Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: yokes101 on August 15, 2013, 12:09 pm
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*Clearnet* http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/499262/20130815/senate-committee-probes-bitcoin-virtual-currency-coinjar.htm *Clearnet*
A US Senate committee has launched an investigation into the virtual Bitcoin currency amid concerns over criminal activity, days after a number of Bitcoin companies are subpoenaed in New York.
Writing to major financial regulators and law enforcement agencies, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs asks about the "threats and risks related to virtual currency," suggesting plans for regulating Bitcoin are on the horizon.
Bitcoin, the most well-known virtual currency, is decentralised and is not monitored by any financial institution. The currency, which currently trades for around £72 per coin, can be used anonymously, making it popular among criminals who wish to sell illegal or stolen goods online without trace.
Sent to the US Department of Justice, Federal Reserve, the Treasury, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the letter raises concerns over Bitcoin's anonymity.
"[Bitcoins] near anonymous and decentralised nature has also attracted criminals who value few things more than being allowed to operate in the shadows," it reads.
In an interview with Forbes this week, the man behind black market drugs website Silk Road, which accepts Bitcoin as payment, praised the currency. "We've won the State's War on Drugs because of Bitcoin," he said, calling himself The Dread Pirate Roberts.
Not yet suggesting Bitcoin should be outlawed, the letter stresses that a balanced approach must be made, and suggests potential value in the use of virtual currencies. "As with all emerging technologies, the federal government must make sure that potential threats and risks are dealt with swiftly; however, we must also ensure that rash and uninformed actions don't stifle a potentially valuable technology."
Expansive
It continues: "The expansive nature of this emerging technology demands a holistic and whole-government approach in order to understand and provide a sensible regulatory framework for their existence."
The letter asks for its recipients to reply with details of any policies, procedures or guidance related to virtual currencies, along with minutes of working groups involved in the development of such policies, and any plans or strategies regarding ongoing initiatives related to Bitcoin-type currencies.
Earlier this week, New York state issued subpoenas to around two dozen companies who operate with Bitcoin, including those invested in by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins most well-known for their legal battles with Mark Zuckerberg over the ownership of Facebook.
Australian bank suspends payments from Bitcoin startup
As the US begins the task of building a legal framework around Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, the Commonwealth Bank, Australia's largest bank, has closed accounts belonging to local Bitcoin payment processor CoinJar.
The company offers tools to buy and sell Bitcoins and accepts them as payment from customers. Speaking to the Register, CoinJar said it handles around 100 transactions per day, but has found fewer than ten fraudulent transactions since opening for business earlier this year, most of which were for less than $AUD100 (£59).
Blogging about the experience, CoinJar founder Asher Tan said payments to his customers suddenly stopped last week, but money was still coming into the company's accounts unaffected.
After questioning the problem with Commonwealth Bank, Tan was told it could not disclose any information, while his customers remained unpaid for five days. Tan then tried to close his accounts and move elsewhere, but was told that this wouldn't be possible.
Shortly after blogging about the incident, Tan updated his post to say the bank has "now closed my personal account without informing me. They've also closed the personal account of my co-founder. Brilliant."
In a statement sent to the Register, Commonwealth Bank says it is looking into the matter, but is "unable to provide further details due to customer confidentiality."
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They can't do anything about bitcoin itself, all they can do is throw a monkeywrench into the exchanges, make them jump through hoops and whatnot. Sure that will be bad for people wanting to get BTC or cashing them out in this country. But there is always localbitcoins.com.
I defy you, you senate fuckers, to take us down. You'll go down first, you weasels.
goblin
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*Clearnet* http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/499262/20130815/senate-committee-probes-bitcoin-virtual-currency-coinjar.htm *Clearnet*
A US Senate committee has launched an investigation into the virtual Bitcoin currency amid concerns over criminal activity, days after a number of Bitcoin companies are subpoenaed in New York.
Writing to major financial regulators and law enforcement agencies, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs asks about the "threats and risks related to virtual currency," suggesting plans for regulating Bitcoin are on the horizon.
Bitcoin, the most well-known virtual currency, is decentralised and is not monitored by any financial institution. The currency, which currently trades for around £72 per coin, can be used anonymously, making it popular among criminals who wish to sell illegal or stolen goods online without trace.
