooting his iPhone, destroying it.


 
bitWallet’s next steps

Despite Apple’s behavior towards bitcoin, bitWallet’s developers remain optimistic. They say that the plan is to submit another version of the app with sending functionality soon.

Sollico says that it plans to be very clear about the functions of its wallet when it submits future versions of bitWallet to Apple.

“Once again, we will be totally upfront with Apple about what the app can and cannot do,” the company added.

It remains unclear when or if Apple will ever allow bitcoin transfers to flow freely from within iOS apps.

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US Class Action Lawyer: Mt. Gox Wallet Discovery “Highly Suspect”
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 21, 2014 at 21:54 GMT | News

Bankrupt Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox released a new press statement earlier today (21st March) confirming 20th March reports that it had uncovered an ‘old-format’ bitcoin wallet containing some 200,000 bitcoins ($115.8m at press time) presumed lost in the run-up to its insolvency.

The statement indicated that the company discovered the funds on 7th March and promptly informed the necessary authorities of the recovery.

However, Chris Dore, a partner at Edelson law firm, isn’t exactly buying Mt. Gox’s version of the events.

Dore, whose firm represents the US class action against the insolvent exchange, suggested that the announcement is closely tied to matters it is currently investigating.

Dore summed up his opinion on the news, telling CoinDesk:

“Their statement that they found [these bitcoins] in a random wallet and failed to tell anyone for two weeks is highly suspect.”

Instead, Dore indicated he believes that the funds may be connected to his firm’s ongoing investigation of 180,000 bitcoins that were said to have been moving through the blockchain on or around 7th March.

“We believe we were on the right trail. It appeared that these 180,000, 200,000 bitcoins were being tumbled, that they were being broken down and reconstituted, so our goal was to find this out.”

Dore suggested that the announcement may have been a move by Mt. Gox to make it harder for information to be uncovered about the funds.

Added Dore: “If it’s a coincidence, it’s a $120m coincidence. We frankly just don’t buy it.”

Investigating the funds

In an interview, Dore elaborated on court proceedings held yesterday, noting that during the day’s events his legal team had asked for restrictions on Mt. Gox’s assets to be relaxed, a request the judge approved. Dore said that his team asked for certain third parties to be able to move the funds.

Explained Dore:

“We’re not fully disclosing what we know or why we were asking that, but essentially it was an effort to try and trace bitcoins that were being moved around and that we believe were associated with this initial group of 180,000 [bitcoins].”

The correlation between the events, Dore suggested, raises questions about Mt. Gox and its conduct.

“The idea that they found it in a wallet and they were breaking it down into hundreds of thousands of smaller wallets, it raises a lot of questions about their honesty and whether they’re being forthright about what they have.”

Dore was not able to fully elaborate on his suspicions regarding the movement of the funds.

Said Dore: “Our hope was, if they could continue to move, we could track where they would end up.”

What the finding means

Dore also addressed another lingering question, just what exactly does the discovery of the funds mean for former exchange users given that these parties are not creditors.

However, that may be up for dispute. Dore indicated that his firm could still make the case that his clients should be treated with this legal distinction.

“In our view, any assets are impactful on our settlement, because the assets, the fiat currency, the bitcoins of our class members. we will do everything in our power to get those returns.”

The next scheduled hearing is expected to take place on 1st April. Then, Mt. Gox will attempt to shield its US assets until the conclusion of its bankruptcy proceedings in Japan.

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Payments Processor BitPay Joins the Bitcoin Foundation as Gold Member
Daniel Cawrey (@danielcawrey) | Published on March 21, 2014 at 22:48 GMT | News

The Bitcoin Foundation added a new member to its ranks on 21st March.

BitPay, a leading merchant processor that enables organizations to accept bitcoin, has become a Gold Member of the Bitcoin Foundation, an official blog post from the organisation revealed.

