Japanese Government Says Bitcoin ‘Not a Currency’, Forms Investigation Committee
Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on March 7, 2014 at 10:35 GMT | Asia, News, Regulation
Japan’s ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has launched an investigative committee into bitcoin, and issued a statement saying it is “not a currency, but taxable”.
In what has become a familiar refrain from authorities around the world in recent months, the government has also blocked related banks from “brokering bitcoin transactions or opening accounts holding the virtual unit”. Exactly what constitutes a ‘bitcoin account’ remains unknown, but it presumably refers to one with a known bitcoin service like Blockchain.info or Coinbase.
This is likely a reaction to the international attention Japan has received after the collapse of Mt. Gox, which had its headquarters in Tokyo.
Bitcoin “does not fall under the category of a currency” as defined by Japanese law, the government statement said.
“Generally speaking it is subject to taxation if it meets conditions laid out in income tax law, corporate tax law and sales tax law, among others.”
Adding that there were no Japanese laws defining bitcoin, the statement concluded that if bitcoin was used for money laundering, ”that would constitute a crime”.
“As a matter of common sense, if there are transactions and subsequent gains, it is natural… for the finance ministry to consider how it can impose taxes,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
Staying out of it
Prior to this, Japanese authorities and the nation’s central bank had been silent on bitcoin, steering clear of the kind of warnings heard from other countries.
The LDP promised it would make a further statement on bitcoin and how the government intended to tax it in the coming week.
Representatives of the recently-formed Japan Digital Money Association, an advocacy group founded by Japanese bitcoin users and cryptocurrency miners, also consulted with LDP members on Friday to present their case.
Bitcoin exchange Kraken also sent a message to the LDP’s Chairman of Special Mission Committee on IT Strategy, offering to share the company’s knowledge of bitcoin and the exchange business.
Japanese bitcoin users will have to sit patiently and wait to see what happens next. The government has not specified a timeframe for release of conclusions but will probably mull over the details for some time.
Topic: BITCOIN NEWS EVRYDAY! From multiple sources. - page 17. (Read 51244 times)
CoG Flies iOS Bitcoin Wallet Under Apple’s Radar
Danny Bradbury (@dannybradbury) | Published on March 7, 2014 at 07:59 GMT | News, Startups, Wallets
A Kentucky organization thinks that it has found a way to install fully-functional bitcoin wallets on Apple iOS devices, bypassing the infamously draconian vendor’s app store.
The Cycle of Goodness (CoG) co-operative launched its iOS wallet, Pheeva, at the Texas Bitcoin Conference this week. The wallet, built using Bitcoinjs, is installed via a link mailed to users by the organization.
Apple is notoriously anti-bitcoin, having wiped several wallets from its app store, but Lamar Wilson, founder of LoveWill, a new software development firm affiliated with CoG which wrote the app, is confident that the co-operative will escape its wrath.
Wilson is a bitcoin believer. He even takes payment in the coin via his software development firm, 212ths. Now, he thinks he’s found a way to install his bitcoin wallet without having to use the app store or jailbreak users’ phones.
CoG, named after the management philosophy of a Japanese zipper manufacturer, gets around the app store restrictions using an Apple Enterprise Developer License. This license lets a company distribute an app to members of its own organization without going through the app store, for a relatively cheap $299 per year.
“It’s the same thing as us getting a standard Apple developer’s license, but the enterprise developer’s license enables us to distribute apps to people inside our organization,” Wilson said. The app is installed using an enterprise certificate signed by CoG.
People have tried to distribute apps using the provisions of this agreement before. MacBuildServer used to compile apps on Github and let people install them, for example, which is how it got a Gameboy Emulator onto the iPhone. But then, Apple called it and said that it was violating the license. It pulled the certificate, and suddenly, there were a lot of dead Gameboy emulators out there.
Lamar hopes to avoid the same fate, because CoG is only distributing to members of its organization, he said, emphasizing that because members have to pay $10 per year to join the co-operative, the distribution is private.
“We have talked to Apple about distributing as a co-operative. They said it’s fine, it’s ok,” he said.
Did he tell Cupertino that the firm’s single application was going to be a bitcoin wallet? No, he admitted.
“If Apple reads it and then they change their terms of service, then they will have to change it for everyone,” he said.
Wilson didn’t provide a copy of the license’s terms and conditions, and CoinDesk couldn’t locate one online, although the description on Apple’s enterprise development license site specifies that the license is intended for employees.
Wilson describes the CoG wallet as a minimum viable product, without any flashy features such as hierarchical deterministic addresses. One innovation it does have is Coin!D, a CoG mechanism to easily access bitcoins without handing over a bitcoin address. Another idea it’s floating is redistribution of wealth.
Patronage points
Users of the wallet will earn ‘patronage points’ by spreading the wallet to their friends and family. They will then receive a dividend from revenues obtained by renting advertising slots in the wallet. CoG aims to distribute at least 50% of those funds to wallet users, based on their patronage points balance.
“If Apple reads it and then they change their terms of service, then they will have to change it for everyone.”
Apple has a history of draconian unilateral action, however, and seems to have a deep resentment for bitcoin. Most recently, it deleted the Blockchain wallet. It’s the money transfer part that it seems to have a problem with, having asked another vendor, Gliph, to delete that function from its own app.
Even the better-funded firms haven’t escaped Apple’s wrath. Coinbase’s app was unceremoniously yanked, too.
What happens if Cupertino stamps on CoG? The co-operative will provide an ‘exodus address’ via email, which will enable people to forward their coins so they they don’t lose them, Wilson said. And it has an Android app, a Chrome extension, and is mulling native apps for major desktop operating systems.
In any case, the app works as of today. CoG is providing free sign-ups, but the coins in your wallet will be sent to an exodus address if you don’t pay the $10 co-op fee by March 21.
Apple image via Shutterstock
Link: http://www.coindesk.com/coc-ios-bitcoin-wallet-apple/
Danny Bradbury (@dannybradbury) | Published on March 7, 2014 at 07:59 GMT | News, Startups, Wallets
A Kentucky organization thinks that it has found a way to install fully-functional bitcoin wallets on Apple iOS devices, bypassing the infamously draconian vendor’s app store.
The Cycle of Goodness (CoG) co-operative launched its iOS wallet, Pheeva, at the Texas Bitcoin Conference this week. The wallet, built using Bitcoinjs, is installed via a link mailed to users by the organization.
Apple is notoriously anti-bitcoin, having wiped several wallets from its app store, but Lamar Wilson, founder of LoveWill, a new software development firm affiliated with CoG which wrote the app, is confident that the co-operative will escape its wrath.
Wilson is a bitcoin believer. He even takes payment in the coin via his software development firm, 212ths. Now, he thinks he’s found a way to install his bitcoin wallet without having to use the app store or jailbreak users’ phones.
CoG, named after the management philosophy of a Japanese zipper manufacturer, gets around the app store restrictions using an Apple Enterprise Developer License. This license lets a company distribute an app to members of its own organization without going through the app store, for a relatively cheap $299 per year.
“It’s the same thing as us getting a standard Apple developer’s license, but the enterprise developer’s license enables us to distribute apps to people inside our organization,” Wilson said. The app is installed using an enterprise certificate signed by CoG.
People have tried to distribute apps using the provisions of this agreement before. MacBuildServer used to compile apps on Github and let people install them, for example, which is how it got a Gameboy Emulator onto the iPhone. But then, Apple called it and said that it was violating the license. It pulled the certificate, and suddenly, there were a lot of dead Gameboy emulators out there.
Lamar hopes to avoid the same fate, because CoG is only distributing to members of its organization, he said, emphasizing that because members have to pay $10 per year to join the co-operative, the distribution is private.
“We have talked to Apple about distributing as a co-operative. They said it’s fine, it’s ok,” he said.
Did he tell Cupertino that the firm’s single application was going to be a bitcoin wallet? No, he admitted.
“If Apple reads it and then they change their terms of service, then they will have to change it for everyone,” he said.
Wilson didn’t provide a copy of the license’s terms and conditions, and CoinDesk couldn’t locate one online, although the description on Apple’s enterprise development license site specifies that the license is intended for employees.
Wilson describes the CoG wallet as a minimum viable product, without any flashy features such as hierarchical deterministic addresses. One innovation it does have is Coin!D, a CoG mechanism to easily access bitcoins without handing over a bitcoin address. Another idea it’s floating is redistribution of wealth.
Patronage points
Users of the wallet will earn ‘patronage points’ by spreading the wallet to their friends and family. They will then receive a dividend from revenues obtained by renting advertising slots in the wallet. CoG aims to distribute at least 50% of those funds to wallet users, based on their patronage points balance.
“If Apple reads it and then they change their terms of service, then they will have to change it for everyone.”
Apple has a history of draconian unilateral action, however, and seems to have a deep resentment for bitcoin. Most recently, it deleted the Blockchain wallet. It’s the money transfer part that it seems to have a problem with, having asked another vendor, Gliph, to delete that function from its own app.
Even the better-funded firms haven’t escaped Apple’s wrath. Coinbase’s app was unceremoniously yanked, too.
What happens if Cupertino stamps on CoG? The co-operative will provide an ‘exodus address’ via email, which will enable people to forward their coins so they they don’t lose them, Wilson said. And it has an Android app, a Chrome extension, and is mulling native apps for major desktop operating systems.
In any case, the app works as of today. CoG is providing free sign-ups, but the coins in your wallet will be sent to an exodus address if you don’t pay the $10 co-op fee by March 21.
