The Drug Enforcement Agency has seized 11.02 Bitcoins—about $800—from a drug dealer in South Carolina who had been using Silk Road. It’s the first (known) time the government has taken control of the virtual currency like it were property or real-world cash.
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Mt. Gox is a popular Bitcoin exchange firm that deals with Bitcoin-related transactions, whether it is transferring a physical denomination to exchange into the virtual currency, or exchanging the virtual currency for actual cash. Because of the traffic it receives, the company has been having increasing trouble keeping up with USD withdrawal requests, prompting it
It’s easy to see that the Bitcoin market is under stress when there’s rising overall activity and tighter oversight. However, it’s now so hectic that the Mt. Gox exchange has trouble fulfilling even basic transactions — and the institution is freezing US dollar withdrawals for two weeks to keep things in check. Mt. Gox’s team will use the downtime to upgrade its trading system and (hopefully) address the heavy workload. Deposits and transfers in American currency should still be good to go. Let’s just hope that Mt. Gox manages smoother transitions in the future — after all, not everyone can afford to leave their money in limbo during a tech refresh.
Filed under: Internet
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Mt. Gox
On April 20th 2013 China’s Sichuan Province was hit by an earthquake in Lushan County, Ya’an not too far from the epicentre of the last major earthquake in 2008. Donations were received by many organisations in hope that the funds would support the local population with disaster recovery and reconstruction.
Hao Qingchuan, Director of the One Foundation (Yi jijin) reached out to the tech community in China by welcoming donations in the internet currency Bitcoins (BTC). According to Hao Qingchuan’s sina weibo account the One Foundation created an address to which bitcoin holders could donate their Bitcoins. On the day following the quake they had already received 50 Bitcoins with a total market value of around US$6250 (based on April 21st prices).
Despite the small amount of money raised, it is the first time in China that any charity has offered to receive donations in Bitcoin and serves as an example to the growing interest in Bitcoin among Chinese netizens.
Recently China Central Television News programme Economy Half Hour (jingji banxiaoshi) produced a report on bitcoin in China which detailed the rising popularity of the digital currency. According to The Economic Observer Bitcoin enthusiasts in China refer to themselves as BTCers and Li Xiaolai who apparently holds the largest stockpile of bitcoins in the PRC describes Bitcoins as the “most stunning and most subversive social experiment in history.”
Quartz magazine believes that China is the next bull market for Bitcoin as it allows Chinese people to evade controls on foreign exchange and feel protected by its decentralised nature which the Chinese government cannot do much about. As the infographic above demonstrates, there are many things that Chinese BTCers could chose to buy with Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is growing in popularity as a way to make financial transactions in a wonderfully anonymous way. The obvious downside to such a reality is the same thing that ultimately took down Liberty Reserve earlier this week – criminal activities. To help cover itself in the face of such activities, Mt. Gox announced earlier today that users who wish to both deposit and withdraw money in a currency that isn’t Bitcoin will need account verification.
Verification will be accomplished by providing Mt. Gox with some type of identification, such as a passport or driver’s license, or other types such as a utility bill or other similar info. Failure to provide such information will result in an inability to withdraw the cash equivalent of a Bitcoin balance. Such a change will impact a great deal of Bitcoin users, considering it is responsible for at least 50-percent of Bitcoin trades.
In the announcement on its website, Mt. Gox said: “The Bitcoin market continues to evolve, as do regulations and conditions of compliance for Mt. Gox to continue bringing secure services to our customers. It [is] our responsibility to provide a trusted and legal exchange, and that includes making sure that we are operating within strict anti-money laundering rules and preventing other malicious activity.”
The obvious sticking point here for many people is the eradication of one of the features that makes Bitcoin so popular – the end of anonymity. By providing identification, one is no longer an anonymous user. On one hand, it could be argued that those with pure intentions should have no issue offering such identification. On the flip side, others argue that being anonymous should not be a crime, and should not be made unavailable as a means to help prevent such.
For Mt. Gox, the side of the argument it stands on is obvious. This move comes after some scrapings with the US government, such as earlier in May when Mutum Sigullum, its US intermediary, had the Department of Homeland Security seize its accounts. The reason? Failure to register as a money transmitter, according to Forbes. It is no secret the US government is not fond of virtual currencies, and such a move on Mt. Gox’s part is no doubt an effort to avoid too much grief.
SOURCE: Forbes
Mt. Gox adds account verification requirement for non-Bitcoin currencies is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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While the Bitcoin market is advancing toward legitimacy in the financial world, that also means closer legal scrutiny — and the Mt. Gox exchange is tightening its policies to match. As of today, the institution requires verification for every non-Bitcoin deposit or withdrawal. The move keeps Mt. Gox in line with “strict anti-money laundering rules,” and it reduces the chances that security breaches will spark chaos. Verification won’t be necessary for pure Bitcoin transactions, the exchange says. Some traders see the new rule spoiling dreams of a truly borderless currency, but it may help reassure those still skittish about virtual cash.
Filed under: Internet
Via: CNBC
Source: Mt. Gox
It’s almost impossible for the average computer to mine Bitcoins in any efficient way, hence the rise of Bitcoin mining machines so tuned to their specific purpose that they barely resemble PCs. To wit: the Cryonic Bitcoin FrostBit machine is a PC in name only and contains a liquid nitrogen generator, special ASIC chips, and a price tag that would make the Winklevii twins think twice.
“It’s the first time a ‘PC’ has been built for consumers with built-in liquid nitrogen generators. We use helium compression technology to super-cool condensers that in turn condense nitrogen air into its liquid form. There’s nothing even remotely similar available to the consumers,” said CEO of Cryoniks, Inc. Fahad Koumaiha. “By sustaining cryonic temperatures we were able to achieve superconductivity with our custom designed ASIC processors. Not only do we get a huge boost in speed, but we cut down power consumption to around 2800W per unit; significantly less than anything on the market today.”
The PC hits a peak of 2800W – the average PC hits 200W on a bad day – but the device can perform 1000 Gigahashes a second. To put that in perspective a strong PC with good graphics card can hit about 100 MH/S and in my experience I haven’t been able to get any my machines to hit higher than 50 MH/S. It’s a powerful claim.
What are you going to pay for this ridiculous machine? Try a cool $15,000, which, sadly, you can’t pay for in BTC.
Can this thing really pay for itself? Probably, but not immediately. There are some BTC fans who believe a $10,000 BTC isn’t too far off and if that happens the potential benefits of this machine far outweighs the cost. They are planning on shipping this monster in July so if you’re seriously into mining, it may be worth a look. Everyone else? Be satisfied with your low GH/S. It’s a cryonic, nitrogen-cooled world out there and we’re just visiting.
UPDATE – Further discussions with both the company and BTC fans have led me to believe this is more or less an impossible device however the company has offered to allow me to try one of their machines when they begin shipping and, at that point, I will post a follow-up. At this time I would not recommend leaving money in their hands until such a time as an independent reviewer has seen the device.
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
With all of the recent chatter about the rise of Bitcoin, a number of theories have been put forth as to how the “digital gold” achieved its status. In this week’s issue of our slate mag, we examine whether the so-called virtual currency is the prototype for a digital economy or if the anonymity that it carries will lead to black market dealings. As far as reviews go, HP’s ElitePad 900 and Sony’s Xperia XP both get extended time in the hands of our editors. Eyes-On takes to the streets of San Francisco with Stealth’s Bomber, Hands-On tackles the latest from Google I/O and Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinksi offers up his thoughts on next-gen gaming. The weekend is almost here, so we’ll let you get right to it via the usual download links that follow.
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Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile
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