The Bitcon Bubble

[Nbadan]

Silk Road 2 moderator Defcon reported in a forum post that hackers have used a transaction malleability exploit to hack the marketplace. The hackers stole over 4474.26 bitcoins worth $2,747,000, emptying the site’s escrow account.


News of the theft has driven the price of BTC down by about 50 points and it’s currently hovering at 600. We’ll post more information on the hack and the exploit as we get it. Defcon, for his part, is calling for further decentralization of online markets and currency.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/13/sil...tersocialshare

[Spanklin]

I've been laughing at this setup ever since the the street raided the gold bugs by trotting out Peter Schiff and Glenn Beck to peddle it to old ladies.

Bitcoin is a classic example of Wall Street buying up something with a little momentum and then sending the Alex Jones crowd out to sell it to the conspiracy theorist nutjobs. It's so beautiful seeing them getting duped by their own paranoia, it almost makes me cry. How many times are you tinfoil hat wearing fools going to get cleaned out before realizing your paranoia is hurting you and you only?

[Nbadan]

Head of virtual currency exchange found dead in Singapore
Source: CNBC

Autumn Radtke, the 28-year-old CEO of an upstart bitcoin exchange, died last week under mysterious cir stances at her home in Singapore.

The U.S.-born head of First Meta was found dead by police on Feb. 28, with the cause of death yet to be determined. In a statement on its website, First Meta said the company "was shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and CEO Autumn Radtke."

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the company's director and nonexecutive chairman, Douglas Abrams, said the exact cause of Radtke's death was "still under investigation."

Prior to taking the reins at First Meta in 2012, the 28-year-old Radtke had once closely worked with technology giant Apple to bring cloud-computing software to Johns Hopkins University, Los Alamos Labs and the Aerospace Corp., according to her biography. She then took up business development roles at tech start-ups Xfire and Geodelic Systems, according to information on her LinkedIn profile.

First Meta bills itself as a clearing house for the purchase and exchange of virtual currencies, including bitcoin.

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101468694

[Nbadan]

Mar 6, 10:51 PM EST
AP Exclusive: Man denies he's bitcoin creator
By RYAN NAKASHIMA

Man denies he's bitcoin creator

LOS ANGELES (AP) --

Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto denied Thursday that he is the creator of bitcoin.

Newsweek published a 4,500-word cover story claiming Nakamoto is the person who wrote the computer code underpinnings of bitcoin, but in an exclusive two-hour interview with The Associated Press, Nakamoto denied he had anything to do with the digital currency.

Nakamoto, 64, said he had never heard of bitcoin until his son told him he had been contacted by a Newsweek reporter three weeks ago. He acknowledged that many of the details in Newsweek's report are correct, including that he once worked for a defense contractor, and that his given name at birth was Satoshi. But he strongly disputed the magazine's assertion that he is "the face behind bitcoin."

Several times during the interview with AP, Nakamoto mistakenly referred to the currency as "Bitcom." When shown the original bitcoin proposal that Newsweek linked to in its story, Nakamoto said he didn't write it, and said the email address in the do ent wasn't his.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

[scott]

Who wouldn't want the stability of a currency that has changed in value by nearly 12,000% in two years?

[boutons_deux]

"The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One"

[Chewbacca]

"The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One"

[Nbadan]

Nouriel Roubini: Bitcoin Is a ‘Ponzi Game’
Source: WSJ

Nouriel Roubini is skeptical about bitcoin.

While en route to Kuwait from London on Sunday, Mr. Roubini apparently had bitcoin on his brain, and he wasn’t shy about sharing his thoughts to his 289,000 followers on Twitter

The NYU economist and professor, nicknamed Dr. Doom for accurately forecasting the 2008 financial crisis, called bitcoin a “Ponzi game.”
<snip>

Tweets are below:

Apart from a base 4 criminal activities, Bitcoin is not a currency as it is not a unit of account or a means of payments or store of value

Bitcoin is not a unit of account as no price of goods and services is set in Bitcoin unit nor it ever will. So it isn't a currency

Bitcoin isn't means of payment as few transactions in Bitcoin. And given its volatility all who accept it convert it right back into $/€/¥

Bitcoin isn't a store of value as little wealth is in Bitcoin and no assets in it. Also given price volatility it is a lousy store of value

So Bitcoin isn't a currency. It is btw a Ponzi game and a conduit for criminal/illegal activities. And it isn't safe given hacking of it.

BTCbugs like gold bugs are fanatics who speak of BTC in cult-like religious ways.Like gold bugs they have paranoid conspiracy views on the $

https://twitter.com/Nouriel

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/...-a-ponzi-game/

[scott]

Wow, Nouriel Roubini must be a genius or something. Way to come hot ahead of the curve there

[Winehole23]

Tera Group has created a non-deliverable forward swap agreement to hedge the risk of fluctuations in the exchange rate for bitcoin. The agreement has the potential to "open doors" to more bitcoin users who may want to accept bitcoin payments while hedging the risk that the virtual currency will lose value, Tera Group executives say.


The swap agreement was created when Tera Group was approached by two counterparties interested in a doing a multi-million dollar sale in which bitcoin would be used as payment.


"The purpose of the transaction was for the seller of the asset to take bitcoin but hedge the risk of a bitcoin price fluctuation," said Leonard Nuara, president and co-founder of Tera Group. In the transaction at hand, the bitcoin payment would be made in 25 days, requiring a hedge to ensure that bitcoin would maintain its value over that period. A non-deliverable forward is a type of currency swap that essentially allows both counterparties to agree to the value of the currency and lock in the rate for a future date.

http://www.fiercefinanceit.com/story...#ixzz2wzwoxzNW

[SnakeBoy]

Wow, Nouriel Roubini must be a genius or something. Way to come hot ahead of the curve there

Why single out Roubini for ridicule? Correctly identifying the obvious after the fact is par for economists. Roubini separated himself from the pack by being right about the future...once.

[Winehole23]

With April 15 looming, plenty of bitcoin barons have been wondering how to treat their newfound crypto-fortunes. Does it count as capital gains? Is it taxed like a currency? Is it taxed at all? Well, on Tuesday, the Internal Revenue Service announced definitively that Bitcoin is property, and will be taxed as such.

http://gizmodo.com/irs-declares-bitc...1551321725/all

[boutons_deux]

http://gizmodo.com/irs-declares-bitc...1551321725/all

How will IRS enforce, even know, what a citizen's gains and losses are on bitcoin assets?

[Winehole23]

it's probably best just to declare it

[boutons_deux]

it's probably best just to declare it

nah, the Repugs have so defunded, cut the IRS enforcement that cheating, like the wealthy do, pays big, which was the Repugs' objective in cutting enforcement.

[Winehole23]

you first

[boutons_deux]

you first

I don't do bitcoin, I don't cheat on taxes, I'm Leona Hensley's Little People.