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2013-09-20 03:40:02+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [359]}

{}

Hackers offered cash, booze to crack iPhone fingerprint security

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hackers-offered-cash-booze-crack-034002773.html

Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/

By Jim Finkle BOSTON (Reuters) - Hackers are gearing up for Friday's iPhone 5S release with a contest to crack the device's first-ever fingerprint scanner, a high-tech feature that Apple Inc says makes users' data more secure. A micro venture capital firm joined a group of security researchers to offer more than $13,000 in cash along with bottles of booze, Bitcoin currency, books and other goodies to the first hacker who breaks the device in a contest promoted on the website http://istouchidhackedyet.com/. Arturas Rosenbacher, founding partner of Chicago's IO Capital, which donated $10,000 to the hacking competition, said that the effort will bring together some of the hacking community's smartest minds to help Apple identify bugs that it may have missed. "This is to fix a problem before it becomes a problem," he said. "This will make things safer." Meanwhile, Forbes.com reported that a 36-year-old soldier living in Spain's Canary Islands, Jose Rodriguez, has already uncovered a security vulnerability affecting iOS 7, which Apple began distributing to existing iPhone and iPad customers on Wednesday. The publication said that it is possible to bypass the lock screen of those devices in seconds to access photos, email, Twitter and other applications. It included a video demonstration on its website and advice on how users could thwart the bypass technique: http://onforb.es/16IU6Y3 Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told Reuters that the company was preparing a fix that it would deliver as an update to iOS 7 when it was ready. "Apple takes user security very seriously," she said. Among those getting ready for the hacking contest is David Kennedy, a former U.S. Marine Corps cyber-intelligence analyst who did two tours in Iraq and now runs his own consulting firm, TrustedSec LLC. "I am just waiting to get my hands on it to figure out how to get around it first," the founder of the DerbyCon hacking conference told the Thomson Reuters Global Markets Forum this week. "I'll be up all night trying." Story continues WHY WORRY? Security experts worry about the implications of using the module to grant access to sensitive data on the phone and potentially enabling mobile purchases. The fingerprint scanner on the top-of-the-line iPhone lets users unlock their devices or make purchases on iTunes by simply pressing their finger on the home button. It has been hailed as a major step in popularizing the use of biometrics in personal electronics. Security engineer Charlie Miller, known in hacking circles for uncovering major bugs in the iPhone as well as circumventing security in Apple's App Store, said it could take fewer than two weeks for Kennedy or some other smart hacker to get around the new lock. Once they're in, they could gain access to the cornucopia of data typically stored on a user's iPhone and might potentially be able to buy goods from iTunes and Apple's App store. Miller declined to comment on the hacking contest or potential security vulnerabilities in the fingerprint reader. To be sure, experts say they know of nothing intrinsically wrong with Apple's fingerprint reader, based on what the company has so far disclosed. Reviewers this week gushed over its ease of use and reliability. The reader's sapphire crystal sensor is embedded in the phone's home button and reviews the fingerprint as a user touches it to verify his or her identity. Data used for verification is encrypted and stored in a secure enclave of the phone's A7 processor chip. No information is sent to any remote servers, including Apple's iCloud system. HD Moore, a hacking expert and chief researcher with the security software maker Rapid7, said such protections mean "the bar is a little bit higher," but that certainly won't discourage hackers from trying to break the new technology. "This is definitely something to target and something people will want to go after," he said. NOTHING PERSONAL Apple shouldn't take hackers' enthusiasm personally. All major electronics products are subjected to similar scrutiny as new features are rolled out, including devices from Google Inc, Microsoft Corp and Samsung Electronics Co. For example, in 2012, Charlie Miller led a team that demonstrated techniques for taking over smartphones running Google's Android software through their use of near-field communications, or NFC, a wireless technology used for sharing data or making purchases at point-of-sales terminals. Bugs are often disclosed by "white hats," hackers who unearth flaws and report them so manufacturers can repair them, preventing criminal exploitation. The hope is the good guys find them before "black hats" uncover them. White hats have found multiple security issues with iPhones, iPads and in the App store since Apple launched its first smartphone in 2007. They say that scrutiny has helped make it one of the most secure devices on the market today. Apple executives said at last week's iPhone launch that the new fingerprint reader, dubbed Touch ID, will help make phones far more secure by dint of its ease of use. About half of all smartphone users don't bother to use current screen-locking technology because of the inconvenience of keying in multiple-digit passwords. Apple is betting users may be far more willing to avail themselves of a solution that requires a single finger-swipe. "The technology within Touch ID is some of the most advanced hardware and software we put in any device," Dan Riccio, senior vice president of hardware engineering, said at the event. Kennedy said he needs to examine the new iPhone to figure out how to best attempt an attack. He said his choices include hacking the software that analyzes the fingerprint data, or physically opening up the phone and connecting it to a custom-built device that would impersonate Apple's fingerprint reader. He added that it might be possible to lift a user's fingerprint from elsewhere on the device and somehow make a clone of it. Rich Mogul, an analyst with the security research firm Securosis, said he planned to use it and expects it to be widely adopted despite the fact that hackers are circling. "Nobody has gotten their hands on it to see what the weaknesses are and how easy it is to crack," Mogul said. "We'll have to wait to see." (Editing by Edwin Chan, Andrew Hay, Cynthia Osterman and Kenneth Barry)

2013-09-20 08:32:08+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [370]}

{}

Hackers offered cash, booze to crack iPhone fingerprint security

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hackers-offered-cash-booze-crack-083208642.html

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/

By Jim Finkle BOSTON (Reuters) - Hackers are gearing up for Friday's iPhone 5S release with a contest to crack the device's first-ever fingerprint scanner, a high-tech feature that Apple Inc (NSQ:AAPL) says makes users' data more secure. A micro venture capital firm joined a group of security researchers to offer more than $13,000 in cash along with bottles of booze, Bitcoin currency, books and other goodies to the first hacker who breaks the device in a contest promoted on the website http://istouchidhackedyet.com/. Arturas Rosenbacher, founding partner of Chicago's IO Capital, which donated $10,000 to the hacking competition, said that the effort will bring together some of the hacking community's smartest minds to help Apple identify bugs that it may have missed. "This is to fix a problem before it becomes a problem," he said. "This will make things safer." Meanwhile, Forbes.com reported that a 36-year-old soldier living in Spain's Canary Islands, Jose Rodriguez, has already uncovered a security vulnerability affecting iOS 7, which Apple began distributing to existing iPhone and iPad customers on Wednesday. The publication said that it is possible to bypass the lock screen of those devices in seconds to access photos, email, Twitter and other applications. It included a video demonstration on its website and advice on how users could thwart the bypass technique: http://onforb.es/16IU6Y3 Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told Reuters that the company was preparing a fix that it would deliver as an update to iOS 7 when it was ready. "Apple takes user security very seriously," she said. Among those getting ready for the hacking contest is David Kennedy, a former U.S. Marine Corps cyber-intelligence analyst who did two tours in Iraq and now runs his own consulting firm, TrustedSec LLC. "I am just waiting to get my hands on it to figure out how to get around it first," the founder of the DerbyCon hacking conference told the Thomson Reuters Global Markets Forum this week. "I'll be up all night trying." Story continues WHY WORRY? Security experts worry about the implications of using the module to grant access to sensitive data on the phone and potentially enabling mobile purchases. The fingerprint scanner on the top-of-the-line iPhone lets users unlock their devices or make purchases on iTunes by simply pressing their finger on the home button. It has been hailed as a major step in popularizing the use of biometrics in personal electronics. Security engineer Charlie Miller, known in hacking circles for uncovering major bugs in the iPhone as well as circumventing security in Apple's App Store, said it could take fewer than two weeks for Kennedy or some other smart hacker to get around the new lock. Once they're in, they could gain access to the cornucopia of data typically stored on a user's iPhone and might potentially be able to buy goods from iTunes and Apple's App store. Miller declined to comment on the hacking contest or potential security vulnerabilities in the fingerprint reader. To be sure, experts say they know of nothing intrinsically wrong with Apple's fingerprint reader, based on what the company has so far disclosed. Reviewers this week gushed over its ease of use and reliability. The reader's sapphire crystal sensor is embedded in the phone's home button and reviews the fingerprint as a user touches it to verify his or her identity. Data used for verification is encrypted and stored in a secure enclave of the phone's A7 processor chip. No information is sent to any remote servers, including Apple's iCloud system. HD Moore, a hacking expert and chief researcher with the security software maker Rapid7, said such protections mean "the bar is a little bit higher," but that certainly won't discourage hackers from trying to break the new technology. "This is definitely something to target and something people will want to go after," he said. NOTHING PERSONAL Apple shouldn't take hackers' enthusiasm personally. All major electronics products are subjected to similar scrutiny as new features are rolled out, including devices from Google Inc (NSQ:GOOG), Microsoft Corp (NSQ:MSFT) and Samsung Electronics Co . For example, in 2012, Charlie Miller led a team that demonstrated techniques for taking over smartphones running Google's Android software through their use of near-field communications, or NFC, a wireless technology used for sharing data or making purchases at point-of-sales terminals. Bugs are often disclosed by "white hats," hackers who unearth flaws and report them so manufacturers can repair them, preventing criminal exploitation. The hope is the good guys find them before "black hats" uncover them. White hats have found multiple security issues with iPhones, iPads and in the App store since Apple launched its first smartphone in 2007. They say that scrutiny has helped make it one of the most secure devices on the market today. Apple executives said at last week's iPhone launch that the new fingerprint reader, dubbed Touch ID, will help make phones far more secure by dint of its ease of use. About half of all smartphone users don't bother to use current screen-locking technology because of the inconvenience of keying in multiple-digit passwords. Apple is betting users may be far more willing to avail themselves of a solution that requires a single finger-swipe. "The technology within Touch ID is some of the most advanced hardware and software we put in any device," Dan Riccio, senior vice president of hardware engineering, said at the event. Kennedy said he needs to examine the new iPhone to figure out how to best attempt an attack. He said his choices include hacking the software that analyzes the fingerprint data, or physically opening up the phone and connecting it to a custom-built device that would impersonate Apple's fingerprint reader. He added that it might be possible to lift a user's fingerprint from elsewhere on the device and somehow make a clone of it. Rich Mogul, an analyst with the security research firm Securosis, said he planned to use it and expects it to be widely adopted despite the fact that hackers are circling. "Nobody has gotten their hands on it to see what the weaknesses are and how easy it is to crack," Mogul said. "We'll have to wait to see." (Editing by Edwin Chan, Andrew Hay, Cynthia Osterman and Kenneth Barry)

2013-09-20 15:40:51+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [91, 289, 333, 436, 533, 584, 641, 772, 981, 1070]}

{"Bitcoin": [43]}

A Homeless Florida Man Is Alive Because Of Bitcoin

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/homeless-florida-man-alive-because-154051880.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

bitcoin Flickr / zcopley Wired reports on a Pennsacola, FL man named Jesse Angle who earns Bitcoins however he can. They quite literally help keep him alive. Using the free Wi-Fi in an area park called Martin Luther King Plaza, Angle watches YouTube videos for roughly five cents worth of Bitcoin per pop as part of a service called BitcoinGet, a means to artificially drive traffic to video content, but it's one of Angle's sources of Bitcoin income. He can watch up to 12 videos a day, netting him 60 cents at a time. He also uses Bitcoin Tapper, an app that dispenses fractions of Bitcoins with every tap of an icon. Since setting up his Bitcoin wallet three to four months ago, Angle has grinded it out to earn somewhere between $500 and $630 of the digital currency. Bitcoin income supplements his food stamps and affords him a bit more comfort as he goes about his life. There's a really cool Pennsacola charity called Sean's Outpost that takes donations for the homeless in Bitcoin instead of regular currency. So far the organization has raised $32,000 worth of Bitcoin for the area's homeless. More From Business Insider Tim Cook Is In The Palo Alto Apple Store Right Now Check Out Leafly, The Yelp For Marijuana Here's How iOS 7 Has Already Changed The Look Of Your Apps

2013-09-25 02:58:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [42, 119, 205, 367, 390, 571, 692, 760, 867, 929, 993, 1022, 1112, 1323, 1351, 1396, 1483, 1513, 1559, 1773, 1813, 1862, 1892, 1965, 2029, 2083, 2155, 2184, 2240, 2296, 2464, 2562, 2616, 2715, 2801, 2855, 2873, 2966]}

{"Bitcoin": [4]}

The Bitcoin Catalog’s Second Print Edition Launches This November

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-catalog-second-print-edition-025800783.html

ACCESSWIRE

https://www.accesswire.com/

September 25th, 2013 / Accesswire / - The Bitcoin Catalog duplicates the simplicity of the Yellow Pages for the global Bitcoin community. The free PDF version of the First Edition, which featured over 300 Bitcoin merchants, was downloaded and viewed more than 5000 times in the first three months after launch. Demonstrating the demand for its unique overview of the Bitcoin landscape; The Bitcoin Catalog website has served more than 25,000 unique hits to the free online version since launching on May 5, 2013. The Second Edition will be released this November and The Bitcoin Catalog is on track to triple the traffic and downloads of the First Edition. Advertisements can be purchased by Bitcoin merchants and businesses worldwide until October 19th 2013. Bitcoin businesses, merchants and projects can get listed in the next edition for just $5 or equivalent in Bitcoin. The full box package which includes a description of Bitcoin businesses and their logo, is available for just $30 or Bitcoin equivalent. For $150 Bitcoin businesses will get massive exposure through a banner ad on the front page of The Bitcoin Catalog’s website and prominent placement in the sponsors’ section of the Catalog itself. The Catalog is also selling a limited number of full page ads for the Second Edition and payment for these is in Bitcoin only. To ensure the Bitcoin businesses which are featured in The Bitcoin Catalog get as much exposure as possible, the Catalog is marketing to both new Bitcoin users and established Bitcoiners in a variety of ways. The “What is Bitcoin” page on the Catalog’s website is being aggressively marketed via Facebook ads, Twitter, Google Adwords and through the expertise of the Catalog’s in-house SEO specialist. To further spread the word in the Bitcoin space, the Catalog’s partners - Bitcoin cost-per-click network Anonymous Ads and Bitcoin Press Release service Bitcoin PR Buzz - are actively engaged in spreading the word through the Bitcoin ecosystem. In an effort to attract more people into the Bitcoin community, the Catalog has partnered with The Bitcoin Education Project, which is also actively involved in marketing Bitcoin. Story continues The Bitcoin Catalog strives to build connections within the Bitcoin community; continuing to work with The Montreal Bitcoin Embassy and hoping that other cities will form similar institutions. The Catalog itself has a modern design and readers can flick through four main categories: Bitcoin related, goods, services and local. In addition to the Catalog’s marketing campaigns, The Bitcoin Catalog will also continue their very popular Bitcoin giveaway in their next issue. With BitPay recently announcing they are serving over 10 000 Bitcoin online businesses worldwide, the unprecedented concept of a print and digital Bitcoin Catalog is more necessary than ever. With The Bitcoin Catalog , Bitcoin businesses, projects and merchants across the globe can reach their target market of Bitcoin enthusiasts with ease. Visit http://thebitcoincatalog.com/ for more information. Contact Info Name: Antony Ferland Email: [email protected]

2013-09-25 03:01:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [73, 158, 259, 475, 624, 1492, 1616, 1729, 1845]}

{"Bitcoin": [0]}

Bitcoin Binary Options Trading Platform Opens For Trading – World First

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-binary-options-trading-platform-030100616.html

ACCESSWIRE

https://www.accesswire.com/

September 25th, 2013 / Accesswire / - While the market capitalization of Bitcoin has grown tenfold and millions of dollars worth of new investments made, the Bitcoin merchant economy has only seen a fraction of that growth. This suggests that many are buying Bitcoin and trading them speculatively: enjoying the volatility and potentially high profits available by trading in the cryptocurrency. Capitalizing on this trend is recently launched BTCLevels; the first dedicated Bitcoin binary options trading platform , enabling anyone worldwide to open long or short positions and speculate and potentially profit on volatile Bitcoin price movements. The BTCLevels trading page provides the user with up-to-date news and trading information; taking as much guess work out of opening a position as possible. Taking its listings and prices directly from MtGox in real time also means that the user gets an absolutely fair opportunity to make the smartest trade possible. The binary options expire every 3 minutes and are displayed on a rolling graph that can be set according to the preferred time periods - ranging from between 1 minute to a week. Designed to be as intuitive and easy to use as possible, opening positions on BTCLevels is done in two clicks and requires no registration. Although registration is available to those users who seek facilitated functionality and a better user experience. BTCLevels.com is where "you can make money completely hassle-free by forecasting short-term Bitcoin exchange rate fluctuations" and given the abundance of traders worldwide who enjoy speculating on the volatility of Bitcoin price permutations, BTCLevels is sure to be a lucrative start-up and one to keep an eye on. As the first Bitcoin-only binary options trading platform to be released, BTCLevels is poised to become a hit with the countless Bitcoin speculators looking to expand the professional trading instruments at their disposal. Visit http://btclevels.com/ for more information. Story continues Contact Info Name: Jordan Thaxton Email: [email protected]

2013-09-26 04:58:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [40, 83, 119, 249, 325, 481, 561, 646, 796, 805, 895, 1024, 1166, 1309, 1601, 1655, 1713, 1734]}

{"Bitcoin": [13]}

The Evolving Bitcoin Landscape in Canada

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/evolving-bitcoin-landscape-canada-045800592.html

ACCESSWIRE

https://www.accesswire.com/

September 26th, 2013 /Accesswire/ - The Bitcoin Catalog is the world’s first print Bitcoin Catalog; featuring over 300 Bitcoin businesses and with the second edition due to come out this November. The first catalog was downloaded over 5000 times by Bitcoin enthusiasts worldwide. The Canadian Virtual Exchange is the largest Bitcoin to Canadian Dollar exchange in Canada; having traded over $27.2 Million CAD and rapidly expanding with a huge demand for its services. The Montreal Bitcoin Embassy is a non-profit organization seeking to promote the adoption of Bitcoin and related crypto-technologies, as well as facilitating networking with the Bitcoin community throughout Quebec and Canada. Its mission includes informing, educating and assisting individuals and merchants alike on the use of Bitcoin. Bitcoin online gaming has evolved into a multi million dollar online industry. The iconic Bitcoin Dice Site SatoshiDice sold for $11.5 Million USD this past July. While services have been launched worldwide, the online Bitcoin gaming landscape in Canada has been relatively non-existent – until now. 777Coin launched earlier this year; one of the most original Bitcoin gaming platforms to be launched for months. All games are proprietary and have been developed in house by the owner David; a long time Bitcoin enthusiast who goes by the moniker lightlord on the bitcointalk forums. Due to the original games on offer, provably fair technology and high paying affiliate program 777Coin has been steadily rising in popularity month after month since its launch. Canada has a healthy and thriving Bitcoin ecosystem; featuring one of the most original Bitcoin gaming platforms in the world , the world’s first Bitcoin Embassy, The Bitcoin Catalog and The Canadian Virtual Exchange. Visit http://777coin.com for more information. Contact Info Name: David Govinder Hunt Email: [email protected]

2013-09-26 21:16:05+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [54, 123, 167, 204, 322, 359, 403, 513, 569, 639, 667, 757, 945, 1011, 1097, 1183, 1369, 1592]}

{"Bitcoin": [9]}

Is a New Bitcoin Trust from SecondMarket for You?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-trust-secondmarket-211605849.html

24/7 Wall St.

http://247wallst.com

You have certainly heard of the craze and hype behind Bitcoin by now. Perhaps you have even heard of the efforts to "game" Bitcoin and to further push the adoption of Bitcoin. The Winklevoss twins want a Bitcoin ETF. Regulators (and likely central bankers) are taking a slow and measured look at how to regulate or police Bitcoin. Now there is a new fund for Bitcoin being promoted by SecondMarket. The Bitcoin Investment Trust is being launched as a private and open-ended trust which is invested exclusively in Bitcoins and derives its value solely from the price of Bitcoin. Barry Silbert, CEO of SecondMarket, offers excitement behind Bitcoin. He also warns that Bitcoin "faces regulatory hurdles and widespread adoption concerns that make investing in Bitcoin a very risky proposition." ALSO READ: Ten Brands That Will Disappear in 2014 To take matters of risk even further, Mr. Silbert said, "There is a real possibility that the price of Bitcoin drops to zero. It is challenging to buy, store and secure Bitcoin, and many investors simply don’t want to deal with the hassle of it." The new Bitcoin Investment Trust is targeted at only accredited investors who are looking for Bitcoin exposure through an investment vehicle as opposed to a direct investment. ALSO READ: The Cars Americans Do Not Want to Buy 24/7 Wall St. has always had some serious concern with Bitcoin despite wanting to have a virtual currency of sorts that finally survives and thrives in an age where currency transactions of all forms are closely monitored and regulated by international agencies. Unfortunately, Bitcoin does still come with major risks and caveats that many traditional owners might simply not understand or be comfortable with. SecondMarket's pitch sheet is here. As with all new investment vehicles and new investor trends, particularly a virtual currency that acts to mimic real currency, caveat emptor. Related Articles America's Richest (and Poorest) States States Where the Most People Go Hungry The Worst States to Be Unemployed

2013-09-27 12:36:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [590]}

{"Bitcoin": [51]}

This VC Is Pumping MIllions Of Dollars Into Drone, Bitcoin, And 3D Printing Startups

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/no-one-having-more-fun-123648526.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Chris Dixon's career is the one you want. First he founded a startup called Site Advisor. He sold it to McAfee for millions of dollars. Then he cofounded Hunch, which he sold to eBay for millions and millions of dollars. All the while, he invested in startups on the side. Now startup investing is Dixon's full-time job. Since the Spring, he's been a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a deeply-admired venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. There, Dixon is writing huge, multi-million dollar checks to fund startups working on truly futuristic technologies, such as drones, 3D printing, and Bitcoin. Obviously, he is having a blast. We asked Dixon about what he's up to. Watch, here: <div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div> Edited by Justin Gmoser More From Business Insider TOP VC: We're At War, And Hackers Are Probably Looking At Your Files Right Now Chris Dixon Explains The REAL Difference Between The New York And Silicon Valley Startup Scenes Proof That The Fingerprint Sensor On The iPhone 5S Isn't Just A Gimmick

2013-09-28 03:19:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [11, 323, 364, 414, 641, 1716, 1751, 1813, 1846, 1926, 2043], "BTC": [403, 2418, 2683]}

{"Bitcoin": [10]}

Automatic Bitcoin Trading Robot Butter-Bot Rising in Popularity

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/automatic-bitcoin-trading-robot-butter-031900129.html

ACCESSWIRE

https://www.accesswire.com/

Butter-Bot Bitcoin trading robot was launched in early 2013 by Tradcom South America; a South American company established in 2007 specialising in virtual currencies and digital goods. September 27th, 2013 / ACCESSWIRE / - Backed by a professional company, experienced developers and a reliable support team the Butter-Bot Bitcoin trading robot supports automatic Bitcoin trading on MtGox, Bitstamp and BTC-e. The Bitcoin trading bot features an automated EMA based trading engine and a fully customizable trading strategy. Butter-Bot development is fast paced and the team plans on continuing to introduce unprecedented new features to the Bitcoin trading ecosystem. The bot has been designed to be as user friendly as possible: installation is a one click process and Windows, MacOS and Linux are supported. Customers simply set up their API credentials, click “Apply Settings,” and Butter-Bot will start trading automatically on the customer’s behalf. Advanced users can customize the bot’s trading strategy to suit their personal goals and needs. This includes access to a powerful back-testing engine, the secure API, and the server back-end for fast and robust data retrieval. Email notifications can be configured to notify users when buy and sell orders are imminent or executed. All Butter-Bot subscriptions include unlimited support from Tradcom’s professional support team. Butter-Bot uses the same EMA (Exponential Moving Average) logic that professional financial traders use to trade currencies worldwide. Over at the bitcointalk forums the Butter-Bot thread is full of happy customers and team leader Pablo is always on hand to help if any issues arise. Butter-Bot is the most advanced and accessible Bitcoin trading robot available to Bitcoin traders today; thus the team is rapidly cornering the Bitcoin trading robot market. As Bitcoin keeps exploding in popularity worldwide, the professional and hands-off Bitcoin trading made available by Butter-Bot is a welcome addition to the financial instruments available to serious Bitcoin speculators. The team has plans to integrate alternative digital currency trading into the next version of Butter-Bot and this will be a free upgrade for existing subscribers, enabling customers to take advantage of the volatility inherent to alternative digital currencies. Story continues Butter-Bot’s Full Specifications: - Supports trading on MtGox, Bitstamp and BTC-e - Fully automated EMA based trading engine - Server backend for increased stability and performance - Powerful backtesting engine to find optimal settings - Email notifications on imminent and executed orders - Fully customizable trading strategy - FIAT- and BTC-Reserves lets users trade with only part of their funds - Option to temporarily disable automatic trading when users want to take over control - Graphs give a good overview about price and trend development - Trailing Stop Loss orders Visit http://butter-bot.com/ for more information. Contact Info Name: Pablo Lema Organization: Tradcom South America Email: [email protected]

2013-10-01 23:47:03+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [140, 335, 788, 1133, 1602, 2371, 2476, 2732, 3051, 3355, 3694, 3993, 4401, 5070]}

{"Bitcoin": [0]}

Bitcoin buzz grows among venture investors, despite risks

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-buzz-grows-among-venture-234703900.html

Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/

By Wanfeng Zhou and Nick Olivari NEW YORK (Reuters) - Venture capitalists show no sign of shying away from investing in startups related to Bitcoin even as authorities step up their scrutiny of the virtual currency and its possible connection to money laundering and other illegal activities. Investment has jumped in recent months as Bitcoin, the prominent digital currency not backed by a government or central bank, has begun to gain a footing among businesses and consumers, a key step for it to go mainstream. Startups such as Coinbase and BitPay Inc, which help facilitate bitcoin adoption by merchants and consumers, have raised millions of dollars so far. Interest is also growing in bitcoin trading, investment funds, and "mining" - the process of creating the digital currency. Bitcoin, until recently a niche alternative currency touted by computer geeks and anti-government advocates, has garnered attention from a growing list of notable investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, which has invested in Facebook Inc, Twitter and Groupon Inc, and Founders Fund, which includes three founders of PayPal. Some devotees promote Bitcoin, which exists solely in cyber form, as the future of money, and in some investing circles it has created a buzz reminiscent of the early Internet age. "What keeps me up at night is 'are we missing out on investments?' because if this is what I think it can be, we will regret not being even more active," said Micky Malka, founder of Palo Alto, California-based Ribbit Capital, which has invested in three bitcoin firms, including San Francisco-based Coinbase. Bitcoin startups raised nearly $12 million from venture capital investors in seven deals in the three months ended June, according to CB Insights, a New York-based venture capital data firm. That compares with just five deals totaling less than $2 million in the previous four quarters. More money is expected to flow into the bitcoin market, where the amount of venture capital financing remains modest compared with some sectors like social networking. Some industry participants estimate available money for funding ranges from $65 million to $100 million, while the number of bitcoin startups in the United States is probably in the hundreds. Story continues Last week, SecondMarket, a platform for facilitating investment in privately held companies, launched the Bitcoin Investment Trust, which allows sophisticated investors to gain exposure to the price movement of Bitcoin without the risks of direct bitcoin ownership. The move comes three months after Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twin brothers famous for their legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg over the founding of Facebook, filed plans to launch the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, an exchange-traded product that would allow investors to trade the digital currency like stocks. There are 11.7 million bitcoins in circulation, with a market capitalization of over $1.7 billion. The price of bitcoin is currently around $142, down from more than $250 in April. Investors say they expect Bitcoin to grow in popularity in businesses related to storage, payment processing, remittance and micro transactions. The key is finding the right entrepreneurs to build the best consumer-friendly applications. Coinbase, a virtual wallet and platform where merchants and consumers can do business using Bitcoin, said on its website that it has about 282,000 users and handles 175,000 transactions a month. The firm has raised more than $6 million. Fees charged by bitcoin firms are typically far less than those charged by banks, credit card companies or other online payment processors. Coinbase charges merchants a 1 percent fee to convert Bitcoin into local currencies, but is currently waiving it for the first $1 million. Atlanta-based BitPay charges a flat 0.99 percent fee. The firm, which has raised $2.7 million, said over 10,000 approved merchants in 164 countries use its platform to accept bitcoin payments. Supporters say using Bitcoin offers benefits including faster speed, lower fraud risk and increased privacy, though critics argue the anonymity it offers makes the currency a magnet for drug transactions, money-laundering and other illegal activities. HIGHLY RISKY Regulators have ramped up scrutiny of digital currencies. In August, New York's top banking regulator issued subpoenas to about two dozen companies associated with Bitcoin. Earlier this year, U.S. prosecutors accused Liberty Reserve's Costa Rica-based operations of laundering about $6 billion. Legal troubles can also deter investors. In July, a lawsuit was filed against New York-based BitInstant LLC, accusing the firm of making "false representations about its services and the inflated fees that it failed to refund as promised." BitInstant operates a platform for bitcoin transfers and has received $1.5 million from the Winklevoss brothers. BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem said the firm "is committed to doing the right thing and it will be vigorously defending itself against these allegations, which it believes are not true." Bitcoin advocates say a lot of the concerns have to do with fear of the unknown, and more regulatory clarity will bolster the currency's use. Until then, bitcoin investing will remain highly speculative. An added risk is that, unlike investing in startups in established areas such as social media, generating long-running returns from a bitcoin company relies on the currency proving to be more than a passing fad. Even some active players do not give high odds to that: BitPay Co-founder and CEO Anthony Gallippi estimates an 80 percent chance the value of bitcoin could go to zero. Still, given the prospect, however slim, for a big windfall, investors with the right risk tolerance are finding it appealing. "We believe that bitcoin may have significant upside given the size and scope of the industries that potentially are impacted by bitcoin," said SecondMarket Founder and CEO Barry Silbert in New York. "However, bitcoin also faces regulatory uncertainty and widespread adoption issues that make investing in bitcoin a highly risky endeavor." (Reporting by Wanfeng Zhou and Nick Olivari; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

2013-10-02 16:06:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1833, 2238, 2399]}

{}

Alleged Founder Of Silk Road Posted LinkedIn Manifesto About Using Economic Theory To Change The World

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/alleged-founder-silk-road-posted-160633068.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Ross Ulbricht LinkedIn LinkedIn A 29-year-old man named Ross Ulbricht has been arrested for allegedly being the owner of Silk Road , an anonymous Internet marketplace best known as a destination for buying illegal drugs. The criminal complaint against Ulbricht (which can be seen here ) refers to a LinkedIn page for Ulbricht, saying he is a University of Pennsylvania and University of Texas graduate. What appears to be Ulbricht's profile can be found here (note that it actually lists Pennsylvania State University, not U. Penn, for his graduate studies). The profile says that Ulbricht was a Graduate Research Assistant at Penn State from August 2006 to December 2008, before becoming a CEO of Good Wagon Books (a service that picked up unwanted books and gave them new homes) from January 2010 to May 2011. There are no more recent positions on the page. The criminal complaint specifically mentions the second paragraph in Ulbricht's summary. We've included it below: Now, my goals have shifted. I want to use economic theory as a means to abolish the use of coercion and agression amongst mankind. Just as slavery has been abolished most everywhere, I believe violence, coercion and all forms of force by one person over another can come to an end. The most widespread and systemic use of force is amongst institutions and governments, so this is my current point of effort. The best way to change a government is to change the minds of the governed, however. To that end, I am creating an economic simulation to give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force. In the criminal complaint, it is put forward that the "economic stimulation" Ulbricht writes about must be Silk Road. The email address listed on the LinkedIn profile also leads us to an account on Bitcoin Talk forums . In his most recent post, dated Oct. 11 2011, he writes that he is looking for the "best and brightest IT pro in the bitcoin community to be the lead developer in a venture backed bitcoin startup company." Story continues In an earlier post that year , the same user wrote that "I don't think I'm a millionaire....yet." For reference, the seizure of Silk Road allegedly netted 26,000 Bitcoins, worth some $3.2 million. More From Business Insider Alleged Founder Of Silk Road — The Site Where You Can Buy Illegal Drugs — Arrested And Millions In Bitcoins Seized Tom Clancy Dead: Celebrated Thriller Author Dies At Age 66 Social Media Demographics: The Surprising Identity Of Each Major Social Network

2013-10-02 16:13:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [427, 462, 605, 1192, 1676]}

{"Bitcoin": [99]}

Alleged Founder Of Silk Road — The Site Where You Can Buy Illegal Drugs — Arrested And Millions In Bitcoins Seized

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/silk-road-online-network-where-154241422.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Silk Road Seized 3x4 Mike Nudelman/Business Insider Silk Road, the anonymous Internet marketplace best known as a destination for buying illegal drugs, has been seized by the FBI . Ross Ulbricht, 29, has been arrested as the head of the site, which he allegedly operated under the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts. Ulbricht recently posted a manifesto of sorts on economic reform to his LinkedIn page . The seizure netted 26,000 Bitcoins, worth some $3.2 million. Bitcoins are an anonymous digital currency, so for the person who buys his drugs online, they're a must. This is the single largest seizure of Bitcoin assets to date. You can read the full complaint here . A close reading reveals that Ulbricht is also accused of hiring a hit man to kill a Silk Road user called "FriendlyChemist" for $150,000. FriendlyChemist began sending threatening messages in March of this year, saying that he'd publish the names and addresses of Silk Road customers unless he received $500,000, according to authorities. At this point, another member named "redandwhite" was contacted in order to take out a "bounty" on FriendlyChemist's head, the complaint said. They allegedly agreed on a price of 1,670 Bitcoins. Redandwhite then wrote DPR back and said, "I received the payment ... We know where he is. He'll be grabbed tonight. I'll update you." Prior to today, Silk Road users employed an anonymizing network called Tor to browse the site and make their purchases. Tor distributes your Internet traffic around the world so it can't be traced back to you specifically. Merchants and customers interacted on a bare bones basis to buy and sell their goods using the previously mentioned Bitcoin currency. If you want a walkthrough of how the site worked, click here . More From Business Insider Silk Road Fans On Reddit Go Ballistic After Seizure FBI Says Illegal Drugs Marketplace Silk Road Generated $1.2 Billion In Sales Revenue The Feds Have Been Investigating Silk Road All Summer: Here's How They Took It Down

2013-10-02 16:58:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [134, 2416]}

{}

The Feds Have Been Investigating Silk Road All Summer: Here's How They Took It Down

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/feds-investigating-silk-road-summer-165800375.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

ROSS ULBRICHT Google+ Ross Ulbricht Today's arrest of Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht , and the seizure of his $3.2 million stash of Bitcoins, has been a long time coming. The feds have been investigating Silk Road — a major web site on the secret internet for criminals — and the Tor web network and browser you need to visit it, for years. The probe goes back to January 2011. Here's how it went down: Tor first popped onto the national security/federal crime radar, at least publicly, in June 2013, when a photo emerged of NSA leaker Edward Snowden's laptop , which features a Tor sticker. Because Tor allows secret, anonymous and encrypted web browsing, it would be the perfect vehicle for someone like Snowden to store or transport secrets. It's also perfect for criminals, as Business Insider revealed back in March. In June 2013, Ulbricht allegedly logged into Silk Road from an Internet Cafe in San Francisco. From there the feds traced his Gmail logs and located his home, 500 feet away, on Hickory Street in San Francisco. They intercepted his mail and found he had allegedly been receiving fake IDs. Agents visited him on July 26, 2013, and discovered his roommates knew him as "Josh." He declined to answer their questions. In July 2013, the FBI located the Silk Road server and copied an image of it — all its contents, in other words. They discovered 957,000 registered accounts on the server, of which at least 30% were from the U.S. Things came to a head in early August, when the FBI arrested a man who was allegedly trading child pornography via a Tor-hosted site called Freedom Hosting. At that point, "dark web" sites began going offline as users figured out that as much as 50% of the Tor network had been compromised by the feds. The fact that Ulbricht was still online, and operating Silk Road, through September, is therefore surprising. he had ample warning the feds were after him as far back as June. In fact, as the indictment against him makes clear, the feds were on to Silk Road back in January 2011. Their investigation discovered him allegedly trying to hire a hitman to take care of an extortionist in March 2013. Story continues The bottom line is that if you were doing anything illegal on Tor or Silk Road for the last three years, you may be screwed. More From Business Insider Alleged Founder Of Silk Road — The Site Where You Can Buy Illegal Drugs — Arrested And Millions In Bitcoins Seized Alleged Founder Of Silk Road Accused Of Trying To Take A Hit Out On A User On The Site Alleged Founder Of Silk Road Posted LinkedIn Manifesto About Using Economic Theory To Change The World

2013-10-02 17:03:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [910, 1237, 1385]}