Apple image via Shutterstock
Link: http://www.coindesk.com/coc-ios-bitcoin-wallet-apple/
Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Being Creator of Bitcoin Amid Media Frenzy
Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on March 7, 2014 at 08:02 GMT | Bitcoin protocol, News
The man Newsweek named as bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto has denied any involvement with cryptocurrency.
Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a Japanese-American resident of Los Angeles, found himself thrust into the the limelight just a day ago when Newsweek reporter Leah McGrath Goodman claimed the anonymous, or pseudonymous, man who released bitcoin on the world had been found at last.
Newsweek ran the story on the front cover of its newly-relaunched print edition, but after being pursued through the streets of LA by reporters for a day, Nakamoto said: “I got nothing to do with it”. Yesterday, Newsweek quoted Dorian Nakamoto as saying: “I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it … it’s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.”
This matches closely what the ‘real’ Satoshi Nakamoto posted on the Bitcoin Talk forum in April 2011, when he claimed not to be involved in the bitcoin project any more and had “moved on to other things”. However, when Dorian went to lunch yesterday with a reporter from the Associated Press, he claimed his comments had been taken out of context:
“I’m saying I’m no longer in engineering. That’s it. And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that’s what I implied.”
“It sounded like I was involved before with bitcoin and looked like I’m not involved now. That’s not what I meant. I want to clarify that,” he added.
Has the ‘real’ Satoshi spoken?
Earlier this morning (GMT), the simple denial “I am not Dorian Nakamoto” was posted as a reply on a P2P Foundation discussion thread by user ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’. This user’s email address supposedly matches that of the original Satoshi Nakamoto.
Dorian’s free lunch
Dorian was plagued by reporters yesterday, and when he emerged from his house he selected one reporter to take him for a free lunch and an exclusive interview.
The two drove to a nearby sushi restaurant before driving to the Associated Press offices in downtown Los Angeles, all the time pursued by the media.
Does it even matter?
Whether or not Newsweek’s man is indeed bitcoin’s creator is unknown and will probably remain so, since he refuses to confess.
Many bitcoin users say the true identity of its creator is not even relevant. The concept of transmitting value via the internet has existed in theory since 1992 at least, when it was first mooted on the Cypherpunks mailing list.
Neal Stephenson wrote about cryptocurrency in detail in his 1999 novel Cryptonomicon. The issue remaining was how to solve what is sometimes called the “Byzantine Generals’ Problem“, or how to send a message over a link that cannot be trusted. Bitcoin’s public ledger, or block chain, solved this. Users cannot spend the same coin twice and all transactions exist in public view to be scrutinized and analyzed by anyone with the time and nerve to do so.
‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ released what has become known as the Bitcoin White Paper (PDF link) in November 2008, engaging in a conversation with veteran cryptographer Hal Finney who received the first bitcoin transaction from Nakamoto and then went on to promote its use.
Link: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
Article: http://www.coindesk.com/satoshi-nakamoto-denies-bitcoin-involvement/
Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on March 7, 2014 at 08:02 GMT | Bitcoin protocol, News
The man Newsweek named as bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto has denied any involvement with cryptocurrency.
Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a Japanese-American resident of Los Angeles, found himself thrust into the the limelight just a day ago when Newsweek reporter Leah McGrath Goodman claimed the anonymous, or pseudonymous, man who released bitcoin on the world had been found at last.
Newsweek ran the story on the front cover of its newly-relaunched print edition, but after being pursued through the streets of LA by reporters for a day, Nakamoto said: “I got nothing to do with it”. Yesterday, Newsweek quoted Dorian Nakamoto as saying: “I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it … it’s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.”
This matches closely what the ‘real’ Satoshi Nakamoto posted on the Bitcoin Talk forum in April 2011, when he claimed not to be involved in the bitcoin project any more and had “moved on to other things”. However, when Dorian went to lunch yesterday with a reporter from the Associated Press, he claimed his comments had been taken out of context:
“I’m saying I’m no longer in engineering. That’s it. And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that’s what I implied.”
“It sounded like I was involved before with bitcoin and looked like I’m not involved now. That’s not what I meant. I want to clarify that,” he added.
Has the ‘real’ Satoshi spoken?
Earlier this morning (GMT), the simple denial “I am not Dorian Nakamoto” was posted as a reply on a P2P Foundation discussion thread by user ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’. This user’s email address supposedly matches that of the original Satoshi Nakamoto.
Dorian’s free lunch
Dorian was plagued by reporters yesterday, and when he emerged from his house he selected one reporter to take him for a free lunch and an exclusive interview.
The two drove to a nearby sushi restaurant before driving to the Associated Press offices in downtown Los Angeles, all the time pursued by the media.
Does it even matter?
Whether or not Newsweek’s man is indeed bitcoin’s creator is unknown and will probably remain so, since he refuses to confess.
Many bitcoin users say the true identity of its creator is not even relevant. The concept of transmitting value via the internet has existed in theory since 1992 at least, when it was first mooted on the Cypherpunks mailing list.
Neal Stephenson wrote about cryptocurrency in detail in his 1999 novel Cryptonomicon. The issue remaining was how to solve what is sometimes called the “Byzantine Generals’ Problem“, or how to send a message over a link that cannot be trusted. Bitcoin’s public ledger, or block chain, solved this. Users cannot spend the same coin twice and all transactions exist in public view to be scrutinized and analyzed by anyone with the time and nerve to do so.
‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ released what has become known as the Bitcoin White Paper (PDF link) in November 2008, engaging in a conversation with veteran cryptographer Hal Finney who received the first bitcoin transaction from Nakamoto and then went on to promote its use.
Link: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
Article: http://www.coindesk.com/satoshi-nakamoto-denies-bitcoin-involvement/
Ireland’s first Pint of ‘bitcoin’ Guinness
PJ Delaney 06/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Guinness-Bitcoin-225x300.jpg
Ireland’s first pint of Guinness has been paid for with bitcoin! The Baggot Inn, a bar in Baggot Street in central Dublin sold its first pint of Guinness for bitcoin on March 4th, just 13 days before St. Patrick’s Day. The rumours are that this trendy bar intends to put in a Bitcoin ATM in the next few days and if it does it will prove to be Ireland’s second. Hippety’s Cafe in the Temple Bar area of Dublin has announced that it will fit a Lamassu machine, provided by BitVendo, in the next two days.
Ireland’s attitude to Banks
Ireland has gone through a massive economic upheaval in the last few years and there is a palpable distrust of banks that are perceived to have caused this crisis. There is a story told of a small boy in school that was asked in class by his teacher what his parents did for a living, He said, ” My father is a drug dealer, he sells loads of drugs; my mother is a dancer in a bar and some times Daddy makes her work on the streets as a prostitute!” The teacher was horrified and went to the boy after class and asked him if what he’d said was true. The boy admitted it wasn’t. ” They are both investment bankers but I was too ashamed to admit it.”
Ireland was forced to borrow funds following the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank and the need to bail out other financial services providers. The terms imposed placed a great financial burden on many citizens and there is a high level of bad feeling towards banks on the foot of this. Many see banks in Ireland more as part of the the problem than as part of the solution. People here hate banks and are thus more positive to cryptocurrencies than most other economies. BitVendo was set up in 2013 to give the Irish faster and cheaper access to bitcoins. They report that although they are having some success getting their business into the media it is always in articles with a comment included about ‘Silk Road’ or Mt Gox. Newspapers are working hard here to associate Bitcoin with fraud although the public seem a lot more positive. There is a sense that anything the banks are against can’t be all that bad. Giles Byrne, head of marketing at BitVendo states:
“Initially people think the banks are behind Bitcoin and are instantly turned off. There is a huge hatred of the banking system here, and some people want to support us just to spite the banks.”
Bitcoin groups have been growing in popularity in Ireland with Eircoin.net and The Irish Bitcoin Foundation, which called for the Irish Central Bank to regulate Bitcoin in January. Irish businesses currently accepting bitcoins include a pub, a bed and breakfast and a CCTV provider. BitVendo has stated that it is their intention to put at least three more ATMs in ireland during the year. Looks like we can look forward to enjoying some good nights out from our bitcoins over here!
PJ Delaney 06/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Guinness-Bitcoin-225x300.jpg
Ireland’s first pint of Guinness has been paid for with bitcoin! The Baggot Inn, a bar in Baggot Street in central Dublin sold its first pint of Guinness for bitcoin on March 4th, just 13 days before St. Patrick’s Day. The rumours are that this trendy bar intends to put in a Bitcoin ATM in the next few days and if it does it will prove to be Ireland’s second. Hippety’s Cafe in the Temple Bar area of Dublin has announced that it will fit a Lamassu machine, provided by BitVendo, in the next two days.
Ireland’s attitude to Banks
Ireland has gone through a massive economic upheaval in the last few years and there is a palpable distrust of banks that are perceived to have caused this crisis. There is a story told of a small boy in school that was asked in class by his teacher what his parents did for a living, He said, ” My father is a drug dealer, he sells loads of drugs; my mother is a dancer in a bar and some times Daddy makes her work on the streets as a prostitute!” The teacher was horrified and went to the boy after class and asked him if what he’d said was true. The boy admitted it wasn’t. ” They are both investment bankers but I was too ashamed to admit it.”
Ireland was forced to borrow funds following the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank and the need to bail out other financial services providers. The terms imposed placed a great financial burden on many citizens and there is a high level of bad feeling towards banks on the foot of this. Many see banks in Ireland more as part of the the problem than as part of the solution. People here hate banks and are thus more positive to cryptocurrencies than most other economies. BitVendo was set up in 2013 to give the Irish faster and cheaper access to bitcoins. They report that although they are having some success getting their business into the media it is always in articles with a comment included about ‘Silk Road’ or Mt Gox. Newspapers are working hard here to associate Bitcoin with fraud although the public seem a lot more positive. There is a sense that anything the banks are against can’t be all that bad. Giles Byrne, head of marketing at BitVendo states:
“Initially people think the banks are behind Bitcoin and are instantly turned off. There is a huge hatred of the banking system here, and some people want to support us just to spite the banks.”
