Apple Forces Fancy to Remove Bitcoin Payments From its App
Neil Sardesai 08/03/2014
By now everyone knows that Apple isn’t too fond of Bitcoin. The company has removed every single Bitcoin wallet application from the iOS App Store, with Blockchain being the last one. The reason for Apple’s anti-Bitcoin stance isn’t entirely clear. It’s possible that Apple doesn’t want to deal with the legal issues of a currency whose regulatory status is unclear and inconsistent in most countries. For instance, when Coinbase was removed from the App Store, Apple’s reasoning was that apps must “comply with all legal requirements in any location where they are made available to users.” On the other hand, conspiracy theorists claim that Apple wants to have its own “iMoney” digital payments system, and wants to eliminate the competition – Bitcoin. However, it’s not like Bitcoin-related apps aren’t available on the App Store. Just searching for “bitcoin” returns 242 results, though almost all of them are price tickers. It just seems like any app that deals with Bitcoin transactions is frowned upon, with Pinterest rival Fancy being the latest casualty.
Removed Bitcoin per Apple's request
Removed Bitcoin per Apple’s request
Back in January, Fancy began accepting Bitcoin payments for its “crowd-curated catalog of amazing goods.” Fancy isn’t like Amazon with millions of products to choose from. Instead, the site features a much smaller selection of unique products that interest the community. Just over a month after accepting Bitcoin, Fancy’s iOS and Android apps were updated to supported Bitcoin payments, which were done through Coinbase. But just one week later, the app was updated to “[remove] Bitcoin per Apple’s request”. The Android app remains unaffected.
But Why?
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/photo-2-169x300.png
After hearing this news, many were quick to bash Apple for various reasons. Some claimed that this is another example of Apple’s tightly-controlled, walled-garden approach to iOS. However, this argument doesn’t really make sense. The closed platform approach was designed to prevent users from unintentionally bricking their devices, which is one of the reasons iOS is so popular. Even the most technologically illiterate people can use iOS with ease. Having Bitcoin as an optional payment system within certain apps should be ok with the current App Store guidelines, because users who don’t know what Bitcoin is would simply ignore the option and go for the traditional credit card payment route.
Another argument is that Apple hates Bitcoin because it can’t make any money off of Bitcoin transactions. While it’s true that Apple takes a 30% cut in In-App Purchases, many apps such as Amazon just rely on manual credit card entry, which bypasses the Apple tax. Furthermore, apps such as Square Register and Square Wallet allow users to make and accept credit card payments without Apple taking any cut in the transaction. So the fact that Bitcoin payments don’t make Apple any money seems like another invalid argument, since many apps that deal with credit card transactions also don’t make Apple any money.
It’s difficult to really pinpoint Apple’s rationale here, since Bitcoin payments wouldn’t harm the company in any way. But it seems like Apple has chosen to side with traditional payment methods for the time being.
Topic: BITCOIN NEWS EVRYDAY! From multiple sources. - page 16. (Read 51275 times)
Vertcoin Most ‘Active’ Coin
Thomas Seneca 08/03/2014
In the search for investment coins, one may choose to search for those that are undervalued. Valuation can be a tricky issue, but fortunately there are some numbers available that we can use to better inform our judgements. In principle, when looking for the best value we would be looking for the coin that is doing the most with the least market cap. In other words, we may search for the most active coins PER market cap. This should yield us coins that are being used extensively, but may have so far have escaped being ‘invested in’. This method may not always work, But neither does any method always work, or we would already be rich.
In this article some simple measures of activity per market cap are graphed to give us some idea of what coins may be more active than others. It should be noted that this data varies, a lot, sometimes inexplicably. For example, the number of transactions can vary significantly without any clear market reason. The same goes for the total money sent. We can remember when Dogecoin had 4 times its market cap sent each day.
Our first measure is the amount sent in USD per day per $1,000 of market cap. Obviously if a coin has a lot of money sent each day, meaning it is being used a lot, and yet a small market cap, then it might represent a good value according to our formula. Following is a chart of amount sent in USD per day per $1,000 of market cap:
Amount in dollars sent per day per dollar of market cap
We can see that Litecoin leads with $0.23 sent each day per one dollar of market cap. In other words, 23% of market cap is sent each day. Dogecoin follows with 18%, and Vertcoin follows with 10% of market cap sent each day. When investing in any currency, we are betting that it will be used to send money. These three coins lead the list in this category.
Our second measure of ‘activity’ is going to be the number of transactions in a 24 hour period per $1,000, in market cap. This is similar to the last measure, but in this case we could get a high level of activity even if all the transactions represented small amounts. Following is a chart of transactions per day per $1,000 in market cap:
transactions per day
Number of transactions per day per $1,000 in market cap
From the coins that made it in the first round we see Vertcoin again followed by Dogecoin.
Finally, for our last measure we will use the number of active addresses used in the last 24 hours per $1,000 dollars in market cap. See chart:
active addresses per day
Number of active addresses per day per $1,000 of market cap
In this case, Vertcoin leads with 2.3 active addresses per $1,000 in market cap followed by Dogecoin with 0.86.
From the charts we see that Vertcoin is winning in both transactions and active addresses while it shows well in the category of amount sent per day, all relative to its fairly small market cap. So you may be wondering, What is Vertcoin and are there any other reasons to invest in it?
Vertcoin was designed similar to Litecoin for the purpose of being resistant to ASIC mining. Vertcoin carries this evolution one step further by increasing the memory requirements required for mining as time goes forward. Here is a quote from their paper:
“Vertcoin has now been released as the logical evolution of Litecoin and introduces what’s known as Adaptive N-Factor. The N-Factor component of Scrypt determines how much memory is required to compute the hashing functions. Vertcoin N-factor increases the memory requirements with time to stay one step ahead of any possible ASIC development.”
The advantage of all this is that, without the excessively centralized mining of high power computing centers, the network is more distributed reducing the possibility of a 51% attack.
Whatever the technical advantages of the coin it currently tops the most active list followed by Litecoin and Dogecoin. If the active list proves useful, we will produce further installments.
Thomas Seneca 08/03/2014
In the search for investment coins, one may choose to search for those that are undervalued. Valuation can be a tricky issue, but fortunately there are some numbers available that we can use to better inform our judgements. In principle, when looking for the best value we would be looking for the coin that is doing the most with the least market cap. In other words, we may search for the most active coins PER market cap. This should yield us coins that are being used extensively, but may have so far have escaped being ‘invested in’. This method may not always work, But neither does any method always work, or we would already be rich.
In this article some simple measures of activity per market cap are graphed to give us some idea of what coins may be more active than others. It should be noted that this data varies, a lot, sometimes inexplicably. For example, the number of transactions can vary significantly without any clear market reason. The same goes for the total money sent. We can remember when Dogecoin had 4 times its market cap sent each day.
Our first measure is the amount sent in USD per day per $1,000 of market cap. Obviously if a coin has a lot of money sent each day, meaning it is being used a lot, and yet a small market cap, then it might represent a good value according to our formula. Following is a chart of amount sent in USD per day per $1,000 of market cap:
Amount in dollars sent per day per dollar of market cap
We can see that Litecoin leads with $0.23 sent each day per one dollar of market cap. In other words, 23% of market cap is sent each day. Dogecoin follows with 18%, and Vertcoin follows with 10% of market cap sent each day. When investing in any currency, we are betting that it will be used to send money. These three coins lead the list in this category.
Our second measure of ‘activity’ is going to be the number of transactions in a 24 hour period per $1,000, in market cap. This is similar to the last measure, but in this case we could get a high level of activity even if all the transactions represented small amounts. Following is a chart of transactions per day per $1,000 in market cap:
transactions per day
Number of transactions per day per $1,000 in market cap
From the coins that made it in the first round we see Vertcoin again followed by Dogecoin.
Finally, for our last measure we will use the number of active addresses used in the last 24 hours per $1,000 dollars in market cap. See chart:
active addresses per day
Number of active addresses per day per $1,000 of market cap
In this case, Vertcoin leads with 2.3 active addresses per $1,000 in market cap followed by Dogecoin with 0.86.
From the charts we see that Vertcoin is winning in both transactions and active addresses while it shows well in the category of amount sent per day, all relative to its fairly small market cap. So you may be wondering, What is Vertcoin and are there any other reasons to invest in it?
Vertcoin was designed similar to Litecoin for the purpose of being resistant to ASIC mining. Vertcoin carries this evolution one step further by increasing the memory requirements required for mining as time goes forward. Here is a quote from their paper:
“Vertcoin has now been released as the logical evolution of Litecoin and introduces what’s known as Adaptive N-Factor. The N-Factor component of Scrypt determines how much memory is required to compute the hashing functions. Vertcoin N-factor increases the memory requirements with time to stay one step ahead of any possible ASIC development.”
The advantage of all this is that, without the excessively centralized mining of high power computing centers, the network is more distributed reducing the possibility of a 51% attack.
Whatever the technical advantages of the coin it currently tops the most active list followed by Litecoin and Dogecoin. If the active list proves useful, we will produce further installments.
Why Isn’t Your Business Accepting Bitcoin?
Arianna Simpson (@ariannasimpson) | Published on March 8, 2014 at 13:50 GMT | Analysis, Companies, Merchants
Arianna is a bitcoin enthusiast and investor, who organizes a bitcoin meetup group in New York.
Bitcoin has been blowing up the news lately, mostly with bad press stemming from Mt. Gox’s recent collapse.
If you’re a business owner who is considering accepting the digital currency, this may be causing heart palpitations. Despite the temporary market unrest, there are huge opportunities for merchants to benefit from accepting bitcoin – I’ve outlined a few below.
Cost
Credit card fees usually run around 2 to 3%, which can make a considerable dent in the profits of businesses operating on low margins. With bitcoin, you can pay substantially lower fees (~1%) without needing a huge volume of transactions as leverage with the credit card company.
And that’s only if you transfer your money back into local currency – if you keep it in bitcoin, you can essentially avoid fees altogether.
It’s true that as your business scales, you can negotiate lower fees from existing credit-card companies. But let’s be honest: if you’re an entrepreneur, do you really want to spend your time haggling over a fraction of a percent with a rep in a call center on the other side of the planet? Didn’t think so.
There’s nothing quaint about it. You’re trying to build a company, and this isn’t a Moroccan spice market.
bank
If you’re using a service like PayPal, you’re generally being charged a fixed rate of $0.30 per transaction, plus a percentage transaction fee based on volume. Bitcoin enables peer to peer (or individual to merchant) transactions on a very small scale, making micropayments much more viable than they previously had been, and transactions can be completed for less than half of the cost.
Let’s take a simple example in which you have a business with an annual revenue of $1m. Your credit card processor currently charges you 2% per transaction, or $20,000. If you switch to a bitcoin payment processor, say Coinbase or BitPay, you can get very close to 1%. You just cut your bill in half, and saved $10,000 by essentially doing nothing.
I can think of a lot of things I’d like to do with $10,000, and giving it to a credit card company isn’t one of them. Personally, I think it’s a toss up between a hobbit home or a water thrusting jet bike.
Safety from exchange rate risk
There’s no question that bitcoin has been volatile. It still is, and it would be shocking if it weren’t – very few big ideas reach maturity in a span as short as five years.
Personally, I view dips in price as opportunities to buy more, but if the possibility that your money could be worth half as much tomorrow keeps you up at night, that’s understandable. The delightful thing is that you needn’t actually hold any of the bitcoin you receive as payment. Most merchants who currently accept it set prices in their local currency and get paid in their local currency. Voilà!
Bitcoin operates as the “payment rails” – it’s the medium through which the transaction takes place, but you don’t have to expose yourself to any exchange risk.
International sales
Bitcoin transactions allow you to expand your markets to basically anywhere, so long as you’re willing to ship there (if you’re selling a physical product). You can accept payments from anywhere. Since there’s no intermediary bank, you don’t have to deal with waiting for ~3 days for the transaction to complete.
NYC
You can also avoid transfer limits and outrageous fees. As they currently stand, international transactions are a hassle, and there’s a great deal of room for bitcoin to help streamline the process (Timothy Lee of the Washington Post wrote a good piece on this).
No chargebacks
Chargebacks are quite a headache, and dealing with them can sap a considerable amount of time and energy that could be better spent growing your business. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible, which means that you needn’t worry about chargebacks.
Publicity
It’s still early enough in Bitcoin’s adoption that there are press stories to be written about “the first xxx” to accept bitcoin in a given city or town. Free press—Why not? This shouldn’t be your main rationale for taking bitcoin, but it’s something of an added bonus; leverage the exposure to expand your customer base.
These shoppers are also likely to be new customers who may be trying your product or service just because they can pay for it with bitcoin, and that’s your chance to hook them in via a great experience.
Ease of use
Bitcoin isn’t hard to deal with, and it’s only going to get easier. Please don’t buy into the argument that bitcoin is some complicated, mysterious thing and because you don’t fully understand it, you can’t use it.
I would posit that if you polled 1,000 college-educated Americans and asked them to describe in detail how a phone, TV, or refrigerator works, the majority wouldn’t be able to do so.
I certainly encourage everyone to become educated on bitcoin before taking the plunge, but a deep technical understanding of cryptographic hashing or how the block chain works is not necessary.
There are a number of companies that are already making it quite easy for you to accept bitcoin. Two that I have used personally, and therefore feel comfortable recommending, are Shopify and Coinbase.
If you use Shopify as a platform for your e-commerce sales, integration is a breeze. You can add it just as simply as you would Paypal or Visa. Coinbase is also super simple to integrate, and offers a solid degree of customization. As an added perk, merchants get the first $1,000,000 in transactions free of charge.
Sales
There is a myth in circulation that people tend to save bitcoin as an investment or a form of speculation rather than spending it, but there’s increasing evidence that it’s actually being used as a transactional currency.
show-me-bitcoin
This is not surprising, because as the number of merchants accepting it grows, people have more opportunities to spend it, which then leads more businesses to accept it, and so on. The bottom lefthand section of the infographic above shows an enormous increase in the number of people who spend bitcoin shortly after acquiring it.
People are willing to spend bitcoins – you might as well encourage them to do so at your business.
The number of companies offering B2B services build on the Bitcoin protocol is still fairly small, but there’s already a solid core of reputable, safe ones to choose from.
As the network effect widens and more people start accepting bitcoin, you’ll be increasingly able to benefit from the new currency, and even today there’s very little downside and a lot of upside to accepting Bitcoin. And after all, don’t you want to go buy that water thrusting jet bike?
Arianna Simpson (@ariannasimpson) | Published on March 8, 2014 at 13:50 GMT | Analysis, Companies, Merchants
Arianna is a bitcoin enthusiast and investor, who organizes a bitcoin meetup group in New York.
Bitcoin has been blowing up the news lately, mostly with bad press stemming from Mt. Gox’s recent collapse.
If you’re a business owner who is considering accepting the digital currency, this may be causing heart palpitations. Despite the temporary market unrest, there are huge opportunities for merchants to benefit from accepting bitcoin – I’ve outlined a few below.
Cost
Credit card fees usually run around 2 to 3%, which can make a considerable dent in the profits of businesses operating on low margins. With bitcoin, you can pay substantially lower fees (~1%) without needing a huge volume of transactions as leverage with the credit card company.
