Category Archives: News

FinCEN: Payment Processors, Others may be Regulated Money Transmitters

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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 →

DailyDot: What Happened to the Ulbricht Murder Charges?

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The DailyDot has a story about the disappearance of the murder charges which notably were used to deny Ulbricht bail in the Silk Road case. Of the original six murder charges five indictments have quietly disappeared uncharged, while the sixth indictment remains on file in Maryland as opposed to New York, where the drug trafficking trial is occurring. The five uncharged allegations have been reduced to overt acts under the trafficking charge allowing prosecutors to use them against Ulbricht at trial without proving them to the jury. The sixth indictment in Maryland sets Ulbricht up for a potential second trial in that jurisdiction later.

JWT Intelligence Discuss Bitcoin In Latest Report

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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 →

  1. Capgemini Financial Services. ↩

  2. Artefact. ↩

  3. Artefact. ↩

  4. UC Irvine. ↩

Cryptsy and Shavers Sued by Victims

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Silver Law Group has filed two lawsuits: one against Paul Vernon, CEO of Cryptsy a cryptocoin to cryptocoin exchange, and Trendon Shavers, also known as "pirateat40", operator of a ponzi scheme, Bitcoin Savings and Trust. Many of Cryptsy's customers have been disappointed with the service, as complaints of users missing coins have surfaced. These complaints became so numerous, the company sent out a blanket email to their users addressing the issue: Continue reading →

Bitcoin Shop Attempts to Strengthen Shareholder Equity

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Bitcoin Shop announced an equity redemption in a press release given to Market Watch. The officers and directors unanimously agreed to the redemption of 12,750,000 shares of their common stock. This redemption serves as a discounted buyback of the founders' common stock as the total payment for the 12,750,000 shares was filed as $2,491. This implies the stock was redeemed for $0.0002 per share, a 40,000% discount of the current market value of BTCS at $0.09 per share. Continue reading →

Intel Subsidiary Fined for Crypto Export

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The Bureau of Industry and Security recently issued a $750,000 fine against Intel subsidiary Wind River Systems for the unlawful exportation of software products that enable encryption. This is a sharp departure from BIS’s historical practice and suggests the agency may take a tougher stance on such violations in the future. Among restricted foreign government end-users and organizations on the BIS Entity List, Wind River Systems shipped to China, Russia, Israel, Hong Kong, South Africa, and South Korea. Continue reading →