{}

Silk Road Fans On Reddit Go Ballistic After Seizure

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/silk-road-fans-reddit-ballistic-170348579.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Silk Road, an anonymous Internet marketplace known as a destination for buying illegal drugs , has been seized by the FBI and its alleged owner arrested. The news has prompted Reddit's Silk Road community, r/SilkRoad , to freak out. Here are some of the most recent topics: Silk Road Reddit Reddit Most of the discussion is limited to one thread, however: "SR shutdown fallout discussion". On this thread, it appears that some people have lost some serious money (they are not getting much sympathy though): Silk Road Reddit Reddit Others are worried that they may not get their drugs: Reddit Silk Road Reddit There are worries that users' data could be compromised: Silk Road Reddit Reddit Those with orders in transit are worried that the vendors won't get paid: Reddit Silk Road Reddit Some are worried about how they will order illicit supplies now: Silk Road Reddit Reddit Others worry about the price of Bitcoin: Reddit Silk Road Reddit There's some theories that a Silk Road alternative, Atlantis, may have been behind the seizure somehow. Atlantis itself, which billed itself as a "flashier" alternative to SR, was shut down last month : Silk Road Reddit Reddit For at least one person, however, there's a bright side: Silk Road Bitcoin Reddit Reddit More From Business Insider Alleged Founder Of Silk Road — The Site Where You Can Buy Illegal Drugs — Arrested And Millions In Bitcoins Seized Alleged Founder Of Silk Road Posted LinkedIn Manifesto About Using Economic Theory To Change The World Image-Hosting Site Imgur Is Now Officially Bigger Than Reddit

2013-10-02 18:23:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [187, 515]}

{}

FBI seizes black market website Silk Road, arrests its founder

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2013-10-02-fbi-seizes-black-market-site-silk-road.html

Engadget

https://www.engadget.com/

FBI seizes black market site Silk Road, arrests its founder Light just reached one of the darker corners of the web: the FBI has seized Silk Road, a site infamous for hosting anonymized, Bitcoin -based drug and gun sales. The move follows a sting operation that also led to the arrest of site founder Ross Ulbricht (aka Dread Pirate Roberts) for alleged hacking, money laundering and narcotics trafficking. While the seizure isn't likely to stop online contraband purchases, it's potentially a big blow. At current Bitcoin values, Silk Road generated $1.2 billion in revenue from just two years of operation -- the kind of cash that we'd expect from a large, legitimate e-commerce venture. The FBI's move also demonstrates that anonymizing technology like Tor won't always keep law enforcement at bay. View comments

2013-10-02 20:18:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [359, 419, 2761, 6998]}

{}

This Is The Physics Student And Used Book Seller Who Allegedly Ran The 'Silk Road' Market For Drugs And Assassins

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meet-ross-ulbricht-brilliant-alleged-201859706.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Silk Road Ross ulbricht YouTube / Renee Pinnell Ross Ulbricht in December 2012. Ross William Ulbricht is extremely smart — let's get that out of the way first. It's not simply that he allegedly built and maintained Silk Road — a secret Internet site on which criminals traded drugs and assassinations — for years. And it's not just that he built a fortune in Bitcoins for doing so. The FBI alleges he earned $20,000 in Bitcoin commissions from sales on Silk Road per day, and made $3.4 million in total. "By far the largest balance held by any Silk Road user at the time," as the FBI wrote in its indictment . Before he allegedly built Silk Road, Ulbricht was an engineer, studying solar cells as a grad student at Pennsylvania State University. He's actually the author of a number of academic papers, including " Polymeric solar cells with oriented and strong transparent carbon nanotube anode ." He described his interests on LinkedIn: I love learning and using theoretical constructs to better understand the world around me. Naturally therefore, I studied physics in college and worked as a research scientist for five years. I published my findings in peer reviewed journals five times over that period, first on organic solar cells and then on EuO thin-film crystals. My goal during this period of my life was simply to expand the frontier of human knowledge. Silk Road Ross ulbricht YouTube / Ross Ulbricht Ulbricht's old Ford F-150. A fan of the "Austrian School" But he lost his interest in physics and chemicals sometime after he graduated from Penn State in 2008, in favor of a new passion — libertarianism. He wrote on his LinkedIn profile : Now, my goals have shifted. I want to use economic theory as a means to abolish the use of coercion and aggression amongst mankind. Just as slavery has been abolished most everywhere, I believe violence, coercion and all forms of force by one person over another can come to an end. The most widespread and systemic use of force is amongst institutions and governments, so this is my current point of effort. The best way to change a government is to change the minds of the governed, however. To that end, I am creating an economic simulation to give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force. Story continues He became a fan of the Austrian School of Economics, a conservative take on the free market. The indictment against him says he became a devotee of the Mises Institute, and that the writing of Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard "provid[ed] the philosophical underpinnings for Silk Road." Silk Road was, in many ways, the apotheosis of free market economics. Because it was completely encrypted and completely anonymous, using Bitcoin — an uncrackable "cryptocurrency" — it stood outside any government regulation at all, including the criminal law. Until today. silk road beach house Ross Ulbricht / YouTube Ulbricht's parents' beach house in Costa Rica. Ulbricht's first love — and drugs Ulbricht was born 28 years ago to Lyn and Kirk Ulbricht, who now live in Costa Rica. They occasionally rent out beach houses at Casa Bambu , a complex there. "All the houses are solar-powered with artesian wells, beautiful tropical yards and on a pristine beach," their web site says. Ulbricht grew up and went to high school and middle school in the Austin, Texas, area. In a long, rambling but deeply personal video , Ulbricht describes his first few relationships with girls. Ulbricht's first love was from Dallas, Texas. The first time they really hung out, Ulbricht said, they experimented with some sort of psychedelic drug. Silk Road Ross ulbricht Ross Ulbricht / Facebook Ulbricht's Facebook headshot. He also talks about how he became more guarded in love after his first intense relationship, and how he now avoids "giving myself over completely." The real life of an alleged mastermind Although online he allegedly was a criminal mastermind who ran the Internet's largest drug empire, in real life he had all the usual mundane stuff going on. Last year, he tried to sell a 2006 Ford F-150 pickup . He attended a gig at the Flipnotics coffee house in Austin . He wrote a recommendation for his real estate broker, Akemi Benton, ("She did a fantastic job ... In the end I learned a ton about how to buy real estate and got a great deal on my first house. Thanks Akemi!") And he was the CEO of Good Wagon Books , a non-profit that picks up used books and other junk from your house and donates it to prison libraries and such. The usual stuff. Silk Road Ross ulbricht Google+ Ulbricht's Google+ page. But after grad school, his interests became darker. In his only Google+ post, on April 9, 2012 , he asked: anybody know someone that works for UPS, FedEX, or DHL? That question takes on a whole new apparent meaning once you know that he has been accused of facilitating the mass dealing of drugs, forged IDs and murder-for-hire contracts worldwide. The post is now attracting messages from sympathizers, people who appreciated his contribution to online privacy and security through cryptology (see image at right). His profile describes him as "spunky, funky, not so chunky," and features a dramatic, glowing sunset. He also listed new interests on LinkedIn: "trading," "economics," "physics," "virtual worlds," "liberty." All of those — bar physics — are at the core of Silk Road. Enter "the Dread Pirate Roberts " Ulbricht clearly had a goofy sense of humor. His alleged nom de guerre on Silk Road was "Dread Pirate Roberts," a reference to the character in the move "Princess Bride." The joke — from an online privacy point of view — is that the Roberts character in the movie isn't real. He was once a feared pirate, but retired, and passed on the "feared" title to an underling, who passed it on again and again, so that its real origin is completely obscured. That is a little bit how communications on Tor, the secure network on which Silk Road sat, work — messages are routed through multiple destinations making it nigh impossible to know where they originate. Silk Road Tor Stack Overflow Ulbricht under surveillance Doing that isn't simple, of course. And like a lot of coders, Ulbricht once asked for help from the coding community. He turned to Stack Overflow, the Q&A site for software developers. Here's one of his questions , according to the indictment against him: How can I connect to a Tor hidden service using curl in php? What Ulbricht didn't know is that by this time the FBI was watching his every move, online and off, according to the indictment. He also made the mistake of using his real name when making the post, before changing it to "frosty." The FBI began its probe of Silk Road around January 2011. By the summer of 2013 they were conducting surveillance on Ulbricht directly. They located the Silk Road server, even though it was supposedly secure, and copied it in its entirety — including all its user accounts and millions in Bitcoin wallets. The feds wanted to prove that Ulbricht was the operator of Silk Road, no easy task given the encryption on Tor. In June 2013, Ulbricht allegedly logged into Silk Road from an Internet cafe in San Francisco. From there the feds traced his Gmail logs and located his apartment 500 feet away, on Hickory Street in San Francisco. They monitored his mail. He allegedly received fake IDS there, with different names on several forms of ID all bearing his photo. The contract killer They also discovered that he was being blackmailed. A Silk Road user named "FriendlyChemist" had hacked into the computer of another Silk Road user and obtained what he alleged was a long list of names and identities of Silk Road customers. If Ulbricht didn't pay FriendlyChemist $500,000 the Silk Road customer list would be exposed. So Ulbricht turned to a hitman on Silk Road, and asked if FriendlyChemist could be "executed": Silk Road FBI The hitman, "redandwhite," offered a price: Silk Road FBI Which Ulbricht allegedly accepted: Silk Road FBI FBI agents visited him at the Hickory Road building on July 26, 2013, and discovered his roommates knew him not as "Ross" but "Josh." He declined to talk to them. The endgame By then, it was too late. Authorities conducted a series of raids on Tor users, including an alleged seller of child porn, in early August. A huge portion of the Tor network was "compromised" by the feds — even though it was supposed to be uncrackable. Today, the FBI unveiled its indictment and shut down Silk Road. Ulbricht was arrested in San Francisco. He is being held in custody pending a bail hearing. The indictment was filed in New York, suggesting he will eventually be tried in Manhattan federal district court. More From Business Insider Alleged Silk Road Mastermind Has An Amazing Series Of Trippy Pencil Sketches On Facebook Here Are Three Other Sites Still In Operation That Sell Illegal Drugs Just Like Silk Road Did The Feds Have Been Investigating Silk Road All Summer: Here's How They Took It Down

2013-10-02 21:06:46+00:00

{}

{"Bitcoin": [0]}

Bitcoin sinks in value after FBI busts Silk Road drug market

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-sinks-value-fbi-busts-193905710.html

Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/

By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The price of the bitcoin digital currency dropped on Wednesday, after U.S. law enforcement authorities shut down Silk Road, an online marketplace used to buy and sell illegal drugs. The bitcoin, valued by many for its anonymity, fell to $129 from over $140 a day before, according to a website for trading bitcoins, Mt.Gox. Earlier, the currency traded as low as $110. Supporters say using bitcoins offers benefits including lower fraud risk and increased privacy, though critics argue the anonymity it offers makes the currency a magnet for drug transactions, money-laundering and other illegal activities. The digital currency's drop came after the FBI arrested alleged Silk Road owner Ross William Ulbricht, 29, known as "Dread Pirate Roberts," on Tuesday in San Francisco. Silk Road allowed tech-savvy sellers to post ads for drugs and other illegal products, which they sold for bitcoins and shipped to customers through the mail, according to the federal criminal charges filed against Ulbricht. As well as Silk Road shoppers, drug traffickers who worried about the FBI tracking them down with data confiscated from Ulbricht may account for some of Wednesday's bitcoin selloff, said Garth Bruen, a security expert at Internet consumer group Digital Citizens Alliance. "They're going to be pouring all over his records, getting subpoenas for every piece of data and account he has ever used and trying to figure out who all these different dealers are," said Bruen. "People are jumping ship." While bitcoins, which are not backed by a government or central bank, have begun to gain a footing among some businesses and consumers, they have yet to become an accepted form of payment on the websites of major retailers such as Amazon.com. The charges against Ulbricht said that Silk Road generated sales of more than 9.5 million bitcoins, roughly equivalent to $1.2 billion. There are currently about 11.8 million bitcoins in circulation. With Ulbricht's arrest, authorities said they seized $3.6 million worth of bitcoins. (Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Leslie Adler)

2013-10-02 23:38:31+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1451, 1516, 1631, 5070]}

{}

FBI shuts alleged online drug marketplace, Silk Road

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fbi-shuts-alleged-online-drug-163136253.html

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/

By Emily Flitter NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. law enforcement authorities have shut down "Silk Road," an anonymous Internet marketplace for illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine, and criminal activities such as murder for hire, and arrested its alleged owner. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday it arrested Silk Road owner, Ross William Ulbricht, 29, known online as "Dread Pirate Roberts," in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to court filings. Ulbricht, who holds an advanced degree in chemical engineering, appeared in federal court on Wednesday and a bail hearing was set for Friday. His lawyer Brandon LeBlanc, a public defender, declined to comment. Federal prosecutors in New York charged Ulbricht with one count each of narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, the filing said. "Silk Road has emerged as the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet today," FBI agent Christopher Tarbell said in the criminal complaint. The site was used by "several thousand drug dealers" to sell "hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs," he said. The site, which has operated since early 2011, also offered tutorials on hacking ATM machines, contact lists for black market connections and counterfeiters, and guns and hit men for sale, according to the charges. More than 900,000 registered users of the site bought and sold drugs using the digital currency Bitcoin. In recent media reports about the growing popularity of Bitcoin, the Silk Road website has emerged as part of a darker side to the use of digital currencies. The value of Bitcoin dropped on Wednesday after the charges were revealed. Through the site, according to the charges, users could buy drugs and have them shipped to an address. Investigators, posing as regular users on Silk Road, made more than 100 purchases of drugs, which were shipped to the New York area. "DREAD PIRATE ROBERTS" According to the complaint, Ulbricht, who shortened his alias from Dread Pirate Roberts to DPR when posting on Silk Road's forums, operated the site from San Francisco. Story continues At times, he used computers at Internet cafes to access the servers running the website, which employed several technological tools to mask the location of its servers and the identities of its administrators and users. The complaint described other aspects of Ulbricht's online presence. In a Google+ profile, he described himself as a fan of libertarian economic philosophy and posted videos from the Ludwig von Mises Institute, an Auburn, Alabama-based economics institute. Reached by telephone in Austin, Texas, Ubricht's parents said they had not known what their son was doing in San Francisco. "He is a really stellar, good person and very idealistic," said Ulbricht's mother, Lyn Lacava. "I know he never meant to hurt anyone." Ulbricht's father Kirk confirmed his son had received a master's in material sciences from Pennsylvania State University. His thesis was titled: "Growth of EuO Thin Films by Molecular Beam Epitaxy." "He did amazing research on crystals and exotic materials they hoped would have some use for humans," Ulbricht said. "But it was very theoretical stuff." The complaint against Ulbricht describes a darker side. During one correspondence with a Silk Road user, Ulbricht tried to call out a hit on another user with whom he had a dispute. That user, known online as "FriendlyChemist," was threatening to expose the identities of thousands of Silk Road users unless Ulbricht sent him money. "I wouldn't mind if he was executed," Ulbricht wrote, offering personal details about his foe, including the fact he was a married father of three, and the names of the city and province where he lived. In a later post, Ulbricht wrote: "He is threatening to expose the identities of thousands of my clients. This kind of behavior is unforgivable to me. Especially here on Silk Road, anonymity is sacrosanct." BITCOIN CONNECTION During the raid, authorities seized $3.6 million worth of bitcoin, which was used instead of cash or credit cards to complete transactions on Silk Road. The charges against Ulbricht said his website generated sales of more than 9.5 million bitcoin, roughly equivalent to $1.2 billion. Authorities seized the currency by taking control of the digital "wallets" Silk Road used to store bitcoin. In a corresponding civil asset forfeiture action, prosecutors claimed Silk Road and Ulbricht were liable to the government for the value of all transactions involving drug tracking and computer hacking, as well as for money laundering penalties, and a final amount would be determined at trial. The raid on Wednesday was not the first time the U.S. government has made arrests related to Silk Road. Earlier this year, authorities in South Carolina arrested Eric Daniel Hughes, known on Silk Road as "Casey Jones," and charged him in state court with drug possession. The Drug Enforcement Agency seized units of bitcoin, which Hughes allegedly used to purchase drugs from the online market. Bitcoin, which has been around since 2008, first came under scrutiny by law enforcement officials in mid-2011 after media reports surfaced linking the digital currency to Silk Road. (Additional reporting by Daniel Levine in San Francisco; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Bernadette Baum and Andre Grenon)

2013-10-03 03:45:16+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [168, 306, 864, 953, 962]}

{"Bitcoin": [0, 46]}

Bitcoin bust: Feds break up country’s largest Bitcoin drug ring

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-bust-feds-break-country-largest-bitcoin-drug-034516881.html

BGR News

http://www.bgr.com/

Silk Den Founder Arrested It’s a shame that Breaking Bad had to end before we could see what would have happened if a distributor had tried to pay Walt and Jesse using Bitcoins . CNN reports that federal officials have arrested Ross William Ulbricht, the alleged mastermind behind Silk Road, the notorious Bitcoin-accepting Internet drug den . CNN says that Ulbricht has been indicted by federal prosecutors for narcotics trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has seized and shut down Silk Road completely. The FBI says that the website, which let users buy drugs, hire assassins and deal illegal firearms, generated annual revenue of around $1.3 billion. [More from BGR: WhatsApp’s engagement drop could be a big red flag ] This article was originally published on BGR.com Related stories World's largest Bitcoin exchange accused of violating U.S. financial law Will the IRS take a bite out of Bitcoin? Bitcoin drug den wants police help in arresting alleged blackmailer

2013-10-03 04:56:00+00:00

{}

{"Bitcoin": [75]}

'Dread Pirate Roberts' Charged In 2nd Silk Road Murder-For-Hire Plot, Over Bitcoin Debt

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dread-pirate-roberts-charged-second-045647283.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

ross ulbricht 4x3 YouTube / Ross Ulbricht Ross Ulbricht Ross William Ulbricht, the alleged operator of the encrypted and anonymous "Silk Road" web market for drugs and hit men who used the nom de guerre "Dread Pirate Roberts," has been charged in a second federal indictment alleging he tried to hire a contract killer over his secret network to kill an "employee." Business Insider has emailed both Ulbricht and his parents for comment. We have not heard back. Ulbricht is believed to be in federal custody following his arrest Wednesday in California . The first indictment alleged Ulbricht tried to hire a hit man to get rid of a drug dealer who had obtained a list of Silk Road drug customers. The new indictment, from the Maryland federal district, says that the FBI began an undercover operation against Ulbricht in April 2012. Following that, Ulbricht came to believe that an "employee" of Silk Road — a site protected by the encrypted Tor network — had stolen funds from him. On Jan 26, 2013, prosecutors allege that Ulbricht asked a Silk Road hit man to deal with the employee. He was dealing with an undercover agent (UC), the indictment claims: Silk road FBI Ulbricht allegedly offered $40,000 for the job, and as far as he knew — according to the indictment — the hit went ahead. The most macabre part is that Ulbricht allegedly asked for video evidence for the torture-murder or the employee: Silk road FBI On Feb. 4, a cash transfer took place, the indictment says. The feds even went so far as to stage photos of the deceased, the indictment says: silk road FBI Hat tip to Daily Dot . More From Business Insider The Feds Have Been Investigating Silk Road All Summer: Here's How They Took It Down This Is The Physics Student And Used Book Seller Who Allegedly Ran The 'Silk Road' Market For Drugs And Assassins Alleged Silk Road Mastermind Has An Amazing Series Of Trippy Pencil Sketches On Facebook

2013-10-03 09:18:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [3293]}

{}

Here's Why We're Better Off Without The Jobs Report

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-why-were-better-off-091837441.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

3-D glasses school kids REUTERS/Ali Jarekji Due to an ongoing government shutdown, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — considered a "non-essential" agency by the White House — will not be releasing the monthly nonfarm payrolls report on Friday. Here are four reasons why we're better off without it anyways: The jobs report lacks timely information. In a recent report — titled "Payrolls, Shmayrolls" — Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius explains why: " It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of using first-release data for the explanatory variables in our analysis ... payrolls and GDP are subject to heavy revisions between the first release and the fully revised version. Some of these revisions occur in the next monthly or quarterly release, and some occur with much longer lags via the annual revisions." The numbers aren't even accurate, thanks to seasonal adjustment errors. Matthew O'Brien reports in The Atlantic on a new study by economist Jonathan Wright: " Just how bad are the data? Well, keep in mind that the jobs report's margin of error is supposed to be about 90,000. But these post-crisis seasonal errors have almost doubled it to about 170,000 . That's right: the jobs report's real margin of error has been about as big as the average jobs report itself the past few years." Those inaccurate payroll numbers may be leading the Federal Reserve down an inappropriate course for monetary policy. Matthew C. Klein explains in a Bloomberg View column : " The big takeaway is job growth since the trough has been steady and slow. This has some surprising implications for Fed policy. It isn't in Wright's paper, but during the conference he presented another slide showing his chart of seasonal distortions with the start and stop dates of the Fed's asset purchase programs added on top. It turns out that the Fed stops buying assets after a few months of good job data only to restart buying once job growth slows, even though a proper measure of employment would show no acceleration or deceleration in job growth. In other words, the Fed has been reacting to meaningless data." Information of the kind presented in the jobs report doesn't lead to better investment decisions, either. ConvergEx Group chief market strategist Nick Colas examines this idea in his daily note to clients: "Now, at some point in the relatively near future, the U.S. Federal government will get back up and running, and the Federal Reserve and investors will have their customary information flow returned to them. The lessons presented here are, however, still relevant. More information does not lead to better decisions. Those personality types who like to think in broad strokes are especially susceptible to feeling overwhelmed by incremental data. Is there any organization more macro-focused than the Federal Reserve? Probably not. But you don’t have to fall into the same trap. Less is really more." On the off chance that the "non-essential" government agencies are re-opened before Friday, the nonfarm payrolls report is scheduled to be released at 8:30 AM ET. More From Business Insider Harry Reid Makes John Boehner An Offer On The Shutdown, And His Logic Is Spot On Alleged Founder Of Silk Road — The Site Where You Can Buy Illegal Drugs — Arrested And Millions In Bitcoins Seized Tom Clancy Dead: Celebrated Thriller Author Dies At Age 66

2013-10-03 16:28:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1226]}

{}

Tiger Woods Looks Really Old Without A Hat

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tiger-woods-looks-really-old-151012176.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Tiger Woods is balding, and it's very disorientating. He's always been a little light on hair up top, but he typically wears a hat so we don't get the full effect. Tiger feels younger than he is, maybe because he was a teen phenom when he burst onto the scene. But he's 37 and his best days (including hair days) are probably behind him. Here's a photo from a President's Cup party that Lindsey Vonn just posted . He looks older than usual: tiger woods lindsey vonn @LindseyVonn Here he is with a hat two months ago. Much younger looking: tiger woods shaved goatee Sam Greenwood/Getty Images The pace of balding appears to be accelerating. At the Met Ball last May his hair seemed a little fuller: lindsey vonn and tiger woods at the met gala Instagram/Lindsey Vonn Ouch: My 7-year-old just saw Tiger Woods at the Prez Cup opening ceremony and asked, "Is that Tiger Woods' dad?" #ouch #nohatmakesadifference — Jay Coffin (@JayCoffinGC) October 3, 2013 More From Business Insider The Dumb Mistake That Brought Down Silk Road's Drug-Dealing Empire Harry Reid Makes John Boehner An Offer On The Shutdown, And His Logic Is Spot On Alleged Founder Of Silk Road — The Site Where You Can Buy Illegal Drugs — Arrested And Millions In Bitcoins Seized

2013-10-03 23:09:15+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [2421]}

{}

Calif. man charged in black market drug scheme

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/calif-man-charged-black-market-060545102.html

Associated Press

https://apnews.com/

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- FBI agents found him in the science fiction section of a small branch of the San Francisco public library, chatting online. The man known as Dread Pirate Roberts — 29-year-old Ross William Ulbricht — was on his personal laptop Tuesday afternoon, authorities said, talking about the vast black market bazaar that is believed to have brokered more than $1 billion in transactions for illegal drugs and services. When a half-dozen FBI agents burst into the library in a quiet, blue-collar neighborhood, they abruptly ended Ulbricht's conversation with a cooperating witness, pinned the Austin, Texas, native to a floor-to-ceiling window and then took him off to jail, law enforcement and library spokeswomen said. Ulbricht was later charged in criminal complaints in federal courts in New York and Maryland. He's accused of making millions of dollars operating the secret Silk Road website and of a failed murder-for-hire scheme, all while living anonymously with two roommates whom he paid $1,000 to rent a room in a modest neighborhood. Federal authorities shut down the website. Ulbricht has not entered pleas to any of his charges. His federal public defender in San Francisco declined to comment Wednesday. Ulbricht is due back in San Francisco federal court Friday morning to discuss bail and his transfer to New York, where the bulk of the charges have been filed. He is charged in New York with being the mastermind of Silk Road, where users could browse anonymously through nearly 13,000 listings under categories like "Cannabis," ''Psychedelics" and "Stimulants." Ulbricht also is charged in Maryland with ordering first the torture, and then the murder, of an employee from an undercover agent. He feared the employee would expose his alias as Dread Pirate Roberts, a fictional character. Court records say he wired the agent $80,000 after he was shown staged photos of the employee's faked torture. His arrest culminated a two-year-investigation that painstakingly followed a small trail of computer crumbs Ulbricht carelessly left for the FBI to find, according to court documents. Story continues Ulbricht first came to the attention of federal agents in 2011 when they figured out he was "altoid," someone who they say was marketing Silk Road on other drug-related websites the FBI was watching. In October 2011, "altoid" posted an advertisement for a computer expert with experience in Bitcoin, an electronic currency, and gave an email address. From there, investigators began to monitor Ulbricht's online behavior closely, according to the court records. Investigators said Ulbricht was living within 500 feet of a San Francisco Internet cafe on June 3, 2013, when someone "logged into a server used to administer the Silk Road website." Court documents show investigators slowly connected Ulbricht to Silk Road by monitoring his email and picking up on some slipups, including using his real name to ask a programmers' website a highly technical question about connecting to secret sites like Silk Road. His final mistake, according to the court papers, was ordering fake identification documents from a Silk Road vendor from Canada. One of the nine documents was a California driver's license with Ulbricht's photograph, birthdate but a different name. The package was intercepted at the border during a routine U.S. Customs search. On July 26, Homeland Security investigators visited Ulbricht at his San Francisco residence. He "generally refused to answer questions," the agents said. The investigators left that day without arresting Ulbricht, who holds a bachelor's of science degree in physics from the University of Texas at Dallas and a master's degree from Penn State University. They returned Tuesday and arrested him at the library. He faces the prospect of life in prison if convicted of all the charges. The Silk Road website protected users with an encryption technique called "onion routing," which is designed to make it "practically impossible to physically locate the computers hosting or accessing websites on the network," court papers said. One listing for heroin promised buyers "all rock, no powder, vacuum sealed and stealth shipping," and had a community forum below where one person commented, "Quality is superb." The defendant announced in a website forum in 2012 that to avoid confusion he needed to change his Silk Road username, according to court papers released Wednesday. He wrote, "drum roll please ... my new name is: Dread Pirate Roberts," an apparent reference to a swashbuckling character in "The Princess Bride," the 1987 comedy film based on a novel of the same name. As of July, there were nearly 1 million registered users of the site from the United States, Germany, Russia, Australia and elsewhere around the globe, the court papers said. The site generated an estimated $1.2 billion since it started in 2011 and collected $80 million by charging 8 to 15 percent commission on each sale, they said. ___ Associated Press writer Tom Hays and AP researcher Barbara Sambriski in New York contributed to this report.

2013-10-07 12:04:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1114, 2858, 3526]}

{}

New Ripple U.S. Network Makes Sending Cash Globally Fast and Inexpensive

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ripple-u-network-makes-sending-120400155.html

Marketwired

http://www.marketwired.com/

LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwired - Oct 7, 2013) - Ripple Labs today introduced ZipZap and SnapSwap as a combined cash-in, cash-out network that enables users in the U.S. to fund a Ripple Wallet either in-person using cash or online via a bank account. Through this network, it's easy to send money around the world, in any currency, in less than five seconds, and at virtually no cost. Ripple Labs expects similar models to appear in other key global markets. "It's now possible for people in the U.S. to simply turn on their computer or walk into a local convenience store and send cash to the other side of the world in just seconds," said Ripple Labs founder and CEO Chris Larsen. "This innovation is one of many new applications for Ripple, and is the beginning of a fundamental change in the way money moves around the globe." How It Works Ripple makes sending money as easy as sending email using a protocol that builds direct pathways between parties for faster transactions with no added fees. As a decentralized currency exchange that can accommodate multiple currencies - including math-based currencies like Bitcoin - Ripple allows users to pay in one currency while the payee receives payment in another. The Ripple payment network enables a wide range of applications, including merchant payments, money transfers or remittances. To begin using the U.S. cash-in, cash-out network, users create a Ripple Wallet and link it to a SnapSwap account and a ZipZap CashTab number. Users can then load money into Ripple directly from their bank accounts through SnapSwap or deposit cash by visiting one of ZipZap's thousands of Payment Centers across the U.S. SnapSwap is currently available to U.S. customers only. ZipZap is a global network of 700,000 Payment Centers and will continue to integrate new regions with Ripple. Payments, transfers or remittances sent through Ripple using this new U.S. network can be cashed-out in other countries using local Ripple Gateways. Story continues Ripple Labs will continue to help integrate Gateways with Ripple in other key markets. Bitstamp and RippleCN operate as Gateways in Europe and China, respectively. See It in Action at Money2020 Ripple Labs and ZipZap will demonstrate this new network capability with a cash giveaway at Money2020 , a premier event for emerging payments and financial services. Conference attendees can visit the Ripple Labs or ZipZap kiosks in the Money2020 Exhibitor Hall between October 7th and 10th, 2013 to receive $10.00 to $20.00 to fund a Ripple Wallet. This offer is available on a limited, first-come, first-served basis. About Ripple Labs Ripple Labs developed the Ripple protocol, which makes transacting as easy as emailing. The San Francisco-based startup is funded by Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, IDG Capital Partners, FF Angel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, The Bitcoin Opportunity Fund and Vast Ventures. The software company's team of 22 is comprised of world-famous cryptographers, security experts, distributed network developers, Silicon Valley and Wall Street veterans. They contribute code to and promote the Ripple protocol, create SDKs and build free consumer apps. The team shepherds a movement to evolve finance so that payment systems are open, secure, constructive and globally inclusive. About Ripple Ripple is an open-source, distributed payment protocol. It enables free and instant payments to merchants, consumers and developers with no chargebacks and in any currency -- including dollars, yen, euros, and even Bitcoin. Ripple has the potential to transform payments to work like communications -- global, distributed, instant and free. Ripple is currently in beta. For more information about Ripple, please visit http://www.ripple.com .

2013-10-07 20:11:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [0, 323, 333, 766, 835, 1006, 1087, 1483, 1542]}

{"Bitcoin": [66]}

In Las Vegas, Alternative Currency Buffs Are Making The Case That Bitcoin WIll Do To Money What The Web Did To Information

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/las-vegas-alternative-currency-buffs-201158664.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Bitcoins Cybrbeast We're at the Money2020 conference on new and alternative payment systems in Las Vegas, where representatives from all corners of financial services are discussing the current state of money. This morning, Micky Malka of Ribbit Capital laid out a very straightforward case on why you should be bullish on Bitcoin. "Bitcoin is for money what TCP/IP is to the Information Age," he said. "It provides us with a universal decentralized ledger for recording any and all transactions. It will change the way money moves around the world." It's an apt analogy. To simplify it a bit, TCP/IP is the name for the communication standards that enable Internet technology to function. Because TCP/IP is the same everywhere, it's practical worldwide. Similarly, Bitcoin standards are the same everywhere. Malka makes the case that Bitcoin will move money around the world the same way that TCP/IP moves information around the world. Malka explains that there's still some development to be done before Bitcoin can become the disruptive standard Internet currency it purports to be: "Bitcoin today is in a similar state that the Internet was in 1992. It's functional and useful, but the great use cases are only just now happening. It's only going to get better and better." More From Business Insider Take A Tour Of Silk Road, The Online Drug Marketplace The Feds Shut Down Today Alleged Founder Of Silk Road — The Site Where You Can Buy Illegal Drugs — Arrested And Millions In Bitcoins Seized Two Guys Just Started A Site That's Like A Bitcoin-Only Amazon

2013-10-09 20:45:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [28, 487, 617, 784, 1115, 1249, 1342, 1591, 1891]}

{"Bitcoin": [12]}

The 'Killer Bitcoin App' Has Yet To Arrive

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/killer-bitcoin-app-yet-arrive-204558873.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

bitcoin pinguino via flickr Bitcoin's creation myth is great – an unknown computer whiz operating under the handle of "Satoshi Nakamoto" pulled together math, computer science, and financial-market literacy to create the powerful crypto-currency now used to buy everything from illegal drugs to new cars. We met with a plugged in source at the Money2020 conference in Las Vegas this week who requested not to be identified, and he's a bit cynical toward the anonymous digital currency. "Bitcoin has everyone's attention not because they want a new currency, but because they want a religion," he said. The parallels: Bitcoin has its invisible figurehead, its outspoken evangelists, and its feisty detractors. It can be harnessed for good just as it can be used for "bad." "To look at Bitcoin as merely a currency is to miss the point. Because it solves the famous double-spend problem – you can't send the same bitcoin to two different recipients just like you can't spend the same dollar twice – there are incredible opportunities to use it as a means of verifying identity, not just for moving money. The 'killer Bitcoin app' has yet to arrive." Our source isn't necessarily referring to a killer smartphone app, but to real-world applications of Bitcoin technology in all kinds of fields. He elaborated on how one could hypothetically use Bitcoin protocols to conduct a presidential election, for example. Non-replicable data could very easily confirm a voter's identity and prevent any fraud or foul play. This is an echo of a sentiment we heard earlier in the conference – the state of Bitcoin today is comparable to the Web in its infancy. Functional and useful, but far from perfected. More From Business Insider This CEO Mistook The Paper Money In His Pocket For A Burrito Wrapper Because He Rarely Uses Cash Anymore In Las Vegas, Alternative Currency Buffs Are Making The Case That Bitcoin WIll Do To Money What The Web Did To Information Despite His Tesla Catching Fire, The Driver Said It 'Performed Very Well' And He'll Buy Again

2013-10-10 13:56:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [2006]}

{}

Lay Off Meredith Whitney

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lay-off-meredith-whitney-135614733.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Meredith Whitney Bloomberg Risk Takers You could almost hear the collective mocking across Wall Street yesterday when the news broke that analyst Meredith Whitney is starting a long/short equity hedge fund. Twitter's reaction to Business Insider's own story was indication enough — "Wrong/Short Strategy, " picked up steam for a while. The Internet giggled. But why? Sure Whitney's been wrong, but a lot of people have been wrong. In fact some of the biggest, baddest hedge fund managers on the Street have had hedge funds blow up on them before (Bill Ackman's Gotham Partners, for one). And at the very least we know Meredith Whitney is no dummy — so why not give her a chance to put up some numbers and see what she's made of before laughing at the idea that she's going to be a hedge fund manager? To review: Meredith Whitney got famous as an analyst back in 2007, when she called that Citi was under capitalized. All Wall Street followed suit and the bank lost $50 billion in value in less than a month. Since then her calls haven't necessarily panned out, her biggest fail being the argument that municipal governments would go bankrupt. She even wrote a book about it. So when reports surfaced this summer that Whitney's advisory firm was rapidly losing clients and employees, and hadn't made a profit in years there was even more schadenfreude. Word on the Street was that she was spending a lot of time in Bermuda (where her new hedge fund is incorporated, by the way). Which brings us back to yesterday's reaction to the news that she had dumped her brokerage business — a business everyone on Wall Street says is broken anyway — and is launching a fund called Kenbelle Capital. The reaction was collective, and it was fierce. It was almost as if we'd forgotten that there are more hedge funds than Taco Bells in this country. It was almost as if Whitney was three college kids from North Carolina that were starting "The World's Most Oblivious Hedge Fund." It was almost as if she was starting a Bitcoin ETF. Story continues But she's not. Whitney has had a massive call that went right, and she's gotten some things wrong. So have guys like John Paulson, though. Last year his funds were getting killed, but his numbers for this year have been spectacular . Now, to be clear, this is not a 'Meredith Whitney will be a great hedge fund manager' argument. Quite the contrary, I have no idea how she'll do. But at this point, no one else does either. More From Business Insider Meredith Whitney Has Started A Hedge Fund Sotheby's Has Adopted A 'Poison Pill' To Ward Off Dan Loeb ANALYST: Whoever Sold Bill Ackman Those Herbalife Options Is 'Very Lucky' And They'll Have The 'Winning Hand'

2013-10-13 14:21:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [44, 470, 483, 777, 1498, 2069]}

{"Bitcoin": [15]}

CoinX Is A New Bitcoin Exchange That Actually Takes Financial Compliance Seriously

