Category Archives: Bitcoin
Fanciful Bitcoin Banknotes Show How Digital Currency Might Look in the Real World – NBCNews.com
Jun.27.2017 / 2:08 PM ET
Bitcoin isnt like traditional currencies, and not just because it doesnt exist as actual coins or paper banknotes.
Unlike traditional currencies like the dollar or euro, Bitcoin isnt controlled by a single government or central bank. Instead, every transaction involving the popular cryptocurrency is logged in a computerized public ledger called a blockchain. This collection of receipts is maintained on millions of devices around the world in individual collections called blocks. Each time theres a transaction involving Bitcoin, an anonymous data fingerprint appears in a block recording the exchange.
This key innovation is the basis for "Block Bills," a collection of paper banknotes that bring the virtual payment system into the real world. As works of art, the whimsical bills have no monetary value. But they provide a map to the inner workings of the Bitcoin systemand they have a subtle beauty all their own.
In some way, the project is a loose data visualization, but I mainly wanted to make the bills be interesting on their own as artworks, says Matthias Drfelt, the Los Angeles-based artist who made the notes.
Each of the 64 bills in the collection represents a single block in the blockchain ledgers. The colors vary according to the volume of transactions. A less colorful bill represents low volume, while a more color bill represents high volume.
In some way, the project is a loose data visualization, but I mainly wanted to make the bills be interesting on their own as artworks.
At the bottom of each bill is a white bar with symbols that represent the specific address of the Bitcoin. On the left is a series of dots that encode the history of all the transactions. The timestamp at the bottom-right corner of each bill indicates the moment when that block of transactions was created.
Lastly, the centers of the bills feature an indistinct image of a human being or imaginary creature. The idea here, Drfelt says, was to create something that reflects all the supposed privacy and anonymity connotations that Bitcoin has."
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Fanciful Bitcoin Banknotes Show How Digital Currency Might Look in the Real World - NBCNews.com
Bitcoin exchange operator tied to hacks gets five-and-a-half years US prison – Reuters
NEW YORK A Florida man was sentenced on Tuesday to 5-1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to operating an illegal bitcoin exchange suspected of laundering money for hackers and linked to a data breach at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Anthony Murgio, 33, of Tampa, pleaded guilty on Jan. 9 to three conspiracy counts, including bank fraud and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. The sentence was roughly half as long as prosecutors had sought.
Murgio and co-conspirators were accused of processing millions of dollars from 2013 to 2015 into the virtual currency bitcoin through the unlicensed exchange Coin.mx.
Prosecutors said many transactions were conducted by victims of ransomware, a malicious software that locks up data unless people pay "ransom" to unlock it. Cyber criminals often demand ransom paid in bitcoin.
The alleged schemes also involved the takeover of a since-liquidated New Jersey credit union to shield their activity.
"Mr. Murgio led an effort based on ambition and greed," and constructed on a "pyramid of lies," U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan said during the sentencing hearing.
Murgio unsuccessfully fought back tears and lost his composure several times in expressing "enormous regret" for his crimes, which the judge credited as genuine.
"I am wiser today than when the case began, and I am sorry for all the damage I caused to so many people," Murgio said. "Believing what I was doing was OK did not make it OK."
Nathan cited Murgio's generosity to friends and support to his family in imposing a term below the 10 to 12-1/2 years recommended by prosecutors and federal guidelines.
Murgio's lawyer Brian Klein said he was pleased with the reduction, after telling the judge that Murgio had taken responsibility for his "grievous decisionmaking."
In contrast, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eun Choi faulted Murgio's dealings with ransomware victims, saying: "He exploited their desperation to personally profit from them."
A hearing on restitution and forfeiture was set for Sept. 1.
Murgio's father, Michael, pleaded guilty last October to an obstruction charge tied to the credit union.
Nine people have been criminally charged following an investigation into the JPMorgan breach, which exposed more than 83 million accounts.
Prosecutors said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, who pleaded not guilty to U.S. charges after being extradited last June from Israel.
