In a double blow to the United State's interests in the Middle East their Special Forces soldiers have been compelled to abandon Yemen while ISIS has escalated their hostilities to include doxxing a hundred members of the United States Armed Forces. Continue reading
Category Archives: North America
Boost VC Embraces Child Founded Start Up
As the great Bitcoin recession continues, 17 year old Louison Dumont's Bitproof has caught the eye of VCs, having been accepted into the Boost VC incubator. The service allows users to certify and prove ownership of a document and its proof of existence. The company is attempting to raise VC capital although the service has struggled to find a monetization avenue
Document certification is a valuable service when done correctly, however at a first glance Bitproof.io seems to have a fundamental problem. The deedbot specification proposed on Trilema requires users to submit documents that are GPG signed, which creates a strong link between owner and document. Bitproof uses a username based identity to certify a document which lacks the non-repudiation strength GPG provides.
Journalist Barrett Brown Bears Full Restitution Brunt
After a guilty plea that when presented to the judge assigned him 63 months of time spent in a Federal prison and ordered nearly a million dollars in restitution, Barrett Brown's effort to have the restitution reduced has been denied by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Brown was ordered to pay restitution to Stratfor and others based on the full calculated damages for the crime of reporting on a crime where the actors responsible for committing the criminal act have not been found, convicted, or otherwise sanctioned. Continue reading
Coinbase Compliance Chief Resigns
The Washington Free Beacon reports that the Chief Compliance Officer of Coinbase has resigned. Chief Compliance Officer Martine Niejadlik resigned Coinbase after spending a bit more than a year with the organization. The Free Beacon notes that recently investors and regulators have been critical of Coinbase's "outreach" efforts where Coinbase has noted that Bitcoin does not respect international sanctions as well as Coinbase's failure to definitively achieve licensing in every US state it claims to operate.
Silk Road Moderator Pleads Guilty, Faces Life Imprisonment
A 42 year old man who waived his extradition rights and was subsequently extradited from Australia to the United States last November today plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit narcotics trafficking and money laundering for his role as a moderator of the Silk Road forum. Continue reading
Winner Of 27K Bitcoins Purchased At USMS Auction Revealed
To date, the United States Marshal Service has allegedly held three auctions for a portion of the 144,000 bitcoins confiscated in the wake of the October 2013 Silk Road bust. These auctions are claimed by Qntra to have allegedly occurred due to the continued refusal by the USG to respond to FOIA requests for further information on the alleged winners of the Bitcoin auctions. To that end, Qntra conducted and has now concluded its own investigation into the identity of the winner of the largest sum of bitcoins in the auction held by the USMS on the 5th of March 2015. That person's identity can now be revealed as real estate advisor, property manager, investor and entrepreneur Larry Dean Silvey. Continue reading
Blythe Masters To Head Wall Street Invasion
In what seems like a Wall Street invasion of Bitcoin, it was announced today Blythe Masters of precious metal price suppression infamy has accepted the position of Chief Executive of Digital Asset Holdings LLC. The company will build software to build a platform for trading "digitized versions of traditional financial intruments" such as CDOs or Options.
The Wall Street Journal which detailed the announcement in a recent article quoted Masters: Continue reading
Ross Ulbricht Seeks New Trial
As expected, Ross Ulbricht is now seeking a new trial in an attempt to overturn his conviction for narcotics trafficking, money laundering and others. USA Today reports that earlier today, Ulbricht's lawyer filed legal arguments which suggest prosecutors for the State: Continue reading
14 Bidders 34 Bids In Latest USMS Bitcoin Auction
Bloomberg reports that an auction held today by the USMS1 for 50,000 BTC attracted a total of 34 bids from 14 participants including third time bidders SecondMarket. The fenced goods are expected to be transferred to the winner/s of the auction by Monday at the earliest.
Alluding to Buterin's Waterfall, Gil Luria of Wedbush Securities Inc was quoted by Bloomberg as saying: Continue reading
Mirrored here as the USMS have deleted the pages for previous auctions. ↩
Missouri Secretary of State Orders Slaughter to Pay Civil Penalties
AMC/VMC 'CEO' Kenneth Slaughter has been ordered to pay civil penalties of over $30,000 for multiple violations of Missouri Securities Act. Violations include, but are not limited to: offering/selling unregistered securities, making untrue statements and omitting to state material facts. Continue reading