In the excitement about the U.S. Marshal Service’s auction of millions of dollars in bitcoin seized from the Silk Road, the situation of its alleged mastermind has gained less attention. Ross Ulbricht, the man the FBI claims ran the Tor-obscured website under the name “Dread Pirate Roberts,” has been awaiting trial since his arrest in…
In a story published this morning by Reuters, French officials in Cannes and Nice arrested two men in connection with an “illegal” bitcoin exchange, seizing 388 BTC (roughly $240,000). The men, whose names have not been released, face charges of “illegal banking, money laundering and illegally operating a gambling website.” The exchange’s name and website…
In mid-June, the U.S. Marshal Service (USMS) accidentally sent a mass email to all of the parties who had contacted them about the then-upcoming auction of nearly 30,000 BTC seized from the Silk Road. In addition to providing the bitcoin community and news outlets with a glimpse at some of the potential bidders in the…
In May, the U.K. arm of fast-food giant McDonald’s launched My Burger, a new online promotion asking customers to submit their own burger creations. Website and social media visitors were encouraged to vote for their favorite recipes, with the 12 most popular being presented to McDonald’s U.K. judges, and the top five being given a…
Speaking on the Free Talk Live podcast from the Porcupine Freedom Festival in New Hampshire, Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne discussed a wide range of bitcoin-related topics, including plans to create an incentive program to encourage his company’s employees and vendors to use bitcoin. “We are going to be bringing online system that let us pay…
Generating a truly offline, as-secure-as-possible paper bitcoin wallet for cold storage is, to put it mildly, a total pain. If you’re following the best practices advocated by most serious security experts, you not only need a completely offline machine, you also need a fresh install of your OS (or at least a Live CD or…
The European Banking Authority (EBA) released a report today strongly recommending that banks and other financial institutions hold off on any direct investment in bitcoin or other cryptocurrency until regulators develop stronger protections for their use. The EBA identified a list of 70 risks associated with digital currency, including well-known concerns such as fraud, money…
As bitcoin’s price was recovering to pre-Mt.Gox collapse levels this week, competing cryptocurrency litecoin (LTC) was dropping in like a stone. On July 1, LTC fell from nearly $9 to $7.90, one of the most dramatic crashes it has experienced in months, and the overall downward trend has continued heading into the July 4th weekend….
One of the mantras of cryptocurrency-advocating technology experts is that the Bitcoin protocol’s biggest innovation isn’t that it is can be used as money, but rather that it can solve any problem where users need to transmit secure information without needing to trust each other. While transmitting currency-like digital tokens is a powerful application of…
If there’s one thing Circle‘s team understands, it’s building anticipation. With a product that promises near-instant bitcoin “deposits” and “withdrawals” directly from bank accounts and credit cards, and free access to those funds anywhere in the world, Circle certainly looks like a viable contender for a mainstream appeal. When the company presented a demo version…