The new Bitcoin Foundation has issued a year end address where they have highlighted the work accomplished so far to produce a higher quality reference Bitcoin implementation. The foundation which came together in late October has focused their efforts on producing a patch set for the Bitcoin 0.5.3 codebase that results in a minimal reference implementation of the Bitcoin Protocol. Continue reading
Category Archives: People
Bitcoin Alliance of Canada Founder Steps Down
A circulating press release which made its way to Digital Journal reports that Anthony Di Iorio, founder of the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada is stepping down as Executive Directory. The release cites a desire to focus on his businesses and his family. Among his his replacement's businesses are CaVirtex which is a Canadian Bitcoin exchange, and a venture that refers to itself as the Bitcoin Strategy Group.
While Some Ponzi Schemes Implode, Other Fraudsters Double Down
As this year draws to a close, so too have a few of the ponzi operators masquerading as cloud miners in the Bitcoin and altcoin space. Given the concept of cloud mining lends itself to being an ideal means for scammers to conduct fractional reserve mining or straight up ponzi schemes involving no mining at all, you can expect to see such shenanigans continue in 2015. Three 'cloud miners' which appear to have gone belly up this past week are Hashie.co, LTC Gear and Hash Profit. Continue reading
Extortionist Tormented Finney's Last Months
Today Wired published a piece about the struggles of Hal Finney's family at the hands of an extortionist during the last months of his life. Reportedly Hal's wife Fran had not come forward publicly before out of fear that doing so could endanger the investigation, she is speaking publicly now with the blessing of the investigating agent. Among harassing phone calls was an instance of Swatting that forced the Finneys into the yard last winter. The extortionist was seeking 1000 BTC from Hal Finney.
Bitcoin Bowl Recap: NC State Wins (34-27)
Despite putting up the first points and attempting a late comeback, the UCF Knights couldn't overcome the NC State Wolfpack. In the first twenty one minutes of the game the lead had changed hands 4 times with a UCF field goal establishing a score (0-3) followed by an NC State touchdown (7-3), UCF touchdown (7-10), and another NC State touchdown (14-10). After that UCF was never able to retake control of the lead. Continue reading
50 Cent on Accepting Bitcoin
On the Seth Meyers' Late Night show, rapper 50 Cent described his feelings about the cryptocurrency: Continue reading
Jim Harper Departs The Bitcon Fundation
Patrick Murck has confirmed the departure of Jim Harper from the Bitcon Fundation. Harper, who joined the foundation in March of this year, set to work building a bridge between Bitcoin and governments of the world. As it turns out, spinning your wheels or as Murck puts it – trail blazing – is too costly an endeavour and the foundation will now shift its focus from lobbying and back to Core development. Continue reading
Charlie Shrem On His Two Year Prison Sentence: "Justice Has Been Served"
Charlie Shrem, who plead guilty to one count of aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business as part of a plea deal struck with prosecutors from the office of Preet Bharara back in September of this year, has been sentenced to two years in prison for his crimes.
Tweeting about his sentence, Shrem said: Continue reading
Former MoneyGram Executive Sued by US Government
The United States is suing former MoneyGram chief compliance officer Thomas Haider as prosecutors wish to hold him personally responsible for the fact that telemarketing scammers managed to at some point receive payments through MoneyGram's services. The suit was announced by Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan and FinCEN director Jennifer Shasky Calvery. Continue reading
btcXchange.ro Dispute Heats Up
Earlier this week Romanian Bitcoin exchange btcXchange.ro issued an advisory that customers withdraw both Bitcoin and Leu denominated funds from their platform by today, December 19th. Today they issued a further advisory that issues on their platform are related to an ongoing dispute between that platform's management and their developer. Continue reading