MasterCard's Submission To Economics References Committee Now Available

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A copy of MasterCard's submission to the Economics References Committee held by the Australian Senate on the 26th of November 2014 is now available to the public. Within the submission, MasterCard argues that the Australian regulators must address the pseudonymity of Bitcoin as it can be used to facilitate the purchase of illegal goods and services, launder money as well as finance terrorism.

MasterCard stated that for Australia to have an effective regulatory system for Bitcoin, it must make it a requirement for all transactions to go through regulated and transparent administrators rather than just the blockchain itself. The company also claims that Australia must address the risks that harm consumers and enable criminal behaviours through the use of digital currencies such as Bitcoin if the country is to take a market leadership position going into the future.

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MoneyBeat, A WSJ Blog, Confirms GAW Miners Is A Ponzi

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MoneyBeat, a blog hosted by the Wall St Journal, has published a second article discussing accusations levied against Josh Garza's GAW Miners. Michael J Casey, who authored the piece, concludes that his research is unlikely to placate the "highly vocal critics" of GAW Miners. Garza appears to be quite happy with the article, proudly tweeting it to his followers via @gawceo. Continue reading →

UN Report Criticizes United States on Human Rights

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A recent report by the United Nations High Commision for Human Rights Committee on Torture excoriated the United States for its human rights record at home and abroad in it first review of the United States since 2006. The United States record was reviewed along with those of several other parties to the 1987 U.N Convention Against Torture which was ratified by the United States in 1994. A number of issues raised in the committee's conclusions include: Continue reading →

HSBC Cuts Ties with GABI

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HSBC has reportedly cut ties with the "regulated" Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund (GABI) over concerns related to "money laundering" risks. Notably in 2012 HSBC settled with the United States for $1.92 billion related to assistance it allegedly provided drug cartels in laundering money in Mexico and Columbia, likely making the money laundering issue a very sore subject for the bank.

Michael Mizrachi AKA The Grinder To Launch Bitcoin Based Poker Site

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In an interview with CalvinAyre.com, Michael Mizrachi, better known as The Grinder, has discussion his intention to launch a bitcoin based poker site which he is calling Get Lucky Poker. The website, currently under construction, already sports a HTML5 and Windows client although bitcoin play is currently disabled. Mizrachi hopes to launch the site in January 2015. Continue reading →

CoinJar Relocate From Australia To UK, No Longer Charging GST

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CoinJar has announced the relocation of its headquarters from Melbourne, Australia to the UK. As a result of the change, CoinJar customers are no longer subject to a GST of 10% when purchasing bitcoin via the platform.

CoinJar first began collecting the GST on bitcoin purchases as of October 3rd 2014. The addition of the GST made CoinJar the most expensive place to purchase bitcoin in Australia. After the GST was implemented, Qntra speculated that CoinJar customers had no reason to use the website as competitors, such as Circle, were now accepting credit cards from Australian users1 and did not collect the GST, making it a cheaper option despite currency exchange fees. Continue reading →

  1. Hit and miss depending on who issued the credit card. ↩

US Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments in Speech Case

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The supreme court tomorrow will hear oral arguments in the case of Elonis v. United States. The legal question to be argued is:

(1) Whether, consistent with the First Amendment and Virginia v. Black, conviction of threatening another person under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) requires proof of the defendant's subjective intent to threaten, as required by the Ninth Circuit and the supreme courts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont; or whether it is enough to show that a “reasonable person” would regard the statement as threatening, as held by other federal courts of appeals and state courts of last resort; and (2) whether, as a matter of statutory interpretation, conviction of threatening another person under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) requires proof of the defendant's subjective intent to threaten.

Elonis was convicted for the high crime of posting rap lyrics he had authored to his Facebook page and as a result was sentenced to 44 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.