In a post on the Bitcoin Foundation’s blog yesterday, Marco Santori, Chairman of the foundation’s Regulatory Affairs Committee responded to the recent decision by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to treat bitcoin as a stock-like class of property, rather than as a currency. The post notes that the foundation “appreciates the IRS’ hard work in…
Yesterday, the IRS declared that bitcoins were to be treated under the same rules as stocks under U.S. tax law, causing a wave of relief for seasoned investors and a chill of quiet panic among casual users. A literal interpretation of the rules would require an immense amount of bookkeeping for anyone who would use…
California State Sen. Leland Yee was arrested yesterday on charges of public corruption, soliciting funds from undercover FBI agents in exchange for promises to aid in a gun-trafficking deal that would have illegally armed Muslim rebels in the Philippines. Yee was one of 26 people charged in the the five-year-long investigation, as was accused murder-for-hire…
In a research paper titled “Bitcoin Transaction Malleability and MtGox” posted to the arXiv archive yesterday, authors Christian Decker and Roger Wattenhofer determined that Mt.Gox could not have lost 850,000 bitcoins through a transaction malleability glitch in the site’s code. Instead, the researchers note that an attack of that scale has never taken place, and…
The venture capital world has been spreading their money around the bitcoin ecosystem in a big way this week. While much the attention is understandably going to the $17 million raised by Circle, two smaller VC investments may have even bigger impacts in the coming months. San Francisco-based bitcoin exchange Kraken has raised $5 million…
There’s a huge amount of free promotion for the first business in a city or region to have a bitcoin ATM, but practically zero media attention for the second. As a result, the ATM company with the fastest delivery time tends to get the business. With that in mind, startup bitcoin ATM maker Lamassu has…
Earlier this month, Canadian virtual currency exchange Vault of Satoshi announced it was ceasing all U.S. currency transactions due to ongoing issues with regulators. In recent weeks, the exchange has been focused on becoming a legitimate financial institution in Canada, even though there are few formal rules for how bitcoin fits into Canadian banking law….
When the Auroracoin “airdrop” began yesterday, things did not look promising for the Icelandic alt-coin. A crush of users trying to claim their coins effectively caused DDoS attack on the site, and other technical glitches resulted in the site falling to the bottom of alt-coin value tracking site Coinmarketcap, landing just above CorgiCoin. And to…
Boston-based bitcoin startup Circle has always been a little vague about what exactly it is they’re building. The company’s website has rarely provided more detail than “building digital currency products that make money simpler, safer, and more powerful,” prompting no end of speculation about what kind of service Circle would eventually provide. Are they a…
After months of speculation, the Internal Revenue Service has released new rules for including bitcoin in annual tax filings (PDF). According to the rules, bitcoin is to be handled as a form of property, rather than currency, meaning bitcoin itself is to be treated like a stock. This puts many bitcoin buyers in the awkward,…