Crypto-Anarchism

The Politics Of Bitcoin Mixing Services

"The emergence of services that mingle bitcoin for the purpose of returning bitcoin not associated with the original input address has had a somewhat spotty history. Also called bitcoin laundries, these web-based services charge bitcoin holders a nominal fee to receive different bitcoins than the ones initially transferred. The largest such service operating today is the Blockchain.info mixing service which has a maximum transaction size of 250 bitcoins and a 0.5% transaction fee. Other services include BitLaundry and The Bitcoin Laundry operated by Mike Gogulski." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Politics Of Bitcoin Mixing Services

Thin Wire – Hawala

"With the ingenious method of hawala, money moved time zones and continents via a single communication between two hawaladars or thadekars (hawala agents): a promise that the cash had been deposited on one end, and thus could be withdrawn from the other. So long as cash trades at either end were relatively balanced, the system worked—so well that hawala remained the mainstay of monetary trade in more than 50 countries until the early 20th century. Fast-forward a few hundred years, and hawala has a less celebrated reputation. But for families in developing countries supported by diaspora relatives, hawala is a lifeline." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThin Wire – Hawala

CoinLab: new brands will be built around Bitcoin technology

"One thing humans don't know how to do is shut down peer to peer networks. We don't have the technology. Generally it's the case governments are understanding, but if you start crushing all the good [Bitcoin businesses] you'll push this underground. I see a world in which governments can set the price.You could stop good exchanges, but it would be hard to stop secret ones. It's so fast and so easy to use, the right thing to do is to build a good ecosystem. There may be a country that doesn't want to deal with it, but citizens will keep using it." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCoinLab: new brands will be built around Bitcoin technology

Reddit co-founder: Tech companies can help fight NSA snooping

"'I think we are awakening to a new age of sort of distributed — instead of centralized — hubs for all our data,' he explained. 'So I think this is the free market, we could very likely see alternatives pop up were social networking or whatever the thing might be does not concentrate all of our private data in one particular space.' Ohanian was a vocal opponent of legislation known as the Stop Online Piracy Act. Reddit, along with other tech giants like Wikipedia, successfully killed the bill by staging an Internet 'blackout.' However, Ohanian admitted that drumming up support to fight NSA surveillance was a more difficult task than battling SOPA." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingReddit co-founder: Tech companies can help fight NSA snooping

Bitcoin Black Market Competition Heats Up, With Pro Marketing And Millions At Stake

"Watch the cheery video ad for the latest dark-web drug marketplace today, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it was selling a service as mainstream as online dating or car insurance. Atlantis, which launched in March, is poised to take on the Silk Road, which remains by far the biggest drug sales site, with close to 60,000 unique visitors a day by one researcher’s rough measure and $22 million annual sales according to a study last year. Both run on the anonymity service Tor to hide the location of their servers and the identities of any visitors to their sites, and both accept Bitcoin to avoid having their transactions tracked through bank records." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin Black Market Competition Heats Up, With Pro Marketing And Millions At Stake

Glenn Greenwald: Snowden’s Files Are Out There if ‘Anything Happens’ to Him

"As the U.S. government presses Moscow to extradite former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, America’s most wanted leaker has a plan B. The former NSA systems administrator has already given encoded files containing an archive of the secrets he lifted from his old employer to several people. If anything happens to Snowden, the files will be unlocked. The fact that Snowden has made digital copies of the documents he accessed while working at the NSA poses a new challenge to the U.S. intelligence community that has scrambled in recent days to recover them and assess the full damage of the breach." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: Snowden’s Files Are Out There if ‘Anything Happens’ to Him

Bitcoiners donate to WikiLeaks to support Edward Snowden

"Bitcoin donations to WikiLeaks increased 1,894% yesterday after Julian Assange pledged his support to whistle-blower Edward Snowden. 'I have personal sympathy with Snowden having gone through similar personal experiences,' Time Magazine reports Assange as saying during the 75-minute call. Assange said yesterday that Snowden was 'healthy and safe', but would not offer any further insight into where the 29-year-old was or when and how they had spoken. 'If we lived in a better world we would be able to go into those details. Unfortunately, we live in a world, as illuminated by Mr Snowden, where most communications are intercepted unlawfully.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoiners donate to WikiLeaks to support Edward Snowden

Spying fears highlight worth of Swiss data centres

"‘Trust’ is the watchword of the expanding Swiss data storage industry as it quietly carves out a highly lucrative global niche. Recent revelations of U.S. intelligence agency spying, coupled with ongoing reports of espionage emanating from China, may have raised public consciousness of the dangers to data but the industry has known about it for years. Some data storage providers have taken security to extremes, housing their servers in ex-military alpine bunkers, such as the aptly-named ‘Fort Knox’ in canton Bern. One company using the bunker, Siag – which labels itself the 'Swiss private bank for digital assets' - refuses to deal with US clients on security grounds." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSpying fears highlight worth of Swiss data centres

Privacy services companies stand up against Big Brother

"Encryption communication services companies are gaining momentum as public trust in US technology companies and social media networks are at an all-time low following explosive revelations by Edward Snowden. 'It’s going crazy. You know a lot of people suspected the US government was spying on Americans. But now we have this confirmation so everybody is contacting us now. We’ve had a huge surge in orders,' said Phil Zimmermann, CEO of Silent Circle, encrypted communications firm. Another company that is bearing the fruits of the NSA’s misfortune is Seecrypt, a mobile application that encrypts information sent over the mobile phone." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPrivacy services companies stand up against Big Brother

Bitcoins Seized By DEA

"The Drug Enforcement Administration posted an Official Notification that Bitcoin (i.e. property) belonging to Eric Daniel Hughes was seized for forfeiture pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 881, because the property was used or acquired as a result of a violation of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. §§ 801 et seq.) The DEA appears to have been the first agency to seize actual Bitcoins from an individual with this seizure. Exactly how the Bitcoin was seized is not known as of this writing. However, reading the top of the notice it appears that Mr. Hughes can request release of the seized property during the pendency of the forfeiture proceeding due to hardship." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoins Seized By DEA