In March, a jury in Manhattan convicted Florida software engineer Yuri Lebedev and New Jersey pastor Trevon Gross of scheming to conceal Coin.mx's activities from banks and regulators. They have yet to be sentenced.
The case is U.S. v. Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769.
BlackRock , the world's biggest asset manager, on Tuesday said it would buy a software company that helps businesses invest their cash, marking its second investment in a technology firm this month.
The world of financial technology - also known as "fintech" involves lots of buzzwords, jargon and often obscure terminology.
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Bitcoin exchange operator tied to hacks gets five-and-a-half years US prison - Reuters
Silk Road Bitcoin Felon Aims to Help the Industry He Corrupted – Investopedia
The burgeoning cryptocurrency industry has already drawn some charismatic and distinctive personalities to the forefront. One of the earliest important people within the world of Bitcoin is now preparing to make a comeback. Charlie Shrem was a Bitcoin pioneer, having founded a startup called BitInstant in 2011. BitInstant was a crucial early transaction facillitator, although it fell by the wayside in 2013. Shrem eventually went to federal prison after pleading guilty to involvement with a customer who acquired Bitcoins for resale purposes on the underground market called Silk Road. Now, months after his release, Shrem has plans to help to further strengthen the industry which has already grown so fast.
Besides his work with BitInstant, Shrem was an important early figure in the history of Bitcoin because of his widespread advocacy for the cryptocurrency. A 2013 GQ profile on the emergent currency featured Shrem, and he figured prominently in a documentary called The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin. According to a profile by Fortune, Shrem spoke frequently at industry conferences and co-founded an organization called the Bitcoin Foundation for the purposes of advocating on behalf of the digital currency.
In the Fortune profile, the author indicates that Shrem "claims he's no longer operating mainly for himself and instead wants to use his talents to strengthen the crypto-community." It's true that Shrem's work with Bitcoin made him a millionaire before sending him to prison. What will he do now?
Shrem has set his sights, at least in part, on working with Dash, one of the more recent additions to the cryptocurrency line-up as well as one of its fastest-growing members. Shrem proposed the creation of a prepaid debit card onto which users could load Dash coins. Those coins would be converted into dollars or other currency to be used at any business which accepts debit cards. Shrem's card is the first that could be used in the United States.
Shrem has also reportedly joined the startup Jaxx as head of business and community development. Jaxx aims to create digital wallets allowing users to hold multiple currencies. Founded by Anthony Di Iorio, co-founder of Ethereum, Jaxx looks to be at the forefront of a new wave in cryptocurrencies: when various blockchain networks can all communicate and partner with one another. These so-called "parachains" could help to propel the industry even further, bringing cryptocurrencies even more into the mainstream and allowing for extreme ease of transacting and exchanging between currencies. In this way, Shrem may have a hand in continuing to develop the cryptocurrency world as it looks ahead to the future.
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Silk Road Bitcoin Felon Aims to Help the Industry He Corrupted - Investopedia
Would you give bitcoin as a wedding gift? – MarketWatch
Forget dish sets and kitchen appliances, some couples are putting bitcoin on their wedding registries.
Some tech-savvy wedding-goers are gifting the digital currency to new couples, as its value surges to new highs. Like purchasing a stock or bond, buying bitcoin is all going well an investment in the future. Sounds crazy, right? Bitcoin is notoriously volatile. But if you got married in 2011 your $100 Bitcoin gift would be worth more than $238,000 today.
While people are giving bitcoin, there hasnt been a tipping point. Honeyfund, a honeymoon registry that allows guests to give cash rather than gifts, has seen more than a dozen customers donate in bitcoin, said chief executive officer and co-founder Sara Margulis. In recent years, more than a dozen customers have chosen to route donations to the site from bitcoin wallets. Zola, a wedding registry website, has had just two cash funds created for bitcoins since 2013, a spokeswoman said.
