BBT Presents: Ode to Cryptocurrency
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On Tuesday, Doge Vault, one of the most popular online repositories for the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, formally acknowledged that it had been hacked two days earlier.
On the 11th of May, the Doge Vault online wallet service was compromised by attackers, resulting in a service disruption and tampering with wallet funds, the site wrote.As soon as the administrator of Doge Vault was alerted, the service was halted. The attackers had already accessed and destroyed all data on the hosted virtual machines.
While Doge Vault hasnt officially said how much was lost, a newly created Dogecoin wallet shows that 121,550,030 dogecoins have been transferred into it over the last 24 hours. At present exchange rates, thats worth about $56,000.
The company did not immediately respond to further questions, nor did it provide additional details about who the perpetrators might be.
Dogecoin first debuted in December 2013. Unlike Bitcoin and other altcoins, Dogecoin has no hard cap as to how many coins will be mined. It's just the latest cryptocurrency to suffer from attacks that pilfer wallets from exchanges and end users. Recently, such attacks have become extremely commonas a result of people failing to heed best practices that dictate only a small amount of currency should be stored in 'hot' wallets. In fact, the growth of cryptocurrency theft in recent years has even led to attacks becoming an automated feature of some botnets.
For a more detailed account of how such pilfering attacks operate, Ars covered a similar incident that happened to Bitcoinia in 2012.
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Such hack, much sad: Doge Vault reportedly loses $56,000 in heist
Doge Vault, a popular online wallet for the virtual currency dogecoin, was taken offline on Sunday after being hit by hackers.
Dogecoin might be based on a silly meme, but recently the cryptocurrency had been gaining steam as an alternative to bitcoin, with users raising enough money to sponsor a NASCAR racecar.
The #98 Dogecoin / Reddit.com Ford, driven by Josh Wise, is seen in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on May 2, 2014 in Talladega, Alabama.
On Sunday, a Doge Vault user reported to the Cryptocurrency Times that 950,000 dogecoins (around $437) had been transferred out of his or her account to another online wallet.
That wallet currently holds more than 121 million dogecoins, worth more than $55,000. Its not clear if everything in that wallet was stolen. What is clear is that Doge Vault had been hacked and is now offline.
On the 11th of May, the Doge Vault online wallet service was compromised by attackers, resulting in a service disruption and tampering with wallet funds, the service wrote on its website. We are currently in the process of identifying the extent of the attack and potential impact on user's funds.
NBC News reached out to Doge Vault for comment, but the company did not respond.
It has been a rough year for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin became a media and Silicon Valley darling before hitting some serious speed bumps, including the collapse of the Mt. Gox exchange, multiple hacks, and a warning from the SEC. In December, Dogewallet was hacked, with $16,000 worth of dogecoins stolen.
Dogecoin was supposed to be the smart alternative to bitcoin. With a lovable Shiba Inu as a mascot, the cryptocurrency's users prided themselves on not being wealthy speculators (cough, Winklevoss twins, cough), instead rallying around charities.
But the anonymous nature of the currency users are identified only as dogechain addresses makes it difficult to refund stolen funds. Banks might collect personal information through credit cards, but they can also protect consumers against fraudulent charges. Bitcoin and dogecoin work like cash. Once they are stolen, they are essentially gone, and no adorable puppies can bring them back.
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CryptoCurrency of the World Unite!
Bring together the crypto currency of the world to help families with critically ill or seriously injured children in the hospital with rental and mortgage g...
By: Erich Mische
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Federal regulator finds the cryptocurrency qualifies as "money or something of value" but imposes restriction on its use.
Bitcoin
Bitcoins may soon be helping fund an election campaign near you.
The US Federal Election Committee on Thursday unanimously approved a proposal for political action committees to accept donations in the form of Bitcoin, finding that the cryptocurrency qualified as "money or anything of value" as defined by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. However, with its 6-0 vote, the commission that enforces US campaign finance laws imposed several conditions on its acceptance.