The Bitcoin Foundation’s goal is to advocate globally for the use of bitcoin as a new financial tool to enable monetary access, transparency and innovation.

Speaking about the news, Tony Gallippi, CEO and co-founder of BitPay, said:

“BitPay feels it is important to support the great work done by the Bitcoin Foundation, as they are leading the continued growth and success of the core protocol upon which we build our business.”

About BitPay

BitPay’s headquarters is in Atlanta, GA. It also has offices in New York, San Francisco and Buenos Aires. The company recently released Bitcore, an open source API that allows application developers to build bitcoin features into their products.

In 2013, BitPay processed more than $100m in BTC transactions for its customers. Some of the company’s notable clientele includes Tiger Direct, the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and Shopify.

BitPay has over 20,000 organizations as customers accepting bitcoin as a form of electronic payment, which costs less than the average fee for merchant credit card processing.

About the Bitcoin Foundation

The Bitcoin Foundation has three membership tiers for industry: silver, gold, and platinum. Industry membership benefits are outlined here.

BitPay, which has received over $2.5m in venture capital investment, is one of two Bitcoin Foundation Gold Members, the other one being Circle Internet Financial.

Individuals can also join the Bitcoin Foundation in one of two tiers: annual and lifetime. Individual membership benefits in the Bitcoin Foundation include a vote in the membership class and access to member forums to discuss initiatives and the organization’s overall direction.

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Bitcoin Regulation Roundup: Bankruptcy, Derivatives and Consumer Protection
Jason Tyra (@tyracpa) | Published on March 22, 2014 at 09:47 GMT | Analysis, Asia, Bitcoin Gambling, Crime, Law, Mt. Gox, News,

Regulatory attitudes towards cryptocurrencies in countries around the world are shifting. Hardly a day goes by without a central bank issuing a statement on the digital currency, or a warning perhaps. But it’s not all bad news, some authorities are taking a much more positive approach. In CoinDesk’s regulation roundup, Certified Public Accountant and ACFE Certified Fraud Examiner Jason Tyra examines the most significant digital currency news from the world’s regulators and law courts over the past fortnight.

MT. Gox: Frozen assets

Mark KarpelesMt. Gox has now filed for bankruptcy protection both in the United States and in Japan. Additionally, both the company and Karpeles have had their US assets frozen in connection with numerous civil complaints and at least one criminal probe.

Karpeles testified in a Texas bankruptcy court on Monday, March 10th, that Mt. Gox was the target of a massive and lengthy attack by computer hackers, but admitted that the exchange continued to accept trading orders and collect fee income for weeks after management knew that Gox was technically insolvent.

Further, Mt. Gox has so far failed to explain the reason for the discrepancy between the amounts of cash liabilities on its balance sheet and the balance of cash held in banks accounts known to be owned by the company.

As the drama plays out in public on multiple continents, online forums have buzzed with theories about the source and extent of the collapse, rumors of wholesale theft by Mt. Gox management and voluminous amounts of data alleged to have been leaked (or stolen) from Gox’s servers.

Nevertheless, no allegation, including the official statements by Gox management, has yet been conclusively proven. Mt. Gox’s website restored partial functionality on March 17, allowing account holders to check their balances, but not make withdrawals.

The Mt. Gox affair has set the stage for a shift in the focus of bitcoin regulatory efforts in the United States from money laundering exclusively to also include consumer protection.

New York: Registered exchanges

Ben LawskyThe State of New York seems to taken the lead in its drive toward regulating bitcoin-related businesses operating there.

The State Department of Financial Services, headed by Ben Lawsky, recently announced that it will accept proposals to establish regulated exchanges in New York.

Lawsky cited “the urgent need for stronger oversight […] including robust standards for consumer protection, cyber security, and anti-money laundering compliance” in his solicitation for applications and proposals.

The standards of acceptance and process of application do not appear to be available through the Department of Financial Services website, suggesting that both will be handled in an ad-hoc manner, with extensive input and negotiation by applicants.

