In another incident highlighting weaknesses underlying the fiat system, it took the Volusia County Sheriff's Department in Florida 7 months to investigate an operation they allege used gift cards to launder value derived from stolen retail merchandise (archived). The Sheriff's Department alleges that Cash for Gift Card stores operated by a father and his adult son knowingly sent thieves to steal from retail stores and return the merchandise in exchange for gift cards. The Cash for Gift Card stores were alleged to buy these gift cards at half their face value and then resell them in bulk on the Internet. How the Sheriff's department supposes the thieves were enlisted by Cash for Gift Card as opposed to self motivated is unknown at this time. There is however no ambiguity that there exists an extraordinary number of places where the fiat system leaks value big and small, online and offline.
Category Archives: Security
Bitcoin Foundation Address Recap
The Bitcoin Foundation opened the year with a State of Bitcoin Address sharing a few developments as the Foundation continues in its second year of work. The address is highlighted by the Foundation's impending move to tag their reference client version 0.5.4 with the release label. Other developments include: Continue reading
Difficulty Rises 11.16% Adding A New Digit At 103,880,340,815
Just in time for the 2016th (incidentally, the number of blocks in Bitcoin's shorter metric of elapsed time) year of the fiat calendar, Bitcoin added a new digit to its difficulty decimal, now equal to 103,880,340,815 (an increase of 11.16% over the previous value, placing hashrate estimates over 690 PH/s.). While such increases used to be noteworthy, they pale in the shadow of the last leap (December 18th's 18.14% increase, to 93,448,670,796), leaving thin-margined miners nervously wondering whether they'll ever make good on the forecasts of yesteryear. Continue reading
The False Dilemma of XT Versus Blockstream
Since the beginning of the XTCoin affair a substantial amount of social engineering has been directed into framing the Bitcoin blocksize as a polarized dispute between exactly two camps. Continue reading
Juniper Fiasco: Greenwald Complicit In Sustaining Mass Surveillance
It was after Juniper burned a vulnerability in its products used to support NSA and GCHQ spying, and after independent researchers discovered the nature of the back door (archived) that Glen Greenwald, formerly of the Guardian, revealed that this vulnerability was in a stash of disclosures he received more than two years ago from Edward Snowden. Greenwald's reveal came six days after Juniper disclosed the existence of the backdoor and a day after independent researches began presenting serious evidence indicating the backdoor was born in the USA. Continue reading
Warning: "Escrow Service" Goes On Sale
Cointelegraph brings us news that a web platform advertising itself as an "escrow service" has been put up for auction (archived). In this press release, the service BTCrow advertises a claims it is the first and most trusted platform while further disclosing it has been sold before. Of course trust isn't a transitive property and attaches to people rather than platforms so any remaining users of the BTCrow service would be well advised to escape the platform while they still can.
US DO"J" Stops Sharing Bounty Of Theft With Locals
Today it was declared that the United States Department of "Justice" would cease to share value acquired through asset forfeiture and other forms of theft with local "law enforcement" agencies under the Equitable Sharing Program (archived). The program allowed local gangs incorporated as "law enforcement" agencies choose to partner with the DO"J" and receive federal assistance in seizing assets alleged to be connected with drug activity, even in spite of the demonstrable criminal innocence of parties from whom the assets were stolen. Through the Equitable Sharing Program local partners could receive up to 80% of the proceeds of their joint larceny. The Do"J" blames budget cuts for forcing its hand in suspending the program and insists the suspension will be temporary. It is unknown how many other perks presently enjoyed by local "law enforcement" gangs for cooperating with federal agencies will find themselves eroded in the near future.
Judge Nevin Dawson: Dotcom Can Be Extradited To United States
New Zealand District Court Judge Nevin Dawson has ruled that Kim Dotcom can be extradited to the United States (archived). Dotcom's extradition hearing began in September with Dotcom finally presenting his defense back in October. Dotcom plans to appeal the decision and has in the past received markedly more favorable outcomes from New Zealand appellate courts, including a rebuke of the asset forfeitures imposed upon him. The lower courts however have consistently ruled in a manner favorable to the United States Department of "Justice" which seeks to prosecute Dotcom in spite of Dotcom having never been a United States Person under any reasonable definition. Dotcom and his alleged co defendants will continue to reside in New Zealand on bail while the Appeal moves forward, but because this ruling "increased their flight risk" they now have to comply with more onerous demands including twice weekly reports at police stations.
Desperate United States Revives Plutonium-238 Production
Oak Ridge National Laboratory operated by the United States Department of Energy has issued a press release announcing the resumption of Plutonium-238 production in the United States (archived). Since the United States ceased production in the late 1980's they have filled their appetite for the isotope through foreign purchases supplemented by their dwindling stockpile. The increasingly frosty relationships between the United States and developed countries that maintained Plutionium-238 production capability has forced the United States into independently producing the material again at great cost. Plutonium-238 is used as a radio thermal power source in medical and space related applications. The ongoing decline of relations between the United States and the developed world is likely to continue injuring the ability of the United States government to participate in international markets.
Clinton Sells Nuking Math
As the steak warm flystruck hamburger meat that is 2016 United States Presidential election continues its multi-year sizzle on the grill of public opinion, leading candidates from both sides of the divide are hustling hard for clicks, likes, headlines, and anything else that their analysts can measure. Continue reading