Sent to the US Department of Justice, Federal Reserve, the Treasury, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the letter raises concerns over Bitcoin's anonymity.
"[Bitcoins] near anonymous and decentralised nature has also attracted criminals who value few things more than being allowed to operate in the shadows," it reads.
In an interview with Forbes this week, the man behind black market drugs website Silk Road, which accepts Bitcoin as payment, praised the currency. "We've won the State's War on Drugs because of Bitcoin," he said, calling himself The Dread Pirate Roberts.
Not yet suggesting Bitcoin should be outlawed, the letter stresses that a balanced approach must be made, and suggests potential value in the use of virtual currencies. "As with all emerging technologies, the federal government must make sure that potential threats and risks are dealt with swiftly; however, we must also ensure that rash and uninformed actions don't stifle a potentially valuable technology."
Expansive
It continues: "The expansive nature of this emerging technology demands a holistic and whole-government approach in order to understand and provide a sensible regulatory framework for their existence."
The letter asks for its recipients to reply with details of any policies, procedures or guidance related to virtual currencies, along with minutes of working groups involved in the development of such policies, and any plans or strategies regarding ongoing initiatives related to Bitcoin-type currencies.
Earlier this week, New York state issued subpoenas to around two dozen companies who operate with Bitcoin, including those invested in by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins most well-known for their legal battles with Mark Zuckerberg over the ownership of Facebook.
Australian bank suspends payments from Bitcoin startup
As the US begins the task of building a legal framework around Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, the Commonwealth Bank, Australia's largest bank, has closed accounts belonging to local Bitcoin payment processor CoinJar.
The company offers tools to buy and sell Bitcoins and accepts them as payment from customers. Speaking to the Register, CoinJar said it handles around 100 transactions per day, but has found fewer than ten fraudulent transactions since opening for business earlier this year, most of which were for less than $AUD100 (£59).
Blogging about the experience, CoinJar founder Asher Tan said payments to his customers suddenly stopped last week, but money was still coming into the company's accounts unaffected.
After questioning the problem with Commonwealth Bank, Tan was told it could not disclose any information, while his customers remained unpaid for five days. Tan then tried to close his accounts and move elsewhere, but was told that this wouldn't be possible.
Shortly after blogging about the incident, Tan updated his post to say the bank has "now closed my personal account without informing me. They've also closed the personal account of my co-founder. Brilliant."
In a statement sent to the Register, Commonwealth Bank says it is looking into the matter, but is "unable to provide further details due to customer confidentiality."
+1 for an interesting post. 8) Great read. :)
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great information man, hopefully they fail miserably at this attempt to regulate and make things more difficult, but def. a good find, im just somewhat nervous with that find and than the article for DPR yesterday , hopefully things continue to run smoothly and SR doesnt have any issues arise out of all these recent events....oh yeah and DEF. +1 !
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Do these Americans government fucking pigs CLAIM EVERYTHING? These insecure rape victims are like little kids trying to touch that red button that they can't touch.
Man, i really hope some crazy ass 1% lone wolf will go ape shit on some of these 'suits'. Wish we had some Libia and Egypt riots in the USA, making these grey heads crawl under their beds.
How the flying fuck can the USA decide what can or can't happen world wide?!
Is there a way to get around this mess?
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It must be hard for people that use bitcoins for other things then drugs, I would really hate to be them right now. They must be getting tons of shit.
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I don't like regulations :(
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I don't like regulations :(
welcome to my world
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Oh no, now all bitcoin related stuff will move to Russia and China. Oh nooooooooo. Big fucking deal. Pretty soon the US is going to realize they can no longer control every aspect of the world with the rise of the rest of the world. In another 10 years the US will be nothing more then one of many big players on a big stage and will no longer be able to control everything about the world.
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Oh no, now all bitcoin related stuff will move to Russia and China. Oh nooooooooo. Big fucking deal. Pretty soon the US is going to realize they can no longer control every aspect of the world with the rise of the rest of the world. In another 10 years the US will be nothing more then one of many big players on a big stage and will no longer be able to control everything about the world.
10 years? I think that has kind of already happened...we just don't know it yet. Look at oil, for example...before we were the big player but now the Chinese are driving the market IMO. We are broke and our infrastructure is busted down...all the developing countries are building newer and better things than we have. I saw an article about our power grid awhile back and it mentioned how inefficient ours was and that China was building one like 80% more efficient or something ridiculous. Not good. We are spending money writing laws to keep the people down instead of making sure our country stays on top.