Bitcoin groups have been growing in popularity in Ireland with Eircoin.net and The Irish Bitcoin Foundation, which called for the Irish Central Bank to regulate Bitcoin in January. Irish businesses currently accepting bitcoins include a pub, a bed and breakfast and a CCTV provider. BitVendo has stated that it is their intention to put at least three more ATMs in ireland during the year. Looks like we can look forward to enjoying some good nights out from our bitcoins over here!
Newsweek Meets Satoshi Nakamoto – Community Reacts
William Blackwell 06/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Satoshi_Nakamoto_Bitcoin_Creator-300x225.jpg
Newsweek claims to have found and interviewed the Real Satoshi Nakamoto:
http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto.html
“Quiet, unassuming”
Newsweek reporter Leah McGrath Goodman claims to have tracked down Satoshi Nakamoto, 64 and the face behind Bitcoin to his unassuming family home in Los Angeles’s San Bernardino foothills. She writes:
He is someone with a penchant for collecting model trains and a career shrouded in secrecy, having done classified work for major corporations and the U.S. military.
However, there are others who don’t share her view of a reserved Japanese tech genius. Says his youngest brother, Arthur Nakamoto:
“My brother is an asshole. What you don’t know about him is that he’s worked on classified stuff. His life was a complete blank for a while. You’re not going to be able to get to him. He’ll deny everything. He’ll never admit to starting Bitcoin.”
When the reporter approaches the alleged Mr. Nakamoto at his home, he dismisses her with this admission:
“I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it,” he says, dismissing all further queries with a swat of his left hand. “It’s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.”
Mainstream Charades and Sensation
This mainstream article features various voices from the Bitcoin community and serves as a general introduction and overview of the Bitcoin world for the general public. The article is also published at Business Insider – so we have some consensus of credibility building.
Cryptocoinsnews is not yet convinced that this article has identified the person who created Bitcoin, nor that the subject of the article is whom he says he is. Perhaps he IS called Satoshi Nakamoto, but he will have to illustrate some protocol knowledge to satisfy questions about his claim to have created Bitcoin. Various other contenders for the identity have been fingered in the past, including this man and this man.
Plausible but not Certain.
Critical resource: Satoshi Nakamoto’s original un-dated Bitcoin Whitepaper
Model Train letters from a Mr. Dorian Nakamoto.
Amazon shaving paraphernalia reviews by Mr. Dorian S. Nakamoto.
William Blackwell 06/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Satoshi_Nakamoto_Bitcoin_Creator-300x225.jpg
Newsweek claims to have found and interviewed the Real Satoshi Nakamoto:
http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto.html
“Quiet, unassuming”
Newsweek reporter Leah McGrath Goodman claims to have tracked down Satoshi Nakamoto, 64 and the face behind Bitcoin to his unassuming family home in Los Angeles’s San Bernardino foothills. She writes:
He is someone with a penchant for collecting model trains and a career shrouded in secrecy, having done classified work for major corporations and the U.S. military.
However, there are others who don’t share her view of a reserved Japanese tech genius. Says his youngest brother, Arthur Nakamoto:
“My brother is an asshole. What you don’t know about him is that he’s worked on classified stuff. His life was a complete blank for a while. You’re not going to be able to get to him. He’ll deny everything. He’ll never admit to starting Bitcoin.”
When the reporter approaches the alleged Mr. Nakamoto at his home, he dismisses her with this admission:
“I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it,” he says, dismissing all further queries with a swat of his left hand. “It’s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.”
Mainstream Charades and Sensation
This mainstream article features various voices from the Bitcoin community and serves as a general introduction and overview of the Bitcoin world for the general public. The article is also published at Business Insider – so we have some consensus of credibility building.
Cryptocoinsnews is not yet convinced that this article has identified the person who created Bitcoin, nor that the subject of the article is whom he says he is. Perhaps he IS called Satoshi Nakamoto, but he will have to illustrate some protocol knowledge to satisfy questions about his claim to have created Bitcoin. Various other contenders for the identity have been fingered in the past, including this man and this man.
Plausible but not Certain.
Critical resource: Satoshi Nakamoto’s original un-dated Bitcoin Whitepaper
Model Train letters from a Mr. Dorian Nakamoto.
Amazon shaving paraphernalia reviews by Mr. Dorian S. Nakamoto.
Gabe Newell: Bitcoin on Steam is Unlikely and Here’s Why
Neil Sardesai 06/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/steam-bitcoin-300x171.png
On Tuesday, the 5th of March, Gabe Newell, Valve ‘s co-founder and managing director of video game development, participated with other video game developers in a reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything). The post, titled “WeAreA videogame developer AUA!“, currently has 3,469 points with 34,503 upvotes (the downvotes are probably gamers upset over the absence of any news on Half-Life 3). The answered questions dealt with various things like new Valve hardware, Gabe’s favourite non-Valve game (Mario 64), etc.
Q: GabeN, what are your specs?
A: Well, I’m a handsome man with a charming personality.
-link to comment’s thread
Gabe Newell
However, one redditor, platonicplates, asked about the possibility Valve accepting Bitcoin on Steam.
Q: If there was enough community interest, would Valve accept crypto-currency such as dogecoin or bitcoin on Steam?
A: There are two related issues: one is treating a crypto-currency as another currency type that we support and the broader issue is monetary behaviors of game economies. The first issue is more about crypto-currencies stabilizing as mediums of account.
-link to comment’s thread
It looks like Newell, (GabeNewellBellevue on reddit), isn’t too eager to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment on Steam. The gaming platform and online store currently only accepts traditional forms of digital payment such as credit card and PayPal. Due to Gabe’s issues such as cryptocurrencies’ volatility, Steam is unlikely to add online currencies such as Bitcoin and Litecoin as methods of payment.
Steam Payment
Steam currently only accepts traditional forms of digital payment such as credit card and PayPal.
Gabe Newell Knows What He’s Talking About
While it may seem easy to dismiss Valve as another company lagging behind Bitcoin adoption and not understanding how cryptocurrencies work, this may not be the case. First of all, Valve is a hugely successful corporation, worth about $3 billion. Furthermore, Newell and company know how to work in the gaming economy. Unlike other gaming corporations like EA, Valve often has huge sales, free DLC (downloadable in-game content), and more. And while it may seem like this would result in a decrease in profit, the exact opposite seems to be true.
“The sale is a highly promoted event… We do a 75 percent price reduction…what we saw was our gross revenue increased by a factor of 40. Not 40 percent, but a factor of 40. Which is completely not predicted by our previous experience with silent price variation.”
-Gabe Newell
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot-2014-03-05-at-5.44.45-PM.png
Valve actually makes more money by selling their games for less. Furthermore, a few years ago the company made Team Fortress 2 permanently free, a highly popular game that used to cost $20. Instead of seeing a decrease in annual profit, Valve once again saw an increase with new players spending hundreds of dollars on in-game items such as weapons and hats.
TF2 Hats
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/250px-Towering_Pillar_of_Hats.png
Valve earns millions of dollars in revenue from players purchasing…hats.
Additionally, Valve doesn’t pester users with anti-piracy technologies like DRM, and instead focuses on offering a great service.
“The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.”
-Gabe Newell
All things considered, it’s clear that Valve knows how to make a ton of money in novel, unique ways. As such, if Gabe Newell doesn’t think that supporting cryptocurrencies on Steam is such a good idea, perhaps it really isn’t.
“In the Meantime…”
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/G-man_heart_to_heart_headshot-300x297.jpg
G-man
“In the meantime…”
In the meantime, for gamers looking to use Bitcoin with Steam, there are still a couple of options. Websites such as SteamBits offer Steam games for sale in Bitcoin. Another site, Steam Loader, allows users to purchase Steam gift card codes in BTC. Furthermore, the Humble Indie Bundle often offers pay-what-you want indie game bundles, and Bitcoin payments are accepted. Humble Bundle also recently launched the Humble Store, which offers several indie games for sale (with Steam keys and Bitcoin payments, of course).
Bitcoin is still an incredibly volatile currency that most of the world doesn’t entirely understand. But while it seems unlikely that Steam will support Bitcoin payments in the near future, gamers still have several options.
Neil Sardesai 06/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/steam-bitcoin-300x171.png
On Tuesday, the 5th of March, Gabe Newell, Valve ‘s co-founder and managing director of video game development, participated with other video game developers in a reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything). The post, titled “WeAreA videogame developer AUA!“, currently has 3,469 points with 34,503 upvotes (the downvotes are probably gamers upset over the absence of any news on Half-Life 3). The answered questions dealt with various things like new Valve hardware, Gabe’s favourite non-Valve game (Mario 64), etc.
Q: GabeN, what are your specs?
A: Well, I’m a handsome man with a charming personality.
-link to comment’s thread
Gabe Newell
However, one redditor, platonicplates, asked about the possibility Valve accepting Bitcoin on Steam.
Q: If there was enough community interest, would Valve accept crypto-currency such as dogecoin or bitcoin on Steam?
A: There are two related issues: one is treating a crypto-currency as another currency type that we support and the broader issue is monetary behaviors of game economies. The first issue is more about crypto-currencies stabilizing as mediums of account.
-link to comment’s thread
It looks like Newell, (GabeNewellBellevue on reddit), isn’t too eager to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment on Steam. The gaming platform and online store currently only accepts traditional forms of digital payment such as credit card and PayPal. Due to Gabe’s issues such as cryptocurrencies’ volatility, Steam is unlikely to add online currencies such as Bitcoin and Litecoin as methods of payment.
