Easier reporting of suspicious user activity
LocalBitcoins site has now a new user reporting feature. You can find
the user reporting link from the public user profile page. The new
feature makes it easier to report suspicious users, though this option
has been always available through the support ticket system.
LocalBitcoins support team checks the reported users and may take
necessary action to suspend the user account if there is evidence of
breaking the site rules and good trade etiquette. Potential reasons to
report a user may include
- Fraudulent activity
- Violating LocalBitcoins terms of service
- Misleading information
- Abuse
Source : localbitcoins.blogspot.in
New Businesses Accepting BTC: Apache Software, Ombushop, Laundry Locker and More
Bitcoin has gained tremendous popularity in the last year, and it’s safe to say that it has become one of the world’s most convenient ways of buying, selling and trading things over the internet.In spite of the many warnings from governments, companies all over the world are starting to understand that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin not only save money but add value to their business.
Here are some of the new businesses and offers that you can jump on using Bitcoin.
Exotic cars for BTC
Does anyone have 332.7000 BTC to spare? If so, Lamborghini Newport Beach is offering some exotic automobiles in exchange for Bitcoin via eggify.com.While new BTC merchants are springing up all over, we are certainly starting to see more and more car dealerships get on board and implementing the BTC payment option – a trend that is likely to grow over the next few years.
Chinese Residential Complex Accepting Bitcoin as Deposit
A brand new residential complex, Yimei International Mansion, located in the Hubei Province of China, has recently announced that they’re accepting Bitcoin towards a deposit. That being said, this is the first time the crypto currency is being used as payment deposit in the domestic real estate sector. Chief of the e-commerce department for Yimei, Mr. Fu Kai, says:"The population of Local Jianli People who left home and worked in other bigger cities is around 400,000. Many of them have become elites in respective industries. Those hipsters are familiar with new things. So Bitcoin isn’t strange to them. When they come back to hometown to settle down, Bitcoin deposit might be attractive. To accept Bitcoin as deposit is also in line with our international orientation".He continued to talk about the digital currency’s decentralization, highlighting that in the past 2 years following the price is like riding on a roller coaster. Nonetheless, in the first quarter of 2014, the price stabilized to an average amount of 3,000 yuan.
Bitcoins can only be used for the deposit but not to buy the apartment, but hopefully this will also be an option in the future for home buyers and potential investors alike.
Bitcoin becomes an option for OmbuShop’s 2,000 Merchants
OmbuShop has recently announced a brand new partnership that will allow 2,000 Latin American merchants to add Bitcoin as a payment mode on their websites. The ecommerce website provider was founded in 2011, and it is mainly focused on merchants that sell clothes and accessories. By accepting cryptocurrency, OmbuShop will enable international customers to sell their products a lot more conveniently. CEO of OmbuShop, Ernesto Tagwerker, mentions:“We see in bitcoin a great medium to get paid from clients all over the world. Now, Argentine shops can sell to the US and all over the world without having to worry how to get paid.”Tagwerker additionally mentioned that Bitcoin will be extremely advantageous for merchants because other payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal are not that common in Argentina. As a matter of fact, Argentinian consumers are not even allowed to use PayPal.
Laundry Locker in San Francisco
A San Francisco-based dry cleaning company, Laundry Locker is accepting Bitcoin payments in 884 locations around the city. They’re even considering expanding and adding another 50 locations if the cryptocurrency movement grows. Laundry Locker was launched in 2005, and the company’s goal is to offer customers convenient, top-quality, and easy dry cleaning and laundering services.Does your dry cleaner accept Bitcoin? Laundry Locker does now! Changing the way the world does laundry! http://t.co/Bb4wHytH2X
— Laundry Locker (@laundrylocker) August 4, 2014
Apache Software Foundation
Finally, a non-profit organization - the Apache Software Foundation - has just started accepting donations by Bitcoin. The feature was implemented after a reddit user sent an email to apache.org asking if he could donate with Bitcoin:“I would like to donate using Bitcoin. Can you please post a QR code/address where you can accept donations or do you already support this somehow?”Soon after that, the user got a reply staying that a Bitcoin QR code had been implemented, and that it can be used for donations. Apache.org is a well-known open-source software organization that includes the Apache web server, Cassandra, Tomcat, Hadoop and nearly 150 other projects. Everyone is welcome to support the organization by making donations via Amazon, PayPal, check, and now Bitcoin.
