Daily Archives: October 15, 2014

A screenshot of Dorian Nakamoto's website, which is soliciting donations for a lawsuit against Newsweek.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Dorian Nakamoto, the subject of a March Newsweek cover story entitled "The Face Behind Bitcoin," is soliciting donations online to fund a lawsuit against the publication. He claims he had nothing to do with the creation of the digital currency, and says Newsweek "must be held accountable for its reckless reporting."

Nakamoto is accepting donations via credit card, check, money order or -- of course -- bitcoins.

Bitcoin was created in 2009, but its founder has always been shrouded in secrecy. While its creator was identified as "Satoshi Nakamoto," the popular assumption was that the name was only a pseudonym.

Related: What is Bitcoin?

That changed following the publication of Newsweek's article, the result of a lengthy investigation and interviews with Nakamoto's family members. But Nakamoto's website says he and his family members were misquoted, and that he was "victimized by a reckless news organization."

Newsweek did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nakamoto acknowledges that a number of details in the Newsweek article are correct, including his background as an engineer and the fact that he once worked for a defense contractor. But the basic premise about his role in creating the currency, he says, is completely false.

"Newsweek's article terrorized both Dorian and his family, all of them private citizens," the website says.

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Bitcoin 'inventor' plans to sue Newsweek

A screenshot of Dorian Nakamoto's website, which is soliciting donations for a lawsuit against Newsweek.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Dorian Nakamoto, the subject of a March Newsweek cover story entitled "The Face Behind Bitcoin," is soliciting donations online to fund a lawsuit against the publication. He claims he had nothing to do with the creation of the digital currency, and says Newsweek "must be held accountable for its reckless reporting."

Nakamoto is accepting donations via credit card, check, money order or -- of course -- bitcoins.

Bitcoin was created in 2009, but its founder has always been shrouded in secrecy. While its creator was identified as "Satoshi Nakamoto," the popular assumption was that the name was only a pseudonym.

Related: What is Bitcoin?

That changed following the publication of Newsweek's article, the result of a lengthy investigation and interviews with Nakamoto's family members. But Nakamoto's website says he and his family members were misquoted, and that he was "victimized by a reckless news organization."

Newsweek did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nakamoto acknowledges that a number of details in the Newsweek article are correct, including his background as an engineer and the fact that he once worked for a defense contractor. But the basic premise about his role in creating the currency, he says, is completely false.

"Newsweek's article terrorized both Dorian and his family, all of them private citizens," the website says.

Continued here:
Bitcoin 'inventor' plans to sue

Summary: According to security experts, the cryptocurrency community needs to grow up in order to thrive -- and become more like the establishment it originally tried to break away from.

ISLE OF MAN The cryptocommunity needs to "grow up" if Bitcoin is going to flourish, according to a prominent member of the security community.

Interest in Bitcoin exploded after the 2008 recession. In 2012, there was a sharp rise in Bitcoin-based merchant services. Since this time, the cryptocurrency has become monetized due to rising demand, which peaked last year at over $1,000 for a single BTC. Many attempted to cash in, but the price fell by over 50 percent following the decimation of major Bitcoin trading post Mt. Gox.

Despite this, faith in virtual currency remains strong but could the lure of cryptocurrency's unstructured and unregulated system also be its undoing?

There are endless possibilities for cryptocurrency, and this is not limited to Bitcoin. Litecoin, Dogecoin and Peercoin to name but a few are also in the mix, and many individuals and businesses are working out how virtual currency will fit in to our future. Traditional financial institutions may underpin transactions using virtual currency, more individual power and privacy could end up in the hands of consumers, and underdeveloped nations may be able to use crypto to circumvent corrupt governments or to allow for easier payments and reduced transfer costs where traditional economies are volatile.

Bitcoin may have had its name tainted by association with underground marketplace Silk Road, but virtual currency's story doesn't have to end there.

Bruce Elliott, anexecutivefrom financial services firm Boston, told attendeesat the Crypto Valley Summit on the Isle of Man:

Bitcoin for us is a nice thing and a nice way to make money. For others, it's a matter of life and death and a way to transform their own lives [...] and control their own destiny.

In short, Bitcoin is more than a "scheme," as a recent report issued by the Bank of England implied.Within the report, the financial institution said that while Bitcoin had the potential to "disrupt monetary policy," the inherent volatility of the currency means crypto is not a threat to traditional currency and the "small size of such schemes" leaves virtual currency outside of the bank's notice.

However, in order for virtual currency to succeed, more is needed than ideas, glue and tape. Major ingredients including investment, security and regulation may also be necessary.

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Bitcoin survival relies on community 'growing up'

After a massive surge in popularity in 2013 and the first half of 2014, bitcoin has been largely absent from the news headlines lately.

Source: flickr user Marc van der Chijs

However, over the past few months, the number of mainstream retailers that accept bitcoin has grown considerably. Here are some of the places where you can now spend your bitcoins just as easily as (or easier than) using a credit card.

1. Overstock.com -- Overstock was the first major retailer to start accepting bitcoin in early 2014, and the company has reported several million dollars in bitcoin sales. Overstock has recently expanded its acceptance of bitcoin to its international customers, and CEO Patrick Byrne expects bitcoin sales totaling between $6 million-$8 million by the end of the year.

2. PayPal -- Although it may be a while until bitcoin is fully integrated into PayPal and eBay , PayPal recently announced its partnership with bitcoin processors, which will allow merchants to accept bitcoin payments via PayPal.

This is definitely a step in the right direction, and maybe one day PayPal's 100 million active users will be able to store bitcoins in their PayPal accounts, which would go a long way toward the "mainstreaming" of the digital currency.

3. Dell -- The computing giant has been accepting bitcoin since July. Customers can shop on Dell's website just like they normally would, then choose bitcoin at checkout as their method of payment. They will then be sent to Coinbase's website (Dell's bitcoin partner) to complete their transaction.

4.CheapAir.com and Expedia -- The travel website CheapAir.com has been accepting bitcoin for flight bookings since November 2013, and later expanded its bitcoin acceptance to include hotel and railway bookings. In fact, CheapAir has seen so much success with bitcoin that it is going to start accepting some other virtual currencies as well.

Expedia has recently ventured into the bitcoin ecosystem, accepting the currency for hotel bookings from U.S. customers only. However, the company has suggested that it may expand this in the future.

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Bitcoin and Retailers: Who Accepts the Virtual Currency?