And that’s only if you transfer your money back into local currency – if you keep it in bitcoin, you can essentially avoid fees altogether.
It’s true that as your business scales, you can negotiate lower fees from existing credit-card companies. But let’s be honest: if you’re an entrepreneur, do you really want to spend your time haggling over a fraction of a percent with a rep in a call center on the other side of the planet? Didn’t think so.
There’s nothing quaint about it. You’re trying to build a company, and this isn’t a Moroccan spice market.
bank
If you’re using a service like PayPal, you’re generally being charged a fixed rate of $0.30 per transaction, plus a percentage transaction fee based on volume. Bitcoin enables peer to peer (or individual to merchant) transactions on a very small scale, making micropayments much more viable than they previously had been, and transactions can be completed for less than half of the cost.
Let’s take a simple example in which you have a business with an annual revenue of $1m. Your credit card processor currently charges you 2% per transaction, or $20,000. If you switch to a bitcoin payment processor, say Coinbase or BitPay, you can get very close to 1%. You just cut your bill in half, and saved $10,000 by essentially doing nothing.
I can think of a lot of things I’d like to do with $10,000, and giving it to a credit card company isn’t one of them. Personally, I think it’s a toss up between a hobbit home or a water thrusting jet bike.
Safety from exchange rate risk
There’s no question that bitcoin has been volatile. It still is, and it would be shocking if it weren’t – very few big ideas reach maturity in a span as short as five years.
Personally, I view dips in price as opportunities to buy more, but if the possibility that your money could be worth half as much tomorrow keeps you up at night, that’s understandable. The delightful thing is that you needn’t actually hold any of the bitcoin you receive as payment. Most merchants who currently accept it set prices in their local currency and get paid in their local currency. Voilà!
Bitcoin operates as the “payment rails” – it’s the medium through which the transaction takes place, but you don’t have to expose yourself to any exchange risk.
International sales
Bitcoin transactions allow you to expand your markets to basically anywhere, so long as you’re willing to ship there (if you’re selling a physical product). You can accept payments from anywhere. Since there’s no intermediary bank, you don’t have to deal with waiting for ~3 days for the transaction to complete.
NYC
You can also avoid transfer limits and outrageous fees. As they currently stand, international transactions are a hassle, and there’s a great deal of room for bitcoin to help streamline the process (Timothy Lee of the Washington Post wrote a good piece on this).
No chargebacks
Chargebacks are quite a headache, and dealing with them can sap a considerable amount of time and energy that could be better spent growing your business. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible, which means that you needn’t worry about chargebacks.
Publicity
It’s still early enough in Bitcoin’s adoption that there are press stories to be written about “the first xxx” to accept bitcoin in a given city or town. Free press—Why not? This shouldn’t be your main rationale for taking bitcoin, but it’s something of an added bonus; leverage the exposure to expand your customer base.
These shoppers are also likely to be new customers who may be trying your product or service just because they can pay for it with bitcoin, and that’s your chance to hook them in via a great experience.
Ease of use
Bitcoin isn’t hard to deal with, and it’s only going to get easier. Please don’t buy into the argument that bitcoin is some complicated, mysterious thing and because you don’t fully understand it, you can’t use it.
I would posit that if you polled 1,000 college-educated Americans and asked them to describe in detail how a phone, TV, or refrigerator works, the majority wouldn’t be able to do so.
I certainly encourage everyone to become educated on bitcoin before taking the plunge, but a deep technical understanding of cryptographic hashing or how the block chain works is not necessary.
There are a number of companies that are already making it quite easy for you to accept bitcoin. Two that I have used personally, and therefore feel comfortable recommending, are Shopify and Coinbase.
If you use Shopify as a platform for your e-commerce sales, integration is a breeze. You can add it just as simply as you would Paypal or Visa. Coinbase is also super simple to integrate, and offers a solid degree of customization. As an added perk, merchants get the first $1,000,000 in transactions free of charge.
Sales
There is a myth in circulation that people tend to save bitcoin as an investment or a form of speculation rather than spending it, but there’s increasing evidence that it’s actually being used as a transactional currency.
show-me-bitcoin
This is not surprising, because as the number of merchants accepting it grows, people have more opportunities to spend it, which then leads more businesses to accept it, and so on. The bottom lefthand section of the infographic above shows an enormous increase in the number of people who spend bitcoin shortly after acquiring it.
People are willing to spend bitcoins – you might as well encourage them to do so at your business.
The number of companies offering B2B services build on the Bitcoin protocol is still fairly small, but there’s already a solid core of reputable, safe ones to choose from.
As the network effect widens and more people start accepting bitcoin, you’ll be increasingly able to benefit from the new currency, and even today there’s very little downside and a lot of upside to accepting Bitcoin. And after all, don’t you want to go buy that water thrusting jet bike?
Why The Bitcoin Industry Must Recognise Its Responsibilities
Michael Jackson (@overdrev) | Published on March 8, 2014 at 14:47 GMT | Analysis, Bitcoin protocol, Mt. Gox, Regulation
Michael Jackson is a software engineer, entrepreneur and venture capital investor at Mangrove Capital Partners.
The most significant issue affecting the adoption of cybercurrencies is the safety of bitcoin holdings.
This is a fundamental deficiency of what is a software-defined asset, totally accessible instantaneously and online. In short, bitcoin’s very characteristics make it too easily accessible for criminals.
Last week we saw Mt. Gox cease to exist, this week Flexcoin. Both closures caused by errors in the companies’ systems, but with likely no recourse for their customers.
We will see more companies go under in this way, without a doubt. So if bitcoin is to widely adopted, the customer must be better protected.
Consumer protection
With existing currencies, you know that if a bank goes down, you are protected and will likely be refunded. In this case, you can say, the balances in the bank (which are effectively virtual too) are zeroed and then reissued by the central bank.
There exist other examples of consumer protection too. In the case of the travel industry, operators pay into a central pool that can be used for compensation in the event of a travel company collapsing. Those that pay into the pool are able to use the consumer protection badge, giving consumers the assurance they need to pay up front for their holidays.
Industry-backed consumer protection schemes are not new. In order to ensure consumer protection and regain trust, we need a similar scheme for digital currencies. By working together to define the criteria for accepting businesses into the scheme and sufficiently vetting each business, the same could be done for bitcoin.
Traceable coins
Of course, some environments are simpler than others. Charter holidays are relatively straightforward while bitcoin is, in practice, much more complex.
The protocol means that while it is easy enough to prove that you own a bitcoin, it is much harder to prove that the original bitcoin has disappeared and that a refund is therefore due.
Bitcoins held by Mt. Gox have seemingly disappeared, but they may still reappear. The bitcoin industry therefore needs a central body capable of cancelling the relevant bitcoin and the same would have to apply to any digital currency.
Some may argue that bitcoin is an ideology as much as a product – an ideology that would be totally destroyed if a governing body was given the power to control it.
Case study
However, the Internet itself has proven huge decentralized projects can be workable. If there are disputes regarding Internet governance or protocols, they can be escalated so that decisions are made for the greater good of the Internet.
In this case, this is possible because the web is such a large, diverse entity with no single self-interest.
Just now, it is not clear where the responsibility lies and it is important that the open-source nature of bitcoin is preserved – where the only self-interests are those that are building applications and services on top of the cryptocurrency.
The Bitcoin Foundation has the right structure and it could have the jurisdictional capability to reproduce and refund currency.
With many of those involved having significant self-interests – half of them own exchanges of their own – this could be a good thing, as they will be motivated to regain the trust of bitcoin users.
New challenges
As is often the case with bitcoin, asking one question raises many more. Yet while there is still so much to be worked out, many of the challenges arising are not ones that haven’t been overcome before.
Similarly, there are many other technologies that were once unproven or unpopular, but are now multi-billion-dollar industries. It’s clear, however, that it will require effort, investment and trust between the various different components to take bitcoin forward.
Without renewed effort to gain consumer trust, this industry may die before it even reaches childhood. All bitcoin companies need to collect a levy, used to compensate unfortunate consumers. Some would call this a tax. Maybe bitcoin isn’t so far from the real world after all.
Michael Jackson (@overdrev) | Published on March 8, 2014 at 14:47 GMT | Analysis, Bitcoin protocol, Mt. Gox, Regulation
Michael Jackson is a software engineer, entrepreneur and venture capital investor at Mangrove Capital Partners.
The most significant issue affecting the adoption of cybercurrencies is the safety of bitcoin holdings.
This is a fundamental deficiency of what is a software-defined asset, totally accessible instantaneously and online. In short, bitcoin’s very characteristics make it too easily accessible for criminals.
Last week we saw Mt. Gox cease to exist, this week Flexcoin. Both closures caused by errors in the companies’ systems, but with likely no recourse for their customers.
We will see more companies go under in this way, without a doubt. So if bitcoin is to widely adopted, the customer must be better protected.
Consumer protection
With existing currencies, you know that if a bank goes down, you are protected and will likely be refunded. In this case, you can say, the balances in the bank (which are effectively virtual too) are zeroed and then reissued by the central bank.
There exist other examples of consumer protection too. In the case of the travel industry, operators pay into a central pool that can be used for compensation in the event of a travel company collapsing. Those that pay into the pool are able to use the consumer protection badge, giving consumers the assurance they need to pay up front for their holidays.
Industry-backed consumer protection schemes are not new. In order to ensure consumer protection and regain trust, we need a similar scheme for digital currencies. By working together to define the criteria for accepting businesses into the scheme and sufficiently vetting each business, the same could be done for bitcoin.
Traceable coins
Of course, some environments are simpler than others. Charter holidays are relatively straightforward while bitcoin is, in practice, much more complex.
The protocol means that while it is easy enough to prove that you own a bitcoin, it is much harder to prove that the original bitcoin has disappeared and that a refund is therefore due.
Bitcoins held by Mt. Gox have seemingly disappeared, but they may still reappear. The bitcoin industry therefore needs a central body capable of cancelling the relevant bitcoin and the same would have to apply to any digital currency.
Some may argue that bitcoin is an ideology as much as a product – an ideology that would be totally destroyed if a governing body was given the power to control it.
Case study
However, the Internet itself has proven huge decentralized projects can be workable. If there are disputes regarding Internet governance or protocols, they can be escalated so that decisions are made for the greater good of the Internet.
In this case, this is possible because the web is such a large, diverse entity with no single self-interest.
Just now, it is not clear where the responsibility lies and it is important that the open-source nature of bitcoin is preserved – where the only self-interests are those that are building applications and services on top of the cryptocurrency.
The Bitcoin Foundation has the right structure and it could have the jurisdictional capability to reproduce and refund currency.
With many of those involved having significant self-interests – half of them own exchanges of their own – this could be a good thing, as they will be motivated to regain the trust of bitcoin users.
New challenges
As is often the case with bitcoin, asking one question raises many more. Yet while there is still so much to be worked out, many of the challenges arising are not ones that haven’t been overcome before.
Similarly, there are many other technologies that were once unproven or unpopular, but are now multi-billion-dollar industries. It’s clear, however, that it will require effort, investment and trust between the various different components to take bitcoin forward.
Without renewed effort to gain consumer trust, this industry may die before it even reaches childhood. All bitcoin companies need to collect a levy, used to compensate unfortunate consumers. Some would call this a tax. Maybe bitcoin isn’t so far from the real world after all.
The Problem: How to police crypto?
PJ Delaney 08/03/2014
We have a problem
There is a problem with cryptocurrency. A big problem, and that problem is that many members of the general public see it as just another scam. Why do they believe this? Well, the fiasco at Mt Gox is one reason, the well publicised losses at Fortress are another, Flexcoin and Poloniex are just two more and then there are the cryptocoins they can buy on sites such as eBay, completing the transaction just days before the value drops and yet another pump and dump scheme reaches its climax.
Crypto is certainly getting bad press and to be fair it does deserve much of that press. We have established a virtual economy on the basis that there is a certain level of distrust and that level of distrust can be utilised acts to confirm and verify (police) our behavior. Mt Gox ‘lost’ 850,000 bitcoins and Flexcoin and poloniex lost smaller, though still unacceptable, amounts. The average citizen, living their lives innocent of algorithms and scripts, will hear of cryptocurrencies and what they hear is generally far from positive. Bitcoin is rising in value again and that is one positive, a positive in a desert of bad news. We must take ownership of the problems of cryptocurrency and then act to address them.
Where we are
Mt Gox must know, or at least should know if there are in any way competent, where the lost bitcoins went. They must have the addresses of wallets. Flexcoin, certainly, has the addresses of two wallets that accounted for much of its losses. We are, as a community, by definition, technologically aware; therefore there is a strong possibility that a dedicated, active, mining pool could target those transactions, assuming that the full information was made available to them. They could then act to recover quantities of cryptocoins. There would need to be a payment in the form of a percentage of the coins recovered and that payment would be made prior to the return of the coins to their owners. We would now have an effective police force that can target and tackles criminal activity within our community. This ‘force’ would act without borders, performing a deep mining function, to initially recover misappropriated coins. There could well be other functions of such a group and one of these functions could be to offer a level of advice and assessment of alt coins. let’s be quite clear: Altcoins may well have the capacity, in my opinion, to be the future, as an ever more popular Bitcoin become moribund with the greater level of smaller and smaller transactions. However, unless Bitcoin tackles transaction speed then we are forced to accept that alternative cryptocurrencies must be considered. Bitcoin may well become the gold standard that supports the new cryptocurrencies.
The way ahead
To appease the general public we must consider the tackling of fraud in whatever guise it may appear:
Fraudulent manipulation of scripts to facilitate criminal withdrawals.
Tackling those pump and dump coins.
Auditing systems and scripts to tighten procedures
Highlighting and eliminating problems before criminals have the opportunity to exploit them.
Ensuring contracts for cryptocurrencies are fulfilled and honored.
Clearly these functions are fulfilled by every country in the world, on a non crypto level, to protect their own currency and financial transactions. There is another issue however, Are we willing to centralise some of the functionality of crypto? Clearly a digitally encrypted currency system that was set up to be self-regulating, based on the fact that there is a certain level of distrust, that depends on that mutual distrust to function to verify transactions, was fine as long as we continue to believe that the people we distrust are actually fundamentally honest. However, a determined criminal, with technical ability can manipulate, and has manipulated, the systems in place to their own benefit. We cannot allow fraud to continue on the level it has in the past. I leave you with the question: How much autonomy, if any, are we willing to give up in order to tackle fraud?
PJ Delaney 08/03/2014
We have a problem
There is a problem with cryptocurrency. A big problem, and that problem is that many members of the general public see it as just another scam. Why do they believe this? Well, the fiasco at Mt Gox is one reason, the well publicised losses at Fortress are another, Flexcoin and Poloniex are just two more and then there are the cryptocoins they can buy on sites such as eBay, completing the transaction just days before the value drops and yet another pump and dump scheme reaches its climax.
Crypto is certainly getting bad press and to be fair it does deserve much of that press. We have established a virtual economy on the basis that there is a certain level of distrust and that level of distrust can be utilised acts to confirm and verify (police) our behavior. Mt Gox ‘lost’ 850,000 bitcoins and Flexcoin and poloniex lost smaller, though still unacceptable, amounts. The average citizen, living their lives innocent of algorithms and scripts, will hear of cryptocurrencies and what they hear is generally far from positive. Bitcoin is rising in value again and that is one positive, a positive in a desert of bad news. We must take ownership of the problems of cryptocurrency and then act to address them.
