vendredi 28 février 2014
I don't get angry when I see a layman ridicule and point to the end of bitcoin.
I'm not here to tell you that Mt Gox failing was a good thing or that bitcoin is a flawless currency made of rainbows and unicorn energy. Bitcoin has a lot of problems still, but it's going places.
Every reddit thread that has hit the front page recently in the wake of Mt Gox erupting has opened the doors for people to ridicule not just bitcoin itself, but bitcoin users. We're all neckbeards who gamble our money away. We all live in basements and mine coins for free with our parents' electricity. Bitcoin has no inherent value. Bitcoin is tulip mania. Bitcoin will never be a currency because Maynard Keynes proved that deflationary currencies don't work the way Einstein proved relativity, duh! We're all money launderers and drug dealers.
None of that matters. Not because we're a cult, not because we're delusional, but because any new and disruptive change has to go through a phase of opposition and disdain.
Taxi companies HATE Uber because it disrupts the current established model for paying strangers to drive you somewhere. Every municipality with an entrenched taxi industry is fighting to kick Uber out.
Hotel companies HATE AirBnB because it disrupts the current model for paying a stranger to give you a room to sleep in for a few nights. Hotels have been trying to get AirBnB banned in certain cities.
Car dealerships HATE Tesla, and they have lobbied against Tesla being allowed to sell cars directly to consumers.
Internet providers are successfully fighting to force Netflix to hand over profits after failing to build adequate infrastructure with Taxpayer money. Internet providers are also fighting against getting Google fiber in their cities.
I don't need to lecture you with crazy talk about how bitcoin is disruptive to banks and force-monopolies. All I can say is I look forward to the day I can book a flight and rent a room in another country with bitcoin. I look forward to arriving in that country and not needing to exchange my money to buy food or a taxi. It WILL happen, because thousands of intelligent and creative individuals are working to make it happen.
The era of basement startups in Bitcoin is nearing its end. Look at Coinbase, Neo & Bee, Winklevoss Capital, and Buttercoin. We're looking at professional, multi-million dollar ventures as the next generation of bitcoin services.
Bitcoin is NOT easy to use and it positively SUCKS from an end-user standpoint. I say this as a person who trains friends and family on how to use linux. Bitcoin is confusing. Bitcoin wallets need a makeover. Basic security measures need to be easier to execute.
Don't worry about the layman. A lot of them will be casual users of bitcoin or some succeeding cryptocurrency one day, just like they eventually learned to use email and firefox/chrome and facebook and iphones. People are laughing at bitcoin because they want want the finished product now. They want stability, security, and ease of use. Let them wait on the sidelines for it.
PS: Speculating with money you can't afford to lose is dumb no matter what. If you lost your tuition or your wife's/sister's/parents' money, sorry but you have a gambling addiction, not a bitcoin problem. That kind of ridicule you do deserve.
submitted by chelovek89
[link] [2 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1pHgjPc
MtGox private key related coin loss: a explanation of how this might *not* be final
FOREWORD: A lot of people have suffered substantial life altering losses on MtGox. I do want to provide false hope to anyone because it is not helpful (as Bain says in DKR "there can be no true despair without hope"). However, I do want to bring to people's attention an outlier possibility, together with a call to action for pressure to be brought on the right people to help eliminate this. This idea comes from my experiences working as an engineer with secret and private key cryptography and also brute force attacks some years ago.
I am this guy http://ift.tt/1fvBfld
Why am I writing this? Firstly I believe there is a small possibility that Mark Karpeles has "lost" private keys to Gox wallets containing large amounts of coins and that under huge pressure, and perhaps after realizing he lost keys in 2011 and running Gox as a fractional reserve thereafter, he decided it would be less shameful to blame all losses on the transaction malleability hacks they recently suffered (i.e. the malleability attacks did occur, but were used as a convenient excuse to cover up the additional and possibly larger key related wallet losses).
Karpeles lent weight to this idea the other day saying: "Well technically they’re not ‘lost’ just yet, just temporarily unavailable". Furthermore, it stretches credulity that 850,000 coins can have been lost from a cold wallet system (but who knows, this is Karpeles!)
If this is private key/wallet loss, this is how it may have happened:
- Mark creates software for creating wallets with key pairs
- The software exports the private keys for later use
- Mark deposits coin in the wallets and withdraws coin from the wallets no problem
- Mark sees no reason to check this system. We know that his development code does not have TestUnits to test for regression bugs (new bugs that are introduced when you change your software code)
- A code change introduces a regression bug (a new bug which might not be obvious initially)
- Mark continues depositing coins into the wallets trusting that he has the private keys, but now the private keys that are being generated are invalid
- At some point he tries to retrieve the coin in cold storage and finds the keys don't work
So is all lost now? If he has "lost" the private keys is the conventional sense it is definitely computationally infeasible to find the keys by brute force and get the coins back.