PACs must sell the bitcoins they received and convert them to into US dollars before depositing the proceeds into a campaign account. The commission did not approve the use of bitcoin to acquire goods and services.
The decision came in response to a proposal by the Make Your Law committee to accept individual bitcoin donations up to $100. To address the anonymous nature of bitcoin use, the MYL promised that all Bitcoin contributors would be required to provide their name, physical address, and employer.
While the decision was issued as guidance and not as new regulations, the commission's vote suggests that other PACs will be allowed to operate under similar conditions.
In its decision, the commission acknowledged that "government agencies, courts and others are grappling," but said it "expresses no opinion regarding the application of federal securities law, tax law, or other law outside the Commission's jurisdiction to MYL's proposed activities."
Bitcoin's acceptance has grown dramatically in the past couple of months. Cryptocurrency ATMs have begun to pop up, some casinos have said they would accept digital currency payments, and even eBay has begun allowing for limited sales of bitcoins on its US and UK sites.
The FEC's decision comes a day after the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued an advisory warning investors to be wary of Bitcoin and other virtual-currency related investments. Noting that the cryptocurrency is uninsured, unregulated, and volatile, the SEC said its chief concern was the risk of fraud.
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Bitcoin wins US election panel's approval for political donations
By David Z. Morris
Auroracoin and Berkshares
FORTUNE -- In the past two months, programmers and activists have launched a wave of national cryptocurrencies systems inspired by Bitcoin, and affiliated with various specific nations and communities. These include MazaCoin, from an American Indian group, Spaincoin, and Auroracoin, from Iceland. More national cryptocurrencies are coming, including Aphroditecoin, targeted at Cyprus and planned to launch April 21st.
It's no coincidence that the most prominent national cryptocurrencies have emerged from landscapes of financial turmoil. The engineers and promoters of these cryptocurrencies are often motivated by the same resistance to central monetary institutions as the libertarian anti-Federal Reserve types that formed an important constituency among the first wave of Bitcoin adopters. Aphroditecoin's homepage declares that it will help Cypriots "break the shackles of a fiat currency," while Spaincoin's slogan is "Freedom for the Spanish People."
Eurozone citizens have more obvious justification for resenting their national monetary and financial systems than Americans. The collapse of Iceland's overextended banks in 2008 and 2009 led to the nationalization of bad debts worth more than eight times national GDP, triggered runaway inflation, and cratered the foreign exchange value of the currency, necessitating strict foreign exchange controls that largely remain in place today. The euro crisis of 2011-2013 led to extreme measures such as the "bail-in" of Cypriot banks through the seizure of deposits just last Spring.
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Then there's MazaCoin, which claims affiliation with the Oglala Lakota Nation. As with many sovereign American Indian tribes, a legacy of exploitation and marginalization has left the Lakota in a state of persistent, extreme poverty, and Mazacoin cites "economic sustainability" and "lasting wealth and prosperity" among its overriding goals.
The idea of nongovernmental regional currencies is not new. In the United States alone, there are currently several local currencies that use old-fashioned paper money, including the Philadelphia equal dollar, Detroit cheers, and Ithaca hours, a system in place since 1991 (no law prohibits the introduction of private paper currency systems in the U.S., though minting coins for currency purposes is illegal). Emerging national cryptocurrencies may have something to learn from these local analogprojects.
One of the most vibrant local currencies currently operating in the U.S. is the Berkshare, launched in 2005 by the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and serving the Berkshires region in Western Massachussetts. Alice Maggio, local currency program director of the Berkshares program, says that the goals of the currency are to increase the capital base of the region and provide democratically-driven loans for local development.
Berkshares are distributed through local banks in a one-for-one exchange for U.S. dollars, and the dollar deposits are distributed as loans to local businesses. More than $5 million dollars have been traded in for Berkshares since 2005, and about $135,000 dollars' worth of Berkshares are currently in circulation, adding to local banks' available capital. In a region of only 19,000 residents, even such a relatively small expansion of the money supply could have a meaningful growth impact.
