Ulbricht's lawyers defense that the FBI illegally collected evidence in the case against him has been rejected by Judge Katherine Forrest on the grounds that Ulbricht insufficiently established that the server searched was his. Wired describes the ruling as based on a technicality. Some reactions to the ruling: Continue reading
Author Archives: Aaron 'BingoBoingo' Rogier
Liberty Reserve Founder Arthur Budovsky Extradited
The most prominent department of the United States government that prosecutes persons today announced that it has extradited Costa Rican citizen Arthur Budovsky from Spain. Assistant US Attorney General Caldwell is quoted in the Department's press release noting that Budvosky had already renounced his United States citizenship, operated his venture in the country outside of the United States otherwise known as Costa Rica, and had at the time of his extradition been storing his corporeal form in Spain which is another country which is not in the United States.
Second Market Spins Off "Digital Currency Group"
Barry Silbert of SecondMarket announced the spin off of the Digital Currency Group from the parent company. The announcement:
Important step towards separating our bitcoin biz from @SecondMarket. The name. Introducing…Digital Currency Group http://t.co/s4Hld235bP
— Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) October 10, 2014
The trademark for the new venture was initially filed June 20th, and the Digital Currency Group has a website at dcg.co
Full Transcript of US Commodity and Futures Trading Commision Bitcoin Session
As announced earlier, the United States Commodities and Futures Trading Commission dedicated a portion of their meeting today to the subject of Bitcoin derivatives. The full video won't be released for a few days, but the full transcript of the session on Bitcoin derivatives is below. Continue reading
Ulbricht Attorneys File Response to Government
Attorneys filed a response following the 48 hour deadline imposed for the Ulbricht defense team to respond to the Justice Department's rejection of the Horowitz Declaration and assert 4th Amendment rights. The reply asserts the Justice Department's response failed to address any technical analysis or conclusions from the Horowitz Declaration, and that the government claims the right to "engage in criminal conduct with impunity in its pursuit of investigative objectives, and not be held accountable therefor." The reply also hammers on the discrepancy of the government's position in the case versus the Auernheimer case. Continue reading
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Meeting on Bitcoin Derivatives Today
The United States CFTC will be meeting today and one of the topics for discussion is derivatives contracts that reference Bitcoin and whether or to what extent the CFTC may perceive to have juridiction on the subject. Also on the agenda is the separate discussion of Non-Deliverable Forwards and whether or not a clearing mandate may be appropriate. The meeting states at 1:30 PM US Eastern Time and continues to 5:00 PM with the Non-Deliverable Forwards discussion preceding the Bitcoin Derivatives discussion. There will be a live webcast at www.cftc.gov and video should be posted in two days on their site. Members of the public are welcome to also listen via conference call toll free at 1-866-844-9416 or one of several other international numbers.
CoinAgenda Conference Begins Today
After a reception last night the CoinAgenda and BitAngels conference kicks off today at the Palms in Las Vegas. The conference is composed of two parallel activities, a series of speakers and a competition where 20 startup proposals are presented and judged. Featured Speakers include: Continue reading
Ulbrich Defense Has 48 Hours to Counter Prosecution's Horowitz Rebuttal
At today's hearing the day after the Justice Department filed a motion which asserted that cracking the Silk Road servers would constitute a lawful search, the judge in the case has given Ulbricht's defense team a mere 48 hours to counter the arguments in the filing. Ulbricht's trial is scheduled to begin November 3rd.
Silk Road: Government files response to Horowitz Declaration
Below is the text extracted from the pdf of the filing available here. Continue reading
CryptoThrift Suspends Escrow Service, Coins Lost in Breach
Auction site CryptoThrift has announced that they have lost more than 15 BTC in a breach of a hot wallet they used for keeping coins in escrow. The incident happens nearly one year after Bitmit, another auction site was hacked for a similar amount. Bitmit shutdown after the operators could not find a buyer who could cover losses. According to CoinThrift the attack occurred early the morning of October 5th but went undiscovered for some time. They report contacting Australian Federal Police about the incident.