Steam Payment
Steam currently only accepts traditional forms of digital payment such as credit card and PayPal.
Gabe Newell Knows What He’s Talking About
While it may seem easy to dismiss Valve as another company lagging behind Bitcoin adoption and not understanding how cryptocurrencies work, this may not be the case. First of all, Valve is a hugely successful corporation, worth about $3 billion. Furthermore, Newell and company know how to work in the gaming economy. Unlike other gaming corporations like EA, Valve often has huge sales, free DLC (downloadable in-game content), and more. And while it may seem like this would result in a decrease in profit, the exact opposite seems to be true.
“The sale is a highly promoted event… We do a 75 percent price reduction…what we saw was our gross revenue increased by a factor of 40. Not 40 percent, but a factor of 40. Which is completely not predicted by our previous experience with silent price variation.”
-Gabe Newell
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot-2014-03-05-at-5.44.45-PM.png
Valve actually makes more money by selling their games for less. Furthermore, a few years ago the company made Team Fortress 2 permanently free, a highly popular game that used to cost $20. Instead of seeing a decrease in annual profit, Valve once again saw an increase with new players spending hundreds of dollars on in-game items such as weapons and hats.
TF2 Hats
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/250px-Towering_Pillar_of_Hats.png
Valve earns millions of dollars in revenue from players purchasing…hats.
Additionally, Valve doesn’t pester users with anti-piracy technologies like DRM, and instead focuses on offering a great service.
“The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.”
-Gabe Newell
All things considered, it’s clear that Valve knows how to make a ton of money in novel, unique ways. As such, if Gabe Newell doesn’t think that supporting cryptocurrencies on Steam is such a good idea, perhaps it really isn’t.
“In the Meantime…”
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/G-man_heart_to_heart_headshot-300x297.jpg
G-man
“In the meantime…”
In the meantime, for gamers looking to use Bitcoin with Steam, there are still a couple of options. Websites such as SteamBits offer Steam games for sale in Bitcoin. Another site, Steam Loader, allows users to purchase Steam gift card codes in BTC. Furthermore, the Humble Indie Bundle often offers pay-what-you want indie game bundles, and Bitcoin payments are accepted. Humble Bundle also recently launched the Humble Store, which offers several indie games for sale (with Steam keys and Bitcoin payments, of course).
Bitcoin is still an incredibly volatile currency that most of the world doesn’t entirely understand. But while it seems unlikely that Steam will support Bitcoin payments in the near future, gamers still have several options.
Bitcoin Price: Ready to Rally?
Gordon Hall 06/03/2014
The Channel Low
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/weekly-1024x565.png
In my previous CryptoCoaster video, I forecast that an extreme negative case would see Bitcoin price reach the long-term channel low. The following weekly logarithmic chart shows that this scenario has played out with some precision, the channel low and previous double bottom were a likely point for reversal:
Weekly logarithmic chart showing Fibonacci channel and support. The Gox Bitcoin price is now history.
Weekly logarithmic chart showing Fibonacci channel and support. The Gox Bitcoin price is now history.
While I considered such a move unlikely, this was before the fatal nature of Mt. Gox’s situation came to light. I’d long considered Gox to be sketchy and tried to highlight this by broadcasting their disturbing divergence from the average Bitcoin price. In retrospect, I should have done more to warn people, in clearer terms.
At the time, it seemed that those with money in Gox were only too happy with their $200 premium bitcoins. Many got defensive when the situation was called into question, as Gox was still a respected institution despite its difficulties. What a difference a month makes.
In the interim, I haven’t been trading. I consider all Bitcoin exchanges to be slightly sketchy at this point. I’d rather skip the inherent risks of centralised exchanges, preferring to hold my coin or invest a portion in good projects. Hopefully I won’t have too long a wait before decentralised exchanges and / or higher standards make daytrading a worthwhile proposition again.
Awaiting a Breakout
Technical analysis remains a good tool to determine longer term entries and exits. From the following chart, I believe that anyone who got in at or below ~$560 is on the right side of risk:.
Bitstamp Daily, showing a flag pattern with decent volume on the flagpole, plus a rising MACD. The longterm downtrend-line looms overhead.
Bitstamp Daily, showing a bullish flag pattern with good volume, plus a rising MACD. A longterm down-line looms overhead as the 50% Fib is tested.
As the Gox wreckage is cleared from the runway, the market now has a clear path to takeoff. A breakout from that bull flag through the 50% Fib, then a push through the downtrend sketched from the all time highs – that’d be bullish indeed. Above the last major high around $1000 and we’ll really be off to the races.
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/daily-1024x565.png
Still, I think any such uptrend will take time to develop. Bitcoin ardour has cooled in the hearts of many, who’ll need some convincing before we get a fresh uptrend. This might take good, tangible news, it might take sustained higher prices or just time. Probably a combination of all three.
That said, exchanges are now under the magnifying glass and any cracks are likely to be noticed. Huobi’s volume, for instance, remains ridiculous compared to other exchanges. If they are indeed fudging it, that’s rather unethical but probably doesn’t signal deeper problems. Similarly, the Bitcoin Foundation (often confused by the media as the company behind Bitcoin) needs to shape up to withstand increased criticism and scrutiny.
As always, stay frosty and ready for anything. [Update: including the possible revelation of Satoshi's identity... Didn't see that one coming!]
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/bitcoin-roller-coaster.gif
Gordon Hall 06/03/2014
The Channel Low
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/weekly-1024x565.png
In my previous CryptoCoaster video, I forecast that an extreme negative case would see Bitcoin price reach the long-term channel low. The following weekly logarithmic chart shows that this scenario has played out with some precision, the channel low and previous double bottom were a likely point for reversal:
Weekly logarithmic chart showing Fibonacci channel and support. The Gox Bitcoin price is now history.
Weekly logarithmic chart showing Fibonacci channel and support. The Gox Bitcoin price is now history.
While I considered such a move unlikely, this was before the fatal nature of Mt. Gox’s situation came to light. I’d long considered Gox to be sketchy and tried to highlight this by broadcasting their disturbing divergence from the average Bitcoin price. In retrospect, I should have done more to warn people, in clearer terms.
At the time, it seemed that those with money in Gox were only too happy with their $200 premium bitcoins. Many got defensive when the situation was called into question, as Gox was still a respected institution despite its difficulties. What a difference a month makes.
In the interim, I haven’t been trading. I consider all Bitcoin exchanges to be slightly sketchy at this point. I’d rather skip the inherent risks of centralised exchanges, preferring to hold my coin or invest a portion in good projects. Hopefully I won’t have too long a wait before decentralised exchanges and / or higher standards make daytrading a worthwhile proposition again.
Awaiting a Breakout
Technical analysis remains a good tool to determine longer term entries and exits. From the following chart, I believe that anyone who got in at or below ~$560 is on the right side of risk:.
Bitstamp Daily, showing a flag pattern with decent volume on the flagpole, plus a rising MACD. The longterm downtrend-line looms overhead.
Bitstamp Daily, showing a bullish flag pattern with good volume, plus a rising MACD. A longterm down-line looms overhead as the 50% Fib is tested.
As the Gox wreckage is cleared from the runway, the market now has a clear path to takeoff. A breakout from that bull flag through the 50% Fib, then a push through the downtrend sketched from the all time highs – that’d be bullish indeed. Above the last major high around $1000 and we’ll really be off to the races.
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/daily-1024x565.png
Still, I think any such uptrend will take time to develop. Bitcoin ardour has cooled in the hearts of many, who’ll need some convincing before we get a fresh uptrend. This might take good, tangible news, it might take sustained higher prices or just time. Probably a combination of all three.
That said, exchanges are now under the magnifying glass and any cracks are likely to be noticed. Huobi’s volume, for instance, remains ridiculous compared to other exchanges. If they are indeed fudging it, that’s rather unethical but probably doesn’t signal deeper problems. Similarly, the Bitcoin Foundation (often confused by the media as the company behind Bitcoin) needs to shape up to withstand increased criticism and scrutiny.
As always, stay frosty and ready for anything. [Update: including the possible revelation of Satoshi's identity... Didn't see that one coming!]
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/bitcoin-roller-coaster.gif
Japan may introduce Bitcoin regulations this week
George Krasadakis 06/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/japan-bitcoin-regulation-300x200.png
After the tragedy of Mt. Gox, once the highest volume Bitcoin exchange, Japanese authorities are most likely already working on a plan of action to regulate the virtual currency. New guidelines will be issued by the cabinet, possibly later this week. A decision will be made for how the currency should be treated under the already existing laws.
Additionally banks and security firms will not be able to handle Bitcoin as part of their main businesses since cryptocurrencies will be treated similarly to a commodity, like gold.
Problems with taxing
Japanese authorities are trying to figure out ways to tax Bitcoin transactions, however, the way this could be done hasn’t been figured out yet since one of the core advantages of using Bitcoin is the small fees and the part-anonymity.
“We haven’t yet thoroughly grasped the situation, but some regulation is needed from the perspective of consumer protection, and we will also discuss (bitcoin) from the perspective of imposing asset tax,” was what Takuya Hirai, a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party stated.
Services using the virtual currency have experienced a wave of cyber attacks lately. From hacking online platforms to theft of coins. Numerous people were affected by recent attacks.
The virtual currency has engendered a wave of a creative criminality – from hacking online platforms to steal Bitcoins to their potential in money laundering, bribery and buying illicit products. Even earlier this week Flexcoin, a Canada-based Bitcoin bank-like service announced that they were shutting down their services after a massive theft. Their total losses neared $600,000 worth of coins.