New York’s only bitcoin exchange, BitInstant, ceased operating after the arrest of its founder on money laundering charges in 2013. CoinMap.org currently lists more than 100 bitcoin businesses operating in New York State, but that number does not include businesses located outside New York with a regulatory nexus there.

The US Treasury may have concluded that bitcoin is unworthy of extra regulation for the time being.  In a speech given on March 18th, US Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said:

“Terrorists generally need ‘real’ currency, not virtual currency, to pay their expenses.”

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has cracked down over the past year on unregistered exchanges, resulting in disruptions to bitcoin businesses and users throughout the world.

While registration requirements are unlikely to be eased, a de facto moratorium on further regulation is likely to be a welcome development.

Texas: Bitcoin investment blocked

Oil wellConsumer protection seems to be on the minds of other regulators, as the commissioner of the Texas State Securities Board has issued an emergency order barring a private energy exploration company from accepting investments in bitcoin from non-accredited investors.

The company, Balanced Energy LLC, must also furnish potential investors with a disclosure informing them that bitcoin is volatile and that their investment may be subject to extraordinary risk as a result.

Both US federal and Texas state law require companies offering securities under one of the registration exceptions to take reasonable steps to verify that potential investors are qualified.

Offerings of unregistered securities by bitcoin-related businesses have become common over the last 18 months, with solicitations for everything from mining operations to exchanges and other tech startups being pushed online. Though failure to register is not generally a criminal matter, firms that violate the rules can face substantial civil penalties.

US: SatoshiDice in trouble

Also in securities registration, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is reportedly investigating whether bitcoin gambling site SatoshiDice violated registration rules by accepting funds from investors located in the US.

MPEx, the Romania-based exchange that hosts SatoshiDice shares, has so far declined to cooperate, citing lack of jurisdiction by the SEC.

US: Bitcoin derivatives?

BTC derivativesBitcoin derivatives may be coming to US financial markets. According to Bart Chilton, a member of the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the regulator already has statutory jurisdiction over a proposed derivatives market for bitcoin.

Chilton suggested that his agency had been in talks with several companies about bitcoin derivatives, but declined to name them, since no formal applications have been filed.

A derivatives market would allow traders to write calls, puts, swaps, options and other types of contracts on bitcoin in much the same way as other investments. However, while derivatives might result in more robust long-term growth of the bitcoin economy, they also bring a risk of greater volatility to bitcoin markets.

The enormous worldwide derivatives market played a substantial role in the 2008-2009 financial crisis in the US, as bets on the performance of certain classes of assets drove a large number of previously profitable companies into insolvency.

Singapore: Compulsory registration

singapore-masThe city-state of Singapore has announced that virtual currency related businesses, including bitcoin exchanges and other intermediaries, will be required to register with a unit of the police force that enforces anti-money laundering rules.

According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, these regulations place the tiny nation at the forefront of virtual currency regulation among developed countries.

Singapore’s decision to impose anti-money laundering regulation on bitcoin businesses marks a reversal from its previous stance, announced just a few weeks ago, and coinciding with the installation of its first bitcoin ATMs.

Iran: Regulation talks

Iran has reportedly announced its own effort to regulate virtual currency trade within its borders. According to the Fars News Agency, the country’s National Center for Cyberspace is currently involved in talks with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Iran’s Central Bank concerning what regulations might be needed in the Islamic state and how they might be implemented.

Iran has endured punishing economic sanctions at the hands of western countries in recent years, stemming from its alleged pursuit of a nuclear weapons program. The country has publicly claimed that the program is for civil purposes only.

The sanctions, which were partially lifted recently, have severely hampered Iran’s ability to trade abroad, drained its foreign exchange reserves and driven the country to resort to extraordinary measures, such as gold bullion smuggling, to conduct business abroad.

Bitcoin could be used to partially subvert economic sanctions in the future, stoking fears among western governments that it could also be used for money laundering.