However, if the loss scenario described above is correct, not necessarily. Specifically, if he has access to the code changes that caused the regression bug, then very likely it might be possible for a sophisticated cryptographer to brute force the keys with much less work than otherwise needed by using the faulty keys and knowledge about how they were generated as a starting point. Given the amount of money at stake, half of AWS could be put to work doing this.
Because there are outlier possibilities like this, it is essential that the BTFC and bitcoin main players who have access to Karpeles such as Roger Ver urgently get on a plane to Tokyo and establish exactly what has happened (and then report what has happened to the world).
Every minute lost is potentially critical, as Mark may destroy or lose for example old code or faulty keys that in fact can be used to create feasible brute force attacks. This is especially likely if he wants to defend a lie that all coins were lost to hackers. Hence time is of the essence (Mark if you are reading this, and this is true, do the right thing dude!)
The community now needs to show support for this and pressure BTF and main players to get on with this job ASAP
submitted by jahebipa
[link] [5 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1d4kvTH
Paypal vs Coinbase
Paypal left our company a vm today and followed up with emailed today. Offering a new loan program for business owners. This was my reply. Christi, Good Afternoon. We are not interested, we just partnered with a bitcoin exchange “Coinbase” we are phasing out Credit Card Transactions because of the fees. CR
submitted by deepairBTC
[link] [11 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1kinr3s
96,000BTC Stolen message on blockchain
I´ve been tracking a little BTC transfer I made on December from MtGOX to BTCe... http://ift.tt/1fwEP2n
I´ve been jumping back from where Mtgox got BTCs and I came here: http://ift.tt/1eHbigz
This message is on Blockchain: "These are stolen! If you have any knowledge of the identity of holder, please email sm.theif.identity@gmail.com Thief stole 96,000BTC! No matter how much you spend of OUR money tumbling the coins, we can still find you and you will pay you Fuk"
What this means?
submitted by jaimefcb
[link] [18 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1ki6Cpi
MtGox's new inquiry call center opens Monday morning Tokyo time
MtGox inquiry phone number:
TEL: +81-3-4588-3921 Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm
Quoted from this article:
Original article source:
submitted by jasonmaurice
[link] [3 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1ociFlx
Wall St. Journal just asked for interview....after Erik Voorhees I told them I'll beg off thanks.
WSJ Wall St Journal just asked to interview me and I told them to no thanks -- shoddy journalism should not be rewarded and the gain of publicity is not worth feeding the monster of lazy editors and writers who get facts wrong.
Until they give some assurances that they will be remotely attempting to be accurate everyone but the worst publicity hound should do the same.
submitted by bruce_fenton
[link] [16 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1dK8786
Update to my blockchain.info theft
From this thread http://ift.tt/1c9hpzD
I got nailed good, and I have no idea when where or how. I'm not a risky clicker and I'm pretty good at seeing fake/phising sites.
I checked the computers that I've used to access the blockchain and they all came up clean.
No java exploits, malware, backdoors, Trojans, loaders, etc were found
No abnormal logins in the logs on teamviewer or dropbox or crashplan.
Computers passed the website check for botnet's and possible vulnerabilities http://ift.tt/OKpz7i
No strange hits on my firewall logs
No unknown computers accessed my network via wired or wireless
Gmail account had no strange logins
blockchain support said " Feb 28 09:52 I am sorry to hear of these transactions that you did not initiate. You may have some type of malware on your computer that resulted in your funds being stolen, because your private information was somehow obtained. There's also the possibility that you visited a phishing site posing as blockchain.info. By design, Blockchain.info never has access to users' accounts or bitcoins. If you keep your password and private key backups secure, then your bitcoins are safe with blockchain.info. I would highly advise against ever using this compromised address again (or any of the addresses in the wallet), as someone else clearly has the private keys in it. I wish more could be done to get your funds back to you, but the nature of bitcoin makes it nearly impossible. "
Basically whoever did it, or however they did it kicked my ass. I am a computer professional and I generally know my shit. My best guess is that they did do it via the browser. That day the only sites I visited were blog.coinkite.com and this subreddit.