Business Insider editor Emily Cohn tweeted that the currency was given to her and her husband at their wedding and ultimately proved to be the best gift we got. Her husband Ben Eisen, a former MarketWatch reporter, wrote about the experience in The Wall Street Journal in 2016, noting that one bitcoin had been worth $230 around their wedding in September and had jumped to $430 by the end of the year. As of June 26, less than a year later, it is worth $2,383.
The unpredictable nature of the currency that paid off so well for this couple also means the gift may not be the best choice for the average wedding couple, said Neeraj Agrawal, a spokesman for bitcoin advocacy group Coin Center. Because it is so volatile and has a learning curve, use your best judgment on whether or not the happy couple would genuinely appreciate a cryptocurrency gift, he said.
If you do decide to gift in bitcoin, the same etiquette would apply to the currency that applies to cash gifts, Agrawal said, spending an appropriate amount fo money and accompanying it with a card. People should spend anywhere from $50 to $250 on a wedding gift depending on their relationship to the bride and groom, said etiquette expert Jacqueline Whitmore. Thats 0.02141 to 0.10719 in bitcoin at its current value. Friends of marrying couples give an average of $99, according to a study from American Express, and family members gift an average of $127.
Others wedding industry experts say bitcoin is about as common as gold coins from a pirate ship. That is, theyve never been asked to add it to their wedding gift registries. A spokeswoman for MyRegistry.com said theres no evidence any of the 153 million gifts added to their system since it began in 2005 were for Bitcoin.
I would expect it to pop more as millennials come into the wedding age, Honeyfunds Margulis said. Its something you will do if your friends and family are already into bitcoin not something most couples would do.
Thats another rule when gifting Bitcoin: Make sure to gift it only to people who are ready to dive into cryptocurrencies, Agrawal said. Though Eisen and Cohn are thrilled with their wedding gift and how much its grown, others may end up forgetting about the digital present and leave it wrapped up online. Avoid using a wedding gift as an opportunity to proselytize a technology you personally believe in, but the recipient could not care less about, Agrawal said.
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Would you give bitcoin as a wedding gift? - MarketWatch
Barclays spoke to regulators about bringing bitcoin ‘into play’ – CNBC
Barclays has been in discussions with regulators and financial technology or fintech firms about bringing cryptocurrencies like bitcoin "into play", the bank's U.K. chief executive told CNBC on Monday.
Ashok Vaswani revealed that the banking giant has met with Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) watchdog to talk about how to make bitcoin safe in response to a question about whether Barclays could support bitcoin.
"We have been talking to a couple of fintechs and have actually gone with the fintechs to the FCA to talk about how we could bring, the equivalent of bitcoin, not necessarily bitcoin, but cryptocurrencies into play," Vaswani told CNBC at the Money 20/20 fintech conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
"Obviously (it's) a new area, obviously an area we've got to be careful with. We are working our way through it."
Vaswani did not expand on to what extent Barclays could be involved with bitcoin. Barclays has recently been involved in the digital currency space. Last year the bank partnered with social payments app Circle. The start-up, which received a license from the FCA last year, allows users to send money to each other in messages, and supports bitcoin. Barclays provided Circle with an account to store sterling, as well as the payments network to transfer money.
Banks have typically been very cautious of being associated with any companies involved with bitcoin due to the cryptocurrencies bad reputation as being used to buy illegal items on the so-called "dark web".
But the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap has seen rising retail investor interest, as well as a major rally since the start of the year that has seen its price hit record highs. Even though the price has pulled back in recent days and there is still volatility, regulators are becoming interested in bitcoin, which is lending legitimacy to the digital currency.
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Barclays spoke to regulators about bringing bitcoin 'into play' - CNBC
Newsflash: Bitcoin Price Hits a 10-Day Low – CryptoCoinsNews
A gloomy Monday ushers Bitcoin in with a downward start to the week as prices fell 4.8% to hit a low of global average low of $2,459.72.
In a downturn that began late Sunday evening, bitcoin prices fell below $2,500 for the first time in over a week. On Bitstamp, bitcoin price hit a low of $2,432, reminding investors of the ongoing volatility with cryptocurrencies less than a fortnight of hitting an all-time high of $3,000.
