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Gold & silver sales jump during Ramadan and Eid in India

"Mohammed Kazi said the past week had seen a big rush of customers. 'Though we serve a large number of people regularly at this time of the year, a silver tinge has been added on to the gift giving this year,' said Kazi. Silver bars and notes with a print of 786, the holy number, with photos of the religious Mecca and Medina, and silver artifacts of Mecca and Medina, silver sandals and silver armbands are doing the rounds as gifting articles across households, said Kazi. Gold and silver sales tend to surge during Ramadan and Eid due to the purchase of gifts. For the devout, mass prayers end with greeting their brethren and handing over small gifts." Continue reading →

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Gold Smuggling to Climb in India on Tax Increase, Festivals

"The third increase in import taxes on gold this year by India, the world’s biggest user, is set to boost smuggling ahead of the festival and wedding seasons as official imports halt on central bank curbs, a trade group said. Poor Indian laborers working in the Middle East are acting as couriers for organized gangs in return for a ticket home and a few thousand rupees, according to Rishi Yadav, assistant commissioner at the Mumbai customs department’s Air Intelligence Unit. The gangs seek to benefit by selling that smuggled bullion to traders and mom-and-pop jewelry stores, who benefit from cheaper supplies." Continue reading →

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Feds Crack Encrypted Drives, Arrest Child Porn Suspect

"The arrest came months after the authorities told a federal judge they were unable to decrypt the drives and needed the defendant to disclose his passwords — pitting the constitutional right against compelled self-incrimination against the government’s need to access data. In June, the authorities urged the court to demand that Feldman fork over his passcodes, saying the suspect could 'forget his passwords.' The authorities did not say what type of encryption Feldman used. But the case illustrates that encryption isn’t foolproof and that the authorities are making headway cracking encryption." Continue reading →

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Bitcoins are a buy at $50, says equity fund VP

"Bitcoins aren’t going to crash and burn, and could be be a good investment at $50. So says famed banking analyst Richard Bove, vice president of equity research at Rafferty Capital Markets. What’s more, Bove wouldn’t mind buying bitcoins at the right price. 'If I could buy them at a low enough price, like $50, then I think it would be worthwhile speculating with a few of them,' he said in a phone interview. Bove decided to write about bitcoins after a top New York bank regulator issued subpoenas to several major bitcoin companies and issued a memo on virtual currencies." Continue reading →

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Micropayments now ready to slash price of online news

"Microtransactions could let users read the rest of a New York Times article for a few cents instead of signing up for a full monthly subscription, Armstrong wrote, or 'pay for Wi-Fi internet metered by the minute (or second!) if you just need to check one email' or 'support your favorite artists or coders with a tip'. The idea of a Bitcoin-based paywall is already out there. BitWall aims to give publishers more flexibility over how they charge for content, allowing for sales of daily, weekly or monthly subscriptions, or on a per-article basis. Meanwhile, Flattr allows people to make donations to the creators of free online content." Continue reading →

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US misprinted 30 million new $100 bills, costing millions to fix

"The US is approaching the release date of its new $100 bills, but the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is facing an embarrassing problem: 30 million bills were incorrectly printed, and fixing them will cost taxpayers an estimated $3.79 million. The new $100 bills are designed to contain a Liberty Bell that changes its color, 3-D images that move when the bill is tilted, and a hidden message on the collar of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers. Once these bills were delivered to the Federal Reserve, they were rejected. Officials have sent back about 30 million of them, and refuse to accept any more bills from the Washington, D.C. factory." Continue reading →

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Goodbye Switzerland, Hello Bitcoins

"Given that the allure of bitcoins has been attributed by some to its status as an untraceable alternative to currencies issued by central authorities, there is little reason to assume that bitcoin market participants will honor their tax obligations as soon as the rules are explained more clearly. Thus, it is not surprising that the potential for bitcoins and other virtual currencies to replace offshore accounts as '[t]omorrow’s tax havens' has been the subject of scholarly analysis and commentary (here and here). It remains to be seen how the IRS will attack the use of bitcoins and other virtual currencies to evade income tax obligations." Continue reading →

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It’s Time for a Crypto Bank: The Crypto Finance IPO

"Coupled with recent moves from the US Government, the sporadic shutdown of Bitcoin services, and suspicion from many other banks over Bitcoin transactions, users must be eagerly awaiting the launch of the world’s first crypto bank: Crypto Finance. Crypto Finance is planning to launch in Q4 this year, and will be based in Panama. The company will offer personal and business bank accounts for individuals converting up to 20 different Fiat currencies, and an exchange for purchasing crypto currency with Fiat currency. Transactions will be faster, fees lower, and '100% of the funds will remain intact in the customer’s account'." Continue reading →

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Australian bank closes personal accounts of Bitcoin startup’s founders

"Last Friday we found out that our automatic payouts weren’t being processed. Incoming transactions were fine and unaffected. Our first point of contact was the business banking hotline, CommBiz, which advised us to go in to our local branch to sort things out. Going in to the branch we were told that it had to be settled by the Security team. The worse case scenario we were told, was we would have to close and re-open our bank account with CBA. We were told there would be an update on Friday. We had a call back from our branch to tell us the update was, 'no further information.'" Continue reading →

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Google confirms critical Android crypto flaw used in $5,700 Bitcoin heist

"Google developers have confirmed a cryptographic vulnerability in the Android operating system that researchers say could generate serious security glitches on hundreds of thousands of end user apps, many of them used to make Bitcoin transactions. This weakness in Android's Java Cryptography Architecture is the root cause of a Bitcoin transaction that reportedly was exploited to pilfer about $5,720 worth of bitcoins out of a digital wallet last week. The disclosure, included in a blog post published Wednesday by Google security engineer Alex Klyubin, was the first official confirmation of the Android vulnerability." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGoogle confirms critical Android crypto flaw used in $5,700 Bitcoin heist