US anti-money laundering rules require financial institutions, such as money service businesses, to “know their customers” – that is, collect ID data – and ensure that they do not appear on the Office of Foreign Asset Control’s Specially Designated Nationals list.

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Bitcoin Banking, Solving ID Theft, and Why Regulators Should Love Pasties
John Law (@scotonomist) | Published on March 23, 2014 at 09:44 GMT | Analysis, Crime, Lifestyle

Welcome to the CoinDesk Weekly Review 21st March 2014 – a regular look at the hottest, most thought-provoking and most controversial events in the world of digital currency through the eyes of scepticism and wonder.

Your host … John Law.

No accounting for the taxman

coins

UK readers may have been too busy drinking beer and playing bingo with their pensions to notice, but this week’s Budget statement had one little snippet tucked away that may do more to promote bitcoin than if Newsweek revealed Satoshi Nakamoto was really Stephen Fry in a kimono.

In the future, muttered Chancellor George Osborne out of the corner of his mouth, the taxman will get the right to empty your bank account directly. No court order, no appeal process.

Oh, it’s not like that, the Treasury said. We’ll leave you with £5,000, and it’s only if you don’t answer our letters. And anyway, we won’t do it just yet. It’s all very reasonable, really.

It might be, if the taxman was always right. But now and again – whisper it – mistakes are made. Ask your friends. That’s why, in general, you get your day in court before the knife comes swishing down.

But if you don’t trust Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ Papal infallibility, what can you do? Traditionally, keeping your assets out of the banks is a good way to add a certain level of security, but unless you’re in a line of work where vast amounts of actual cash is de rigeur, this is not very convenient. Alternatively, if you’re very rich, you can hire people to keep your money offshore. The rest of us? Hmm.

So, one more positive vibe for the bitcoin concept of being your own bank. Your wallet sits on your computer or mobile phone, and if you’re half-way careful about computer security, there it stays. With as much of your money in it as you like, an asset that can only be legally removed from your grasp if the courts say so.

It might seem a bit previous, given all the recent publicity for bitcoin heists and exchange implosion, but the techniques exist for perfectly secure online walletry. It doesn’t need much of a leap of faith to see that the bitcoin ecosystem will evolve to be more generally secure than the current mash-up of financial services, banks and other electronic money handlers.

This won’t happen overnight, and bitcoin is a long way from being stable enough in value to be a secure repository of too much of your personal wealth. The right magic for security, both cyber and value, may not even happen with bitcoin itself: the key lies in the underlying technology, not this year’s implementation.

Yet with the general trend away from bank account sanctity, the pressure on cybercurrency to provide truly personal bank accounts can only grow. That’s something the Chancellor probably didn’t budget for.

You can’t steal IDs if there’s no ID to steal

kid coder

Nothing warms John Law’s black, wizened, pickled walnut of a heart than when the Economist nicks one of his themes rather than, as far more often, the other way around. But here the august bible of global capitalism is, saying that we shouldn’t worry about bitcoin’s growing pains, the basic concepts are truly revolutionary, truly useful, and here to stay.

Moreover, it’s keen on the idea of linking bitcoin-like tokens (John Law will not rest until BLT becomes an official industry abbreviation) to actual stuff, which is an intriguing development.

What if, the Economist asks, your car key has a BLT in it and your car will only run if that’s present? That makes buying and selling cars potentially as simple as any online transaction, but without the need to provide the whole supporting legal framework of title. That is, after all, the analogue equivalent of actionably linking ownership to owner. Bitcoin provides just this, by merely existing in a certain place.

This meshes really well with the whole ‘Internet of Things’ concept, where just about everything we build or use sprouts brains and connectivity. Not only will everything exist with a digital identity in a block chain, unfakeable and unstealable, but your ownership of it will be similarly guaranteed – and transferable – in a way that the thing itself can check.