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In hopes of creating a bitcoin 'ecosystem,' two MIT students are spearheading a project to give all 4,500 MIT undergraduate students $100 in bitcoin and study how the cryptocurrency plays out on campus.
Some colleges give students planners or bookmarks when they enter a new school year.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on the other hand, will give $100 in bitcoin to all incoming undergraduate students next fall.
The initiative, which was announcedTuesday in MIT's student newspaper The Tech, was the idea of a sophomore and graduate student with backgrounds in bitcoin. So far, they have raised more than $500,000 from alumni and other donors to fund what they are calling the MIT Bitcoin Project, and have the blessing of the school. Their hope is to create a bitcoin ecosystem on campus, in order to create a campus-wide case study of the nascent cryptocurrency.
Giving students access to cryptocurrencies is analogous to providing them with Internet access at the dawn of the internet era, says Jeremy Rubin, the sophomore electrical engineering and computer science major who is one of the founders of the Bitcoin Project,in a release. The other founder is Dan Elitzer, founder and president of the MIT Bitcoin Club and a first-year graduate business student at MIT's Sloan School of Business.
Their aim is both specific and purposefully ambiguous. After the bitcoins are distributed to the students, a variety of professors and researchers will be running studies watching how the MIT community uses the currency. One faculty supporter says this offers a way to peek into our likely data-filled future.
I am supporting them because it is generally an awesome hack, and more specifically I am working to understand how our society can thrive in an age where everything is datafied and can be controlled by computer, says Alex Sandy Pentland, director of the human dynamics laboratory at the MIT Media Lab, to The Tech. While the specific properties of bitcoin have some real problems, getting everyone at MIT to start playing with bitcoin will prompt the MIT community to begin thinking seriously about how we can live in an all-digital future.
Other than those studying how the currency operates around campus, students are also free to use the currency however they please. To prepare, Mr. Rubin and Mr. Elitzer are hosting a bitcoin expo this weekend to begin further discussions on the project, and have gained the support of many other student organizations and faculty members. Over the summer, they will also be readying local merchants for bitcoin payments.
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Cryptocurrency Explained The Tech Guy 1046
By: Dennis Roman
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CS 171 Final Project: Cryptocurrency Visualizations
Alex Liu and Karine Hsu ( #39;16)
By: Karine Hsu
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There has been an argument made that we have had plenty of distractions to keep us from paying attention to the economy. From the situation in Europe to the missing plane in East Asia, there are a lot of people that are looking at the crisis of the week knowing full well than when all of the dust clears, when the wreckage is found and put back together we will have to deal with an economy that is devolving and what it may become in the near future.
Arguably, there seems to be a positive outcome of the shaky economy and that is the birth of cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin at the moment has captured the imagination of banks and investors. Bitcoin has the worlds largest virtual currency market capitalization at over $8 billion dollars. Apart from bitcoin, there are at least 100 other cryptocurrencies, ranging from Ripple at ($1.4 billion) and Litecoin ($453 million) also at the high end there is Germanys Deutsche eMark ($106,000) and Grumpycoin ($88,000) at the low end. Even criminals have begun to diversify into homemade cryptocurrencies.
There is also a cryptocurrency called Mazacoin that was created by Payu Harris in hopes that the Lakota can use it in order to have greater independence.
The question is: does the boom in cryptocurrency indicate that people want to become independent of the almighty dollar?
There are many people that agree that while we are seeing successes and failures with cryptocurrency that the dollar will eventually go the way of digital.
InformationWeek reports: According to former Central Intelligence Agency CTO Gus Hunt, in the future, the dollar could well become a crypto currency. Governments going to learn from Bitcoin, and all the official government currencies are going to become crypto currencies themselves, he said during a recent panel discussion in San Francisco hosted by information security firm eSentire, for which he sits on the board of advisers.
Others are saying that bitcoin will do for digital currency what Napster did for downloading music.