At press time, figures from CoinmarketCap shows bitcoin price trading at just under $2,550, losing 4.69% on the day. Data shows a significant withdrawal from investors in US markets, followed by Asian and European trading markets.
The United States leads the global trading markets with over a third of the trading volume over a 24-hour period, followed by China, Japan and Korea. The three Asian markets are all seeing trading premiums, with the Korean market currently fielding a significant 15% premium in its spread over US-based markets. Bitcoin is currently valued above $2,900 in a country whose authorities are unable to agree on a uniform path toward regulating its local bitcoin industry despite a pro-FinTech and digital currency-friendly agenda set by the Korean government.
Meanwhile, bitcoin isnt the only currency to see a fall among the wider crypto-market at the start of the final week of June. Ethereum has seen bigger losses leading into Monday, trading under $300 per Ether as gloomy Monday awaits an upbeat turn to hit the green.
For a real-time bitcoin price chart, click here.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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Newsflash: Bitcoin Price Hits a 10-Day Low - CryptoCoinsNews
Where’s the Missing Mt. Gox Bitcoin, Now Worth $2 Billion? – Investopedia
Mt. Gox was one of the earliest and most public downfalls of the Bitcoin era. In early 2014, Mt. Gox stood atop the field of Bitcoin exchanges as the largest, until it declared bankruptcy following a devastating theft or disappearance. The exchange lost 850,000 Bitcoins with a value of about $450 million in February of 2014, alongside an additional $27 million in cash. 200,000 of those Bitcoins were eventually found, but that leaves 650,000 Bitcoins which have mysteriously disappeared. In the time since, many analysts, former Mt. Gox investors, and others have speculated as to where the missing currency is. This is particularly important as Bitcoin's price has soared in recent months: the missing Bitcoins could be worth as much as $2 billion at this point.
According to reporting by Cyberscoop, the investigator working on behalf of Mt. Gox's creditors, Chainalysis, "definitely" knows the location of the missing coins. This comes via congressional testimony made by the company's co-founder. This information emerged in the midst of a June 8 hearing by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit finance. The hearing centered on the national security implications involved in cryptocurrencies. Witnesses in the hearing were drawn from Chainalysis and Elliptic, both firms that have run investigations into cryptocurrency security. When Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, inquired about the reason the missing Bitcoins couldn't be traced considering that the transactions were tied to the Blockchain. "I was particularly struck by your opening remarks that we can detect the activity," he said. "It seems that if we have this ability...then we should be able to find the missing Mt. Gox coins. Why can't we?"
According to Jonathan Levin, co-founder of Chainalysis, "we actually did find those...the destination of those coins is definitely known." Davidson did not follow up on the location of the coins and Levin did not share that or other information about where the coins currently are, who has them, and how that will impact the ongoing cases involving Mt. Gox.
According to Jerry Brito, the executive director of Coin Center, "just because you know where they are may not mean you can get them back." Mark Karpeles, the CEO of Mt. Gox who was briefly jailed in 2015, has stated that "many popular rumors about Mt. Gox about the stolen Bitcoins not actually existing or being stolen by me are absolutely false."
It's possible that the hearing involved a miscommunication. Investigators have long known many of the specific transactions in which the coins were stolen. That does not necessarily mean that the location of the coins is currently available or that they are recoverable, however.
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Where's the Missing Mt. Gox Bitcoin, Now Worth $2 Billion? - Investopedia
Top Secret? Bitcoin Scaling Plan Segwit2x Leaves More Questions Than Answers – CoinDesk
After years of debate, the Segwit2x scaling proposallooks like it could play a role in finally taking bitcoin a step forward.
But the codersand companies involved have been doing at least someof thedevelopment behind closed doors, a way of workingthat some argue runs counter to bitcoin's value proposition as a decentralized money that no one person, or group, controls.
The project, which follows in a long line of proposals for increasing bitcoin's transaction capacity, is now supported by an all-time-high of nearly 90% of the bitcoin mining hashrate.
