Today's difficulty adjustment to 65`848`255`179.7, a rise of 5.77%, is notable as both the tenth consecutive increase — a streak the likes of which has not occurred for nearly a year — and the largest increase since April 5th, when difficulty rose by 5.84%. This ongoing rise should come as no surprise: naive estimates (archived) place the next reward halving on July 24th, so work must accelerate to realize the market's prediction of July 20th.
Preet Ups the Charges for Coin.mx Operators
Preet Bharara's office announced another round of charges for the operators of Coin.mx with the latest charges relating to a hack of JP Morgan and others (archived).
Wolfe Resigns At Mizzou Surrendering To Pressure
Tim Wolfe, president of the University of Missouri System, tendered his resignation at an emergency board of curators meeting. The football team is anticipated to resume organized team activities and compete in a game against Brigham Young University on Saturday.
The Most Serene Republic Celebrates First Birthday
Citizens of The Most Serene Republic of Bitcoin are celebrating the first anniversary of the unveiling and signing of Bitcoin's Declaration of Independence.
ProtonMail Confirms Ongoing Profitability of Negotiations (For The Terrorists)
As reported by ProtonMail itself (archived), the Swiss security theatricians have followed FBI-recommended best practice and caved to the demands of terrorists: Continue reading
Mizzou and Yale Experience Acute Unrest
Two major American Universities have been thrust into a state of unrest due to activism in the name of "social justice" and "diversity" late this fall semester. Yale University's crisis was triggered by duelling emails concerning Halloween costumes, while trouble at the University of Missouri began with a isolated incidents of drunks using racial slurs and has escalated into a series of boycotts hindering campus services. Continue reading
Theymos Threatens Coinbase's Social Media Privileges
Brian Armstrong, CEO of the YCombinator incubated startup Coinbase has been vocal in supporting BIP-101. He claims Coinbase will begin using full nodes with BIP-101 code patched in sometime in December if no other proposal reaches "consensus". Theymos who moderates the Bitcoin subreddit and Bitcointalk, threatened to ban Coinbase representatives if they were to begin promoting software that implemented BIP-101 to the public before a consensus is reached.
Torrent Infrastructure Hindered as Demonii/YIFY/YTS Fall
Late in October the torrent outfit YIFY took down their website and mysteriously ceased operating. TorrentFreak is now reporting the operator of the outfit has reached an undisclosed settlement with the MPAA (archived). A substantial casualty of this settlement is Demonii, the largest public torrent tracker which had been operated by persons affiliated with YIFY. The unprecedented settlement is suggestive of the possibility that the entire YIFY operation may have been a false flag for its entire duration. Readers using torrent software are advised to block connections to the Demonii tracker as it may be used as a data collection tool by the MPAA and other Copyrast operations.
Fiat/Bitcoin Interfaces Experience Week of Extreme Price Volatility
Man Convicted as Serial Killer Over Circumstantial Evidence
Charles Severance was convicted of three murders involving prominent Alexandria, Virginia residents which occurred over more than a decade in spite of the entirely circumstantial nature of the evidence against him and the existence of credible alternative suspects (archived, archived). The first murder to occur for which Severance has been convicted was that of Nancy Dunning, a real estate agent and wife of James Dunning, a former Alexandria sheriff. Her husband the former sheriff was a suspect for a long time though he was never charged in a crime.
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