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Overstock CEO: money ’too important to leave to government officials’

“Overstock.com Inc., an online discount retailer, is preparing to accept the virtual currency bitcoin as payment in the second half of 2014, according to Chief Executive and Chairman Patrick Byrne. The news was first reported by the website newsBTC, and confirmed in a Thursday morning phone interview with Byrne. The project is in an early stage, with no decision yet on whether Overstock.com would work with bitcoin companies to allow bitcoin payments or create its own system. A team of six to 12 people is expected to work on bitcoin payments at the company, said Byrne.” Continue reading →

Being an Austrian Is Easier Than Ever

“In April 2011, two years shy of its 100th birthday, the Fed held its first press conference in history in response to mounting criticism of its lack of transparency. In other words, the Fed felt that it had to walk out into the sunshine and defend itself. And, as no doubt part of the same public relations effort, recent Fed publications reveal a concerted effort to perpetuate the myth that the Federal Reserve System is not a central bank at all, but a system of banks that serve ‘our local communities.’ What’s different this time is that, with the help of the web, Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign, and of course, the Mises Institute, the Austrian School of economics is no longer an obscure and ignored minority.” Continue reading →

China Bitcoin Crackdown Intensifies

“The People’s Bank of China has issued a new ban on third-party payment processors from doing business with Bitcoin exchanges. Bitcoin prices on the yuan-traded BTC China exchange are down 34% on the news, and prices on the USD-traded Mt. Gox exchange were flirting with $700 all night. Mt. Gox prices were off 19% on the day. The latest ban is a a separate regulation from the People’s Bank of China’s Dec. 5 ruling barring formal financial institutions from processing Bitcoin. Rui Ma, a China-based angel investor, commented that if the crackdown continues, Chinese may only be able to purchase Bitcoins via miners or other traders.” Continue reading →

Who’s Afraid of Bitcoin? These Countries

“Governments do hold some force over the decentralized cryptocurrency, insofar as they wield control over the banks, which in turn can either stand in the way of Bitcoins beginning to circulate through the market or help open the floodgates. But the way some financial regulators see it, the risk of mass adoption is still too high; no one’s sure the bubble isn’t about to burst. Here’s a glance at the nations who have piped up about Bitcoin so far, and where they come down on the futurist money.” Continue reading →

Ohio says no to Real ID citing concerns about biometric collection, facial recognition

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirms planned enforcement of the federal REAL ID Act – Please help me stop mandatory biometric ID! Continue reading →

New Barbados currency ‘more secure’ [May 2013]

“Producers of fake Barbados money should not be smiling all the way to the bank anytime soon. On the heels of what it said was ‘an increase in counterfeit activity in 2012’, the Central Bank of Barbados has unveiled the island’s first new banknotes in 40 years. Central Bank of Barbados officials and representatives from British-based currency printer De La Rue officially introduced the new notes this morning at the Grande Salle, Tom Adams Financial Centre, saying they carried advanced security features within a modern design that was in the making for the last three years.” Continue reading →

Barbados PM: Central bank ‘indulgence’ a threat to economic stability

“Former Barbados prime minister Owen Arthur said that the Central Bank had printed BDS$370 million to purchase Government Treasury Bills, which had caused the country’s foreign exchange reserves to plunge. ‘The printing of money on this scale to accommodate government’s fiscal deficit is the chief factor that has triggered the dramatic plunge downward in the country’s foreign exchange reserves. If this plunge downward is not immediately checked, the economic affairs of Barbados will enter a new and very dangerous territory,’ he warned, reminding of the economic and social problems of Guyana and Jamaica as a result of excessive increases in money supply and inflation.” Continue reading →

Central Banks in New Zealand and Australia Issue Bitcoin Warning

“Representatives from the central banks of New Zealand and Australia have issued their own official warnings on bitcoin, terming the currency ‘interesting, but risky’. John McDermott, assistant governor at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), said banks and businesses should ‘tread very carefully’ with the digital currency, in a report by the Wall Street Journal. RBNZ Governor Graeme Wheeler cited price volatility as a cause for concern. Next door, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Glenn Stevens, said he was ‘still trying to understand’ the cryptocurrency during an interview with theAustralian Financial Review.” Continue reading →