Where we are
Mt Gox must know, or at least should know if there are in any way competent, where the lost bitcoins went. They must have the addresses of wallets. Flexcoin, certainly, has the addresses of two wallets that accounted for much of its losses. We are, as a community, by definition, technologically aware; therefore there is a strong possibility that a dedicated, active, mining pool could target those transactions, assuming that the full information was made available to them. They could then act to recover quantities of cryptocoins. There would need to be a payment in the form of a percentage of the coins recovered and that payment would be made prior to the return of the coins to their owners. We would now have an effective police force that can target and tackles criminal activity within our community. This ‘force’ would act without borders, performing a deep mining function, to initially recover misappropriated coins. There could well be other functions of such a group and one of these functions could be to offer a level of advice and assessment of alt coins. let’s be quite clear: Altcoins may well have the capacity, in my opinion, to be the future, as an ever more popular Bitcoin become moribund with the greater level of smaller and smaller transactions. However, unless Bitcoin tackles transaction speed then we are forced to accept that alternative cryptocurrencies must be considered. Bitcoin may well become the gold standard that supports the new cryptocurrencies.
The way ahead
To appease the general public we must consider the tackling of fraud in whatever guise it may appear:
Fraudulent manipulation of scripts to facilitate criminal withdrawals.
Tackling those pump and dump coins.
Auditing systems and scripts to tighten procedures
Highlighting and eliminating problems before criminals have the opportunity to exploit them.
Ensuring contracts for cryptocurrencies are fulfilled and honored.
Clearly these functions are fulfilled by every country in the world, on a non crypto level, to protect their own currency and financial transactions. There is another issue however, Are we willing to centralise some of the functionality of crypto? Clearly a digitally encrypted currency system that was set up to be self-regulating, based on the fact that there is a certain level of distrust, that depends on that mutual distrust to function to verify transactions, was fine as long as we continue to believe that the people we distrust are actually fundamentally honest. However, a determined criminal, with technical ability can manipulate, and has manipulated, the systems in place to their own benefit. We cannot allow fraud to continue on the level it has in the past. I leave you with the question: How much autonomy, if any, are we willing to give up in order to tackle fraud?
Butterfly Labs Announces Two Two Week Delays… Along With Free Upgrades, Full Refunds, And 0.45W/GH
Caleb Chen 07/03/2014
In an email sent out today to former and current Butterfly Labs customers, BFL publicized their newest update on their Monarch line of 600 GH/s PCI-e 1x cards. Unlike their handling of their first batch of Bitcoin ASIC Miners, BFL has decided to couple this bad news with some good news. The two biggest announcements are drastically improved power consumption, and of course the two “two week delays.”
A few weeks ago, I wrote about CoinTerra’s new GSX I PCI-e Bitcoin ASIC, claiming that it was CoinTerra’s response to the BFL Monarch. Well, clearly Butterfly Labs has responded.
The Bad News
When Josh Zerlan originally posted the update to BFL forums on 3/5/2014, he announced that there was an issue with the chips that would take 5 weeks to remedy. The issue is in the top metal layer in the multi-layered ASIC chip that is the core part of the BFL Monarch. This time around, BFL has presented the issue as soon as it appeared and coupled it with a stomach-able solution.
While BFL and their Bitcoin ASIC mining competition are still trying to get the most out of the 28nm ASIC chips they’ve designed, KNC has announced more progress on their 20nm chips.
The Good News
BFL has always had a lead on the competition in W/GH and many were very skeptical about the promised W/GH ratings promised by BFL when they first announced their Monarch product line back at the end of 2013. However, from the testing on their prototypes, they seem to have realized their promised W/GH figure and exceeded it by 20%. 0.45 W/GH makes BFL’s offering twice as power efficient as all of their 28nm competition. It seems that BFL’s long employ of Bitcoin mining versed engineers has paid off.
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/upgraded-imperial-monarch.gif
To take the sting away from another month of delays, BFL is offering full refunds and “delay compensation.” Depending on exactly when you placed your order, you will receive a six month refund guarantee (in USD) or double the hardware ordered. Also, all customers that bought the Monarch before the price decrease at the end of November are receiving a free upgrade to an Imperial Monarch, which is an upgraded 1/TH card, albeit with a +/- 20% variance.
Using top of the line chips, BFL hopes to offer 1 TH/s (+/- 20%)
Using top of the line chips, BFL hopes to offer 1 TH/s (+/- 20%)
BitSafe Update
In the email update to its customers, BFL also included an update on BitSafe. BitSafe is BFL’s answer to the issue of physical Bitcoin Wallet security. At this point in time, they are not taking pre orders and are still working out kinks in their third revision of the prototype before mass production begins. BFL has been working on this BitSafe for over a year and has even stated that they might scrap preorders for this product all together and just go with stock sales. Trezor wallets still have not shipped and Bitcoiners are still at the edge of their seats waiting for an affordable and user-friendly physical Bitcoin wallet. For more information on the BitSafe Bitcoin Hardware Wallet, please visit BFL’s website.
Caleb Chen 07/03/2014
In an email sent out today to former and current Butterfly Labs customers, BFL publicized their newest update on their Monarch line of 600 GH/s PCI-e 1x cards. Unlike their handling of their first batch of Bitcoin ASIC Miners, BFL has decided to couple this bad news with some good news. The two biggest announcements are drastically improved power consumption, and of course the two “two week delays.”
A few weeks ago, I wrote about CoinTerra’s new GSX I PCI-e Bitcoin ASIC, claiming that it was CoinTerra’s response to the BFL Monarch. Well, clearly Butterfly Labs has responded.
The Bad News
When Josh Zerlan originally posted the update to BFL forums on 3/5/2014, he announced that there was an issue with the chips that would take 5 weeks to remedy. The issue is in the top metal layer in the multi-layered ASIC chip that is the core part of the BFL Monarch. This time around, BFL has presented the issue as soon as it appeared and coupled it with a stomach-able solution.
While BFL and their Bitcoin ASIC mining competition are still trying to get the most out of the 28nm ASIC chips they’ve designed, KNC has announced more progress on their 20nm chips.
The Good News
BFL has always had a lead on the competition in W/GH and many were very skeptical about the promised W/GH ratings promised by BFL when they first announced their Monarch product line back at the end of 2013. However, from the testing on their prototypes, they seem to have realized their promised W/GH figure and exceeded it by 20%. 0.45 W/GH makes BFL’s offering twice as power efficient as all of their 28nm competition. It seems that BFL’s long employ of Bitcoin mining versed engineers has paid off.
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/upgraded-imperial-monarch.gif
To take the sting away from another month of delays, BFL is offering full refunds and “delay compensation.” Depending on exactly when you placed your order, you will receive a six month refund guarantee (in USD) or double the hardware ordered. Also, all customers that bought the Monarch before the price decrease at the end of November are receiving a free upgrade to an Imperial Monarch, which is an upgraded 1/TH card, albeit with a +/- 20% variance.
Using top of the line chips, BFL hopes to offer 1 TH/s (+/- 20%)
Using top of the line chips, BFL hopes to offer 1 TH/s (+/- 20%)
BitSafe Update
In the email update to its customers, BFL also included an update on BitSafe. BitSafe is BFL’s answer to the issue of physical Bitcoin Wallet security. At this point in time, they are not taking pre orders and are still working out kinks in their third revision of the prototype before mass production begins. BFL has been working on this BitSafe for over a year and has even stated that they might scrap preorders for this product all together and just go with stock sales. Trezor wallets still have not shipped and Bitcoiners are still at the edge of their seats waiting for an affordable and user-friendly physical Bitcoin wallet. For more information on the BitSafe Bitcoin Hardware Wallet, please visit BFL’s website.
Introducing A Truly Innovative Altcoin: Huntercoin
Caleb Chen 07/03/2014
Huntercoin Resources
Bitcointalk thread
huntercoin.info/
Huntercointalk
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/huc.png
What Is Huntercoin?
Huntercoin is a new altcoin that released at the beginning of February to little fanfare. Huntercoin is based off of Namecoin and utilized a dual proof-of-work algorithm to process Huntercoin transactions with both SHA and Scrypt devices. Huntercoin is meant to be merged mined with other altcoins and should be immune to fluctuations in hardware efficiency.
That isn’t even the most interesting part about Huntercoin mining. Huntercoin blocks are 1 minute long, and every block releases 10 Huntercoins. 1 HUC goes to the miners each block, and 8.75 is distributed on the Huntercoin map. The remaining 0.25 HUC goes to whichever Hunter has the crown. The traditional mining scheme has been turned on its head by Huntercoin. For the first time since the earliest days of Bitcoin, any individual can mine meaningful amounts of crypto without dedicated hardware.
Furthermore, Huntercoin is the world’s first MMO game that is decentralized and cannot be taken down, or censored, by any government or rating agency.
How Do You Play Huntercoin?
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/huntercoin-map.png
Huntercoin units can be created within the Huntercoin QT client, it costs 1 HUC plus tranaction fees to create one team of 3 units: 1 general and 2 soldiers. The player must name his team and also choose a color: Red, Blue, Green, or Yellow. Each of the different colors has a different spawn point on the diagonally symmetrical Huntercoin map.
Huntercoin blockchain data is visualized by this constantly syncing map
Huntercoin blockchain data is visualized by this constantly syncing map
To control units within Huntercoin, you send commands (transactions) and once they receive confirmations in the blockchain, they appear on the Huntercoin map. Every block, every unit either stays still, moves, or self-destructs. You can either set a waypoint for your unit to start moving towards, one block at a time, or you can set your unit to self-destruct and destroy all dissimilar colored units within a specified radius.
The goal in the game is to gather HUC, otherwise known as human-mining. The actual process is using your hunters to pick up the HUC on the ground as they randomly appear on the map. Once your hunter is holding HUC, it isn’t actually in your wallet until you return your hunter back to the spawn area. Hunters can choose to seek HUC on the ground, or the crown; alternatively, many hunters will only hunt users that are carrying HUC using the self destruct function.
This simple combination of Bitcoin and a game has incredibly far reaching consequences; particularly, for the online labour market. Unfortunately, Huntercoin is not yet ready to take the crypto world by storm.
Current Issues With Huntercoin
The current blockchain, which has stored 5 weeks worth of moves by thousands of Huntercoin players, is too large and unwieldy for some to download. Without an SSD, or extra work to create a ramdisk, the constant syncing of the Huntercoin game client currently takes up more time and computer resources than the average crypto enthusiast has.
One of Huntercoin’s major selling points is that any person could theoretically use any internet enabled device to mine Huntercoins through human-mining. While you don’t need a high-end AMD video card to mine Huntercoin at the moment, you do require an SSD or ram. This will soon change.
Future Solutions For Huntercoin
Snailbrain, the head developer of Huntercoin, recently announced that Huntercoin would have these new features in the “near future.”
Players will not need to download the block chain
Graphics can be improved
Will be an advanced alternative client (Mithrilman)
Will be able to play in Browser/Mobile Devices and Tablets – instant login anywhere in the world and more
Once the Huntercoin community overcomes the technical hurdles that they are currently facing, I believe that Huntercoin will really start to take off all around the world. There are already fledgling Chinese and Romanian communities on Huntercointalk and at times the majority of the chat is not in English. I look forward to future developments in Huntercoin and I suggest that you take a look at it! Stay tuned to CCN for more Huntercoin news!
Caleb Chen 07/03/2014
Huntercoin Resources
Bitcointalk thread
huntercoin.info/
Huntercointalk
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/huc.png
What Is Huntercoin?
Huntercoin is a new altcoin that released at the beginning of February to little fanfare. Huntercoin is based off of Namecoin and utilized a dual proof-of-work algorithm to process Huntercoin transactions with both SHA and Scrypt devices. Huntercoin is meant to be merged mined with other altcoins and should be immune to fluctuations in hardware efficiency.
That isn’t even the most interesting part about Huntercoin mining. Huntercoin blocks are 1 minute long, and every block releases 10 Huntercoins. 1 HUC goes to the miners each block, and 8.75 is distributed on the Huntercoin map. The remaining 0.25 HUC goes to whichever Hunter has the crown. The traditional mining scheme has been turned on its head by Huntercoin. For the first time since the earliest days of Bitcoin, any individual can mine meaningful amounts of crypto without dedicated hardware.
Furthermore, Huntercoin is the world’s first MMO game that is decentralized and cannot be taken down, or censored, by any government or rating agency.
How Do You Play Huntercoin?
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/huntercoin-map.png
Huntercoin units can be created within the Huntercoin QT client, it costs 1 HUC plus tranaction fees to create one team of 3 units: 1 general and 2 soldiers. The player must name his team and also choose a color: Red, Blue, Green, or Yellow. Each of the different colors has a different spawn point on the diagonally symmetrical Huntercoin map.
Huntercoin blockchain data is visualized by this constantly syncing map
Huntercoin blockchain data is visualized by this constantly syncing map
To control units within Huntercoin, you send commands (transactions) and once they receive confirmations in the blockchain, they appear on the Huntercoin map. Every block, every unit either stays still, moves, or self-destructs. You can either set a waypoint for your unit to start moving towards, one block at a time, or you can set your unit to self-destruct and destroy all dissimilar colored units within a specified radius.
The goal in the game is to gather HUC, otherwise known as human-mining. The actual process is using your hunters to pick up the HUC on the ground as they randomly appear on the map. Once your hunter is holding HUC, it isn’t actually in your wallet until you return your hunter back to the spawn area. Hunters can choose to seek HUC on the ground, or the crown; alternatively, many hunters will only hunt users that are carrying HUC using the self destruct function.
This simple combination of Bitcoin and a game has incredibly far reaching consequences; particularly, for the online labour market. Unfortunately, Huntercoin is not yet ready to take the crypto world by storm.
Current Issues With Huntercoin
The current blockchain, which has stored 5 weeks worth of moves by thousands of Huntercoin players, is too large and unwieldy for some to download. Without an SSD, or extra work to create a ramdisk, the constant syncing of the Huntercoin game client currently takes up more time and computer resources than the average crypto enthusiast has.
One of Huntercoin’s major selling points is that any person could theoretically use any internet enabled device to mine Huntercoins through human-mining. While you don’t need a high-end AMD video card to mine Huntercoin at the moment, you do require an SSD or ram. This will soon change.
Future Solutions For Huntercoin
Snailbrain, the head developer of Huntercoin, recently announced that Huntercoin would have these new features in the “near future.”
Players will not need to download the block chain
Graphics can be improved
Will be an advanced alternative client (Mithrilman)
Will be able to play in Browser/Mobile Devices and Tablets – instant login anywhere in the world and more
Once the Huntercoin community overcomes the technical hurdles that they are currently facing, I believe that Huntercoin will really start to take off all around the world. There are already fledgling Chinese and Romanian communities on Huntercointalk and at times the majority of the chat is not in English. I look forward to future developments in Huntercoin and I suggest that you take a look at it! Stay tuned to CCN for more Huntercoin news!