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coinx-bitcoin-exchange-actually-takes-142123182.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

bitcoin Flickr/zcopley CoinX is a brand new Bitcoin exchange that just opened its doors, and w e caught up with founder Megan Burton at the Money2020 conference in Las Vegas to learn what her company is all about. Burton came from an IT and security background and took the opportunity to throw her skills into the increasingly weird world of money. Operating out of Atlanta, Ga., CoinX is all about turning conventional money into the anonymous digital currency called Bitcoin, and Bitcoin into conventional money. It's also the first to actually take financial compliance seriously. The company makes its money by charging a small percentage of the total transaction and it's reasonable as could be. Anyone buying 500 bitcoins or fewer is only charged a 0.3% fee, and with a Bitcoin's value holding around $127 at the time of this writing, that's the only fee Given that CoinX is a money market in its own right, it only makes sense that it relies on some heavy-duty strategies to operate securely. In this case, it's the NYSE's defense in-depth strategy : The CoinX platform utilizes the same hosting facility and corresponding security protocols as the New York Stock Exchange. It is registered with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and is fully compliant in the jurisdictions that it trades. The company is actively working with regulatory authorities across the United States to secure money transmitter licenses in all 50 states. In simpler terms, startup Bitcoin exchange CoinX operates on some of the same technologies that keep that financial powerhouse called the New York Stock Exchange in running order, and it does so while following all the rules. CoinX and the NYSE are so closely linked that the NYSE logo appears on some CoinX marketing. Who knows how long until we can pump our bitcoins from CoinX directly into the NYSE's more classical financial machinery? More From Business Insider This Is The Only Mobile Payment System I Could Actually See Myself Using PayPal Has A New Retail Trick Up Its Sleeve The 'Killer Bitcoin App' Has Yet To Arrive

2013-10-15 01:17:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [163, 476, 618, 850, 904, 1037, 1110, 1159, 1280]}

{"Bitcoin": [25]}

'StripCoin' — Literally, Bitcoin For Strippers — Gets Rid Of Those Embarrasing Credit Card Bills

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stripcoin-literally-bitcoin-strippers-gets-011700361.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

stripper heels Flickr, CC / brh_images When you take a conference about the future of money and hold it in Las Vegas, America's beloved city of sin, stripping for Bitcoins just seems inevitable. We heard about StripCoin (totally work-safe) from a few different sources at Money2020 in Las Vegas. The site's been around since 2012. The premise is exactly what you're imagining right now: send a stranger some money over the Internet using the anonymous digital currency called Bitcoin, and he or she removes clothing for you on camera: "StripCoin.com is an instructional site that teaches adult entertainers how to use Bitcoin, a digital Internet currency [...] Your earnings and tips go directly from your patrons to you. There are no usage or transaction fees. It’s just like accepting cash from someone, except over the Internet." One advantage of Bitcoin over regular credit card transactions is that Bitcoin won't produce an embarrassing charge on customers' credit card statements, because their real identity is never connected to Bitcoin. The site even provides the newbies with a little explanation of Bitcoin and walks them through getting their own Bitcoin wallet. More From Business Insider 2 Companies Team Up To Start A Book-Delivery-By-Drone Business CoinX Is A New Bitcoin Exchange That Actually Takes Financial Compliance Seriously This Is The Only Mobile Payment System I Could Actually See Myself Using

2013-10-15 18:21:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [770, 843, 880, 1262, 1271]}

{"Bitcoin": [32]}

China's Google Is Now Accepting Bitcoin

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-google-now-accepting-bitcoin-182100345.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

bitcoin pinguino via flickr China's largest search service, Baidu, announced it would now accept bitcoin for its Jaisule service from the 14th of October . Jaisule is the firm's firewall and DDOS protection service. The service essentially protects websites from malicious attacks that attempt to crash it by overloading it with external communications requests so that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic. A similar US-based service is Cloudflare . With a market cap of over $50 billion, the company may be the largest one yet to accept payments in bitcoin. The crypto currency has made impressive recent strides toward going mainstream, with bitcoin ATMs and grilled cheese trucks popping up in Canada and content management system Wordpress accepting payments in Bitcoin . And it comes as law enforcement ramps up crackdowns on illicit Bitcoin-based groups like Silk Road. Bitcoin has basically made up the value it lost in the wake of Silk Road's seizure and now stands at about $150 on the Mt. Gox exchange . This is the announcement posted by Baidu (translated from Chinese using Google Translate): As a trendy IT people, as a professional webmaster, and what we can reflect the characteristics of it? The answer of course is that I have bitcoins! ! ! Bitcoin (Bitcoin) as an emerging electronic money, digital currency in the international arena has been a large degree of recognition, deep into the daily life. Can be used to buy a cup of coffee can also be directly converted into real money. In China, bitcoin still be a "fashionable" thing, today, a good news for everyone, from 14 October 2013 onwards, Baidu officially supported music bitcoin accelerated payment. Baidu acceleration music bitcoin users can use all the music buying accelerated payment services. Baidu acceleration music innovator as the Internet, has become the first to support cloud services vendors bitcoin, give us a richer payment methods and experience. Future, Baidu will continue to make more music accelerate new attempt to bring more and more convenient payment methods! Story continues You can read the announcement here . More From Business Insider China's Latest Move To Unwind A $2 Trillion Investment Product Is Bad News For Chinese Banks China's $8.8 Billion Instant Noodle Market In Three Charts Here Are The Countries Drinking Up 'Saudi America's' Sweet Oil [MAP]

2013-10-16 07:01:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [801, 1417]}

{"Bitcoin": [79]}

RedBottle Design Brings GlassPay Purchasing App for Google Glass, Android, and Bitcoins to DEMO Fall 2013

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/redbottle-design-brings-glasspay-purchasing-070100662.html

Marketwired

http://www.marketwired.com/

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 16, 2013) - RedBottle Design today introduces GlassPay™, an app for Google Glass and Android platforms that replicates an online buying experience in brick-and-mortar stores, and makes purchasing secure and simple in restaurants, supermarkets, and other stores that already accept bitcoins as currency. GlassPay debuts at the DEMO 2013 Conference taking place October 15-17, 2013, at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, Calif. DEMO is world-renowned for launching the most promising, cutting-edge companies in enterprise, consumer, mobile, social, health and hardware technologies. "With GlassPay, we're taking one of the most basic cultural experiences, the act of purchasing items, and bringing it into the future," said Guy Paddock, CEO of RedBottle Design, LLC. "Bitcoins are gaining significant acceptance in the world-wide marketplace, and we know that face-to-face, app-based shopping and purchasing is in the next wave. We're ready for it." GlassPay allows both shoppers and merchants to enjoy frictionless and economical sales transactions: when in a retail environment, Google Glass and Android users simply scan UPC codes, assemble a "shopping cart", make the purchase using bitcoins, and pick up merchandise in a centralized location. GlassPay embraces bitcoins, an innovative, secure payment network and a new kind of money that uses peer-to-peer technology to operate. Bitcoins have no central authority or banks, so there are no additional fees charged to either purchasers or retailers. Customer Benefits No wallet, no waiting: with GlassPay, users simply bring their Android smartphone or wear their Google Glass device into a store, scan items, and make purchases right from where they stand. There's no need to carry a wallet or wait in line. Get more control: a GlassPay shopping cart is created in real time, so users can budget more effectively -- they'll know exactly how much the total will be, automatically. Secure information: with GlassPay, a customer's virtual bitcoin wallet is controlled by password and bitcoins can be sent only by the customer. Unlike cash, bitcoins are difficult to lose, steal, or misplace. And unlike credit card information, with bitcoins a seller has no sensitive information on file that can be compromised. Story continues Retailer Benefits: No fee transactions: GlassPay makes it easier to accept bitcoins as payment, which translates into higher margins and lower costs of doing business. Small merchant adoption: street and kiosk vendors can serve more customers, more quickly -- users will simply grab, scan, pay, and go with minimal interaction. Saves valuable floor space: big box merchants can conserve precious retail space by keeping inventory in a central warehouse instead of on the sales floor. Interactive purchasing experiences: retailers can create dynamic displays that engage customers for a more entertaining and enriching shopping experience. Effortless analytics and suggestive selling: merchants can track what customers view as well as buy, in much the same way that online stores do currently. Offering a similar product or different colors or sizes could lead to increased purchasing opportunities. Attendees at DEMO 2013 will be the first to experience shopping with GlassPay for Android, released on the Play marketplace. The full platform, including GlassPay for Android and Google Glass, is expected to be in the Play marketplace and Glass Boutique respectively, in the second quarter of 2014, after Google Glass becomes publicly available. Sellers who are interested in using the GlassPay platform should contact RedBottle Design at 1-855-444-2675 to discuss installation and integration options and pricing. RedBottle will provide a live, four-minute demonstration of GlassPay on the DEMO Fall 2013 stage at Thursday, October 17, 2013 at 11:05 a.m. and will host live demonstrations beginning today at Booth #D27 in the DEMO Fall 2013 pavilion. About RedBottle Design, LLC RedBottle Design was founded in 2007 and is driven by a group of young professionals living, working, and collaborating in Rochester, NY. We include programmers, business and marketing experts, designers and illustrators with numerous degrees and years of experience. The company provides software development, web development, and graphic design services, and specializes in mobile app and Google Glass development. Please visit http://www.redbottledesign.com for more information. About DEMO: Produced by the IDG Enterprise events group, the worldwide DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new products innovations, which are hand selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying cutting-edge technologies and helping entrepreneurs secure venture funding and establish critical business. For more information on the DEMO conferences, visit http://www.demo.com/ . GlassPay is a trademark of RedBottle Design, LLC. All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

2013-10-17 17:00:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [171, 275, 464, 561, 765, 881, 1036, 1131]}

{"Bitcoin": [25]}

SoftTouch POS Integrates Bitcoin Virtual Currency Payment Processing

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/softtouch-pos-integrates-bitcoin-virtual-170000178.html

Marketwired

http://www.marketwired.com/

COCONUT CREEK, FL --(Marketwired - October 17, 2013) - SoftTouch LLC, developer of point-of-sale and management solutions for restaurants, announced today its support for Bitcoin payments in its flagship product, SoftTouch POS. Capitalizing on the explosion in popularity of Bitcoin, SoftTouch POS now provides an integrated solution for merchants that want to accept the virtual currency. The integration approach used by SoftTouch POS allows merchants to accept Bitcoin for any transaction mode including counter sales, bars, drive-thru, dining and delivery. Bitcoin offers significant advantages to merchants including lower transaction fees than credit cards, and worldwide adoption, which makes it an attractive currency for international travelers. Moreover, Bitcoin payments are not subject to chargebacks like credit card transactions. Often referred to as "digital cash," Bitcoin is not controlled by a central bank or government. It is typically carried on a mobile device or stored in the cloud using an application called a Bitcoin wallet. SoftTouch POS uses a third-party payment gateway to facilitate the transfer of Bitcoin from the consumer to the merchant. About SoftTouch SoftTouch, LLC has been developing comprehensive restaurant software solutions since 2002 and sells its products through a value added reseller network in the U.S. and Canada.

2013-10-17 20:24:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [10033]}

{}

How Illumina's Gene Sequencing Technology Could Transform Health Care

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/illuminas-gene-sequencing-technology-could-202424202.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Jay Flatley Illumina By pretty much any measure, biotechnology company Illumina's growth has been spectacular. When Jay Flatley joined as CEO in 1999, the San Diego-based business had 25 people. It now employs more than 3000. Adjusted for a split, the company's stock price has increased 10-fold since its IPO in 2001 to reach new highs this year, and sales hit $1.2 billion in 2012. None of those things are Illumina's most significant accomplishment. Its primary business is building high output machines for sequencing human DNA that are used by researchers, doctors, and consumer companies like 23andMe to do everything from understanding different types of cancer to decoding someone's ancestry. Less than a decade ago, the process of sequencing an individual genome, meaning decoding someone's DNA to find out if they have or are susceptible to genetic diseases, cost anyone attempting it upwards of $1 million. Today, that cost is closer to $1,000 and falling. That means DNA sequencing can move from being an expensive luxury to becoming as standard in health care as the flu shot, helping create a world where medical treatment is truly personal. In a recent report , McKinsey listed next generation genomics, including sequencing, as one of 12 technologies that will fundamentally transform our lives. It estimates that the impact on the global economy could reach $1.6 trillion by 2025. In an interview with Business Insider, Flatley compared the growth to Moore's law, the famous axiom that the processing power of computer chips will double, on average, every two years. Yet the advance in sequencing has been far, far quicker than advances in processing, and Illumina's been at the forefront. Cost per genome Genome seq cost As the price has fallen, the speed of sequencing has rapidly increased. While it took at least one week to sequence a genome a few years ago, now it takes only about a day. That's incredibly exciting for researchers able to do things that were previously impossible or prohibitively expensive, for mothers who have a safer alternative to amniocentesis with genetic testing, and for cancer patients who can have their tumors sequenced to get more effective treatment. Story continues It's a business that's already changing lives and is poised to change many more. How Illumina helped slash the $1 million genome process to $1,000 Illumina now has a 60% market share because it's been able to dominate the high end of the market, making machines that are faster, more accurate, and more cost effective than competitors like Life Technologies. The staggering price drop came from a relatively simple idea that turned out to be a huge technical accomplishment. It all comes down to increasing the density of information the machine can gather. The most expensive part of sequencing is the chemicals and dyes used to break up and mark DNA (called reagents). The more data you get out each time you use reagents, the cheaper it gets. Illumina's better than anybody else at that. "If you have 100 pieces of information in a specific area and you had to flow reagents over that area," Flatley explains, " and all of a sudden you were able to get 400 pieces of information in exactly the same space, your cost per data point drops precipitously." Once you solve that problem, you can catch up with the other parts of the machine very quickly and massively reduce costs. The flip side of sequencing becoming cheaper is that there's a lot more of it being done by companies, researchers, and medical providers, creating massive amounts of data. Illumina and others in the research community have made major improvements there, too. "If you turn the clock back three or four years ago, people were just inundated with raw images coming off of our machines and couldn't handle that," Flatley says. "Today we're at the point where nobody looks at an image anymore." Instead of pictures that scientists had to pore over to get data, they get more usable information right off of the machine. Not only is the data be tter, Illumina and scientists have made a ton of progress in getting better at using that data, taking some 3 billion pieces of genetic information and comparing it to a normal or healthy genome and figuring out what's missing or different and what it means. That's particularly important for studying and treating cancer, where the genome is mutated and very different from the standard. Some cancer treatments have already been designed and are more effective for use on people with particular kinds of genetic mutations. The future is going to be in getting better at understanding the biological implications of more and more parts of a person's genome. Growing from niche markets to the mainstream As rapidly as Illumina has been growing, Flatley has his eye on even bigger things. Right now, for example, the company is seeing massive growth in non-invasive prenatal testing, basically replacing amniocentesis through sequencing fetal DNA and maternal blood. But the real opportunity in the next two to five years is around diagnosing and treating cancer, Flatley says. "Sequencing at the point of care for cancer is going to become absolutely commonplace in the next couple of years," says Flatley. "It won't be done for every patient. But three years from now, if you go into any large cancer center in the world and you don't have a DNA workup done before treatment's prescribed, that would fall in the irresponsible medical practice category." There are still barriers. You often have to sequence a tumor three times in order to get it right because it's mutated. That gets expensive for the patients. And since cancer is so complex, it's harder to analyze. Finally, many hospitals don't yet have the infrastructure required. "All of those things are going to get knocked down in the next couple of years," Flatley says. Further out, more children will likely be sequenced, Flatley predicts. Already, sequencing is being used successfully as a way of testing newborns with rare diseases. But for healthy newborns, he anticipates that it will be five to 10 years before it becomes cheap, useful, and comfortable enough to become common. "We absolutely believe that sequencing will become mainstream, and it will be commonplace in the management of human health because it will be so inexpensive to do," Flatley says. "It will have the ability to displace the vast selection of of existing tests that target one gene that may cost $1,000." There's also the benefit of making the right diagnosis in order to get the right drug prescribed faster, and the possibility that, in the long run, sequencing will help make it faster and cheaper to develop new drugs. It may even increasingly become an everyday tool for consumers, doctors, and governments. "In about 10 years it's going to be all about consumer and population sequencing. We're starting to see things like the United Kingdom's project , which is looking at 100,000 genomes," Flatley said. "You're going to see countries say we don't know much about Kazakhstan's genome, so we're going to go ahead and do 50,000 people in our population to see what's unique about our population and why we have certain diseases." Managing massive growth Before Illumina, Flatley founded a life sciences company called Molecular Dynamics, took it public, and sold it to a company that eventually joined GE. Illumina is his biggest challenge yet, Flatley says, as he tries to dodge the pitfalls of growing so rapidly and hold on to the things that make the company great. "Frankly, I never thought I'd run a company this size, and I always used to joke that I would never run a company where you have to wear a name badge to work," he says. "About five years ago I had to give in to the pressures of my security department. I wear a name badge like everybody else does." Rapid growth meant the company needed to maintain a laser focus on holding on to its entrepreneurial culture. Flatley spends a lot of time and energy articulating the core values of the company, which include innovation, collaboration, and focus on the product, so they're never forgotten. In the interest of keeping an open culture, there are no offices. People can walk into Flatley's cube anytime they want, and the company is organized to be "egalitarian and flat." And the company focuses on the product all the way up the ranks. "Something that's been distinct about [Illumina] is that most of the senior leadership of our company has a strong technology background," Flatley says. "That's distinct from somebody from a very large company who claims to be a great manager but really doesn't know anything about the products or how they're developed or what the technology tradeoffs are or what actually happens in the marketplace." Also essential is getting and retaining great people. Illumina's economic performance means that they're fortunate enough to be able to get people in the door. Once they're there, the key is to make sure that they stay. To that end, the hiring process is extremely rigorous, with 15 to 20 interviews for a mid- to senior-level employee. That ensures enough diversity in the people interviewing them that you can be pretty sure they're qualified and a good culture fit. "We constantly focus on the point that we can't let our A players hire B players, because then our B players hire C players," Flatley says. "So we're always focused on getting A players in every single position and not compromising even if we desperately want somebody in that position." Illumina's an intensely ambitious company in a space that has incredible potential. The problems it's facing — competitors nipping at its heels and minimizing growing pains — are ones that many companies would envy. The key will be to stay as ambitious and focused on remaining at the top as it was on getting there. More From Business Insider Here's Where Super Typhoon Haiyan Is Headed Next This Ridiculous Fraternity Fashion Email Is Blowing Up Emory University's Greek Scene Bitcoin Could Go To $1 Million

2013-10-21 10:31:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [2603]}

{}

10 Things You Need To Know This Morning

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-things-know-opening-bell-103149182.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

banksy kids REUTERS/Carlo Allegri Children pose for their parents photo with a new installation of British graffiti artist Banksy's art, in New York October 20, 2013 Good morning. Here's what you need to know. Asian markets were higher, with Japan's Nikkei up 0.91%; Hong Kong's Hang Seng, 0.42%; and Korea's KOSPI, 0.03%. European markets were mixed, and U.S. futures were pointing higher. Multiple outlets reported yesterday that JP Morgan will pay a $13 billion civil penalty for allegedly failing to warn investors about risky mortgage-backed securities trades. It would be the biggest civil penalty in history, representing about half of the banking giant's record profits last year. Japanese export growth missed the mark in September , increasing 11.5% from a year earlier but missing analyst expectations of 15.6%. The development is "a sign that slowing demand in Asia is taking the shine off Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's stimulus policies and clouding the outlook for a budding economic recovery," reports Reuters' Leika Kihara and Tetsushi Kajimoto. German producer prices climbed 0.3% in September , rising above economist expectations for a 0.1% increase. Prices were still down 0.5% from the year previous. "Muted inflation at Germany's factory gates masks sharp increases in consumer goods prices. Food prices were up 2.7% from September 2012, as prices for butter and milk leapt 32.1% and 18.2% respectively. Wine prices were up 7.5% on the year," reported the Wall Street Journal's Nina Adam. This morning at 10 a.m. ET we'll get September existing home sales. Economists estimate that sales slipped to an annualized pace of 5.3 million. "Existing home sales rose unexpectedly in August as the upward move in mortgage rates encouraged further home buyer traffic," wrote Wells Fargo's John Silvia . "We continue to expect existing home sales to edge higher, although the pace of improvement may be uneven in the months ahead. Our expectation is that sales will pull back 3.1 percent to a 5.31 million unit pace in September. Given the leaner inventory levels, existing home price appreciation will likely continue to be strong." Thanks to the end of the government shutdown, this week we'll receive a spate of economic data that we missed. Tuesday morning, we'll get the long-awaited September jobs report . McDonald's will report earnings before the bell this morning, with economists expecting an EPS of $1.51, up from $1.43 a year ago. Energy giant Halliburton will also report this morning. Analysts are expecting EPS at $0.82, up from $0.67 the year previous quarter. Interestingly, Bitcoin has surged from $140 to $190 over the course of a month. The price spike comes after the closure of Internet drug bazaar Silk Road, a development that many suspected would destroy the cryptocurrency used often on the site. Mortgage watchdog FHFA will seek a $4 billion penalty from Bank of America, the FT reports. " The FHFA has sued 17 institutions asserting that they broke securities laws when selling the mortgage-backed securities to Fannie and Freddie," according to the FT. "Bank of America has the biggest potential exposure, with a notional value of the securities of more than $57bn compared with $33bn at JPMorgan." For the first time since July 3 , oil fell below $100 a barrel . Oil prices have dropped significantly since the summer, when geopolitical tensions in the Middle East raised the price. The Obama administration is planning a "tech surge" to address the disastrous rollout of the Obamacare website . " T he President will directly address the technical problems with HealthCare.gov – troubles that he and his team find unacceptable – and discuss the actions he has pushed for to make it easier for consumers to comparison shop and enroll for insurance while work continues around the clock to improve the website," a White House official told Business Insider's Rob Wile. More From Business Insider The First Picture Of People — From 1838 Chinese Can't Understand Why The French Work So Little The Death Of Social ROI — Companies Are Starting To Drop The Idea That They Can Track Social Media's Dollar Value

2013-10-21 18:04:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [805]}

{}

You Have To See This Awesome Animated iWatch Concept GIF

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/see-awesome-animated-iwatch-concept-180449893.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

A designer named Thomas Bogner shared his impressive concept of what Apple's long-awaited iWatch might look like. While Bogner thinks "it looks basically like the bastard child of a Fuel Band and an iPhone," we're into it. It's a cool concept that looks like it'd be easy to wear, and those fluid transitions from screen to screen are simply tantalizing. This is obviously all speculation and shouldn't be thought of as anything more than a fun design exercise. Apple's iWatch still might as well be a flying saucer, but if you want to learn more, check out this video with hotshot Apple reporter Mark Gurman . dribbble_small_iwatch Dribbble More From Business Insider 18 Depressing Photos That Show Why Nobody Wants To Shop At Sears These Two Photos Of A Chinese Skyscraper Were Taken Just 10 Days Apart Bitcoin Has Gone On An Insane Surge

2013-10-22 10:20:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1946]}

{}

10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-things-know-opening-bell-102054797.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

obamacare speech woman faints REUTERS/Jason Reed U.S. President Barack Obama (2ndL) reaches out to help Affordable Care Act beneficiary Karmel Allison (C), who began to faint during the president's speech about healthcare from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington October 21, 2013. Good morning. Here's what you need to know. Asian markets were relatively flat, with Japan's Nikkei up 0.13%; Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.52%; and Korea's KOSPI up 0.15%. European markets were also mixed, as were U.S. futures. This morning at 8:30 a.m. ET we'll get the September jobs report that was postponed during the government shutdown . Economists are expecting the U.S. to have added 180,000 to nonfarm payrolls. "Employment growth probably re-accelerated in September after the smaller than expected rise in August and downward revisions to the previous two months," wrote UBS' Drew Matus. "Labor markets appear to be improving." Wall Street's most bullish analyst? Brian Jones of SocGen, who is predicting 240,000 . " We expect the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ long-awaited update on the employment situation in September to reveal the strongest payroll gain since February and the lowest joblessness since November 2008," he wrote to clients. Mike O'Rourke of Jones Trading says that the real figure to watch will be the revisions . " The questions surrounding [today's] report is whether or not the next round of revisions will recover the lost ground in the August report and whether the July-August deceleration is a new trend," he wrote. Apple will hold its second big product announcement event today at 1 p.m. EST. Expect the company to announce a new iPad, iPad mini, launch date for the new operating system, and more. DuPont beat earnings expectations this morning , announcing a Q3 EPS of $0.45 per share compared to $o.43 per share a year ago. Third quarter net sales came in at $7.7 billion , with volume up 9% versus last year. Bitcoin — everyone's favorite cryptocurrency — continued its big surge this morning, with prices blowing past $200 on Mt. Gox. After the abrupt closure of famed internet drug bazaar Silk Road, many expected the digital currency to collapse. That clearly hasn't been the case — at least not yet. A strange story emerged yesterday when it was revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered Larry Summer Israel's chief central banking job . Summers declined, and the situation actually mirrored what happened in the U.S. Like President Obama choosing Janet Yellen, Netenyahu went with Karnit Flug, the first woman to become Governor of the Bank of Israel. Netflix reported earnings after the closing bell yesterday , posting $1.11 billion in revenue and $0.52 EPS, a big beat. The stock surged in after hours trading. As our Sam Ro noted , the movie streaming company finished 2012 at $92. It reached $390 after-hours. President Obama acknowledged Monday that the Affordable Care Act's website rollout has been flawed . " There's no sugar-coating it," Obama said at an event in the White House's Rose Garden discussing Healthcare.gov's glitches. "T he problem has been that the website that's supposed to make it easy to apply for and purchase the insurance is not working the way it should for everybody," he said. "Precisely because the product is good, I want the cash registers to work, I want the checkout lines to be smooth, so I want people to be able to get this great product. And there's no excuse for the problems. And these problems are getting fixed." Mining giant BHP Billiton has raised its iron ore production forecast for 2014 to 212 million tonnes thanks to operations in Western Australia, which achieved record output in July-September, Agence France Presse reports. BHP, the world's largest diversified miner, said that overall commodity production had spiked 11% year on year in the three months to September 30. Story continues More From Business Insider Nevada Teacher Killed Trying To Protect Students From Shooter Is Being Hailed As A Hero 18 Depressing Photos That Show Why Nobody Wants To Shop At Sears 10 Things You Need To Know This Morning View comments

2013-10-23 20:09:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [68, 589, 632]}

{"Bitcoin": [18]}

CHART OF THE DAY: Bitcoin Is Going Totally Parabolic Again

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-going-totally-parabolic-again-200906280.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Earlier this year, the markets world was completely fascinated with Bitcoin as it surged from levels around $15 to a high of $266 in just a few short weeks. Since then, interest in the digital currency has died off as the price has stagnated. Now, it's going on another parabolic surge. Right now, it's trading at $224, not far away from that $266 peak made earlier this year. Check out the weekly price chart below. bitcoin bitcoin.clarkmoody.com More From Business Insider The Death Of Social ROI — Companies Are Starting To Drop The Idea That They Can Track Social Media's Dollar Value Bitcoin Continues To Go On An Insane Surge Bitcoin Has Gone On An Insane Surge View comments

2013-10-24 02:20:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [67, 648, 897, 973, 1290, 1472, 1566, 1753, 1801, 2070, 2153, 2287, 2385, 2628, 3037, 3113, 3177]}

{"Bitcoin": [52]}

Coinbase Releases iPhone App Amid Strong Market for Bitcoin

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coinbase-releases-iphone-app-amid-022000146.html

Entrepreneur

http://www.entrepreneur.com/

Coinbase, a venture-backed trading platform and digital wallet for Bitcoin , released an iOS app on Tuesday allowing iPhone users to buy, sell and send bitcoins from their mobile phone. The app syncs to your Coinbase web account, so updates will show instantly in both. Coinbase previously launched an app for Android users. With both apps, Coinbase anticipated the concerns of users who might be wary of installing an app that links directly to their bank account: You can set a passcode to obtain a measure of security. And should your phone become lost or stolen, you can remotely disable access to the app. The iPhone app debuts at a time when Bitcoin is riding high on a wave of media coverage and new users. On Coinbase, the buy price for a single bitcoin is about $200, the highest since April. The sell price is about $197. Michael Terpin, co-founder of BitAngels, a group that invests in Bitcoin startups, says the recent price surge is owed largely to increasing Bitcoin adoption in China. On October 14, Baidu, a diversified internet company that runs the No. 1 search engine in China, began accepting bitcoins for the web services offered by Jiasule, one of its subsidiaries. "All of a sudden businesses have at least one example of a large company saying it is going to accept Bitcoin," Terpin says. Baidu, which trades publicly on Nasdaq, has a market cap of $53 billion. This stamp of approval from a major corporation, aided by official Chinese silence on Bitcoin's legality, became "a call to action," he says. There are now at least 10 China-based Bitcoin exchanges, and the largest, BTCChina, sees nearly as much trading volume as Japan-based Mt. Gox, the No. 1 exchange. Related: Payment Processor Dwolla Unexpectedly Cuts Ties With Bitcoin Along with increased interest, however, Bitcoin has weathered a number of shocks in recent months. The most notable was the shutdown of online black market Silk Road and the arrest of its alleged founder, Ross Ulbricht, on October 2. Also this month, payment processing company Dwolla decided to stop serving Bitcoin-related businesses. Story continues Emily Spaven, a writer for CoinDesk, a Bitcoin news site, said this week that the global media coverage of Silk Road's shutdown and its aftermath may in fact have benefited Bitcoin by raising its profile and polishing its image. Some people may feel more confident using Bitcoin now that it is no longer the currency of choice for a famous illegal bazaar. "There are a number of people who feel that with this out of the way, it's going to be easier to deal with regulatory authorities," Terpin says. The value of Bitcoin has been climbing steadily for the past three weeks, ever since the news of Silk Road's closing caused a brief sharp drop in the cryptocurrency's price. But it may soon level off or decline, according to market watchers. Just as with stocks, "there's a psychological pullback point," Terpin says. "It will be a first if this is a long bull market with no pullback. Three weeks has been an eternity in Bitcoin." But over the long-term, he says, "there are a lot of bulls in the Bitcoin market, including most of the Bit Angels." Related: Why Bitcoin's Future Is Bright (Video)

2013-10-24 11:13:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [4273]}

{}

10 Things You Need To Know This Morning

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-things-know-opening-bell-111305157.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

australia fire REUTERS/David Gray A female Rural Fire Service (RFS) firefighter walks through a burnt area after trying to extinguish a small fire approaching homes near the Blue Mountains suburb of Blackheath, located around 70 km (43 miles) west of Sydney, October 23, 2013. Good morning! Here's what you nee t to know. Markets were mostly higher. Korea's Kospi led in Asia at 0.54%. In Europe, Germany's DAX was up 0.45%. U.S. futures were up about 0.30%. China's purchasing managers index for October printed a seven-month high 0f 50.9 , beating expectations of 50.4. "This implies that China’s growth recovery is becoming consolidated into 4Q following the bottoming out in 3Q. This momentum is likely to continue in the coming months, creating favorable conditions for speeding up structural reforms," HSBC chief China economist Hongbin Qu said. Europe is still growing, but it's slowed down a bit. The Eurozone's composite PMI declined to 51.5 from 52.2. "Although modest, the expansion is reassuringly broad-based across the region, reflecting signs of economic recoveries becoming more entrenched in the periphery as well as ongoing expansion in Germany and stabilisation in France," Markit's Chris Williamson said. India is now expected to see its GDP decline to the lowest level in more than a decade. Reuters polled 24 economists, who now see growth slowing to 4.7% — the same figure the World Bank recently came up with. "India's ailing economy is likely to remain under pressure from weak domestic and foreign demand for some time, while uncertainty ahead of elections next year is expected to keep investors and businesses at bay," Reuters' Rahul Karunakar and Ashrith Rao Doddi write Institutional investors accounted for 14% of all sales in September according to RealtyTrac , up from 9% of all sales last month. "The housing market continues to skew in favor of investors, particularly deep-pocketed institutional investors, and other buyers paying with cash," Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac said in a press release. This is the busiest earnings day of the year, with 358 different firms releasing their Q3 figures. Ford is already in : they beat earnings, missed sales estimates, and its shares are up 3.6% pre-market. Also before the bell we get, among others, 3M ($1.75/share expected), Altria ($0.64/share expected), Colgate ($0.73/share expected ), Dunkin Donuts ($0.43/share expected ), Southwest Airlines ($0.33/share expected ), and Xerox ($0.25/share expected ). Amazon ($-0.09/share expected) and Microsoft ($0.54/share expected) also report, after the bell. We're also getting a raft of new economic data this morning. Weekly jobless claims missed expectations , while U.S. trade data widened less than expected . And flash PMI missed . Just before 9 am, October flash PMI prints, with a decline of 0.01 to 52.7 expected. Finally at 10 am, we get the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). The Obama Administration appears ready to extend the open enrollment period to sign up for health insurance at least through March, Reuters' David Morgan and Mark Felsenthal report . And pressure is now mounting from Democrats to make additional reforms to the Affordable Care Act's centerpiece, the health insurance exchanges. "Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking House Democrat, criticized the website for forcing consumers to provide private information before deciding what kind of health insurance plan they want to buy. 'I've talked to too many people who tell me before they ever get around to figuring out what it is they want to buy, they're having to answer questions that they don't feel they should be answering,' Clyburn said. The CEO of British-based WPP, the world's largest ad firm by revenue, told the Wall Street Journal that allegations the U.S. was spying on its own allies would damage both "brand America" as well as the ad industry, since it could lead to commercial data collection becoming more restrictive. "If Germany's Chancellor is bugged—true or not—the bare suggestion of this is bad," Mr. Sorrell said. "Imagine [CEO of rival Publicis Groupe SA Maurice Levy ] calling me to assure me that he wasn't tapping my phone, or the other way round…It's pretty serious stuff." Bitcoin prices briefly hit $230 overnight and remain above $200 this morning on the Mt. Gox exchange, recalling the insane surge that occurred this spring and reflecting the resiliency of the digital currency. More From Business Insider Massachusetts Schools Shut Down After Teacher Was Allegedly Murdered By A 14-Year-Old 10 Things You Need To Know This Morning 10 Things You Need To Know This Morning

2013-10-26 15:26:10+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [0, 19, 38, 204, 307, 681]}

{"Bitcoin": [10]}

The First Bitcoin ATMs Are About To Start Popping Up Across Canada

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/first-bitcoin-atms-start-popping-152610705.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Bitcoins Cybrbeast Bitcoins The first Bitcoin ATM in the world is believed to launch in Canada next week. According to reports from CBC , Mitchell Demeter, co-founder of Vancouver bitcoin trading company Bitcoiniacs and part-owner of Robocoin, has invested in five such machines to be placed across Canada. Bitcoin is an emerging digital currency that isn't controlled by any authority such as a central bank. It recently made headlines when it was believed to be the currency linked to the success of the now-defunct Silk Road, an underground and virtual drug trafficking marketplace. Silk Road was shut down earlier this month. The new ATM will trade Canadian dollars for online Bitcoins. Users are required to do a palm scan and are permitted to exchange up to $3,000 per day. When the coins are exchanged, they are t hen entered in your online bitcoin wallet. All transactions will be anonymous. More From Business Insider Snapchat Is In Talks To Raise Money At A Whopping $3.6 Billion Valuation Here's How You Can Create Those Personalized Comic Strips That Are Popping Up All Over Facebook Are We Too Selfie-Obsessed? We Airbrushed Ourselves To Find Out

2013-10-28 15:53:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [2681]}

{}

CHART OF THE DAY: This Is The Only NYSE Margin Debt Chart That Matters

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chart-day-only-nyse-margin-155328229.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Much has been made in the press about how NYSE margin debt is at an all-time high, suggesting that investors are excessively bullish. However, stock markets themselves are also at all-time highs — so perhaps the level of margin debt doesn't really tell us much that we don't already know. A post on the blog Philosophical Economics ( flagged by Josh Brown ) explains the mechanism whereby increases in the stock market translate to increases in margin debt: Now, why does total margin debt rise with the level and total capitalization of the market? There is a simple, intuitive answer. In any environment, a certain percentage of investors borrow against their portfolios. They borrow for a number of reasons. Examples include: (1) They may be engaged in investment strategies that hedge and pare risk by applying leverage to uncorrelated assets. (2) Margin debt might be the cheapest type of debt they have access to, and therefore they may use it to pay off other more expensive debts. (3) They might be waiting for money to arrive at a broker, and need temporary liquidity to fund purchases. Or (4), they might just be really bullish and really reckless. We should expect the amount of margin debt that these investors take on to vary with the size of the portfolios they are borrowing against. Thus, we should expect the total quantity of margin debt in existence to vary with the total capitalization of the stock market ( the sum of the value of all equity portfolios). That is roughly what we see. That brings us to the only margin debt chart that matters: NYSE margin debt as a percentage of stock market capitalization, which shows how the use of margin is growing relative to the pace of the rise in stock prices. nyse margin debt cotd Philosphical Economics Why has this measure been rising? Philosophical Economics chalks it up to the evolving investment landscape: Hedge funds have grown dramatically since the early 1990s. The strategies they employ to smooth out and optimize their risk-adjusted returns involve more leverage than the rest of the market has traditionally used. Story continues Additionally, the cost of borrowing against a portfolio has fallen significantly since the early 1990s. Borrowing on margin is cheaper now than it has ever been, not only because interest rates are at record lows, but also because brokerage competition has produced an outcome where clients are offered much better terms. Finally, with the development and mass expansion of online trading, portfolios are easier to monitor and quickly adjust. This reduces the stress of being on margin. Read more at Philosophical Economics » More From Business Insider CHART OF THE DAY: Bitcoin Is Going Totally Parabolic Again THE SCARIEST JOBS CHART EVER CHART OF THE DAY: An Obscure Contrarian Indicator Says Stock Market Investors Are Extremely Bullish

2013-10-29 09:19:53+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [521, 680]}

{}

PRESS DIGEST- Canada-Oct 29

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/press-digest-canada-oct-29-091953010.html

Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/

Oct 29 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. THE GLOBE AND MAIL * Canadian Senator Mike Duffy says staff in the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper arranged for a Conservative Party lawyer to cover his legal fees - a payment that was in addition to the cheque for C$90,000 that Harper's former chief of staff wrote to foot the bill for Duffy's improperly claimed expenses. () * The world's first Bitcoin ATM goes live on Tuesday - and it will be installed inside a downtown Vancouver coffee shop. Mitchell Demeter, co-founder of the Vancouver-based store Bitcoiniacs, is the man behind the automated teller machine's arrival. () Reports in the business section: * Private-sector economists are pressing Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to keep a closer eye on Canada's housing market in light of persistently low interest rates. () * The head of Canada's wireless lobby group, Bernard Lord, says unneeded regulation and a lack of available spectrum is jeopardizing the country's status as a place with the fastest networks in the world. () NATIONAL POST * Another increase in median wait times for medical treatment despite fast-growing public healthcare spending means Canada should look abroad for alternative ways of delivering universal healthcare with private options, say the authors of a new report. () * A 71-year-old Iranian-born man with a legally altered name faces three criminal charges in connection with an alleged attempt to bring explosive material onto an airplane. He was charged on Monday over the incident, which paralyzed Montreal's main airport on Sunday for several hours and caused a neighborhood to be shut down for a police search. () FINANCIAL POST * The Canadian government has no plans for now to clamp down on the housing market even though prices are rising again, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Monday, but he pledged to investigate whether the price uptick looks to be more than temporary. () * Canada's oil and gas industry is "losing the war" against anti-hydrocarbon activism as the balance of power tilts in favor of project opponents, says the head of Quebec's Oil and Gas Association. ()

2013-10-29 20:23:51+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [19, 122, 230, 459, 562, 766, 1268, 1509, 1886, 1973]}

{"Bitcoin": [19]}

First ATM Offering Bitcoins Opens in Vancouver

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/first-atm-offering-bitcoins-opens-in-vancouver-202352312.html

Yahoo Finance

http://finance.yahoo.com/

First ATM Offering Bitcoins Opens in Vancouver The world’s first automated teller machine dealing in the virtual currency Bitcoin opened on Tuesday. Stationed near a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada, the new ATM pays out cash for Bitcoins or accepts cash in return for the online money. The machine scans a user’s palm print and government-issued identification to deter fraud or money-laundering. Transactions are limited to $3,000 Canadian dollars per day. Bitcoins were the preferred currency at the recently closed online drug bazaar known as Silk Road. But Bitcoins are also increasingly being used in legitimate transactions. One of the first users of the new ATM was journalist John Koetsier, who promptly tweeted the moment. Just used the world's first-ever Bitcoin ATM. pic.twitter.com/NtkpRRK6xc — John Koetsier (@johnkoetsier) October 29, 2013 Later, the machine’s maker, Robocoin Kiosk, tweeted a picture of another user. This fine gentleman is buying some #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/AGaWFYe8ev — Robocoin (@robocoin) October 29, 2013 The ATMs, which cost $20,000, are coming to other parts of Canada next, including Toronto and Montreal. Robocoin says it has received inquires from more than 20 regions and countries including Australia, Kenya and Ireland. Bitcoins exist only as bits of encrypted computer code online. Users keep their stash in a virtual wallet application and can buy and sell them in dozens of currencies at established exchanges such as Mt. Gox in Tokyo. The value of a single Bitcoin, currently just over $200, has fluctuated wildly at times but the ATM exchanges currencies in real time via Canada’s VirtEx exchange. With the required identification scanner and other features, the ATM complies with various countries’ laws regarding money laundering, Robocoin says. Concerns about criminal activity have somewhat hampered efforts to create legitimate Bitcoin services. In August, New York regulators subpoenaed 22 companies active in the Bitcoin economy, including well-known venture-capital firms Google Ventures and Andreesen Horowitz, seeking to uncover possible illegality.

