Sergio Demian Lerner Hired By Vessenes' Foundation

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Vessenes' Bitcoin foundation today announced it has hired Sergio Demian Lerner as the foundation's "Core Security Auditor" and he is intended to work on security aspects of the Bitcoin Core fork of Satoshi's Bitcoin implementation. Sergio Demian Lerner is scheduled to appear at the laBITconf bitcoin conference in Buenos Aires on December 7th, 2014. The Vessenes' foundation also announced its intention to offer release candidates for version 0.10 of their Bitcoin client in the next week.

California's DBO: We Have Authority To Regulate Bitcoin

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Staff at California's Department of Business Oversight have concluded that the department has the authority to regulate Bitcoin but are yet to elaborate on just how they intend to do so. The perceived authority to regulate Bitcoin came about after staff at the DBO came to a consensus that the state's laws which govern money transmitters such as Western Union also applies to Bitcoin. Continue reading →

An Interview With Darkside Of The Russian Anonymous Marketplace

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Wired.com has published an interview with Darkside of the relatively unknown Russian Anonymous Marketplace, otherwise known as RAMP. RAMP caters solely to Russian customers and unlike Western dark markets, does not collect a commission on sales. Darkside claims his business model is earning him $250,000 per year and RAMP has now been in business longer than the original Silk Road.

The full interview is available here.

Von NotHaus Gets House Arrest

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Reports are coming out that Bernard Von NotHaus has been sentenced to six months of house arrest. He was convicted in 2011 for minting a precious metal backed private currency called the Liberty Dollar which he intended to have rival the Federal Reserve note. Von NotHaus had been described by prosecutors and law enforcement officials as a terrorist for encouraging private persons to barter with silver and gold coins as an alternative to using United States Dollars. The Liberty Dollar was introduced in 1998. Von Nothaus was warned in 2006, raided in 2007, indicted in 2009, convicted in 2011, and finally sentenced December 3rd 2014. Von Nothaus had faced potentially 40 years in prison and a loss of millions of dollars, but the United States Attorney only managed again, a sentence of six months of house arrest.

Congress Man Proposes Bill (H.R. 5777 Full Text Attached)

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Outgoing United States Representative Steve Stockman of Texas has proposed a bill, H.R. 5777 that if it became law would impose a moratorium of five years on regulatory and statutory constraints upon cryptocurrency, as well as changing the treatment of cryptocurrencies under United States tax law to that enjoyed by traditional currencies. The moratorium proposed would apply to regulations and statutes at both the state and federal level. The chance this bill passes either house of the legislature is remote given a lack of support and Stockman's limited remaining time in Congress. If it makes it out of Congress its chance of becoming law would still be rather remote, because it would arrive on Obama's desk and require his signature. At present the bill has been introduced to the floor of the House and referred to both the House Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee. Continue reading →