Yesterday, a list of roughly 2,000 names and email addresses tied to Coinbase accounts was released by an unknown person to Pastebin. The post warned readers that “Coinbase provides your full transaction history to the FBI, FinCEN and IRS every day. They are under a gag order.” While the list does seem to contain valid…
Yesterday, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis hosted a talk by David Andolfatto titled “Bitcoin and Beyond: The Possibilities and the Pitfalls of Virtual Currencies.” In addition to his role as Vice President of the bank, Andolfatto is a professor at Simon Fraser University. One of the key perspectives in the presentation was the…
In the weeks since Newsweek boisterously claimed to have identified bitcoin’s mysterious creator as 64-year-old Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, evidence has piled up that the once-venerable magazine was wrong. Almost immediately after Dorian Nakamoto insisted to the Associated Press that he was not involved with bitcoin in any way, but was actually a financially struggling retired…
Bloomberg reports that former BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem is in the process of working out a plea deal with prosecutors for his alleged role in the Silk Road drug network. Shrem was arrested in January for conspiring to launder more than $1 million dollars in drug-related funds through his company. Assistant U.S. Attorney Serrin Turner…
For an already jittery community worried about price drops and regulation, following bitcoin news on April 1st is a special kind of waking nightmare. With few truly reliable news sources, and many meaningful stories breaking through obscure sites, forums and Reddit posts, knowing what to believe on April Fool’s Day is almost impossible. Of course,…
Mobile payment system Square is no innovation. Best known for their smartphone plug-in credit card readers, the company has already helped to redefine how transactions work in the internet age. Continuing in that vein, Square announced today the addition of bitcoin payment support to their Etsy-like online marketplace Square Market. Sellers should never miss a…
With all of the uncertainty and rumors surrounding the People’s Bank of China’s view of bitcoin, it’s only natural that every word from any semi-official source will come under close scrutiny. But that doesn’t mean that every rumor is equally valid, even when it comes from someone like Zhang Niannian. Posting to his personal Sina…
In a report published today on Vice.com, writer Christopher Malmo considers the potential of using bitcoin’s trustless, consensus-based software as a means to completely reshape the one thing that’s even thornier than the finance system: Democracy. One of the most promising applications of new crypto tech lies in creating transparent, efficient systems for making political…
Today marks the final day of normal operations for UK-based bitcoin exchange Bit121. The company explained via their website that they were not officially closing, but merely entering a period of “hibernation,” and hope to re-open “at some point in the near future.” While the closure of an exchange is difficult to see as good…
In a report published by Reuters today, former staffers at failed bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox claim that client funds were used to cover internal costs. In a series of exclusive interviews with reporters, the former staffers claimed that they had voiced concerns to CEO Mark Karpeles in early 2012, but that no changes were made. By…