I guess if you are using the blockchain.info site, make sure you have 2FA (I did) and the double password (I did not) Also, avoid the backup to anything but a USB stick. It seems like everyone who's gotten owned has been because they downloaded or emailed themselves a backup. I've not got a nice weekend ahead of reformatting 3 computers. I'll probably also send a few bitcents to that address again and see what happens.
tldr: After 20+ hours of checking my computers, email accounts, backup accounts and network for security issues, I found none of them to be compromised. Best guess is a website somehow grabbed my private key via a java exploit or phish. Also kudos to whoever did it, you got me good.
My takeaway from this: Dedicated airgap computer with wallet. paper storage, one time use addresses, no more blockchain. Price paid for lesson: 1btc
edit I wrote some tips for those who might not have known about some of the security features and issues with blockchain.info
submitted by CyberSol
[link] [22 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1eH7hsk
This community MUST DEMAND Blockchain evidence of the missing 800k Bitcoin.
I, like many others find this whole Mt.Gox debacle very suspicious. Information surrounding Karpeles, 2bitidiot's leak, and US subpenas is all quite vague and none of it seems to match up. We have been given ZERO conclusive information on how the bitcoins were stolen or even how long ago.
I implore everyone in this community to not just settle for this frog march of Karpeles. With bitcoin we have the ability to PROVE where these coins are.
The elephant in the room is that 800k bitcoin DO NOT just disappear without a trail on the blockchain. We have this ground breaking public ledger technology, lets not take it for granted.
Demand proof! If Gox has control of these coins or not, the BTC MUST be accounted for. Do not let this go by the wayside. If Mt gox is not able to provide us with this proof not one person should believe the official story.
submitted by Rism
[link] [21 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1eGTJ03
MTGox seems to have no interest in tracking or talking about the 'missing' or 'stolen' coins
Unlike a pile of cash that is missing, or coins that are lost via theft of private keys, MTGox's Bitcoins were apparently stolen by known users, that is if they were stolen by transaction malleability.
Simply to get an account on MTGox you need verification, and a LOT of it. Licences, notaries, apostilles, etc are some of the things required. To use transaction malleability you need to have a real account, and to make withdrawals. These withdrawals are IN THE BLOCK CHAIN and you search properly (and have standard information from inside of MTGOX) you can find each instance of theft and who did it.
Why is MTGox not doing this or lettings us know what happened?
submitted by cryptoanarchy
[link] [30 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1d2s3WR
An open letter to Erik Voorhees
Dear Erik,
I would like to respond to your letter titled "Some words for my friends".
It's been almost 10 months since we filmed you for our production of The Bitcoin Phenomenon. You were very gracious in taking the time to sit with us. Thank you again. We are getting ready to release our documentary along with full-length interviews in a couple of weeks. I wanted to address a couple of issues.
I specifically recall questioning you on how decentralized Bitcoin really is considering that exchanges served as central points of liquidity. In my view, this imposed a systemic risk to Bitcoin. In your response to the question, you countered this notion by stating that market-based centralization is nothing to worry about as market actors that abuse their position will quickly find their business erode.
Here is the clip pulled by our editor: http://ift.tt/1hJ6U44
Based on Mt. Gox, it seems that certain markets do not respond that quickly or efficiently. Mt. Gox had substantial issues at the time of our interview back in May 2013. Yet, consumers didn't leave; you didn't either. Natural monopolies when combined with network effects, as exchanges are, have market power and a gravitational pull that is very difficult to erode organically. Based on the reaction, it seems that the majority of Bitcoiners did not sufficiently understand or know the risks of doing business with Mt. Gox.
Another example: As the founding publisher of ALL IN Magazine between 2003-2006, I had a front row seat to the poker boom. Several years ago, a few big poker players at Absolute Poker and UltimateBet suspected certain other players of being able to see the cards held by opposing players. These big players kept losing money in highly improbable ways to the same players. When the players that felt cheated raised the issue in the community, the poker community laughed away these notions of cheating at major poker rooms. Not only did the customers not leave in droves at the allegations of cheating, they laughed at the whistle-blowers instead. Then there was a smoking gun that proved cheating by certain owners on a scale of tens of millions of dollars. And guess what? Most people still did not close their accounts. Even with the ease of the Internet, even with low switching costs of going to another vendor, people generally stayed. Markets are not nearly as responsive nor as efficient as you think even when confronted with a fraudulent operator.
When it comes to money, consumers need protection. Consumers are not sophisticated enough to assess the strength of balance sheets or the veracity of representations made by financial operators. As a result, modern societies have developed regulatory safeguards around financial services. How many people lost money with bank deposits during the financial crisis? Zero.
