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Topic: The Week In Bitcoin - May 02 through May 08, 2011 (Read 1853 times)

Stephen Gornick
legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1010
The Week In Bitcoin - May 02 through May 08, 2011
May 09, 2011, 03:42:09 AM
#5
Sunday, May 8th, 2011

  • First monthly BitLotto winner receives winnings
    The 1 BTC lotto wager paid out 128 BTC.  Lottery winner(s) receives 99% of all wagers placed.  The winning entry is picked based on the sender’s address.  All wagers and the payout are fully auditable in the block chain.  Next draw is June 1st.  Wagers should only be placed when using the bitcoin client.  Wagers from an eWallet (MyBitcoin, Mt. Gox, etc.) cannot win.
    - http://www.bitlotto.com
    - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitLotto
  • DeepBit pool temporarily reaches critical 50% threshold
    “This specific situation is why Bitcoin payments are not considered ‘confirmed’ until enough subsequent blocks have been solved such that there is effectively no chance that that a double spend attempt would be successful.”
    - http://www.bitcoinminer.com/post/5328668205
  • Work begins on BitFN (Bitcoin Freenet) project
    BitFn will transport BitCoin (blockchain, TXes and seeds) over Freenet and other like services.  The project’s coordinator, da2ce7, has been fundraising since December.  The 800 BTC bounty will cover initial development though additional funds will likely be needed.
    - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/btcfn-project-804-btc-7181
  • New Exchange: MeuBitcoin (Brazil)
    Fixed-rate exchange (price related to BTC/USD market rate).  Payments are sent and received through, MoIP (Money over IP) which transacts using the bank wire network.
    - http://www.meubitcoin.com.br
    - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/MeuBitcoin
  • Withdrawal limit at Mt. Gox for those in the EU can now be raised
    “People who live in europe and have nationality of a country located in europe can have their daily withdrawal limit (both in EUR and BTC) increased up to 50k$ by providing the required proofs.”
    - http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/5307524313



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Current week (updated throughout each day):
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Stephen Gornick
legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1010
Re: The Week In Bitcoin - May 02 through May 08, 2011
May 08, 2011, 07:34:37 PM
#4
Saturday, May 7th, 2011

  • The “What is Bitcoin?” video on YouTube crosses 50,000 views
    Most of the bounty awarded to the video’s creator is still held in the Bitcoin Marketing Fund for promotion of bitcoin.
    Viewer demographics shows uneven exposure between gender (i.e., mostly male) and between location + language (mostly English-speaking countries).
    - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjo
    - http://www.weusecoins.com/fund.php
  • Update on Plato’s #BitcoinRoadTrip: New Orleans
    The map shows Plato taking a more southernly route than initially planned, with the latest update came from New Orleans where #bitcoin-otc veteran EvanR resides.  Plato is going cross country and spends only bitcoins, even if that means traveling with a full can of gas to be able to make it to the next available merchant or bitcoiner who’ll exchange fuel for bitcoins.
    Incidentally, Plato checked in late Saturday to report the discovery that yet another parity milestone has been met — this time the BTC/PBR.
    - http://bit.ly/j2YNQn (map w/markers and routes)
    - http://twitter.com/therealplato
  • Service at Mt. Gox exchange is restored following DDoS attack
    The week-long distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack has sporadically affected the exchange, including times where the sevice was completely inaccessible.  The network defenses to protect against future DDoS attacks are in place though now any future attacks will likely be different and require additional adjustment and fine tuning.
  • Alert from @BitcoinStatus:
    Lots of “low priority” transactions are getting queued up.  The latest Bitcoin Client, v0.3.21, has handling to detect transactions that will likely be delayed unless a fee payment is included.
    - http://twitter.com/bitcoinstatus
  • Bitcoin Economy Snapshot:
    1 BTC = $3.59 USD, Size: 6.13M BTC, Last 24h: 0.23M BTC in 3.8K trx, Difficulty: 109.7K, Forum posts/day: 1,161, Nodes: 1.4K
    - http://twitter.com/bitcoineconomy
  • Press: Vancouver’s The Georgia Straight weekly
    Bitcoin virtual currency challenges world’s centralized monetary systems by
    Bitcoin community member Scott Nelson is among those interviewed:
    “Nelson’s motivation […] stems from what he said is his ‘deep dissatisfaction with the banking industry and the way it operates’”.
    - http://bit.ly/jIB6zB