It is creating the format for which all digital dollars will be distributed.
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Austin, Texas (PRWEB) May 02, 2014
Recently, the Coin Pursuit cryptocurrency information website has established a reputation within the industry as a no-nonsense resource for digital currency traders and enthusiasts. Their development team has been working on a unique interactive element for their website, designed to complement the original content and resource links Coin Pursuit already provides. Now that beta testing and tweaking have been completed, the company is announcing the official launch of this new service being offered to their readers. They have named it SliceFeeds.
SliceFeeds has a social media network feel to it, with similar personal connectivity features. Whereas many digital currency forums often have long threads where specific and unbiased information is difficult to find, SliceFeeds is being offered up as a cleaner and more efficient alternative. Additionally, it is positioned as a network strictly for cryptocurrency traders and merchants, eliminating the need for users to sort through unrelated or irrelevant information, as they would on the more generalized social media outlets. It offers a tight and focused community setting, where investors, enthusiasts and businesses can learn and educate one another, as well as promote their products and services.
Some of the major features of the network are as follows:
Network Rankings: SliceFeeds' main page features tables that show, by category, the popularity of digital currency types, wallets and exchanges, and these are updated in real time as members make changes to their personal preferences. User rankingswhich are generated by several factors, such as their number of followers, overall activity and so forthare shown here, as well. Users who earn higher rankings will enjoy higher visibility on this page, which can help generate more interest in their input.
SliceFeeds also has a unique rumor-ranking feature; if a member hears a rumor, they can submit it to their fellow members, who can then vote on its validity. Rumors that have been verified by the network's membership, based on a percentage of members, will appear in their own ranking table here; debunked rumors will not make the listings at all. Other tips, conversations, links and videos from all members show in this public feed for users to interact and find other members to follow.
Profile Creation: Once a user joins the networksigning up is freethey can adjust several settings on their profile page, effectively creating their own personal network-within-the-network. Privacy settings will allow them to select who sees what they post, from the general public down to just the people who subscribe to their feeds. These settings can be set individually for each category of posts (or Slices, in the network lingo) a user makes, including notes, tips, rumors, conversations, links and videos. From their profile page, they can create slices (similar to a tweet in Twitter) and watch the Slices of the people they follow, arrange their favorite currencies, exchanges and wallets, track their Slice feeds, and see a listing of the people they follow and who follow them.
Monetization: The SliceFeeds network presents a unique opportunity for the monetization of information, goods and services. Since its membership consists of those interested in alternative currencies, it also offers a concentrated and motivated base of customers for sellers who accept them as payment. Merchants can advertise their companies and wares, and bloggers and trading consultants can charge for subscriptions to their more exclusive content.
Privacy and Security: These are very important concepts in the cryptocurrency community. SliceFeeds' only requirements for membership are a user name and valid email address; no other personal information is required to set up an account. Additionally, no coins are stored on Coin Pursuit or SliceFeeds servers; all transactions are made directly between members. Users who offer subscriptions will need to use their public keys in order to do so, but they are not required for general membership. Absolutely no member information will be shared with any outside parties.
Members will also be able to take advantage of the private messaging system on SliceFeeds. They simply select another member's profile, and click on the Message User button provided on that member's profile page.
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Coin Pursuit Launches SliceFeeds Interactive Cryptocurrency Network
The Mises View: "Taxing Cryptocurrency" | Jeff Deist
Jeff Deist explains some of the compliance burdens of the IRS #39;s latest guidelines for cryptocurrency and other electronic media of exchange. Deist is the president of the Mises Institute. For...
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The Mises View: "Taxing Cryptocurrency" | Jeff Deist - Video
CryptoCurrency - cryptobars commodity Launch!
http://tinyurl.com/cryptobars - Crypto Currency like bitcoin and litecoin have been extremely successful. Approximately 300000 Crypto Commodity GoldBars (GB...