The panel had a hearing on Wednesday with consultants and officials from the Japanese authorities about the Mt. Gox collapse as Hirai said to reporters. The FSA and the Finance Ministry have stated that Bitcoin is not a currency and doesn’t fall under their jurisdiction according to them, while the Bank of Japan has said it was studying the Bitcoin phenomenon with interest. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the relevant Japanese ministries will be in close contact with each other on matters relating to bitcoin.
In the other hand, there are People like Hiroshi Mikitani (Japanese e-commerce billionaire and CEO of Rakuten Inc), who believe that Japanese authorities should be extra cautious with their actions when trying to regulate virtual currencies. “As for whether we need regulations, they should first examine the situation a bit more and discuss it in depth.” As he said to Kyodo News.
Does regulation have to be an International effort?
Japan sure doesn’t want to go alone when trying to tax cryptocurrencies. Any regulation should involve international cooperation to prevent tax loopholes, Vice Finance Minister Jiro Aichi said last week.
This would surely be something hard to achieve. There is almost no way Governments and financial authorities worldwide would agree on applying the same regulation rules. Even the US Senate had a hearing regarding Bitcoin in the past, their stance against Bitcoin was overall friendly; treating Bitcoin as innovation and agreeing on the fact that any regulation might drive this technology away from their country by making the market unattractive for it’s related services. An opinion opposed to the one the Japanese authorities have.
Japan is surely going to have a hard time finding “international cooperation” on regulations. And to be honest regulations might not be harmful for Bitcoin but nobody knows what’s going to follow if people with minimal on virtual currencies experience like those in the Japanese financial authorities try to regulate Bitcoin after a week long debates.
George Krasadakis 06/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/japan-bitcoin-regulation-300x200.png
After the tragedy of Mt. Gox, once the highest volume Bitcoin exchange, Japanese authorities are most likely already working on a plan of action to regulate the virtual currency. New guidelines will be issued by the cabinet, possibly later this week. A decision will be made for how the currency should be treated under the already existing laws.
Additionally banks and security firms will not be able to handle Bitcoin as part of their main businesses since cryptocurrencies will be treated similarly to a commodity, like gold.
Problems with taxing
Japanese authorities are trying to figure out ways to tax Bitcoin transactions, however, the way this could be done hasn’t been figured out yet since one of the core advantages of using Bitcoin is the small fees and the part-anonymity.
“We haven’t yet thoroughly grasped the situation, but some regulation is needed from the perspective of consumer protection, and we will also discuss (bitcoin) from the perspective of imposing asset tax,” was what Takuya Hirai, a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party stated.
Services using the virtual currency have experienced a wave of cyber attacks lately. From hacking online platforms to theft of coins. Numerous people were affected by recent attacks.
The virtual currency has engendered a wave of a creative criminality – from hacking online platforms to steal Bitcoins to their potential in money laundering, bribery and buying illicit products. Even earlier this week Flexcoin, a Canada-based Bitcoin bank-like service announced that they were shutting down their services after a massive theft. Their total losses neared $600,000 worth of coins.
The panel had a hearing on Wednesday with consultants and officials from the Japanese authorities about the Mt. Gox collapse as Hirai said to reporters. The FSA and the Finance Ministry have stated that Bitcoin is not a currency and doesn’t fall under their jurisdiction according to them, while the Bank of Japan has said it was studying the Bitcoin phenomenon with interest. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the relevant Japanese ministries will be in close contact with each other on matters relating to bitcoin.
In the other hand, there are People like Hiroshi Mikitani (Japanese e-commerce billionaire and CEO of Rakuten Inc), who believe that Japanese authorities should be extra cautious with their actions when trying to regulate virtual currencies. “As for whether we need regulations, they should first examine the situation a bit more and discuss it in depth.” As he said to Kyodo News.
Does regulation have to be an International effort?
Japan sure doesn’t want to go alone when trying to tax cryptocurrencies. Any regulation should involve international cooperation to prevent tax loopholes, Vice Finance Minister Jiro Aichi said last week.
This would surely be something hard to achieve. There is almost no way Governments and financial authorities worldwide would agree on applying the same regulation rules. Even the US Senate had a hearing regarding Bitcoin in the past, their stance against Bitcoin was overall friendly; treating Bitcoin as innovation and agreeing on the fact that any regulation might drive this technology away from their country by making the market unattractive for it’s related services. An opinion opposed to the one the Japanese authorities have.
Japan is surely going to have a hard time finding “international cooperation” on regulations. And to be honest regulations might not be harmful for Bitcoin but nobody knows what’s going to follow if people with minimal on virtual currencies experience like those in the Japanese financial authorities try to regulate Bitcoin after a week long debates.
BREAKING – Critical Crypto Security Bug: Linux, Bitcoin Client Apps At Risk
William Blackwell 06/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/gnuTLS_bug_2-300x190.png
A security vulnerability has been discovered in the standard Linux gnuTLS package.Both the Bitcoin daemon and wallet client are unaffected, but some third party client applications are dependent on this package for cryptographic library interaction. As a result all altcoin client applications using gnutls are also affected.
GnuTLS is a package that references the openssl library and is used by most Linux and Open Source applications for socket encryption. Linux distributions ranging from Debian to Ubuntu and Red Hat are at risk of eavesdropping in a similar manner to the recent Mac OSX bug that allowed the keylogging Pony botnet to enact the theft of over 700,000 online credentials, including online wallet passwords – resulting in the theft of $220,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
The description of the security bug is outlined as follows at Ubuntu Security Notices:
Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos discovered that GnuTLS incorrectly handled certificate verification functions. If a remote attacker were able to perform a man-in-the-middle attack, this flaw could be exploited with specially crafted certificates to view sensitive information. CVE-2014-0092
At this moment we are still gathering information on this severe security vulnerability – no doubt, one of the biggest to ever affect Linux.
Readers are advised to upgrade their Linux distribution packages to the latest versions and where packages are not yet upgraded to refrain from performing online transactions or logins to sensitive sites (banking, online wallet services, etc)
Developers and miners running Linux installations should manually upgrade to gnutls 3.2.12
Specifically, look for packages like libcurl4-gnutls-dev that most certainly need upgrade.
gnuTLS security bug - Linux Bitcoin openssl SA
The discoverer of the vulnerability sent out a Security Advisory two days ago warning of the exploit and his bug fix. Following a security alert it usually takes various package maintainers for different Linux distributions a hours to a few days to incorporate the fixes in their own packages repositories.
gnuTLS files typically installed in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:
gnuTLS security bug - Linux Bitcoin openssl
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Gold_venzen@sofala1_06Mar14_0035.png
Operating Systems not affected
Google Android
Microsoft Windows
The above OSes do not install or utilize gnuTLS by default, however, where individual user installed applications utilize the gnuTLS library – the vulnerability will most definitely present a security risk.
Have you been affected by this security vulnerability? Please tell us about it in the comments section below.
William Blackwell 06/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/gnuTLS_bug_2-300x190.png
A security vulnerability has been discovered in the standard Linux gnuTLS package.Both the Bitcoin daemon and wallet client are unaffected, but some third party client applications are dependent on this package for cryptographic library interaction. As a result all altcoin client applications using gnutls are also affected.
GnuTLS is a package that references the openssl library and is used by most Linux and Open Source applications for socket encryption. Linux distributions ranging from Debian to Ubuntu and Red Hat are at risk of eavesdropping in a similar manner to the recent Mac OSX bug that allowed the keylogging Pony botnet to enact the theft of over 700,000 online credentials, including online wallet passwords – resulting in the theft of $220,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
The description of the security bug is outlined as follows at Ubuntu Security Notices:
Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos discovered that GnuTLS incorrectly handled certificate verification functions. If a remote attacker were able to perform a man-in-the-middle attack, this flaw could be exploited with specially crafted certificates to view sensitive information. CVE-2014-0092
At this moment we are still gathering information on this severe security vulnerability – no doubt, one of the biggest to ever affect Linux.
Readers are advised to upgrade their Linux distribution packages to the latest versions and where packages are not yet upgraded to refrain from performing online transactions or logins to sensitive sites (banking, online wallet services, etc)
Developers and miners running Linux installations should manually upgrade to gnutls 3.2.12
Specifically, look for packages like libcurl4-gnutls-dev that most certainly need upgrade.
gnuTLS security bug - Linux Bitcoin openssl SA
The discoverer of the vulnerability sent out a Security Advisory two days ago warning of the exploit and his bug fix. Following a security alert it usually takes various package maintainers for different Linux distributions a hours to a few days to incorporate the fixes in their own packages repositories.
gnuTLS files typically installed in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:
gnuTLS security bug - Linux Bitcoin openssl
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Gold_venzen@sofala1_06Mar14_0035.png
Operating Systems not affected
Google Android
Microsoft Windows
The above OSes do not install or utilize gnuTLS by default, however, where individual user installed applications utilize the gnuTLS library – the vulnerability will most definitely present a security risk.
Have you been affected by this security vulnerability? Please tell us about it in the comments section below.
crypt Mining Rejoices Nvidia GTX 750 Ti
William Blackwell 06/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/nvidia_mining-300x187.png
The Nvidia GTX 750 Ti has come up trumps in a comparison of mining GPUs.
Just when we all thought that AMD is king of the hill, along comes a Nvidia contender powered by their heavily plugged Maxwell chip – and knocks the R7 for 1st place. A recent comparison test done by Tom’s Hardware reveals the facts:
More Speed For Less Power
The GeForce GTX 750 Ti achieves 245 kh/s which is almost 40 kh/s faster than its nearest AMD rival, the R7 260 X which outputs 206 kh/s. The GTX 750 Ti achieves the hash rate by consuming only 60W of power compared to the R7 260 X’s 130W. Although the Nvidia card is $20 more expensive by RRP, the bang-for-buck factor is significant and makes the GTX 750 Ti the surprise winner.