In fact, in my view, consumer protection means less friction in the marketplace, not more. It means more efficiency, not less. If I had to read the full car rental contract every time I rented a car, it would not be more efficient for the market. If I had to read a terms of service or every return policy or the fine print of every account I opened, it would not make commerce more efficient. Instead, I rely on basic government safeguards to ensure fairness and standardization. In exchange, market operators get the benefit of the doubt from most consumers as a result of regulation. I know that my liability with credit cards is almost nil based on regulation. As such, online commerce and electronic payments are ubiquitous. If I cannot be liable for credit card fraud, I can be freer in my habits and purchases than being continually paranoid. I can trust vendors that I otherwise would not trust.
Regulation is justified when the following condition is met: The value gained from increased trust in the marketplace is greater than the cost imposed by regulation.
Complicated contracts and risks are better socialized rather than individually assumed and monitored. One way to socialize risk is through regulation. In a regulated financial marketplace, a consumer does not need to be that careful. I don't have to judge the safety of my local bank as it is FDIC-insured. A simple rule is that the more math it involves and the less hard goods are given in exchange, the more it needs to be regulated. (Like life insurance.)
The other aspect is that consumers are horrible at assessing the fair value costs of deferred or unseen risks. People cannot properly compute the odds and costs of unlikely events in the future. If they could, the car rental counter would not try to sell comprehensive insurance at the counter to people who already have insurance. I might not need as much consumer protection in finance, but I may need more protection in healthcare or in building codes than a doctor or an engineer respectively would. The vast majority of people cannot assess every risk in every complicated area of their lives, myself included. It is not efficient for the market either. Certain things need to be standardized through regulation.
As such, as the old saying goes that there are no atheists in foxholes, there are few libertarians when defrauded.
In fact, I would be willing to wager that 80-90% of Mt. Gox customers would welcome a Japanese government bailout if it means a full return of their coins. Your ideology is lost on the majority of today's Bitcoiners. Most people that own Bitcoin want to get rich or make their lives financially easier. That's it. The pursuit of principal is their guiding principle. Now, people love the idea of getting rich and doing good at the same time, but given the choice of only one or the other, the former will suffice for most.
And there is nothing wrong with wanting to make some money. There is nothing wrong with speculating. The prospect of making money is fun, exciting, and thrilling. It's fine to enjoy it. For some reason, your argument seems to be that there has to be a greater purpose for Bitcoiners other than just the prospect of making money. Why require this? This should be legitimate enough of a purpose and goal. Ironically, you're the one playing into the hands that being mission-driven is what legitimizes money-making and Bitcoin.
Lastly, I cannot help notice your reference to Mt. Gox account holders as "brothers" in your note "Some words for friends". (The other day, Defcon at Silk Road 2 referred to his community as "comrades" in his note.) Calling for shared sacrifice among the recently devastated for the benefit of the greater good has a certain collective ring to it. Asking people to suffer from "falling towers" and repeated devastation wreaks of calling for martyrdom (of a dot-com variety.)
If the Bitcoin movement actually requires enormous sacrifice, of the devastating variety no less, merely for the future benefit of humanity, one may counter that the ongoing minor tragedy of one's annual tax bill seems like far less of a sacrifice. This is also a sacrifice that many times accrues to the benefit of others. What's the difference?
I am more confused by the philosophical tenets of the Bitcoin movement than ever. Does it require shared sacrifice for the collective good or is it to enable the present, profitable pursuit of self-interest?
Either way, the fact remains that Mt. Gox is a failure of a private company. It's not the fault of the government's, nor the media's, nor the banker's, nor Bitcoin naysayer's, but of a for-profit company with a once dominant market position.
Yet, you offer not one word against the perpetrators of a possible loss of $300+ million, 6%+ of all outstanding Bitcoins. Even Alan Greenspan, a personal friend of Ayn Rand, came to terms with the limitations of an absolutist ideology post-financial crisis. I'm surprised by the vehemence of your position because you are both brilliant and eloquent.
Sincerely,
Bhu Srinivasan
Producer, The Bitcoin Phenomenon for SQ1.tv
P.S. -
Some aspects of the reaction to Mt. Gox remind me of the episode of the Wire when one of Marlo's crew blames Omar, NASDAQ, 9/11, and the government for why he can't pay Marlo. Marlo responds: "Omar ain't no terrorist. And you ain't no Delta Airlines neither. You are just another n----- that got his shit took." Classic. Marlo on Mt. Gox:
submitted by SQ1tv
[link] [31 commentaires]
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My letter to the editor on bitcoin at the latimes got published today!
