Shortly before Qntra experience significant downtime this week due to a hardware failure, the Gemini "exchange" reversed a trade that had on Friday November 13th taken the traded price of Bitcoin on that exchange to 2200 United States dollars per Bitcoin. Gemini's "account review team" along with their "executive management" by their own reports conspired to brand the trades a "customer error" and reversed the trades leaving some other parties to these trades with zero or negative balances as they had continued trading after the earlier trade. Winkelvii apologists are blaming fiat market "obvious error rules" for the reversal, though the volume of the trades that took Gemini out of concordance and to 2200 United States Dollars was only 80 Bitcoins suggesting a critically thin order book which makes all attempts at actually trading on that exchange the result of erroneous judgement.
Monthly Archives: November 2015
"Core" Bitcoin Client to Drop Transaction Priority
According to a mailing list post by Matt Corallo plans are in the works to drop transaction priority relay and mining code from the Bitcoin client "Core" in its 0.12 release (archived). "Core" is the Bitcoin Client whose development was formerly supported and directed by the Vessenes' Foundation, in contrast to the bitcoind client 'therealbitcoin' maintained by the Bitcoin Foundation. Earlier this week the developers of the "Core" client released a version 11.2 which introduces soft forking code to implement a time locking feature referred to as "Check Lock Time Verify" and designated BIP 65. This summer a soft forking change designated BIP 66 lead to several chain splits and reorganizations when it was triggered.
Colorado Springs Drops Police Fitness Tests After Suit
After a judge's ruling in a discrimination suit, the Colorado Springs police department has dropped physical fitness tests for police officers (archived). The ruling comes after a discrimination lawsuit was brought upon the department by 12 female officers over the age of 40 who were moved from patrol to desk duty after failing the physical fitness test. The suit will now move to federal court and Colorado Springs police chief Pete Carey hopes to to able to resume evaluating officer physical fitness next year. In the interim the 12 officers party to the suit will be moved back to patrol.
US Supreme Court to Weigh Total Pre-Trial Asset Freezes
This week the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Luis v. United States in which the United States Department of "Justice" is arguing it may seize all of a defendant's assets including those with no possible "criminal taint" before a case goes to trial (archived). The Department of "Justice" is arguing that it may seize any property which could later be used to satisfy a judgement even though doing so completely obliterates the defendant's ability to mount a credible defense. The Department of "Justice" tried to use this argument against foreign national Kim Dotcom, and it was rejected by the local courts in New Zealand who recognized that actual justice and fair trials depend on the defendant having an opportunity to challenge the prosecution's allegations.
Yik Yak Use Leads To Arrest
A teenager studying computer engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla was reportedly arrested at his residence hall and rendered under the cover of darkness to the Boone County Jail in Columbia, Missouri. The teenage student is alleged to have posted text to the so called anonymous local message board app "Yik Yak" which the police are alleging was a "criminal terroristic threat" (archived). In a blog post today operators of the "Yik Yak" platform confirmed that they cooperate with law enforcement agencies and share information. It appears the civil unrest in Columbia, Missouri and at the Mizzou campus is continuing to escalate in spite of Monday's resignation of President Tim Wolfe. Numerous examples of conflict between students and faculty trying to continue the academic business of the university are emerging in local media, including that of professor of nutrition Dr. Dale Brigham whose attempt to resign his position after student uproar over his decision to dare holding class and an exam on Wednesday is not being recognized by the University (archived). Continue reading
Bitcoin Difficulty Jumps By Six-Month Record
Today's difficulty adjustment to 65`848`255`179.7, a rise of 5.77%, is notable as both the tenth consecutive increase — a streak the likes of which has not occurred for nearly a year — and the largest increase since April 5th, when difficulty rose by 5.84%. This ongoing rise should come as no surprise: naive estimates (archived) place the next reward halving on July 24th, so work must accelerate to realize the market's prediction of July 20th.
Preet Ups the Charges for Coin.mx Operators
Preet Bharara's office announced another round of charges for the operators of Coin.mx with the latest charges relating to a hack of JP Morgan and others (archived).
Wolfe Resigns At Mizzou Surrendering To Pressure
Tim Wolfe, president of the University of Missouri System, tendered his resignation at an emergency board of curators meeting. The football team is anticipated to resume organized team activities and compete in a game against Brigham Young University on Saturday.
The Most Serene Republic Celebrates First Birthday
Citizens of The Most Serene Republic of Bitcoin are celebrating the first anniversary of the unveiling and signing of Bitcoin's Declaration of Independence.
ProtonMail Confirms Ongoing Profitability of Negotiations (For The Terrorists)
As reported by ProtonMail itself (archived), the Swiss security theatricians have followed FBI-recommended best practice and caved to the demands of terrorists: Continue reading