On their blog, Blockchain.info has disclosed that a routine update left them serving insecure code to customers using their wallet between 12:00 AM and 2:30 AM GMT today. All customers who used the Blockchain.info web wallet to interface to create wallets, generate addresses, or send transactions are reported to be affected. The problem given the scope appears to be that Blockchain.info was serving weak pseudo-random number generating software.
Monthly Archives: December 2014
HashFast Asset Auction Cancelled
Last Thursday, Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali approved a joint statement from HashFast and its creditors in which it is made clear that no-one other than Simon Barber is interested in purchasing the remaining assets. Early last month, HashFast was ordered to auction off its assets but plans for the auction have been scuttled at the last moment as the Bid Procedures Order only received "lowball offers."
In addition to the joint statement released last Thursday, a document dated October 31st was made available. This document shows that a Venezuelan congressman by the name of Guido Ochoa made a bid of $420,000, which was accepted, for all HashFast assets but the ASICs. Continue reading
Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl Preview
Today the 2014 NCAA College Football bowl match ups were announced and the University of Central Florida Knights (9 wins, 3 losses) will be facing the North Carolina State Wolfpack (7 wins, 5 losses) in the Bitcoin St Petersburg bowl. The St Petersburg bowl which presently carries the Bitcoin name was born in 2008 as the magicJack bowl, before serving as the Beef 'O' Brady's bowl from 2009 to 2013. The game will begin at 8:00 pm Eastern time December 26th at Tropicana field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team and air on ESPN. Let's take a look at the teams: Continue reading
BitPay Yet To Release Bitcoin Black Friday 2014 Stats
Despite a promise that 2014's Bitcoin Black Friday, held on November 28th, would be bigger, better, bestest than ever before, BitPay are yet to release any data for the event, something which they were quick to make public in previous years.
In fact, there is little information coming from anyone associated with the event. PYMNTS.com published an article in which they cite Bitnet's1 calculation that USD $296 million was processed by the Bitcoin network on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There is no data which suggests this figure is attributable to BBF but that didn't stop Roger Ver, an investor in BitPay, from retweeting the article while ignoring requests for further information from other twitter users. Continue reading
Bitnet is a payment processor much like BitPay and Coinbase. ↩
Summary of MPEX Stocks November 2014
Monthly statements from stocks listed at the MPEX exchange have been released for November. Official reports are available at Trilema. Here are some highlights: Continue reading
Sergio Demian Lerner Hired By Vessenes' Foundation
Vessenes' Bitcoin foundation today announced it has hired Sergio Demian Lerner as the foundation's "Core Security Auditor" and he is intended to work on security aspects of the Bitcoin Core fork of Satoshi's Bitcoin implementation. Sergio Demian Lerner is scheduled to appear at the laBITconf bitcoin conference in Buenos Aires on December 7th, 2014. The Vessenes' foundation also announced its intention to offer release candidates for version 0.10 of their Bitcoin client in the next week.
California's DBO: We Have Authority To Regulate Bitcoin
Staff at California's Department of Business Oversight have concluded that the department has the authority to regulate Bitcoin but are yet to elaborate on just how they intend to do so. The perceived authority to regulate Bitcoin came about after staff at the DBO came to a consensus that the state's laws which govern money transmitters such as Western Union also applies to Bitcoin. Continue reading
An Interview With Darkside Of The Russian Anonymous Marketplace
Wired.com has published an interview with Darkside of the relatively unknown Russian Anonymous Marketplace, otherwise known as RAMP. RAMP caters solely to Russian customers and unlike Western dark markets, does not collect a commission on sales. Darkside claims his business model is earning him $250,000 per year and RAMP has now been in business longer than the original Silk Road.
The full interview is available here.
Von NotHaus Gets House Arrest
Reports are coming out that Bernard Von NotHaus has been sentenced to six months of house arrest. He was convicted in 2011 for minting a precious metal backed private currency called the Liberty Dollar which he intended to have rival the Federal Reserve note. Von NotHaus had been described by prosecutors and law enforcement officials as a terrorist for encouraging private persons to barter with silver and gold coins as an alternative to using United States Dollars. The Liberty Dollar was introduced in 1998. Von Nothaus was warned in 2006, raided in 2007, indicted in 2009, convicted in 2011, and finally sentenced December 3rd 2014. Von Nothaus had faced potentially 40 years in prison and a loss of millions of dollars, but the United States Attorney only managed again, a sentence of six months of house arrest.
11 Bidders 27 Bids in Latest USMS Bitcoin Auction
Reuters reports that 11 parties have entered 27 bids for Bitcoins in the latest Auction by the United States Marshals Service. Reuters notes in their write up that Steve Englander of Citi anticipated most bids being entered below market price.