In mid-September, after 4.75 years in existence, the bitcoin network reached an estimated hash rate of 1 petahash per second. Remarkably, the second petahash took just one more month, pushing network speed over 2 PH/s this past weekend, or 80x the speed on January 1 of this year. This growth is primarily attributable to new ASIC bitcoin miners from KnCMiner and BTCGarden recently being added to the network, and is a trend that is not expected to stop any time soon. KnC was the first manufacturer to demonstrate a 28nm ASIC bitcoin miner on September 30 and started shipping to …
Read More →
CoinLab responded last week to the ongoing lawsuit with Mt. Gox. Among other points, the filing asserts that Mt. Gox was in breach of contract by failing to provide necessary customer information, making it impossible for CoinLab to comply with regulations. We were first made aware of the latest filing here. Case Background In May of this year, CoinLab filed a $75M lawsuit against Mt. Gox for failure to turn over all North American bitcoin exchange operations as obligated per an agreement dated November 2012. In the same suit, CoinLab asserted that Mt. Gox was also in breach of the …
Read More →
Oct 11, 2013
Posted
Businesses, News, Regulatory
Tagged Canada, legal, light, transaction
Comments 5
Seattle-based law firm Riddell Williams just signed two of the bitcoin community’s most prolific legal voices to chair their payments division. While the firm boasts a 100+ year history and more than 60 attorneys on staff, the decision to bring on Ryan Straus and Daniel Friedberg to lead the group makes a strong statement about the firm’s view on the future of financial law. Friedberg has published a number of pieces related to bitcoin regulation, including guest writing for the Bitcoin Foundation. He’s often quoted as a bitcoin legal reference by major news outlets, including recent appearances in Business Insider, Tech Cocktail, …
Read More →
Aug 23, 2013
Posted
Businesses, News, Regulatory, Uncategorized
Tagged Bitcoin, Business Insider, Daniel Friedberg, legal, regulation, Riddell Williams
Comments 2
My favorite day of the year is coming up on Thursday. It would be tough not to like July 4th – it’s a day of bbqs, beer, friends, and a celebration of the day when a group of idealists chose to stand together against to the most powerful empire in the world in the name of liberty. As I write this from a plane on my way to the Bitcoin London conference, it first seemed ironic that we’re going to be in the land of the oppressor from whom we’re celebrating our freedom. Upon deeper consideration, it’s actually rather fitting: …
Read More →
Jun 30, 2013
Posted
Bitcoin 201, Featured
Tagged American Revolution, ASIC, attack, Guerrilla Tactics, legal, United States
Comments 3
Butterfly Labs has donated 1,000 BTC – currently valued at more than $120,000 – to the newly established Bitcoin Development Fund. This is a meta-charity that supports a wide variety of bitcoin related charities and open-source projects: The Bitcoin development fund was created to support projects that benefit the greater bitcoin community. Special emphasis is placed on supporting open source code development as well as charitable organizations. This donation is from a wager in October, 2012 that they would meet their power target of 1 GH/s per 1.1 Watts of power in their ASIC bitcoin miners. Butterfly Labs completed shipping their …
Read More →
Jun 6, 2013
Posted
Businesses, News
Tagged ASIC, BDF, Bitcoin Development Fund, Butterfly Labs, GH, legal, software
Comments 2
The EFF just announced that it will accept bitcoin as a donation option. This decision shows just how how significant the latest FinCEN guidance was. It provided sufficient clarity that anyone accepting the virtual currency will not be subject to regulations unless they are acting as a currency exchanger. The EFF is a donor-funded organization that describes itself as: When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990—well before the Internet was on most people’s radar—and continues to confront …
Read More →
May 17, 2013
Posted
Businesses, News
Tagged Bitcoin, EFF, investment, legal, Stamp Payments Act
Comments 3
The bitcoin community is about to get a lot more connected – Bitcoin Conference 2013 is 2 days away. The global and decentralized nature of bitcoin inherently makes meeting in person less necessary than most business ventures. This conference will be a great way to reconnect face-to-face and see what the rest of the community is doing. Bitcoin 2013 is organized by The Bitcoin Foundation, and will be taking place May 17-19 in San Jose, California. Although there is a $300 entrance fee to attend in person, all of the presentations will be recorded and broadcast after the conference is …
Read More →
May 15, 2013
Posted
Businesses, Economics, News, Trading
Tagged Anthony Gallippi, Bitcoin Conference, CEO, Charlie Shrem, David Gzesh, legal, payment, Trace Mayer
Comments 4
Dowlla is a payment system used by many bitcoin enthusiasts to transfer funds into and out of the largest bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox. Dwolla just sent out the following email to users attempting to transfer funds to or from Mt. Gox: As of 12:13 PM on 5/14/2013: You’re receiving this notice because our systems have indicated that you’ve processed and completed a real-time Dwolla-to-Dwolla payment to Mutum Sigillum LLC (“Mt. Gox”) within the last 24 hours. Due to recent court orders received from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Dwolla is no longer …
Read More →
May 14, 2013
Posted
Businesses, News, Trading
Tagged Bitcoin, dhs, dwolla, legal, mt Gox, Note Dwolla, PM, Seizure Warrant
Comments 15