"Federal agencies will attempt to regulate Bitcoin, according to the Mercatus Center's Jerry Brito. Given that regulation simply cannot control the new currency, the question is whether that regulation will foster its growth or relegate it to illicit uses." Continue reading →
"The top U.S. anti-money-laundering regulator on Monday told a Bitcoin trade group that exchanges for the virtual currency must follow the same rules as established financial institutions, highlighting the government's efforts to keep tabs on a small but growing segment of the financial world. The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or Fincen,hosted the Bitcoin Foundation and other regulators and law-enforcement officials as the sides grapple with the rise of virtual currencies. Such digital money isn't backed by a central government and often, as with Bitcoin, isn't controlled by any central entity." Continue reading →
"Bitmine presents its first video about how our Bitcoin mining devices are made. In this episode you'll have a sneak preview of our electronic circuits assembly facility and you'll see how the strict quality controls of Bitmine are accomplished in bringing you the best quality miners." Continue reading →
"We’ve long believed that merchant adoption is key to bitcoin going mainstream, and the next large phase of bitcoin usage will be as customers spend their bitcoin with more merchants. With that in mind, we wanted to lower all barriers for new merchants to get started, and help highlight some of the economic benefits of accepting bitcoin. Today we’ve decided to announce free processing on your first $1,000,000.00 USD in orders for all merchants. This waives our previous fee of 1%. For your first one million USD (equivalent at the time of purchase) in bitcoin merchant orders our fee will be 0%." Continue reading →
"The U.S. government took the latest step toward regulating virtual currencies on Monday as representatives from the Bitcoin Foundation met behind closed doors with federal officials in Washington. Attendees say the meeting was cordial, with regulators listening carefully as Bitcoin advocates warned that excessive regulation could drive innovation in virtual currencies overseas. Nearly a dozen high-level agencies were in attendance, including the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service, the Secret Service and the Financial Crimes and Enforcement Division (FinCEN) of Treasury, which convened the discussion." Continue reading →
"Ron Paul joins Larry to blast US government secrecy and talk about his new Web channel. Plus, have his supporters finally found peace with the GOP? Also, whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg says the government is always watching... even while you sleep." Continue reading →
"China and the US, which are embroiled in a bitter dispute over hacking, have agreed to set up a cybersecurity working group, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday. 'All of us, every nation, has an interest in protecting its people, protecting its rights, protecting its infrastructure,' he told reporters on a visit to Beijing. 'Cybersecurity affects everybody,' he said. 'It affects airplanes in the sky, trains on their tracks, it affects the flow of water through dams, it affects transportation networks, power plants, it affects the financial sector, banks, financial transactions. So we are going to work immediately on an accelerated basis on cyber.'" Continue reading →
"After decades of adding more cars to their household fleet while moving further and further out into the suburbs, Americans are waiting longer to get licensed, driving less and increasingly turning to alternatives such as mass transit or car-sharing programs, according to a new study by the U.S. Public Research Interest Group, or PIRG. It's not just millennials. Overall, the percentages of Americans of driving age who actually were licensed fell to just 86 percent in 2011, a 30-year low. As recently as 1992, the figure stood at 90 percent. Meanwhile, the number of vehicles Americans owned has also begun to tumble." Continue reading →
"'The digital battlefield has to be as easy to navigate as an iPhone,' writes Wired magazine’s Noah Shachtman. 'The attacks have to be as easy to launch as an Angry Bird.' Mr. Shachtman points out that U.S. cyberoffensives have taken months of planning and have required small specialized units. Instead, the Pentagon wants 'munitions made of 1s and 0s to be as simple to launch as ones made of metal and explosives.' The Pentagon has brought in 'designers behind some of Apple’s most famous computers — with assistance from the illustrators who helped bring Transformers to the silver screen.' The DoD will shell out $16.1 billion in contract money to conduct their cyber makeover." Continue reading →
"The New York Times said its website went down Tuesday after what appeared to be a 'malicious external attack.' A security researcher said there were indications that the Syrian Electronic Army, which has attacked several media organizations, was the culprit. Matt Johansen of WhiteHat Security said in a tweet that the technical aspects of the website during the outage were 'pointing to Syrian Electronic Army.' The Washington Post website was hacked this month in an attack blamed on the Syrian Electronic Army, a group that backs embattled strongman Bashar al-Assad." Continue reading →