The bigger surprise is that the closest competitor above: the AMD R7 265 also falls short of the GTX 750 Ti in measures of value for money and power efficiency. Although the R7 265 output is 252 kh/s, a 7 kh/s advantage, it does so by burning through 150W of power – more than double the consumption of the GTX 750 Ti! So from a TCO perspective you would be paying $11 more for the R7 265′s extra 7 kh/s only to pay double the cost in electricity throughout its useful life! Hmm. Which one to choose, eh?
Overclock Me, Please
A recent article in Forbes featured the GTX 750 Ti in an overclocking experiment (shown in the image below). It achieved 280 kh/s without distress to CUDAminer, and did so without rising above 60 degrees Celsius.
nvidia gtx 750 ti hash rate overclocked for scrypt mining
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/750-Ti-hashrates-overclocked.png
So, from the perspective of mining output per Watt, the GTX 750 Ti is best of breed. This calls into question the current preoccupation with AMD Radeon and the favor it enjoys. Is it justified? Apparently not, and Nvidia is nowhere near out of the mining GPU race yet.
As the Mining Performance per Watt chart below illustrates, the AMD flagship R9 290 is fairly power hungry. This is, of course, justified by its incredible output of 500 kh/s. If your rig allows it and your business plan demands it, you may find the unparalleled R9 290 to be the card for you. For the average miner, who is looking for a fast and cost effective card, the Nvidia GTX 750 Ti is a recommended buy.
Nvidia GTX 750 Ti scrypt mining output per watt
Comparison chart courtesy of PCperspectives
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/PCperspectives_GTX750Ti_perfpower.png
HBM Is Coming
With AMD making a big deal of its forthcoming High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) Pirate Islands series, Nvidia is sure to follow. We can expect more miners to pile into the buying side for this new generation of GPUs, which look to challenge the notion that ASICs are the path to mining nirvana.
William Blackwell 06/03/2014
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/nvidia_mining-300x187.png
The Nvidia GTX 750 Ti has come up trumps in a comparison of mining GPUs.
Just when we all thought that AMD is king of the hill, along comes a Nvidia contender powered by their heavily plugged Maxwell chip – and knocks the R7 for 1st place. A recent comparison test done by Tom’s Hardware reveals the facts:
More Speed For Less Power
The GeForce GTX 750 Ti achieves 245 kh/s which is almost 40 kh/s faster than its nearest AMD rival, the R7 260 X which outputs 206 kh/s. The GTX 750 Ti achieves the hash rate by consuming only 60W of power compared to the R7 260 X’s 130W. Although the Nvidia card is $20 more expensive by RRP, the bang-for-buck factor is significant and makes the GTX 750 Ti the surprise winner.
The bigger surprise is that the closest competitor above: the AMD R7 265 also falls short of the GTX 750 Ti in measures of value for money and power efficiency. Although the R7 265 output is 252 kh/s, a 7 kh/s advantage, it does so by burning through 150W of power – more than double the consumption of the GTX 750 Ti! So from a TCO perspective you would be paying $11 more for the R7 265′s extra 7 kh/s only to pay double the cost in electricity throughout its useful life! Hmm. Which one to choose, eh?
Overclock Me, Please
A recent article in Forbes featured the GTX 750 Ti in an overclocking experiment (shown in the image below). It achieved 280 kh/s without distress to CUDAminer, and did so without rising above 60 degrees Celsius.
nvidia gtx 750 ti hash rate overclocked for scrypt mining
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/750-Ti-hashrates-overclocked.png
So, from the perspective of mining output per Watt, the GTX 750 Ti is best of breed. This calls into question the current preoccupation with AMD Radeon and the favor it enjoys. Is it justified? Apparently not, and Nvidia is nowhere near out of the mining GPU race yet.
As the Mining Performance per Watt chart below illustrates, the AMD flagship R9 290 is fairly power hungry. This is, of course, justified by its incredible output of 500 kh/s. If your rig allows it and your business plan demands it, you may find the unparalleled R9 290 to be the card for you. For the average miner, who is looking for a fast and cost effective card, the Nvidia GTX 750 Ti is a recommended buy.
Nvidia GTX 750 Ti scrypt mining output per watt
Comparison chart courtesy of PCperspectives
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/PCperspectives_GTX750Ti_perfpower.png
HBM Is Coming
With AMD making a big deal of its forthcoming High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) Pirate Islands series, Nvidia is sure to follow. We can expect more miners to pile into the buying side for this new generation of GPUs, which look to challenge the notion that ASICs are the path to mining nirvana.
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
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.
Guys i will be afk for 24h . U can get all news here : http://www.coindesk.com/ . We will be back to businesses when i come back.
Bitcoin exchange CEO found dead in Singapore
Autumn Radtke, the 28-year-old CEO of an upstart bitcoin exchange, died last week under mysterious circumstances at her home in Singapore.
The U.S.-born head of First Meta was found dead by police on Feb. 28, with the cause of death yet to be determined. In a statement on its website, First Meta said the company "was shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and CEO Autumn Radtke."
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the company's director and nonexecutive chairman, Douglas Abrams, said the exact cause of Radtke's death was "still under investigation."
Prior to taking the reins at First Meta in 2012, the 28-year-old Radtke had once closely worked with technology giant Apple to bring cloud-computing software to Johns Hopkins University, Los Alamos Labs and the Aerospace Corp., according to her biography. She then took up business development roles at tech start-ups Xfire and Geodelic Systems, according to information on her LinkedIn profile.
First Meta bills itself as a clearing house for the purchase and exchange of virtual currencies, including bitcoin.
(Read more: Back to work at bitcoin's embattled Mt.Gox)
Her death comes as troubles swirl around the nascent cryptocurrency industry, and amid a rash of suicides in the financial industry as a whole.
Last week, the world's largest bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox imploded; meanwhile, nearly $500 million in client funds vanished overnight. Elsewhere, untimely demises unrelated to bitcoin have claimed the lives of bankers at JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and Zurich Insurance Group.
Financial-related suicides are common during times of market upheaval, such as the Great Depression or the Crash of 1987. However, the recent deaths have coincided with a surge of major indexes to record highs.
links:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2573863/Bitcoin-exchange-CEO-dead-home-suspected-suicide-age-28.html
http://betabeat.com/2014/03/bitcoin-ceo-found-dead-of-possible-suicide-in-singapore
Autumn Radtke, the 28-year-old CEO of an upstart bitcoin exchange, died last week under mysterious circumstances at her home in Singapore.
The U.S.-born head of First Meta was found dead by police on Feb. 28, with the cause of death yet to be determined. In a statement on its website, First Meta said the company "was shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and CEO Autumn Radtke."
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the company's director and nonexecutive chairman, Douglas Abrams, said the exact cause of Radtke's death was "still under investigation."
Prior to taking the reins at First Meta in 2012, the 28-year-old Radtke had once closely worked with technology giant Apple to bring cloud-computing software to Johns Hopkins University, Los Alamos Labs and the Aerospace Corp., according to her biography. She then took up business development roles at tech start-ups Xfire and Geodelic Systems, according to information on her LinkedIn profile.
First Meta bills itself as a clearing house for the purchase and exchange of virtual currencies, including bitcoin.
(Read more: Back to work at bitcoin's embattled Mt.Gox)
Her death comes as troubles swirl around the nascent cryptocurrency industry, and amid a rash of suicides in the financial industry as a whole.
Last week, the world's largest bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox imploded; meanwhile, nearly $500 million in client funds vanished overnight. Elsewhere, untimely demises unrelated to bitcoin have claimed the lives of bankers at JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and Zurich Insurance Group.
Financial-related suicides are common during times of market upheaval, such as the Great Depression or the Crash of 1987. However, the recent deaths have coincided with a surge of major indexes to record highs.
links:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2573863/Bitcoin-exchange-CEO-dead-home-suspected-suicide-age-28.html
http://betabeat.com/2014/03/bitcoin-ceo-found-dead-of-possible-suicide-in-singapore
Serious Linux Flaw Leaves Bitcoiners Vulnerable to Attacks, Eavesdropping
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 5, 2014 at 23:37 GMT | Crime, Technology
A security flaw in a key cryptographic program has been revealed in the Linux gnuTLS package, an optional component for third-party bitcoin and altcoin client applications.
The gnuTLS SSL library is included in many open-source packages such as those in Red Hat, Ubuntu and Debian distributions of Linux.
Originally discovered during an audit of gnuTLS for Red Hat, the effects of the flaw are wide-reaching for developers.
Explained Ars Technica in its report:
“[The] attacks circumvent the most widely used technology to prevent eavesdropping on the Internet, thanks to an extremely critical vulnerability in a widely used cryptographic code library.”
The bug, the source explains, is the result of commands in a section of the gnuTLS code that handle certificate verification. Estimates suggest the error could have been introduced as far back as 2005, though it was discovered on 4th March.
Further, more than 200 different operating systems and apps could be affected.
The flaw, which involves errors with several “goto cleanup” calls, is potentially dangerous as it effectively allows someone to perform a “man in the middle attack”, by which encrypted communications between a client and the web server can be exploited with specially crafted certificates.
Wrote Red Hat in its assessment:
“An attacker could use this flaw to create a specially crafted certificate that could be accepted by gnuTLS as valid for a site chosen by the attacker.”