"I have nothing to do with Bitcoin," says Dorian Nakamoto in response to the Newsweek article"
Diana Ngo 07/03/2014
Thursday, March 6 , Newsweek published an article claiming to have uncovered the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the name or pseudonym behind the creation of Bitcoin protocol. A few hours later , while the community remained puzzled as to content and evidence of these claims, Satoshi Nakamoto Dorian Prentice (the person identified as the last person the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto ) attested in an interview with the agency World Press generalist Associated Press that he "had nothing to do with Bitcoin . " Meanwhile, on behalf of Satoshi Nakamoto Site P2PFoundation.ning.com then inactive since February 2009, back to life with a surprising comment :
I'm not Dorian Nakamoto .
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/dorian-nakamoto.jpg
Satoshi Nakamoto Dorian Prentice - AP Photo / Damian Dovarganes
Satoshi Nakamoto Dorian Prentice - AP Photo / Damian Dovarganes
Within hours, the article published by Newsweek has been a bombshell in the community. Revealing - Newsweek that claims to be - the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, Leah McGrath Goodman delivered us the story of his investigation to Temple City, California, whose story we did echo yesterday.
Newsweek cover Satoshi Nakamoto Article
Newsweek cover , " Bitcoin 's Face " - mag.newsweek.com
During their brief exchange , Nakamoto was no mention that it was actually the creator of Bitcoin , and until the crucial moment where he pronounced the sentence that would have been confusing the journalist :
I am no longer involved in there and I can not talk about it.
Dorian Nakamoto : "I am not the creator of Bitcoin . "
On the evening of Thursday, March 6 , while a horde of journalists besieging the home Nakamoto, it would be left with a reporter from the Associated Press for lunch.
Later, the Los Angeles Times reporter Andrea Chang, Dorian would have crossed Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto , the first time in a restaurant loan from his home in Los Angeles , and then in the elevator after his interview with the Associated Press: " I talked to him at the restaurant and in the elevator of the Associated Press, and he denied everything . In the elevator, he told me that he is not involved in Bitcoin . "
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/67-2014-3-14-cover.jpg
According to the article by the Associated Press, Nakamoto says many details about his past, including his career , are actually true, but the claim that it was Satoshi Nakamoto , the creator of Bitcoin was an error. On several occasions, Nakamoto would repeat :
I have nothing to do with it .
Interview with Satoshi Nakamoto Dorian Prentice by The Associated Press
Originally Beppu Japan, Nakamoto came to the United States in 1959, when he was a child . He speaks English and Japanese, but admits that his English is not "current" . When asked about the famous phrase that would have been led to believe it was Satoshi Nakamoto, he responds that there has been a misunderstanding :
I meant that I was no longer working in engineering. That's it. And even if this was the case , when you are hiring , you must sign a document and commit to not reveal anything during and after your time in the business .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GrrtA6IoR_E#t=0
Satoshi Nakamoto on P2PFoundation.ning.com : "I 'm not Nakamoto Dorian . "
While Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto had to publicly declare that he was not the creator of Bitcoin , other information ignited our monitors.
After several years without any activity on his profile P2PFoundation.ning.com , Satoshi Nakamoto added in comments following the presentation of the Bitcoin project dated February 11, 2009, he was not Dorian Nakamoto .
Answer satoshi nakamoto p2pfoundation
Comment by " Satoshi Nakamoto " on P2PFoundation.ning.com
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/r%C3%A9ponse-satoshi-nakamoto-p2pfoundation.jpg
Assumptions , nothing but assumptions
Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto is actually the inventor of Bitcoin protocol but wishes to remain anonymous , is plausible.
The account Satoshi Nakamoto on P2PFoundation.ning.com was hacked to certify that Dorian Nakamoto is not the creator of Bitcoin , is also possible.
That Newsweek is either itself convinced that Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Prentice was the genius behind the Bitcoin , all based on biased coincidences, is also a possibility.
In any case , one thing is for sure, this Newsweek article - based on unfounded allegations and biased - will shake the Bitcoin community.
We finally conclude with a few words of Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Prentice :
My God [...] How long will it last another scandal?
Diana Ngo 07/03/2014
Thursday, March 6 , Newsweek published an article claiming to have uncovered the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the name or pseudonym behind the creation of Bitcoin protocol. A few hours later , while the community remained puzzled as to content and evidence of these claims, Satoshi Nakamoto Dorian Prentice (the person identified as the last person the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto ) attested in an interview with the agency World Press generalist Associated Press that he "had nothing to do with Bitcoin . " Meanwhile, on behalf of Satoshi Nakamoto Site P2PFoundation.ning.com then inactive since February 2009, back to life with a surprising comment :
I'm not Dorian Nakamoto .
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/dorian-nakamoto.jpg
Satoshi Nakamoto Dorian Prentice - AP Photo / Damian Dovarganes
Satoshi Nakamoto Dorian Prentice - AP Photo / Damian Dovarganes
Within hours, the article published by Newsweek has been a bombshell in the community. Revealing - Newsweek that claims to be - the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, Leah McGrath Goodman delivered us the story of his investigation to Temple City, California, whose story we did echo yesterday.
Newsweek cover Satoshi Nakamoto Article
Newsweek cover , " Bitcoin 's Face " - mag.newsweek.com
During their brief exchange , Nakamoto was no mention that it was actually the creator of Bitcoin , and until the crucial moment where he pronounced the sentence that would have been confusing the journalist :
I am no longer involved in there and I can not talk about it.
Dorian Nakamoto : "I am not the creator of Bitcoin . "
On the evening of Thursday, March 6 , while a horde of journalists besieging the home Nakamoto, it would be left with a reporter from the Associated Press for lunch.
Later, the Los Angeles Times reporter Andrea Chang, Dorian would have crossed Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto , the first time in a restaurant loan from his home in Los Angeles , and then in the elevator after his interview with the Associated Press: " I talked to him at the restaurant and in the elevator of the Associated Press, and he denied everything . In the elevator, he told me that he is not involved in Bitcoin . "
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/67-2014-3-14-cover.jpg
According to the article by the Associated Press, Nakamoto says many details about his past, including his career , are actually true, but the claim that it was Satoshi Nakamoto , the creator of Bitcoin was an error. On several occasions, Nakamoto would repeat :
I have nothing to do with it .
Interview with Satoshi Nakamoto Dorian Prentice by The Associated Press
Originally Beppu Japan, Nakamoto came to the United States in 1959, when he was a child . He speaks English and Japanese, but admits that his English is not "current" . When asked about the famous phrase that would have been led to believe it was Satoshi Nakamoto, he responds that there has been a misunderstanding :
I meant that I was no longer working in engineering. That's it. And even if this was the case , when you are hiring , you must sign a document and commit to not reveal anything during and after your time in the business .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GrrtA6IoR_E#t=0
Satoshi Nakamoto on P2PFoundation.ning.com : "I 'm not Nakamoto Dorian . "
While Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto had to publicly declare that he was not the creator of Bitcoin , other information ignited our monitors.
After several years without any activity on his profile P2PFoundation.ning.com , Satoshi Nakamoto added in comments following the presentation of the Bitcoin project dated February 11, 2009, he was not Dorian Nakamoto .
Answer satoshi nakamoto p2pfoundation
Comment by " Satoshi Nakamoto " on P2PFoundation.ning.com
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/r%C3%A9ponse-satoshi-nakamoto-p2pfoundation.jpg
Assumptions , nothing but assumptions
Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto is actually the inventor of Bitcoin protocol but wishes to remain anonymous , is plausible.
The account Satoshi Nakamoto on P2PFoundation.ning.com was hacked to certify that Dorian Nakamoto is not the creator of Bitcoin , is also possible.
That Newsweek is either itself convinced that Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Prentice was the genius behind the Bitcoin , all based on biased coincidences, is also a possibility.
In any case , one thing is for sure, this Newsweek article - based on unfounded allegations and biased - will shake the Bitcoin community.
We finally conclude with a few words of Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Prentice :
My God [...] How long will it last another scandal?
Meet Roger Dickinson, The Man Behind California’s Bill to Legalize Bitcoin
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 8, 2014 at 12:49 GMT | News, Regulation, US & Canada
In the world of digital currency, misinformation spreads quickly, and there may be no greater recent example of this than California Assembly Bill 129, a piece of proposed legislation that has been heralded somewhat incorrectly as an already successful move by the state to “legalize cryptocurrencies“.
Though, the bill would recognize digital currencies as “lawful money”, it would also ensure the legal footing of additional forms of legal tender such as points and coupons, and is currently only halfway to becoming law.
Regardless, many in the digital currency community have high hopes that AB 129 and AB 786 (a bill passed in September that lowered capital requirements for money transmitters) signal that California will be among the more progressive US jurisdictions when it comes to digital currency.
With this in mind, CoinDesk set out to speak to California Assemblymember Roger Dickinson, the man who introduced both laws, to determine the extent to which the bills were crafted for the still-nascent industry.
However, if bitcoiners were hoping for a more progressive alternative to New York’s Benjamin Lawsky, Dickinson doesn’t exactly fit the mantle.
An advocate for a wide range of issues from job creation to climate change, Dickinson isn’t exactly a bitcoin expert, and he indicates that the laws were not made specifically for virtual currencies. Rather, he said they’re meant to address the sweeping changes that mobile and digital forms of payments are bringing in all their forms.
Dickinson explained:
“It wasn’t so much setting out to look at the issue of alternative currency, it was more evolutionary, leading into the breadth of the subject matter that suggested to us you couldn’t ignore alternative currencies.”
A neutral approach
Dickinson described his state’s approach to digital currency as “neutral”, stating that the bills don’t expressly advocate for the survival or demise of bitcoin.
Said Dickinson:
“We’re not trying to deter or advance the development of alternative currencies. We’re trying to say that to the extent that alternative currencies are developed and in use, we will consider that to be a legally acceptable activity in California.”
Most notable is another thing AB 129 doesn’t do, which is regulate alternative digital currencies. Dickinson indicated that any regulation would need to come from the California Department of Business Oversight and commissioner Jan Owen, who notably has worked for Apple and JPMorgan.
Dickinson did suggest that the issue may be further addressed by California, but stated that he believes digital currency regulation may need federal attention.
Personal exploration
A newcomer to the field, Dickinson said that he first learned of bitcoin when developing AB 786. At the time, the California Committee on Banking and Finance had begun looking broadly at digital payment systems, but he said that digital currencies stood out as “intriguing and unavoidable”.
The lawmaker revealed he was surprised by the research, stating:
“Even though there had been actually relatively recent regulation in 2009 establishing guidelines and requirements for money transmission, the practice of money transmission had evolved so rapidly over the course of three years that there was a need to revisit the subject.”
The result has been two bills attempting to bring guidelines up to speed. Yet, Dickinson doesn’t see his legislation as part of the larger digital currency movement, saying he hasn’t looked at how New York regulators are moving on the issue.
Further, he said he hasn’t spoken to any local bitcoin businesses, despite California being a hotbed for innovation in the field.
The future of AB 129
The assemblyman said that though digital currencies have become a lightning rod for controversy, events regarding the now-bankrupt Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, are unlikely to threaten the bill.
Though, Dickinson didn’t rule out that another event could potentially compound the situation and raise additional questions before the end of March or April, when it is expected to be heard in the Senate.
“I think in the end, people will see that what we’re doing is simply that alternative currencies are something we need to recognize out there in the world, and that we shouldn’t have some archaic prescription that applies.”
Even if bitcoin does collapse, Dickinson reasons, that’s not to say that other digital currencies won’t go on. For now, it seems, California is preparing for any and all conclusions.
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 8, 2014 at 12:49 GMT | News, Regulation, US & Canada
In the world of digital currency, misinformation spreads quickly, and there may be no greater recent example of this than California Assembly Bill 129, a piece of proposed legislation that has been heralded somewhat incorrectly as an already successful move by the state to “legalize cryptocurrencies“.
Though, the bill would recognize digital currencies as “lawful money”, it would also ensure the legal footing of additional forms of legal tender such as points and coupons, and is currently only halfway to becoming law.
Regardless, many in the digital currency community have high hopes that AB 129 and AB 786 (a bill passed in September that lowered capital requirements for money transmitters) signal that California will be among the more progressive US jurisdictions when it comes to digital currency.
With this in mind, CoinDesk set out to speak to California Assemblymember Roger Dickinson, the man who introduced both laws, to determine the extent to which the bills were crafted for the still-nascent industry.
However, if bitcoiners were hoping for a more progressive alternative to New York’s Benjamin Lawsky, Dickinson doesn’t exactly fit the mantle.
An advocate for a wide range of issues from job creation to climate change, Dickinson isn’t exactly a bitcoin expert, and he indicates that the laws were not made specifically for virtual currencies. Rather, he said they’re meant to address the sweeping changes that mobile and digital forms of payments are bringing in all their forms.
Dickinson explained:
“It wasn’t so much setting out to look at the issue of alternative currency, it was more evolutionary, leading into the breadth of the subject matter that suggested to us you couldn’t ignore alternative currencies.”
A neutral approach
Dickinson described his state’s approach to digital currency as “neutral”, stating that the bills don’t expressly advocate for the survival or demise of bitcoin.
Said Dickinson:
“We’re not trying to deter or advance the development of alternative currencies. We’re trying to say that to the extent that alternative currencies are developed and in use, we will consider that to be a legally acceptable activity in California.”
Most notable is another thing AB 129 doesn’t do, which is regulate alternative digital currencies. Dickinson indicated that any regulation would need to come from the California Department of Business Oversight and commissioner Jan Owen, who notably has worked for Apple and JPMorgan.
Dickinson did suggest that the issue may be further addressed by California, but stated that he believes digital currency regulation may need federal attention.
Personal exploration
A newcomer to the field, Dickinson said that he first learned of bitcoin when developing AB 786. At the time, the California Committee on Banking and Finance had begun looking broadly at digital payment systems, but he said that digital currencies stood out as “intriguing and unavoidable”.
The lawmaker revealed he was surprised by the research, stating:
“Even though there had been actually relatively recent regulation in 2009 establishing guidelines and requirements for money transmission, the practice of money transmission had evolved so rapidly over the course of three years that there was a need to revisit the subject.”
The result has been two bills attempting to bring guidelines up to speed. Yet, Dickinson doesn’t see his legislation as part of the larger digital currency movement, saying he hasn’t looked at how New York regulators are moving on the issue.
Further, he said he hasn’t spoken to any local bitcoin businesses, despite California being a hotbed for innovation in the field.
The future of AB 129
The assemblyman said that though digital currencies have become a lightning rod for controversy, events regarding the now-bankrupt Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, are unlikely to threaten the bill.
Though, Dickinson didn’t rule out that another event could potentially compound the situation and raise additional questions before the end of March or April, when it is expected to be heard in the Senate.
“I think in the end, people will see that what we’re doing is simply that alternative currencies are something we need to recognize out there in the world, and that we shouldn’t have some archaic prescription that applies.”
Even if bitcoin does collapse, Dickinson reasons, that’s not to say that other digital currencies won’t go on. For now, it seems, California is preparing for any and all conclusions.
South Korea Launches its First Two-Way Bitcoin ATM
Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on March 8, 2014 at 12:36 GMT | Bitcoin ATM, Companies, News
South Korea is the latest country to introduce its first bitcoin ATM. Not only is the machine produced locally by a home-grown company, it is also two-way, meaning users can also sell bitcoins and withdraw cash.