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mTrader.org - Cryptocurrency Mining System
WHAT IS mTRADER ? 1. Monitor multi PCs mining Cyrptocurrency 2. One setup file and it supports all CGminer versions (CGminer 3.7.2, VTC, UTC, MAX, THOR...) 3...
By: Nguyen Minh Chanh
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On the first day of a preliminary hearing that will decide the future of the bitcoin exchange MtGox, markets continue to steadily improve.
Bitcoin has continued its steady recovery following a dip earlier this week that saw its value drop to as low as $425 (251).
All other major cryptocurrencies have followed in bitcoin's wake, with moderate gains of between 1% and 6% across the markets over the last 24 hours.
The biggest gain in value comes from flappycoin, the cryptocurrency named after the hit smartphone game FlappyBird. Its market capitalisation grew by almost 100%, taking it up to above $85,000.
Bloomberg gives bitcoin stamp of approval
Bloomberg has announced plans to list bitcoin prices on its financial data terminals, served to more than 320,000 subscribers.
The move by Bloomberg will be welcome news to the bitcoin community, giving the cryptocurrency a stamp of respectability following recent turmoil in China that drew into question bitcoin's future.
"While bitcoin and other virtual currency markets are still nascent, they represent an interesting intersection of finance and technology," said Tod Van Name, Bloomberg global head of fixed income, currencies and commodities, in a blogpost.
"Given that Bloomberg sits squarely at that intersection, providing pricing for this underdeveloped market is a natural fit for us."
Preliminary hearing for MtGox
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Cryptocurrency News Round-Up: MtGox Hearing Begins as Bitcoin gets Bloomberg Endorsement
Coinnext Cryptocurrency Exchange Coming Soon
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Jackson Palmer, co-founder of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that uses the Shiba Inu dog character from the "Doge" internet meme as its mascot. Photo: Tony Walters
Thispostwas originally published onMashable.
Dogecoin, the 140-day-oldcryptocurrency, held its first conference in San Francisco on Friday where hundreds of the currency's devotees turned out to show their support and, of course, "tip" anyone with a QR code handy.
Dogecoin's Sydney-born founder Jackson Palmer gave the keynote during which he discussed the currency's unexpected journey from joke to reality and the future of the cryptocurrency that in just over four months has already become the most widely traded virtual currency in the world.
The dogecoin market has become a networked, self-regulating, peer-to-peer community.
Palmer, who was involved in other cryptocurrency communities at the time, officially launched dogecoin in December of 2013. The currency was quickly embraced by the Reddit community who has collectively given out $US150,000 in dogecoin "tips" to other Reddit users, Palmer said.
During his keynote, the dogecoin founder said that the viability of digital currencies shouldn't depend on its value in US dollars. (Currently, 1 dogecoin is about $US0.0005, according toBitInfoCharts.)
"Unfortunately, a lot of communities around cryptocurrency, that's all they care about," he said. "I don't wake up every day and wonder about what my paycheck is. You shouldn't wake up every day and worry about what Bitcoin is in US dollars or what Dogecoin is in US dollars."
An example of the doge meme.
He said the eventual success of the currency will depend on its widespread adoption by both consumers and businesses.
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Australian dogecoin founder speaks on the future of cryptocurrency
BitAngels Co-Founder, David Johnson @ CryptoCurrency Convention NYC 4/9/14
David Johnston from BitAngels Speaking with David Irvine from MaidSafe During the 1st Ever CryptoCurrency Convention In NYC 4/9/14. Next Event to be held in ...
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BitAngels Co-Founder, David Johnson @ CryptoCurrency Convention NYC 4/9/14 - Video
PotCoin @ CryptoCurrency Convention NYC 4/9/14 - Nick Iversen
PotCoin at the CryptoCurrency Convention in NYC2014 was an outstanding success! Next Event to be held in London UK 2014! Follow Us on Twitter @ #CryptoEvents...
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PotCoin @ CryptoCurrency Convention NYC 4/9/14 - Nick Iversen - Video