Source : http://cointelegraph.com
Bitcoin slowly goes global as businesses like Overstock expand to international customers
Summary:
Overstock helped lead the charge of big businesses accepting
bitcoin — and now they’re also among the first to bring bitcoin
acceptance to a global scale.
Overstock is set to become the largest later on Monday when it turns on international bitcoin payments for O.co this evening. Other retailers, like Newegg and TigerDirect, have already moved north of the border and started accepting payments from Canadian customers.
Part of the draw of opening up bitcoin payments internationally is the cost savings. Instead of dealing with the hassle of foreign currencies and high processing fees, bitcoin coming from Albania costs the same to process as a bitcoin from Alabama. It also helps minimize cases of fraud, which can be higher among international customers, thanks to the technology behind blockchain confirmations.
“(The) U.S. is a bigger share of our business. We wanted to start where the money was,” Byrne said. “For people outside the U.S. that hold bitcoin there are very few places to spend it. We have more of a lock. I think there are just more people internationally waiting to use this.”
Expanding internationally will save the company some cash, Byrne acknowledged. The “generous” approximation of four percent savings will be donated to a different bitcoin charity or foundation around the world each month, starting with the Chamber of Digital Commerce.
“[International savings] are probably a little bit larger because the fees associated with international credit cards are higher because there’s a higher incidence of fraud when you’re taking credit cards that come from eastern Europe and Asia and place like that,” Byrne said. “When you’re limiting all those costs, you’re probably going to save some costs.”
Dell, which has only been accepting bitcoin for a month, has also been seen publicly testing the waters with international customers, like in this tweet gauging the interest of Brazilian customers.
Paul Walsh, CIO of Dell’s Commerce Services, said that company is still running analytics on its state-side bitcoin sales, and it hasn’t made a decision on if and when the company would open up payments to international customers. Starting in the U.S. was just a determination of the market that possibly wanted it the most.
“We try out and test things in different markets all the time. This happened to be the market we tried bitcoin in,” Walsh said. “When we did bitcoin, we tried the US market.”
If the company did decide to scale it to international regions, the change wouldn’t be difficult to implement technically because of the way Dell has already structured its payments platform, Walsh said. Rather, the company would need to keep an eye on international bitcoin regulations before deciding where to expand to next.
For Newegg, it was a question of convenience and demand from customers. Soren Mills, chief marketing officer for the electronics retailer, said in an emailed statement that the company went to Canada first because that’s where it had offices first compared to their other international sites.
“Each country presents its own unique set of challenges with respect to bitcoin implementation,” Mills said. “We are considering those challenges carefully as we evaluate how and when to further expand our international bitcoin acceptance.”
While bitcoin-accepting businesses have so far taken a more cautious approach to expanding internationally, those that do expand overseas may see a surge in traffic from international customers who have had limited places to spend their coin online. Overstock’s Byrne said he suspects that the percentage of bitcoin purchases by international customers will be higher than the U.S.-based business. Many businesses will likely be watching to see if Byrne is right.
Source : http://au.ibtimes.com
Analysis : Asian Trading Session Pulls the Bitcoin Price Up
The Asian trading session has pulled price up from last night’s lows near $470. There are still few clues as to where price is heading, but at least one more low is expected as the analysis below explains.
CCN
Descending Channel
As identified in yesterday’s analysis a descending channel has contained price action for 11 days running. Price has respected the lower channel trendline since first hitting it during trade on Sunday 31 August. This trendline is currently overlapping with the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement level of the entire advance from April to June, and that implies strong support at current levels.
Ordinarily one would expect price to react by bouncing away from strong support. However, the little bounce that did occur has caused the MACD indicator (hourly chart) to indicate reverse divergence – a strong signal that at least one more low is in store. The reverse divergence between price and MACD is marked with dashed magenta lines on the chart above.
Hence, we could expect that Bitcoin price will return to the lower trendline during the course of today. If a reversal does occur around $460 then, we would have some confirmation that the wave contained in the green channel has completed, and it would be labelled wave c. If price were to breach the trendline and break lower then, there would be reason to expect a lower low at $412 and a wave iii label would apply. Along with the wave iii label comes the prospect of a decline low nearer $350.
According to the view that an upside reversal is imminent, the 15-minute BTC-China chart gives a clean wave count and shows that the final wave v is due (if not already in progress).
The following 4-hour Bitstamp chart expands on the bullish and bearish scenarios by showing the implications that a bullish or bearish break today will have on potential paths of price action over the coming weeks.