Some time ago, securities were invented, which allowed private people to invest in companies in return for ownership. After the crash of 1929, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules, which were enacted into laws, that scrutinized public offerings and transactions in the market.
Suppose the government had outright banned securities as opposed to targeting bad actors. Legal and technological innovations would have been stymied.
For the most part, people's negative reactions to bitcoin have been caused by a fundamental misunderstanding of the technology. Bitcoin actually transcends money and exchanges, as it's a utility for property rights, based on possession of private keys associated with whatever value.
Its applications are potentially most profound in developing countries that lack decades of post-industrial infrastructure.
If mere possession is nine-tenths of the law, the bitcoin protocol can act as a safeguard when access to courts, governing bodies and functioning bureaucracies is nonexisting.
submitted by burritofanatic
[link] [4 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1ewaC2b
My conversation with Mark from Mt. Gox - my questions on what happened
I started talking with Mark and Mt. Gox about 14 days ago - here is my take
When the Bitcoin withdrawals were halted I contacted Mark and offered capital and help to fix the exchange.
At the time I assumed it was only a technical and management challenge and the conversation with Gonzague and Mark didn't indicate anything other than that.
They provided me with financial statements and other info and I talked over the need for Mark to step aside and a real and professional management team to step in and fix the PR issues, the outstanding US lawsuit issues and of course the technical issues.
My simplest plan was to see if this could be transported to another exchange in a mass migration effort, entirely scrapping the old Gox programming, fire Mark as CEO and install a real team, immediately settle the lawsuits and immediately go on a road show communicating with customers about the exact status of their accounts.
We figured if we could retain even a third of the customers and build back trust with a new team and brand it would be a win.
I've got a lot of experience in tech and especially finance, brokerage and money management but fixing something as messed up, complex and broken as Gox (even though I didn't realize it was more messed up than I thought) quickly is beyond my skills alone.
I talked to one of the top Bitcoin geniuses who is a large holder to see if he was interested in helping (he said he had too much on his plate) and I talked to a leading VC firm who mulled it over but then figured the logistics of moving from Japan to the US as well as outstanding broken issues combined with over Bitcoin volatility was too much of a mess. They did put me in touch with another very major Bitcoin player who I spoke with and we agreed, in principle, to try to save Gox if Mark was willing to step aside and not be bull headed about valuation (which we felt was almost nothing now beyond assets)
I talked to Gox again but we didn't really move forward.
A few days ago, when the anonymous memos started surfacing I emailed a few times asking for them to give more clarity to customers. I got a note from Mark which said "we will have an announcement on Friday". We now see that.
Like Charlie and others have said, the entire time it did not seem at all that Gox had lost the coins. Why would they have bothered even talking to me? Surely they didn't think an investor would cover the coin losses (by the way, sadly, no, no investor would bail out Gox like this, there would be no way of getting an ROI on that investment) --
Part of me is still optimistically hoping that Mark is just being profoundly bad with PR and trying to under-promise and over-deliver and has at least a good chunk of coins and will try to "fix" things. His behavior and manner and communications were not at all like that of someone who either 1) lost 800,000 coins or 2) was pulling a major con.
I don't get it. There are many unanswered questions. How exactly can 800,000 coins disappear? What manner of thief could do such a thing? When was this noticed? By what mechanism? What exactly did he say in the press conference? Did he say hack or thief? Did he simply lose the keys and is covering from embarrassment? Could someone have threatened him into giving them up? Could there be some other third party in play here? (When you talk about hundreds of millions of dollars even grand conspiracies of mafia, terrorists or government are not off the table)
Why was he trying to program the transaction issue? Are these Gox wallets people tracked real? So many questions. Hopefully we get answers.
I won't give any info on contact for Mark or any Gox employee -- his life could be in danger and I won't be responsible for giving that info, sorry -- he reached me though a response to his regular contact form ....I also won't answer any questions about the other parties because these conversations were private. Typically I never release any information about any business conversation ever....however this is such an odd case with so much at stake for so many I feel I need to give whatever info I can which could in some tiny way give some insight.
I am really sorry to all who lost coins, I also lost a small amount of coins. Fortunately not a huge amount for me --
This episode is a sad chapter for Bitcoin- I feel like my good friend and little buddy Bitcoin has been punched in the head. It's so sad to see this blow to the reputation of our new technology.
Of course I still completely believe in the tech and this issue doesn't shake my confidence in Bitcoin itself much, but I'm sad to see that thousands had such a bad experience and the inevitable press and other issues which will arise from this.
Good luck to all.
For those of you who lost coins, please keep a big picture view -- it sounds annoying perhaps but every day when I travel I meet people who can never afford even the most basic needs like food. Whatever hard times you have in life will pass.