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^^^ Actually we drive the oil market now and for decades to come because our recent shale production. Last week it was in the news the the Saudi Oil Ministry was kind of in a panic saying how US shale was going to bankrupt their country unless they started to diversify quickly..... Oil not withstanding, the rest of the world I feel is starting to feel they can say no to the US. It is so nice to see a nice little country like Uruguay give the US the middle finger and pull out of the UN drug convention treaty :-) Warm and fuzzy feeling :-)
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Oh no, now all bitcoin related stuff will move to Russia and China. Oh nooooooooo. Big fucking deal. Pretty soon the US is going to realize they can no longer control every aspect of the world . . .
Control isn't required, really.
Just bribe the right greed-heads in [name of country] and . . . bah-dah-bing, bah-dah-boom . . . no more virtual currency problem in [name of country].
Works like a charm. Has for decades. :)
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USSA ( United Socialist States of America)
The laws ...they say they are the same.....however...the morals and principles that our founding fathers built this nation around have been amended so much that we're becoming a terrible place. we give money to outsiders to start businesses and do nothing about our homeless...this is my homeland but if i get the chance i will become an Expat! Things seem to change for the worse within the united states...this is just my own opinion...
FTW!! Long Live Freedom!
Peace & Hugs,
ChemCat
O0
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10 years? I think that has kind of already happened...we just don't know it yet. Look at oil, for example...before we were the big player but now the Chinese are driving the market IMO. We are broke and our infrastructure is busted down...all the developing countries are building newer and better things than we have. I saw an article about our power grid awhile back and it mentioned how inefficient ours was and that China was building one like 80% more efficient or something ridiculous. Not good. We are spending money writing laws to keep the people down instead of making sure our country stays on top.
Fucking A! B! and C!
if everyone in the government died tomorrow how long would it take for anyone to notice?
i wager several months before anyone would say " hey whatever happened to xxxxx asshole anyway?
wasnt it time for his payoff last week?
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^^^ Actually we drive the oil market now and for decades to come because our recent shale production. Last week it was in the news the the Saudi Oil Ministry was kind of in a panic saying how US shale was going to bankrupt their country unless they started to diversify quickly..... Oil not withstanding, the rest of the world I feel is starting to feel they can say no to the US. It is so nice to see a nice little country like Uruguay give the US the middle finger and pull out of the UN drug convention treaty :-) Warm and fuzzy feeling :-)
Right, but I guess my point was "our" companies are selling it to other countries because it is worth more there than we are willing to pay...aka we no longer drive the market. I do get what you are saying about shale here tho...the Bakken Oil Field is raping right now and they supposedly found one under it that might be like 10x the size, but it's currently inaccessible I believe. I think the numbers I saw the other day was something like 821k barrels a day...crazy.
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Doesn't really matter. All they can do is make getting bitcoins harder but there will always be options available.
They need to regulate everything. I am hoping for someone to stand up to all this shit and show that they will not take it anymore, why can't riots be going on here in the U.S. :(
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Doesn't really matter. All they can do is make getting bitcoins harder but there will always be options available.
They need to regulate everything. I am hoping for someone to stand up to all this shit and show that they will not take it anymore, why can't riots be going on here in the U.S. :(
This is what i said in a previous post of mine, people in Egypt and country's like that at least have balls and fucking torch everything down and blow the fuck out of government buildings when the government harms them. This seems a little bit harsh but the main point is at least they have balls to stand up and have nothing to lose.
Americans or let's just say the rest of the world, are just too damn indoctrinated and think inside the (match) box, people with idea's and that dare to think outside the box are just crazy. I wonder how the world would look without the government taxing us 80% of our money, even shitty jobs at McD's or cleaning would make a decent amount of money.
And the whole war on drugs, don't let me laugh, the whole USA is build out of drug money and seized money. If people would do everything correctly, don't deal, pay all their taxes, that shit would crumble down like a 3 year old cookie.
If i personally would have the choice i would say: I don't pay taxes, i don't pay insurance, i don't want any help from you. When i have problems i will figure it out myself.
Trust me, if you don't pay taxes no nothing you will make so much money that you can start an insurance jar for yourself.