Army Research Office Funds MIT Bitcoin Price Research

In a recent press release, the MIT News Office announced the publication of a paper by researchers attempting to predict Bitcoin price by Bayesian regression. The paper's subject matter and methods are of specialist interest, but a matter of more general interest appears in the paper's acknowledgements: Continue reading

Man Arrested For Using Credit Card at Cyn Nightclub

An extended delay in credit card transaction processing left a Patron of Cyn Nightclub in Fort Lauderdale Florida facing grand theft charges. Trusted third party Wells Fargo which issued the card approved an $80 charge for drinks earlier in the night, but failed to approve $600 in charges later in the night. A second card from trusted third party also failed to approve the later charges. $1000 in bail was successfully paid by one of the card issuers to the Broward County Jail. Continue reading

Ethereum Developer to Insurers: Consider Covering Bitcoin Risk

A Canadian insurance industry magazine reports that at the Annual Engineering Insurance Conference Ethereum Developer Ethan Wilding offered statements including: "If you are working in the insurance industry, this is something you might want to consider, get some actuarial scientists on it and see if it's not something you can get involved in and make a big name for yourself as a premier Bitcoin underwriting company." The conference was hosted by The Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company of Canada which the magazine notes presented on their electrical transformer oil and gas inspection program.

Dell Sells Excess Capacity To Bitcoin ASIC Miners

Contracts that are short and cheap, provide huge capacity and room to grow quickly are just some of the requirements that bitcoin miners demand from data centres. But these needs are not met by the type of product that your typical colocation company provides. On the other hand, it's nothing new that some companies find themselves with more space than required but what is new is that now, that excess capacity is being used for bitcoin ASIC hosting. 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

Andreas Antonopolous Testifies Before Canadian Senate Committee

On Wednesday, October 8, Bitcoin advocate Andreas Antonopolous testified before the Canadian Senate Committee on Banking, Trade, and Commerce on the subject of digital currencies and regulation. The meeting was the one in a series of eleven scheduled by the Senate Committee on the subject of the “Study on the use of digital currency.” Previous meetings featured presentations by representatives from Visa and Mastercard; the Bitcoin Embassy, the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada, and the  Bitcoin Foundation; BitPay and PayPal; the Canada Revenue Agency; CAVirtEx, the Bitcoin Strategy Group and Bit Access; and the Bank of Canada, among others. Continue reading

Liberty Reserve Founder Arthur Budovsky Extradited

The most prominent department of the United States government that prosecutes persons today announced that it has extradited Costa Rican citizen Arthur Budovsky from Spain. Assistant US Attorney General Caldwell is quoted in the Department's press release noting that Budvosky had already renounced his United States citizenship, operated his venture in the country outside of the United States otherwise known as Costa Rica, and had at the time of his extradition been storing his corporeal form in Spain which is another country which is not in the United States.

Second Market Spins Off "Digital Currency Group"

Barry Silbert of SecondMarket announced the spin off of the Digital Currency Group from the parent company. The announcement:

Important step towards separating our bitcoin biz from @SecondMarket. The name. Introducing…Digital Currency Group http://t.co/s4Hld235bP

— Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) October 10, 2014

The trademark for the new venture was initially filed June 20th, and the Digital Currency Group has a website at dcg.co