Consumer to Consumer Bitcoin retailing and trading site Brawker has announced its imminent closure (archived). They have ceased processing new orders and are offering until the end of the month for orders in progress to be resolved. Brawker cites a disappointing rate in customer growth over their 18 month history as the primary reason for closure.
Monthly Archives: April 2015
Fenton Replaces Murck as Vessenes Foundation Pivots Again
The Vessenes Bitcoin Foundation has installed Bruce Fenton as their executive director replacing Patrick Murck who occupied the office on an interim basis. Fenton was elected by the board with five affirmative votes with one recorded abstention. In the recent election for the this foundation's board Bruce Fenton was a candidate ended the election in fourth place. One of the two candidates to win a seat on the Board, Oliver Janssens won a director's seat running for office with a history of seeking the Vessenes Foundation's replacement with software. After his first meeting as a board member Janssens, who won his seat with 63 percent of the membership's vote exposed the Vessenes Foundation's dire situation, and the rest of the board attempted a rebuttal of the indictment by Janssens. Continue reading
Judge: Preet Bharara's Brinkmanship Endangers Fair Trials
Preet Bharara, the United States premier inquisitor for prosecuting Bitcoin cases, was reprimanded by United States District Court Judge Valerie Caproni for endangering the former New York Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver's right to a fair trial by making public statements endangering his right to a fair trial by jury. Caproni in ruling on a motion by the defense offered:
"In this case, the U.S. Attorney,1 while castigating politicians in Albany for playing fast and loose with the ethical rules that govern their conduct, strayed so close to the edge of the rules governing his own conduct that Defendant Sheldon Silver has a non-frivolous argument that he fell over the edge to the Defendant’s prejudice."
Bharara ↩
Xapo Wants To Pay You To Play Video Games
Not content to let BitPay be the only DERP on the block who can dole out investor funds by "raising awareness" and "increasing adoption," Palo Alto-based Xapo has just launched a partnership and give-away contest in coordination with e-sports platform CEVO and upstart 'bitcoin-based gaming service' Leetcoin. Continue reading
EFF Goes to Bat For Podcasters, Hits Homerun Against Patent Troll
Continuing to keep its shiva hands full and not content with just tackling the videogame industry, the EFF has just helped to win a decision with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that invalidates the "podcasting patent" held by Personal Audio LLC, a Texas-based patent trolling firm. Personal Audio LLC is famous for having squeezed $8 mn from Apple Inc. in 2011 for the fruit company's use of "navigable playlists" on its iPod music players, as well as having sued American comedian Adam Corolla for distributing podcasts, only to be counter-sued before the two parties quietly settled. Continue reading
"Bitcoin Baron" Vigilante Vandal Caught
The Internet vigilante who has gone by the name "Bitcoin Baron" has been caught for attacking a Mesa, Arizona government website. He previously attacked the website of Columbia, Missouri and has an open investigation in Wisconsin. Police have said he uses a "hacker" operating system.
Battle for the right to play old multiplayer games take shape.
Acronyms are flying as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently requested an exemption from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) from the Library of Congress (LoC?) to allow users of older computer games to set up their own multiplayer hosting servers. Continue reading
Obama Initiative Promotes Linkrot
More than one thousand websites in the United States .gov top level domain have gone offline since a 2011 memorandum (archived) issued by the President Obama with the stated intent of "improving online services." While the utility of many of the particular domains and sites hosted on them is debatable, Obama's aggressive culling has the primary effect of making the internet presence of the United States government less useful and far less reliable. Continue reading
Coinbase Outgoing Email Hacked
As noticed by #bitcoin-assets user fluffypony, and later confirmed by reddit user CoinbaseAdrian, a sendgrid.net account associated with em.coinbase.com has been compromised. The scammers behind this attack have used it to send email to a list composed mostly of, but not limited to, users of localbitcoins.com. Continue reading
Vessenes Foundation Attempts Janssens Rebuttal
This weekend Vessenes' Bitcoin Foundation board member Oliver Janssens offered a scathing critique of the "non-profit" organization. The attempted rebuttal (archived) rather than refuting, merely edged Janssens's points. The foundation's four points are offered in condensed form below: Continue reading