2013-10-29 23:12:23+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1067, 1549, 2110, 2292, 2461, 2644, 2896]}

{"Bitcoin": [0]}

Bitcoin goes mainstream with ATM in Vancouver coffee shop

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-goes-mainstream-atm-vancouver-225756750.html

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/

By Julie Gordon VANCOUVER (Reuters) - A silver and blue ATM, perched up next to the espresso bar in a trendy Vancouver coffee shop, could launch a new era for the digital currency bitcoin, offering an almost instant way to exchange the world's leading virtual money for cash. The value of a bitcoin soared from $13 in January to a high of $266 in April as more businesses and consumers used them to buy and sell online. Some investors are also treating bitcoins like gold, using them to hedge against currency fluctuations and speculating on their rise. The kiosk, which looks like the average ATM but with hand and barcode scanners, opened for business on Tuesday and by mid-morning people were lined up to swap their bitcoins for cash, or to deposit cash to buy more bitcoins. "It's as easy as walking up to a machine, scanning your hand, entering some cash and buying bitcoin," said Jordan Kelley, chief executive of Las Vegas-based Robocoin, the company that builds the ATMs. "With this, it's a 2-minute process. For any online exchange, it's at least two days." Bitcoins, currently worth about $210 each, can be transferred without going through banks or clearing houses, thereby cutting fees. Users can buy products and services online or in a handful of stores, including the Waves coffee shop where the ATM is. With the bitcoin ATM, users scan their hand to confirm identity, then funds move to or from a virtual wallet on their smartphone. The system limits transfers to $1,000 a day, in an effort to curb money laundering and other fraud. Bitcoiniacs, the local dealer that operates the ATM, will roll out four other kiosks across Canada in December. Robocoin said Canada was the ideal place to launch the kiosk due to a critical mass of users and less stringent oversight than in the United States, where the bitcoin trade is monitored by anti-money laundering regulators. "We think the Vancouver market is enormous and we're excited to be here," said Kelley. "By the end 2013, we'll be all over Canada. By the end of 2014, we'll be all over the world, including the United States." Story continues Bitcoin is not a recognized currency in Canada, so Ottawa's anti-money laundering watchdog, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, does not monitor its trade. Still Bitcoiniacs' founders say they are working with the agency to be ready for when Canada does start regulating them. "We're already being proactive in our business," said Bitcoiniacs co-founder Mitchell Demeter. "We abide by any guidelines they would impose - which includes the 'know you customer' laws and anti-money laundering laws." GOING MAINSTREAM Bitcoins were launched in 2008 and are traded within a global network of computers. They are not backed by a single company or government, but their release is tightly controlled, mimicking a central banking system's control over the minting of money. Bitcoins can be bought with near anonymity, which supporters say lowers fraud risk and increases privacy. But critics say that also makes bitcoins a magnet for drug transactions, money-laundering and other illegal activities. The currency's reputation took a hit this month, when U.S. regulators shut down Silk Road, an online marketplace used to buy and sell illegal drugs, and seized $3.6 million in bitcoins. But the virtual currency is gaining hold among businesses and consumers, a key step to a bigger role. "I think it's definitely going mainstream," said Demeter. "I think as things progress, and the infrastructure is built, it will become easier for people to buy and sell, and so more people will start using it." In Vancouver, for example, dozens of people attend weekly bitcoin meet-ups and a member co-op is promoting the currency to a growing list of local retailers. At Waves, Vancouver resident Chung Cheong used bitcoin to pay for his mug of tea and was happy to mull over the future of the digital currency. "It's been said that we're at the stage where email was in 1992," he said. "Is it risky? Sure. But look at how the Internet and email changed the world." (Additional reporting by Louise Egan in Ottawa; Editing by Richard Chang)

2013-10-29 23:12:23+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1067, 1549, 2110, 2292, 2461, 2644, 2896]}

{"Bitcoin": [0]}

Bitcoin goes mainstream with ATM in Vancouver coffee shop

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-goes-mainstream-atm-vancouver-225756847.html

Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/

By Julie Gordon VANCOUVER (Reuters) - A silver and blue ATM, perched up next to the espresso bar in a trendy Vancouver coffee shop, could launch a new era for the digital currency bitcoin, offering an almost instant way to exchange the world's leading virtual money for cash. The value of a bitcoin soared from $13 in January to a high of $266 in April as more businesses and consumers used them to buy and sell online. Some investors are also treating bitcoins like gold, using them to hedge against currency fluctuations and speculating on their rise. The kiosk, which looks like the average ATM but with hand and barcode scanners, opened for business on Tuesday and by mid-morning people were lined up to swap their bitcoins for cash, or to deposit cash to buy more bitcoins. "It's as easy as walking up to a machine, scanning your hand, entering some cash and buying bitcoin," said Jordan Kelley, chief executive of Las Vegas-based Robocoin, the company that builds the ATMs. "With this, it's a 2-minute process. For any online exchange, it's at least two days." Bitcoins, currently worth about $210 each, can be transferred without going through banks or clearing houses, thereby cutting fees. Users can buy products and services online or in a handful of stores, including the Waves coffee shop where the ATM is. With the bitcoin ATM, users scan their hand to confirm identity, then funds move to or from a virtual wallet on their smartphone. The system limits transfers to $1,000 a day, in an effort to curb money laundering and other fraud. Bitcoiniacs, the local dealer that operates the ATM, will roll out four other kiosks across Canada in December. Robocoin said Canada was the ideal place to launch the kiosk due to a critical mass of users and less stringent oversight than in the United States, where the bitcoin trade is monitored by anti-money laundering regulators. "We think the Vancouver market is enormous and we're excited to be here," said Kelley. "By the end 2013, we'll be all over Canada. By the end of 2014, we'll be all over the world, including the United States." Story continues Bitcoin is not a recognized currency in Canada, so Ottawa's anti-money laundering watchdog, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, does not monitor its trade. Still Bitcoiniacs' founders say they are working with the agency to be ready for when Canada does start regulating them. "We're already being proactive in our business," said Bitcoiniacs co-founder Mitchell Demeter. "We abide by any guidelines they would impose - which includes the 'know you customer' laws and anti-money laundering laws." GOING MAINSTREAM Bitcoins were launched in 2008 and are traded within a global network of computers. They are not backed by a single company or government, but their release is tightly controlled, mimicking a central banking system's control over the minting of money. Bitcoins can be bought with near anonymity, which supporters say lowers fraud risk and increases privacy. But critics say that also makes bitcoins a magnet for drug transactions, money-laundering and other illegal activities. The currency's reputation took a hit this month, when U.S. regulators shut down Silk Road, an online marketplace used to buy and sell illegal drugs, and seized $3.6 million in bitcoins. But the virtual currency is gaining hold among businesses and consumers, a key step to a bigger role. "I think it's definitely going mainstream," said Demeter. "I think as things progress, and the infrastructure is built, it will become easier for people to buy and sell, and so more people will start using it." In Vancouver, for example, dozens of people attend weekly bitcoin meet-ups and a member co-op is promoting the currency to a growing list of local retailers. At Waves, Vancouver resident Chung Cheong used bitcoin to pay for his mug of tea and was happy to mull over the future of the digital currency. "It's been said that we're at the stage where email was in 1992," he said. "Is it risky? Sure. But look at how the Internet and email changed the world." (Additional reporting by Louise Egan in Ottawa; Editing by Richard Chang)

2013-10-30 03:57:29+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1067, 1549, 2110, 2292, 2461, 2644, 2896]}

{"Bitcoin": [0]}

Bitcoin goes mainstream with ATM in Vancouver coffee shop

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-goes-mainstream-atm-vancouver-035729789.html

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/

By Julie Gordon VANCOUVER (Reuters) - A silver and blue ATM, perched up next to the espresso bar in a trendy Vancouver coffee shop, could launch a new era for the digital currency bitcoin, offering an almost instant way to exchange the world's leading virtual money for cash. The value of a bitcoin soared from $13 in January to a high of $266 in April as more businesses and consumers used them to buy and sell online. Some investors are also treating bitcoins like gold, using them to hedge against currency fluctuations and speculating on their rise. The kiosk, which looks like the average ATM but with hand and barcode scanners, opened for business on Tuesday and by mid-morning people were lined up to swap their bitcoins for cash, or to deposit cash to buy more bitcoins. "It's as easy as walking up to a machine, scanning your hand, entering some cash and buying bitcoin," said Jordan Kelley, chief executive of Las Vegas-based Robocoin, the company that builds the ATMs. "With this, it's a 2-minute process. For any online exchange, it's at least two days." Bitcoins, currently worth about $210 each, can be transferred without going through banks or clearing houses, thereby cutting fees. Users can buy products and services online or in a handful of stores, including the Waves coffee shop where the ATM is. With the bitcoin ATM, users scan their hand to confirm identity, then funds move to or from a virtual wallet on their smartphone. The system limits transfers to $1,000 a day, in an effort to curb money laundering and other fraud. Bitcoiniacs, the local dealer that operates the ATM, will roll out four other kiosks across Canada in December. Robocoin said Canada was the ideal place to launch the kiosk due to a critical mass of users and less stringent oversight than in the United States, where the bitcoin trade is monitored by anti-money laundering regulators. "We think the Vancouver market is enormous and we're excited to be here," said Kelley. "By the end 2013, we'll be all over Canada. By the end of 2014, we'll be all over the world, including the United States." Story continues Bitcoin is not a recognized currency in Canada, so Ottawa's anti-money laundering watchdog, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, does not monitor its trade. Still Bitcoiniacs' founders say they are working with the agency to be ready for when Canada does start regulating them. "We're already being proactive in our business," said Bitcoiniacs co-founder Mitchell Demeter. "We abide by any guidelines they would impose - which includes the 'know you customer' laws and anti-money laundering laws." GOING MAINSTREAM Bitcoins were launched in 2008 and are traded within a global network of computers. They are not backed by a single company or government, but their release is tightly controlled, mimicking a central banking system's control over the minting of money. Bitcoins can be bought with near anonymity, which supporters say lowers fraud risk and increases privacy. But critics say that also makes bitcoins a magnet for drug transactions, money-laundering and other illegal activities. The currency's reputation took a hit this month, when U.S. regulators shut down Silk Road, an online marketplace used to buy and sell illegal drugs, and seized $3.6 million in bitcoins. But the virtual currency is gaining hold among businesses and consumers, a key step to a bigger role. "I think it's definitely going mainstream," said Demeter. "I think as things progress, and the infrastructure is built, it will become easier for people to buy and sell, and so more people will start using it." In Vancouver, for example, dozens of people attend weekly bitcoin meet-ups and a member co-op is promoting the currency to a growing list of local retailers. At Waves, Vancouver resident Chung Cheong used bitcoin to pay for his mug of tea and was happy to mull over the future of the digital currency. "It's been said that we're at the stage where email was in 1992," he said. "Is it risky? Sure. But look at how the Internet and email changed the world." (Additional reporting by Louise Egan in Ottawa; Editing by Richard Chang)

2013-10-31 10:58:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1351]}

{}

10 Tech Things You Need To Know This Morning

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-tech-things-know-morning-105808312.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Android KitKat Google+/Sundar Pichai Boo. It is Halloween. Now that you know that, let's move on to to tech news. Facebook reported earnings last night and the results were pretty great. But then management said some things on the earnings call that bothered everyone: younger teenagers were using the service less, and ad engagement might not be great. Half of Facebook's ad revenue now comes from mobile ads, which is astounding since two years ago none of it came from mobile . Kickstarter CEO and co-founder Perry Chen is moving to the Chairman role, and Yancey Strickler, another co-founder takes over as CEO . Kickstarter now has 5 million backers who have pledged almost a billion dollars to projects. The next Android software release will try to make it so Android works better on low-end phones, it will also work as a TV remote control, and will be focused on being used for wearable technologies . Apple's share of the tablet market fell under 30% last quarter . Who will be the next great technology critic? This story from the New Yorker is getting passed around by everyone. You don't want to miss this controversial profile of Dan Loeb, the hedge funder that got Marissa Mayer hired at Yahoo, then turned his sights on Sony . Speaking of Mayer, she's set to fire ~500 underperforming Yahoo employees . Silicon Valley is convinced that Bitcoin, despite its wild fluctuations, is going to be a mainstream currency . Nobel Prize winner Robert Shiller thinks people should work at Goldman Sachs instead of Google . More From Business Insider FACEBOOK RALLY EVAPORATES AS TEENS BEGIN TO FLEE One Year Ago Today, Tim Cook Made His Biggest Move As Apple CEO, And Truly Started The Post-Steve Jobs Era TIM COOK: We're Going To Sell A LOT Of iPads This Quarter View comments

2013-11-01 23:30:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [0, 308]}

{}

10 Stories From the Web to Know About This Week

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-stories-know-week-233000192.html

Entrepreneur

http://www.entrepreneur.com/

Bitcoin launches ATMS, quantifying innovation, Marissa Mayer's no telecommuting policy gets vindicated, Latinas take over, marketers can’t decide if Facebook ads work, Steve Blank gets fired, Twitpics come out… This week's notable news and tantalizing tidbits for entrepreneurs: 1. Say 'Hello' to Robocoin : Bitcoin recently took a giant leap into the realm of legitimacy and real-world application with the debut of its first ATM. Dubbed Robocoin, the machine allows currency to be exchanged for bitcoins, and vice-versa. (Wired) 2. The chemistry of success: Graduate student Kiriti Rambhatla offers a new way to quantify innovation within a company. Don't worry, there's not much math. (Forbes) 3. Yahoo gets vindicated: The roar from critics has been quashed by data, as CEO Marissa Mayer's unpopular no telecommuting policy proves successful. Productivity and employee engagement are up. (Fast Company) Related: Say What? Yahoo's Marissa Mayer Buys a Funeral Home 4. The right way to outsource: Outsourcing is a great way to keep startup costs down. Here is a smart guide to finding the right people for your small-business needs. (The Guardian) 5. Steve Blank's first job in Silicon Valley: Steve Blank, father of the Lean Startup movement, recalls his first job in Silicon Valley and what he learned getting fired and rehired in the same day. (LinkedIn Today) 6. Google's Spotlight Stories: Teaming up with Motorola, Google is creating a new interactive program that puts users at the center of an animated featurette… literally at the center of a 360 degree virtual reality movie, viewable with a Moto X smartphone. (Wired) 7. Does Facebook advertising work? Professional marketers are torn when it comes to agreeing on the effectiveness and value of Facebook advertising. Two recent third-party surveys convey this conundrum with contradicting data. (Businessweek) Related: Is Facebook Really a Failure to Marketers? 8. Twitpics see the light: Twitter updated its website and mobile apps to incorporate photo and video previews in tweet streams. Coming at a critical time before an expected $1.3 billion IPO next week, the micro-blogging giant is surely looking to create new revenue streams and lure advertisers. (SF Gate) 9. Latina-owned businesses explode: In the last decade, Hispanic Americans have been starting and growing new businesses at twice the rate of the general population, according to a new study by researcher Geoscape and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. A large part of that growth has come from Latinas. (Huffington Post) Related: 7 Tips for Women Who Want to Own a Franchise 10. Scammers cometh: Randy Shain, founder of BackTrack Reports and investigative due diligence expert, predicts that with the SEC’s decision to allow the solicitation of capital from unaccredited investors will come a new wave of scammers. (Venture Beat) View comments

2013-11-03 15:32:46+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [258, 477, 558, 638, 846, 986, 1159, 1398, 1417, 1606, 1994, 2070, 2322, 2507, 2537, 2630, 2823, 2874, 3033, 3187, 3256, 3703, 3900, 4280, 4368, 4496, 4779, 4964, 5245, 5443, 5528, 5720, 6374, 6685, 6715, 7500, 7674, 7802, 8129, 8361]}

{"Bitcoin": [35]}

Chip designers see dollar signs in Bitcoin miners

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chip-designers-see-dollar-signs-153246355.html

Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/

By Noel Randewich SUNNYVALE, California (Reuters) - Tucked away in an air conditioned data center in Silicon Valley is a hodgepodge of black boxes, circuit boards and cooling fans owned by 27-year-old Aaron Jackson-Wilde, a modern-day prospector looking for Bitcoins. Since discovering the digital currency a few months ago, Jackson-Wilde has paid about $2,000 for his "rigs," which are powered by specialized computer chips. They are designed to help operate and maintain the Bitcoin network - and, in return, generate a small reward in a process known as "Bitcoin mining." A form of electronic money independent of traditional banking, Bitcoins started circulating in 2009 and have since become the most prominent of several fledgling digital currencies. While they quickly gained a reputation for facilitating drug deals and money laundering, Bitcoins have of late garnered attention from investors, such as venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The volume of transactions using Bitcoins today remains miniscule, but enthusiasts believe the peer-to-peer currency will play a major role in e-commerce and could eventually become as ubiquitous as email. Bitcoin mining is based on a unique feature of the digital currency. Unlike traditional currencies, where a central bank decides how much money to print based on goals like controlling inflation, no central authority governs the supply of Bitcoins. Instead, Bitcoin transactions are tracked by a network of computers that solve complex mathematical problems to validate transactions and prevent counterfeit. The system automatically generates new Bitcoins as the math problems are solved and rewards them to the computer operators. In a key twist that keeps inflation in check, the difficulty of the cryptographic math that leads to newly minted coins grows as more computers join the network. That has led some technology professionals to target a new market in souped-up computers and specialized chips aimed at the growing ranks of Bitcoin "miners." Story continues Consider Ravi Iyengar, who first heard of Bitcoins about six months ago. Since then he has quit his job as a senior chip architect at Samsung Electronics and raised $1.5 million to launch CoinTerra. He says he has already pre-sold more than $5 million worth of the hardware he has designed for Bitcoin mining. "I've been in arms races throughout my career - AMD, ARM, Intel," said Iyengar, referring to prominent semiconductor companies, "but none of them match the intensity of Bitcoin mining. Each month in Bitcoin mining is like a year." PERISHABLE SILICON Little is known about exactly who started Bitcoin, but the concept was introduced in a 2008 paper written under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Since then, Satoshi Nakamoto has become sort of a patron saint among advocates pushing for Bitcoins as an alternative to national currencies. Bitcoin is not backed by physical assets, is not run by any person or group, and its value depends on people's confidence in the currency. The dollar price of Bitcoins has spiked over the past year as more people became aware of the currency and speculators jumped into the market, which remains highly volatile. Bitcoin recently broke $200, compared to $12 a year ago. The goal of Bitcoin miners is to pull in more than what they spend on their rigs - some cost over $20,000 - and the electricity they need to keep the machines running 24 hours a day. That is no easy feat. In the past three months, miners added so much gear with drastically improved chips that processing power on the network jumped from 289 terahashes per second to more than 4,000 terahashes per second, according to The Genesis Block, a blog that collects Bitcoin data. In reaction, the network drove up the difficulty of verifying each cryptographic block of transaction data, making it even harder to break even on investments in costly mining gear. "Bitcoin makes silicon perishable," said Andreas Antonopoulos, a digital currency entrepreneur in San Francisco. "Your mining rig rots away in front of your eyes every day you have it." It has become so hard to make a profit that comparisons to the 19th century California gold rush, when money was often made selling shovels to naive prospectors, have become a running joke among Bitcoin miners. "It's the guys who sell the equipment who are making the money, not the Bitcoin miners," said Jackson-Wilde, a manager at a company that makes motorcycle batteries. CoinTerra believes spending on new Bitcoin mining chips could easily hit $100 million a year for the next three years, assuming no change in prices. While that is peanuts for large semiconductor companies like Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc, it is a lucrative market for a handful of small developers. About 11.9 million Bitcoins, worth $2.4 billion at recent prices, have been minted since the currency began circulating. Based on recent activity, the network is on track to create around 1.4 million new Bitcoins annually over the next three years, the equivalent of more than $280 million a year at recent exchange rates. Reflecting growing competition, Jackson-Wilde says his gear - which features model names like Erupter, Jalapeno and Spartan - now pulls in a tiny fraction of the Bitcoins it used to, but he expects another $10,000 worth of next-generation equipment to put him in the black. Despite the expenditures, he considers himself a hobbyist committed to supporting the Bitcoin network rather than a serious digital-currency investor. "Buying and selling Bitcoins is enticing, but it's not as enticing as being part of it and actually having hardware," he said. HOBBY STATE Mining with a simple laptop PC was easy back in 2009, when the fledgling Bitcoin network was a fraction of its current size. But within a year, hobbyists found that graphics chips, often referred to as GPUs and widely used by PC gamers, could provide a major boost in mining output. Miners cobbled together dozens of graphics chips in their garages and basements, surrounded by fans to keep the electronics from overheating. Then in 2010, entrepreneurs caught wind. Jeff Ownby and a handful of colleagues had just formed Butterfly Labs with the goal of using off-the-shelf programmable chips, known as FPGAs, to help banks run complex financial risk simulations. "As we were starting down the road planning this, we read about Bitcoin and said 'Wow, this is exactly what we're trying to do here,'" Ownby said. "It was pretty much in a hobby state, so we thought this might be something." Butterfly Labs and other startups optimized FPGAs, which are more typically used in factories and telecommunications gear, to work efficiently on the Bitcoin network. In 2012, the Bitcoin arms race escalated again when Butterfly Labs and rivals, all with little or no semiconductor engineering experience, started designing chips from the ground up. Custom chips, known as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), are normally made by companies focused on high-volume products like televisions - not startups making small batches of digital mining devices. "They're the Wild West," said John Cheng, head of California based-Custom Silicon Solutions, which helped Butterfly Labs design and manufacture its ASIC. "There's a certain rhythm you're used to in the chip business. It's usually two or three years before your ramp, but these guys wanted to ramp in six months." Butterfly Labs said on Thursday it recently took a downpayment for new mining gear in Bitcoins equivalent to $1 million, the largest-ever transaction in the digital currency. It identified the customer as HashTrade, a company selling contracts for cloud-based Bitcoin mining run in data centers. David Johnston, executive director of BitAngels, an investment group, says consolidation in Bitcoin mining is well underway. "Mining has been going through these different generations and going up a learning curve, from amateurs running CPUs and GPUs to new professionally funded companies with experienced chip designers taking it to the state of the art," Johnston said. Still, there remain plenty of oddities in the Bitcoin mining business. Johnston cited ASICMiner, which both sells mining rigs and runs its own mining operations, as one of the largest and most respected operators. The company has even sold stock to online investors who paid in Bitcoins. ASICMiner recently had a market value equivalent to $50 million, according to data on the BitFunder online exchange. But few know where the company is located, or even who is in charge. The chief executive communicates through web forums under the pseudonym "Friedcat." (Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Tiffany Wu and Tim Dobbyn)

2013-11-03 15:51:04+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [258, 477, 558, 638, 846, 986, 1159, 1398, 1417, 1606, 1994, 2070, 2322, 2507, 2537, 2630, 2823, 2874, 3033, 3187, 3256, 3703, 3900, 4280, 4368, 4496, 4779, 4964, 5245, 5443, 5528, 5720, 6374, 6685, 6715, 7500, 7674, 7802, 8129, 8361]}

{"Bitcoin": [35]}

Chip designers see dollar signs in Bitcoin miners

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chip-designers-see-dollar-signs-150217901.html

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/

By Noel Randewich SUNNYVALE, California (Reuters) - Tucked away in an air conditioned data centre in Silicon Valley is a hodgepodge of black boxes, circuit boards and cooling fans owned by 27-year-old Aaron Jackson-Wilde, a modern-day prospector looking for Bitcoins. Since discovering the digital currency a few months ago, Jackson-Wilde has paid about $2,000 for his "rigs," which are powered by specialized computer chips. They are designed to help operate and maintain the Bitcoin network - and, in return, generate a small reward in a process known as "Bitcoin mining." A form of electronic money independent of traditional banking, Bitcoins started circulating in 2009 and have since become the most prominent of several fledgling digital currencies. While they quickly gained a reputation for facilitating drug deals and money laundering, Bitcoins have of late garnered attention from investors, such as venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The volume of transactions using Bitcoins today remains miniscule, but enthusiasts believe the peer-to-peer currency will play a major role in e-commerce and could eventually become as ubiquitous as email. Bitcoin mining is based on a unique feature of the digital currency. Unlike traditional currencies, where a central bank decides how much money to print based on goals like controlling inflation, no central authority governs the supply of Bitcoins. Instead, Bitcoin transactions are tracked by a network of computers that solve complex mathematical problems to validate transactions and prevent counterfeit. The system automatically generates new Bitcoins as the math problems are solved and rewards them to the computer operators. In a key twist that keeps inflation in check, the difficulty of the cryptographic math that leads to newly minted coins grows as more computers join the network. That has led some technology professionals to target a new market in souped-up computers and specialized chips aimed at the growing ranks of Bitcoin "miners." Story continues Consider Ravi Iyengar, who first heard of Bitcoins about six months ago. Since then he has quit his job as a senior chip architect at Samsung Electronics and raised $1.5 million to launch CoinTerra. He says he has already pre-sold more than $5 million worth of the hardware he has designed for Bitcoin mining. "I've been in arms races throughout my career - AMD, ARM, Intel," said Iyengar, referring to prominent semiconductor companies, "but none of them match the intensity of Bitcoin mining. Each month in Bitcoin mining is like a year." PERISHABLE SILICON Little is known about exactly who started Bitcoin, but the concept was introduced in a 2008 paper written under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Since then, Satoshi Nakamoto has become sort of a patron saint among advocates pushing for Bitcoins as an alternative to national currencies. Bitcoin is not backed by physical assets, is not run by any person or group, and its value depends on people's confidence in the currency. The dollar price of Bitcoins has spiked over the past year as more people became aware of the currency and speculators jumped into the market, which remains highly volatile. Bitcoin recently broke $200, compared to $12 a year ago. The goal of Bitcoin miners is to pull in more than what they spend on their rigs - some cost over $20,000 - and the electricity they need to keep the machines running 24 hours a day. That is no easy feat. In the past three months, miners added so much gear with drastically improved chips that processing power on the network jumped from 289 terahashes per second to more than 4,000 terahashes per second, according to The Genesis Block, a blog that collects Bitcoin data. In reaction, the network drove up the difficulty of verifying each cryptographic block of transaction data, making it even harder to break even on investments in costly mining gear. "Bitcoin makes silicon perishable," said Andreas Antonopoulos, a digital currency entrepreneur in San Francisco. "Your mining rig rots away in front of your eyes every day you have it." It has become so hard to make a profit that comparisons to the 19th century California gold rush, when money was often made selling shovels to naive prospectors, have become a running joke among Bitcoin miners. "It's the guys who sell the equipment who are making the money, not the Bitcoin miners," said Jackson-Wilde, a manager at a company that makes motorcycle batteries. CoinTerra believes spending on new Bitcoin mining chips could easily hit $100 million a year for the next three years, assuming no change in prices. While that is peanuts for large semiconductor companies like Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc, it is a lucrative market for a handful of small developers. About 11.9 million Bitcoins, worth $2.4 billion at recent prices, have been minted since the currency began circulating. Based on recent activity, the network is on track to create around 1.4 million new Bitcoins annually over the next three years, the equivalent of more than $280 million a year at recent exchange rates. Reflecting growing competition, Jackson-Wilde says his gear - which features model names like Erupter, Jalapeno and Spartan - now pulls in a tiny fraction of the Bitcoins it used to, but he expects another $10,000 worth of next-generation equipment to put him in the black. Despite the expenditures, he considers himself a hobbyist committed to supporting the Bitcoin network rather than a serious digital-currency investor. "Buying and selling Bitcoins is enticing, but it's not as enticing as being part of it and actually having hardware," he said. HOBBY STATE Mining with a simple laptop PC was easy back in 2009, when the fledgling Bitcoin network was a fraction of its current size. But within a year, hobbyists found that graphics chips, often referred to as GPUs and widely used by PC gamers, could provide a major boost in mining output. Miners cobbled together dozens of graphics chips in their garages and basements, surrounded by fans to keep the electronics from overheating. Then in 2010, entrepreneurs caught wind. Jeff Ownby and a handful of colleagues had just formed Butterfly Labs with the goal of using off-the-shelf programmable chips, known as FPGAs, to help banks run complex financial risk simulations. "As we were starting down the road planning this, we read about Bitcoin and said 'Wow, this is exactly what we're trying to do here,'" Ownby said. "It was pretty much in a hobby state, so we thought this might be something." Butterfly Labs and other startups optimized FPGAs, which are more typically used in factories and telecommunications gear, to work efficiently on the Bitcoin network. In 2012, the Bitcoin arms race escalated again when Butterfly Labs and rivals, all with little or no semiconductor engineering experience, started designing chips from the ground up. Custom chips, known as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), are normally made by companies focused on high-volume products like televisions - not startups making small batches of digital mining devices. "They're the Wild West," said John Cheng, head of California based-Custom Silicon Solutions, which helped Butterfly Labs design and manufacture its ASIC. "There's a certain rhythm you're used to in the chip business. It's usually two or three years before your ramp, but these guys wanted to ramp in six months." Butterfly Labs said on Thursday it recently took a downpayment for new mining gear in Bitcoins equivalent to $1 million, the largest-ever transaction in the digital currency. It identified the customer as HashTrade, a company selling contracts for cloud-based Bitcoin mining run in data centres. David Johnston, executive director of BitAngels, an investment group, says consolidation in Bitcoin mining is well underway. "Mining has been going through these different generations and going up a learning curve, from amateurs running CPUs and GPUs to new professionally funded companies with experienced chip designers taking it to the state of the art," Johnston said. Still, there remain plenty of oddities in the Bitcoin mining business. Johnston cited ASICMiner, which both sells mining rigs and runs its own mining operations, as one of the largest and most respected operators. The company has even sold stock to online investors who paid in Bitcoins. ASICMiner recently had a market value equivalent to $50 million, according to data on the BitFunder online exchange. But few know where the company is located, or even who is in charge. The chief executive communicates through web forums under the pseudonym "Friedcat." (Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Tiffany Wu and Tim Dobbyn)

2013-11-03 16:19:49+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [258, 477, 558, 638, 846, 986, 1159, 1398, 1417, 1606, 1994, 2054, 2306, 2491, 2521, 2614, 2807, 2858, 3017, 3171, 3240, 3687, 3884, 4264, 4352, 4480, 4763, 4948, 5229, 5427, 5512, 5704, 6358, 6669, 6699, 7484, 7658, 7786, 8113, 8345]}

{"Bitcoin": [35]}

Chip designers see dollar signs in Bitcoin miners

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chip-designers-see-dollar-signs-bitcoin-miners-153246474--finance.html

