Raghuram Rajan, who is the Governor for the Reserve Bank of India, spoke with Indian students in an hour long discussion put together by NDTV and hosted by Dr Prannoy Roy. Fielding questions from the audience, one student asked Rajan for his opinion on Bitcoin to which Rajan stated the security is an issue and that some features of Bitcoin are worrisome. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: December 2014
Reminder: Bitcoin Bowl Today
For anyone interested in catching an American Football game the Bitcoin Bowl is set to begin in roughly twelve hours on ESPN. For people not strictly interested in the American Football being played the game still presents the opportunity to watch for amusing absurdities. Earlier this season a coach had his nose broken by one of his own falling players and Mormon flagship university Brigham Young's football team was involved in a post game brawl after losing to Memphis in double overtime. Continue reading
Coinbase Tracing User Transactions
Coinbase has been banning user accounts that send Bitcoin to gambling sites, such as Satoshi Dice or Seals With Clubs. Earlier today a reddit user made a post stating Coinbase banned his account for allegedly purchasing cannabis products with coins purchased from the service. The user provided screenshots of email correspondence with the Coinbase support team, which states the remaining coins in the user's wallet may be withdrawn, but will not be able to utilize the purchase or selling services Coinbase provides. Continue reading
Butterfly Labs Motion To Dismiss Denied, FTC Suit Survives
The Kansas City Business Journal reports that the Federal Judge overseeing the case, Brian Wimes, has refused Butterfly Labs motion to dismiss the ongoing suit by the Federal Trade Commission. Earlier this month the Judge had allowed Butterfly Labs to fully reopen under court supervision, and in November the court ordered the company to transfer its Bitcoin to a court appointed receiver. after earlier being allowed a limited reopening under receivership. The current Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against Butterfly Labs has been ongoing since September 2014. John Humphrey, the Attorney for Butterfly Labs originally filed the motion to dismiss on their behalf back in October.
Discus Fish Donates Namecoins to Namecoin Developers
A posting on the official Namecoin forum reveals that Bitcoin mining pool Discus Fish has donated 20,000 Namecoins to developers to bring the Namecoin client in line with the current Bitcoin client developed by Vessenes' foundation. At present there is a Github repository where code committed to this effort so far is currently available.
Namecoin was the first credible fork of the Bitcoin codebase and remains one of the few altcoins of enduring interest. The Namecoin project was born out of a desire to expand the principles that laid the foundation for Bitcoin's success in reinventing money to doing the same for Domain and other name services. Namecoin was even early enough to get suggestions and code commits from Satoshi Nakamato himself. Continue reading
Bitnplay Aims To Raise 400 BTC For A Bitcoin Based Poker Site
Seals with Clubs, Breakout Gaming, Michael Mizrachi's Get Lucky Poker and to a lesser extent NXT's Pangea Poker are just some of the names attempting to establish themselves as Bitcoin based online poker venues. Into this mix comes a new site named Bitnplay who hope that their Bitcoin only online poker site will be enough to entice players away from competitors when they launch February 1st 2015. Continue reading
Sony Now to Release Movie
The movie The Interview whose release was canceled under duress, is now being released. Once again some measure of coercion is likely involved.
GCHQ Says Its Surveillance Ability is Crippled Post-Snowden
According to the Telegraph the British Intelligence gathering agency Global Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, is warning people that it apparently can no longer effectively track people they refer to as "some of the world's most dangerous crime lords." Problems they claim to face in the post-Snowden age include people taking better operational security measures to avoid surveillance as well as a fear on their part to engage in many of the kinds of surveillance that have been revealed because they might be discovered. They also report that cooperation from communications companies has become problematic in smuggling and fraud cases as the companies insist requests concern matters that involve “direct threat to life” now. Continue reading
Satoshi Nakamoto Institute Launch Podcast
Daniel Krawisz and Michael Goldstein of the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute today broadcast the first episode of their new podcast titled "The Crypto-Mises Podcast". Episode one covers app coins and why they are a bad investment and includes a response to Vitalek Buterin's article "On Bitcoin Maximalism, and Currency and Platform Network Effects."
The new podcast comes off the back of the duo's informative round table discussion series.
Belarus Experiences Bonanza/Currency Panic
In dueling narratives in today's news headlines in Belarus the country is simultaneously experiencing both a trade bonanza and a currency panic to which strong capital controls have been imposed in response. As this happens a Russian Member of Parliament hinted in a tweet that if President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko warms relations with the west in an effort to improve economic prospects he might face a fate similar to Libya's Ghaddafi who fell in a coup supported by the United States after entering into a détente. Continue reading