You won’t need to prove identity to prove ownership. Or partnership, or membership – both of which are different versions of the same idea. Your possession of the right token will do.

Think how much time you spend protecting stuff, or proving who you are to get use of something, or checking that someone else really is who they say they are so they can use something of yours.

This is the sort of thing that government or corporate IDs claim to ensure, but so often don’t – not because of bad faith, but because of overly-complex process, or human error, or an excess of caution. And they all have the real danger of leaking your ID to people who shouldn’t know it.

It is genuinely hard to imagine where removing ID from everyday life will lead. Obviously, things that transfer their allegiance along with purchase will make a lot of stuff effectively unpinchable – if the owner isn’t there, they refuse to work (“Is this your car, sir?” “Why don’t you ask it, officer?”). But how about legal documents? Medical records? You can’t steal someone’s ID if it’s not actually there and the data refuses to reveal itself to people who aren’t members of the “people you’ve given permission to read me” group.

Again,the important thing about BLTs is that there is no need for independent verification, or trust. The system itself enshrines those things.

A workable world with little need for independent ID seems almost beyond imagining. This time last century, the world of 2013 was beyond even the most visionary of pipe-smoking brow-furrowers. They should have eaten more BLTs.

What’s in a name?

hello my name is

Such Utopian fantasies necessarily ignore real problems in 2013. One that’s yet to be solved is – what, exactly, is bitcoin? Glass beads, say the Danes. Not a currency, say the Thais. A numerical amount, say the Australians.

A lot of the current regulatory indigestion is because bitcoin is called bitcoin and cybercurrencies are called cybercurrencies. In fact, the Australians are closest to the truth – bitcoin is number – but that’s about as useful as saying gold is a metal.

It’s a problem modern scientists have had in spades. They at least had the sense, when they started to discover that the seemingly normal world was built out of very weird things, to give a lot of those very weird things very weird names. Quarks. Leptons. Bosons. You knew where you were – in new and unexplored lands.

In general, though, they had to re-use old words – particle, spin, colour, wave – that still give fledgling physicists mammoth headaches in having to unlearn what those words mean in the normal world. Is a photon of light a wave or a particle? Yes. And no. Does an electron actually spin? No. But the maths is a bit like that of spinny things.

Bitcoin is like that. It was named after coins, because in many ways it is like coins, and that meant ordinary people could get most of what it’s about very quickly. But in key ways it isn’t like coins – no country is behind it, there’s no central bank – which means it can’t be regulated like physical money. It’s a unit of value, but unlike any other in that it needs nobody to say that it is one.

So, regulators have the same problem as any bright young schoolkid starting to learn physics for real – those words do not mean what you think they mean. They’re just dangerously close.

Bitcoin – and many of the concepts with it – is a new quantum physics of money, and you shouldn’t be surprised that the old words from which its name is built are in themselves part of the problem in understanding what it is and how to use it.

John Law proposes that, for those who have to deal with the technicalities, a decent, new and suitably weird set of names should be decided upon.

In the same way that quark was taken from one of James Joyce’s literary inventions – a poem starting “Three quarks for Muster Mark!” in Finnegan’s Wake – a basic token, be it BLT or bitcoin, could be a ‘jurtle’. That’s a word coined by Douglas Adams in the Vogon poetry of Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, one of the holy scriptures of cybergeekdom. Units of work – those slippery things that heat up miners – could be ‘oggies’, the Cornish tin-digger’s word for pasties.

Doubtless you can think of more. Or better. But until everyone with skin in this game – regulators, designers, inventors and economists – are happy with their own quantum theory of oggies-per-jurtle, then nothing will really make sense.

John Law is an 18th Century Scottish entrepreneur, financial engineer and gambler. Having reformed the French economy, invented paper currency, state banks, the Mississippi Bubble and other ideas essential to modern economics, he took 300 years off in a small cottage outside Bude. He has returned to write for CoinDesk on the foibles of digital currency.