Friday, May 6th, 2011

  • Due to time constraints, no entries were made for Friday.  Items missed are included in Saturday’s post.



Have a news tip, suggestion or comment?
  http://www.bitcoinnews.com/submit

Current week (updated throughout each day):
  http://www.bitcoinnews.com   (RSS) (mobile) (email)

Previous summaries:
  http://www.bitcoinnews.com/archive  Follow on Twitter: @BitcoinNews
Stephen Gornick
legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1010
Re: The Week In Bitcoin - May 02 through May 08, 2011
May 06, 2011, 03:31:59 AM
#3
Thursday, May 5th, 2011

    • Lingering site access problems for Mt. Gox (Service mostly restored)
      Fine tuning actions continue to keep the site operational after it was moved to a network which provides DDoS defenses.  Sporadic problems accessing the site were reported though heavy trading on the site returned.
      - http://www.mtgox.com
    • U.K. Money Transmitter - TransferWise (GBP to EUR)
      Person-to-person transfer from U.K. to EUR recipient.  Currency converts at mid-market rate.
      - http://transferwise.com
      - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/TransferWise
    • LinuxCoin - Bootable flash media image with client and miner
      A lightweight Debian-based OS which includes in the image everything that is necessary to run as a Bitcoin client and everything needed to get started mining on ATI hardware.
      - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/LinuxCoin
    • Recent additions to Bitcoin Merchant Directory / Trade wiki article:
      - Free Software Foundation (FSF) (donations):
      -   http://my.fsf.org/donate
      ]There are numerous other recent additions
      - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade
    • s3052’s Bitcoin Market Technical Analysis
      “Prices are in nomansland after the big rally to $4.15.”
      Long term: “Rally”
      Short term: “Pausing. Correction down seems more likely.”
      - http://bit.ly/kPH8Ix
    • Fixed-rate exchange BitLex resumes with new website address
      The exchange enables trades between bitcoins and Linden dollars (L$).  L$ are used in the Second Life virtual world.  When BitLex first started trading less than a year ago, 1 BTC would only buy L$0.667.  Today 1 BTC buys about L$900.
      - http://www.bitlex.org
      The ability to buy using bitcoins has been helpful as Linden Labs, Second Life’s operator, has found it difficult to integrate with various payment systems globally:
      - http://bit.ly/kTh4jt



    Wednesday, May 4th, 2011]Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

    • New software: Zen Cart Bitcoin Payment Module
      A payment module that interacts with bitcoind for Zen Cart ecommerce.
      - http://github.com/jalder/Zen-Cart-Bitcoin-Payment-Module
      - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Zen_Cart_Bitcoin_Payment_Module
    • DDoS protections in place at Mt. Gox
      The service is now running on a network that has defenses that protect the exchange from distributed denial-of-service attacks — something that has disrupted service for the previous four days.  The attacks have continued in the hours since the service went live under the new protections, however the attack no longer was having any noticable impact on the service.
    • Mt. Gox exchange says “Dwolla Accepted Here”
      Instant funding method.  $0.25 per transaction.  Per-transaction amounts up to $5K USD for personal accounts and $10K USD for business accounts. Dwolla is an ACH based payment network.
      - http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/5185875167




    Have a news tip, suggestion or comment?
      http://www.bitcoinnews.com/submit

    Current week (updated throughout each day):
      http://www.bitcoinnews.com   (RSS) (mobile) (email)

