mt. gox

[Tmon]

Nothing to add really but wanted to say that for me following Bitcoin news is a lot like following EVE Online.  I have no intention of playing either game, but I find the betrayals, thefts and massive falls from grace to be oddly compelling.

[Merusk]

When did Schild become an unemployed Gordon Gekko?

Always has been, you just haven't been reading the cues properly.

[Numtini]

Eve is more fun.

[NowhereMan]

Don't they both basically just involve lots of spreadsheets?

[squirrel]

Don't they both basically just involve lots of spreadsheets?

Yeah, unfortunately for bitcoin, ISK is actually a stable currency with significant volume. Truly, an Icelandic spaceship currency is the path to the future.

[Merusk]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2573863/Bitcoin-exchange-CEO-dead-home-suspected-suicide-age-28.html

lol

edit: I'm sorry, death isn't funny but bitcoin and everything around it still is andddddddddddd this is related to bitcoin. Ergo, a somber lol.

My goldbug/ libertarian barometer would like you all to stop being sheep and realize this was actually a government hit to keep bitcoin down.  Along with the 8 recent suicides by GS bankers.

But then I'm sure you're all hearing the same. 

[Phildo]

Also, it's much easier to make a living trading ISK for cash.

[calapine]

Long article in Newsweek, about the supposed inventor of Bitcoin:

The Face Behind Bitcoin

A libertarian, Nakamoto encouraged his daughter to be independent, start her own business and "not be under the government's thumb," she says. "He was very wary of the government, taxes and people in charge."

"He is very wary of government interference in general," she says. "When I was little, there was a game we used to play. He would say, 'Pretend the government agencies are coming after you.' And I would hide in the closet."

I don't think that this was unintentional either. Bitcoin was designed with a libertarian mindset. Free market, no government control, acts as gold-ersatz, no devaluation by irresponsible entities, hard to track, hard to tax. Is deflationary.

I think it's time to award Jeff Kelly a medal! 

[Jeff Kelly]

Going by this thread, it's probably a virtual medal. I'll also have to make it myself by employing excessive amounts of processing power and it will get stolen by hackers eventually.

And half a year from now a lot of people will come up with lots of different and much cooler virtual medals most likely featuring popular internet memes.

[Chimpy]

So I heard an interview with the author of that article on the creator of bitcoin on the BBC radio station on my way to the grocery store after I left work today. Apparently he is "no longer associated" with bitcoin but he owned close to 1million bitcoins at the time of the article which is well over half a billion dollars at the recent exchange rate.

Bitcoin is looking more and more like a Ponzi scheme every day. Esp since another bitcoin exchange "lost" a ton of money today.

[Ingmar]

Assuming he still has his key. 

[Khaldun]

The Newsweek article is looking like it might very possibly be complete bullshit. It's hard to know, but the guy they named as the creator is totally denying it, doesn't seem to have a lifestyle that suggests someone who owns hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin, and the sourcing for his connection to bitcoin is increasingly looking like "he has the same name as the guy that bitcoin traders say created it and we found this guy in the phone book". The thin thread that the story stands on is the reporter's insistence that in a brief interview he told her he was "no longer involved in bitcoin" which he says was "I am no longer involved in government work" and the reporter chose to misinterpret or misunderstand that.

[Morat20]

IIRC, the people that invented bitcoin effectively got a giant chunk (10%+) of all the bitcoins that could ever be actually made.

Which makes bitcoin the most lucrative piece of software ever, at least going by "dollars profit per line of code". :)

Also: An inherently deflationary currency is retarded. Deflationary currency is one in which people hoard wealth, not spend it. And the point of a currency is spending it. I don't look at Japan over the last decade and think "Wow, amazing economy based on a deflationary currency there, Japan!"

[Goumindong]

The Newsweek article is looking like it might very possibly be complete bullshit. It's hard to know, but the guy they named as the creator is totally denying it, doesn't seem to have a lifestyle that suggests someone who owns hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin, and the sourcing for his connection to bitcoin is increasingly looking like "he has the same name as the guy that bitcoin traders say created it and we found this guy in the phone book". The thin thread that the story stands on is the reporter's insistence that in a brief interview he told her he was "no longer involved in bitcoin" which he says was "I am no longer involved in government work" and the reporter chose to misinterpret or misunderstand that.

Well the creator of BTC hasn't spent any. That we know by looking at the blockchain. So its not exactly inconsistent for him to be living a normal life. As far as I can tell this guy jives best with the other information we know about Satoshi.

[Khaldun]

Here's something interesting: guy named Ryan Selkis who says he's going to release a bunch of information that will expose a lot of dirty dealings at the Bitcoin Foundation.

http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/post/78868284696/coup-or-death-for-the-bitcoin-foundation

[schild]

wow he takes bitcoin seriously

worse than larping

[HaemishM]

http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/post/78868284696/coup-or-death-for-the-bitcoin-foundation

Only a swift and thorough overhaul of the Foundation’s leadership can preserve Bitcoin’s image with regulators, legislators and the general public.

