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Qntra - Herald Of The Most Serene Republic |
The U.S. State Department has announced a reward of up to USD $3 million1 for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Russian national Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev. Bogachev is wanted by the FBI for numerous alleged cybercrimes including an association with a botnet named Gameover ZeuS. Continue reading
Payable in bezzlars, not bitcoin. ↩
An Australian man, who was a member of the Rebels MC at the time of his arrest, today plead guilty to charges of drug trafficking after he was arrested in 2014 for the importation of MDMA, cocaine and amphetamines despite the drugs being intercepted by police in the Australian states of Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. Continue reading
A report by Europol's European Cybercrime Centre makes the claim that, despite much of the evidence being anecdotal1, Bitcoin is increasingly being used to pay for the live streaming of kiddy porn2. The report was produced with the supposed intention of assisting law enforcement and the private sector to reduce and prevent such crimes from occurring, but it reads as nothing more than an attack on Bitcoin itself. Continue reading
"Although much of the evidence is still anecdotal, concerns have been expressed by LE and financial experts in the wider international environment that commercial CSE online, among other criminal activities, is moving to a new unregulated, unbanked digital economy. Payment mechanisms providing a certain degree of anonymity are always open to abuse by those with criminal intentions, as developments in the use of Bitcoin show." ↩
It is recommended by organisations such as Europol that the term Child Abuse Material or CAM is better suited to describe such material as the word pornography implies that the children were willing participants and paid, but if Europol cannot be reasonable and differentiate between a paedophile and the use of Bitcoin, I cannot be expected to know the difference between the words kiddy porn and CAM. ↩
For one Canadian expatriate the term "Ransomware" has taken a more literal turn. According to The Tico Times Ryan Piercy was allegedly kidnapped and held for roughly a month by attackers who demanded a half million dollar ransom to be paid in Bitcoin. Piercy arrived home Saturday via taxi, so if Piercy was indeed held for ransom it seems incredibly likely the ransom was paid and the scheme worked as advertised.
Bitrated.com originally started as an arbitrage service to provide consumers with the “protection" of what they have come to expect. The Bitrated Payment System allows for users and merchants to make reversible e-commerce transactions, since GPG contracts are apparently too hard to grasp. The two parties doing business each nominate and agree on a third party to act as a trust arbiter. A transaction is then structured through the payment system requiring 2 of 3 of parties wallet signatures to release the funds to an address. Continue reading
The United States Supreme Court without comment denied Adel Daoud, a 21 year old FBI trained terrorist, access to secret court orders which authorized electronic surveillance against him. Without access to the documents authorizing surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act there is no practical means for Daoud to mount a legal defense against the legality of the surveillance he was placed under. Daoud was arrested for triggering a device outside of a Chicago bar which was provided to him by the FBI and which the FBI swears they told him was a bomb. Continue reading
The New York Times reports that a legislative impasse in the United States Congress might leave the Department of Homeland Security without funds. If this comes to pass, roughly 30,000 employees in mostly administrative positions will be furloughed while the remaining 200,000 employees deemed "critical" would be compelled to report for work as normal. The "critical" employees would be working without the expectation of receiving a pay check.
With the fourth adjustment for 2015 occurring today, the Bitcoin mining difficulty has grown to a new ATH of 46,684,376,317. This is an increase of 5.01% over February 9th's previous ATH of 44,455,415,962. The global hash rate as of the change stands at 334,179,783 GH/s.1
The block height stands at 344737 with a remaining 75263 blocks to be mined prior to the reward halving. The next reward halving event is forecast to occur in July or August of 2016.
An average over the last 504 blocks. ↩
Bryan Micon of Seals with Clubs has released a video in which he details some of the previously unknown "operational security" concerns which forced the site offline earlier this month.
Micon alleges that on the 11th of February, armed gaming agents acting for the Nevada Gaming Commission knocked on his front door with a sledge hammer and pointed guns at him in order to serve a search warrant for his involvement with SwC and Bitcoin poker. Micon further alleges that much of his electronic equipment was stolen despite not being charged with a crime. Continue reading
The Chicago Tribune reports that the Midlothian Police Department paid a ransom last month in order to regain access to police files and backups encrypted by the ransomware known as Cryptoware. The Village of Midlothian obtained the bitcoins by way of sending a money order to a New York Bitcoin cafe1 after attempts to wire the money via Bank of America failed. Continue reading
Possibly coincafe.com but not confirmed. ↩