In a piece appearing on ZDnet today Ken Hess wrote a about his letter campaign to inform United States Senators of "Bitcoin's illegality" and of how Tom Coburn's office responded. Mr. Hess's case for Bitcoin illegality consist of his reading of Article 1, Section 8, Clause 5 of the United States constitution which enumerates as a power of Congress: Continue reading
Category Archives: Documents
USMS Auctioning More Bitcoins
Today the United States Marshals Service has opened an auction for 50,000 more Bitcoins seized from Ross Ulbricht. The bidder registration period began today at 9:00 AM Eastern Standard time and continues through noon on Monday December 1st, 2014. Bids in the auction are to be entered by registered bidders on December 4th, 2014 from 8:00 AM through 2:00 PM, Eastern Standard time. Friday December 5th the winning bidders will be notified by the United States Marshals Service. Notified winners must initiate a wire transfer from a bank located in the United States and present a receipt for the wire transfer to the Marshals Service by 2:00 PM Eastern Standard time on Monday December 8th, 2014. Further details on the Auction structure: Continue reading
Bitcoin Declaration of Sovereignty Filed
Today Mircea Popescu filed a declaration on the matter of Bitcoin sovereignty. Full text appears below: Continue reading
The Blake Benthall Complaint, full text
After the arrest of Blake Benthall for allegedly operating Silk Road 2.o a PDF began circulating which purports to be a copy of the complaint against Benthall. Qntra presents the text of the alleged complaint liberated from its PDF turd: Continue reading
FinCEN: Payment Processors, Others may be Regulated Money Transmitters
FinCEN issued two administrative rulings in regards to "Virtual Currency." The first concerns "exchanges" and supposes they may be regulated as Money Transmitters under the Banking Secrecy Act. The second though supposes that payment processors like BitPay may similarly fall under their purview. This shift comes contrary to the expectations BitPay had disclosed anticipating from FinCEN.
PDFs of the rulings are available here: ruling 1, ruling 2. Extracted plaintext is available below. Continue reading
Judge Forrest Rejects Illegal Search Defense In Ulbricht Case
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
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