    Previous summaries:
      http://www.bitcoinnews.com/archive  Follow on Twitter: @BitcoinNews
    [/list]
    Stephen Gornick
    legendary
    Activity: 2506
    Merit: 1010
    Re: The Week In Bitcoin - May 02 through May 08, 2011
    May 04, 2011, 06:00:20 AM
    #2
    Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

    • Article / Blog post:
      PayPal Freezes Accounts of Two Bitcoin Exchangers by Jon Matonis in The Monetary Future
      “The real surprise here is that, at least according to PayPal, bitcoin is now a currency.”
      “What I find most difficult to believe is how so many people continue to support a system that has repeatedly demonstrated that it knows better than you do when it comes to how to spend your own money.”
      - http://bit.ly/kufMst
    • Article / Blog post:
      The Dark Side of Emerging Payments, and What to Do About It by JJ Hornblass in the Bank Innovation blog
      “Increasingly, people are using virtual dollars to pay for things.”
      “These purveyors require no registration with the government, no license, are free to set whatever terms they want. [This] is of concern as the population of ventures ‘printing’ digital dollars expands.”
      - http://www.bankinnovation.net/profiles/blogs/the-dark-side-of-emerging
      - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bank-insiders-fretting-about-virtual-dollars-breaking-the-money-monopoly-7134
    • Another Bitcoin exchange gets attacked: Bitmarket.eu
      The operator of the BitMarket.eu exchange has had taken the site offline, temporarily, following a network attack.  [Update: the service was restored after a few hours.]
      - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitmarketeu-ddos-attacked-as-well-7126
    • Mt. Gox’s DDoS Day 4: Access to Bitcoin’s leading exchange remains intermittent at best
      The Mt. Gox exchange has not yet completed the move to a network that has DDoS defenses and as a result has been getting pummeled by network attacks, according to the service’s operator.  The distributed denial-of-service attacks began on Saturday, though they have proceeded at differing levels since.  There are periods of time where access is acceptable while other times there is no service.  The BTC/USD exchange rate has stayed within a relatively narrow range on Mt. Gox and on other exchanges — currently around $3.40 USD.
      [Update: Service fully restored.]



    Have a news tip, suggestion or comment?
      http://www.bitcoinnews.com/submit

    Current week (updated throughout each day):
      http://www.bitcoinnews.com   (RSS) (mobile) (email)

    Previous summaries:
      http://www.bitcoinnews.com/archive  Follow on Twitter: @BitcoinNews
    Stephen Gornick
    legendary
    Activity: 2506
    Merit: 1010
    Re: The Week In Bitcoin - May 02 through May 08, 2011
    May 03, 2011, 02:38:15 PM
    #1
    Sunday, May 8th, 2011

    • First monthly BitLotto winner receives winnings
      The 1 BTC lotto wager paid out 128 BTC.  Lottery winner(s) receives 99% of all wagers placed.  The winning entry is picked based on the sender’s address.  All wagers and the payout are fully auditable in the block chain.  Next draw is June 1st.  Wagers should only be placed when using the bitcoin client.  Wagers from an eWallet (MyBitcoin, Mt. Gox, etc.) cannot win.
      - http://www.bitlotto.com
      - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitLotto
    • DeepBit pool temporarily reaches critical 50% threshold
      “This specific situation is why Bitcoin payments are not considered ‘confirmed’ until enough subsequent blocks have been solved such that there is effectively no chance that that a double spend attempt would be successful.”
      - http://www.bitcoinminer.com/post/5328668205
    • Work begins on BitFN (Bitcoin Freenet) project
      BitFn will transport BitCoin (blockchain, TXes and seeds) over Freenet and other like services.  The project’s coordinator, da2ce7, has been fundraising since December.  The 800 BTC bounty will cover initial development though additional funds will likely be needed.
      - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/btcfn-project-804-btc-7181
    • New Exchange: MeuBitcoin (Brazil)
      Fixed-rate exchange (price related to BTC/USD market rate).  Payments are sent and received through, MoIP (Money over IP) which transacts using the bank wire network.
      - http://www.meubitcoin.com.br
      - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/MeuBitcoin
    • Withdrawal limit at Mt. Gox for those in the EU can now be raised
      “People who live in europe and have nationality of a country located in europe can have their daily withdrawal limit (both in EUR and BTC) increased up to 50k$ by providing the required proofs.”
      - http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/5307524313