The machine, which officially began operating yesterday, sits in the Coffee Sedona cafe in one of Seoul’s largest shopping malls, the Coex Mall which is also close to the Coex Intercontinental Hotel and a casino in the city’s world famous Gangnam district. For those wanting to buy bitcoins, it accepts cash and credit cards.
It is the result of a joint venture between bitcoin exchange Coinplug and Nautilus Hyosung, the number one ‘regular’ ATM manufacturer in Korea and which also has the world’s fourth largest market share. Coinplug’s Richard Yun said the machine’s launch was well attended by the Korean media.
The machine also has one other key feature, or lack thereof: unlike other two-way bitcoin ATMs, such as the one produced by US company Robocoin, the Coinplug machine does not collect any identification or biometric information from users. Robocoin, as what it calls a security feature, requires photo ID and takes a palm vein scan of users, although the company says this information is not uploaded to a database anywhere and that palm vein scans function like a secondary PIN, representing the “most anonymous biometric on the market”.
South-Korea-ATM
Yun said the company was able to produce a two-way machine thanks mainly to the South Korean government’s light touch approach to bitcoin regulation so far. The government, like many others, has declared bitcoin is not a currency and will not regulate it, and has not made any attempts to restrict its use.
Coinplug has been busy in Korea this year, recently launching three separate Android bitcoin apps for merchants and traders, and a wallet app for everyday users. The company has also been funded so far 50% each in bitcoin and fiat currency by its Silicon Valley based partner, new venture capital firm Silverblue.
Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on March 8, 2014 at 12:36 GMT | Bitcoin ATM, Companies, News
South Korea is the latest country to introduce its first bitcoin ATM. Not only is the machine produced locally by a home-grown company, it is also two-way, meaning users can also sell bitcoins and withdraw cash.
The machine, which officially began operating yesterday, sits in the Coffee Sedona cafe in one of Seoul’s largest shopping malls, the Coex Mall which is also close to the Coex Intercontinental Hotel and a casino in the city’s world famous Gangnam district. For those wanting to buy bitcoins, it accepts cash and credit cards.
It is the result of a joint venture between bitcoin exchange Coinplug and Nautilus Hyosung, the number one ‘regular’ ATM manufacturer in Korea and which also has the world’s fourth largest market share. Coinplug’s Richard Yun said the machine’s launch was well attended by the Korean media.
The machine also has one other key feature, or lack thereof: unlike other two-way bitcoin ATMs, such as the one produced by US company Robocoin, the Coinplug machine does not collect any identification or biometric information from users. Robocoin, as what it calls a security feature, requires photo ID and takes a palm vein scan of users, although the company says this information is not uploaded to a database anywhere and that palm vein scans function like a secondary PIN, representing the “most anonymous biometric on the market”.
South-Korea-ATM
Yun said the company was able to produce a two-way machine thanks mainly to the South Korean government’s light touch approach to bitcoin regulation so far. The government, like many others, has declared bitcoin is not a currency and will not regulate it, and has not made any attempts to restrict its use.
Coinplug has been busy in Korea this year, recently launching three separate Android bitcoin apps for merchants and traders, and a wallet app for everyday users. The company has also been funded so far 50% each in bitcoin and fiat currency by its Silicon Valley based partner, new venture capital firm Silverblue.
Bitcoin Payments Removed from Fancy’s iOS App at Apple’s Request
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 7, 2014 at 22:09 GMT | Merchants, News
New York-based social e-commerce website Fancy has removed bitcoin payments from its iOS app at the request of Apple.
The announcement was made in conjunction with its release of Version 3.3.0 of its iOS app on 5th March, and was visible under the “What’s new” portion of the App Store where app updates are displayed.
Fancy has been accepting bitcoin since 23rd January, when it revealed the news to customers via email, thereby becoming one of the largest and most well-funded merchants to accept bitcoin.
The company announced that it would add a bitcoin payment option for both its Android and iOS mobile apps at the time of the launch, and had been enabling customers to make purchases for some time before the shutoff.
Fancy iOS app users confirmed to CoinDesk that BTC buying did function effectively prior to the update. Though, there had been hopes previously that the initial launch might represent a softening in Apple’s stance toward bitcoin.
Wrote one interested bitcoin user in an email to CoinDesk on 4th March:
“Either Apple’s policy towards Bitcoin has changed [or] is changing, or they have made a special exception for Fancy.”
Fancy did respond to CoinDesk requests for comment, but did not elaborate on any interaction with Apple.
Apple’s latest bitcoin snub
The action is unsurprising given Apple’s notorious anti-bitcoin stance, one that was on display in February when it abruptly removed bitcoin wallet provider Blockchain’s wallet app from its App Store.
That decision inspired the bitcoin community to erupt in a somewhat violent display of solidarity against the company’s products, and led to accusations that Apple had abandoned its principles by turning its back on innovation.
Bitcoin wallet and merchant services provider Coinbase’s iOS app was similarly removed on 15h November.
Community angered but unsurprised
The revelation sparked outrage on reddit, though users certainly found the company’s decision consistent with its past actions.
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 7, 2014 at 22:09 GMT | Merchants, News
New York-based social e-commerce website Fancy has removed bitcoin payments from its iOS app at the request of Apple.
The announcement was made in conjunction with its release of Version 3.3.0 of its iOS app on 5th March, and was visible under the “What’s new” portion of the App Store where app updates are displayed.
Fancy has been accepting bitcoin since 23rd January, when it revealed the news to customers via email, thereby becoming one of the largest and most well-funded merchants to accept bitcoin.
The company announced that it would add a bitcoin payment option for both its Android and iOS mobile apps at the time of the launch, and had been enabling customers to make purchases for some time before the shutoff.
Fancy iOS app users confirmed to CoinDesk that BTC buying did function effectively prior to the update. Though, there had been hopes previously that the initial launch might represent a softening in Apple’s stance toward bitcoin.
Wrote one interested bitcoin user in an email to CoinDesk on 4th March:
“Either Apple’s policy towards Bitcoin has changed [or] is changing, or they have made a special exception for Fancy.”
Fancy did respond to CoinDesk requests for comment, but did not elaborate on any interaction with Apple.
Apple’s latest bitcoin snub
The action is unsurprising given Apple’s notorious anti-bitcoin stance, one that was on display in February when it abruptly removed bitcoin wallet provider Blockchain’s wallet app from its App Store.
That decision inspired the bitcoin community to erupt in a somewhat violent display of solidarity against the company’s products, and led to accusations that Apple had abandoned its principles by turning its back on innovation.
Bitcoin wallet and merchant services provider Coinbase’s iOS app was similarly removed on 15h November.
Community angered but unsurprised
The revelation sparked outrage on reddit, though users certainly found the company’s decision consistent with its past actions.
Butterfly Labs Delays Continue, 28nm Monarch Delivery Pushed Back to April
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 7, 2014 at 18:27 GMT | Butterfly Labs, Companies, Mining, News, Technology
Kansas-based bitcoin mining supply firm Butterfly Labs has announced that deployment of its 28nm Monarch mining ASIC will be delayed roughly four weeks.
The most recent setback means those who ordered units, some more than six months ago, will need to wait until April to receive their products.
Butterfly Labs informed the community of the news in a statement on 4th March, which explained that the delay is the result of an issue with the top metal layer of its chips.
Jeff Ownby, the company’s VP of marketing and corporate communications, elaborated on the problem in an interview, suggesting that this will be the last roadblock to delivery.
Said Ownby:
“The metal [layer] as designed for [our] 65nm [unit] doesn’t necessarily copyover to [the] 28nm [unit]. [...] Everything else that’s depending on us putting together a final product is in stock and ready to go, it’s just a matter of getting the chips back and putting them on the boards.”
Josh Zerlan, the company’s VP of product development, also moved to calm frustrated buyers, revealing they would ultimately receive a unit that boasts power consumption numbers that are “better than anticipated”, and that some customers would be eligible for full refunds and delay compensation.
Announced in August, the 28nm Monarch unit has been delayed since September when optimism was high that production issues would soon be ironed out. At the time, the company was already developing a reputation for delays and delivery issues, but said it expected the first run of shipments to begin in January or February.
The latest announcement will likely do little to quell concerns about further setbacks.
Performance upgrades
Though he acknowledged some consumers will be disappointed about the delay, Ownby moved to put the focus on the improved product Butterfly Labs’ buyers will receive.
Ownby said Butterfly Labs expects the Monarch unit to consume 0.45W/GH, down from the 0.6W/GH originally announced. According to Ownby, this means the end result will be a chip that is less power hungry and more economical than those offered by competitors.
Explaining the significance of the change, Zerlan said:
“To put this in perspective, this makes the Monarch chip nearly twice as power efficient as compared to our 28nm competition whose products operate between 0.9W/GH and 1.0W/GH at the wall.”
Delay compensation
In an attempt to assuage customers, buyers who ordered 600 GH Monarchs prior to a reduction in price on 28th November will be given the Imperial Monarch, a high-performance version of the card. The original asking price for the 600 GH Monarch was $4,680, but this retail cost has since been reduced to $2,196.
Individuals who have been waiting for less than six months for their order, but paid the full original amount will receive an Imperial Monarch, as well as a 50% off voucher for an additional standard Monarch unit to be delivered at the end of the current queue.
Those who have been waiting for their order for more than six months can elect to receive a full refund in US dollars or double the amount of hardware they ordered.
The post details:
“This latter option will come in the form of (a) first shipping you the new Imperial Monarch, giving you an expected 160-175% of your ordered hashrate, and then (b) an additional Standard 600 GH Monarch at the end of the queue, giving you another 100% hashrate boost, totaling an expected 250+% of your ordered hashrate once all products have shipped.”
Customers who ordered the 300 GH Monarch at full price are now eligible for additional offers, though the full details of available compensation plans are not yet available.
Changing industry to blame
The news of yet another delay angered some customers, though others were less surprised by the announcement given the company’s history of shipment setbacks.
However, Ownby suggested that these buyers should have patience with the company as it works through new issues. In his statements, Ownby evoked comparisons to Butterfly Labs’ performance, which he suggested is on par with its competitors.
“The only thing that you can do when you’re talking about chip development in an industry that’s unknown, is you give it the best case that you possibly can from experience. [...] I don’t think it works out for anybody. Everybody who’s tried to develop a chip has missed their target by some degree. You know it’s just the nature of the way things are.”
Ownby said that his company has been under the microscope, but that this is due in part to the “exaggerated timelines” it works under.
When asked whether delays will become less regular soon, Ownby once again indicated that this would need to be the result of an industry-wide change.
“The one thing that could come out of this at some point is if someone developed a chip and sold it off the shelf, but I don’t see it happening.”
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 7, 2014 at 18:27 GMT | Butterfly Labs, Companies, Mining, News, Technology
Kansas-based bitcoin mining supply firm Butterfly Labs has announced that deployment of its 28nm Monarch mining ASIC will be delayed roughly four weeks.
The most recent setback means those who ordered units, some more than six months ago, will need to wait until April to receive their products.
Butterfly Labs informed the community of the news in a statement on 4th March, which explained that the delay is the result of an issue with the top metal layer of its chips.
Jeff Ownby, the company’s VP of marketing and corporate communications, elaborated on the problem in an interview, suggesting that this will be the last roadblock to delivery.
Said Ownby:
“The metal [layer] as designed for [our] 65nm [unit] doesn’t necessarily copyover to [the] 28nm [unit]. [...] Everything else that’s depending on us putting together a final product is in stock and ready to go, it’s just a matter of getting the chips back and putting them on the boards.”
Josh Zerlan, the company’s VP of product development, also moved to calm frustrated buyers, revealing they would ultimately receive a unit that boasts power consumption numbers that are “better than anticipated”, and that some customers would be eligible for full refunds and delay compensation.
Announced in August, the 28nm Monarch unit has been delayed since September when optimism was high that production issues would soon be ironed out. At the time, the company was already developing a reputation for delays and delivery issues, but said it expected the first run of shipments to begin in January or February.
The latest announcement will likely do little to quell concerns about further setbacks.
Performance upgrades
Though he acknowledged some consumers will be disappointed about the delay, Ownby moved to put the focus on the improved product Butterfly Labs’ buyers will receive.
Ownby said Butterfly Labs expects the Monarch unit to consume 0.45W/GH, down from the 0.6W/GH originally announced. According to Ownby, this means the end result will be a chip that is less power hungry and more economical than those offered by competitors.
Explaining the significance of the change, Zerlan said:
“To put this in perspective, this makes the Monarch chip nearly twice as power efficient as compared to our 28nm competition whose products operate between 0.9W/GH and 1.0W/GH at the wall.”
Delay compensation
In an attempt to assuage customers, buyers who ordered 600 GH Monarchs prior to a reduction in price on 28th November will be given the Imperial Monarch, a high-performance version of the card. The original asking price for the 600 GH Monarch was $4,680, but this retail cost has since been reduced to $2,196.
Individuals who have been waiting for less than six months for their order, but paid the full original amount will receive an Imperial Monarch, as well as a 50% off voucher for an additional standard Monarch unit to be delivered at the end of the current queue.
Those who have been waiting for their order for more than six months can elect to receive a full refund in US dollars or double the amount of hardware they ordered.
The post details:
“This latter option will come in the form of (a) first shipping you the new Imperial Monarch, giving you an expected 160-175% of your ordered hashrate, and then (b) an additional Standard 600 GH Monarch at the end of the queue, giving you another 100% hashrate boost, totaling an expected 250+% of your ordered hashrate once all products have shipped.”
Customers who ordered the 300 GH Monarch at full price are now eligible for additional offers, though the full details of available compensation plans are not yet available.
Changing industry to blame
The news of yet another delay angered some customers, though others were less surprised by the announcement given the company’s history of shipment setbacks.
However, Ownby suggested that these buyers should have patience with the company as it works through new issues. In his statements, Ownby evoked comparisons to Butterfly Labs’ performance, which he suggested is on par with its competitors.
“The only thing that you can do when you’re talking about chip development in an industry that’s unknown, is you give it the best case that you possibly can from experience. [...] I don’t think it works out for anybody. Everybody who’s tried to develop a chip has missed their target by some degree. You know it’s just the nature of the way things are.”
Ownby said that his company has been under the microscope, but that this is due in part to the “exaggerated timelines” it works under.
When asked whether delays will become less regular soon, Ownby once again indicated that this would need to be the result of an industry-wide change.
“The one thing that could come out of this at some point is if someone developed a chip and sold it off the shelf, but I don’t see it happening.”
Hiding in Plain View, Too Much Secrecy, and Where Next for Space-Bound Twins?
John Law (@scotonomist) | Published on March 7, 2014 at 16:30 GMT | Analysis, News
Welcome to the CoinDesk Weekly Review 7th March 2014 – a regular look at the hottest, most thought-provoking and most controversial events in the world of digital currency through the eyes of scepticism and wonder.
Your host … John Law.
There’s a clue in the name
Dorian Satoshi NakamotoEven in the Internet hall of mirrors that has replaced much journalism, the story seemed too bizarre to be taken seriously. After years of rumour, speculation and answerless questions – could it really be true? Could this mysterious entity, known only from historical documents, claim and counter-claim, finally have stumbled into the light?