I believe that those who lost greatly will in general recover and hopefully stronger and I believe Bitcoin in general will recover and both the currency and technology will change the world and grow beyond most peoples dreams.
submitted by bruce_fenton
[link] [12 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1kvLBVl
Goxcoins are gone, they aren't coming back, and no one is bailing out Gox. It's time to move on.
I can't believe even after Mt Gox confirms $61mn in FIAT liabilities and also losing 850k btc, people here are STILL thinking they will see their goxcoin and/or Gox will be bailed out.
Face reality. This game's over and everyone needs to move on. No company is going to spend $151mn (valuing the goxcoins at $120 each) to buy debt just to gain a customer base and take over a disastrous company. That's financial suicide. Not to mention few companies in the tech world even have that type of capital lying around. Even if someone wanted to pay 1/10th on the dollar it'd take years to sort this all out.
The original illusion of a bailout was put out by Mark himself and we have since learned that who he pitched to called his bluff and alerted the authorities.
And saying bankruptcy protection is a good thing is delusional. It's just a stall tactic by Gox. It does absolutely nothing to change the fact that they have lost everything and have basically been running a Ponzi scheme for some time now.
I'm sorry for those that lost a lot in gox but it's time to give up the false hope.
submitted by econoar
[link] [30 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1bRVEnI
Funny how nobody seems to want to know who stole Gox's BTC.
Instead of going after the thief, everybody just goes after another victim.
submitted by mustyoshi
[link] [26 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1pDNbYT
MtGox filed for bankruptcy PROTECTION - this will stop all plans of fast foreclosure, liquidation and law suits - GOOD NEWS for GoxBTC holders
Lets hope it will work
submitted by Willidungl
[link] [32 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1hoz0mK
Mt Gox lawyer says filed for bankruptcy protection, accepted by Tokyo district court
...
UPDATE:
MT GOX MAY HAVE LOST NEARLY ALL OF ITS BITCOINS -MT GOX LAWYER
MT. GOX LAWYER: 750,000 BITCOIN HELD BY CLIENTS, 100,000 HELD BY MT. GOX MOSTLY MISSING
submitted by plopalot2
[link] [6 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1bR6eLE
Bitcoin Exchanges Should Publish a Warrant Canary
In 2013, Apple published a “warrant canary” stating that they have never received an order under the USA Patriot Act. If the statement is ever omitted from a subsequent report, everyone will know that the organization has been handed such a warrant.[1]
Bitcoin businesses should publish statements explicitly saying they have never received a gag order. Any businesses that remove the statement in a subsequent report can be assumed to have received a gag order. They could also include a canary statement that they have never had funds seized.
Mt. Gox has already had funds seized, so they cannot publish a “funds seized canary.”[2] There are also indications that Mt. Gox has already received a gag order, so it might be too late for them to publish a warrant canary.[3] However, all new Bitcoin exchanges and other businesses should publish warrant canaries.
If a company continues to publish the warrant canary while under a gag order, they would be lying and intentionally deceiving their users. As discussed in the articles about Apple’s warrant canary, the hope is that the government cannot force a company to lie.
submitted by BenFranklinFreedom
[link] [3 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1eEiUjS
jeudi 27 février 2014
Jon Stewart, you're the fucking man! Your quote, "Baby steps, Bitcoin" made my night!
Thanks for that hilarious piece :)
submitted by CalvinHouse
[link] [3 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/NBrycX
Bitcoin on The Daily Show
Focused obviously on MtGox
All in all it was positive I think, considering the events.
Link to Mediaite article and video:
submitted by uab_lca
[link] [11 commentaires]
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I am a bitcoin merchant and my company just paid its first Bitcoin invoice
I started accepting Bitcoin via Coinbase on my website in September 2013. Our monthly portion of revenue in Bitcoin has been anywhere between 40-80%. We recently launched our own Litecoin payment processor.
I began searching for solutions for international payments as my business works directly with independent farmers to market their products to consumers. My bank charges me $60 per wire and Paypal takes about 10% fees for foreign exchange/processing. This is 100's of thousands of dollars just going down the toilet every year.
In November 2013 I began educating the growers in our network about Bitcoin. The response has been great and many are ready to accept payment in Bitcoin as long as we help them get it exchanged to their local currency. I have found a service out of Denmark which I have not used yet called BIPS.ME which exchanges Bitcoin to a long list of currencies for a 0% fee and charges a flat $7.50 wire fee to move the funds to a bank account. This so far has presented itself as the most feasible solution for my company. I would appreciate some feedback from people that have used this service.
