David Guyatt Wrote:Will it be easier to launder drug money? My guess is that it will be a lot easier. A cinch, in fact. Hookers already carry wi-fi card machines for instant digital payment, and it's billed on your credit/debit card as some sort of 'service" or similar, that won't alert your wife/partner to your perfidy.
Services provided: Catering, wholesale, erection and demolition services.
::laughingdog::
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
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Published by twobitidiot
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Published by: twobitidiot on Feb 25, 2014
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Crisis Strategy Draft
Situation
For several weeks MtGox customers have been affected by bitcoin withdrawal issues that compounded on themselves. Publicly, MtGox declared that "transaction malleability" caused the system to be subject to theft, and that something needed to be done by the core devs to fix it. Gox's own workaround solution was criticized, and eventually a fix was provided by Blockchain.info. The truth, it turns out, is that the damage had already been done.
At this point 744,408 BTC are missing due to malleability-related theft which went unnoticed for several years.
The cold storage has been wiped out due to a leak in the hot wallet. The reality is that MtGox can go bankrupt at any moment, and certainly deserves to as a company. However, with Bitcoin/crypto just recently gaining acceptance in the public eye, the likely damage in public perception to this class of technology could put it back 5~10 years, and cause governments to react swiftly and harshly. At the risk of appearing hyperbolic, this could be the end of Bitcoin, at least for most of the public. We believe in the value of Bitcoin, its potential to change the world, and its principles of transparency. Most importantly we care about the customers of MtGox and other bitcoin-based businesses who will be affected. The likely consequences will be larger than this localized financial damage, and we believe that the benefits of keeping MtGox stable and running outweigh the risks. This isn't about saving MtGox anymore.
To avoid a chaotic situation, we propose:
1- Immediately reduce liabilities as much as possible with partners
With actual assets using arbitrage/ injecting new coins to erase them from the books. Informing and asking selected Bitcoin main players to ask for their help. The MtGox price is low, making it possible to erase a significant portion of the debt, but it needs to be done quickly. Injections in coin are most useful (enough to run the exchange) but some cash is also needed to not run a fractional reserve.
2- Switch off the MtGox exchange temporarily (1 month) while announcing a restructuring and re-branding
On a freshly branded static homepage, post a letter from Mark Karpelès stepping down as CEO of MtGox, bringing in transition advisors, and citing poor organization and technology. Moving to a new country (Singapore?) could be helpful.
3- Push the new branding (ready) and reset all SNS channels for communication:
Using Facebook, Twitter, etc with the new branding, we will give constant updates, changing the tone of communications and informing stakeholders on all progress: new advisors, team members, location, fee structure. We need to inspire confidence.
4- Set up a competent team and redesign the service and codebase:
Announce a new CEO, talented developers, and trusted business people to establish a new business model. ( Finance, marketing strategy, IT, developers, Customer support). Build a low-cost, profitable business again that gives customers a reason to stay (low fees, stability, etc) while we work off our debts to stakeholders.
Strategy Timeline Part 1: Assets/Liabilities and cover the 624 408 BTC:
Arbitrage, coins donation, coins for equity, cash for buying coins at MtGox price
Target: 50% covered
Now to Feb 25th morning JSTAnnounce on Tuesday 25th morning JSTFrom MtGox to Gox Apr 1st 2014 or later Part 2: Shut down of MtGox for 1 month, with a rebranded landing page
- Step back from CEO Mark Karpelès
- Creation of transition advisors backed by a respected name - Fixing the technology and business
- Give to customers their account history
Part 4 : Launch of Gox:
- New platform, new brand, new management, new services and business model
Part 3 : SNS continuous update and project follow up:
- Following up on projects on new Twitter, Facebook
- New tonw and demonstration that MtGox is working
- Gathering world wide experts and establishing the strategy
- Building the new team
samir B
Financial Assets and Liabilities
AssetsLiabilitiesBitcoins
2,000 BTC in the Hot Wallet624,408 BTC(Customers) +120 000 ( MtGox) -
80 208 BTC From banned or suspicious accounts
Fiat
22,430,000 USD In the bank account (averaged across currencies)55,000,000 USD (but still unclear at this point)5,000,000 USD held by CoinLab5,500,000 USD held by DHS
Total
Other Assets
- 1.1 million of account and 550,000 verified customers - High volume of trading - Trained AML team and process - High publicity (broken but customers are still buying coins and depositing) - Valuable domain names: bitcoins.com, etc - New trading engine (Midas) - New brand and services ready to be launched (Bitcoin Cafe, Japanese wallet "Bitpocket")
Part 1: To reduce liabilities
The stakeholders of MtGox are not the owners, but everyone in Bitcoin. This is sad but the reality. The current situation will negatively affect everyone who owns or operates in Bitcoin. We will need to inject fresh coins inside the system in order to establish a basis to eventually clear the books by running the exchange (perhaps 200,000 coins). The costs of not doing so are incalculable at this stage.
