When most cryptocurrency users think of putting their funds in cold storage, they generally picture using a paper wallet. While that method has its merits, it does suffer from a problem: If a person can see your QR code, private key, or even passphrase seed, they can access your address and your funds. But what…
Blockchain.info announced yesterday that Chief Security Officer (CSO) Andreas M. Antonopoulos has stepped down from his role, and will now become an advisor to the company’s board. Antonopoulos is widely seen as one of bitcoin’s most passionate advocates, having given countless speeches and presentations about blockchain technology and written a widely praised book on bitcoin…
The Canadian Press reports today that bitcoin-backed salary payments are on the rise in Canada. According to Waterloo, Ontario,-based payroll firm Wagepoint, employees and businesses are increasingly interested in paying out in BTC rather than the Canadian dollar (CAD). The firm launched one of the first cryptocurrency-based payment options in the world last November, but…
It’s being called “Celebgate,” and it’s already bringing a new wave of negative attention to bitcoin. Over the weekend, a poster on infamous anonymous image-sharing message board 4Chan.org leaked hundreds of private, nude photos of several female celebrities, including Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence, swimsuit model Kate Upton and others. The anonymous 4Chan poster also claimed to…
Automated trading is both a boon and a curse for exchanges of all kinds. On the one hand, “bots” greatly reduce the amount of time and attention needed to implement a trading strategy. A well-programmed bot can, in theory, be earning a profit on even marginal trades, 24-hours a day, and for completely logic-driven reasons…
Charlie Shrem may soon be a free man. Reuters reports that the former BitInstant CEO has reached a plea arrangement with federal prosecutors over his role in converting bitcoin to cash from deals on the now-shuttered black market website Silk Road. Shrem had been charged with a variety of felonies, including conspiracy to launder money,…
Australia’s first publicly traded bitcoin mining and exchange company digitalBTC released a preliminary final yearly report today, revealing an estimated revenue of $4 million U.S. over three months of operations. The company’s normalized earnings were around $2.5 million for the same period, with a profit of about $600,000. Interestingly, digitalBTC actually reported a net loss…
The first bitcoin exchange in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) opened today, bringing a fully licensed digital currency commercial brokerage to Dubai. The exchange is a branch office of Australia-based bitcoin exchange igot, and is the first stage of a planned expansion into the Middle East and Asia. Although there will be a small staff…
The final member of China’s “big three” bitcoin exchanges has passed a proof-of-solvency audit with flying colors. In an independent audit published by Ripple Labs CTO Stefan Thomas, Huobi appears to have 103.52% of total customer deposits in reserve. Thomas provided the auditing service free of charge, as he did when auditing Kraken and Bitfinex…
The very first bitcoin transaction, all the way back in January of 2009, was between the protocol’s mysterious inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, and an avid programmer and cryptographer named Hal Finney. Hal Finney died yesterday after a five years battle with ALS. He was 58. Finney’s disease robbed him of nearly all control of his body,…