When we first started accepting Bitcoin as payment we converted 100% to USD. Now I maintain a minimum account of 2 BTC so I can use for payments to growers and for invoices from vendors. Today I paid my first invoice with BTC and I am so stoked. We are quickly getting on a path where our business can be predominately supported by Bitcoin and further strengthen the Bitcoin network.
Finally, I would like to say thank you to the Bitcoin community. There have been so many helpful individuals that have navigated this path. Also, we couldn't do it without the tea loving customers that have used their Bitcoin to support bringing transparency to the tea industry!
submitted by peacelyse
[link] [11 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1lo8wF6
Conspiracy Theory: Mark Karpeles is under a (9)Gag order! Does the chat below confirm it?
<JonWickedFire> Anything else you'd like to say to everyone before all the pissed off people start going nuts, even more...? [12:09] <MagicalTux> not really [12:09] <MagicalTux> maybe just a link? something like that: Why do we fall? - 9GAG [12:09] <MagicalTux> well, we'll see how this one goes anyway
submitted by LogitechG27
[link] [15 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1cqywro
Claims that MTGox has a lot of coin so far look completely spurious to me.
::sigh:: Reddit. So easily blinded by (pseudo-)science.
People are claiming that MTGox still "has" a bunch of coin. In the near complete absence of information, maybe they do. Maybe they loaded them onto a ship that was destroyed by a tsunami and there is now a sunken MTGox chest of bitcoins. Maybe. Maybe the ship was really a space ship and they're all planning to escape To The Moon. Who the heck knows? I sure don't.
What people are doing is loading up a famous 424k BTC transaction MTGox made in 2011. (Or at later 550k BTC transaction for which I'm aware of no solid evidence belonged at the time to MTGox— Just some speculation by Dooglus) and then clicking around on the movement of funds until they find an address with a large amount of coin available to it.
The problem is that you would expect a large portion of all withdraws from MTGox to be linked in such a manner and certainly all very high value ones. Once you've gone even one hop you cannot be sure that the coins are controlled by MTGox anymore. The alternative hypotheses that these were large manual withdraws to big purchasers is equally supported by the data.
A significant fraction of all circulating coins are "linked" to MTGox— but this doesn't mean that MTGox currently controls them.
Other people are pointing to the constant spamming of dust that most addresses which have received large transactions receive, claiming that the same third party paying them proves they are somehow linked. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. If it were so, them I am really MTGox, DPR, Satoshi, and everyone else that has ever received Bitcoin spam (cue mystery music).
I understand that people want to find reason to hope— I do too. I also understand that people are eager to drive up the value of their Goxcoin on BitcoinBuilder. But the information I'm seeing posted on reddit is simply not good science.
If someone starts flooding you with BC.i links without clear explanations as "proof" you should be imagining a crazy eyed conspiracy theorist in a movie: cutting out random pictures from the news paper, pasting them to the wall, and stringing twin all around them like some mystical ritual. With enough guesses some are bound to be right, but that doesn't mean that their output isn't pure noise. THEY'RE ALL LINKED!! DON'T YOU SEE!!! WE'RE BEING WATCHED!
Actual evidence would be things like the claimed address-with-coins was a signer on a transaction that we know was created by MTGox (And even this only because we can be relatively confident that MTGox didn't coinjoin). Less strong evidence might be an address which paid a huge amount of coins to a known MTGox address— though it still could have been a deposit. No linkage evidence holds up by more than one transaction hop, however, because the coins could change ownership in every hop.
Anyone claiming to show MTGox coin ownership should be able to clearly explain why their evidence shows MTGox holds the coin and how the evidence excludes alternative hypothesis like the coins were withdrawn from MTGox.
Also keep in mind that the 'leaked' crisis plan document did claim that MTGox itself has 120k of its own Bitcoins— though there is some ambiguity about it being listed with reversed sign in the liabilities column... so finding that many doesn't may not add credence to high-entropy theories like losing access to private keys, that secret ninjas are preventing them from spending coins, etc.
submitted by nullc
[link] [25 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1eqMGgx
With the press, let's keep it civil, even when they're wrong
Yesterday I posted my open letter to Michael Casey, a WSJ reporter who co-wrote the Bitcoin cover story in Wednesday's paper: http://ift.tt/1dzHwKY
Michael has since been in contact with me. From our discussions, I don't hold any "hard feelings" with him. He was professional and civil. I don't believe he's out to slander Bitcoin, ultimately.