As discussed in Sunday’s in-depth analysis report, the irresistible pull of the 200-period moving average will find price back above $500 sooner or later.
The question is where reversal will occur – and for that we have to be patient… unless the truth is contained in a light-hearted reddit post from this morning that alleges a correlation between Google search interest in Jennifer Lawrence and the price of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Price Analysis Summary
The current analysis has no definitive answer for where trend may reverse. The expected price levels are clearly defined for both bullish and bearish outcomes, yet, at this moment the only reasonable conclusion is that trend is still pointing down until confirmed otherwise.The lowest defined trendline currently cuts through the low $400s where a target of $412 awaits. That decline will even reach that low is not certain at this stage.
Updates to this article will be made during the European and US sessions should any significant changes come to light.
Source : http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com
New ‘Sound Wallet’ Stores Your Private Keys on Vinyl
For digital currency users looking to secure their e-fortune, one project is offering a new way to store private keys: on vinyl.
Sound Wallet promises to store users’ private keys as encrypted audio files across a range of products – including CDs and 7-inch vinyl disks.
Theodore Goodman, the brains behind the project, said he used the iconic format as it is the “ultimate archive medium”.
Records, tapes and digital audio
According to the product’s website, Sound Wallets can be used to store any cryptocurrency, not just bitcoin.To construct the wallet, a user’s BIP38-encrypted private key is first converted into a sound file. Between 30 and 60 seconds long, this file will simply sound like noise to prying ears.
However, using a simple spectroscope app like AndroSpectro on their phone, the user can decipher their code hidden in the static. Alternatively, any high-resolution spectroscope should do.
The same approach can be used with different media, including CDs and magnetic tapes. This also means that a user’s wallet file could be broadcast, at least in theory.
Vinyl as an archive medium
While Sound Wallet may not appeal to mainstream users, this security-minded product may prove popular with technophiles and audiophiles.Goodman argues that cold storage is the safest way to secure cryptocurrencies, pointing out some advantages vinyl has over other physical wallets.
He adds that records can outlive memory cards, paper wallets or CDs, which degrade over time. Recent research found that CDs dating from the 1990s are already rotting away in certain conditions.
On the project’s previous Startjoin campaign, Goodman added:
“Records are the ultimate archive format. You could add the record to your record crate, put it in a frame and hang it on your wall, or store it in your safe.”Of course, recording vinyl is more demanding than burning a CD or DVD. It requires specialised hardware such as a record lathe, blanks and a turntable (in this case the legendary Technics SL-1200 was employed).
Although the project did not reach its initial crowdfunding target of €8,000, it appears that the wallets are now in production.
For the time being, Sound Wallet offers two products, a CD wallet and a vinyl wallet, priced at 0.02BTC and 0.09BTC respectively.
Disclaimers: This article should not be viewed as an endorsement of any of the companies mentioned. Please do your own extensive research before considering investing any funds in these products.
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
Antonopoulos Leaves Blockchain Security Role to Become Board Advisor
Popular bitcoin wallet and information services company Blockchain announced today that its Chief Security Officer, Andreas M Antonopoulos, is advancing to become an advisor to its board.
Antonopoulos is considered a key authority on bitcoin and one of its most active advocates.
He has been a staple presenter on the Let’s Talk Bitcoin podcast since its genesis in April 2013 and a search for his name on YouTube yields over 47,000 results, many of them presentations and lectures.
Changing roles
Blockchain announced the change on its blog, stating:“During his time as CSO, Andreas has provided expert guidance and a seasoned perspective on security, infrastructure, hiring, operations and public communications. Andreas’ keen insights, leadership and hands-on attitude have allowed Blockchain to improve risk management and security from infrastructure to operations.”As CSO at Blockchain, Antonopoulos was responsible for improving security practices and risk management as the company grew from a one-man startup to a multinational with a team of over 20 in just over a year.
The company’s rapid growth (it now has over 2 million individual wallet accounts) has meant that its security operations now require a full-time engineering team, rather than one man who already wears multiple hats.
Blockchain’s founder and CTO, UK-based Ben Reeves, will retain the responsibility for security operations that he kept even during Antonopoulos’ time.
Blockchain’s transition
As well as its original explorer and data provision hub, blockchain.info, the company also maintains blockchain.com, a more consumer-friendly site with links to its web and mobile bitcoin wallets.In June it launched Bitcoin.com, an information portal aimed more at bitcoin beginners with information on the various services available, even outside the company’s product line.
