Category Archives: North America

Coinbase To Launch Licensed US Exchange

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The WSJ reports that Coinbase is to launch a licensed US exchange this coming Monday in what is likely to be a reference to the Space Shuttle Challenger Lunar news which first appeared on the Coinbase website earlier today.

Despite Brian Armstrong's plans for the new exchange to become the world's largest, it will initially be open only to US customers who reside in the states in which Coinbase is believed to have acquired regulatory approval. The exact number of those states remain unknown although the WSJ article claims that California as well as New York are amongst them. Continue reading →

Drones Revolutionize Cross Border Drug Shipment

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While the Silk Road trial is ongoing, San Diego's NBC news affiliate is reporting on a drone that crashed near the border crossing at San Ysidro while carrying more than 6 pounds of methamphetamine. The crash location itself was a Tijuana grocery store parking lot. This is far from the first report of drug trafficking across the United States – Mexican border using drones, and is largely notable because of the drone's crash. Continue reading →

Prosecutors Seek to Bar DPR Interview From Jury – Updated

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In Wired Andy Greenberg writes that the Preet Bharara's team prosecuting the Silk Road case wants to bar the Jury from being exposed to the only interview done with the Dread Pirate Roberts of the Silk Road. The interview done by Andy Greenberg for Forbes is notable for sounding to Department of Homeland Security agents a lot like Mark Karpelès and containing a number of answers from the Dread Pirate Roberts which supports the argument presently being advanced by the defense that in spite of founding the Silk Road and being caught holding the bad for the Silk Road Ulbricht had little to do with the Silk Road for most of its history. Continue reading →

Preview of Obama's Internet Law Enforcement Proposals

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Tonight Obama takes to the pulpit for his speech nominally designated the "State of the Union" though so far his earlier attempts had more the impression  of being a wish list of changes Obama would like applied to the Union. Ready to go on the White House website he even has a pdf of changes he would like to make to the federal law in order to deter "Cyber crime" further through empowering law enforcement. Continue reading →

Spammer Escalates to Murder

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Minh Nguyen who previously was most notable for starting the venture capital funded spam fountain Plaxo has allegedly murdered his ex-wife's husband. Nguyen allegedly killed the man in the victim's own home. Plaxo raised $28.3 million in venture capital funding trailblazing new frontiers in spam proliferation before being acquired by Comcast in 2008.

Roger Ver and America's Emigration Dilemma

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Last week Roger Ver revealed that the United States Embassy in Barbados has denied his requests for a visa to attend some Bitcoin related conferences in the United States. As reported by Ver his requests for a visa are denied because in the Embassy's determination he lacks sufficient connections to his new homeland of St Kitts and Nevis to prevent him from overstaying his visa and essentially immigrating back into the United States illegally. This incident highlights a number of ways in which the United States acts on the international stage not as a peer state with others, but as a rogue state. Continue reading →

Bitcoin On The Agenda For Cisco's Leadership Council Event

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The agenda for the Cisco CEO-CIO Leadership Council has now been released. The website describes the event as one that brings together:

CEOs from Fortune Global 500 companies with their CIOs, or senior most IT strategists. The event's highly interactive format encourages peer collaboration and discussions on the most timely and transformative issues facing today's organizations.

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