Since the current method of triggering majorcode changes relies on the support of mining pools, it seems likely that the first portionof the agreement, SegWit, will activate on the network by the end of July. (Although, it's hard to say what will happen with the rest of the proposal.)
But, while Segwit2x is perhaps the most widely-supported scaling agreement among companies and mining pools followingyears of debate, some have argued that key decisions are being made by an insular group of companies.
These companies, some argue, have continued pushing the proposal through even though many of the developers that are perhaps the most familiar with bitcoin's codefind fault with thetechnical implementation and disagree with thestated goals.
And those same companies have been elusive when it comes to details about the status of the proposal itself.
Segwit2xwas kick-started at an invite-only meetingcomprised of big companies and large mining pools in the space.
From the beginning, one of the main criticisms levied against Segwit2x is thatits development process isn'topen to everyone. And many argue this process doesn't jibewith bitcoin's history of open-source development.
There is certainly evidence to the contrary. Btc1, as the Segwit2x software implementation is called, is hosted on GitHub where any developer is welcome to point out bugs and suggest improvements. This open processhas indeed already led tomajor changesin the project's direction. Similarly, the mailing list is open for anyone in the community to at least peruse if not post to.
In other ways, the effort isstaying true to its secretive origin story.
There's an invite-only Slack group, where companies that originallypledged to contribute are represented, includingAbra, Bitfury, BitGo, BitPay, Blockchain, Bloq, BTCC, Ledger, RSK Labs and Xapo.
Others included in the Slack group are OB1, Purse and developers from the alternative bitcoin implementation Bitcoin XT, which aimed to increase bitcoin's block size parameter to 8MB in 2015.
Most of these companies and individuals who have committed developer resources, though, declined to provide specific information in response to CoinDesk requests to understandtheir involvement. Some companies did not respond at all.
Others confirmedthat they'reinvolved in development, but declined to be more specificabout which developers are involved and what they're working on.
"We are also contributing technical expertise to the Segwit2x code, which is in its test phase right now on a separate testnet," saidValery Vavilov, CEO of The BitFury Group.
Many company responses were similarly vague.
Yet Vavilov continued:
"We are also in the working group that is researching, building, reviewing and testing the upgrade, and will help businesses adopt the upgrade as well."
Companiesare currentlytestingthe code on the newly-deployed testnet. On Thursday, the group released a public testnet faucet, which producesfake bitcoins that developers can use.
A number of developers are tuned into the effort, as seen on the GitHub and the Segwit2x project mailing list. Those two resources make it easy to see a few of the people involved in development, including posted contributions fromBloq CEO Jeff Garzik and Purse.io CTO Christopher Jeffrey.
While Digital Currency Group (DCG) CEO Barry Silbert is often viewedas the public face and linchpin of the effort (its often calledthe "Silbert Agreement"), he noted he's "not involved on the development side at all", and so can't comment on the process any more than what's already been published.
Despite knowledge of the process, there are gaps inthe community's understanding ofwhat's being developed, such as who specifically is contributing to the effort and what they are contributing.
Those who are not contributing, according to Lightening Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark, are those who have disagreed with the proposal in some way.
Stark said her companyprovided technical feedback to Segwit2xbecause they didn't agree with the proposal for "various technical reasons". And according to Stark, they were not invited to participate further.
"This proposal has like zero developer consensus," she said, referring to Bitcoin Core developers, most of whom have outright rejectedthe project.
She added:
"Unfortunately, the [mailing] list is only for people that agree with Segwit2x."
Again, opponents said, thisphilosophy contrasts with bitcoin's open development process so far, which invites all developers to contribute their ideas. Aloose group of volunteer developers work on Bitcoin Core, for example, where development, for the most part, is done out in the open.
On the other hand, Segwit2x's closed approach to development"allows people to self-vindicate, and shields you from peer review and public commentary," wrote Blockstream CEO Adam Back inan email to the working group.