I thought the whole point of Bitcoin was to remove the power of regulators from currency?

[schild]

http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/post/78868284696/coup-or-death-for-the-bitcoin-foundation

Only a swift and thorough overhaul of the Foundation’s leadership can preserve Bitcoin’s image with regulators, legislators and the general public.

I thought the whole point of Bitcoin was to remove the power of regulators from currency?

This part is a headscratcher much like anarchist movements having leaders, rules and organizers is a head scratcher.

Sheep need to be herded, regardless of how much perceived freedom they may have. Also, only dipshits fuck around with the currency equivalent of larping, so it's not exactly shocking.

[Quinton]

Here's something interesting: guy named Ryan Selkis who says he's going to release a bunch of information that will expose a lot of dirty dealings at the Bitcoin Foundation.

http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/post/78868284696/coup-or-death-for-the-bitcoin-foundation

This was totally disappointing.  I checked back today to see the epic reveal or news of the board capitulating to his demands and instead just a blog post about how his last blog post was a bad idea even though all his accusations are 100% true!

[Khaldun]

Hilariously incoherent.

[Phildo]

You had high expectations from a guy named Two Bit Idiot?

[pxib]

Free market, people! Come on!

If mtgox was unsafe and poorly run, surely it would have been out-competed by other exchanges. Everyone would have naturally shifted to the most trustworthy exchange, or gone off and started their own. That it was the largest and most successful shows how strong and ethically pure it was. The market has spoken.

Regulation is just a way to allow insiders to control and manipulate markets, while this completely uncontrolled system is immune to such things. Individual freedom to choose one's own explicit trading partners and protect one's own investments has produced a safer, more robust ideal towards which all future currency regimes will aspire.

[calapine]

It's funny how fast Bitcoin turned from "cool"  to "I am stupid!" 

[KallDrexx]

Some big name Wall-Street companies are now spinning up their own Bitcoin exchanges.   It at least gives some legitimacy to Bitcoin as an investment commodity. 

[Surlyboi]

For about 20 minutes. None of the people are involved are the real big boys and yeah, it's some adventurous jackholes with more backing than sense.

Full disclosure, I was approached by some former colleagues at Morgan that were starting their own Hedge with a focus on bitcoin. I told them to fuck right off.

[Sky]

Should've just jumped in only to jump out immediately with a nice parachute, like anyone else who will ever make money with this scam.

[schild]

Wall Street would only get involved if they could take a bunch of people for a shitload of money. There's no actual future in the current version of cryptocurrency.

[HaemishM]

Wall Street would only get involved if they could take a bunch of people for a shitload of money. There's no actual future in the current version of cryptocurrency.

Sounds like BitCoin is right up Wall Street's alley then. 

[Paelos]

It's funny how fast Bitcoin turned from "cool"  to "I am stupid!" 

To be fair, it was always stupid.

[Sky]

I remember reading a business journal thing for executives on why you should accept bitcoin, back when this first blew up.

It boiled down to a pharmaceutical ad style 'here's a list of what could go horribly wrong....but you'll look like you're trendy!'

And I laughed and laughed while also hoping the gadget loving co-workers never got wind of it.

[Goumindong]

Wall Street would only get involved if they could take a bunch of people for a shitload of money. There's no actual future in the current version of cryptocurrency.

Wall Street buying into a speculative bubble? Well i never.

[Numtini]

Businesses can accept bitcoin at their Second Life storefront!

[Trippy]

The IRS has ruled (PDF) that Bitcoins are "virtual currency" and taxed as property. This will effectively kill Bitcoin as a form of currency here in the US as Bitcoins are no longer equivalent to each other because of differences in taxes (capital gains) that will be owed depending on each Bitcoin, as explained in this article by a banking and finance law professor.

[Paelos]

I'd never take on a client that had Bitcoin. Too much headache.

[Goumindong]

The IRS has ruled (PDF) that Bitcoins are "virtual currency" and taxed as property. This will effectively kill Bitcoin as a form of currency here in the US as Bitcoins are no longer equivalent to each other because of differences in taxes (capital gains) that will be owed depending on each Bitcoin, as explained in this article by a banking and finance law professor.

He is wrong and doesn't actually know what he is talking about. Everything that you purchase for resale has differences in taxes (capital gains) which is owed depending on which piece you sell. Typically there are rules like "last in first out or first in first out" which govern how tax basis on commodities work. And those things (like gold, and foreign currency, and oil) are still fungible.

If BTC has a delineated system such that you can choose which BTC you sell this simply makes things advantaged for BTC owners since they have the option of selling whichever BTC is most tax advantaged.

The basis for the buyer is still the same regardless of the BTC purchased. Ergo the only effect this would have would be on the accounting that a BTC owner would have to be doing and if they don't have a specific rule enforced by accounting standards or the IRS then they would be able to choose which BTC was the most advantageous to sell, actually giving it a leg up on other non-USD currency and currency equivalents.

The only way in which this ruling is disadvantageous is that BTC-Cash transactions may be subject to sales tax in jurisdictions which take the IRS's definition of property