Impact on bitcoin users
Despite the alarm the bug has raised in the wider tech community, bitcoin lead developer Jeff Garzik told CoinDesk that the issue is unlikely to have a substantial impact on bitcoin, though some will be affected.
Explained Garzik:
“The gnuTLS bug is pretty bad, but very few use gnuTLS in the bitcoin community. OpenSSL is standard.”
Garzik indicated that the use of OpenSSL mitigates a fork risk that is present when using other competing libraries for key software, such as gnuTLU.
He also stated that projects using OpenSSL, Mozilla NSS, Crypto++ or another crypto library are not impacted by the bug. Anyone who has compiled Bitcoind against this SSL package, however, would have an implementation that was vulnerable, he noted.
Ankur Nandwani, a developer at Bitmonet, suggested hosted wallet users and the users of bitcoin exchanges would be most affected, but stated that there are easy protections to prevent issues.
“In both cases, an attacker can sniff users credentials, when users are trying to log-in to their account. To reduce the probability of online wallets and exchange credentials from being compromised, it is really important that everyone use two-factor authentication.”
Nandwani said that the bug is evidence that bitcoin users should reduce their reliance on online wallets and exchanges.
Implementing a fix
The gnuTLS team has since announced an update to account for the flaw, one bitcoin and altcoin users and developers in need of the fix can now upgrade to. Red Hat indicated that gnuTLS users should upgrade their packages to correct the issue, and indicated that all applications linked to the gnuTLS library must be restarted for the update to take place.
Though mistakes are resolved in version 3.2.12, they still linger among those in the public, which has invoked comparisons to other extreme errors in coding flaw history.
Link: http://www.coindesk.com/serious-linux-flaw-leave-bitcoiners-vulnerable-eavesdropping/
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 5, 2014 at 23:37 GMT | Crime, Technology
A security flaw in a key cryptographic program has been revealed in the Linux gnuTLS package, an optional component for third-party bitcoin and altcoin client applications.
The gnuTLS SSL library is included in many open-source packages such as those in Red Hat, Ubuntu and Debian distributions of Linux.
Originally discovered during an audit of gnuTLS for Red Hat, the effects of the flaw are wide-reaching for developers.
Explained Ars Technica in its report:
“[The] attacks circumvent the most widely used technology to prevent eavesdropping on the Internet, thanks to an extremely critical vulnerability in a widely used cryptographic code library.”
The bug, the source explains, is the result of commands in a section of the gnuTLS code that handle certificate verification. Estimates suggest the error could have been introduced as far back as 2005, though it was discovered on 4th March.
Further, more than 200 different operating systems and apps could be affected.
The flaw, which involves errors with several “goto cleanup” calls, is potentially dangerous as it effectively allows someone to perform a “man in the middle attack”, by which encrypted communications between a client and the web server can be exploited with specially crafted certificates.
Wrote Red Hat in its assessment:
“An attacker could use this flaw to create a specially crafted certificate that could be accepted by gnuTLS as valid for a site chosen by the attacker.”
Impact on bitcoin users
Despite the alarm the bug has raised in the wider tech community, bitcoin lead developer Jeff Garzik told CoinDesk that the issue is unlikely to have a substantial impact on bitcoin, though some will be affected.
Explained Garzik:
“The gnuTLS bug is pretty bad, but very few use gnuTLS in the bitcoin community. OpenSSL is standard.”
Garzik indicated that the use of OpenSSL mitigates a fork risk that is present when using other competing libraries for key software, such as gnuTLU.
He also stated that projects using OpenSSL, Mozilla NSS, Crypto++ or another crypto library are not impacted by the bug. Anyone who has compiled Bitcoind against this SSL package, however, would have an implementation that was vulnerable, he noted.
Ankur Nandwani, a developer at Bitmonet, suggested hosted wallet users and the users of bitcoin exchanges would be most affected, but stated that there are easy protections to prevent issues.
“In both cases, an attacker can sniff users credentials, when users are trying to log-in to their account. To reduce the probability of online wallets and exchange credentials from being compromised, it is really important that everyone use two-factor authentication.”
Nandwani said that the bug is evidence that bitcoin users should reduce their reliance on online wallets and exchanges.
Implementing a fix
The gnuTLS team has since announced an update to account for the flaw, one bitcoin and altcoin users and developers in need of the fix can now upgrade to. Red Hat indicated that gnuTLS users should upgrade their packages to correct the issue, and indicated that all applications linked to the gnuTLS library must be restarted for the update to take place.
Though mistakes are resolved in version 3.2.12, they still linger among those in the public, which has invoked comparisons to other extreme errors in coding flaw history.
Link: http://www.coindesk.com/serious-linux-flaw-leave-bitcoiners-vulnerable-eavesdropping/
Robocoin to Debut First Traveling Bitcoin ATM at SXSW Interactive Festival
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 5, 2014 at 22:46 GMT | Bitcoin ATM, News
Las Vegas-based bitcoin ATM specialist RoboCoin has revealed new plans for this week’s upcoming South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival, set to begin on Friday 7th March and run through 11th March.
SXSW is one of the more notable events on the annual tech calendar, having helped launched major brands such as Twitter and Foursquare.
Robocoin, which debuted the first bitcoin ATM in Vancouver in October to massive fanfare, has a similarly stylish rollout planned for its SXSW debut. Robocoin will launch four ATMs around the city to raise bitcoin awareness at the event.
The result, according to Robocoin growth guru Sam Glaser, is that attendees will have unprecedented access to bitcoin.
Said Glaser:
“There should be no reasonable time of day where you can’t go buy and sell your bitcoins from a Robocoin.”
Founded in late 2013, Robocoin is in the midst of a massive rollout of ATM units as demand for its products is escalating worldwide.
Event locations
Screen Shot 2014-03-05 at 5.48.56 PMGlaser indicated that Robocoin bitcoin ATMs will available at HandleBar, an “old-school,” neighborhood bar in Austin; Domincan Joe, a local coffee shop; and Central Texas Gun Works, a shooting range and firearm education facility.
Perhaps most notable, however, is the Robocoin Rover, its fourth unit.
The Robocoin Rover will be housed in the back of a moving trailer for mobile access around Austin for the four-day event, providing an experience akin to a traveling food truck.
The Robocoin Rover will be operated by Coinvault, a Houston-based firm, but Glass suggested it could become an idea it encourages more operators to consider.
“We’re going to test it at SXSW, and see how positive the response is. So far [Coinvault] is the only [company] we’re talking to about, but I imagine if it’s successful, it will take off.
At least one of the units will be moved during the day to the SXSW Trade show, where Robocoin can gain access to the festival’s substantial audience. Last year, nearly 30,000 people attended the SXSW Interactive portion of the festival, attendance records show.
Stragetic goals
The event also has a strategic relevance for Robocoin, which is eager to showcase its units to the event’s influential audience members.
Explained Glaser:
“I think the biggest goal is to share Robocoin with a huge collection of technology journalists and influencers, and really share the information on Robocoin compliance, because that’s what we’ve built our company around.”
Attendance records also show that SXSW could be the right event for the company to attend for this reason. Approximately 3,000 media personnel were in attendance at the event in 2013.
Link: http://www.coindesk.com/robocoin-debut-first-traveling-atm-sxsw-interactive-festival/
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 5, 2014 at 22:46 GMT | Bitcoin ATM, News
Las Vegas-based bitcoin ATM specialist RoboCoin has revealed new plans for this week’s upcoming South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival, set to begin on Friday 7th March and run through 11th March.
SXSW is one of the more notable events on the annual tech calendar, having helped launched major brands such as Twitter and Foursquare.
Robocoin, which debuted the first bitcoin ATM in Vancouver in October to massive fanfare, has a similarly stylish rollout planned for its SXSW debut. Robocoin will launch four ATMs around the city to raise bitcoin awareness at the event.
The result, according to Robocoin growth guru Sam Glaser, is that attendees will have unprecedented access to bitcoin.
Said Glaser:
“There should be no reasonable time of day where you can’t go buy and sell your bitcoins from a Robocoin.”
Founded in late 2013, Robocoin is in the midst of a massive rollout of ATM units as demand for its products is escalating worldwide.
Event locations
Screen Shot 2014-03-05 at 5.48.56 PMGlaser indicated that Robocoin bitcoin ATMs will available at HandleBar, an “old-school,” neighborhood bar in Austin; Domincan Joe, a local coffee shop; and Central Texas Gun Works, a shooting range and firearm education facility.
Perhaps most notable, however, is the Robocoin Rover, its fourth unit.
The Robocoin Rover will be housed in the back of a moving trailer for mobile access around Austin for the four-day event, providing an experience akin to a traveling food truck.
The Robocoin Rover will be operated by Coinvault, a Houston-based firm, but Glass suggested it could become an idea it encourages more operators to consider.
“We’re going to test it at SXSW, and see how positive the response is. So far [Coinvault] is the only [company] we’re talking to about, but I imagine if it’s successful, it will take off.
At least one of the units will be moved during the day to the SXSW Trade show, where Robocoin can gain access to the festival’s substantial audience. Last year, nearly 30,000 people attended the SXSW Interactive portion of the festival, attendance records show.
Stragetic goals
The event also has a strategic relevance for Robocoin, which is eager to showcase its units to the event’s influential audience members.
Explained Glaser:
“I think the biggest goal is to share Robocoin with a huge collection of technology journalists and influencers, and really share the information on Robocoin compliance, because that’s what we’ve built our company around.”
Attendance records also show that SXSW could be the right event for the company to attend for this reason. Approximately 3,000 media personnel were in attendance at the event in 2013.
