Monthly Archives: July 2013

Banks Get One Last Mulligan in Payments

"In true startup fashion, the bank-owned card brands of Visa and MasterCard eventually had successful IPOs. The inspiration is clearly there. But where are the visionaries in banking now? With the breakthrough development of cryptographic money, banks appear paralyzed about understanding and harnessing its transformative power. This does not bode well for the future of banks. Just as they block and freeze the accounts of competitive money transmitters in the U.S., banks routinely freeze the bank accounts of innocent bitcoin exchanges, hiding behind the rationale that they are being watchful of and adhering to regulator guidelines." Continue reading →

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Over 1,000 flee homes in south Mexico over violence

"Some 1,000 people have fled their homes in southwestern Mexico after gunfights erupted in their villages and criminal groups threatened them, officials said Thursday. Residents of three villages in the state of Guerrero abandoned their homes Wednesday after an unspecified number of people were wounded and houses were set ablaze, said Bolivar Ochoa, secretary general of the San Miguel Totolapa municipality that oversees the communities. The gang violence has led several communities in another region of Guerrero, the mountainous and rural Costa Chica area, to form vigilante groups in order to conduct their own policing." Continue reading →

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Mexico could legalize marijuana in five years: former president Vicente Fox

"Mexico could legalize marijuana within the next five years, stripping brutal drug cartels of a major source of income, former President Vicente Fox said on Friday. Fox, who battled the powerful cartels while president between 2000 and 2006, has since become a staunch advocate of reforming Mexico’s drug laws, arguing that prohibition has helped create the criminal market that sustains the gangs. Under his successor, Felipe Calderon, Mexico launched a military offensive to crush the cartels, but the violence spiraled instead, and more than 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related bloodletting since the start of 2007." Continue reading →

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Internet Drug Dealers Are Really Nice Guys

"The Silk Road is sometimes described as the eBay of illegal drugs. It’s actually more like Etsy, with its do-it-yourself philosophy and friendly community. Just like Etsy, you place your order with a stranger on the other side of the world, pay using electronic money, and in a couple of days, your package arrives. Except that instead of a dream catcher made of hair and toenail clippings, you get heroin! I talked to some of the good people of the Silk Road about Bitcoin and life selling drugs online. They were a little paranoid, understandably, but surprisingly accommodating too." Continue reading →

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SatoshiDice Sold for $12.4 Million

"Erik Voorhees has announced that SatoshiDice, by far the most popular gambling site in the Bitcoin community, is being sold in full for 126315 BTC, worth $12.4 million USD at the time of the announcement. SatoshiDice is now one of the largest businesses in the Bitcoin economy, beaten out by the mining company ASICMiner, worth roughly $150 million, and perhaps Bitcoin merchant and exchange juggernauts such as BitPay, BitInstant and Coinbase, all of which have received millions of dollars in investment. The company’s success can be attributed to its simple interface." Continue reading →

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Blueseed Entrepreneur Cruise Ship Continues Full Steam Ahead with Bitcoin Funding

"Blueseed is a live/work/play startup community for 1000 entrepreneurs, on a cruise ship to be stationed 30 minutes by ferry from the coast of Silicon Valley. The location is in international waters, outside U.S. jurisdiction, and allows entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world to start or scale their companies without needing U.S. work visas. Instead, easier-to-obtain B1/B2 business/travel visas will be used to arrive on Blueseed and to visit the mainland in order to connect with the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Blueseed creates a new class of real-estate – technology-enhanced and ocean-based." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin Downloads Surge in Argentina

"Since early June, Argentina’s share of global bitcoin software downloads has more than doubled, as the country edges towards what Barclays called 'a balance-of-payments crisis, in slow motion.' With bitcoin, Argentines can transfer their wealth to anywhere in the world instantly, outside of the domain of local authorities. Also, although bitcoin transactions are stored on a public ledger, it’s extremely difficult to determine the identities of the parties involved in the transactions. That anonymity could help Argentines avoid the scrutiny of the national tax agency, which has aggressively used enforcement actions to contain the public’s dollar purchases." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin: A Bet Against the Stupid Horse

"George Mason economics professor Peter Boettke made his first FreedomFest appearance and presented some harrowing statistics pointing to the demise of the United States. However he made the analogy that the economy is like three horses. The Adam Smith horse drives prosperity through gains from trade. The Joseph Schumpeter horse provides constant innovation from technology. The third horse, what Boettke calls the stupid horse, is government. Both the Smith and Schumpeter horses created bitcoin and as much as the government tries to rein it in, those horses will stay ahead. The government horse is too slow and stupid." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin’s Open-Air Trading Floor

"People gather every Monday evening in New York’s Union Square to buy and sell the crypto-currency known as Bitcoin. Flashing cash and smartphones, men make trades worth thousands of dollars in a nook of the park they call Satoshi Square. The scene is like an open-air trading floor, and indeed, participants liken themselves to the men who hatched New York’s first stock exchange under a buttonwood tree in 1792. Similar gatherings have taken place in London, and an inaugural one will take place in Toronto next week. The vibe at Satoshi Square was a cross between a stock exchange, a religious revival, and buying weed in the park." Continue reading →

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The first Bitcoin based bank in Cyprus is coming!

"Welcome to the blog of LMB Holdings the parent company of both Ploutos (Bank) and the Pisti payment network. We are extremely proud to be in a position of providing a solution for the two biggest questions being asked currently here in Cyprus by depositors; 1. Is my money safe and will the government be taking my money? 2. Can I spend my money? With many Cypriots and international depositors losing more than 20% of their life savings to help prop up the failing banks, there has never been a more suitable time nor place to launch a genuine alternative to the mainstream banking systems." Continue reading →

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