    Saturday, May 7th, 2011

    • The “What is Bitcoin?” video on YouTube crosses 50,000 views
      Most of the bounty awarded to the video’s creator is still held in the Bitcoin Marketing Fund for promotion of bitcoin.
      Viewer demographics shows uneven exposure between gender (i.e., mostly male) and between location + language (mostly English-speaking countries).
      - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjo
      - http://www.weusecoins.com/fund.php
    • Update on Plato’s #BitcoinRoadTrip: New Orleans
      The map shows Plato taking a more southernly route than initially planned, with the latest update came from New Orleans where #bitcoin-otc veteran EvanR resides.  Plato is going cross country and spends only bitcoins, even if that means traveling with a full can of gas to be able to make it to the next available merchant or bitcoiner who’ll exchange fuel for bitcoins.
      Incidentally, Plato checked in late Saturday to report the discovery that yet another parity milestone has been met — this time the BTC/PBR.
      - http://bit.ly/j2YNQn (map w/markers and routes)
      - http://twitter.com/therealplato
    • Service at Mt. Gox exchange is restored following DDoS attack
      The week-long distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack has sporadically affected the exchange, including times where the sevice was completely inaccessible.  The network defenses to protect against future DDoS attacks are in place though now any future attacks will likely be different and require additional adjustment and fine tuning.
    • Alert from @BitcoinStatus:
      Lots of “low priority” transactions are getting queued up.  The latest Bitcoin Client, v0.3.21, has handling to detect transactions that will likely be delayed unless a fee payment is included.
      - http://twitter.com/bitcoinstatus
    • Bitcoin Economy Snapshot:
      1 BTC = $3.59 USD, Size: 6.13M BTC, Last 24h: 0.23M BTC in 3.8K trx, Difficulty: 109.7K, Forum posts/day: 1,161, Nodes: 1.4K
      - http://twitter.com/bitcoineconomy
    • Press: Vancouver’s The Georgia Straight weekly
      Bitcoin virtual currency challenges world’s centralized monetary systems by
      Bitcoin community member Scott Nelson is among those interviewed:
      “Nelson’s motivation […] stems from what he said is his ‘deep dissatisfaction with the banking industry and the way it operates’”.
      - http://bit.ly/jIB6zB



    Friday, May 6th, 2011

    • Due to time constraints, no entries were made for Friday.  Items missed are included in Saturday’s post.



    Thursday, May 5th, 2011

      • Lingering site access problems for Mt. Gox (Service mostly restored)
        Fine tuning actions continue to keep the site operational after it was moved to a network which provides DDoS defenses.  Sporadic problems accessing the site were reported though heavy trading on the site returned.
        - http://www.mtgox.com
      • U.K. Money Transmitter - TransferWise (GBP to EUR)
        Person-to-person transfer from U.K. to EUR recipient.  Currency converts at mid-market rate.
        - http://transferwise.com
        - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/TransferWise
      • LinuxCoin - Bootable flash media image with client and miner
        A lightweight Debian-based OS which includes in the image everything that is necessary to run as a Bitcoin client and everything needed to get started mining on ATI hardware.
        - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/LinuxCoin
      • Recent additions to Bitcoin Merchant Directory / Trade wiki article:
        - Free Software Foundation (FSF) (donations):
        -   http://my.fsf.org/donate
        ]There are numerous other recent additions
        - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade
      • s3052’s Bitcoin Market Technical Analysis
        “Prices are in nomansland after the big rally to $4.15.”
        Long term: “Rally”
        Short term: “Pausing. Correction down seems more likely.”
        - http://bit.ly/kPH8Ix
      • Fixed-rate exchange BitLex resumes with new website address
        The exchange enables trades between bitcoins and Linden dollars (L$).  L$ are used in the Second Life virtual world.  When BitLex first started trading less than a year ago, 1 BTC would only buy L$0.667.  Today 1 BTC buys about L$900.
        - http://www.bitlex.org
        The ability to buy using bitcoins has been helpful as Linden Labs, Second Life’s operator, has found it difficult to integrate with various payment systems globally:
        - http://bit.ly/kTh4jt