Yes. It is true. Newsweek really does exist.
That’s all that can be said for sure at the moment. Although Newsweek itself has made an equally incredible claim, that it traced Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto by looking up people called Satoshi Nakamoto, actual evidence is thin.
That the paper had found someone by that name living in southern California is undeniable, and he has led the sort of life that someone who invented bitcoin could have led. A 60-something model train obsessive who lives with his mother in secluded retirement after a career in secretive technical engineering? If it wasn’t for the fact John Law knows many equally qualified eccentrics – the tech world has no shortage of the species – it’d be a slam-dunk.
However, having made some initially ambiguous statements when doorstepped by the Newsweek reporter, Mr Nakamoto has most recently denied everything in exchange for sushi. Admirable man. It’s not really the action of someone sitting on a hoard of nearly half a billion dollars’ worth of early-mined bitcoin, which block chain analysis suggests belongs to the creator. But then, there are plenty of stories of threadbare recluses who die leaving enormous and unexpected wealth.
You can, in short, believe what you want to believe. And John Law believes that Newsweek’s mega-scoop falls some way short of sealing the deal it promises.
It would be entirely fitting if bitcoin, an anonymous system that works entirely in the open by hiding nothing, was created by an anonymous genius who lives the same way. But it doesn’t matter. Bitcoin as a once-in-a-lifetime invention stands apart, and it’s not as if there’s any reasonable expectation that its creator can come up with another; nor that, having invented it, the creator will have any particular insight into its subsequent career.
Like the admirable Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the web, the best that can be hoped for is a mild celebrity and a muted amount of influence in subsequent events.
Which means the converse is also true – there is no abdication of responsibility in choosing to exempt oneself, tick the ‘no-publicity’ box and vanish silently away. Privacy seems an awfully small price to ask in exchange for such a valuable gift, although fame rarely works that way.
If Satoshi Nakamoto really is Satoshi Nakamoto and not just Satoshi Nakamoto – or even if he isn’t – then he should be left alone unless he chooses otherwise.
Amid all this confusion, John Law trusts that this at least is clear enough.
That’s torn it
EavesdroppingFurther to privacy, there is news that a future version of bitcoin will use the Tor network for transactions. This will have the advantage, says the developer, that transactions will be not only encrypted but that their passage across the Internet will be untraceable and untappable – even by the NSA and GCHQ.
There’s a lot of truth in that: Edward Snowden’s copious notes from inside the heart of the NSA (themselves delivered to the Guardian and the New York Times via Tor) revealed that those organisations couldn’t crack Tor, didn’t expect to, and didn’t much like the fact. And Silk Road operated entirely inside the Tor network and proved untraceable – its demise came through poor security in the real world.
Although there have been various semi-successful attacks against elements of Tor, which works by shuffling messages between lots of nodes that only know about their immediate neighbours, it remains a very high quality guarantee of network privacy.
It may not, however, be a good fit for bitcoin. John Law has used Tor from time to time, not to evade detection or commit seditious acts, but by way of experiment. It’s not been a good experience. Despite much work by the Tor Project in building software that disguises the underlying complexity, it can be a frustrating business getting it going and quite slow in operation. You may have 120-Mbps broadband, but expect that to drop by 95%.
It’s also quite nerve-wracking. If you elect to become a node, which means your computer can be used by the network to relay packets, then you run the risk of being the point at which an anonymous, untraceable user’s requests finally decloak and hit the unprotected Internet. Which, if that user is transferring illegal images or other unmentionables, can lead the plod to your door with some awkward questions to answer. But without a lot of nodes, Tor doesn’t work well.
Bitcoin is already robustly secure, most certainly for the vast majority of users who aren’t up to anything interesting or dangerous and just want to use it in their everyday lives.
What it isn’t, yet, is particularly painless to use. It needs more simplicity before it gets more security: the two aspects must be in balance at each stage in bitcoin’s development to get the sort of widespread traction it needs to fulfil its potential.
Adding Tor right now, although John Law completely understands the reasoning, will not help the balance that’s needed right now.
In any case, if you want to use bitcoin via Tor, you can do so – just drop by the Tor Project and download some software. Give it a whirl. It will make your online life more private but – unless you’re a Chinese dissident or like annoying the NSA – not that much better.
As the Dead Kennedys said (ask your grandfather) – “Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death”. Human nature is as much a factor in network privacy as uncrackable encryption. It’s just much harder to engineer.
Space – not quite the final frontier
Space twinsAnd further to human nature – it’s not that hard to see why the Winklevii twins attract so much opprobrium. Privileged, handsome and prone to grandiose claims that never quite got tested in court, their rebirth as bitcoin entrepreneurs can be seen either as far-sighted techno-economic acumen or another monstrous ego trip. Feel free to choose.
“I hope it’s one-way”, grumbled one of John Law’s less generous colleagues on hearing that the Winklevii had not only bought two tickets on Richard Branson’s “this year, I promise” Virgin Galactic space tourism plane, but they’d done so with the world’s favourite cyber-cash. Although he hates to disappoint the disaffected, John Law had to point out that since the craft wasn’t going into orbit, the one thing that is guaranteed is that it and all aboard will return to Earth quite swiftly – although in what state remains to be seen.
It’s a bit worrying, however, that the number of things one cannot buy with bitcoin is dwindling rapidly, which could lead to a price crash as the free publicity available to anyone in commerce in exchange for setting up a bitcoin wallet disappears completely. If you can buy cars, cannabis, politicians, plots of land, space trips, wine, women and song – what on earth is left in life?
So far, the only major asset not yet exchanged for the demon digital dosh seems to be companies. John Law ardently recommends this to Cameron and Tyler, once they return safely to land, as it may be their last chance to be really, really annoying in an innovative way. It’s probably best to pick an organisation beloved by the liberal chatterati: the Guardian newspaper, perhaps, or a micro-finance company working in developing nations with an explicit social remit.
The finder’s fee will be modest by Winklevossian standards – a mere handful of million dollars.
Bitcoin, naturally, is entirely acceptable.
John Law is an 18th Century Scottish entrepreneur, financial engineer and gambler. Having reformed the French economy, invented paper currency, state banks, the Mississippi Bubble and other ideas essential to modern economics, he took 300 years off in a small cottage outside Bude. He has returned to write for CoinDesk on the foibles of digital currency.
John Law (@scotonomist) | Published on March 7, 2014 at 16:30 GMT | Analysis, News
Welcome to the CoinDesk Weekly Review 7th March 2014 – a regular look at the hottest, most thought-provoking and most controversial events in the world of digital currency through the eyes of scepticism and wonder.
Your host … John Law.
There’s a clue in the name
Dorian Satoshi NakamotoEven in the Internet hall of mirrors that has replaced much journalism, the story seemed too bizarre to be taken seriously. After years of rumour, speculation and answerless questions – could it really be true? Could this mysterious entity, known only from historical documents, claim and counter-claim, finally have stumbled into the light?
Yes. It is true. Newsweek really does exist.
That’s all that can be said for sure at the moment. Although Newsweek itself has made an equally incredible claim, that it traced Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto by looking up people called Satoshi Nakamoto, actual evidence is thin.
That the paper had found someone by that name living in southern California is undeniable, and he has led the sort of life that someone who invented bitcoin could have led. A 60-something model train obsessive who lives with his mother in secluded retirement after a career in secretive technical engineering? If it wasn’t for the fact John Law knows many equally qualified eccentrics – the tech world has no shortage of the species – it’d be a slam-dunk.
However, having made some initially ambiguous statements when doorstepped by the Newsweek reporter, Mr Nakamoto has most recently denied everything in exchange for sushi. Admirable man. It’s not really the action of someone sitting on a hoard of nearly half a billion dollars’ worth of early-mined bitcoin, which block chain analysis suggests belongs to the creator. But then, there are plenty of stories of threadbare recluses who die leaving enormous and unexpected wealth.
You can, in short, believe what you want to believe. And John Law believes that Newsweek’s mega-scoop falls some way short of sealing the deal it promises.
It would be entirely fitting if bitcoin, an anonymous system that works entirely in the open by hiding nothing, was created by an anonymous genius who lives the same way. But it doesn’t matter. Bitcoin as a once-in-a-lifetime invention stands apart, and it’s not as if there’s any reasonable expectation that its creator can come up with another; nor that, having invented it, the creator will have any particular insight into its subsequent career.
Like the admirable Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the web, the best that can be hoped for is a mild celebrity and a muted amount of influence in subsequent events.
Which means the converse is also true – there is no abdication of responsibility in choosing to exempt oneself, tick the ‘no-publicity’ box and vanish silently away. Privacy seems an awfully small price to ask in exchange for such a valuable gift, although fame rarely works that way.
If Satoshi Nakamoto really is Satoshi Nakamoto and not just Satoshi Nakamoto – or even if he isn’t – then he should be left alone unless he chooses otherwise.
Amid all this confusion, John Law trusts that this at least is clear enough.
That’s torn it
EavesdroppingFurther to privacy, there is news that a future version of bitcoin will use the Tor network for transactions. This will have the advantage, says the developer, that transactions will be not only encrypted but that their passage across the Internet will be untraceable and untappable – even by the NSA and GCHQ.
There’s a lot of truth in that: Edward Snowden’s copious notes from inside the heart of the NSA (themselves delivered to the Guardian and the New York Times via Tor) revealed that those organisations couldn’t crack Tor, didn’t expect to, and didn’t much like the fact. And Silk Road operated entirely inside the Tor network and proved untraceable – its demise came through poor security in the real world.
Although there have been various semi-successful attacks against elements of Tor, which works by shuffling messages between lots of nodes that only know about their immediate neighbours, it remains a very high quality guarantee of network privacy.
It may not, however, be a good fit for bitcoin. John Law has used Tor from time to time, not to evade detection or commit seditious acts, but by way of experiment. It’s not been a good experience. Despite much work by the Tor Project in building software that disguises the underlying complexity, it can be a frustrating business getting it going and quite slow in operation. You may have 120-Mbps broadband, but expect that to drop by 95%.
It’s also quite nerve-wracking. If you elect to become a node, which means your computer can be used by the network to relay packets, then you run the risk of being the point at which an anonymous, untraceable user’s requests finally decloak and hit the unprotected Internet. Which, if that user is transferring illegal images or other unmentionables, can lead the plod to your door with some awkward questions to answer. But without a lot of nodes, Tor doesn’t work well.
Bitcoin is already robustly secure, most certainly for the vast majority of users who aren’t up to anything interesting or dangerous and just want to use it in their everyday lives.
What it isn’t, yet, is particularly painless to use. It needs more simplicity before it gets more security: the two aspects must be in balance at each stage in bitcoin’s development to get the sort of widespread traction it needs to fulfil its potential.
Adding Tor right now, although John Law completely understands the reasoning, will not help the balance that’s needed right now.
In any case, if you want to use bitcoin via Tor, you can do so – just drop by the Tor Project and download some software. Give it a whirl. It will make your online life more private but – unless you’re a Chinese dissident or like annoying the NSA – not that much better.
As the Dead Kennedys said (ask your grandfather) – “Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death”. Human nature is as much a factor in network privacy as uncrackable encryption. It’s just much harder to engineer.
Space – not quite the final frontier
Space twinsAnd further to human nature – it’s not that hard to see why the Winklevii twins attract so much opprobrium. Privileged, handsome and prone to grandiose claims that never quite got tested in court, their rebirth as bitcoin entrepreneurs can be seen either as far-sighted techno-economic acumen or another monstrous ego trip. Feel free to choose.
“I hope it’s one-way”, grumbled one of John Law’s less generous colleagues on hearing that the Winklevii had not only bought two tickets on Richard Branson’s “this year, I promise” Virgin Galactic space tourism plane, but they’d done so with the world’s favourite cyber-cash. Although he hates to disappoint the disaffected, John Law had to point out that since the craft wasn’t going into orbit, the one thing that is guaranteed is that it and all aboard will return to Earth quite swiftly – although in what state remains to be seen.
It’s a bit worrying, however, that the number of things one cannot buy with bitcoin is dwindling rapidly, which could lead to a price crash as the free publicity available to anyone in commerce in exchange for setting up a bitcoin wallet disappears completely. If you can buy cars, cannabis, politicians, plots of land, space trips, wine, women and song – what on earth is left in life?
So far, the only major asset not yet exchanged for the demon digital dosh seems to be companies. John Law ardently recommends this to Cameron and Tyler, once they return safely to land, as it may be their last chance to be really, really annoying in an innovative way. It’s probably best to pick an organisation beloved by the liberal chatterati: the Guardian newspaper, perhaps, or a micro-finance company working in developing nations with an explicit social remit.
The finder’s fee will be modest by Winklevossian standards – a mere handful of million dollars.
Bitcoin, naturally, is entirely acceptable.
John Law is an 18th Century Scottish entrepreneur, financial engineer and gambler. Having reformed the French economy, invented paper currency, state banks, the Mississippi Bubble and other ideas essential to modern economics, he took 300 years off in a small cottage outside Bude. He has returned to write for CoinDesk on the foibles of digital currency.
Trust Your Mining Service Providers
Neal Hook 07/03/2014
As more demands are placed upon us, human nature naturally takes the path of least resistance, maybe starting to cut corners and eventually something bad happens. When running mining rigs producing £80.00 / $120 a day each, any impact normally means a financial loss.
mining network
Diagram describing how a mining network inter operates with other networks
When you look at how a typical mining infrastructure fits together, you get a high level architectural picture similar to the one on the right.
Reviewing the diagram, the picture becomes clear out of five potentially joined networks a Miners’ transactions flow through, there is only one where the Miner has full control. Beyond the Miner’s Local Area Network (LAN), the Miner has no control over any transactions and relies upon the trust of technology and others.
The question has to be asked, when you consider the integrity and availability of your mining empire, do you trust the systems and people you do business with beyond your own network?
Do we trust the Internet?
Naturally, no one should trust the internet. The crypto currency development teams have done a good job of ensuring transactions are resilient and can’t be tampered with. In terms of confidentiality, we know the traffic may be monitored and recorded. But because no directly identifiable personal information is contained, other than maybe a source IP address, you can be assured your identity is safe.
The mining pool
As difficulty rates increase, the mining pool becomes one of the key components to the mining infrastructure. The question is, how well do you know the owner of your mining pool? Are you aware of how secure the infrastructure is where the mining pool resides? For example, what would happen if a disk drive containing the central wallet were to fail? Does your mining pool include protection against a Distributed Denial of Service (DOS) attack? There are some controls we can put into place such as using balanced pool settings within our mining software and only use supplied DDOS protected pool addresses.
The key question with the mining pool is what security controls are beyond what the eye can see? My worse fear for any Miner is that they’re unknowingly using a mining pool that resides in someones lounge or garage where they experience severe weather, resulting in the equipment becoming wet. The consequence to the Miner is the central wallet containing thousands of their coins has been destroyed.
The crypto currency exchange
The one thing that upsets me is when you see a mining pool that says, “If you don’t have a wallet address, sign up to Cryptsy and use one of their addresses provided”. There’s two things wrong with this. First of all, online currency exchanges sometimes are incorrectly recognized as an online wallet which is not the purpose it’s intended. Secondly you have no control over your funds and totally rely upon the currency exchange solution architects getting the design right first time. In the cyber world, risks are continuously changing and what was a secure design yesterday could be compromised tomorrow. You should always keep your crypto coins stored on your own network, where you can rest assured they are safely backed up. (You perform backups, right?)
