Mt Gox situation will pass and bitcoin will thrive once again

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Mt Gox (aka “Empty Gox”) filed for bankruptcy protection Mark Karpeles admits all the money is gone, vid/article here. As of now there is an estimated 750,000 – 850,000 bitcoins that have gone missing from MtGox.

mtgox_protest Kolin Burges

For those of you that had money or bitcoins in your MtGox account, the recovery process has begun. There is a class action suit against MtGox and CEO Mark Karpeles, to join the class action suit check this page http://www.mtgoxrecovery.com There are currently over 1000 participants. The actual Greene vs MtGox Inc file is here.

Here is a nice timeline of MtGox since they began exchanging bitcoins back in 2011. Check it out here.

To those that lost on MtGox I wish you all good luck getting your money and bitcoins back.

Overstock now accepting bitcoin from Coinbase merchant

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Oh wow, Overstock is of the biggest websites in the world (approx 600th most visited site in the world according to Alexa) and now is accepting Bitcoin purchases through the bitcoin merchant and exchange Coinbase.

overstock_and_coinbase

HUGE news, and GREAT news for Overstock, Coinbase, and overall for our decentralized currency bitcoins!

Read more at the Coinbase blog here.

Find out more of the Coinbase/Overstock partnership on Overstock website here.

Bank questioning customers about Bitcoin purchase and selling

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A user of TalkBitcoins.com wrote in today with this question, and I personally have dealt with the same issue with my small hometown bank:

Bank questioning my Bitcoin purchases?

Hi, my USA hometown bank called me today and was questioning me about my Coinbase/BTC purchases. It was their security and fraud department. They were asking all kinds of questions about why do I buy them, what are they used for, and also mentioned how BTC are very involved with terrorism and money laundering.

My question to you guys is, what is the typical reply you think Coinbase customers should use? I really felt pretty violated that my bank, or any bank for that matter would be asking these things from me.

So does anyone know when and what guidelines are being put into place to help out banks and customers fix problems like this?

BitcoinTalk.org website has been hacked and compromised

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Received this email today:

Email title: BitcoinTalk.org Forum Compromised

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA256

Unfortunately, it was recently discovered that the Bitcoin Forum’s server
was compromised. It is currently believed that the attacker(s) *could* have
accessed the database, but at this time it is unknown whether they actually did
so. If they accessed the database, they would have had access to all
personal messages, emails, and password hashes. To be safe, it is
recommended that all Bitcoin Forum users consider any password used
on the Bitcoin Forum in 2013 to be insecure: if you used this
password on a different site, change it. When the Bitcoin Forum
returns, change your password.

Passwords on the Bitcoin Forum are hashed with 7500 rounds of
sha256crypt. This is very strong. It may take years for
reasonably-strong passwords to be cracked. Even so, it is best to
assume that the attacker will be able to crack your passwords.

The Bitcoin Forum will return within the next several days after a
full investigation has been conducted and we are sure that this
problem cannot recur.

Check http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/ and #bitcoin on Freenode for
more info as it develops.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

The Silk Road busted and $3.6M worth of Bitcoins seized by US Gov

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The famous Silk Road website has been seized and the owner arrested. The FBI, DEA, and more US government agencies in a combined effort tracked down the creator of Silk Road Ross William Ulbricht.

silk_road_seized

Here is the official PDF filed complaint against Ross William Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, aka DPR, aka Silk Road: UlbrichtCriminalComplaint.pdf. Charges are from money laundering to drug trafficking.

All Bitcoin trading suspended in Thailand

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Thailand decided to suspend all Bitcoin transactions. Read the article below posted from the Thailand Bitcoin website Bitcoin.co.th

thai_suspends_btc

Trading suspended due to Bank of Thailand advisement

July 29, 2013
The purpose of the following statement is designed only to give information to our users about our choice to suspend our services.

During the past several months Bitcoin Co. Ltd., in Thailand, has been in the process of registering with the various Thai government agencies in order to operate in a lawful manner. Included in this due diligence was to reach out to the Bank of Thailand, the governing body that regulates financial transactions in Thailand, and ask for guidance as to any applicable licenses in buying and selling bitcoins.

Initially the Bank of Thailand had bypassed the company’s money exchange license on the basis that Bitcoin was not a currency, however the company was invited back, on July 29th, 2013, to participant in a conference about how Bitcoin works in general, and business operations of Bitcoin Co. Ltd. The conference was held with about 15 members of the Bank of Thailand in attendance. During this conference, managing director of Bitcoin Co. Ltd. gave a presentation about the workings of Bitcoin, the benefits of Bitcoin, insight into the company’s operations and future implications of Bitcoin.

At the conclusion of the meeting senior members of the Foreign Exchange Administration and Policy Department advised that due to lack of existing applicable laws, capital controls and the fact that Bitcoin straddles multiple financial facets the following Bitcoin activities are illegal in Thailand:

Buying Bitcoins
Selling Bitcoins
Buying any goods or services in exchange for Bitcoins
Selling any goods or services for Bitcoins
Sending Bitcoins to anyone located outside of Thailand
Receiving Bitcoins from anyone located outside of Thailand
Based on such a broad and encompassing advisement, Bitcoin Co. Ltd. therefore has no choice but to suspend operations until such as time that the laws in Thailand are updated to account for the existance of Bitcoin. The Bank of Thailand has said they will further consider the issue, but did not give any specific timeline.

Bitcoin Co. Ltd. has currency exchange applications currently pending review with the Bank of Thailand.

Good news from Coinbase

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coinbase_logo Received an email with some great news from Coinbase.

Here is the email:

Good news! All level 2 accounts can now purchase bitcoin instantly on Coinbase!

With this change comes one additional requirement: all level 2 accounts will now need to complete an identity verification step.

To restore your level 2 status please complete your identity verification from the verifications page.

Kind regards,
The Coinbase Team

I did the 2nd level verification, it’s a bit creepy, they pull some questions that were found instantly from information about you from the internet.

Enjoy it for all you Coinbase’ers :)