      Wednesday, May 4th, 2011]Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

      • New software: Zen Cart Bitcoin Payment Module
        A payment module that interacts with bitcoind for Zen Cart ecommerce.
        - http://github.com/jalder/Zen-Cart-Bitcoin-Payment-Module
        - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Zen_Cart_Bitcoin_Payment_Module
      • DDoS protections in place at Mt. Gox
        The service is now running on a network that has defenses that protect the exchange from distributed denial-of-service attacks — something that has disrupted service for the previous four days.  The attacks have continued in the hours since the service went live under the new protections, however the attack no longer was having any noticable impact on the service.
      • Mt. Gox exchange says “Dwolla Accepted Here”
        Instant funding method.  $0.25 per transaction.  Per-transaction amounts up to $5K USD for personal accounts and $10K USD for business accounts. Dwolla is an ACH based payment network.
        - http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/5185875167


      Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

      • Article / Blog post:
        PayPal Freezes Accounts of Two Bitcoin Exchangers by Jon Matonis in The Monetary Future
        “The real surprise here is that, at least according to PayPal, bitcoin is now a currency.”
        “What I find most difficult to believe is how so many people continue to support a system that has repeatedly demonstrated that it knows better than you do when it comes to how to spend your own money.”
        - http://bit.ly/kufMst
      • Article / Blog post:
        The Dark Side of Emerging Payments, and What to Do About It by JJ Hornblass in the Bank Innovation blog
        “Increasingly, people are using virtual dollars to pay for things.”
        “These purveyors require no registration with the government, no license, are free to set whatever terms they want. [This] is of concern as the population of ventures ‘printing’ digital dollars expands.”
        - http://www.bankinnovation.net/profiles/blogs/the-dark-side-of-emerging
        - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bank-insiders-fretting-about-virtual-dollars-breaking-the-money-monopoly-7134
      • Another Bitcoin exchange gets attacked: Bitmarket.eu
        The operator of the BitMarket.eu exchange has had taken the site offline, temporarily, following a network attack.  [Update: the service was restored after a few hours.]
        - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitmarketeu-ddos-attacked-as-well-7126
      • Mt. Gox’s DDoS Day 4: Access to Bitcoin’s leading exchange remains intermittent at best
        The Mt. Gox exchange has not yet completed the move to a network that has DDoS defenses and as a result has been getting pummeled by network attacks, according to the service’s operator.  The distributed denial-of-service attacks began on Saturday, though they have proceeded at differing levels since.  There are periods of time where access is acceptable while other times there is no service.  The BTC/USD exchange rate has stayed within a relatively narrow range on Mt. Gox and on other exchanges — currently around $3.40 USD.
        [Update: Service fully restored.]



      Monday, May 2nd, 2011




      Have a news tip, suggestion or comment?
        http://www.bitcoinnews.com/submit

      Current week (updated throughout each day):
        http://www.bitcoinnews.com   (RSS) (mobile) (email)

      Previous summaries:
        http://www.bitcoinnews.com/archive  Follow on Twitter: @BitcoinNews

      Each day I will post a reply with the previous day's summary, and will update this specific post to include each daily summary as well.
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