When using the currency exchange, the key thing to remember is only to deposit funds when you need to exchange and withdraw everything once completed.
The online wallet
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/uk_bank_administration_crowds_flock-300x225.jpe
uk_bank_administration_crowds_flock
Back in 2009, several large UK banks and building societies went into administration without warning as a result of the global recession.
There’s a simple theory here. If you have a wallet with a thousand pounds contained, would you leave it with someone who has a shiny website claiming to be number one and has so much business they’ll still be there tomorrow ready for you to collect it. Plus, the website owner is on the other side of the ocean according to the address on their website. I remember back during the global banking crisis when it came on the news that banks in the UK who had been trusted for years were going into administration. Suddenly news reports came on screen showing hundreds of people queued outside waiting to withdraw their funds. These banks had been resident on the high street for so long, people naturally trusted they would be there tomorrow. What would happen if your online wallet provider turned off their website? Where would you start? People often out of convenience use online wallets as zero percent interest savings accounts without remembering what occurred back in 2009. I urge you not to use online wallets as savings accounts, simply store enough funds to get you through a normal day and keep everything else at home.
What is the one size fits all solution?
Quite simply there is no one size fits all, but I can offer you advice and guidance. When thinking about your network and miners, if you have only the one miner then can you put it somewhere safe like at the back of a cupboard. I used to keep mine in the attic until it leaked, so speaking from experience here! If you have many miners, would now be the time to consider using a datacentre? Many mining vendors are now providing hosted facilities that offer a fantastic support infrastructure.
When dealing with any service provider based on the internet; whether its a mining pool; currency exchange or; an online wallet, you must always obtain a second opinion from trusted source. You should always be able to speak to one of the service provider staff at the very least. These service providers should be as easy to communicate with as your own bank, because, at the end of the day, they are all custodians of your financial wealth.
Lastly, when you store coins at home ensure you regularly back it up, then copy the backup. Where I work is physically secure, so once I’ve backed up all of my wallets I then take a copy of the memory stick and lock it within my drawer at work. The original copy I keep in my safe. The worst case is someone has robbed the safe from my house, followed me to work, beaten the security guards up, got past my colleagues, found my desk with the keys accidentally left in and then must work out what unmarked memory stick contains my wallet. Then they need to interrogate me for the encryption password. The chances of this happening are nearly nil; therefore, I can sleep knowing my crypto currency is secure.
Neal Hook 07/03/2014
As more demands are placed upon us, human nature naturally takes the path of least resistance, maybe starting to cut corners and eventually something bad happens. When running mining rigs producing £80.00 / $120 a day each, any impact normally means a financial loss.
mining network
Diagram describing how a mining network inter operates with other networks
When you look at how a typical mining infrastructure fits together, you get a high level architectural picture similar to the one on the right.
Reviewing the diagram, the picture becomes clear out of five potentially joined networks a Miners’ transactions flow through, there is only one where the Miner has full control. Beyond the Miner’s Local Area Network (LAN), the Miner has no control over any transactions and relies upon the trust of technology and others.
The question has to be asked, when you consider the integrity and availability of your mining empire, do you trust the systems and people you do business with beyond your own network?
Do we trust the Internet?
Naturally, no one should trust the internet. The crypto currency development teams have done a good job of ensuring transactions are resilient and can’t be tampered with. In terms of confidentiality, we know the traffic may be monitored and recorded. But because no directly identifiable personal information is contained, other than maybe a source IP address, you can be assured your identity is safe.
The mining pool
As difficulty rates increase, the mining pool becomes one of the key components to the mining infrastructure. The question is, how well do you know the owner of your mining pool? Are you aware of how secure the infrastructure is where the mining pool resides? For example, what would happen if a disk drive containing the central wallet were to fail? Does your mining pool include protection against a Distributed Denial of Service (DOS) attack? There are some controls we can put into place such as using balanced pool settings within our mining software and only use supplied DDOS protected pool addresses.
The key question with the mining pool is what security controls are beyond what the eye can see? My worse fear for any Miner is that they’re unknowingly using a mining pool that resides in someones lounge or garage where they experience severe weather, resulting in the equipment becoming wet. The consequence to the Miner is the central wallet containing thousands of their coins has been destroyed.
The crypto currency exchange
The one thing that upsets me is when you see a mining pool that says, “If you don’t have a wallet address, sign up to Cryptsy and use one of their addresses provided”. There’s two things wrong with this. First of all, online currency exchanges sometimes are incorrectly recognized as an online wallet which is not the purpose it’s intended. Secondly you have no control over your funds and totally rely upon the currency exchange solution architects getting the design right first time. In the cyber world, risks are continuously changing and what was a secure design yesterday could be compromised tomorrow. You should always keep your crypto coins stored on your own network, where you can rest assured they are safely backed up. (You perform backups, right?)
When using the currency exchange, the key thing to remember is only to deposit funds when you need to exchange and withdraw everything once completed.
The online wallet
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/uk_bank_administration_crowds_flock-300x225.jpe
uk_bank_administration_crowds_flock
Back in 2009, several large UK banks and building societies went into administration without warning as a result of the global recession.
There’s a simple theory here. If you have a wallet with a thousand pounds contained, would you leave it with someone who has a shiny website claiming to be number one and has so much business they’ll still be there tomorrow ready for you to collect it. Plus, the website owner is on the other side of the ocean according to the address on their website. I remember back during the global banking crisis when it came on the news that banks in the UK who had been trusted for years were going into administration. Suddenly news reports came on screen showing hundreds of people queued outside waiting to withdraw their funds. These banks had been resident on the high street for so long, people naturally trusted they would be there tomorrow. What would happen if your online wallet provider turned off their website? Where would you start? People often out of convenience use online wallets as zero percent interest savings accounts without remembering what occurred back in 2009. I urge you not to use online wallets as savings accounts, simply store enough funds to get you through a normal day and keep everything else at home.
What is the one size fits all solution?
Quite simply there is no one size fits all, but I can offer you advice and guidance. When thinking about your network and miners, if you have only the one miner then can you put it somewhere safe like at the back of a cupboard. I used to keep mine in the attic until it leaked, so speaking from experience here! If you have many miners, would now be the time to consider using a datacentre? Many mining vendors are now providing hosted facilities that offer a fantastic support infrastructure.
When dealing with any service provider based on the internet; whether its a mining pool; currency exchange or; an online wallet, you must always obtain a second opinion from trusted source. You should always be able to speak to one of the service provider staff at the very least. These service providers should be as easy to communicate with as your own bank, because, at the end of the day, they are all custodians of your financial wealth.
Lastly, when you store coins at home ensure you regularly back it up, then copy the backup. Where I work is physically secure, so once I’ve backed up all of my wallets I then take a copy of the memory stick and lock it within my drawer at work. The original copy I keep in my safe. The worst case is someone has robbed the safe from my house, followed me to work, beaten the security guards up, got past my colleagues, found my desk with the keys accidentally left in and then must work out what unmarked memory stick contains my wallet. Then they need to interrogate me for the encryption password. The chances of this happening are nearly nil; therefore, I can sleep knowing my crypto currency is secure.
Taxi Coin, a coin going places
David Boveington-Fauran 07/03/2014
[/size]I requested information from the team behind Taxi coin, and the team was kind enough to answer my questions. However, when yours truly asked for a name to put in the article…I got “Chad B.” very cloak and dagger!!
taxicoin-logo
Who is behind Taxi coin?
We are a group of like-minded people located in several countries around the world and have been growing the team and support since we launched. We are developers, producers, engineers, nerds, and citizens. We also all really love Crypto and Taxis!
Why did you create a coin specifically for taxis?
It seemed like a natural fit to begin a coin that could be focused on a market that has strong smartphone adoption in a lot of the world (i.e. apps like Hailo, Getacab, Uber). The idea of having a pay with Bitcoin button within those types of apps is very close (upon us it appears) and the extension of that is a specific coin which could be used in Taxi transportation.
Are you mostly targeting the US market?
When it comes to Taxis, there are a few cities in the world that stand out and NYC is at the top of our list so we believe the coin will first begin to appear in NYC, London, possibly Seoul. Places where there is a thriving TAXI industry and high smartphone adoption. We are currently doing tests for POS system integration and app development to have TAXI COIN able to roll into other applications as easily as possible for the developers who want to use it. The wallet for Android and iOS is in beta, and we are excited to release it soon.
Why have 50% of the 56 million coins mined now and the rest over 12 years?
We want the coins in circulation. Plain and simple. Miners who get in now will have a vested interest as we move forward with the apps and collaboration. We want the coins in circulation because our plans and hopes for the coin work best where there are lots of coins in use.Also, we felt that giving miners a chance to get this coin at such an accelerated pace would increase miner interest and hopefully help grow the community.
What exchanges do you plan to be on?
Coinedup, Cryptoaltex, Cryptsy eventually. We are really thrilled to get TAXI COIN onto an exchange soon. We were working with an exchange in beta, but it has yet to be stable enough to add TAXI. We are pursuing several leads and avenues to get TAXI listed, but we feel that before too long the exchanges will see that there is interest, potential, a serious dev team, and money to be made by listing the coin.
What would you answer to those saying it is a pump and dump coin?
We did not create the coin to pump and dump, which is why we aren’t paying to have it listed somewhere and forgotten about. We believe that people will see the potential of this coin especially once the first mobile wallet, app integration, driver payment integration, and TAXI COIN store (trade TAXI into gift cards and items beyond crypto). We have plans for this coin that go way beyond a few days or weeks. With all the coins coming out now, we want TAXI to be different and are trying to demonstrate our intent with our actions and efforts. The future of TAXI is bright and who knows where it will lead but we know that we are going to work very hard at the TAXI COIN foundation to build the community and belief in this coin.
Do you intend to have as Dogecoin a PR machine?
We love Doge and think it is a great coin, but we aren’t necessarily pushing to mirror their approach. Integrating the coin into mobile payment systems and mobile wallets is one of our biggest goals at the moment as is having the coin listed on a quality exchange to start. We are building a PR machine and right now twitter and forums are the best way to engage community.
David Boveington-Fauran 07/03/2014
[/size]I requested information from the team behind Taxi coin, and the team was kind enough to answer my questions. However, when yours truly asked for a name to put in the article…I got “Chad B.” very cloak and dagger!!
taxicoin-logo
Who is behind Taxi coin?
We are a group of like-minded people located in several countries around the world and have been growing the team and support since we launched. We are developers, producers, engineers, nerds, and citizens. We also all really love Crypto and Taxis!
Why did you create a coin specifically for taxis?
It seemed like a natural fit to begin a coin that could be focused on a market that has strong smartphone adoption in a lot of the world (i.e. apps like Hailo, Getacab, Uber). The idea of having a pay with Bitcoin button within those types of apps is very close (upon us it appears) and the extension of that is a specific coin which could be used in Taxi transportation.
Are you mostly targeting the US market?
When it comes to Taxis, there are a few cities in the world that stand out and NYC is at the top of our list so we believe the coin will first begin to appear in NYC, London, possibly Seoul. Places where there is a thriving TAXI industry and high smartphone adoption. We are currently doing tests for POS system integration and app development to have TAXI COIN able to roll into other applications as easily as possible for the developers who want to use it. The wallet for Android and iOS is in beta, and we are excited to release it soon.
Why have 50% of the 56 million coins mined now and the rest over 12 years?
We want the coins in circulation. Plain and simple. Miners who get in now will have a vested interest as we move forward with the apps and collaboration. We want the coins in circulation because our plans and hopes for the coin work best where there are lots of coins in use.Also, we felt that giving miners a chance to get this coin at such an accelerated pace would increase miner interest and hopefully help grow the community.
What exchanges do you plan to be on?
Coinedup, Cryptoaltex, Cryptsy eventually. We are really thrilled to get TAXI COIN onto an exchange soon. We were working with an exchange in beta, but it has yet to be stable enough to add TAXI. We are pursuing several leads and avenues to get TAXI listed, but we feel that before too long the exchanges will see that there is interest, potential, a serious dev team, and money to be made by listing the coin.
What would you answer to those saying it is a pump and dump coin?
We did not create the coin to pump and dump, which is why we aren’t paying to have it listed somewhere and forgotten about. We believe that people will see the potential of this coin especially once the first mobile wallet, app integration, driver payment integration, and TAXI COIN store (trade TAXI into gift cards and items beyond crypto). We have plans for this coin that go way beyond a few days or weeks. With all the coins coming out now, we want TAXI to be different and are trying to demonstrate our intent with our actions and efforts. The future of TAXI is bright and who knows where it will lead but we know that we are going to work very hard at the TAXI COIN foundation to build the community and belief in this coin.
Do you intend to have as Dogecoin a PR machine?
We love Doge and think it is a great coin, but we aren’t necessarily pushing to mirror their approach. Integrating the coin into mobile payment systems and mobile wallets is one of our biggest goals at the moment as is having the coin listed on a quality exchange to start. We are building a PR machine and right now twitter and forums are the best way to engage community.
Breaking – “Satoshi Nakomoto” Breaks Long Silence To Deny Being Dorian Nakomoto
Gordon Hall 07/03/2014
Satoshi Nakomoto, the creator of Bitcoin apparently broke two years of silence to deny Newsweek’s claim to having discovered his real identity.
On the P2P Foundation forum on which he initially announced Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakomoto (or someone with access to his account) simply stated, “I am not Dorian Nakomoto.”
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/p2p-foundation.jpg
p2p-foundationThis denial, echoing Dorian Nakomoto’s recent denial to the Associated Press, serves to muddy the waters further as to Satoshi Nakomoto’s true identity.
profileIt seems the wider Bitcoin community remains skeptical of Newsweek’s story, requiring as proof either a message signed with Satoshi Nakomoto’s PGP key or some movement of Bitcoin from early addresses likely belonging to Satoshi.
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/profile-300x300.jpg
Gordon Hall 07/03/2014
Satoshi Nakomoto, the creator of Bitcoin apparently broke two years of silence to deny Newsweek’s claim to having discovered his real identity.
On the P2P Foundation forum on which he initially announced Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakomoto (or someone with access to his account) simply stated, “I am not Dorian Nakomoto.”
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/p2p-foundation.jpg
p2p-foundationThis denial, echoing Dorian Nakomoto’s recent denial to the Associated Press, serves to muddy the waters further as to Satoshi Nakomoto’s true identity.
profileIt seems the wider Bitcoin community remains skeptical of Newsweek’s story, requiring as proof either a message signed with Satoshi Nakomoto’s PGP key or some movement of Bitcoin from early addresses likely belonging to Satoshi.
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/profile-300x300.jpg
Security Regulation Within the Crypto Currency Business
Neal Hook 07/03/2014
In recent weeks, the crypto currency sector has been getting much media attention concerning security. Several exchanges have announced they are undergoing security investigations into possible hacking, resulting in the loss of many bitcoins. This brings into question what security measures are in place.