He continued:
"The forming of distinct and closed communication channels is not inviting review. Why would this project be special in needing to work in closed/controlled environments and not participate openly like the six or so other implementations and hundreds of developers across dozens of companies, institutions and individuals[?]"
Disclosure:CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Abra, BitGo, BitPay, Blockstream, Bloq, BTCC, Ledger, OB1, Purse.io, RSK Labs and Xapo.
Hands behind a blue doorimage via Shutterstock
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Top Secret? Bitcoin Scaling Plan Segwit2x Leaves More Questions Than Answers - CoinDesk
Bitcoin speculators are the new day traders – CNBC
Younger, tech-savvy people are also more likely to play the digital currency markets and the high risk involved, Sunnarborg said. He estimates that about two-thirds of investors in cryptocurrencies are under age 40.
That same age category is less likely to invest in the stock market. Just one-third of millennials, or adults currently aged 21 to 35, said they owned a stock in a Bankrate study last July. In contrast, 51 percent of Gen Xers, or those age 36 to 51, said they owned a stock, and 48 percent of baby boomers, ages 52 to 70, according to the survey of 1,000 American adults conducted for Bankrate by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.
"The next generation is suffering from the same thing that the Gen Xers suffered in the dot-com bust," Winer said. "They're playing all kind of markets that they know nothing about."
He was referring to the speculative trading that ended in the stock market's plunge in 2000.
Traders and market strategists also worry that a "fear of missing out trade" has helped send U.S. stocks deep into record territory the S&P 500 has posted 24 record closes this year and is up 9 percent over that time.
The difference is this time, typical measures of overexuberance may not apply to stocks.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch's June global fund manager survey found that while a record 44 percent of managers say stocks are overvalued, their cash holdings have actually moved up to 5 percent, higher than the 10-year average of 4.5 percent. There's "no irrational exuberance" in contrast with the 1999 bubble, the note said.
However, sluggish global growth and easy central bank policy could limit investment returns, while people remain wary about stock markets after the financial crisis.
"I do believe that in a market with few attractive alternatives, speculation tends to become rampant," said Daniel Alpert, a founding managing partner at Westwood Capital. "And it almost doesn't matter what people choose to speculate in, as long as they believe there is a fool greater than they out there somewhere."
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Bitcoin speculators are the new day traders - CNBC
Cramer: Bitcoin-ethereum craze boosts Nvidia and AMD, but it … – CNBC
There are many reasons for investors to buy chipmakers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, but the recent rush for an indirect way to play skyrocketing cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ethereum should not be one of them, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Friday.
"One of the reasons why AMD and Nvidia have been going up is their chips are used for mining, for cryptocurrency mining," Cramer told "Squawk on the Street." But he warned, "Do not play it for this is what I'm saying. But it is being played for that."
Bitcoin and ethereum miners use powerful graphics processing units or the computer chips on graphics cards to generate new cryptocurrency units, which can then be sold or held for future appreciation.
Cramer cited a recent note from RBC Capital Markets, which said the growing cryptocurrency mining market has contributed $100 million worth of GPU sales for Nvidia in the past 11 days alone. "AMD chips are the best ones for the ethereum platform," he added.
"Of course there are so many other uses for their chips, but a lot of retail people love bitcoin and are looking for a way to play it," Cramer said.
In the past 12 months, bitcoin has soared about 325 percent to around $2,703 per unit as of midmorning trading on Friday. Ethereum, the smaller bitcoin rival, has skyrocketed about 2,240 percent to around $328.
In the past month, as the cryptocurrency surges have been more widely reported, AMD shares have soared 33 percent and Nvidia stock has gained about 15 percent.
"You play Nvidia for artificial intelligence, for GPUs, for autonomous cars, and for gaming," he said. "You play AMD for gaming and they have a faster chip than Intel."
Buying the stocks for those reasons, not because of cryptocurrency mining, makes sense, Cramer concluded.
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Cramer: Bitcoin-ethereum craze boosts Nvidia and AMD, but it ... - CNBC