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/

By Noel Randewich SUNNYVALE, California (Reuters) - Tucked away in an air conditioned data center in Silicon Valley is a hodgepodge of black boxes, circuit boards and cooling fans owned by 27-year-old Aaron Jackson-Wilde, a modern-day prospector looking for Bitcoins. Since discovering the digital currency a few months ago, Jackson-Wilde has paid about $2,000 for his "rigs," which are powered by specialized computer chips. They are designed to help operate and maintain the Bitcoin network - and, in return, generate a small reward in a process known as "Bitcoin mining." A form of electronic money independent of traditional banking, Bitcoins started circulating in 2009 and have since become the most prominent of several fledgling digital currencies. While they quickly gained a reputation for facilitating drug deals and money laundering, Bitcoins have of late garnered attention from investors, such as venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The volume of transactions using Bitcoins today remains miniscule, but enthusiasts believe the peer-to-peer currency will play a major role in e-commerce and could eventually become as ubiquitous as email. Bitcoin mining is based on a unique feature of the digital currency. Unlike traditional currencies, where a central bank decides how much money to print based on goals like controlling inflation, no central authority governs the supply of Bitcoins. Instead, Bitcoin transactions are tracked by a network of computers that solve complex mathematical problems to validate transactions and prevent counterfeit. The system automatically generates new Bitcoins as the math problems are solved and rewards them to the computer operators. In a key twist that keeps inflation in check, the difficulty of the cryptographic math that leads to newly minted coins grows as more computers join the network. That has led some technology professionals to target a new market in souped-up computers and specialized chips aimed at the growing ranks of Bitcoin "miners." Consider Ravi Iyengar, who first heard of Bitcoins about six months ago. Since then he has quit his job as a senior chip architect at Samsung Electronics and raised $1.5 million to launch CoinTerra. He says he has already pre-sold more than $5 million worth of the hardware he has designed for Bitcoin mining. "I've been in arms races throughout my career - AMD, ARM, Intel," said Iyengar, referring to prominent semiconductor companies, "but none of them match the intensity of Bitcoin mining. Each month in Bitcoin mining is like a year." PERISHABLE SILICON Little is known about exactly who started Bitcoin, but the concept was introduced in a 2008 paper written under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Since then, Satoshi Nakamoto has become sort of a patron saint among advocates pushing for Bitcoins as an alternative to national currencies. Bitcoin is not backed by physical assets, is not run by any person or group, and its value depends on people's confidence in the currency. The dollar price of Bitcoins has spiked over the past year as more people became aware of the currency and speculators jumped into the market, which remains highly volatile. Bitcoin recently broke $200, compared to $12 a year ago. The goal of Bitcoin miners is to pull in more than what they spend on their rigs - some cost over $20,000 - and the electricity they need to keep the machines running 24 hours a day. That is no easy feat. In the past three months, miners added so much gear with drastically improved chips that processing power on the network jumped from 289 terahashes per second to more than 4,000 terahashes per second, according to The Genesis Block, a blog that collects Bitcoin data. In reaction, the network drove up the difficulty of verifying each cryptographic block of transaction data, making it even harder to break even on investments in costly mining gear. "Bitcoin makes silicon perishable," said Andreas Antonopoulos, a digital currency entrepreneur in San Francisco. "Your mining rig rots away in front of your eyes every day you have it." It has become so hard to make a profit that comparisons to the 19th century California gold rush, when money was often made selling shovels to naive prospectors, have become a running joke among Bitcoin miners. "It's the guys who sell the equipment who are making the money, not the Bitcoin miners," said Jackson-Wilde, a manager at a company that makes motorcycle batteries. CoinTerra believes spending on new Bitcoin mining chips could easily hit $100 million a year for the next three years, assuming no change in prices. While that is peanuts for large semiconductor companies like Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc, it is a lucrative market for a handful of small developers. About 11.9 million Bitcoins, worth $2.4 billion at recent prices, have been minted since the currency began circulating. Based on recent activity, the network is on track to create around 1.4 million new Bitcoins annually over the next three years, the equivalent of more than $280 million a year at recent exchange rates. Reflecting growing competition, Jackson-Wilde says his gear - which features model names like Erupter, Jalapeno and Spartan - now pulls in a tiny fraction of the Bitcoins it used to, but he expects another $10,000 worth of next-generation equipment to put him in the black. Despite the expenditures, he considers himself a hobbyist committed to supporting the Bitcoin network rather than a serious digital-currency investor. "Buying and selling Bitcoins is enticing, but it's not as enticing as being part of it and actually having hardware," he said. HOBBY STATE Mining with a simple laptop PC was easy back in 2009, when the fledgling Bitcoin network was a fraction of its current size. But within a year, hobbyists found that graphics chips, often referred to as GPUs and widely used by PC gamers, could provide a major boost in mining output. Miners cobbled together dozens of graphics chips in their garages and basements, surrounded by fans to keep the electronics from overheating. Then in 2010, entrepreneurs caught wind. Jeff Ownby and a handful of colleagues had just formed Butterfly Labs with the goal of using off-the-shelf programmable chips, known as FPGAs, to help banks run complex financial risk simulations. "As we were starting down the road planning this, we read about Bitcoin and said 'Wow, this is exactly what we're trying to do here,'" Ownby said. "It was pretty much in a hobby state, so we thought this might be something." Butterfly Labs and other startups optimized FPGAs, which are more typically used in factories and telecommunications gear, to work efficiently on the Bitcoin network. In 2012, the Bitcoin arms race escalated again when Butterfly Labs and rivals, all with little or no semiconductor engineering experience, started designing chips from the ground up. Custom chips, known as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), are normally made by companies focused on high-volume products like televisions - not startups making small batches of digital mining devices. "They're the Wild West," said John Cheng, head of California based-Custom Silicon Solutions, which helped Butterfly Labs design and manufacture its ASIC. "There's a certain rhythm you're used to in the chip business. It's usually two or three years before your ramp, but these guys wanted to ramp in six months." Butterfly Labs said on Thursday it recently took a downpayment for new mining gear in Bitcoins equivalent to $1 million, the largest-ever transaction in the digital currency. It identified the customer as HashTrade, a company selling contracts for cloud-based Bitcoin mining run in data centers. David Johnston, executive director of BitAngels, an investment group, says consolidation in Bitcoin mining is well underway. "Mining has been going through these different generations and going up a learning curve, from amateurs running CPUs and GPUs to new professionally funded companies with experienced chip designers taking it to the state of the art," Johnston said. Still, there remain plenty of oddities in the Bitcoin mining business. Johnston cited ASICMiner, which both sells mining rigs and runs its own mining operations, as one of the largest and most respected operators. The company has even sold stock to online investors who paid in Bitcoins. ASICMiner recently had a market value equivalent to $50 million, according to data on the BitFunder online exchange. But few know where the company is located, or even who is in charge. The chief executive communicates through web forums under the pseudonym "Friedcat." (Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Tiffany Wu and Tim Dobbyn)

2013-11-03 18:23:27+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [258, 477, 558, 638, 846, 986, 1159, 1398, 1417, 1606, 1994, 2070, 2322, 2538, 2568, 2661, 2854, 2905, 3064, 3218, 3287, 3734, 3931, 4311, 4399, 4527, 4832, 5017, 5298, 5496, 5581, 5773, 6427, 6738, 6768, 7553, 7727, 7855, 8182, 8414]}

{"Bitcoin": [35]}

Chip designers see dollar signs in Bitcoin miners

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chip-designers-see-dollar-signs-151156223.html

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/

By Noel Randewich SUNNYVALE, California (Reuters) - Tucked away in an air conditioned data center in Silicon Valley is a hodgepodge of black boxes, circuit boards and cooling fans owned by 27-year-old Aaron Jackson-Wilde, a modern-day prospector looking for Bitcoins. Since discovering the digital currency a few months ago, Jackson-Wilde has paid about $2,000 for his "rigs," which are powered by specialized computer chips. They are designed to help operate and maintain the Bitcoin network - and, in return, generate a small reward in a process known as "Bitcoin mining." A form of electronic money independent of traditional banking, Bitcoins started circulating in 2009 and have since become the most prominent of several fledgling digital currencies. While they quickly gained a reputation for facilitating drug deals and money laundering, Bitcoins have of late garnered attention from investors, such as venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The volume of transactions using Bitcoins today remains miniscule, but enthusiasts believe the peer-to-peer currency will play a major role in e-commerce and could eventually become as ubiquitous as email. Bitcoin mining is based on a unique feature of the digital currency. Unlike traditional currencies, where a central bank decides how much money to print based on goals like controlling inflation, no central authority governs the supply of Bitcoins. Instead, Bitcoin transactions are tracked by a network of computers that solve complex mathematical problems to validate transactions and prevent counterfeit. The system automatically generates new Bitcoins as the math problems are solved and rewards them to the computer operators. In a key twist that keeps inflation in check, the difficulty of the cryptographic math that leads to newly minted coins grows as more computers join the network. That has led some technology professionals to target a new market in souped-up computers and specialized chips aimed at the growing ranks of Bitcoin "miners." Story continues Consider Ravi Iyengar, who first heard of Bitcoins about six months ago. Since then he has quit his job as a senior chip architect at Samsung Electronics and raised $1.5 million to launch CoinTerra. He says he has already pre-sold more than $5 million worth of the hardware he has designed for Bitcoin mining. "I've been in arms races throughout my career - AMD (NYS:AMD), ARM (LSE:ARM), Intel (NSQ:INTC)," said Iyengar, referring to prominent semiconductor companies, "but none of them match the intensity of Bitcoin mining. Each month in Bitcoin mining is like a year." PERISHABLE SILICON Little is known about exactly who started Bitcoin, but the concept was introduced in a 2008 paper written under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Since then, Satoshi Nakamoto has become sort of a patron saint among advocates pushing for Bitcoins as an alternative to national currencies. Bitcoin is not backed by physical assets, is not run by any person or group, and its value depends on people's confidence in the currency. The dollar price of Bitcoins has spiked over the past year as more people became aware of the currency and speculators jumped into the market, which remains highly volatile. Bitcoin recently broke $200, compared to $12 a year ago. The goal of Bitcoin miners is to pull in more than what they spend on their rigs - some cost over $20,000 - and the electricity they need to keep the machines running 24 hours a day. That is no easy feat. In the past three months, miners added so much gear with drastically improved chips that processing power on the network jumped from 289 terahashes per second to more than 4,000 terahashes per second, according to The Genesis Block, a blog that collects Bitcoin data. In reaction, the network drove up the difficulty of verifying each cryptographic block of transaction data, making it even harder to break even on investments in costly mining gear. "Bitcoin makes silicon perishable," said Andreas Antonopoulos, a digital currency entrepreneur in San Francisco. "Your mining rig rots away in front of your eyes every day you have it." It has become so hard to make a profit that comparisons to the 19th century California gold rush, when money was often made selling shovels to naive prospectors, have become a running joke among Bitcoin miners. "It's the guys who sell the equipment who are making the money, not the Bitcoin miners," said Jackson-Wilde, a manager at a company that makes motorcycle batteries. CoinTerra believes spending on new Bitcoin mining chips could easily hit $100 million a year for the next three years, assuming no change in prices. While that is peanuts for large semiconductor companies like Intel Corp (NSQ:INTC) and Qualcomm Inc (NSQ:QCOM), it is a lucrative market for a handful of small developers. About 11.9 million Bitcoins, worth $2.4 billion at recent prices, have been minted since the currency began circulating. Based on recent activity, the network is on track to create around 1.4 million new Bitcoins annually over the next three years, the equivalent of more than $280 million a year at recent exchange rates. Reflecting growing competition, Jackson-Wilde says his gear - which features model names like Erupter, Jalapeno and Spartan - now pulls in a tiny fraction of the Bitcoins it used to, but he expects another $10,000 worth of next-generation equipment to put him in the black. Despite the expenditures, he considers himself a hobbyist committed to supporting the Bitcoin network rather than a serious digital-currency investor. "Buying and selling Bitcoins is enticing, but it's not as enticing as being part of it and actually having hardware," he said. HOBBY STATE Mining with a simple laptop PC was easy back in 2009, when the fledgling Bitcoin network was a fraction of its current size. But within a year, hobbyists found that graphics chips, often referred to as GPUs and widely used by PC gamers, could provide a major boost in mining output. Miners cobbled together dozens of graphics chips in their garages and basements, surrounded by fans to keep the electronics from overheating. Then in 2010, entrepreneurs caught wind. Jeff Ownby and a handful of colleagues had just formed Butterfly Labs with the goal of using off-the-shelf programmable chips, known as FPGAs, to help banks run complex financial risk simulations. "As we were starting down the road planning this, we read about Bitcoin and said 'Wow, this is exactly what we're trying to do here,'" Ownby said. "It was pretty much in a hobby state, so we thought this might be something." Butterfly Labs and other startups optimized FPGAs, which are more typically used in factories and telecommunications gear, to work efficiently on the Bitcoin network. In 2012, the Bitcoin arms race escalated again when Butterfly Labs and rivals, all with little or no semiconductor engineering experience, started designing chips from the ground up. Custom chips, known as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), are normally made by companies focused on high-volume products like televisions - not startups making small batches of digital mining devices. "They're the Wild West," said John Cheng, head of California based-Custom Silicon Solutions, which helped Butterfly Labs design and manufacture its ASIC. "There's a certain rhythm you're used to in the chip business. It's usually two or three years before your ramp, but these guys wanted to ramp in six months." Butterfly Labs said on Thursday it recently took a downpayment for new mining gear in Bitcoins equivalent to $1 million, the largest-ever transaction in the digital currency. It identified the customer as HashTrade, a company selling contracts for cloud-based Bitcoin mining run in data centers. David Johnston, executive director of BitAngels, an investment group, says consolidation in Bitcoin mining is well underway. "Mining has been going through these different generations and going up a learning curve, from amateurs running CPUs and GPUs to new professionally funded companies with experienced chip designers taking it to the state of the art," Johnston said. Still, there remain plenty of oddities in the Bitcoin mining business. Johnston cited ASICMiner, which both sells mining rigs and runs its own mining operations, as one of the largest and most respected operators. The company has even sold stock to online investors who paid in Bitcoins. ASICMiner recently had a market value equivalent to $50 million, according to data on the BitFunder online exchange. But few know where the company is located, or even who is in charge. The chief executive communicates through web forums under the pseudonym "Friedcat." (Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Tiffany Wu and Tim Dobbyn)

2013-11-04 16:05:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [3731]}

{}

Here's What China's Renminbi Will Look Like In 2020

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-chinas-renminbi-look-2020-160503473.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

yuan renminbi (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images) China has been making moves to replace its trade in dollars with trade in the renminbi. The Chinese trade in renminbi is going to be worth nearly 30% of their international trade by 2020, according to a research note by Standard Chartered's Becky Liu and her team. This is projected to be worth $3 trillion. That's $3 trillion that could otherwise be denominated in dollars. And this has implications for the U.S. monetary system, which boasts the dollar as the global reserve currency. Being the reserve currency has huge advantages. Since international trade is currently denominated in dollars, there is a constant, ensured demand for dollars. This is one of the reasons the Fed is able to issue large amounts of debt and carry out programs like quantitative easing — buying government issued bonds to lower long-term rates when short-term rates are zero. This demand for the dollar has also helped keep interest rates and inflation in the U.S. economy low, which makes it an attractive destination for international borrowers. The push to replace the dollar trade has come, in part, as a result of volatility in the dollar. Political instability in the form of the debt limit and the potential for U.S. debt default, as well as the uncertainty coming from the Fed's taper talks has driven volatility in the greenback. In order to side-step this volatility, countries have been taking steps to make themselves less dependent on the dollar. Last month, Europe and China signed a €45 billion currency swap deal that allowed them to settle trades in local currencies in order to sidestep the dollar. India has also made an agreement with Iran to settle trades in rupees. Currently, the trade in China's renminbi is extremely restricted. Its value trades within a narrow band of the dollar and converting money to and from renminbi isn't easy. This is because the Chinese government is worried about speculative attacks on the currency. Story continues "We expect China’s capital account to be basically open by 2020," writes Liu. "Direct investment will flow much more easily than today, with only large deals subject to approval requirements." "We think the Renminbi will be a basically freely floating currency, the capital account will be more or less open, and SHIBOR (or a similar rate) will operate as China’s equivalent of the federal funds target rate." As the onshore renminbi market expands (CNY), the offshore Renminbi (CNH) debt market is expected to grow at 30% a year, and to be worth $500 billion by 2020. One particularly blistering editorial in Xinhua , China's official news agency, reflects how the Chinese feel about the U.S. dollar: " Most recently, the cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising debt ceiling has again left many nations' tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonized. ... The developing and emerging market economies need to have more say in major international financial institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, so that they could better reflect the transformations of the global economic and political landscape. What may also be included as a key part of an effective reform is the introduction of a new international reserve currency that is to be created to replace the dominant U.S. dollar, so that the international community could permanently stay away from the spillover of the intensifying domestic political turmoil in the United States." But China still has some way to go before it can become a truly international currency. More From Business Insider The Chinese Are In Love With Bitcoin And It's Driving The Digital Currency's Prices Into The Stratosphere Here's Why China And India Are Trying To End A Long-Held Dispute Over A Barren Strip Of Land REMINDER: The Chinese Auto Market Is Going To Be Ridiculously Huge

2013-11-05 01:10:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [614]}

{}

The Future Of China's Capital Markets In One Big Slide

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/future-chinas-capital-markets-one-011000614.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

One of the reasons the renminbi hasn't become a truly international currency is because of the nation's capital controls. This refers to restrictions on the flow of capital in the form of (cash, stock, foreign direct investment and so on). But in a new Standard Chartered report titled "The Renminbi’s 2020 odyssey," Becky Liu and her team write that they expect "China’s capital account to be basically open by 2020." In one slide they show how the "various lines" will be opened up between now and 2020: china opening up capital account Standard Chartered More From Business Insider The Chinese Are In Love With Bitcoin And It's Driving The Digital Currency's Prices Into The Stratosphere Here's Why China And India Are Trying To End A Long-Held Dispute Over A Barren Strip Of Land REMINDER: The Chinese Auto Market Is Going To Be Ridiculously Huge

2013-11-05 01:44:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [139, 177, 1008, 1184]}

{"Bitcoin": [17]}

Researchers Say 'Bitcoin Is Broken' And Could Collapse

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/researchers-bitcoin-broken-could-collapse-014448102.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Emin Gün Sirer Emin Gün Sirer/Twitter Two computer science researchers at Cornell University say they've uncovered a fundamental flaw in Bitcoin that is so bad, it could kill Bitcoin. The problem is with how people "mine" bitcoins. Mining is how bitcoins are created. Most people don't mine bitcoins anymore. They buy them or take them as payment. But some people are in the business of mining coins with special bitcoin-mining computers. Even so, it is so difficult and time consuming for a computer to create new bitcoins that some miners have banded together in pools, using multiple computers that work together. The problem with mining was found by Emin Gün Sirer, an associate professor at Cornell's Computer Science Dept., and Ittay Eyal, a Cornell computer science researcher. They say that when too many miners gang together, they can obtain more than "their fair share" of bitcoins and this can lead to a monopoly over the whole system. They write: ... the problem is intrinsic to the entire way Bitcoin works ... a minority group of miners can obtain revenues in excess of their fair share, and grow in number until they reach a majority. When this point is reached, the Bitcoin ... the currency .. is no longer decentralized; the controlling entity can determine who participates in mining and which transactions are committed, and can even roll back transactions at will. Their solution, these researchers say, is to change how bitcoin mining works so a single pool of miners can never control more than 25% of the available mining power. More From Business Insider Meet The Woman HP Has Put In Charge Of Taking Down Its Big Rival: Cisco This Chef Taught Herself How To Catch Hackers Then Got A Great Job As A Computer Security Guru 6 Sneaky Terms That Tech Companies Force You To Agree To

2013-11-05 12:10:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [948, 986]}

{}

10 Tech Things You Need To Know This Morning

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-tech-things-know-morning-120946839.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Tim Armstrong AP Good morning! Here's what's happening in tech: AOL's third quarter earnings are being reported this morning. Here's a live blog where you can follow along. Apple is building a new 700-employee manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona to make components for various Apple products. Silicon Valley has a serious arrogance problem. Justin Bieber invested $1.1 million in a social network for teenagers, "Shots of Me." Here's a video of LG's new flexible phone, the G Flex, flexing. 8% of US adults get their news on Twitter, according to a new report. About 30% get news on Facebook. The difference is, Twitter's news consumers are "younger, more mobile and more educated." The former creative director of Buzzfeed is bootstrapping a startup, Rather. Rather helps you eliminate every annoying post on your Facebook and Twitter streams. Two computer science researchers at Cornell University say they've uncovered a fundamental flaw in Bitcoin that is so bad, it could kill Bitcoin. Troy Carter's claim to fame, aside from his investments in startups like Dropbox and Uber, is that he's Lady Gaga's manager . But no more. Lady Gaga has dropped him over "creative differences," according to Hollywood Reporter. Gigaom's Om Malik has written a good, long piece about his history with Twitter and the company's future. More From Business Insider 10 Tech Things You Need To Know This Morning 10 Tech Things You Need To Know This Morning 10 Tech Things You Need To Know This Morning View comments

2013-11-06 12:28:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [11, 112, 137, 459, 494, 821, 984, 1028, 1092, 1338, 1882, 2105, 2214], "BTC": [616]}

{"Bitcoin": [33]}

Wall Street Analyst Explains Why Bitcoin Is Back From The Dead And Surging To All-Time Highs

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-hits-time-high-analyst-122856963.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Overnight, Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of $270, surpassing the peak price of $266 seen at the height of the Bitcoin mania in April. "Bitcoin is making a new high this week, breaking through the spiky bubble levels of April in a pretty controlled and orderly manner," writes ConvergEx Group chief market strategist Nick Colas in a note to clients this morning. "What gives?" bitcoin bitcoin.clarkmoody.com In the note, Colas touches offers a few points on Bitcoin's second wind: The biggest Bitcoin exchange is now in China, displacing Japanese, American and European sources of demand. That enterprise is called BTC China, and its CEO Bobby Lee hails from Yahoo! and Walmart China. Oh, and he graduated from Stanford with a degree in Computer Science. In short, an apparently pretty clever fellow. Our sources in the Bitcoin community also agree that Second Market, the New York-based business best known for trading pre-IPO company stock, has become a major player in demand for Bitcoin. Earlier this year they started the Bitcoin Investment Trust, an open-ended product to buy and hold Bitcoins. There’s no way to know how much Second Market has purchased on behalf of its clients, but it must be a popular offering – the banner ad on their site for the trust occupied the top third of their front page. It’s not all been roses for Bitcoin, even in this recent run-up. Back in September computer science researchers from UC – San Diego showed that it was actually fairly easy to track individual transactions in the bitcoin transaction ledger. Just this week, academics at Cornell proposed that bitcoin could eventually be co-opted by a handful of "Miners" who could hijack the system. Colas also chalks up part of the currency's resilience — why it's seemingly "minted on Teflon" — to its limited supply. "In the 4-ish minutes it has taken you to read this far, the most new Bitcoins that might have been issued is 25, or $6,250," he writes. "In the same timeframe, the Federal Reserve has pushed another $7.8 million into the financial system with Quantitative Easing." More From Business Insider Bitcoin Is Going On An Astronomical Tear These Fascinating Maps Show The Origin Of Words We Use All The Time Bitcoin Is Going Totally Ballistic

2013-11-06 12:50:13+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [13, 254, 311, 469, 531, 822, 973, 1150, 1239, 1271, 1437]}

{"Bitcoin": [7]}

Why Do Bitcoins Keep Rising in Value?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-bitcoins-keep-rising-value-125013354.html

24/7 Wall St.

http://247wallst.com

The world of Bitcoin and virtual currencies is a strange one. Imagine an open source currency with a digital life and no real nation behind it. Then imagine that the price of the currency would double yet again in just over a month. This is the story of Bitcoin, and it feels a bit like deja vu all over again. Bitcoin prices have effectively doubled since the beginning of October. The price had been stable for months but then rose from around $125 to $265 recently. Bitcoin's prior high had been $266, but the Mt.Gox shows that Bitcoin's new high is $270. At last look, the last trade was down at $263.11 ALSO READ: Ten Brands That Will Disappear in 2014 The Wall Street Journal recently reported that a couple of Senate committees will hold hearings regarding policy on virtual currencies in the weeks ahead. Policing Bitcoin and virtual currencies generally comes with a reference of being able to be untracked for criminal activities. A recent driver of the value of Bitcoin may simply be nothing more than more retailers accepting it at the same time that investors are interested again. If you will recall, we even recently highlighted a new Bitcoin trust from SecondMarket. In July we pointed out that the only thing as dumb as a Bitcoin ETF would be a gun ETF. Bitcoin's rise in value is even on the heels of a summer Ponzi scheme warning from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. As reminder, there are accused flaws in Bitcoin. The market value of all bitcoins are currently close to $3 billion. Here is the one-month chart from the Mt.Gox website:

2013-11-06 22:42:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [41, 908, 1059, 1917, 2013, 2112, 2245, 2285, 2704, 2792, 2875, 3175, 3235, 3276]}

{"Bitcoin": [0]}

Bitcoin Is A Joke

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-total-joke-224200448.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

sad clown umbrella REUTERS/Eliana Aponte Bitcoin is back in the news, as the digital currency has surged to new all-time highs in recent weeks. A few weeks ago, it was just above $100. Today it's over $260. This surge has prompted Timothy B Lee at The Washington Post to ask whether those who have called it a bubble in the past should retract and admit that they were wrong. Well I'm not totally sure if I've called it a bubble, but I have spoken negatively of it, and I'll say that I still think it's a joke, and probably in a bubble. Now first of all, I find the premise of Lee's post to be hilarious. The currency has been surging several percent every day lately, and that's evidence that it's not in a bubble? Before going on, I want to be clear that saying something is a bubble is not saying it will go down. It could go to $500 or $1000 or $10,000. That's the nature of manias. But make no mistake, Bitcoin is not the currency of the future. It has no intrinsic value. Now this idea of "intrinsic value" when it comes to currency bothers people, and Bitcoin Bugs will immediately ask why the U.S. dollar has intrinsic value. There's an answer to that. The U.S. Dollar has intrinsic value because the U.S. government which sets the laws of doing business in the United States says it has intrinsic value. If you want to conduct commerce in the United States you have to pay taxes, and there's only one currency you're allowed to pay taxes in: U.S. dollars. There's no getting around this fact. Furthermore, if you want to use the banking system at all, there's no choice but to use U.S. dollars, because that's the currency of the Fed which is behind the whole thing. On top of all these laws requiring the U.S. dollar to be used, the United States has a gigantic military that can force people around the world to use dollars (if it came to that) so yes, there's a lot of real-world value behind greenbacks. Bitcoin? Nada. There's nothing keeping it being a thing. If people lose faith in it, it's over. Bitcoin is fiat currency in the most literal sense of the word. Story continues But it gets worse. Bitcoin is mostly just a speculative vehicle. Yes, there are PR stunts about bars and other shops accepting bitcoins. And there is a Bitcoin ATM for some reason. But mostly Bitcoin is a speculative vehicle. And really, you'd be insane to actually conduct a sizable amount of commerce in bitcoins. That's because the price swings so wildly, that the next day, there's a good chance that one of the parties will have gotten royally screwed. Either the purchaser of the good will have ended up totally blowing a huge opportunity (by not holding longer) or the seller will be totally screwed (if Bitcoin instantly plunges). The very volatility that excited people to want to play the Bitcoin game is death when it comes to real transactions in the real world. Again, Bitcoin might go up a lot more before it ultimately ends. That's the nature of bubbles. The dotcom bubble crashed a bunch of times on its way up. Then one day it ended. The same will happen with this. In the meantime, have fun speculating! More From Business Insider Wall Street Analyst Explains Why Bitcoin Is Back From The Dead And Surging To All-Time Highs Bitcoin Is Going On An Astronomical Tear Bitcoin Is Going Totally Ballistic

2013-11-07 01:49:04+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [437, 1531, 1728, 2528, 2616, 2713]}

{}

New Silk Road drug bazaar opens a month after FBI bust

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/silk-road-drug-bazaar-opens-month-fbi-bust-014904895.html

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/

By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A new anonymous Internet marketplace for illegal drugs debuted on Wednesday, with the same name and appearance as the Silk Road website shut down by U.S. law enforcement authorities a month ago. Like its predecessor, the new Silk Road listed hundreds of advertisements for marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and other illegal drugs available for purchase from independent sellers using the anonymous Bitcoin digital currency. On October 1, the Federal Bureau of Investigation shut down the original Silk Road and arrested its alleged mastermind, Ross William Ulbricht, 29, known online as "Dread Pirate Roberts," in San Francisco. "It took the FBI two-and-a-half years to do what they did ... but four weeks of temporary silence is all they got," a site administrator wrote, also using the "Dread Pirate Roberts" moniker. The FBI declined to comment on the new version of the Silk Road. For more than two years, the original site acted like an eBay of vice, allowing users to buy and sell illegal goods and services on the assumption that they were safe from the law. Deliveries were made through the mail in discrete packages. U.S. authorities also say Ulbricht had tried to call out a hit on a user who had threatened to expose the identities of thousands of Silk Road users. Ulbricht's lawyer on Wednesday said his client would plead not guilty to drug trafficking, hacking and money laundering charges. The charges against Ulbricht said his website generated sales of more than 9.5 million Bitcoins, roughly equivalent to $1.2 billion. The new website improves on technology from the previous Silk Road meant to keep identities secret, including measures to keep users from losing their Bitcoins in case the site shuts down, according to the new Dread Pirate Roberts. Senator Tom Carper, a top lawmaker on the Homeland Security committee, who plans to hold a hearing on digital currencies this month, said the new Silk Road site shows that government needs to adapt to fast-moving technology. "Rather than play 'whack-a-mole' with the latest website, currency, or other method criminals are using in an effort to evade the law, we need to develop thoughtful, nimble and sensible federal policies that protect the public without stifling innovation and economic growth," Carper said in a statement. A week after authorities shut down the Silk Road, British police said they arrested four men accused of being significant users of the site. Two weeks ago, federal prosecutors said 144,336 Bitcoins were discovered on Ulbricht's confiscated computer, adding to more than 30,000 Bitcoins previously seized. With the digital currency trading at an all-time on Wednesday, those Bitcoins were worth close to $50 million, according to the Mt Gox trading website. Like the original Silk Road, users access the new site using a no-cost, anti-surveillance service known as the Tor network instead of traditional web browsers. The relaunched Silk Road will soon hire staff to handle marketing for the site, the administrator mentioned in his post. "The Silk Road has risen once more. ... Open communication with your old suppliers and customers, let this wonderful news be taken to all corners of the Tor Network and beyond," the person wrote. (Additional reporting by Emily Flitter in New York and Brett Wolf in St. Louis; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Lisa Shumaker)

2013-11-07 13:20:11+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [23, 210, 500, 643, 807, 840, 1044, 1641, 1900, 1947, 2132, 2172, 2204]}

{"Bitcoin": [0]}

Bitcoin Foundation Responds To — But Doesn't Deny — Cornell Study's Claim It Could Collapse

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-foundation-responds-doesnt-deny-132011632.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

coins Shutterstock The Bitcoin Foundation — a sort of non-profit industry lobby group for the online crypto-currency — has welcomed an academic paper published by researchers at Cornell University which claims Bitcoin could collapse if "selfish" owners begin colluding with each other. But the foundation did not specifically deny its claims. In a blog post , foundation board member Gavin Andresen says: Let me start with how fantastic it is that we’re seeing more academic interest and research in Bitcoin-the-system. In the coming months, I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more research claiming to have found ways of making various pieces of Bitcoin better. Some of it will even turn out to be both practical and correct. He doesn't specifically knock down the Cornell paper's central claim, which is that Bitcoin "miners," who create new Bitcoins by crunching code which churns out the currency according to a set formula that prevents inflation, could collapse the system by colluding until one group of collaborators owns a majority of all Bitcoins. Andresen does express doubts about the study: ... I’m not going to write about the specific claims in the paper; lots of smart people are, or soon will be, thinking really hard about the issues raised and whether or not the researcher’s model matches reality. However, it is good to note that in my initial review, I believe the paper’s assertion of a fundamental flaw is based on some over-simplified assumptions about how the bitcoin mining market works. What's interesting about the foundation's forthcoming response — or lack thereof — is how it will advance the debate over whether Bitcoin is a reliable non-sovereign internet currency , or merely the ultimate example of a fiat currency (that only exists because people believe in it) caught in a speculative bubble. Because if the Cornell researchers are right, and the people minting new Bitcoins can control the market for them, then Bitcoin is essentially worthless, because who would want to make transactions in a currency whose value was decided by a single entity? More From Business Insider You Can Buy Beer With Bitcoin At This Beijing Bar This Is Why Bitcoin Is Fundamentally Broken Bitcoin Is Going Totally Ballistic

2013-11-07 15:14:47+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [309, 666, 958, 1680, 2210, 2553, 3471, 3573]}

{"Bitcoin": [29]}

GoCoin Opens for Business as Bitcoin's First Truly International Payment Processing Service, Receives $550,000 From Leading Angels

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gocoin-opens-business-bitcoins-first-151447428.html

Marketwired

http://www.marketwired.com/

SINGAPORE and SANTA MONICA, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 7, 2013) - GoCoin ( www.gocoin.com ) today announced that it has raised a seed round of over $550,000 in funding to bring to market the first truly open and international platform to facilitate the purchase of goods and services across the world bought with Bitcoin, the increasingly popular digital currency. The seed funding comes from an impressive list of connected, global investors from Silicon Valley, Silicon Beach, Asia and Europe, including former Facebook and Amazon executive Owen Van Natta and Ooma founder Andrew Frame. GoCoin will begin its expansion as the first true payment processing service for Bitcoin with an initial focus on Asian and South American countries, where the challenges of accepting credit cards and purchasing goods and services online between even neighboring countries can be especially difficult. In terms of market verticals, GoCoin will initially focus on providing Bitcoin payment processing for e-commerce, digital content and interactive/social gaming companies. Co-founder Steve Beauregard will serve as GoCoin's CEO, and gaming pioneer Brock Pierce will serve as chairman of the board. Over the past few months, the GoCoin team has been quietly developing its technology with engineers in Singapore, Argentina and the U.S. The company is currently in testing with its first merchants in private beta and plans to officially launch publicly in November. "As digital currency becomes more pervasive, it's imperative that software developers have advanced tools to fully integrate a scalable digital currency payment system across the globe. Merchants should be able to accept not just Bitcoin, but also other digital currencies as those emerge. GoCoin is both easy to implement and inexpensive to operate," said Steve Beauregard. "Our team of seasoned e-commerce veterans has designed GoCoin so high-volume merchants with complex back-end requirements can securely accept digital currency payments without fear of their internal systems being compromised." Story continues "The future of currency is digital and the old payment systems used today were not designed for the Internet," said Pierce. "GoCoin will help Bitcoin go far beyond merchant acceptance; it will simplify cross-border commercial transactions." The list of participating investors in GoCoin includes, but is not limited to: Owen Van Natta, former COO/CRO of Facebook and a seven-year Amazon executive Andrew Frame, founder and CEO of Ooma BitAngels, the first nationwide angel network for Bitcoin startups Stephens Investment Management Mikael Pawlo, CEO of Mr Green & Co AB and co-founder of Maltese online casino Mr Green LTD, through his investment company, Derzhava Holdings LTD Jonathan Congdon, co-founder and President at Beachbody LLC (marketers of P90X and other fitness brands) Ruvento Ventures, a Singapore/Russian venture capital firm Ronnie Wee, Managing Partner, IncuVest Pte. Ltd, a Singapore VC firm Gary Stiffelman, Partner at Los Angeles entertainment law firm Ziffen Brittenham LLP Demarest Ventures David Neuman, Owner, Blackrock Productions; former President, Current TV; former Media & Chief Programming Officer, CNN; former President, Walt Disney Television and Touchstone Television For more information about the GoCoin payment gateway, please visit http://www.gocoin.com . About GoCoin The GoCoin payment gateway makes it easier than ever for online and retail merchants to accept Bitcoin as a payment method. GoCoin enables international merchants to reap the benefits of accepting Bitcoin, while taking away the perceived risk of accepting digital currency. Founded in July 2013, GoCoin is headquartered in Singapore with offices in Santa Monica, California. For more information, please visit http://www.gocoin.com .

