A six day old Bet on whether Ethereum rides into 2016 as a continuing economically viable thing has managed to so far draw more than 129 Bitcoin in wagers. The criteria assigned for Ethereum to fail include the value of Ethereum tokens falling under 0.001 BTC per Ethereum token during December 2015 or if the volume of Ethereum tokens traded during the month of December 2015 being less than 100 Bitcoin in value. At the present 23 Bitcoin have been staked on Ethereum's failure while 106.11 Bitcoin are staked on Ethereum surviving December. According the the wager on BitBet price information is to be taken from Poloniex. As of this writing Ethereum is trading for around 0.004 Bitcoin per token with an all time low price of 0.00243990 Bitcoin per token on August 10th shortly after Ethereum's release. Continue reading
Category Archives: The Law
Trump Campaign Payment Processor Fleeces Donors
MWTW in Portland, Maine alleges a third party payment processor used by Donald Trump's presidential campaign is repeating donation charges and in at least one case was reported to have charged a man who entered payment information but decided not to purchase anything from the campaign's online store (archived). In all 13 charges were attempted of which 6 ended up successfully debiting a balance from the man's bank account. The station is referring to the charges as unauthorized while the payment processor blames a 'glitch' in their system. Continue reading
US Increases Fee to Relinquish Citizenship and Residency
The United States State Department has increased the processing fee for relinquishing United States Citizenship or Permanent Residence through means other than explicit renunciation to 2350 United States dollars from 450 United States dollars (archived). The change brings the fee in line with that for having the State Department acknowledge an explicit renunciation of citizenship even though a number of the acts leading to the relinquishment of citizenship create a loss of United States nationality even without a Certificate acknowledging the loss of nationality from the State Department. A few acts that until recently allowed one to certify their loss of United States nationality at a discount include: Continue reading
CFTC Regulatory Butt Thunder Continues
As Bitcoin continues marching towards its grandiose destiny, it seems we just can’t get enough of the inept US Butt Thunder striking yet another fool boy and his pale imitation of a domestic commodity exchange. Continue reading
"Y Combinator" Too Generic To Trademark
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has ruled against startup and censorship incubator Y Combinator's petition to register their name as a trademark (archived). The office in making the decision noted that "Y Combinator" as a term of art used in computer science and mathematics is by its nature too generic to stand as a distinguishing mark denoting a particular trade venture.
Pascal Reid Pleads Guilty Promising to Service USG "Law Enforcement" – Full Draft Plea Text
Pascal Reid who was charged for his involvement in trading Bitcoin on an individual basis in the state of Florida has announced his intention to accept a guilty plead which compels him to train "Law Enforcement" on Bitcoin related topics. He is further compelled as well to consult with Miami area police and the United States Secret Service on cases involving Bitcoin as they see fit. Reid's efforts to have charges dismissed back in November were denied by Judge Katherine Fernandez Rundle. In addition to working on the behalf of local and federal "Law Enforcement" agencies the plea agreement includes a sentence of 90 days in jail with credit for time served, and the agreement is further conditional on Reid reimbursing Florida $500 for their expenses in prosecuting him. The explicit public disclosure that the plea bargainer must turn stoolie is uncommon, but it highlights that the cost of signing the papers and avoiding trial is your own title to yourself. It is a tremendous credit to the local officers of the court that the explicit nature of this was made available to the public in this rare occasion. All parties involved in Bitcoin are advised against knowingly dealing with Pascal Reid, or any other party know to have entered a guilty plea, either in business or mere conversation for the entirety of the future. The full text of the draft plea agreement is below: Continue reading
War on Engineering: Teen Arrested for Building Clock
Police in Irving, Texas arrested a teenager on Monday for bringing a a clock he produced on his personal time to school to show off to his Engineering instructors. Up until today local authorities were intending to pursue "hoax bomb" charges against the teenager, Ahmed Mohamed in spite of his constant assertions that the device he created was nothing more than a clock. Ahmed was involved in robotics club in Middle School and wanted to make a project at home he could use to demonstrate his engineering prowess for his new High School teachers. Ahmed's teachers upon hearing the clock beep pulled him out of class and alerted police who arrested him and drew up initial charges (archived). School principal Dan Cummings summarily suspended Ahmed from school grounds for three days. Continue reading
Appeals Court Denies Dotcom Request for Extradition Hearing Delay
Torrent Freak reports that in a decision that according to Kim Dotcom makes "the New Zealand judiciary… a US owned dancing bear" (archived) an Appellate court in New Zealand has denied Dotcom's petition to delay his extradition hearing in order to allow him and his counsel adequate preparation time. It was only on June 3rd of this year that Kim Dotcom finally had a victory in the United State's asset forfeiture case which allowed him the resources to seriously begin preparing a defense against the United States effort to extradite him to a a land which has always been foreign to him. Continue reading
Mark Karpelès Charged With Embezzlement in Latest MtGox Criminal Charge
Via the South China Morning Post (archived) news comes that the latest criminal charge Mark Karpelès faces for his role in the MtGox debacle is that of embezzelment.
Former Reddit CEO Surrenders Legal Fight After Losing Media Outlet
Today Ellen Pao has dropped an appeal of her courtroom loss against one of her former employers, the firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and will have to pay the firm's costs related to the affair (archived). At trial her allegations of discrimination were determined to be unfounded and she was ordered to pay the firm's legal fees. Even though she had advanced her career at the firm to the point she was elevated to partner at the firm, she still alleged that systemic gender discrimination had limited her potential to advance her career. Pao was determined to appeal the ruling during her short tenure as CEO of the social media outlet Reddit where she advanced a censorship agenda which involved shuttering communities that celebrate healthy lifestyle choices and suppression of accurate legal analysis of her case. Near the end of her reign there was further a large rebellion of unpaid moderation staff as she cut a number of resources once available to support them. Pao's post Kleiner legacy as a business leader raises serious questions about the managerial competence at any firm that would elevate Ellen Pao to partner.