Link: http://www.coindesk.com/robocoin-debut-first-traveling-atm-sxsw-interactive-festival/
@ponjava I thought MICRO has made new account!
Nope i will be MICRO forever
@ponjava I thought MICRO has made new account!
Poloniex Loses 12.3% of its Bitcoins in Latest Bitcoin Exchange Hack
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 5, 2014 at 20:11 GMT | Companies, Crime, Exchanges
Digital currency exchange Poloniex, which trades bitcoin and other popular digital currencies such as litecoin, namecoin and dogecoin, has lost 12.3% of its total bitcoin supply in an attack.
The exchange took to Bitcoin Forum on 4th March to report it had been compromised by a previously unknown vulnerability in its coding.
Writing under the username Busoni, Poloniex owner Tristan D’Agosta, moved to calm concerned users by explaining what lead to the hack, as well as what the next steps from the company would be.
D’Agosta explained:
“The hacker discovered that if you place several withdrawals all in practically the same instant, they will get processed at more or less the same time. This will result in a negative balance, but valid insertions into the database, which then get picked up by the withdrawal daemon.”
D’Agosta also detailed the exact process by which transactions on the exchange were confirmed to highlight the error, and further, took full responsibility for the loss, stating that he plans to repay the company’s customers.
According to a Twitter post from the company, the original attack occurred during the early morning hours of 4th March.
Behind the hack
Due to its current bitcoin shortage, Poloniex indicated that all customer balances would temporarily be reduced by 12.3% “out of absolute necessity”. D’Agosta suggested that this was the only way that bitcoins could be distributed fairly among affected users.
“If I did not make this adjustment, people would most likely withdraw all their BTC as soon as possible in order to make sure they weren’t left in that remaining 12.3%.”
Poloniex plans to record the balances and to pay back customers using exchange fees as well as personal contributions. As a result, he indicated that all exchange fees would be temporarily raised to 1.5%, up from 0.2%. Altcoin and bitcoin withdrawals have since been reinstated, going back online on 4th March after less than a day’s delay.
System changes
D’Agosta did also credit his design with preventing a more massive bitcoin loss. For example, he noted that the company’s existing security features noticed the unusual withdrawal activity and froze affected accounts.
In the attack announcement, D’Agosta listed a number of next steps his company would follow, including updating the withdrawal daemon to check for negative balances before processing withdrawals and freezing any account with a negative balance.
According to its Twitter feed, updates have already been made.
Moving forward
D’Agosta expressed his apologies for the attack and appealed to the community for continued feedback on he could improve the service. Said D’Agosta:
“I do not have the money to wave away the debt, so we’ll need to work together.”
Response from the Bitcoin Talk community was largely positive, with many commenters posting messages of support for D’Agosta and his exchange.
Notably, the announcement follows a recent rush of attacks against bitcoin services, including Mt. Gox, Silk Road 2.0 – which has also embarked on a repayment plan, and Alberta-based “bitcoin bank” Flexcoin, which shut down its services on 4th March after losing $600,000 in bitcoins.
Link:http://www.coindesk.com/poloniex-loses-12-3-bitcoins-latest-bitcoin-exchange-hack/
Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) | Published on March 5, 2014 at 20:11 GMT | Companies, Crime, Exchanges
Digital currency exchange Poloniex, which trades bitcoin and other popular digital currencies such as litecoin, namecoin and dogecoin, has lost 12.3% of its total bitcoin supply in an attack.
The exchange took to Bitcoin Forum on 4th March to report it had been compromised by a previously unknown vulnerability in its coding.
Writing under the username Busoni, Poloniex owner Tristan D’Agosta, moved to calm concerned users by explaining what lead to the hack, as well as what the next steps from the company would be.
D’Agosta explained:
“The hacker discovered that if you place several withdrawals all in practically the same instant, they will get processed at more or less the same time. This will result in a negative balance, but valid insertions into the database, which then get picked up by the withdrawal daemon.”
D’Agosta also detailed the exact process by which transactions on the exchange were confirmed to highlight the error, and further, took full responsibility for the loss, stating that he plans to repay the company’s customers.
According to a Twitter post from the company, the original attack occurred during the early morning hours of 4th March.
Behind the hack
Due to its current bitcoin shortage, Poloniex indicated that all customer balances would temporarily be reduced by 12.3% “out of absolute necessity”. D’Agosta suggested that this was the only way that bitcoins could be distributed fairly among affected users.
“If I did not make this adjustment, people would most likely withdraw all their BTC as soon as possible in order to make sure they weren’t left in that remaining 12.3%.”
Poloniex plans to record the balances and to pay back customers using exchange fees as well as personal contributions. As a result, he indicated that all exchange fees would be temporarily raised to 1.5%, up from 0.2%. Altcoin and bitcoin withdrawals have since been reinstated, going back online on 4th March after less than a day’s delay.
System changes
D’Agosta did also credit his design with preventing a more massive bitcoin loss. For example, he noted that the company’s existing security features noticed the unusual withdrawal activity and froze affected accounts.
In the attack announcement, D’Agosta listed a number of next steps his company would follow, including updating the withdrawal daemon to check for negative balances before processing withdrawals and freezing any account with a negative balance.
According to its Twitter feed, updates have already been made.
Moving forward
D’Agosta expressed his apologies for the attack and appealed to the community for continued feedback on he could improve the service. Said D’Agosta:
“I do not have the money to wave away the debt, so we’ll need to work together.”
Response from the Bitcoin Talk community was largely positive, with many commenters posting messages of support for D’Agosta and his exchange.
Notably, the announcement follows a recent rush of attacks against bitcoin services, including Mt. Gox, Silk Road 2.0 – which has also embarked on a repayment plan, and Alberta-based “bitcoin bank” Flexcoin, which shut down its services on 4th March after losing $600,000 in bitcoins.
Link:http://www.coindesk.com/poloniex-loses-12-3-bitcoins-latest-bitcoin-exchange-hack/
KnCMiner Finalizes Design For World’s First 20nm Bitcoin ASIC Miner
Nermin Hajdarbegovic | Published on March 5, 2014
KnCMiner says it has finalized the design of what should be the world’s first 20nm bitcoin ASIC miner.
The company is still not saying much about the upcoming ASIC or the rollout schedule, it merely states that the ‘tape-out’ was achieved only three months after starting the project. The actual tape-out happened sometime in February.
In electronics, a tape-out is the last stage of the design cycle for a circuit board.
KnCMiner teamed up with Alchip and Advanced Semiconductors Technology (AST) to design and produce the chip. The company points out that its first generation ASICs were delivered in three to five months.
Power friendly
KnC has not revealed any performance estimates yet, but the company is saying that the new ASIC should cut power consumption by 43%.
This sounds like a realistic estimate, as we have been hearing similar claims from chipmakers who are planning to transition from 28nm to 20nm later this year.
In addition to the new node, KnC has also optimised the design of on-die circuitry, which allowed it to stick 1440 cores in a relatively big 55 x 55mm package.
Back in November KnC said the Neptune 20nm chip would deliver at least 3TH of power, operating at 0.7 watts per GH/sec. The company was expecting a 30% reduction in power consumption and now it appears that it might beat its initial estimate.
This would not be the first time. When KnC announced the Jupiter ASIC, it promised 400GH/sec, but the chip actually operated north of 550GH/sec. However, it will be a while before we know whether Neptune can over-deliver like its predecessor.
Tricky transition
Marcus Erlandson, KnC’s CTO said he is proud of the team’s performance.
“The combined efforts of KnC and our partners Alchip means that once again we are bringing to market a world first silicon design and in record time,” he said.
President of Alchip Johnny Shen said KnC and Alchip have been working together on bitcoin ASIC design for less than a year and they have already delivered “two world-first projects”.
It is still unclear when the new ASIC will be ready for production. It usually takes several weeks between tape-out and full-scale production, but only if everything goes according to plan.
Nermin Hajdarbegovic | Published on March 5, 2014
KnCMiner says it has finalized the design of what should be the world’s first 20nm bitcoin ASIC miner.
The company is still not saying much about the upcoming ASIC or the rollout schedule, it merely states that the ‘tape-out’ was achieved only three months after starting the project. The actual tape-out happened sometime in February.
In electronics, a tape-out is the last stage of the design cycle for a circuit board.
KnCMiner teamed up with Alchip and Advanced Semiconductors Technology (AST) to design and produce the chip. The company points out that its first generation ASICs were delivered in three to five months.
Power friendly
KnC has not revealed any performance estimates yet, but the company is saying that the new ASIC should cut power consumption by 43%.
This sounds like a realistic estimate, as we have been hearing similar claims from chipmakers who are planning to transition from 28nm to 20nm later this year.
In addition to the new node, KnC has also optimised the design of on-die circuitry, which allowed it to stick 1440 cores in a relatively big 55 x 55mm package.
Back in November KnC said the Neptune 20nm chip would deliver at least 3TH of power, operating at 0.7 watts per GH/sec. The company was expecting a 30% reduction in power consumption and now it appears that it might beat its initial estimate.
This would not be the first time. When KnC announced the Jupiter ASIC, it promised 400GH/sec, but the chip actually operated north of 550GH/sec. However, it will be a while before we know whether Neptune can over-deliver like its predecessor.
Tricky transition
Marcus Erlandson, KnC’s CTO said he is proud of the team’s performance.
“The combined efforts of KnC and our partners Alchip means that once again we are bringing to market a world first silicon design and in record time,” he said.
President of Alchip Johnny Shen said KnC and Alchip have been working together on bitcoin ASIC design for less than a year and they have already delivered “two world-first projects”.
It is still unclear when the new ASIC will be ready for production. It usually takes several weeks between tape-out and full-scale production, but only if everything goes according to plan.
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