Attempts to reach Bitcointalk.org now result in database errors. Whether or not this is a signal Bitcointalk is migrating to its new bespoke platform from Simple Machine Forums is unclear. As a reminder, a reputable mirror at http://bitcointa.lk exists. Update: They just experienced a disk failure.
Another Big Silk Road 2.0 Arrest (Full Complaint)
A criminal complaint filed on January 17th, 2015 reveal the arrest of a man Brian Farrell who is alleged to have served on the Silk Road 2.0 as DoctorClu, the right hand man to Defcon. According to the complaint the defendant's residential IP address was leaked at some point and a "cooperating witness" who lived at the address identified Farrell as a "computer wizard" who bragged he could buy "anything" off of the Internet. Continue reading
Robert Faiella AKA BTCKing Sentenced To Four Years In Prison
Robert Faiella, better known as BTCKing and Charlie Shrem's partner in crime, was today sentenced to four years in prison for the part he played in selling USD $1 million worth of bitcoin to Silk Road users.
Using Shrem's BitInstant service, Faiella fulfilled orders by Silk Road users who wished to purchase bitcoins so as to then use them to buy their drug of choice via the Silk Road. Pleading guilty, former plumber1 Faiella told the court that his decision to act as a broker to people looking to purchase bitcoin came as a result of having no other way to support his family. Continue reading
Mushrooms anyone? ↩
Bitcoin Finance in 2014
Bitcoin had a tumultuous year in 2014. The headline news all year was the greatest collapse in the exchange rate since 2013 (remember in April '13 when Bitcoin went from $260 to $50?). There were also scams enacted on a massive scale – the size of which had not been seen since 2012. Very few businesses flourished, and many floundered. All in all, just another year in the single most fun and exciting phenomenon of our lifetime. Continue reading
Gavin Andresen On Future Blockchain Security: I Dunno LOL!
Undeterred in his attempt to fork the Bitcoin network, Gavin Andresen today posted an update to his blog in which he attempts to spread fear by implying users will switch to "substitute goods" or in other words an altcoin unless an increase to the blocksize is made. That portion of his update, bolding by USGavin himself, reads: Continue reading
Prosecutors Seek to Bar DPR Interview From Jury – Updated
In Wired Andy Greenberg writes that the Preet Bharara's team prosecuting the Silk Road case wants to bar the Jury from being exposed to the only interview done with the Dread Pirate Roberts of the Silk Road. The interview done by Andy Greenberg for Forbes is notable for sounding to Department of Homeland Security agents a lot like Mark Karpelès and containing a number of answers from the Dread Pirate Roberts which supports the argument presently being advanced by the defense that in spite of founding the Silk Road and being caught holding the bad for the Silk Road Ulbricht had little to do with the Silk Road for most of its history. Continue reading
NYSE Minority Contributor in CoinBase's Latest Fundraiser
In a release today CoinBase announced that among the contributors to its latest fundraising round were the New York Stock Exchange and others.
Preview of Obama's Internet Law Enforcement Proposals
Tonight Obama takes to the pulpit for his speech nominally designated the "State of the Union" though so far his earlier attempts had more the impression of being a wish list of changes Obama would like applied to the Union. Ready to go on the White House website he even has a pdf of changes he would like to make to the federal law in order to deter "Cyber crime" further through empowering law enforcement. Continue reading
Spammer Escalates to Murder
Minh Nguyen who previously was most notable for starting the venture capital funded spam fountain Plaxo has allegedly murdered his ex-wife's husband. Nguyen allegedly killed the man in the victim's own home. Plaxo raised $28.3 million in venture capital funding trailblazing new frontiers in spam proliferation before being acquired by Comcast in 2008.
LizardStresser Hacked, Customer Details Leaked
The Guardian reports that the Lizard Squad's LizardStresser serviced has been hacked, and reports of arrests of various members of the group continue to trickle in. All customer user names and passwords were stored as plaintext on the server. Postmortem statistics reported on the service include: Continue reading