CaVirtex Reopens Under Coinsetter

Just two short months after closing its doors following an apparently humiliating "potential compromise," CAD-BTC exchange CaVirtex has re-opened its doors under the purview of US-based Bitcoin exchange Coinsetter. Yes, that would be Jaron Lukasiewicz's Coinsetter, he being the fellow who thought that Ripple was a good idea apparently because he had too much money on his youthful hands.

For users of the revived CaVirtex, the only visible difference is a new landing page promoting the new partnership. Once past this landing page, the excessive familiarity reveals itself in a number of now factual errors, to the point where the exchange still advertises itself as a "Canadian Corporation" and that "all voting shareholders of CAVIRTEX are Canadian" despite its most recent claims to the contrary.

Another claim that the revamped CaVirtex is making is that they've employed "the Securicoin® system," which appears to be little more than Coinsetter slang for "cold storage" even though it claims to be "Wall Street grade,"1 and that over 50% of user funds are being held in insured Xapo Vaults.2

Trading volume at CaVirtex has been slow to rekindle since trading resumed on April 8, 2015, with the website claiming a meager 372 BTC traded over the past week. This figure is to be taken with a grain of salt, however, given that CaVirtex apparently traded at least a fraction of a bitcoin for as cheaply as CAD $0.01 during the last 7 days. (cache)

No word yet on whether Coinsetter plans to honour obligations to non-voting shareholders who were stripped of 4,000 BTC when CaVirtex delisted on Havelock Investments on December 31, 2013. According to CaVirtex's delisting notice, these investors own 10% of the company. At this time, it appears they may be left out in the rain.


  1. It would seem to this author that "MPEx grade" holds more cachet, but this exchange is marketed to the masses who've never heard of such a thing. 

  2. Yes, the same Xapo that wants to pay you to play video games. 

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

BitPay showing more signs of trouble, no longer St. Petersburg Bowl sponsor

The merchant services space hasn't quite taken off the way "the community"1 anticipated. Despite the mass-adoption-via-merchant-adoption expectations of some folks, it turns out that spending Bitcoin doesn't send the price "to the moon" but rather ironically depresses the price as merchants cash out their coins to cover operating costs.2 I know right, who could have predicted ?! Continue reading


  1. Those who talk about Bitcoin, eg. Reddit. These folks are, of course, in no way part of Bitcoin. 

  2. This is quite the opposite of how fiat works, wherein the economy really does suffer if the velocity of money slows down. Bitcoin, on the other hand, rewards those who can delay gratification. Beautiful, isn't it ? 

Vessenes' Bitcoin Foundation Publishes Telling Survey Results.

According to the latest survey results from the USG's Bitcoin Foundation,1 only half of the 225 individual members surveyed even like USGavin et al.2 No report on whether this has anything to do with their insertion of Heartbleed into Bitcoin Core or their continued attempts to increase the block size and thereby compromise the Bitcoin network's security. Continue reading


  1. Not to be confused with the Bitcoin Foundation incorporated on #bitcoin-assets. 

  2. 50.44% "like" or "strongly like." The rest either "strongly dislike," "dislike," or are "neutral."