Blockchain also acquired the bitcoin data/statistics site and mobile app developer ZeroBlock in a bitcoin-only deal last December, when it still served ‘only’ one million wallets.
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
3 Forces Shaping Next-Generation Bitcoin Exchanges
As the exchange system represents a key element of the broader bitcoin economy, it’s unsurprising that these companies are able to secure working capital. A closer look at recent news events, however, reveals that underlying trends may be a motivating factor.
In the aftermath of Mt Gox’s much-publicized collapse, a new breed of exchanges has moved to fill the vacuum previously occupied by what was once the most popular bitcoin exchange.
From China to Silicon Valley, the companies behind the world’s most active bitcoin exchanges are raising funds and using those resources to build and deploy stronger and more user-friendly platforms, ones that go beyond Mt Gox in many key ways.
Overall, the funding rounds reflect three trends currently at work in the exchange space. Today’s bitcoin exchanges are internationally focused, institutional investor-approved and compliant (or as much as possible) with local laws.
1. International markets
OKCoin, the largest China-based bitcoin exchange by volume, raised $10m in a Series A funding round back in March. The deal touted notable participants including Ceyuan, a VC fund that was among the first to develop in mainland China.
In the time since, the company has put that funding to work. As revealed in subsequent conversations with CoinDesk, OKCoin
has begun to make big investments in its international services with an
eye on capturing a significant market share outside of mainland China.
From a broader perspective, exchanges can utilize funding to help integrate with the traditional financial system. This process also give exchanges the resources to build services that make it easier for users familiar with other platforms to interface successfully.
As noted by Changpeng Zhao, OKCoin’s chief technology officer:
“The image that we want to build, and we will build, is that of a professional financial services company. It’s not just an Internet company, it’s not just a bitcoin company. We are an exchange.”
2. Investor interest
Though it wasn’t announced until March, Bitstamp raised $10m in new funding from Pantera Capital Management in 2013. The move gave the Europe-based bitcoin exchange a significant boost during a time of significant evolution in the exchange marketplace.
During the period Bitstamp purportedly received the funding, bitcoin exchanges were seeing larger volumes in response to the rising price of the digital currency. This was also a period of increasing interest among deep-pocketed investment groups, and Pantera’s deal would be the first of many to come.
The hedge fund itself further reflects its growing institutional interest in digital currency. Pantera is a bitcoin-focused investment fund formed in conjunction with Fortress Investment Group, Ribbit Capital and Benchmark Capital.
3. Legal realities
The largest deal to involve a US-based bitcoin exchange in 2014 thus far, Kraken parent company Payward, Inc.’s $5m Series A round, was intended to raise money to fund overseas development.
The Series A round was led by Hummingbird Ventures, an early-phase VC fund. Given the international – and 24-hour – nature of the bitcoin market, Kraken and other exchanges look to funding as a way to expand internationally. Yet, this deal also highlighted another major expense that bitcoin exchanges have to contend with: legal compliance.
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell told CoinDesk when his company announced its $5m round that, ultimately, much of that funding would be directed toward legal expenses.
He explained:
“We’re really excited, we’ve been putting the round together for a long time, the funding is going to go to development, regulatory stuff, getting all the licenses in the US and around the world. A lot of it is going to go into legal.”Powell added that companies in the exchange sector no doubt face increased scrutiny due to the nature of their business and the still-developing regulatory environment for bitcoin.
As a result, it’s possible that exchanges may require additional resources in the future to maintain compliance.
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
Huobi’s Fixed-Return Financial Product Sells Out in One Hour
Huobi has sold all available subscriptions to a new 60-day fixed-term financial product for bitcoin investors.
The latest product from the Beijing-based exchange, which is effectively a bitcoin ‘certificate of deposit‘, is called ‘Dig-VC‘ and offers a guaranteed interest rate for investors. Notably, returns are backed by Digcoin – a new bitcoin mining services platform built by Huobi.
Both will form part of Huobi‘s Hong Kong-based trading and investment platform BitVC, which launched in June.
Dig-VC subscribers will see a guaranteed return of 1.2% per month (which equates to an annualised rate of 16%), calculated on a daily basis and paid at maturity. Additionally, the first 100 subscribers will be rewarded with an additional 0.2% per month at the end of the 60-day term.
