Bitcoin was born on November 2008 when an anonymous user named “Satoshi Nakamoto” published a post on a cryptography blog linking to a paper the user had written about a decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system. After helping establish the fledging currency, the same user disappeared from the bitcoin world with…
On March 29, 2016, J. Christopher Giancarlo, the Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, spoke at the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation 2016 Blockchain Symposium. His speech encouraged regulators to treat the development of blockchain technology like they treated the internet by adopting a “do no harm”…
As Bitcoin enters its seventh year of existence, the community that surrounds it is trying to decide how to guide and grow the currency into the future. Currently, the size of a block (which is a bitcoin data file) is 1MB and recently there have been around 100,000 to 200,000…
This week Cubits.gr and BTCGreece began a partnership aimed at providing a solution to Greek capital controls. Part of that solution entails supporting voucher payments backed by bitcoin and installing one thousand Bitcoin ATMs throughout the country. Cubits, a UK Registered company founded in 2014, is a Bitcoin platform where…
It may not be at the forefront of your digital currency interests, but cryptocurrencies have unique characteristics that require careful consideration for estate planning. If you have bitcoin, for example, but your beneficiaries do not know about it when you die, they likely never will. Bitcoin transactions are anonymous. And…
On June 12, global insurance giant Lloyd’s of London released a report titled Bitcoin: Risk Factors for Insurance. Lloyd’s knows a thing or two about risk—it has been underwriting for more than 300 years and has insured everything from the Titanic to Keith Richards’ hands—so what does Lloyd’s think about…
On May 29, 2015, after a lengthy criminal investigation and multi-week trial, Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind behind Silk Road—one of the most famous enterprises to utilize Bitcoin currency—was sentenced to life in prison in a Manhattan federal courtroom. In 2011, Ulbricht founded Silk Road, an anonymous, online marketplace where everything…
Before a government agency issues regulations implementing a new law—or applies existing regulations to a new technology—it has to do some groundwork. The agency will interpret its authorizing legislation and executive orders before gathering evidence to support the exercise of its rulemaking and enforcement authorities. Some agencies are subject to…
Bitcoin continues to push deeper into the fabric of American society as it may now have an impact on who we elect as the President of the United States in 2016. Last week, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul became the first candidate to accept Bitcoin donations for his presidential campaign. In…