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/money-300x200.jpe
Information Security Fundamentals
Within the information security profession, high focus is placed on confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and their systems. Confidentiality is about who or what has access to information stored within the system and when. The information does not need to be personal, it could be configuration logs or source code that may be useful to another party. Integrity is about systems that information passing through, or is stored upon, do not accidentally change or misconstrue the information thereby misinforming the person or system and causing bad decisions. Lastly availability is about ensuring information is available on demand and systems are resilient enough to overcome any problems that may prevent access. So what does this all mean to ourselves as end users of crypto currency? We want to ensure our personal information; passwords and accounting transactions are kept confidential, this is one reason some end users use crypto currency. Secondly, we don’t want our accounts to become corrupt or some badly structured code to alter our balance sheets. Lastly, we don’t want to be denied access to our funds when we most want it.
What is Regulation and Why?
Within the fiscal finance sector there’s regulation governing how financial information must be gathered, processed and stored. Regulation includes frameworks such as Sarbanes Oxley that was implemented partially in response to the Enron Corporation, who filed for bankruptcy in 2001. This regulation is designed to protect Investors and Customers of services operating within financial markets. Using Sarbanes Oxley as an example, when integrated into an organization, it brings transparency enabling people to make a decision on the organizations financial standing and internal business processes. Regulatory reports enable people to decide whether they want to exchange business with an organization. The issue within the crypto currency sector is there’s no specific specialist regulator present, leaving end users heavily reliant upon other laws and regulations local to countries where services are performed. These regulations may not be suitable for someone trading from overseas and could have no process for recall if a problem occurred. We as a sector need to agree on a common set of security standards that will minimize re-occurrences witnessed this year.
The Sectors First Step Towards Regulation
During this last week in response to the Mt.Gox closure, some major exchanges announced they would be publishing independent security reports providing assurance their systems were appropriately secured. This is a welcoming message that shows some exchanges are moving forward to ensure security best practices are implemented and functioning as intended. But for the exchanges which have not announced their intention to go through an independent review it could be crippling to their business as Customers move their accounts elsewhere.
What it Means to Us?
So what does it all mean to end users? We should be diligent in whom we select as our currency exchange and online wallet providers. We should place more focus upon systems our transactions pass through and data is stored upon has suitable security controls in place to safeguard our coins. By taking this time and insisting upon specific standards being abided by, user demand should dictate to the sector what we expect and, therefore, minimize the chances of another major catastrophe.
Neal Hook 07/03/2014
In recent weeks, the crypto currency sector has been getting much media attention concerning security. Several exchanges have announced they are undergoing security investigations into possible hacking, resulting in the loss of many bitcoins. This brings into question what security measures are in place.
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/money-300x200.jpe
Information Security Fundamentals
Within the information security profession, high focus is placed on confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and their systems. Confidentiality is about who or what has access to information stored within the system and when. The information does not need to be personal, it could be configuration logs or source code that may be useful to another party. Integrity is about systems that information passing through, or is stored upon, do not accidentally change or misconstrue the information thereby misinforming the person or system and causing bad decisions. Lastly availability is about ensuring information is available on demand and systems are resilient enough to overcome any problems that may prevent access. So what does this all mean to ourselves as end users of crypto currency? We want to ensure our personal information; passwords and accounting transactions are kept confidential, this is one reason some end users use crypto currency. Secondly, we don’t want our accounts to become corrupt or some badly structured code to alter our balance sheets. Lastly, we don’t want to be denied access to our funds when we most want it.
What is Regulation and Why?
Within the fiscal finance sector there’s regulation governing how financial information must be gathered, processed and stored. Regulation includes frameworks such as Sarbanes Oxley that was implemented partially in response to the Enron Corporation, who filed for bankruptcy in 2001. This regulation is designed to protect Investors and Customers of services operating within financial markets. Using Sarbanes Oxley as an example, when integrated into an organization, it brings transparency enabling people to make a decision on the organizations financial standing and internal business processes. Regulatory reports enable people to decide whether they want to exchange business with an organization. The issue within the crypto currency sector is there’s no specific specialist regulator present, leaving end users heavily reliant upon other laws and regulations local to countries where services are performed. These regulations may not be suitable for someone trading from overseas and could have no process for recall if a problem occurred. We as a sector need to agree on a common set of security standards that will minimize re-occurrences witnessed this year.
The Sectors First Step Towards Regulation
During this last week in response to the Mt.Gox closure, some major exchanges announced they would be publishing independent security reports providing assurance their systems were appropriately secured. This is a welcoming message that shows some exchanges are moving forward to ensure security best practices are implemented and functioning as intended. But for the exchanges which have not announced their intention to go through an independent review it could be crippling to their business as Customers move their accounts elsewhere.
What it Means to Us?
So what does it all mean to end users? We should be diligent in whom we select as our currency exchange and online wallet providers. We should place more focus upon systems our transactions pass through and data is stored upon has suitable security controls in place to safeguard our coins. By taking this time and insisting upon specific standards being abided by, user demand should dictate to the sector what we expect and, therefore, minimize the chances of another major catastrophe.
One Does Not Simply Find Satoshi Nakamoto
Nermin Hajdarbegovic | Published on March 7, 2014 at 15:04 GMT | Analysis, Events, News, Technology
Newsweek’s decision to out Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto as the creator of bitcoin appears to be backfiring spectacularly.
Nakamoto was quick to deny that he was the ‘real’ Satoshi Nakamoto and he attributed the misunderstanding to his less than perfect command of the English language.
He told the Associated Press that he refused to discuss his employment with Newsweek reporter Leah McGrath Goodman because he had signed confidentiality agreements, not because he was involved in the development of bitcoin.
If unfounded, Newsweek’s scoop could very quickly turn into a PR nightmare, as the magazine ran the report in its re-launched print edition. Perhaps Newsweek was simply too eager to get a scoop for the big day?
Back to the stone age
Newsweek is not the first publication to try and reveal the identity of the mystery man. What was so different this time around?
First of all, bitcoin is bigger and better-known, used frequently as headline ’link bait’. Secondly, this was not the work of blogger or a niche website. Newsweek has quite a reputation, or at least it used to.
Six years ago Satoshi Nakamoto was just another anonymous member of the P2P Foundation, so 2008 would be a good place to start. Back then nobody knew bitcoin would become a global phenomenon, so anonymity wasn’t such a big deal.
Satoshi Nakamoto had a simple user profile and claimed to be a 37-year-old Japanese man. The community didn’t exactly buy it, as certain details did not add up. His English was good and sometimes he used British English. Judging by the time he made his posts, the mystery man probably resided in the Americas, not Japan.
On the other hand, bitcoin.org was registered using a Japanese anonymous registration service and it was hosted by a Japanese ISP.
Several developers were working on digital currencies and e-cash technology even before Nakamoto published his bitcoin whitepaper. Most of them were not anonymous and even today there are people in the bitcoin community who claim that these crypto pioneers are the real Satoshi.
Nick Szabo, Hal Finney, Wei Dai and several other developers were among those who were periodically named in media reports and online discussions.
They all insist they are not Nakamoto.
Media reports start to emerge
As bitcoin took off, the media started taking notice and another round of speculation ensued. In 2011 an investigative journalist identified three patent holders as Nakamoto. All three denied they were involved.
The same year, The New Yorker ran a story claiming that a few Dublin-based scholars including Dr Vili Lehdonvirta could be behind bitcoin, but once again the claim was followed by denials.
The list of potential Satoshis continued to expand. Eventually it started looking like the “who’s who” of bitcoin. Founder of Mt. Gox Jed McCaleb was eventually named, along with several scholars, core developers such as Finney, crypto specialists and just about everyone else who could remotely fit the profile.
Interestingly, all ‘suspects’ were men – we’re still waiting for the first female Satoshi.
Conspiracy theorists join the fun
Rampant speculation in a fact-free environment is an invitation to conspiracy theorists, thus a number of whacky and rather amusing theories have emerged over the years.
Some insist the DARPA is behind bitcoin, while others maintain it was created by the NSA, or any of a number of secretive government agencies that have the brains and resources to develop cutting-edge crypto technologies. One theory alleges the ‘real’ Satoshi is in fact NSA researcher Tasuaki Okamoto.
Since conspiracy theorists have a penchant for one-world governments and global domination, some claim bitcoin was in fact created by the IMF to serve as a global currency.
Others point to central banks, financial institutions or tech companies.
It doesn’t really matter, does it?
Satoshi Nakamoto left the world of bitcoin in 2010, saying he is moving on to new projects. He handed everything over to the bitcoin community, the source code repository, the domains – everything but his bitcoins. Nakamoto is still believed to hold about one million coins, which would have made him a billionaire when bitcoin peaked.
A few hours after Newsweek outed Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, the ‘real’ Nakamoto logged into his disused P2P Foundation account and left a simple message:
“I am not Dorian Nakamoto.”
Nicolas Mendoza from P2P Foundation took to reddit, saying the foundation is in the process of verifying whether Satoshi’s post is legitimate. He said an official statement will be issued in the coming hours.
But in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter? The real Satoshi clearly does not want the attention – if he dropped everything in 2010, when bitcoin was still a geekish curiosity, he surely does not want it now.
The community loves the bitcoin mystique and if he ever comes forward, much of the romantic mystery surrounding bitcoin will be gone for good. Other than a few headlines, the world of bitcoin wouldn’t gain much, yet Nakamoto would lose his privacy and peace of mind. In other words, it is not going to happen.
That said, he could make an appearance without revealing his true identity. After all, he seem to be pretty good at that sort of thing – and he wouldn’t have to develop a proof-of-identity protocol to make it happen.
Nermin Hajdarbegovic | Published on March 7, 2014 at 15:04 GMT | Analysis, Events, News, Technology
Newsweek’s decision to out Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto as the creator of bitcoin appears to be backfiring spectacularly.
Nakamoto was quick to deny that he was the ‘real’ Satoshi Nakamoto and he attributed the misunderstanding to his less than perfect command of the English language.
He told the Associated Press that he refused to discuss his employment with Newsweek reporter Leah McGrath Goodman because he had signed confidentiality agreements, not because he was involved in the development of bitcoin.
If unfounded, Newsweek’s scoop could very quickly turn into a PR nightmare, as the magazine ran the report in its re-launched print edition. Perhaps Newsweek was simply too eager to get a scoop for the big day?
Back to the stone age
Newsweek is not the first publication to try and reveal the identity of the mystery man. What was so different this time around?
First of all, bitcoin is bigger and better-known, used frequently as headline ’link bait’. Secondly, this was not the work of blogger or a niche website. Newsweek has quite a reputation, or at least it used to.
Six years ago Satoshi Nakamoto was just another anonymous member of the P2P Foundation, so 2008 would be a good place to start. Back then nobody knew bitcoin would become a global phenomenon, so anonymity wasn’t such a big deal.
Satoshi Nakamoto had a simple user profile and claimed to be a 37-year-old Japanese man. The community didn’t exactly buy it, as certain details did not add up. His English was good and sometimes he used British English. Judging by the time he made his posts, the mystery man probably resided in the Americas, not Japan.
On the other hand, bitcoin.org was registered using a Japanese anonymous registration service and it was hosted by a Japanese ISP.
Several developers were working on digital currencies and e-cash technology even before Nakamoto published his bitcoin whitepaper. Most of them were not anonymous and even today there are people in the bitcoin community who claim that these crypto pioneers are the real Satoshi.
Nick Szabo, Hal Finney, Wei Dai and several other developers were among those who were periodically named in media reports and online discussions.
They all insist they are not Nakamoto.
Media reports start to emerge
As bitcoin took off, the media started taking notice and another round of speculation ensued. In 2011 an investigative journalist identified three patent holders as Nakamoto. All three denied they were involved.
The same year, The New Yorker ran a story claiming that a few Dublin-based scholars including Dr Vili Lehdonvirta could be behind bitcoin, but once again the claim was followed by denials.
The list of potential Satoshis continued to expand. Eventually it started looking like the “who’s who” of bitcoin. Founder of Mt. Gox Jed McCaleb was eventually named, along with several scholars, core developers such as Finney, crypto specialists and just about everyone else who could remotely fit the profile.
Interestingly, all ‘suspects’ were men – we’re still waiting for the first female Satoshi.
Conspiracy theorists join the fun
Rampant speculation in a fact-free environment is an invitation to conspiracy theorists, thus a number of whacky and rather amusing theories have emerged over the years.
Some insist the DARPA is behind bitcoin, while others maintain it was created by the NSA, or any of a number of secretive government agencies that have the brains and resources to develop cutting-edge crypto technologies. One theory alleges the ‘real’ Satoshi is in fact NSA researcher Tasuaki Okamoto.
Since conspiracy theorists have a penchant for one-world governments and global domination, some claim bitcoin was in fact created by the IMF to serve as a global currency.
Others point to central banks, financial institutions or tech companies.
It doesn’t really matter, does it?
Satoshi Nakamoto left the world of bitcoin in 2010, saying he is moving on to new projects. He handed everything over to the bitcoin community, the source code repository, the domains – everything but his bitcoins. Nakamoto is still believed to hold about one million coins, which would have made him a billionaire when bitcoin peaked.
A few hours after Newsweek outed Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, the ‘real’ Nakamoto logged into his disused P2P Foundation account and left a simple message:
“I am not Dorian Nakamoto.”
Nicolas Mendoza from P2P Foundation took to reddit, saying the foundation is in the process of verifying whether Satoshi’s post is legitimate. He said an official statement will be issued in the coming hours.
But in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter? The real Satoshi clearly does not want the attention – if he dropped everything in 2010, when bitcoin was still a geekish curiosity, he surely does not want it now.
The community loves the bitcoin mystique and if he ever comes forward, much of the romantic mystery surrounding bitcoin will be gone for good. Other than a few headlines, the world of bitcoin wouldn’t gain much, yet Nakamoto would lose his privacy and peace of mind. In other words, it is not going to happen.
That said, he could make an appearance without revealing his true identity. After all, he seem to be pretty good at that sort of thing – and he wouldn’t have to develop a proof-of-identity protocol to make it happen.
You post like crazy for the last couple weeks news sometimes trivial ones, but don't even bother posting the biggest Bitcoin news of the year???
Satoshi Nakamoto just got revealed by Newsweek.
Satoshi Nakamoto just got revealed by Newsweek.
http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto.html
The site says Ive reached limit of 5 articles when Ive never ever visited them and expects me to pay 10usd for it.I guess you are some affiliate that failed to make the url link affiliated
Ive found the info on arsetechnica though and you cant be really sure if he isnt just a guy who wants to be famous claiming his the inventor
I was away for 24h
. I posted that up there. And as for Sathoshi. He would never use his real name when he wanted to stay anonymous. That guy is just in wrong place at wrong time , with WRONG name . He is not real Satoshi
. You post like crazy for the last couple weeks news sometimes trivial ones, but don't even bother posting the biggest Bitcoin news of the year???
Satoshi Nakamoto just got revealed by Newsweek.
Satoshi Nakamoto just got revealed by Newsweek.
http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto.html
The site says Ive reached limit of 5 articles when Ive never ever visited them and expects me to pay 10usd for it.I guess you are some affiliate that failed to make the url link affiliated
Ive found the info on arsetechnica though and you cant be really sure if he isnt just a guy who wants to be famous claiming his the inventor
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