The interest-bearing product differs from ‘cloud mining’ shares offered by other companies, in that subscribers are not purchasing shares of the hashing power with return rates that vary according to the growth of the network. Instead, Dig-VC promises a simpler investment with a fixed return rate.
Already oversubscribed
Huobi describes Dig-VC as “an attractive new high-yield, low-risk financial product” and offered 2,000 subscriptions for 1 BTC each, beginning this morning China time.A company representative told CoinDesk all the shares were sold within the first hour, with more than half sold in the first two minutes. There was also a large amount of international interest:
“It looks like 70% of investors were from China with the rest coming from the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, and Thailand.”Users may buy or sell shares even during the 60-day term period, or join a queue to do so if no buy or sell offers are available. Sellers who cannot find interested buyers must hold their shares to maturity.
The Digcoin project
Digcoin is raising investment to significantly increase its overall hashing power. It currently stands at 1.3 PH/s (petahashes per second), or 2.5% of the bitcoin network’s global hash rate. It is seeking to raise that power to 4 PH/s.It will likely begin to offer more ‘traditional’ cloud mining shares in the near future.
Digcoin has arrangements with Chinese mining equipment manufacturers Avalon and AsicMiner, among others. It is part of the Discus Fish mining pool and sends funds to a publicly released address. At current strength it mines about 28 BTC per day.
While Huobi could not confirm the exact location of the Digcoin mining facility, photos posted on its own information page look very similar to those from a recent report on this large-scale bitcoin mining facility in rural China.
New investment and storage products
Like other Asian bitcoin exchanges, Huobi has been reaching out to professional investors and traders with a series of products more familiar to the traditional financial world.It launched BitVC in August, offering derivatives and margin trading to all customers, coupled with ‘Yubibao’ wallets for eager depositors to make their funds available as leverage to the professional traders. Yubibao accounts (available in both bitcoin and litecoin) earn their holders with a small rate of interest (around 0.017%) paid on a daily basis.
Huobi reports that BitVC has seen new user growth of around 20% per month since launch, and it now accounts for 18% of all Huobi bitcoin trading and 28% of litecoin trading.
Huobi also acquired the multi-signature bitcoin wallet service QuickWallet in August. Customers with accounts at any of Huobi’s stable of services may move funds between them instantly, and without incurring fees.
Together with competitors OKCoin and BTC China, Huobi recently completed an audit of its bitcoin reserves that showed it held more than 103% of the bitcoins its records showed.
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
Low - Cost Firefox Phones Could Bring Bitcoin to Developing World
Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox web browser and Firefox OS, recently launched its first smartphones in India for the affordable price of $33. The phone is known as the Intex Cloud FX, and it could do more for Bitcoin adoption in the developing world than any of the high-profile startups in Silicon Valley.After all, how are these people who are in desperate need of access to banking, online commerce, and hedges against inflation supposed to use Bitcoin if they aren’t connected at all times? Although Bitcoin is already available to feature phone users through text messaging, these new phones from Mozilla allow individuals to have more control over their bitcoins.
Mozilla’s Plan for Developing Nations
Mozilla featured the Bitcoin logo in a 2013 video advertisement.
Although the Intex Cloud FX is the first smartphone running Firefox OS in Asia, Mozilla has already launched similar phones in various countries around South America, Latin America, and Europe. The company plans to stick to the low-end smartphone model, and it could be a serious challenger to Google’s AndroidOne program. In addition to offering their affordable smartphones in India, Mozilla also hopes to launch products in Russia and Africa before the end of the year. It will be interesting to see how Mozilla’s first foray into India’s smartphone market could affect the decisions of mobile providers in other nations. After seeing the launch of their first devices running Firefox OS in 2013, the wireless phone companies in South Africa did not seem impressed.
