Cryptocurrency exchange X-BT.com is closing down as of today, though the site will remain online for at least two weeks to allow customers to withdraw funds held on the platform. The announcement which arrived via email reads: Continue reading
Category Archives: Bitcoin
BTC Guild Shutting Down, May be Sold
An announcement was posted to the website of the BTC Guild website stating their intention to shut down. Key dates include November 30th, the day they will shut down their mining servers and January 15th the deadline to withdraw coins from their service. In an update to their announcement they float the possibility of being sold and continuing operations. Note that if sold they do not plan to transfer mining history or balances to the new owners. Continue reading
Matonis to Resign from Vessenes Bitcoin Foundation
Jon Matonis is resigning as the Executive Director of the Bitcoin Foundation effective December 31st. According to CoinDesk he will be replaced as executive director by the Foundations Council and his vacant board seat will be up for election with those of incumbents Peter Vessenes and Gavin Andresen.
LedgerX Thinks Bitcoin is Ready for Options (Again)
New York City startup LedgerX has submitted applications to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commisions (CFTC), to register as a "swap execution facility and derivatives clearing organization." If approved LedgerX would be allowed to list physically-settled digital currency option contracts, particularly Bitcoin denominated contracts. Continue reading
BitPay Lets Bitcoin Customers "Make It Rain"
Tampa, Florida is home to 2001 Odyssey, a strip club which also services user through internet services. Bitpay has partnered with the the club to allow users to pay with Bitcoin for these online services including a feature known as the "Make It Rain Machine." Continue reading
Italian Municipal Councils Targeted By TorrentLocker
An article from VPN Creative reports that some municipal councils across Italy have fallen victim to a variant of CryptoLocker called TorrentLocker. The ransomware demands a bitcoin payment equivalent to 400 Euros, which doubles in three days if payment is not received. Continue reading
JWT Intelligence Discuss Bitcoin In Latest Report
JWT Intelligence, a department of the JWT marketing brand, has released a report titled "The Future of Payments & Currency" in which they discuss the latest payment trends and what they see as the case against cash and physical cards. The 62 page report, which focuses on payment methods other than just Bitcoin, also includes reports on mobile, wearable and biometric payments. Produced by by Deborah Baxley1, Rob Girling2, Craig Erickson3 and Bill Maurer4, the report claims to be the result of quantitative, qualitative and desk research conducted throughout 2014. Continue reading
Conformal Release Bitcoin Transaction Simulator
Conformal Systems, creators of the alternate Bitcoin full-node implementation written in Go, has released a bitcoin transaction simulator called btcsim. Created by interns Javed Khan and Michalis Kargakis, the transaction simulator has been used by Conformal to test a variety of claims about how the Bitcoin network might function when transaction volume mirrors that of the 3000 transactions per second credit card companies such as Visa and Mastercard process. Continue reading
BitLendingClub Use Angel.co To Raise Seed Investment
The Bulgarian based crowd-lending platform BitLendingClub has announced a seed investment via Angel.co from Bulgarian VC fund LAUNCHub. BitLendingClub is seeking a total of USD $1.25 million to finance 24 months of operation on the basis that current revenue of $144 K/year will expand to an expected revenue of $4.42 mil/year in 2 years time. The investor presentation can be viewed here. Continue reading
New Paper: Bitcoin over Tor a Bad Idea, Especially bad for SPV
In a new paper by Alex Biryukov and Ivan Pustogarov outline deterministic man in the middle attacks that can subject Bitcoin users over Tor to a number of adverse circumstances. From the paper: Continue reading