2013-11-07 20:29:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1843]}

{}

These Insects Have Been Having Sex For 165 Million Years

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/scientists-found-oldest-fossil-record-202958968.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

One sexual position has been good enough for the froghopper for 165 million years. Scientists have discovered the oldest fossil record of insect copulation. You can see the fossil below. The male is on the right and the female is on the left. froghopper fossil Li S, Shih C, Wang C, Pang H, Ren D Fossil records of mating insects are very rare, so scientists don't know much about the evolution of mating, but this fossil suggests that the froghopper has used the same method since the middle of the Jurassic period. Dong Ren and his team from Capital Normal University discovered the fossil in northeast China and the study was published in PLoS One on Nov. 6. Even though the insects in the fossil look like they are in a belly-to-belly position, the scientists can't rule out that they were actually using the side-to-side position that modern species of froghoppers use. The imperfect nature of fossil records makes it difficult for the scientists to determine the exact orientation of the froghoppers. Either way, the scientists say in the paper that both positions use the same kind of abdomen and genitalia twisting. Below is a picture of a modern froghopper species mating: froghoppers Li S, Shih C, Wang C, Pang H, Ren D Froghoppers get their name because they live in forests and hop around like frogs on leaves and shrubs. Froghoppers belong to a family of insects called Cercopoidea that includes about 3,000 species. The earliest fossil record of the modern froghopper dates back to the Paleocene age — about 60 million years ago. Scientists believe these modern insects evolved from those shown in the fossil. More From Business Insider Here's Why 'The Internet Of Things' Will Be Huge, And Drive Tremendous Value For People And Businesses The Story Behind Why AOL CEO Tim Armstrong Fired An Employee In Front Of 1,000 Coworkers Bitcoin Is A Joke

2013-11-07 21:27:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [9449]}

{}

Groupon Whiffs On Earnings, Stock Crashes ... Then Stages An Amazing Comeback

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live-groupon-earnings-205000377.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Groupon CEO Eric Lefkofsky AP Groupon CEO Eric Lefkofsky Groupon earnings are out ! The stock is down in after-hours trading after the company missed analyst estimates on revenue and gave worse than expected guidance. An immediate 10% after-hour drop followed a 5% drop during the day. Since September the stock has been falling. But, after the company's earnings call the stock made a comeback and was up ~1.5%. The stock's turnaround seems to be thanks to a new plan to allow more sellers on the platform. In addition to announcing earnings, Groupon announced that it acquired Ticket Monster, an e-commerce company from Korea. Here are the big numbers versus expectations: Revenues: $595 million versus $615.69 million expected . Earnings per share: $0.02 versus $0.01 expected. Guidance: Q4 EPS $0.00 to $0.02 versus $0.06 expected. Guidance: Q4 Revenue: $690-$740 million versus $723.68 million expected. Groupon's core daily deals business — those emails you get every day — suffered another decline. Here is the daily deals revenue over time: groupon q3 2013 Groupon / BI Here's the full earnings release: Groupon Announces Third Quarter 2013 Results and Agreement to Acquire Ticket Monster Gross billings of $1.34 billion Revenue of $595.1 million GAAP operating income of $13.8 million; $39.2 million excluding stock compensation costs GAAP loss per share of $0.00; earnings per share of $0.02 excluding stock compensation costs CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Groupon, Inc. ( GRPN ) today announced financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2013. "Our Local business showed continued strength in the quarter, particularly in North America," said Eric Lefkofsky, CEO of Groupon. "Mobile adoption continued to increase in Q3, reflected in our record 9 million app downloads. We're pleased with our progress, but we still have work to do as we transform the business from our daily deal email roots to a full ecommerce marketplace." "We're also excited to announce today that we've signed an agreement to acquire Ticket Monster, one of the leading ecommerce companies in Korea," added Lefkofsky. "Ticket Monster has been successful building a mobile commerce business in one of the largest markets in the world. It will serve as the cornerstone of our Asian business, bringing scale and ecommerce expertise to that region." Third Quarter 2013 Summary Gross billings, which reflect the total dollar value of customer purchases of goods and services, excluding any applicable taxes and net of estimated refunds, increased 10% globally to $1.34 billion in the third quarter 2013, compared with$1.22 billion in the third quarter 2012. North America growth of 20% and EMEA growth of 12% was offset by a 13% decline in Rest of World. Story continues Revenue increased 5% to $595.1 million in the third quarter 2013, compared with $568.6 million in the third quarter 2012. North America revenue growth of 24% was offset by a 21% decline in EMEA and a 4% decline in Rest of World. Gross profit was $359.6 million in the third quarter 2013, compared with $386.8 million in the third quarter 2012. Operating income was $13.8 million in the third quarter 2013, compared with $25.4 million in the third quarter 2012. Operating income decreased $13.6 million compared with the second quarter 2013. Operating income excluding stock compensation and acquisition-related costs, net, a non-GAAP financial measure, was$39.2 million in the third quarter 2013, compared with $50.5 million in the third quarter 2012. Operating income excluding stock compensation and acquisition-related costs, net, decreased $19.9 million compared with the second quarter 2013. Revenue and operating profit in the third quarter 2012 included a one-time increase of $18.5 million related to breakage, or income related to unredeemed Groupons internationally, resulting from a tax ruling in Germany. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, was $62.3 million in the third quarter 2013, compared with $65.8 million in the third quarter 2012. Third quarter 2013 net loss attributable to common stockholders was $2.6 million, or $0.00 per share, including stock compensation and acquisition-related costs, net, of $25.3 million ($17.0 million net of tax). Earnings per share excluding stock compensation and acquisition-related costs, net of tax, a non-GAAP financial measure, was $0.02 per share. Operating cash flow for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2013 was $105.9 million. Free cash flow, a non-GAAP financial measure, was negative $27.0 million in the third quarter 2013, bringing free cash flow for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2013 to $22.3 million. At the end of the quarter, Groupon had $1.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents. Definitions and reconciliations of all non-GAAP financial measures are included below in the section titled "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" and in the accompanying tables. Third Quarter Operating Highlights Global units: Consolidated units, defined as vouchers and products sold before cancellations and refunds, increased 9% year-over-year to 46 million. North America units increased 19%, EMEA units increased 1%, and Rest of World units were flat year-over-year. Active deals: At the end of the third quarter 2013, active deals in North America were estimated to be more than 65,000 on average, compared with more than 54,000 at the end of the second quarter 2013. Active customers: Active customers, or customers that have purchased a Groupon within the last twelve months, grew 10% year-over-year, to 43.5 million as of September 30, 2013, comprising 19.9 million in North America, 14.0 million in EMEA, and 9.6 million in Rest of World. Customer spend: Third quarter 2013 trailing twelve month billings per average active customer was $137, compared with $138 in the second quarter 2013. Mobile: In September 2013, North America achieved a milestone, with more than half of transactions completed on mobile devices. This contributed to the more than 40% of transactions completed on mobile devices in the month globally. More than 60 million people have now downloaded Groupon mobile apps worldwide, with more than 9 million people downloading them in the third quarter alone. Marketplace: The rollout of Groupon's marketplace ("Pull") continues to gain traction. In September 2013, approximately 6% of total traffic in North America was related to search activity, with customers that search spending over 25% more than those that do not. Share Repurchase Program During the third quarter of 2013, Groupon repurchased 770,900 shares of Class A common stock under its share repurchase authorization at an average price of $11.67 per share, for an aggregate purchase price of $9.0 million. Up to approximately $291 million of Class A common stock remains available for repurchase under the August 2013 share repurchase authorization. The program, which is intended to offset dilution from employee stock grants, terminates in August 2015. Acquisition of Ticket Monster Groupon also announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Ticket Monster, a Korean ecommerce company, for aggregate consideration of $260 million, including at least $100 million in cash, and up to $160 million in Groupon Class A common stock, with the final cash and stock allocation to be determined upon close. Ticket Monster is a leading ecommerce company in South Korea, and a subsidiary of LivingSocial, Inc. Founded in 2010, the Company serves millions of customers with a broad range of product, local and travel offers, and is one of the fastest growing ecommerce companies in the region. Ticket Monster has more than $800 million of annualized billings. "Ticket Monster is a great fit for Groupon. The team shares our vision, already leveraging a truly mobile marketplace as well as one that has little reliance on email," said Lefkofsky. "Ticket Monster is one of Korea's most recognized and trusted brands, and we're thrilled to have them join the family." The transaction is currently expected to close in the first half of 2014, subject to regulatory approval by the Korean Fair Trade Commission and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. Outlook In the fourth quarter 2013, Groupon anticipates normal seasonal strength and strong holiday sales interest, in addition to email headwinds and further investment in marketing initiatives to drive adoption of the Pull marketplace. As a result, for the fourth quarter 2013, the Company expects revenue of between $690 million and $740 million, operating income excluding stock compensation and acquisition-related expenses of between $40 million and $60 million, and earnings per share excluding stock compensation and acquisition-related expenses, net of tax, of between $0.00 and$0.02. Stock compensation is expected to be approximately $30 million, or approximately $20 million net of tax. As a result, Groupon now expects full year 2013 GAAP operating income of between $72 million and $92 million. This outlook includes costs related to the acquisition of Ticket Monster. It does not assume any additional impact of this or other acquisitions or investments, or material changes in foreign exchange rates. More From Business Insider The Story Behind Why AOL CEO Tim Armstrong Fired An Employee In Front Of 1,000 Coworkers Here's Why 'The Internet Of Things' Will Be Huge, And Drive Tremendous Value For People And Businesses Bitcoin Goes On Overnight Nuclear Melt-Up As Price Soars Past $300 View comments

2013-11-07 23:00:34+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1831]}

{}

Two tied to online drug market plead guilty to U.S. drug charges

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/two-tied-online-drug-market-plead-guilty-u-230126995.html

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/

By Aruna Viswanatha WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two men tied to an illegal online drug marketplace pleaded guilty to drug charges, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday, a day after the alleged mastermind of the website indicated he would plead not guilty. An administrator of the Silk Road website, Curtis Green, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute cocaine, and a vendor, Jacob Theodore George IV, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute drugs including heroin, said Rod Rosenstein, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. "People who believe they can commit crimes anonymously using the Internet should reconsider," Rosenstein said in a statement. A lawyer for Green declined comment, and a lawyer for George did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The pleas came amid a crackdown by U.S. authorities on the use of virtual currencies for illegal activity. Last month, Ross William Ulbricht, who prosecutors say operated the Silk Road website, was arrested and FBI agents shut the website down. On Wednesday a lawyer for Ulbricht, who remains in custody, said his client would plead not guilty to drug trafficking, hacking and money laundering charges. A new website with the Silk Road name and appearance has opened for business. 'FLUSH' AND 'CHRONICPAIN' The Silk Road website, which was used to anonymously buy or sell illegal drugs, also offered guns and assassins for sale, and tutorials on hacking ATM machines, prosecutors said. Green, 47, who is also known as "Flush" and "chronicpain," was responsible for responding to complaints from buyers and sellers on Silk Road, mediating their disputes, and investigating any law enforcement activity on the website, according to prosecutors. Green helped an undercover agent find a buyer for one kilogram (2.2 lbs) of cocaine for around $27,000 in virtual Bitcoin currency, prosecutors said, and acted as a go-between on the deal. An undercover postal inspector delivered the drugs to Green at his home in Utah, officials said. George, a 32-year-old Maryland resident, was the first vendor selling illegal drugs on Silk Road to be arrested, officials said. He pleaded guilty on Wednesday, the government said. Green faces up to 40 years in prison and George faces up to 20 years. (Reporting by Aruna Viswanatha; Editing by Paul Simao) View comments

2013-11-07 23:01:26+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1831]}

{}

Two tied to online drug market plead guilty to U.S. drug charges

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/two-tied-online-drug-market-230034387.html

Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/

By Aruna Viswanatha WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two men tied to an illegal online drug marketplace pleaded guilty to drug charges, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday, a day after the alleged mastermind of the website indicated he would plead not guilty. An administrator of the Silk Road website, Curtis Green, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute cocaine, and a vendor, Jacob Theodore George IV, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute drugs including heroin, said Rod Rosenstein, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. "People who believe they can commit crimes anonymously using the Internet should reconsider," Rosenstein said in a statement. A lawyer for Green declined comment, and a lawyer for George did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The pleas came amid a crackdown by U.S. authorities on the use of virtual currencies for illegal activity. Last month, Ross William Ulbricht, who prosecutors say operated the Silk Road website, was arrested and FBI agents shut the website down. On Wednesday a lawyer for Ulbricht, who remains in custody, said his client would plead not guilty to drug trafficking, hacking and money laundering charges. A new website with the Silk Road name and appearance has opened for business. 'FLUSH' AND 'CHRONICPAIN' The Silk Road website, which was used to anonymously buy or sell illegal drugs, also offered guns and assassins for sale, and tutorials on hacking ATM machines, prosecutors said. Green, 47, who is also known as "Flush" and "chronicpain," was responsible for responding to complaints from buyers and sellers on Silk Road, mediating their disputes, and investigating any law enforcement activity on the website, according to prosecutors. Green helped an undercover agent find a buyer for one kilogram (2.2 lbs) of cocaine for around $27,000 in virtual Bitcoin currency, prosecutors said, and acted as a go-between on the deal. An undercover postal inspector delivered the drugs to Green at his home in Utah, officials said. Story continues George, a 32-year-old Maryland resident, was the first vendor selling illegal drugs on Silk Road to be arrested, officials said. He pleaded guilty on Wednesday, the government said. Green faces up to 40 years in prison and George faces up to 20 years. (Reporting by Aruna Viswanatha; Editing by Paul Simao)

2013-11-07 23:26:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1855]}

{}

Google Is Banning All Chrome Add-Ons That Don't Come From Its Chrome Web Store

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-banning-chrome-add-ons-232651167.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

samsung chrome netbook Photo Illustration By Steve Kovach In the name of fighting bad guy hackers, Google on Thursday said it will not allow its Windows Chrome browser to run any add-ons unless they are downloaded from its own Chrome Web store. Unsanctioned add-ons will be banned beginning in January. Add-ons, which are also called extensions, are little apps that add extra functions to the browser. For instance, they can let you post stuff from the Web to your social media accounts or create to-do lists, etc. Sometimes a cloud service will offer an add-on and let you install it right from its own web page. If that add-on isn't also in the Chrome Web store, this will be forbidden. However, enterprise departments will still be able to install add-ons through their own enterprise tools, Google said. This comes on top of a new feature Google added last week that will let you reset your browser completely, including wiping out all add-ons you've downloaded. That way, if you think you've downloaded an evil one, you can get rid of it. There's been some jaded comments across the Internet about the banned add-ons. Some people are saying that Google will ban add-ons it doesn't like , like ones that let people download YouTube videos. We'll see. PC World's Brad Chacos also points out that Google doesn't store add-ons for free. Developers who want to include their Chrome Web Store have to pay a $5 registration fee —and if your Chrome Web Store-hosted app or extension generates income, Google will take a 5 percent cut of the revenue . Still, many PC users could find that they like the trade-off: less choice for more security. More From Business Insider Report: Microsoft Wants To Sell 16 Million Windows Tablets This Holiday Season This Chef Taught Herself How To Catch Hackers Then Got A Great Job As A Computer Security Guru This Is Why Bitcoin Is Fundamentally Broken

2013-11-08 03:32:06+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1029]}

{}

Man pleads guilty to playing key drug site role

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/man-pleads-guilty-playing-key-210407940.html

Associated Press

https://apnews.com/

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A Utah man pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge Thursday for his role in an online black market known as the Silk Road that authorities say processed more than $1 billion worth of illicit business. The guilty plea from Curtis Clark Green, 47, comes one month after federal authorities shut down the drug-dealing website, which conducted business with tough-to-track digital currency and sought to protect the anonymity of its users by operating on an encrypted network. Green, whose lawyer identified the defendant as being from Spanish Fork, Utah, declined to comment after the plea hearing. His attorney also declined comment. Dressed in a white shirt and tie, and gripping a cane as he entered the courtroom, Green answered standard 'yes' or 'no' questions from the judge but made no detailed statement about the allegations. The website allowed users to anonymously browse through nearly 13,000 listings under categories like "Cannabis," ''Psychedelics" and "Stimulants" before making purchases using Bitcoin, a form of online currency. It offered various illegal services along with drugs, and as of July, had nearly 1 million registered users from around the world, according to court papers. A so-called hidden site, Silk Road used an online tool to mask the location of its servers and generated an estimated $1.2 billion since it started in 2011, authorities say. It was shut down when authorities arrested Ross William Ulbricht, a college-educated San Francisco man they allege masterminded the operation while hiding behind the alias of "Dread Pirate Roberts," an apparent reference to a main character in "The Princess Bride," the 1987 comedy film based on a novel of the same name. He was arrested in a branch of San Francisco's public library, where authorities say he was chatting online with a cooperating witness. Ulbricht, 29, who is also charged in Maryland in a failed murder-for-hire plot, was ordered held after a court appearance this week in New York. His lawyer said that his client is innocent and is not the person who used the "Dread Pirate Roberts" alias. Story continues The investigation was launched in 2011 in Baltimore, where agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations formed the "Marco Polo" task force — with representatives from other law enforcement agencies — to target Silk Road and its administrators. William Winter, the office's special agent in charge, said in a statement that his agents will continue to pursue crimes committed by users of "networks and digital currency designed to provide anonymity." Green, who used the aliases of "Flush" and "chronicpain," acknowledged as part of his guilty plea that he served as an administrator for the website. The position gave him access to the details of financial transactions conducted through the black market bazaar and also made him responsible for fielding questions and complaints from buyers and sellers and determining whether law enforcement officials were secretly poking around the site, the authorities said. Prosecutors say he also served as a middleman between a drug buyer who operated on Silk Road and an undercover agent who posed as a cocaine smuggler able to deal large quantities of the drug. The agent contacted Ulbricht, who directed Green and other website administrators to find dealers willing to purchase a high volume of drugs, authorities say. Green admitted helping the undercover agent hook up with a particular buyer who was active on the site; the vendor and undercover agent negotiated a cocaine deal for roughly $27,000, and Green agreed to have the package sent to him, according to prosecutors. He was arrested in January after the one-kilogram package was delivered to his house by an undercover U.S. Postal Service inspector. He faces up to 40 years in prison at his sentencing in February. His court appearance followed a similar plea Tuesday from Jacob George IV, an Edgewood, Md., man who admitted selling drugs via Silk Road.

2013-11-08 14:24:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [127, 151, 388, 424, 1164, 1240, 1397, 1524, 1777, 1963, 2092, 2180, 2289, 2333, 2437, 2486]}

{"Bitcoin": [31]}

18-Year-Old Reports $1 Million Bitcoin Theft From 'Bank' He Controlled — And Says He Can't Call The Cops

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/18-old-reports-1-million-142458461.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

loose change bills dollars grabbing money Instagram/grace_m_allen An 18-year-old Australian says that he has had $1 million in Bitcoin stolen from the Bitcoin "bank" he was running , but he cannot go to the police because he worries that giving authorities the keys to investigate the case is the same as giving them control of the money itself, according to ABC Australia. The man ran a Bitcoin bank called Tradefortress . Bitcoin transactions cannot be reversed if the receiving party doesn't agree to the refund. ABC noted : The bitcoin transaction trail is designed to be anonymous, which has led to speculation this was an inside job and that TradeFortress took the coins for himself. But when asked by the ABC's AM he strenuously denied those accusations, and said that despite his $1 million loss he is unlikely to report the theft to the police. "The police don't have access to any more information than any user does when it comes to bitcoin. Some say it gives them control of their money," TradeFortress said. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Tradefortress operated out of computers located in this apartment building in Hornsby, New South Wales: Bitcoin tradefortress apartments Google Street View It is possible to steal Bitcoin — an online currency that uses an uncrackable cryptography to make itself permanent — but it is difficult to hide the money afterward. Wired notes : Bitcoin trades are public: all transactions are shared in a publicly available file called the Blockchain that’s posted to the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network. That public ledger makes it pretty tough for big-time criminals to launder money through the network. At least that’s what researchers at the University of California and George Mason University found when they studied the Bitcoin network by developing sophisticated tools to track how money was moving around it. Meiklejohn and her fellow researchers tried some of those services out — sites with names like Bitcoin Laundry and Bitmix — and they report some pretty rough experiences. One service didn’t work. It simply returned the same Bitcoins, un-laundered. Story continues Another service stole their money. Nonetheless, Bitcoin theft is common enough to be a phenomenon with a history. Here is a site dedicated to tracking major Bitcoin thefts . More From Business Insider Bitcoin Foundation Responds To — But Doesn't Deny — Cornell Study's Claim It Could Collapse This Is Why Bitcoin Is Fundamentally Broken Researchers Say 'Bitcoin Is Broken' And Could Collapse

2013-11-10 22:42:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [63, 172, 600, 658, 745, 832, 899, 1142, 1583, 1730, 1790, 1831]}

{"Bitcoin": [18, 60]}

If You Believe In Bitcoin, You Should Never Buy Anything In Bitcoin

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/believe-bitcoin-never-buy-anything-224208387.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

bitcoin REUTERS/Stephen Lam A chain of block erupters used for Bitcoin mining is pictured at the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, California, October 28, 2013. Many Bitcoin believers think that the digital currency will one day become the pre-eminent currency of the internet. They basically see it becoming the internet's version of gold in that it's naturally scarce, independent, virtually impossible to manipulate, and crucially suited for a digital world when money ought to be able to be moved seamlessly and at no cost. Well here's a tip: If you think that this is true, then never use Bitcoin in a transaction. As more people have gotten into Bitcoin, the price has gone way up. Virtually everyone who has ever bought anything in Bitcoin has been a huge loser, who would have been better suited just holding onto the Bitcoins instead. Remember the pizza that was purchased for $25 in Bitcoins years back ? Had the person not bought that pizza, it would be worth nearly $3 million. That purchase was a catastrophic decision, as that was probably the most expensive pizza of all time. Of course this presents a Catch-22. How can Bitcoin become a real currency if it's not used in transactions? And why would anyone use it in transactions if becoming a real currency offers so much more price appreciation? This contradiction is a core problem, and it's a reason why it's probably doomed to fail (real currencies don't have this issue, since central banks prevent rapid price appreciation, and they mandate that the currency be used). But really, if you're thinking that Bitcoin is going to be huge, it'd be insane and irresponsible to buy anything with it. More From Business Insider Wall Street Analyst Explains Why Bitcoin Is Back From The Dead And Surging To All-Time Highs Bitcoin Is Going On An Astronomical Tear Bitcoin Is Going Totally Ballistic

2013-11-12 06:09:30+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1261]}

{}

PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Nov 12

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/press-digest-york-times-business-060930848.html

Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/

Nov 12 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. * Some major health insurers are so worried about the Obama administration's ability to fix its troubled health care website that they are pushing the government to create a shortcut that would allow them to enroll people entitled to subsidies directly rather than through the federal system. () * The new video game consoles from Sony and Microsoft about to hit store shelves are almost certain to be hot holiday gifts this year. The uncertainty for the games business is: What happens after Santa leaves? Sales of a new generation of consoles could be dented by tablets, smartphones and Facebook, which offer games at lower prices. () * Sunday was a bad day for Fantex, the fledgling company promoting initial public offerings of National Football League stars, as its first two prospects were sidelined. () * Liquidators seeking to recover money for investors in two hedge funds filed a lawsuit on Monday against Standard & Poor's, Fitch and Moody's. () * A new trial expected to start this week will determine how much Samsung has to pay for an important suit it lost against Apple. () * Bitcoin's emergence has brought a field of competitors. Already, dozens of ideas are jockeying for the market. The online payment system viewed by many insiders as having the best chance of supplanting bitcoin is Ripple. Ripple holds out the promise not just of a new currency, but also of a novel method to send money around the world. () * The Justice Department's prosecution of SAC Capital Advisors raises the question of who the victims of a violation are. () * After several years of lackluster performance, the hedge fund industry is increasingly turning to self-help programs, sometimes referred to as "mindware" products, to try to improve its game. () * Several ideas about using financial instruments and a for-profit approach in the world of non-profits are now taking hold. ()

2013-11-12 12:12:06+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [4671]}

{}

China's Leadership Wants The Markets To Play A Bigger Role In The Economy

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-leadership-wants-markets-play-121206215.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

China REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The Great Hall of the People, where the Chinese Communist Party plenum is being held, is seen behinds red flags in Tiananmen square in Beijing November 12, 2013. BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling party pledged to let markets play a "decisive" role in allocating resources as it unveiled a reform agenda for the next decade on Tuesday, looking to overhaul the world's second-largest economy to drive future growth. China aims to achieve "decisive results" in its reform push by 2020, with economic changes a central focus of overall reforms, the ruling Communist Party said in a communiqué released by state media at the end of a four-day closed-door meeting of the party's 205-member Central Committee. "The core issue is to straighten out the relationship between government and the market, allowing the market to play a decisive role in allocating resources and improving the government's role ," the party said in its statement. It added that it would set up a central leading team for "comprehensively deepening reform," responsible for "designing reform on an overall basis, arranging and co-ordinating reform, pushing forward reform as a whole, and supervising the implementation of reform plans". In previous policy statements, the Communist Party had often described markets as playing a "basic" role in allocating resources, Xinhua news agency said, meaning the new language amounts to an upgrading of its role in the party philosophy. "They are looking to break away from government control, allowing the markets to take the lead. In the past, prices and investment decisions were predominantly made by the government," said Dong Tao, Asia ex-Japan chief regional economist with Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. "This is a revolutionary philosophy, by Chinese standards." CAUTIOUS ON STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES Still, the party did not issue any bold reform plans for the country's state-owned enterprises (SOEs), saying that while both state firms and the private sector were important and it would encourage private enterprise, the dominance of the "public sector" in the economy would be maintained. Story continues While the statement was short on details, it is expected to kick off specific measures by state agencies over the coming years to reduce the role of the state in the economy. Historically, such third plenary sessions of a newly installed Central Committee have acted as a springboard for key economic reforms, and this one will also serve as a first test of the new leadership's commitment to reform. Among the issues singled out for reform, the party said it would work to deepen fiscal and tax reform, establish a unified land market in cities and the countryside, set up a sustainable social security system, and give farmers more property rights - all seen as necessary for putting the world's second-largest economy on a more sustainable footing. President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang must unleash new growth drivers as the economy, after three decades of breakneck expansion, begins to sputter, burdened by industrial overcapacity, piles of debt and eroding competitiveness. Out of a long list of areas that the meeting was expected to tackle, most analysts have singled out a push towards a greater role of markets in the financial sector and reforms to public finances as those most likely to get immediate attention. As part of that, Beijing is expected to push forward with capital account convertibility, and the 2020 target date for making significant strides on reform could set off expectations that the government will be looking to achieve breakthroughs on freeing up the closely managed yuan by then. Few China watchers had expected Xi and Li to take on powerful state monopolies, judging that the political costs of doing so were just too high. Many economists argue that other reforms will have only limited success if the big state-owned firms' stranglehold on key markets and financing is not tackled. But instead, the focus will be on indirect steps to limit the power of state behemoths and open up space for nimbler, private and foreign rivals - opening up key markets to private and foreign investment and deregulation tested in free trade zones. Some reforms could face stiff resistance from powerful interest groups such as local governments or state-owned monopolies, people involved in reform discussions have said. (Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Writing by Jason Subler and Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Neil Fullick) More From Business Insider A High School Coach Was Fired For This Facebook Photo 14 Midwestern Sayings That The Rest Of America Can't Understand You Can Buy Beer With Bitcoin At This Beijing Bar

2013-11-12 13:00:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [785, 1238, 1266, 1275, 1399, 1659, 1698, 1865]}

{"Bitcoin": [23, 82]}

Alix Announces Initial Bitcoin Mining Exploration Transaction / Implementation of Bitcoin Exchange

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/alix-announces-initial-bitcoin-mining-130000977.html

Marketwired

http://www.marketwired.com/

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Nov. 12, 2013) - ALIX RESOURCES CORP. ("Alix" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:AIX)(FRANKFURT:37N) (ARXRF-US CLEARING SYMBOL) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an innovative and creative service plan with Ridge Resources Ltd. for upcoming exploratory work on its Windy Property located 15 kilometers north of Cassiar, British Columbia ( see news release, November 7, 2013 ). Pursuant to the plan, Alix will pay Ridge for its services in bitcoins on an ongoing basis and will continue to explore this avenue for funding future endeavours with other service providers. To explore this model of payment more fully with its other service providers, Alix has also entered into an agreement with a private software vendor to license a Bitcoin exchange to be administered by Alix. Management anticipates that the exchange will be launched in early January 2014. President and CEO Michael England states, "The growth of popularity in the bitcoin space as an alternate method of payment has led Alix to step into this very exciting market. This transaction is the first of its kind within the Canadian junior mining sector and positions Alix as a participant at an early stage in the global Bitcoin marketplace." About Bitcoin: Bitcoin is a distributed, peer-to-peer digital currency that functions without the intermediation of any central authority. Bitcoin payment processing fees are substantially lower than those of credit cards or money transfers, and while the exchange rate is highly volatile, on average bitcoins have appreciated rapidly in relation to other currencies. Notable recent events include: Bitcoin market cap at an all time high Bitcoin price broke 52-week highs in recent weeks World's first bitcoin ATM recently unveiled in Vancouver, BC For more information regarding bitcoin please visit www.Bitcoin.org . ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Michael England, President Forward-Looking Statement: Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information that involves inherent risk and uncertainty affecting the business of Alix Resources Corp. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

2013-11-12 13:06:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [682, 1548, 2448, 3116]}

{}

Ripple Labs Announces $3.5 Million Investment Round

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ripple-labs-announces-3-5-130600163.html

Marketwired

http://www.marketwired.com/

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 12, 2013) - Ripple Labs , developer of the Ripple protocol, announced that it has secured $3.5 million in additional funding from Core Innovation Capital, Venture 51, Camp One Ventures, IDG Capital Partners, and a number of unnamed individuals. Ripple is a decentralized, open source payment protocol powering a new global value web. Ripple Labs will use the new funds to continue building developer and consumer tools that enhance and contribute to the Ripple ecosystem. This latest investment build on previous rounds of seed funding from Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, IDG Capital Partners, FF Angel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, The Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, and Vast Ventures. "Ripple removes friction from even the most basic of payment transactions, leveling the playing field for underserved individuals and emerging markets around the globe," said Arjan Schütte, founder and managing partner of Core Innovation Capital, a venture fund for FinTech companies serving the Emerging Middle Class. "We are investing in a veteran leadership team with a vision for using one of the most disruptive innovations in financial services to do good and empower individuals through financial inclusion." Ripple enables fast, secure and nearly free transactions of any size, in any currency, around the world, with no chargebacks for merchants. As a distributed multi-currency exchange, Ripple pathways allow users to send money in one currency and receive it in another, including dollars, yen, euros or even Bitcoins. The Ripple payment system can be used for a wide range of applications, including merchant payments, money transfers, or remittances. "Similar to the way in which email and other technologies drove the creation of a new global information web where anyone can communicate instantly and for free, Ripple is changing the way the world transacts with the first global value web," said Ripple Labs CEO Chris Larsen. "Ripple powers instant, affordable and secure transactions in any currency, making it as easy to move money as it is to send an email." Story continues For more information about Ripple, please visit http://www.ripple.com . About Ripple Labs Ripple Labs developed the Ripple protocol, which makes transacting as easy as emailing. The San Francisco-based startup is funded by Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, IDG Capital Partners, FF Angel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, The Bitcoin Opportunity Fund and Vast Ventures. The software company's team of 30 is comprised of world-famous cryptographers, security experts, distributed network developers, Silicon Valley and Wall Street veterans. They contribute code to and promote the Ripple protocol, create SDKs and build free consumer apps. The team shepherds a movement to evolve finance so that payment systems are open, secure, constructive and globally inclusive. About Ripple Ripple is an open-source, distributed payment protocol. It enables free and instant payments to merchants, consumers and developers with no chargebacks and in any currency -- including dollars, yen, euros, and even Bitcoin. Ripple has the potential to transform payments to work like communications -- global, distributed, instant and free. Ripple is currently in beta. For more information about Ripple, please visit http://www.ripple.com .

2013-11-12 16:52:26+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [441]}

{"Bitcoin": [0]}

Bitcoin online exchange in Czech Republic hacked

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-online-exchange-czech-republic-165202215.html

Associated Press

https://apnews.com/

PRAGUE (AP) -- An online exchange that trades the digital currency bitcoin in the Czech Republic says it has been attacked by hackers. The website Bitcash.cz says its security system was broken and bitcoins from its clients were stolen late Monday. It said in a statement Tuesday it has filed a legal complaint against the unknown hackers. It is not clear what amount of bitcoins disappeared and how many clients were affected by the theft. Bitcoin is a cryptography-based digital currency that advocates say is counterfeit-proof. Its price traded as high as $385 Tuesday afternoon.

2013-11-12 18:26:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [179, 1120, 3502]}

{"Bitcoin": [18]}

Observations: Can Bitcoin Break Out?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/observations-bitcoin-break-182600765.html

Moody's

https://www.moodys.com/

Techies around the world were all atwitter last week—not just about Twitter's initial public offering, but also about a new record value of $395 for the digital currency bitcoin. Bitcoin prices have spiked before. Earlier this year, the virtual currency hit a high of $230 after bank depositors in Cyprus were hit with taxes to bail out failing banks before crashing to $50. With one prominent blogger predicting last week that the value of a bitcoin could hit $1 million, the frenzy is starting to look like a modern-day tulip mania . It's too soon to tell if the bitcoin is a passing technological fancy or could one day become a viable currency. So far the cyberscrip, which changes hands with no names attached, has been popular with techies, libertarians, and underworld types looking to elude governments. Open-source sensation Fueled by the cooperative spirit of the open-source computer movement, bitcoins took off after the 2008 financial crisis. The currency's creator, who uses the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, envisioned a means of exchange immune to the political or economic fortunes of any single country. Bitcoins are backed neither by hard assets nor by governmental promises, like most conventional currencies. Buyers of bitcoins join a virtual network that collectively monitors itself. Each time a bitcoin is bought or sold, the transaction is added to a universal ledger, creating an audit trail visible to those on the network. Here's the part techies love: Before a transaction can be recorded, a difficult math problem must be solved that requires pricey supercomputing time. The first programmer (a "miner" in bitcoin parlance) to answer the tricky question, which is essential to the validation process, broadcasts it to the other network members, who in turn verify it and post the bitcoin transaction. The winning team receives new bitcoins as a reward. Monetary home brewing However, this laborious, time-consuming process of confirming bitcoin's anonymous transactions—the ledger updates every 10 minutes—makes it unlikely that the virtual currency will ever be more than the monetary equivalent of home brewing: a niche hobby with limited mass appeal. Story continues Currently, about 11.8 million bitcoin units exist in the virtual world, with a total value of $4.6 billion at the current dollar exchange rate. Trades take place online, and bitcoins are also accepted as payment by some online businesses such as the U.S. dating site OKCupid and the Chinese search engine Baidu. Some adherents of the libertarian economic school see bitcoin as a realization of the belief that money can and should be managed by the private sector, rather than by governments as it is almost universally today. Most mainstream economists disagree: Chicago Fed economist François Velde recently called the bitcoin network an "automaton" that can't offer the stable store of value necessary for any successful currency. China showing support There's no doubt that bitcoin values are volatile, and thus ill-suited for ordinary commerce. Last week's spike in bitcoin prices is the latest twist in a lurid international tale featuring dealers in a range of black-market goods from drugs to body parts, with the FBI in pursuit. Supporting players include the Chinese government, which has been promoting the digital currency on state-run TV. China renewed calls during last month's debt-ceiling standoff in Washington for nations to dethrone the dollar as the world's leading reserve currency. Bitcoin is hardly ready for reserve-currency status, but the Chinese support is telling. The bitcoin thriller also includes a cameo appearance by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famous as early investors in Facebook. The Winklevoss twins hold a bitcoin stake now worth about $46 million and have filed with the U.S. government to set up an exchange to trade the virtual currency. Cameron Winklevoss told a conference in New York Tuesday that he sees the capitalization of bitcoin hitting $400 billion. Regulation looms The most successful bitcoin exchange to date is called Mt. Gox, based in Japan. But Mt. Gox ran afoul of U.S. authorities for transmitting money without a license and had $5 million of its assets seized earlier this year. That forced Mt. Gox to temporarily suspend U.S. dollar withdrawals this summer, providing an opening for other bitcoin exchanges. Mt. Gox has since filed with the U.S. Treasury to formally become a currency exchange. Regulatory issues aren't the only obstacle confronting bitcoin. Researchers at Cornell last week outlined a doomsday scenario under which a small group of programmers could take over the network and manipulate transactions to their own benefit. The researchers proposed a number of changes to bitcoin's operations to prevent such a takeover. Even if those reforms aren't adopted, governments may force change. Last week's runup in the value of bitcoin was accompanied by reports from regional Fed banks predicting the cyberscrip will soon face increasing regulatory supervision. The U.S. Senate has also begun to ask how the government oversees virtual currencies. This summer, Fed Chairwoman-designate Janet Yellen told a conference in Shanghai that bitcoin is subject to the same U.S. regulations as PayPal and other online payment systems. She may elaborate further during her Senate confirmation hearings Thursday. Monica Gagnier is an Economics Writer at Moody's Analytics. More from Dismal Scientist: Economic Indicator Calendar This Week's Commentary U.S. Business Cycle Tracker

2013-11-13 21:09:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [273, 461, 504, 919, 1037]}

{"Bitcoin": [37]}

Here's Why The Winklevoss Twins LOVE Bitcoin

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-why-winklevoss-twins-love-210918757.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

tyler and cameron winklevoss at business insider ignition conference talking about bitcoin Michael Seto Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famous for rattling legal sabers against Facebook, garnered some attention when they claimed to own 1% of all Bitcoins , the anonymous digital currency, earlier this year. Speaking to Business Insider's executive editor Joe Weisenthal at IGNITION 2013, the twins laid out the reasons why they love Bitcoin. In response to the criticism that Bitcoin is purely speculative, either Cameron or Tyler (we didn't catch which one) said that " people speculate in dollars too. This idea that people aren't betting when they hang on to a dollar is incorrect." They also love the currency's transparency, explaining that "there is nothing predictable or transparent about the US dollar. No one has any idea what the Federal Reserve's going to do, how they operate." Bitcoin, on the other hand, is fixed at 21 million coins that will come out incrementally and predictably over time. "Bitcoin brings the promise of email to the finance sector. Now it's instant and effectively free to send money anywhere," the twins said. More From Business Insider Gawker Chief Nick Denton Says He Has A Cure For Internet Trolls VC Superstar Fred Wilson: The Tech Industry 'Definitely' Discriminates Against Old People Google's New Phone Has A Crazy Low Price

2013-11-14 14:00:34+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [221, 1885, 2175]}

{"Bitcoin": [24]}

Alix Provides Update on Bitcoin Exchange and Golden Zone Property

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/alix-provides-bitcoin-exchange-golden-140034067.html