Mozilla Makes Asia Debut With $33 Smartphone in India. Means faster rate of Bitcoin adoption in India. http://t.co/Jo1qJfFCk7
— Edmund Moy (@EdmundCMoy) August 26, 2014
Bitcoin on Firefox OS
Firefox OS seems like an operating system begging for a Bitcoin app, and Mozilla definitely understands the power of digital currencies in emerging markets. The company featured the Bitcoin logo as a placeholder for the types of apps that are available on the phone in an advertisement released in late 2013 (see below). There are currently two Bitcoin wallets on the Firefox Marketplace, and the number of Bitcoin apps available in this app ecosystem is bound to grow as these phones are put into the hands of more people in developing countries around the world. There’s always going to be an “app gap” for new mobile operating systems, but Firefox OS lends itself to much more demand for Bitcoin apps than offerings from Microsoft or Apple.Bitcoin Tablet Project
While on the topic of mobile technology in developing nations, it should be mentioned that there is a project in Kenya that aims to bring more tablets to the African country. The point of bringing these tablets into Kenya is to help merchants and consumers learn about Bitcoin and the benefits that it can bring to them. Payment providers, such as PayPal, are blocked in Kenya, so Bitcoin could be an option for Kenyans who wish to join the global economy. M-PESA is a mobile payment network that has already become popular in various countries around Africa, so the value of mobile payments is not something that needs to be explained to the African people. There are plenty of countries where Bitcoin adoption makes sense, but they’ll need the proper technology to take advantage of everything the world’s most popular cryptocurrency has to offer.Source : http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com
Celebgate Could Inspire More Bitcoin Blackmail
The Celebgate incident is still unfolding, and we are already seeing mainstream media report on the connection between the “nude celebrity photos” and Bitcoin.
The original leaker of the pictures returned to 4chan recently to
respond to the uproar he had caused. An excerpt from his post highlights
Bitcoin’s involvement in Celebgate:
People wanted **** for free. Sure, I got $120 with my bitcoin address, but when you consider how much time was put into acquiring this stuff (i’m not the hacker, just a collector), and the money (i paid a lot via Bitcoin as well to get certain sets when this stuff was being privately traded Friday/Saturday) I really didn’t get close to what I was hoping.The leaker used bitcoins to purchase the nude photos of 100+ celebrities from the hacker. The leaker went on to explain that as he was posting he started noticing tell-tale signs that his computer actions were being watched and tracked. He further claimed that his “ISP kept cutting out” and that there were “Weird emails coming in..” The FBI is currently investigating both the leaker and the hacker, whom might have used an iCloud exploit.
Bitcoin – The Superior Currency to Use for Blackmail?
The hardest part of blackmail is the transaction; at least, that’s what I’ve been told my entire life by countless Hollywood movies. The authorities always end up getting involved, and the money never ends up where it is supposed to. For better or for worse, Bitcoin allows blackmailers to receive funds that cannot be frozen or reversed by conventional methods. For this same reason, cash is usually preferred in blackmail transactions (briefcases full, according to the movies); however, the necessity to physically move said cash always provides for a vulnerability. For Bitcoin blackmail, certain obstacles are removed; however, others are not.Bitcoin Blackmail Doesn’t Make You Invulnerable – The Mitt Romney Case
In the height of the 2012 American presidential election campaign season, Mitt Romney became a victim of Bitcoin blackmail. The blackmailer sent letters to Tennessee campaign offices of both the Republican and Democratic parties and the offices of Mitt Romney’s hired accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCooper LLC. The ransom note was also posted on Pastebin, a popular website for text-only posts of a dubious nature.The blackmailer claimed to have stolen a copy of Mitt Romney’s 2010 tax return, a document that Mitt Romney had previously refused to make public due to personal qualms about revealing the size of his foreign holdings. The letters specified two Bitcoin addresses: one for those that wanted to see the document and one for those that wanted it to remain secret. The first Bitcoin address to receive one million USD worth of bitcoins would determine the fate of the tax return, which was never proven to be real. Needless to say, neither Bitcoin address received much financial attention.
This particular incident ended with the charging of one Michael Mancil Brown,
a Nashville resident, in 2013. He was charged with six counts of
extortion and six counts of wire fraud by a federal grand jury after a
lengthy investigation involving the Secret Service. The FBI claims that a picture of a cat recovered from a USB drive sent with the letters helped identify the suspect.
Very honestly, blackmailers only use Bitcoin because it is a
superior medium of exchange. However, those (ab)users that think Bitcoin
blackmail will afford them complete anonymity have been proven wrong
time and time again.
Bitcoin and Blackmailing
Celebgate is an ongoing internet phenomenon of epic proportions. Bitcoin’s role in the Celebgate incident is going to shed mainstream media light on yet another shady use of Bitcoin. The use of Bitcoin in blackmailing has been on the rise since Bitcoin’s creation several years ago. Though it seems that no parties involved tried to outright blackmail the celebrities with their pictures, it is clear that if either the Celebgate hacker or the free leaker were inclined to go that route, Bitcoin would have been the only currency accepted.Source : http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com
No comments:
Post a Comment