But I wanted to bring this up as a broader topic, important for our community. When the press (or anyone) slights us, either with FUD or corrupt agendas or even downright lies, let's please retain our civility.
There were a number of twitter messages sent to Michael that were just rude, frankly. As a community trying to heal the world through Bitcoin, we should encourage better behavior.
We have lots of enemies, but let's show observers that we are good people, doing good work. Our message will be much better received, and Bitcoin's brand will be strengthened.
This doesn't mean that it's wrong to call people out. Please do! Make sure misinformation and fallacy are repelled. But please stay civil, even if heated.
Further this fight with reason, conviction, truth, and civility. Ultimately, the tyrants will fall faster.
submitted by evoorhees
[link] [18 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1hlRggA
Proofs that Gox have at least 200k BTC - lost/corrupted keys most likely than simple theft
This is an IRC conversation on 2011 when people asked Mark Karpeles to prove if he owned the coins on his exchange.
Start of #mtgox buffer: Thu Jun 23 01:57:23 2011 * Now talking in #mtgox * Topic is 'Mt.Gox - Official channel - http://ift.tt/lg0L5S - Official announcement in the next hours announcing time at which site will be back (at least 24h from announce). Recoveries will be processed during those 24h - Trading will resume 1h after site opening' * Set by MagicalTux on Wed Jun 22 16:28:08
<MagicalTux> go1dfish: I'll send 424242.42424242 bitcoins from a bunch of 50kBTC addresses (and maybe on 42kBTC) to one
<MagicalTux> well, two actually
<MagicalTux> one will get the 424k, the other one will get the change
<go1dfish> ok, yeah all transactions get split that way as I understand it
<MagicalTux> ready guys? Don't come after me claiming we have no coins after that
<MagicalTux> hopefully I'll be able to work without getting too much disturbed after that~
<go1dfish> yeah, ready
<nanotube> MagicalTux: wasn't your last tx 432K btc? lost 8k?
<geist_> no
<geist_> thats just the amount someone suggested
<geist_> (the 424242)
<nanotube> ah
<MagicalTux> 42 is the answer
<go1dfish> to everything
<sixEch0> 42 is my password!
<noagendamarket> lol
<nanotube> hehe ic
<go1dfish> 42 is the solution to every block to
<mabus> wait what's going on, is he proving he has our bitcoins still?
<go1dfish> shit I just ruined the economy
<mabus> what does this help
<geist_> theres a lot of people crying wolf saying gox doesnt have their btc anymore
<wumpus> don't send them to the bitcoin eater please :)
<go1dfish> mabus: tux is shuffling large numbers of bitcoins to show they are still under his control
<MagicalTux> anyway, going to send to 1eHhgW6vquBY... the 424242.42424242 btc.
IRC Source: http://ift.tt/1o6LDTT
BTC Adresses: http://ift.tt/1hlRg0a
submitted by jutajata
[link] [14 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1hlRg0c
Received ~1,000,000yen (~$10k) withdrawal from MtGox on 2013-Feb-25
Edit: I'm a moron, should read 2014, not 2013. Can't edit titles so it will stay as testament to my idiocy.
I'm located in Japan and have a business account with MtGox. I am actually located quite far from Tokyo and have never met anyone related to Gox. My only interaction with them was to get the account verified when I opened it and a couple of support requests regarding account limits.
Anyway, on Feb 25th I received all of the cash withdrawals that I made during January. These were Japanese domestic transfers that are generally very fast (same day), not international wires that seem to take a month or more.
To be clear: I do not have any idea what is going on with Gox. I don't know if my money arriving is a fluke, a stroke of luck, or if they are starting to get things back on track.
I had written this money off as gone forever so I'm understandably pretty happy to see it in my account. I wanted to share to let people know that the Gox news is not all bad.
Edit 2: People are understandably asking for proof. Here is a scan of my business' Japanese bank book. Anyone else who has a bank account with a major bank in Japan will be able to confirm this is a legit bank book scan.
Japanese dates are a little weird. Years are counted by the length of the reign of the currently sitting Emperor. Currently we are in Heisei 26. Therefore the dates in the book are 26-2-25 for 2014-Feb-25.
I have left the first five deposit amounts visible. The last three amounts are different and are from after I had the Gox withdrawal limit raised. The first five amounts were 100,000yen less the 262yen service charge to transfer the money to a domestic account in Japan.
Edit 3: It's 1:25am here in Japan right now and I need to get some sleep. I'll come back sometime tomorrow Japan time in case anyone needs a reply.
submitted by cryptominer
[link] [26 commentaires]
from Bitcoin http://ift.tt/1o8L9fS