Marketwired

http://www.marketwired.com/

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Nov 14, 2013) - ALIX RESOURCES CORP. ("Alix" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:AIX)(FRANKFURT:37N) (ARXRF-US CLEARING SYMBOL) is pleased to provide an update regarding its planned Bitcoin exchange launch anticipated in Q1 2014 ( see news release, November 12, 2013 ). Completion of the advanced platform is anticipated shortly with a beta version to begin real time testing in December 2013. With bitcoin usage recently exceeding all-time highs, Alix will provide users with a secure, reliable and powerful trading platform to the Canadian bitcoin market. Alix is also pleased to announce it has incurred sufficient expenditures to earn 51% of the Golden Zone gold property, located in the Chulitna mineral belt of Alaska. A NI43-101 resource estimate for the Golden Zone property reports 10,264,327 tonnes (11,294,000 tons) of measured, indicated and inferred material averaging 1.44 g/T Au and containing 431,389 ounces of gold, 2,214,517 ounces of silver and 6,081 tonnes (6,689 ton; 13,378,000 lbs) of copper ( see news release, January 5 th 2012 ). Michael England, CEO & Director states, "This is a very exciting time for Alix, both with having earned 51% of Golden Zone and also with the fast approaching launch of our bitcoin exchange. While mineral exploration continues to be our main focus, we are confident that increasing shareholder value and financing our projects will be possible through the bitcoin exchange." There are currently two bitcoin exchanges in Canada. Alix will join this competitive market and is confident in utilizing the following principles to create a valuable product for its users. • Security The exchange will utilize industry standard practices such as DDOS protection, cold storage & two-factor authentication to ensure that all exchange activity and information is well secured. • Over-Compliance While Bitcoin is not heavily regulated in Canada, Alix plans to take a proactive approach to ensure all regulatory and financial requirements are met. Coming from the public sector, Alix is already very familiar with strict compliance requirements. Story continues For more information regarding Bitcoin & Alix's involvement, please visit: www.AlixResources.com/bitcoin ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Michael England, President Forward-Looking Statement: Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information that involves inherent risk and uncertainty affecting the business of Alix Resources Corp. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

2013-11-15 18:00:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [117, 602, 972, 1133, 1326, 1651, 1976, 2386, 2968]}

{"Bitcoin": [38, 93]}

KnCMiner Sells $3M of Top-of-the-Line Bitcoin Digital Mining Machines in Record Four Days of Bitcoin Trading Frenzy

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kncminer-sells-3m-top-line-180000309.html

Marketwired

http://www.marketwired.com/

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN--(Marketwired - Nov 15, 2013) - KnCMiner ( www.KnCMiner.com/ ), a manufacturer of state-of-the-art Bitcoin mining machines, today disclosed that active orders and pre-orders for its Saturn and Jupiter rigs are now officially sold out, with demand meeting the company's initially scheduled production of 5,000 units. KnCMiner's sales were capped by a frenetic period of sales in just four days -- from Nov. 7 to 10, 2013 -- during which the company accepted $3 million in orders for all of its November supply. Over the same period of time, the value of popular digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin saw an increase by nearly 27 percent, from $264 USD to $336 USD, while reaching a peak value of $395 and trading volume of 14,000 over that time. "While we have seen a significant increase in demand for our line of machines from the last quarter to this one, what happened in the last four days has been unprecedented for us, maybe unprecedented anywhere in the Bitcoin mining industry. In four short days, we pushed $3 million of equipment out the door," said KnCMiner CEO Andreas Kennemar. "The increased activity around Bitcoin in just half a week undoubtedly had a sizable impact on our sales. We're now focusing on doing everything we can to meet the demand we expect we will continue to receive, especially as Bitcoin's popularity continues to soar." Subsequent to selling out its production supply for November in just a matter of days, KnCMiner also sold out a $600,000 supply of upgrade modules in under five minutes to existing customers who already have rigs. KnCMiner has produced almost $29 million in total global sales of its Bitcoin mining rigs to 120 different countries in the company's seven short months of existence since April 2013, rapidly going from market entry to market leader. The company will soon begin taking pre-orders again to meet this historic demand by miners who are participating in the new "digital gold rush." KnCMiner offers Bitcoin mining hardware that is faster and more efficient at producing the virtual cryptocurrency, at competitive prices, while keeping energy costs lower and mining areas cooler. KnCMiner has partnered with the biggest names in supercomputing, including a recent partnership with Alchip Technologies, to deliver rigs that can hash faster and more efficiently than any others on the market. KnCMiner's line of Bitcoin speciality machines, including the popular Jupiter and Saturn models, contain proprietary technology with custom-engineered ASIC that provide the highest production performance on the market with energy-saving features that are unique to the product line. Story continues For more details about KnCMiner, and specific lines of machines such as the Jupiter and Saturn, please visit www.KnCMiner.com . About KnCMiner KnCMiner is a Swedish company founded in 2013 as a joint venture between ORSoC AB and Kennemar & Cole AB. KnCMiner produces a popular line of machines to help Bitcoin producers mine the digital cryptocurrency more effectively and more efficiently at overall lower cost. For more information, please visit www.KnCMiner.com . View comments

2013-11-15 22:00:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [340, 690, 1032, 1047, 2094, 2147, 2252, 2527, 2905, 3023, 3156, 3305, 3383, 3441, 3568, 4188, 4496, 4634, 4798]}

{}

Battle of the Beasties

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/battle-beasties-220000558.html

Morningstar

http://www.morningstar.com/

The Finalists Yesterday, Morningstar's researchers debated which fund had the most intimidating discussion of risk factors in its prospectus. They realized almost immediately that the winner would be an exchange-traded fund, as, try as they might, conventional mutual funds can't match ETFs for bizarre. Their two finalists were Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust and ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (UVXY). It's an inspired duo. I'll go one step further. These are the industry's strangest funds, period. Not just for their risk factors, but also for their investment complexity and for the wackiness of their performance. Investment Complexity Both funds score stunningly well here. The Bitcoin Trust holds "a digital commodity based on an open source cryptographic protocol existing on the online, end-user-to-end-user network hosting the public transaction ledger, known as the 'Blockchain,' and the source code comprising the basis for the cryptographic and algorithmic protocols governing the issuance of and transactions in Bitcoins (the 'Bitcoin Network')." For its part, the ProShares fund seeks to double the daily performance of an index that indirectly measures the collective expectation for the level of stock-market volatility over the next month. Per Wikipedia, VIX "is calculated as the square root of the par variance swap for a 30-day term initiated today. Note that the VIC is the volatility of a variance swap and not that of a volatility swap." Noted. There you have it. Two funds, each as natural as Donald Trump's hair and about as complicated. One fund rises and falls based upon the value of a currency that is supported neither by a tangible asset nor an entity that can raise revenue, and the other rises twice and falls twice based on the performance of an index that was built by mathematicians. A derivative of a derivative, versus a derivative of a derivative of a derivative. Verdict: Narrow victory for ProShares. The ProShares fund goes one derivative further, and it's leveraged at that. Although for fancy math, its "kernel-smoothed estimator" can't touch Bitcoin's code creators. Story continues Performance Bitcoins' spot price over the trailing 12 months: The total return of the ProShares fund: Verdict: Draw. Bitcoin prices are up well over 1,000% for the period, including a week with a 65% loss. Impressive. The 93% decline suffered by the ProShares fund is just as good, however. For this competition, riches to rags counts the same as rags to riches. Prospectus Two tree-killers. Bitcoin ETF's prospectus numbers 95 pages. The ProShares fund's prospectus is even longer, at 138 pages, as it shares the territory with a nonleveraged version of the VIX index fund. (I attempted to print the full prospectuses from each fund, but near the end of the ProShares job, after 40 minutes of laboring, the printer froze in protest.) Discussion of risk factors for the Bitcoin Trust runs 18 pages. Included is the following: The loss or destruction of a private key required to access a Bitcoin may be irreversible. The Trust's loss of access to its private keys or its experience of a data loss relating to the Trust's Bitcoins could adversely affect an investment in the Shares. If a malicious actor or botnet obtains control in excess of the processing power on the Bitcoin Network, such actor or botnet could manipulate the source code of the Bitcoin Network or the Blockchain … The acceptance of the Bitcoin Network software patches or upgrades by a significant, but not overwhelming, percentage of the users and miners in the Bitcoin Network could result in a fork in the Blockchain, resulting in the operation of two separate networks until such time as the forked Blockchains are merged. ProShares once again wins the paper battle, checking in with a 22-page risk disclosure. But can it beat the botnets? Due to the compounding of daily returns, the Geared Fund's returns over periods longer than a single day will likely differ in amount and possibly even direction from the two times (2x) the index return for the period The use of leveraged positions could result in the total loss of an investor's investment. Verdict: Decisive victory for Bitcoin. Having an index fund that might go to zero, and that can move in the opposite of its intended direction, is a brilliant accomplishment for ProShares. Full credit for crazy. However, that disclosure is sadly standard, holding true of many other leveraged daily ETFS as well. Whereas the kookiness of Bitcoin's ETF is a special sort of kookiness. A narrow loss, a draw, and a decisive victory in the three equal-weighted sections make the Bitcoin Trust the overall winner. Before conducting this exercise, I had thought that I might need the Winklevoss connection to break a tie, but not so. Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust wins the award as the fund industry's nuttiest fund even without help from its parents. Completing the Story From a fund-industry trade publication about outflows from domestic large-growth stock funds*, even as stock fund sales overall are booming: * The article says "large-cap" but the author must mean "large-growth," because that's in the headline and because domestic large-blend and large-value funds have positive net sales. What could help domestic large-cap funds bounce back with higher flows is to sustain good performance, according to [Lipper Analytic's Jeff] Tjornehoj. He points out that year-to-date, domestic large-cap funds have a 24.5% return, which is only a handful of percentage points off the 29.5% that small-caps have gained for the year. Tjornehoj notes that investors' wariness of domestic large-caps grew after the strategies had been marketed as products that could hedge against wild market swings, but then got hit just as hard as small-cap funds during the financial crisis. He adds that the fund industry also began pushing retail alternatives and bonds, causing investors to move away from domestic products in general. "Investors can have long memories and [the financial crisis] occurred at a very challenging time," Tjornehoj says. "The retirement for the first wave of baby boomers was coming up and their portfolios got crushed." True enough, in its way. Also true, however, is that of the category's $19 billion in outflows this year, $12 billion have come from a single fund, American Funds Growth Fund of America (AGTHX). In addition, $5 billion has gone into large-growth ETFs. So, aside from the redemptions that are occurring at Capital Research, and including ETFs, category sales are about flat for the year. Still disappointing given the rebound in stock fund sales, but better than portrayed. John Rekenthaler has been researching the fund industry since 1988. He is now a columnist for Morningstar.com and a member of Morningstar's investment research department. John is quick to point out that while Morningstar typically agrees with the views of the Rekenthaler Report, his views are his own.

2013-11-16 00:13:17+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1348]}

{}

UK investigates huge spam attack on bank customers' computers

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/uk-investigates-huge-spam-attack-001317100.html

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/

REUTERS - Cybercrime investigators are looking into a barrage of spam sent to millions of British banking customers designed to freeze their computers and demand a ransom, Britain's National Crime Agency said on Friday. The agency, which began operating only last month, said its National Cyber Crime Unit had become "aware of a mass email spamming event which is ongoing, where people are receiving emails that appear to be from banks and other financial institutions." The agency said it considered the attack a "significant risk." It added that while the spam emails may be sent out to "tens of millions of UK customers," they appear to be targeted mainly at small and medium-sized businesses. The spam carries an attachment that appears to be correspondence related to the text of the email - such as a voice mail or fax or details of a purported suspicious transaction or invoice seeking payment, the agency said. In reality, the agency said, the attachment injects a malicious program - malware - into the computer, which opens it as well as the local network to which the machine is connected. Once triggered, a program called "Cryptolocker" that the crime agency described as "ransomware," proceeds to encrypt the files on the user's machine and the local network. Once encrypted, the computer displays a message demanding the payment of 2 Bitcoins - an electronic currency currently worth 536 pounds, or about $865 - in return for the key to unlock the encryption. The UK crime agency said it advised users not to pay the ransom and warned that even if it were paid, there was no guarantee the encryption key would be turned over. The spam attack was reported just as UK financial institutions were conducting a large-scale cybersecurity exercise, code-named "Walking Shark 2," The exercise was being coordinated by the British Treasury and the Bank of England. (Reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney)

2013-11-17 13:38:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [92, 199, 220, 264, 447, 538, 600, 944, 1088, 1134, 1176, 1286, 1536, 1622, 1695, 2017, 2299, 2422, 2502, 2543, 2655, 2728, 3212, 3455, 3937, 3986, 4027, 4144, 4201, 4504, 4715, 4805, 4997, 5037, 5638, 5687, 5891, 5934, 5987], "BTC": [2605, 2782]}

{"Bitcoin": [3, 55]}

If Bitcoin Is So Secure, Why Have There Been Dozens of Bitcoin Bank Robberies And Millions In Losses?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-secure-why-dozens-bitcoin-133850174.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

cops robbers pulp fiction Michael Karshis / Flickr, CC One of the most powerful myths about Bitcoin — the encrypted, independent online currency that's become a huge trend in recent months — is that Bitcoin is "secure." Bitcoin.org, the semi-official voice of the Bitcoin community, says "the whole system is protected by heavily peer-reviewed cryptographic algorithms like those used for online banking. No organization or individual can control Bitcoin, and the network remains secure even if not all of its users can be trusted ." But Bitcoin is not secure. There have been dozens of robberies of Bitcoin banks and exchanges, and millions of dollars have been lost. To put that in perspective, if robbers were routinely walking into brick-and-mortar banks and taking millions of dollars, with zero consequences and no arrests, it would make huge headlines every day. The media would be on high alert for the next heist. But on the Internet, Bitcoin thefts worth hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars happen on a weekly basis and no one cares. Here are a few recent examples of Bitcoin robberies, and then we'll explain why Bitcoin is not 100% "secure." The Chinese Bitcoin GBL went offline earlier this month , taking $4.1 million in users' accounts with it. In Australia, a Bitcoin exchange run by an 18-year-old user named "Tradefortress," claims to have lost $1 million of his users' money. Also in November, a Czech exchange, Bitcash.cz, declared that hackers had made off with an undisclosed amount stored in its users' Bitcoin wallets. In September, Bitfloor announced that it had lost $250,000 in hacked Bitcoins. Last year $228,845 was stolen from a trading platform known as Bitcoinica . Silk Road Ross ulbricht YouTube / Renee Pinnell Ross Ulbricht Perhaps the biggest heist was pulled off by the U.S. government. After Ross Ulbricht, the alleged "Dread Pirate Roberts" who ran the online drugs market Silk Road was arrested by the FBI, authorities reported they had seized nearly $29 million in Bitcoins controlled by him. Techdirt later noted that some of the money may have belonged to users who did business on his site , and not all the business transacted there was illegal. Story continues Don't hold you breath for refunds. Here's a website devoted to listing dozens of Bitcoin robberies through 2012 . In 2011, Ars Technica reported on this description of what it is like to be the victim of Bitcoin theft : The user known as "allinvain" is a long-time contributor to the Bitcoin forums. He says he's been mining Bitcoins for over a year, and had amassed a fortune of 25,000 BTC. This was a modest sum a few months ago, when Bitcoins were worth pennies, but over the last two months the value of a Bitcoin skyrocketed to around $20, which means 25,000 BTC would have been worth half a million dollars. "I remember watching the price like a hawk," he wrote. And then disaster struck. "I just woke up to see a very large chunk of my bitcoin balance gone," he wrote. "Needles [sic] to say I feel like I have lost faith in bitcoin." He speculated that a Windows security flaw may have allowed the culprit to gain access to his digital wallet. "I feel like killing myself now," he said. Bitcoin is vulnerable in the same way any other online asset is vulnerable: Passwords can be stolen or guessed, accounts can be hacked. Most of the thefts involve hacking into users' accounts. Bitfloor's description of how it lost $250,000 in Bitcoin is typical. A hacker found an unencrypted copy of the coded keys to users' wallets: Last night, a few of our servers were compromised. As a result, the attacker gained accesses to an unencrypted backup of the wallet keys (the actual keys live in an encrypted area). Using these keys they were able to transfer the coins. This attack took the vast majority of the coins BitFloor was holding on hand. As a result, I have paused all exchange operations. money on fire In fact, Bitcoin defenders say this is exactly the point. Bitcoin isn't insecure — you are! Here's Bitcoin.org's answer to that very question on security : Although these events are unfortunate, none of them involve Bitcoin itself being hacked, nor imply inherent flaws in Bitcoin; just like a bank robbery doesn't mean that the dollar is compromised. However, it is accurate to say that a complete set of good practices and intuitive security solutions is needed to give users better protection of their money, and to reduce the general risk of theft and loss. The idea that Bitcoin is "secure" even though it can be stolen is a bit like saying that gold is "secure," even if it is being spirited away by gangsters. They can't destroy the gold, after all. What they really mean is that Bitcoins themselves cannot be copied or faked, like counterfeit bills. Anyone receiving a Bitcoin can be confident that it is real and valuable. robbers roost Loco Steve / Flickr, CC But that aspect of its security — the permanence of the value in the transaction — turns out to be Bitcoin's biggest security flaw. Once a Bitcoin transaction has been approved by both sides, it cannot be reversed without the permission of the receipient. So when hackers engineer the transaction, the cash is gone forever. That's not what happens with traditional currency. In the U.S., if your bank is robbed or even if the bank goes out of business, the FDIC backs up the lost deposits and replaces your money, up to $250,000 per bank . And then there is this new theory from Cornell University which posits that there is an incentive in the system for users to cooperate and hoard their coins until they control a majority of available Bitcoins. At that point, the currency collapses. Bitcoin is only as "secure" as the fallible, ill-intentioned users who open accounts, create passwords and covet their fellows' wallets. Which is to say, not especially secure. More From Business Insider Bitcoin Hits $600 Here's The Argument That Bitcoin Is Collapsing Before Our Very Eyes BERNANKE: Bitcoin 'May Hold Long-Term Promise'

2013-11-18 15:35:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [15, 287, 549, 728, 2387, 2469, 2477]}

{"Bitcoin": [25]}

Here's The Argument That Bitcoin Is Collapsing Before Our Very Eyes

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-argument-bitcoin-collapsing-very-153531558.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

617 Clarkmoody Bitcoin is surging day after day, and believers in the virtual currency are feeling a sense of increasing vindication. Further cementing the meme that bitcoins are becoming "for real" are today's hearings in the Senate about their use. But maybe instead of becoming real, Bitcoin is collapsing before our very eyes. That's the provocative thesis put forth by Izabella Kaminska of FT Alphaville . When she looks at the above, she doesn't see mass adoption: She sees a gigantic short-squeeze caused by a state of crisis in the world of Bitcoin. Among her points: The price started surging after the Silk Road bust, and a number of bitcoins went dark, creating an extreme shortage and a challenge for anyone who had Bitcoin liabilities. There's been a rash of bitcoin thefts . There's been a computer virus spreading, demanding people fork over bitcoins. And finally she adds, there's been some major breakthroughs this year in the "mining" of bitcoins (bitcoins are mined by setting your computer to solve math problems), which has crushed the margins for traditional miners, pushing them out of the market. All of this creates a situation where the traditional players in the market are totally scrambling to either buy obtain bitcoins (because of the shortage) or have been pushed out of mining. On this last point, she writes: To keep conventional miners incentivised to stay in the mining operation — at least until everyone transfers to the new technology — the price has to go up instead. However, as the chart above shows, prices are not yet high enough to keep conventional miners in the game. The consequences of that, we would imagine, are that the mining peer network may have been greatly reduced, creating something of a cartel-like effect, due to the lack of competition. The super spike suggests the market is now evolving to somehow attract back conventional miners so as to defend the decentralised market from the destablising effects of miner concentration — more easily done now that there is a supply deficit which is potentially choking the system. This can only be done, however, with higher prices and/or the roll-out of the new technology. Story continues Kaminska is one of the smartest thinkers in the game on this stuff. Go read her full post , and then read all of the other posts she's written about the subject. More From Business Insider The Bitcoin Insanity Continues — Prices Top $450 New York Will Be Holding Hearings On Bitcoin Bitcoin Prices Are Going Insane

2013-11-18 17:20:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [64, 181, 5163, 5171]}

{"Bitcoin": [10]}

BERNANKE: Bitcoin 'May Hold Long-Term Promise'

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bernanke-bitcoin-may-hold-long-172034587.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

ben bernanke glass REUTERS/ Tim Chong The beautiful thing about Bitcoin, digital currency enthusiasts will tell you, is that it doesn't have a central bank. So with eyes on today's Bitcoin Senate hearing, where does the world's most powerful central banker stand on the elusive cryptocurrency? Now we know. Ahead of the meeting, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has released a letter to help guide the senate . Quartz's Zachary Seward called it a "cautious blessing," with Bernanke acknowledging the Fed doesn't have the authority to supervise virtual currencies, but that they " may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system.” Here's Bernanke's full letter ( via Quartz ): Dear Senators: Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding virtual currencies. As you noted, virtual currencies have been receiving increased attention from U.S. authorities over the past several months. Historically, virtual currencies have been viewed as a form of “electronic money” or area of payment system technology that has been evolving over the past 20 years. Over time, these types of innovations have received attention from Congress as well as U.S. regulators. For example, in 1995, the U.S. House of Representatives held hearings on “the future of money” at which early versions of virtual currencies and other innovations were discussed. Vice Chairman Alan Blinder’s testimony at that time made the key point that while these types of innovations may pose risks related to law enforcement and supervisory matters, there are also areas in which they may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system. Although the Federal Reserve generally monitors developments in virtual currencies and other payments system innovations, it does not necessarily have authority to directly supervise or regulate these innovations or the entities that provide them to the market. In general, the Federal Reserve would only have authority to regulate a virtual currency product if it is issued by, or cleared or settled through, a banking organization that we supervise. Given the Federal Reserve”s authority and the manner in which virtual currencies have developed, the Federal Reserve has focused primarily on a supervised banking organization’s role in the products’ sale and distribution, as well as the applicable regulations, such as Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) /anti-money laundering (AML) requirements. Story continues Policies, Procedures, Guidance or Advisories In March 2013, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued guidance to clarify that an administrator or exchanger of virtual currency is generally considered a money transmitter under definitions and therefore subject to BSA requirements?’ The Federal Reserve’s supervisory expectations and guidance related to compliance for bank transactions using virtual currencies have been incorporated into the Electronic Cash section of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) Examination Manual. The overall objective of the guidance and examination procedures provided in this section is to assess the adequacy of a bank’s systems to manage the risks associated with electronic cash and management’s ability to implement effective monitoring and reporting systems. The section further lists applicable risk factors and risk mitigation steps for banks to consider. The Federal Reserve supervision staff has on–going initiatives with the FFIEC member agencies to identify additional areas of concern that require heightened attention by the banking organizations we supervise. Ongoing Coordination In May 2013, the US. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) named Liberty Reserve S.A. as a financial institution of primary money laundering concern under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Section 31l).4 ‘According to the announcement, Liberty Reserve, a web–based money transfer system or “virtual currency,” was specifically designed and frequently used to facilitate money laundering in cyber space. This action also marked the first use of Section 311 authorities against a virtual currency provider. The statutory language of Section 311 requires Treasury to consult with the Federal Reserve Board when these special measures are being developed and proposed. Therefore, Federal Reserve Board staff participated in coordination and consultation efforts leading up to the designation of the virtual currency provider, Liberty Reserve, under Section 311. Specific Plans or Strategies As noted above, the Federal Reserve plans to work with other FFIEC member agencies on electronic cash and related issues such as virtual currencies, as needed, for banking organizations. The Federal Reserve will continue to monitor developments as part of its broad interest in the safety and efficiency of the payment system. We also stand ready to cooperate with other agencies in fulfilling their mandates, as appropriate. I hope you find this information helpful. Sincerely, [Ben Bernanke] More From Business Insider New York Will Be Holding Hearings On Bitcoin Bitcoin Prices Are Going Insane Dectaper Is Coming

2013-11-18 17:20:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1732]}

{}

Marmots on a Plane and Other Intriguing Things

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/marmots-plane-other-intriguing-things-172000158.html

The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/

Nothing like a rocket on a launch pad at night (NASA). 1. NASA launches the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission today . "Mars is a complicated system, just as complicated as the Earth in its own way. You can't hope, with a single spacecraft, to study all aspects and to learn everything there is to know about it. With MAVEN, we're exploring the single biggest unexplored piece of Mars so far." 2. IBM's call center research and optimization services . " This text-analysis tool takes information from call center agent records, identifies customer concerns, provides early warning capabilities and mines data for trends and patterns." 3. The strange dilemmas posed by emotional support animals for nervous airplane passengers . "Delta says it allows rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, birds and marmots." 4. On OutKast's southern futurism . "Rap had seen afro-futurist eccentrics before, but since hard-core hit in ’94, no one but Kool Keith had dressed so flamboyantly... Andre had reached that rarefied level of 'I don't give a fuck' that Kanye West has frantically sought since his first Givenchy kilt. His clothes weren’t a bug-out costume or artistic pose; they felt as creatively surreal as the music. No one on earth or Alpha Centauri could have convincingly pulled them off." 5. To understand Apple's success, think about the pace of the under-the-hood optimizations they've made in the iPad Mini . "Just one year ago, those were the compromises Apple was forced to make. They could shrink the year old iPad 2 into the Mini form factor, or go retina and A6X with a thicker and heavier battery. This year, there are no compromises, there is no or ." Subscribe to 5 Intriguing Things : More From The Atlantic Bitcoin Is the Segway of Currency No, Public Spending on Higher Education Isn't Regressive Kids 'R' Us Might Be Doomed

2013-11-18 18:09:48+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [29, 731, 848, 858, 1563, 2473, 2665, 2807, 2961]}

{"Bitcoin": [0]}

Bitcoin surges to new high ahead of U.S. government hearing

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-surges-high-ahead-u-180948207.html

Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Bitcoin surged over 27 percent to a new high of US$675 on Monday ahead of a U.S. government hearing on possible regulation of the digital currency. While not an official seal of approval, the hearing is giving some legitimacy to a payment mechanism that has been associated with illegal activities even as it gains acceptance by the general public and investment community. Witnesses at the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing include officials from the Secret Service and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Justice Department's Criminal Division. "The government is taking a very thoughtful and balanced approach to bitcoin and bitcoin regulation," said Barry Silbert, founder of the Bitcoin Investment Trust, launched in late September and valued at US$22.8 million on Friday. It holds around 53,000 Bitcoins. Bitcoin traded as high as US$675 on Monday on Tokyo-based exchange Mt. Gox, the best-known operator of a bitcoin digital marketplace. That was a rise of 27.7 percent from Sunday's close. It last changed hands at US$672. The digital currency, which trades 24 hours a day, every day, has risen around 404 percent in the last two months. Association with drugs, money laundering, murder for hire and other illegal activities has not stymied interest in bitcoin, the digital currency not backed by any government or central bank and until recently a niche alternative currency touted by computer geeks and anti-government advocates. The currency, whose supply is limited, is "mined" by solving math problems. Bitcoin transactions are tracked by a network of computers that validate transactions and prevent counterfeit. In October, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation shut down Silk Road, an online marketplace used to buy and sell illegal drugs, and seized $3.6 million in bitcoins. "Lawmakers are rightfully concerned about the illegal aspects of bitcoin but the fact that they're giving bitcoin the time of day helps cement its legitimacy," said Christopher Vecchio, currency analyst at DailyFX. Story continues But it may also be government interest itself that is prompting the currency's huge moves of recent weeks, he said. "If investors feel that bitcoin is truly legitimate but foresee supply constraints due to exchanges closing or new regulations hitting the market, there is a sense of urgency developing to obtain bitcoins now, 'while you can,'" said Vecchio. Irrespective of the reason for the move, Bitcoin Investment Trust's Silbert at least is optimistic about the long-term outlook for the digital currency. "Everyone is uncomfortable that the price has moved so quickly," Silbert said. "Bitcoin in its short history has gone through a series of bubbles and busts. But after every bust a new price base has formed." Shares in the Bitcoin Investment Trust had a net asset value of $42.44 on Friday, up from $12.88 when the fund launched on September 25. Each share is 0.1 percent of a Bitcoin.

2013-11-18 20:30:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1242, 1665, 1833, 1978, 2119]}

{}

Cryptogenic Bullion - The Virtual Commodity Blurring the Lines Between Currency and Big Data

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cryptogenic-bullion-virtual-commodity-blurring-203000438.html

ACCESSWIRE

https://www.accesswire.com/

The lead project developer of Cryptogenic Bullion (CB), Mercury Stills, recently unveiled details of his major project, MADEsparq Project. A white paper has been published on the CB website. From the white paper, "This new paradigm, named the MADEsparq Project, aims to blur the defining lines between currency, technology, and data by using the CB block chain to mediate the mapping of data to create, and add value, to content and unstructured and semi-structured data." The MADEsparq Project website, MADEsparq.org , is under construction but will begin to offer some of the functionality mentioned in the white paper by mid-January. Moreover, the client software will have an open alpha release by the middle of next month. "The project is meant to intricately involve the inherent random structure of the Cryptogenic Bullion block chain and spark new ways of categorizing and collaborating about data, regardless of your interest or level of expertise. It's an open-source, open-collaboration project, so it made sense to have the alpha release be open as well," said Stills. It's that intricate relationship between CB and the growing number of participants using the CB network and block chain (ie. the public ledger system similar to Bitcoin) to mediate all the data categorizations and mappings, from a variety of knowledge-domains, that creates intrinsic value for the virtual commodity. "I honestly think this paradigm I'm trying to create will change everyone's perspective on the possibilities of virtual currencies. We can do so much with them, not just as a form of transferring value. And that, in turn, will help accelerate mass adoption of CB and Bitcoin." The MADEsparq Project supports only the virtual commodity, Cryptogenic Bullion. But other virtual currencies and commodities might be supported. "Eventually, Bitcoin will be supported, but not until we're in beta development." Cryptogenic Bullion's price at the time of this writing is about 0.0017 per Bitcoin or $0.92 and trades on various virtual currency exchanges, and its total market value is about $900K, which is miniscule compared to Bitcoin's $7 billion market value. "Cryptogenic Bullion was released less than five months ago and we're just now announcing our first major project. It's obviously an amazing time for participants to get a stake in the currency and to try to be independent from the corporate banking sector, while also pursuing one's own dreams. There's dozens of global currencies backed by centralized and often corrupt governments. Now, the people are taking all finance matters into their own hands. Soon there will be a vast system of virtual currencies and commodities, many with their own niche, akin to our current global system of fiat currencies. Decentralized, peer-to-peer virtual currency networks will change the way the world works for the better." Story continues For more information about Cryptogenic Bullion visit http://cryptogenicbullion.org/ . Contact Info: Name: Mercury Stills Email: [email protected]

2013-11-18 21:00:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [63, 473]}

{}

STOCKS FALL, BITCOIN GOES INSANE: Here's What You Need To Know

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stocks-fall-bitcoin-goes-insane-210003832.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

bitcoin REUTERS/Stephen Lam A chain of block erupters used for Bitcoin mining is pictured at the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, California, October 28, 2013. At one point in the morning, we saw Dow 16,000 and S&P 1,800 . But that rally was short-lived. First, the scoreboard: Dow: 15,976.0 , +14.3, +0.0 % S&P 500: 1,791.5, -6.6, -0.3% NASDAQ: 3,949.0, -36.9, -0.9% And now the top stories: Stocks hit new all-time intraday highs today before retreating. However, Bitcoin really stole the show today, exploding all the way to around $675 , up from a $500 level yesterday. The U.S. Senate is hearing testimonies about the viability of such digital currencies today. " ... while these types of innovations may pose risks related to law enforcement and supervisory matters, there are also areas in which they may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system ," said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a letter . The NAHB's homebuilder confidence index was unchanged at 54 in November from an October level that was revised down from 55. "The recent improvements in home builder sentiment have outpaced housing starts compared with past trends," noted Barclays' Cooper Howes. "As a result, we expect that a stronger rebound in construction activity would be required to push sentiment significantly above its current level." Shares of Tesla tanked for no obvious reason. Don't Miss: 14 US Cities Where Foreclosures Are A Big Problem » More From Business Insider STOCKS RALLY TO NEW ALL-TIME HIGH: Here's What You Need To Know STOCKS HIT NEW ALL-TIME HIGHS: Here's What You Need To Know STOCKS FALL: Here's What You Need To Know

2013-11-18 21:12:52+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [18, 225, 1008, 1053, 1135]}

{"Bitcoin": [27, 69]}

One Of The World's Largest Bitcoin Businesses Temporarily Ran Out of Bitcoins To Sell

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/one-worlds-largest-bitcoin-businesses-211252101.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

coinbase Coinbase Bitcoin had an insane day, rising more than $140, on volumes of close to 1 million transactions. As a result, Coinbase, which acts as the market-making intermediary for hundreds of retail outlets who accept Bitcoin, reached its buying limit. Here's the message the site left to clients an hour ago as transcribed by ycominbator : Due to higher than normal buy volumes, we are unable to provide exact price quotes right now. Instead of pausing buys entirely, we decided to give people the option to purchase bitcoin at the market price in a few days. Once your USD funds arrive, we will exchange them to bitcoin at the market price at approximately Friday Nov 22, 2013 at 07:56AM PST. Note that you can cancel your order at any time up until your bitcoin arrive from the transfer history page. The market price of bitcoin changes frequently. Below are some recent prices to give you an idea. These do not guarantee what the price will be in a few days." Insanity. More From Business Insider Bitcoin Just Hit $500 For The First Time The Bitcoin Insanity Continues — Prices Top $450 New York Will Be Holding Hearings On Bitcoin

2013-11-19 00:06:44+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [449, 7410, 7650]}

{}

As market bubbles form, investors may take cover

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/market-bubbles-form-investors-may-cover-000644042--finance.html

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/

By Steven C. Johnson NEW YORK (Reuters) - Five years of rapid-fire money printing at the U.S. Federal Reserve and easy money policies at other central banks have left trillions of dollars sloshing around the world financial system, and some of it is ending up in some rather odd places. The froth can be seen in everything from Pakistan's stock market to thoroughbred racehorses, rare paintings and gemstones, taxi licenses and the digital currency Bitcoin. "When it gets like this, just pick your asset - a painting, a bottle of wine, whatever. It's almost always a sign that there's too much money floating around," said Howard Simons, a strategist at Bianco Research in Chicago. Certainly, the risks don't look as great as they did in 2005-2007, when real estate prices in the U.S. and other countries skyrocketed, then collapsed, triggering the financial crisis. The most inflated prices are in smaller pockets of the markets than they were back then, so there is less systemic risk. But if a series of smaller financial market bubbles deflate or even burst there will still be a lot of agony, investment strategists warn. When the Fed does pull back from stimulating the economy by cutting back its quantitative easing program of bond buying - which is expected in the first half of 2014 - there could be some shocks for markets to withstand, said Win Thin, an emerging market strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. "That could lead to some painful adjustments." One toxic corner of the markets can infect stronger assets as investors seek to raise cash to cope with a plunge. "What I learned in the last two bear markets is that it doesn't matter if you own the crappy asset," said Simons. "If someone else does and starts panic selling, it takes your good stuff down too." And a further bond market selloff, following the reversal this summer, could not only hurt investors but threaten a downturn - as mortgage rates and other borrowing costs climb. ETERNAL BULLS There is evidence of possible excess in many areas. Getting into a taxi cab these days may no longer come with a menu of can't-miss stock tips from the driver but the cab's owner probably paid a steep price for the right to the license. At a New York auction last week, taxi medallions sold for more than $1 million, about double the prices paid five years ago. As for U.S. stocks, it's hard to find many bearish investors despite - or because of - the 26 percent gain in the S&P 500 index this year and the 166 percent rise since 2009. In Europe, it often feels as if the continent-wide debt crisis that threatened the euro never happened. Price-to-earnings ratios have soared to 2007 levels even as earnings momentum has sputtered. Over the last month, short-selling has dropped to a seven-year low and top performers in the STOXX Europe 600 index are shares that were once heavily shorted. As hedge fund manager David Einhorn put it in a letter to investors in October: "When 'high short interest' becomes a viable stock-picking strategy and conventional valuation methods no longer apply for many stocks, we can't help but feel a sense of déjà vu," he said in reference to the dotcom stocks bubble and bust in 1998-2001. IPO FEVER AT COMPANIES That particular bubble turned investors, especially retail investors, into addicts for the latest stock offerings. And things are looking a bit frothy again. So far, 199 U.S. companies have gone public this year, the highest number since 2007, and some of the first-day gains have been huge. Such a race to list is a sign that things are nearing a top, says Peter Atwater, president of Financial Insyghts, an investment advisory firm in Mendenhall, Pennsylvania. While the broader U.S. market does not look particularly pricey - the S&P's forward P/E ratio of 15 is about bang in line with the long-run average - individual stocks certainly do. Look no further than some of the biggest names coming to market in recent years, such as the social media star Twitter or electric car maker Tesla Motors . At current market prices, after almost doubling on its first day of trading, the micro-blogging site is valued at almost $24 billion despite being unprofitable. Tesla is trading at a P/E ratio of around 80 based on expected 2014 earnings. Even the retailer Container Store Group Inc , which sells things to put things in, saw its shares double on its stock market debut on November 1. Stephen Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Equity Management, said, "nobody in their right mind would make an all cash offer at current levels for a lot of these companies." AND ON THE FOOTBALL FIELD Even professional athletes are getting in on the action. Arian Foster, a National Football League player with the Houston Texans, was the asset for a planned IPO based on 20 percent of his future earnings, which he had sold to San Francisco-based Fantex. The firm would then sell stocks based on Foster's economic performance. "I thought it was a joke," said Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co. "They're not robots, they wear down. What's the life of an average guy in the NFL, four years?" Fantex, though, had to postpone the Foster IPO after the running back suffered a season-ending injury, underlining just how risky an investment it would have been. IT'S THE BOND MARKET, STUPID By suppressing interest rates, central banks have yield-starved investors falling over themselves to lend money to companies with less-than-stellar credit records, as well as looking for some of those exotic investments. Quite a few investors, frightened that super-low interest rates will start rising next year, have bought up floating-rate loans. The only problem: many have no covenants, which usually limit the amount of debt a borrower can take on and let lenders have a say in the business if things start to go sour. "People don't realize they're taking a lot of credit risk," said AllianceBernstein portfolio manager Gershon Distenfeld. Meanwhile, high-yield bond issuers - companies with weak balance sheets and sub-investment grade ratings - are paying on average 5.8 percent to borrow, near record lows. Default rates at around 2.5 percent are well below historical averages but Martin Fridson, head of FridsonVision, said recently he expects those default rates to spike to 8.4 percent between 2016-2020, which could cause a lot of forced selling. POCKET MONEY Perhaps one of the best ways to measure froth is to watch what the super-rich do with their pocket change. Lately, they seem to have developed an insatiable taste for fine art - a painting by Francis Bacon set a new high water mark when it fetched more than $142 million last week in New York. In Geneva, "Pink Star," a flawless pink diamond the size of a plum, sold for a cool $83 million, a record for a gemstone. Even the market for thoroughbred racehorses is roaring away. In Europe, a one-year-old horse that had never been raced sold this year for 5 million pounds, a record price. "Most of the people involved in it are extremely rich, and lately they've had the money to spend," said Alastair Donald, a horse-buying expert at UK racehorse agent SackvilleDonald. "There are ways of making money with racehorses, but mostly, it's a luxury, it's fun. It's about buying a dream." CURRENCY FOR CRIMINALS? Association with drugs, money laundering and other illegal activities has not tarnished the virtual shine of Bitcoin, the digital currency not backed by any government or central bank. The currency, whose supply has been carefully controlled, on Monday soared above $600 from below $80 in early July. Societe Generale strategist Sebastien Galy said Bitcoin is an example of "how far and aggressively greed can push a deeply inelastic market." And the casino approach isn't restricted to developed markets by any means. Pakistan is nobody's idea of a safe and predictable investment destination but one wouldn't know it from the nation's stock market. Pakistani stocks have nearly doubled since the start of 2012 and are well above their levels even before the financial crisis. It's another instance of the reach for yield driving political risk considerations out the window, says GFT Forex managing partner Boris Schlossberg. "The Fed's QE," he said, "is having a spillover effect all over the world." Consequences of the likely withdrawal of that support is the biggest issue for 2014. The risk is that even investors who have identified bubbles will wait too long to exit. (Reporting by Steven C. Johnson and Luke Swiderski in New York, Blaise Robinson in Paris and Francesco Canepa in London; Editing by Martin Howell and Tim Dobbyn)

2013-11-19 05:15:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [0, 234, 461, 782, 1159, 1348, 1597, 1748, 1970, 2189, 2327, 2422, 2528, 3124, 3226]}

{"Bitcoin": [15]}

Why Regulating Bitcoin Is Like Herding Cats

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-regulating-bitcoin-herding-cats-051500106.html

The Fiscal Times

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/

Bitcoin is on the brink of blasting into the mainstream, as restaurants, coffee shops and hotels begin to accept the virtual currency, leaving lawmakers and regulators scrambling to sort out how best it can be regulated. The price of Bitcoin soared to a record high of $750 on Mt. Gox exchange on Monday, ahead of a congressional hearing where lawmakers from the Senate Homeland Security Committee discussed slapping regulations on the relatively new currency. Bitcoin , which is not backed by a central bank and can be traded privately or on a handful of exchanges, is known as the Internet’s black market’s currency of choice. Just last month, federal law enforcement officers shut down Silk Road–a hidden online marketplace known as the “Ebay of illicit goods” where people used Bitcoin to purchase drugs, guns, prostitutes and other illicit goods and services. Related: Porn, Drugs, Hitmen, Hackers--This is the Deep Web As the digital currency gains more popularity beyond the dark corners of the Internet, regulators are beginning to acknowledge it as a credible alternative to traditional payment methods in need of some oversight. Before the hearing, Bitcoin received an unexpected nod of support from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who said in a letter to the committee that it “may hold long-term promise.” Indeed, the 12 million Bitcoins in circulation are being used to purchase everything from sandwiches at a Subway franchise in California to online dating memberships on OkCupid.com, and hotel rooms at the Howard Johnson hotel chain. Even politicians are getting in on the Bitcoin boom. Just last week the Federal Elections Commission announced that it would be taking the first steps to allow political campaigns to accept Bitcoin donations. Although federal and state officials have already issued a handful of guidelines to monitor digital currencies, they are still working toward a unified strategy to address potential regulatory problems. Bitcoin advocates, however, caution that excessive or intrusive regulations could hamper the United States’ role in what they say is the next “technological revolution.” Story continues Testifying before the committee, Bitcoin Foundation General Counsel Patrick Murck said, "Incautious behavior on the part of governments and law enforcement could make the Bitcoin environment harder to work with.” He added that if regulations are too intrusive, more Bitcoin users could go underground—making any regulations nearly impossible to enforce. Related: What Are Bitcoins and Why Should You Care? All three administration officials testifying agreed with Murck that regulators must be careful not to stifle innovation. “One of our biggest challenges is striking the right balance between the costs and benefits of regulation,”the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) director Jennifer Calvery said. It ensures a level playing field for industry and minimizes gaps in our coverage.” In the meantime, officials from the U.S. Secret Service, which investigates counterfeit currencies and FinCen told the committee that companies that deal in Bitcoin must comply with existing money-laundering rules. Under these rules, money transmitters using Bitcoin are required to register with FinCen. They are also required to implement anti-money laundering programs and keep records of their customers, as well as report any suspicious transactions. Senate Homeland Security Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE) made clear that his committee is only in its “information collecting” stage, and did not offer a legislative agenda to address the currency. Instead, the committee will have a second hearing later in the week to continue questioning both industry experts and law enforcement officials. Follow Brianna Ehley on Twitter @BriannaEhley Top Stories from The Fiscal Times: How Our Sprawling Nanny State is Putting Parents Out of Work The Expensive Truth About Gift Cards What Carl Icahn and Miley Cyrus Have in Common

2013-11-19 10:15:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [5492]}

{}

How Yellen Will Shape the Fed’s QE Exit Strategy

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/yellen-shape-fed-qe-exit-101500996.html

The Fiscal Times

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/

After Janet Yellen’s excellent performance before the Senate Banking Committee last Thursday, she will almost surely be confirmed as the next Fed chair. Once she’s confirmed, there are several important issues the Fed must address under her leadership such as improving the Fed’s communications with the public, ensuring that the financial sector is properly regulated, taking a stance on whether the Fed should pop bubbles, deciding whether to continue forward guidance in its present form, and so on. But the most important and most immediate problem Yellen will face during her term as chair is guiding the Fed to a smooth exit from its non-conventional policies. The Fed’s non-conventional policies, quantitative easing in particular, have swollen its balance sheet to between four and five times its normal size, from $870 billion in August 2007 to 3.9 trillion on November 13 of this year. Reversing these policies is anything but a trivial task, and there are three main risks associated with the Fed’s exit from these policies. Related: 4 Questions Janet Yellen Needs to Answer Exiting too soon : If the Fed begins reversing its stimulus measures too soon it could make an already too slow recovery even slower, or stall the recovery altogether. This could be very costly, particularly to the extent that it adds to the number of long term unemployed. As a recent NY Times article explained , “The long-term jobless, after all, tend to be in poorer health, and to have higher rates of suicide and strained family relations. Even the children of the long-term unemployed see lower earnings down the road. The consequences are grave for the country, too: lost production, increased social spending, decreased tax revenue and slower growth.” Selling financial assets too fast : As noted above, the Fed is holding approximately $3 trillion in financial assets over and above what it holds in normal times. If it sells these assets too fast, the sheer volume of sales could disturb financial markets and interfere with the financing of business investment, housing purchases, and consumer durables such as automobiles. The main reason the Fed might want to sell assets quickly is to avoid or offset an outbreak of inflation. So far, there is no sign at all of an inflation problem, but suppose that the risk of an inflationary outbreak increases to the point where the Fed is compelled to take action. The problem is that with its balance sheet swollen far beyond its normal size, and with a huge quantity of reserves piled up in banks, it could take a large sale of financial assets before reserves fall enough to cause interest rates begin to rise. So large that it puts financial markets at risk. Story continues However, now that the Fed can pay interest on bank reserve balances – a power granted to the Fed during the Great Recession – the chance that it will need to sell a large volume of assets to combat inflation is substantially reduced. Raising the interest rate on reserves freezes reserves inside banks since banks can make as much by holding on to the reserves as they can by making loans, and so long as reserves are frozen in banks rather than being used to finance new investment or consumption the inflation risk is minimized. Thus, the Fed does not have to put financial markets at risk by selling a large volume of financial assets should it need to fight inflation, it can raise the interest rate it pays on reserve instead. Related: Janet Yellen—Brainy, Brave and Brooklyn Strong Exiting Too Slowly : The final risk is that the Fed waits too long to begin reducing the size of its balance sheet. The main worry here is that a late exit would increase the risk of an outbreak of inflation and also cause inflation expectations, which have been well anchored throughout the crisis, to increase and become self-fulfilling. It’s important to recognize, however, that the costs of an outbreak of inflation – which the Fed would very likely bring under control quickly in any case – would not be as costly as exiting too soon and adding to the unemployment problem. The main problems associated with inflation are the costs of changing prices frequently, difficulty making long-term commitments due to uncertainty about future inflation rates, and unintended redistribution of income. However, the cost of changing prices, i.e. the “menu cost” as it is known isn’t as costly as it once was due to computers and digital technology. And uncertainty about future inflation rates and redistribution is not a big problem so long as the Fed brings inflation under control within a reasonable amount of time, as I have no doubt it would under Yellen’s leadership. Thus, and importantly for policy, despite what the inflation hawks would have us believe the expected costs of exiting too slowly and potentially experiencing an outbreak of inflation are not as large as the expected costs of exiting too soon and slowing the recovery even further. Fortunately, while a Yellen Fed is unlikely to tolerate a large increase in inflation, I am very confident that Yellen understands very well that if a mistake is to be made; exiting too soon is more costly than exiting too late. That’s one of the reasons I am such a strong supporter of her nomination to be the next Fed chair, and so pleased it looks as though she will be confirmed. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: Guess Which Jobs Are Poised for the Most Growth? Guess Who’s Challenging Chris Christie for the GOP Top Spot? The Bitcoin Gamble: Is Now the Time to Invest? View comments

2013-11-19 10:47:37+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [139, 1619, 1743, 1945, 2402]}

{"Bitcoin": [46]}

Currency Cops Want Congress to Steer Clear of Bitcoin, Thanks

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/finance.yahoo.com/news/currency-cops-want-congress-steer-104737848.html

BusinessWeek

http://www.businessweek.com/

As he kicked off a congressional hearing on virtual currencies, Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) made an admission that should surprise no one: Bitcoin “confused the heck” out of him. His task, he said, was just to find out what Congress could do to help law enforcement as they tried to confront the novel challenges posed by the anonymous virtual currency. A bit more surprising was the answer he got from representatives from the law enforcement agencies who testified. No one disputed that virtual currencies are great for facilitating illegal behavior, like buying child porn, drugs, and weapons, or paying to get people killed. But everyone had pretty much the same answer for him: “No, thanks.” Mythili Raman, acting assistant attorney general for the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice, said the department is doing just fine, using existing money laundering statutes to prosecute EGold and Liberty Reserve, virtual currencies it busted for money laundering offenses in the last five years. Likewise, criminal statutes on the books seem to be sufficient to prosecute the man recently arrested for allegedly running Silk Road, the online black market. “As our track record shows, we are up to the challenge, and we are innovating as the criminals are innovating,” she said at the hearing. “I do think we have the statutory tools that we need, for the most part.” The Department of Justice seems to feel entitled to beat its chest about its technical savvy. The Liberty Reserve case is the largest money laundering case it has ever brought, and the Silk Road bust left it holding $70 million worth of Bitcoins. Ed Lowery, the special agent in charge of the criminal division of the Secret Service, said he doesn’t even think Bitcoin is the virtual currency of choice for the international criminal networks that his agency considers its primary adversary in the cybercrime world. The decentralized and uncontrollable nature of Bitcoin apparently makes the gangs of Eastern Europe as queasy as it does U.S. officials. While virtual currencies have indeed been used by criminals, Lowery said, the most effective way to combat them is to try to help toughen the spines of countries whose lax regulations allow criminals to operate with impunity. Following suit, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, director of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, said worries about Bitcoin, but she didn’t offer a lot of advice about how helpful but baffled lawmakers such as Carper could pitch in. It turns out that not every problem has a high-tech answer. “Cash is still probably the best medium for laundering money,” she said.

2013-11-19 10:47:37+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [139, 1619, 1743, 1945, 2402]}

{"Bitcoin": [46]}

Currency Cops Want Congress to Steer Clear of Bitcoin, Thanks

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/currency-cops-want-congress-steer-104737848.html

BusinessWeek

http://www.businessweek.com/

As he kicked off a congressional hearing on virtual currencies, Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) made an admission that should surprise no one: Bitcoin “confused the heck” out of him. His task, he said, was just to find out what Congress could do to help law enforcement as they tried to confront the novel challenges posed by the anonymous virtual currency. A bit more surprising was the answer he got from representatives from the law enforcement agencies who testified. No one disputed that virtual currencies are great for facilitating illegal behavior, like buying child porn, drugs, and weapons, or paying to get people killed. But everyone had pretty much the same answer for him: “No, thanks.” Mythili Raman, acting assistant attorney general for the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice, said the department is doing just fine, using existing money laundering statutes to prosecute EGold and Liberty Reserve, virtual currencies it busted for money laundering offenses in the last five years. Likewise, criminal statutes on the books seem to be sufficient to prosecute the man recently arrested for allegedly running Silk Road, the online black market. “As our track record shows, we are up to the challenge, and we are innovating as the criminals are innovating,” she said at the hearing. “I do think we have the statutory tools that we need, for the most part.” The Department of Justice seems to feel entitled to beat its chest about its technical savvy. The Liberty Reserve case is the largest money laundering case it has ever brought, and the Silk Road bust left it holding $70 million worth of Bitcoins. Ed Lowery, the special agent in charge of the criminal division of the Secret Service, said he doesn’t even think Bitcoin is the virtual currency of choice for the international criminal networks that his agency considers its primary adversary in the cybercrime world. The decentralized and uncontrollable nature of Bitcoin apparently makes the gangs of Eastern Europe as queasy as it does U.S. officials. While virtual currencies have indeed been used by criminals, Lowery said, the most effective way to combat them is to try to help toughen the spines of countries whose lax regulations allow criminals to operate with impunity. Following suit, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, director of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, said worries about Bitcoin, but she didn’t offer a lot of advice about how helpful but baffled lawmakers such as Carper could pitch in. It turns out that not every problem has a high-tech answer. “Cash is still probably the best medium for laundering money,” she said.

2013-11-19 11:00:25+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [154, 266, 390, 502, 811, 1022, 1176, 1224, 1352, 1456, 1597, 1756, 1866], "BTC": [1892, 1921]}

{"Bitcoin": [3]}

As Bitcoin Inches Toward Legitimacy, ETF may Soon Follow

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-inches-toward-legitimacy-etf-110025211.html

ETF Trends

http://www.etftrends.com/

On Monday, representatives from the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission told the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security that Bitcoins, the controversial digital security, are in fact legitimate financial tools. There are over 12 million Bitcoins in circulation with a market value of almost $6.55 billion, according to bitcoincharts.com . At that market value, Bitcoins in circulation are worth almost 50% more than Yelp ( YELP ). In anticipation of the Monday’s hearings, Bitcoin surged 25% to $619 on Monday afternoon. On Nov. 14, the digital currency traversed $400 for the first time, marking a quadruple in just 90 days. The digital currency’s rapid appreciation combined with verbiage from regulators that appears to legitimize the currency’s utility could mean the idea of a Bitcoin exchange traded fund is not as fanciful as previously thought. Earlier this year, the Winklevoss twins of Facebook ( FB ) fame, filed plans with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust. At the time, the filing did not include a ticker, expense ratio or possible release date, indicating that a launch date was not imminent. [Bitcoin ETF may Become a Reality] The idea of a Bitcoin ETF initially had its detractors because of the currency’s opaque and unregulated market. However, the SEC acknowledged Bitcoins can be considered currencies and therefore would fall under that agency’s regulatory purview. [Bitcoin ETF: How Crazy of an Idea is It?] “The vision of the exchange traded product is to create a simple solution to the problem of buying Bitcoins if you don’t want to purchase and store them,” said Tyler Winklevoss in a telephone interview with ETF Trends in July. Some investors probably wish a Bitcoin ETF was available in January when the currency traded below $14. At this writing Monday afternoon the Bitcoin/U.S. dollar pair (BTC/USD) traded around $658. BTC/USD The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.

2013-11-19 12:30:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1127, 1460, 1695]}

{}

10 Things You Need To Know This Morning

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-things-know-opening-bell-123052202.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

maria bartiromo REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Television news personality Maria Bartiromo Good morning! Here's what you need to know. Markets in Asia closed mostly lower. China's Shanghai Composite (-0.19%) and Hang Seng (-0.01%) both retreated after yesterday's large gains. Japan's Nikkei fell -0.25%. European markets were also down across the board, with France's CAC 40 off most at -1.08%. U.S. futures were pointing lower. The OECD lowered its global growth estimates . 2013 GDP is now expected at 2.7% versus 3.6% forecast in May, and 2014 GDP is now expected at 3.6% versus 5.8% forecast in May. “Most of the emerging economies have underlying fragilities that mean they cannot continue growing as they used to,” OECD Chief Economist Pier Carlo Padoan said in an interview. “They used to be an important support engine for global growth in bad times. Now the reverse is true and advanced economies can’t be said to be in very good times again.” European auto sales climbed for the second straight month in October thanks to a cash-for-clunkers program in Spain and modestly improving economic conditions across the continent. Bitcoin prices continued to fluctuate wildly through the evening and into this morning, at one point breaching $900 before rapidly falling back more than 30% to a bit under $600. They're now at $693. The digital currency had at least three different forces pushing it higher yesterday: Ben Bernanke, who said digital currencies like Bitcoin "may hold long-term promise;" a bullish Senate hearing during the current moment in digital currencies was compared to the early days of the Internet and credit cards; and a column by the FT's Izabella Kaminska suggesting many Bitcoin miners now need prices to move higher to justify the rising cost of production. The National Highway Transportation Administration says it's opened a probe into recent Tesla Model S fires. The results would affect 13,000 vehicles. JPMorgan finalized its $13 billion settlement with the Justice Department, the Wall Street Journal's Devlin Barrett and Dan Fitzpatrick report . There's still a bit of ambiguity over how Washington Mutual's legal liabilities are resolved. The firm, "had previously said a FDIC receivership that liquidated the thrift should absorb any claims [but Attorney General Eric] Holder wanted to avoid a situation in which a government penalty of a bank is essentially extracted from another government agency, according to these people," the pair report. The bank agreed it won't go after the FDIC for any portion of the $13 billion deal. But the bank's $4 billion FHFA settlement,"doesn't contain any language preventing J.P. Morgan from seeking repayment from the FDIC receivership even though Justice Department lawyers had urged the FHFA to bar J.P. Morgan from going after the FDIC. It is possible J.P. Morgan would preserve the ability to go after the FDIC receivership for claims falling outside the Justice Department settlement," WSJ says. Veteran business news reporter Mario Bartiromo is leaving CNBC for Fox News Business. Matt Drudge was the first to report it. Her CNBC contract expires this year. BI's Julia LaRoche explained why this is great news for CNBC's Kelly Evans. Tech darling Dropbox, a consumer cloud data storage business, is seeking a $8 billion valuation for its latest round of funding, Businessweek's Ashlee Vance reported . It would be more than double its last round in 2011. Home Depot just reported Q3 EPS of $0.95/share beating consensus estimates bu $0.06. The chain also boosted its FY13 outlook. Best Buy Q3 earnings came in at $0.18/share, besting consensus by $0.04. But comps were only up 0.3% versus 0.7% forecast. The BLS will release Q3 employment cost index data at 8:30 am, with no change expected from the prior quarter. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks at 7 pm eastern at the National Association of Business Economics. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans also speaks today. Story continues More From Business Insider 10 Things You Need To Know This Morning 10 Things You Need To Know This Morning 10 Things You Need To Know This Morning View comments

2013-11-19 23:27:40+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [614]}

{}

Because, in 1 Chart

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/because-1-chart-232740555.html

The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/

The way Americans use the word " because " is changing, as chronicled by my colleague Megan Garber. So, I got curious about the word "because." I've been playing with a bot—a little bit of code—that probes what Google suggests to searchers. Google makes these suggestions on the basis of what people have previously searched. So, I see it as a way to see into the collective consciousness. Basically, the bot works by typing "because a" and see what Google says. Then, "because b," and "because c," and so on. All those suggestions get compiled and we can play with the file. I tried this for the first time with "Bitcoin" yesterday, but my probe yielded mostly predictable results . "Because," on the other hand, yielded delightful results. They were particularly interesting because almost all of them could be classified into one of six categories, and the outliers are ... so, so strange. First, let me show you some example searches from each category: Music/Lyrics: "because he lives hymn," "because the night lyrics," "because elliott smith" Language Queries: "because grammar," "because Korean," "because part of speech" Memes: "because aliens," "because China," "because race car" Product/Organization: "because foundation," "because bags," "because justice matters" Quotes: "because knowledge is power gi joe," "because dennis is a bastard man," "because good is dumb" Coding/Computer/Homework Help: "because alwayscreate was specified," "as much because x as because y," "because xlive.dll" OK, now, get this: When I applied these categories to the 104 suggestions Google had given around the word "because," all but nine made sense in one of these categories. Granted, I was stretching things a little , as in the search "because vine," which I classified under memes because I assume people are looking for the short video on Vine of Rihanna saying "because." (Trust me, this is a thing .) But with that caveat, here's the pie chart of these categories. Just look at how many of the searches are around music and lyrics! Along with language questions, that's more than 50 percent of Google's suggestions. Story continues I can't quite tell you why, but I found this fascinating. Some of the particular searches yield bizarre results, too. Take: "because bureaucracies are so rule-based they." This turns out to be a quote from an old AP Government exam! For some reason, students (I assume) were typing this quote into Google. Or maybe it was teachers trying to catch students? I'm still not sure. Or another weird one: "because zombies can't jump." There is a game called "Zombies Can't Jump." But there's no reason to Google "because zombies can't jump." At least no reason that enough people would have that they'd show up on Google's radar. A last interesting example: "because pronunciation." As a native American English speaker, I don't really think about the fact that Americans tend to say "because" as "becuz." But people learning English find it confusing , at least according to this video, which is the top search result. What's the point of these kind of detailed analyses of individual searches? Well, Google (and to a lesser extent Bing), define the informational boundaries during most people's first step in knowledge gathering. Their suggestions both reflect and influence what people know and want to know about a topic. There is a complex web of Internet and pop culture, education and work, that surround even a simple word like "because." Here's the full list, along with my codings. String Category because aliens Meme because abbreviation Language because alwayscreate was specified Coding because asl Language because beatles Music/Lyrics because beatles lyrics Music/Lyrics because bags Product because bureaucracies are so rule-based they Homework because china Meme because comma Language because cats Meme because cats iphone case Meme because dave clark five Music/Lyrics because dennis is a bastard man Quote because definition Language because days come and go Music/Lyrics because environment variable django_settings_module is undefined Coding because elliott smith Music/Lyrics because every mother matters Organization because everyone else is boring Quote because french Language because foundation Organization because fitness Organization because freedom Meme because grammar Language because good is dumb Quote because guitar chords Music/Lyrics because god is real Product because he lives Music/Lyrics because he lives lyrics Music/Lyrics because he lives chords Music/Lyrics because he lives hymn Music/Lyrics because i got high Music/Lyrics afroman because i got high lyrics Music/Lyrics because i said so Misc because i said i would Organization because justice matters Organization because justice matters rise Organization because japan Meme because jesus Meme because knowledge is power Quote because kids count conference Organization because knowledge is power gi joe Quote because korean Language because lyrics Music/Lyrics because life is short and you are hot Quote because lyrics beatles Music/Lyrics because lee hi lyrics Music/Lyrics because massage Misc because music Music/Lyrics because music is my heartbeat shoes Music/Lyrics because maybe Quote because nice matters Misc because not only but also Language because nobody likes bras Misc because ninjas are too busy Misc because of you Music/Lyrics because of winn dixie Product because of you lyrics Music/Lyrics because of who you are Music/Lyrics because part of speech Language because preposition Language because punctuation Language because pronunciation Language because quotes Quote p because q Misc because quitters quit Quote because quotes tumblr Quote because racecar Meme because reasons Meme because resources are scarce Homework because rihanna vine Meme because synonym Language because shanna said so Misc because song Music/Lyrics because sunggyu lyrics Music/Lyrics because the night Music/Lyrics because the internet Meme because the night lyrics Music/Lyrics because thesaurus Language because u loved me Music/Lyrics because u loved me lyrics Music/Lyrics because usage Language because used in a sentence Language because vine Meme because vs since Language because vs due to Language because vs that Language because we can Misc because we can lyrics Music/Lyrics because we can tour Music/Lyrics because we want to Music/Lyrics because x Language as much because x as because y Homework because xm Organization because xlive.dll Coding because you loved me Music/Lyrics because you loved me lyrics Music/Lyrics because you live lyrics Music/Lyrics because you loved me mp3 Music/Lyrics because zombies can't jump Misc because zinc has nearly the same Homework because zlib1.dll Coding because zombies are coming dear Meme More From The Atlantic The Singular Waste of America's Healthcare System in 1 Remarkable Chart Your Brain on Poverty: Why Poor People Seem to Make Bad Decisions 10 People Built an Amazon Competitor for $1 Million—in Just 90 days

2013-11-20 00:17:18+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [1522]}

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PRESS DIGEST - China - Nov 20

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/press-digest-china-nov-20-001718272.html

Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/

Nov 20 (Reuters) - Chinese newspapers available in Beijing and Shanghai carried the following stories on Wednesday. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. PEOPLE'S DAILY - The ruling Communist Party of China set up a special group to go around the country to promote the leadership's latest reform plan, seen as the boldest reforms planned in three decades. CHINA DAILY - The northeastern city of Harbin in Heilongjiang province has been hit by its heaviest snowfalls since records began after snow fell for nearly 60 hours, leaving snow piled as high as 50 millimetres in some areas. The storm caused four deaths in neighbouring Jilin province but no casualties were reported in Heilongjiang. SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS - The plan announced by the Chinese leadership this month to quicken the pace of economic reforms, including stepping up the pace to make the Chinese currency yuan fully convertible, heralds a new phase of active cross-the-border capital flows in and out of China, economists say. - The Shanghai International Energy Trading Centre, a unit of the Shanghai Commodity Exchange, will start operations on Friday, the latest step taken by the exchange to prepare the launch of China's first crude oil futures, possibly in the first half of next year. CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL - More and more Chinese are now trading bitcoins, with the daily volume of Chinese trading even exceeding that on the professional platforms of Mt.Gox and BitStamp on Monday, statistics issued by Bitcoinity.org showed. - Despite a consolidation of China's stock market on Tuesday, stock index futures continued trading in premiums against spots, indicating optimism sparked by the country's latest bold reform plan still prevails the markets. SECURITIES TIMES - Yields of China's benchmark 10-year government bonds have hit multi-year highs recently due to the central bank's tight liquidity stance and are likely to rise above the main 5-percent resistance soon. Story continues CHINA BUSINESS NEWS - Some Chinese banks are set to suffer losses in the looming bailout plans of Suntech Power, with policy bank China Development Bank possibly losing 1.6 billion yuan ($262 million). SHANGHAI DAILY - Anhui province is experimenting with letting farmers mortgage or transfer control of the publicly owned land they farm as China tries to finds ways to create a land market. However, the farmers will not be granted ownership of the land. For Hong Kong and South China newspapers see.....

2013-11-20 01:00:00+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [5930]}

{}

Ben Bernanke Just Gave A Superb Speech That Explained All Of His Biggest Decisions

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ben-bernanke-just-gave-super-010037966.html

Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/

ben bernanke glass REUTERS/ Tim Chong At the Annual Dinner of the National Economists Club , Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke gave a speech that walked through the reasoning for all of the Fed's big actions since the financial crisis. He explained why the Fed has used unconventional monetary policy in the aftermath of the Great Recession. The ultimate goals of these policies has been to shape the public's policy expectations to convince it that it would keep policy loose for an extended period of time. Here are the key themes he talked about: Forward Guidance Bernanke emphasized the importance of clearly articulating the future of Fed policy using forward guidance. This was particularly true after the great recession when the Fed's usual policy tool, short-term interest rates, had limited effectiveness due to the zero-lower bound. The FOMC attempted to lower long-term rates by communicating to the market that short-term rates would be low for a long period of time. This was the goal of forward guidance. At first, the Fed did this in a qualitative sense, but eventually started using more date-specific guidance to communicate to the market. However, this guidance also had its own limitation: Although the date-based forward guidance appears to have affected the public's expectations as desired, it did not explain how future policy would be affected by changes in the economic outlook--an important limitation. Indeed, the date in the guidance was pushed out twice in 2012--first to late 2014 and then to mid-2015--leaving the public unsure about whether and under what circumstances further changes to the guidance might occur. To offset this, the Fed recently moved to a more state-contingent guidance, noting that the Fed would not consider raising rates while unemployment was above 6.5% and inflation was near 2%. Bernanke emphasized these were thresholds, not triggers, meaning that hitting the targets would not automatically cause rate increases but were a necessary level for rates to rise. Story continues Large Scale Asset Purchases (LSAPs) The Fed also implemented a new, unconventional monetary policy tool that had the same goal of lowering long-term rates, but did so in a different manner. Instead of credibly informing the market that short-term rates would be low for a longer period of time, LSAPs reduced long-term rates by purchasing securities. This reduces the supply and drives up the value of them, lowering rates. Bernanke lays this dual strategy of forward guidance and LSAPs clearly in his speech: [F]orward rate guidance affects longer-term interest rates primarily by influencing investors' expectations of future short-term interest rates. LSAPs, in contrast, most directly affect term premiums... As both forward rate guidance and LSAPs affect longer-term interest rates, the use of these tools allows monetary policy to be effective even when short-term interest rates are close to zero The FOMC also has attempted to credibly communicate to the market "the criteria that would inform future decisions about the program." The goal of this was to keep market expectations in line with the Fed's future plan of actions. To do this, Bernanke laid out the baseline state of the economy at which the Fed would begin to reduce its asset purchases. In June, the chairman said that if the market continued to improve at a moderate pace as it had been, then it would begin tapering later in the year and conclude its asset purchases in mid-2014. Bernanke emphasized that this was not a pre-determined plan, but was data-dependent. The market didn't listen: Market participants may have taken the communication in June as indicating a general lessening of the Committee's commitment to maintain a highly accommodative stance of policy in pursuit of its objectives. In particular, it appeared that the FOMC's forward guidance for the federal funds rate had become less effective after June, with market participants pulling forward the time at which they expected the Committee to start raising rates, in a manner inconsistent with the guidance The market priced in a September taper, despite the fact that it would depend on how the economic data would unfold in the ensuing months. This was not what the Fed intended to communicate in June and caused tightened financial conditions in the housing market. When the data came in below the baseline level that Bernanke laid out in June, the Fed did not reduce its asset purchases. As Bernanke says, this was "fully consistent with the earlier guidance." Since then, market expectations have realigned with the Fed with the market more focused on the data and applying the Fed's framework to it to predict future Fed policy: Although the FOMC's decision came as a surprise to some market participants, it appears to have strengthened the credibility of the Committee's forward rate guidance; in particular, following the decision, longer-term rates fell and expectations of short-term rates derived from financial market prices showed, and continue to show, a pattern more consistent with the guidance. This speech succinctly summed up all of the Fed's actions under Bernanke. It used forward guidance and LSAPs to attempt to lower long-term rates, because short-term rates were pushed up against the zero lower bound. It has become more transparent and attempted to clearly communicate the framework for its future policy decisions to credibly convince the market that policy will remain loose for a considerable period of time. As Bernanke said at the beginning of his speech, "t he public's expectations about future monetary policy actions matter today because those expectations have important effects on current financial conditions, which in turn affect output, employment, and inflation over time." This has been the ultimate goal of his time as chairman. Read Bernanke's whole speech here > More From Business Insider BERNANKE: Bitcoin 'May Hold Long-Term Promise' Get Ready For A Busy Day Of Fedspeak Here's The Scary Possibility That The US Might Need Permanent Bubbles In Order To Grow

2013-11-20 01:28:53+00:00

{"Bitcoin": [186, 990, 1748, 2465, 2715, 2747, 3131, 3338]}

{"Bitcoin": [11]}

NJ settles Bitcoin case vs. online gaming co.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/finance.yahoo.com/news/nj-settles-bitcoin-case-vs-224904449.html

Associated Press

https://apnews.com/

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- An online video game company accused of infecting thousands of computers with malicious software and using that access to illegally mine for the electronic currency Bitcoin has agreed to pay a $1 million settlement, the New Jersey attorney general's office said Tuesday. Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced the settlement with E-Sports Entertainment, which bills itself as the "largest competitive video gaming community in North America," according to court documents. The company charges users $6.95 a month to play popular games including Counter Strike and Team Fortress 2 alone or against one another on what they said is a platform that does not allow cheating. In order to play, users must download E-Sports software onto their computers. When downloaded, the software has administrative access to the computer. It was through that software that two company employees, a co-founder and a software engineer, installed code allowing them to mine for Bitcoins without the users' knowledge, authorities said. The Commack, N.Y. -based company's co-founder, Eric Thunberg, and software engineer, Sean Hunczak, were involved in the settlement. In a statement, Thunberg said the company cooperated fully with the investigation and that it will "take every possible step" to secure user privacy. It said the responsible employee had been fired. The company said it doesn't agree with the attorney general's account of the matter and the signed settlement makes it clear the company has not admitted to any wrongdoing. Thunberg said a press release from the U. S. Attorney about the settlement "represents a deep misunderstanding of the facts of the case, the nature of our business and the technology in question." Bitcoin is a cybercurrency that is relatively anonymous. They are created and exchanged independent of any government or bank. Some retailers allow the money to be used, and the currency can be converted into cash after being deposited into so-called wallets. Story continues Hoffman said E-Sports seized control of about 14,000 computers in New Jersey and nationwide. "These defendants illegally hijacked thousands of people's personal computers without their knowledge or consent and in doing so gained the ability to monitor their activities, mine for virtual currency that had real dollar value, and otherwise invade and damage their computers," Hoffman said in a statement. Hoffman said computers were mined for Bitcoins in April, and the software was set up to do so only when users were away from the machine. The software could determine if a person was active by the movements of the computer's mouse. Hoffman said Hunczak created four wallets for the mined Bitcoins. Hunczak converted the Bitcoins into about $3,500 and had them deposited into his bank account. As part of the agreement, the company must not provide customers with services that are downloaded without their consent, and agreed to put in place a comprehensive privacy and data security program. The company must only pay $325,000 of the $1 million fine if it complies with all terms for the next 10 years. Bitcoin and other electronic monies are under increased scrutiny. At a hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security on Governmental Affairs, federal law enforcement officials told lawmakers that Bitcoin and other companies should receive greater scrutiny from financial regulators and other authorities. In an August memo, New York state Financial Services Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky said virtual currencies are the "wild west" for criminals including drug dealers and the under-the-radar transactions could threaten national security.