Support from Bitcoin big players and core community - long term, high leverage:
Coins for equity, coin donations, and cash injections to buy coins at the cheap MtGox price are some options among many.
Bet on future profit to refill the lost coins - Long term, low leverage:
Regardless of malleability and regulatory issues, MtGox's main problems are massive robbery and poor bitcoin accounting. However, the business as an exchange is highly profitable and healthy when run properly.
(Please refer to the business plan draft attached)
Part 2: Shut down MtGox.com, launch new branding Big focus on the future
Letter from the CEO Admitting his errors and expressing desire to ï¬x the situation by stepping back as a CEO. Blaming the technology implementation which was not sized and designed to deal with such level of transactions or to deal with malleability.
It's time to step up and face reality by bringing a transition of respected advisors who will run things properly. In Japan, a CEO cannot resign until a new CEO is nominated. In that case customers knows that MtGox is still around and working, but under new management. Try to reduce the impact and raise stakeholder conï¬dence, and eventually get Mark out. New branding, means that there are future-forward plans already in the works, and customers will see that MtGox actually has a plan in motion
Part 3: 1 month transition while updating the industry
In order for stakeholders to follow up on MtGox progress, we will use SNS platforms with constant positive communications. - Every new milestone reached will be announced: Team members, new marketing, progress on the technology implementation etc...
- The Customer support will stay operationa
l to deal with people who want to have access to their account/history
- During this period, the advisory board will be created,
hopefully a new CEO can be chosen and try to reset and secure the trading engine platform. Expertise to find: Analysts, top class developers (crypto), IT security expert, marketing, Bitcoin experts, economists, execs (CFO, COO, CMO, etc)
Part 4: MtGox becomes Gox
To avoid a bank run from customers, the daily amount of bitcoin and cash withdrawals will be limited. With the profit, a meticulous analysis will be made over the coming years to clean the bitcoin balance sheet while running the exchange and generating revenue to pay back stakeholders. New offerings such as additional currencies, low trading fees, etc will give customers a reason to stay with MtGox. The new branding is already complete, and new services such as the Bitpocket wallet are already developed and ready for deployment. With a new image, team, and offering we believe that it will be a challenge, but is not impossible. The risks of not acting are incredibly large and unpredictable.
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
From a long article in Newsweek, on the founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. The quote is from his brother.
Quote:"My brother is an asshole. What you don't know about him is that he's worked on classified stuff. His life was a complete blank for a while. You're not going to be able to get to him. He'll deny everything. He'll never admit to starting Bitcoin."
Well, they get to him and they leave with lots of questions, like:
Quote:Of course, none of this puts to rest the biggest question of all - the one that only Satoshi Nakamoto himself can answer: What has kept him from spending his hundreds of millions of dollars of Bitcoin, which he reaped when he launched the currency years ago? According to his family both he - and they - could really use the money.
"We'll know our disinformation campaign is complete when everything the American public believes is false." --William J. Casey, D.C.I
"We will lead every revolution against us." --Theodore Herzl
A reporter for Newsweek says she's unmasked the mysterious Japanese-American man responsible for inventing Bitcoin, the world's most widely used digital cryptocurrency.
In an article published on the magazine's website Thursday morning, Leah McGrath Goodman recalled the events of a two-month investigation she undertook recently in an attempt to unearth facts about Satoshi Nakamoto, the man who invented Bitcoin in 2008 but has avoided the media entirely ever since.
Goodman says that Nakamoto is a 64-year-old resident of Temple City, California, but has not used his birth name for the better part of four decades. Instead, she wrote, he's managed to keep an incredibly low profile under the pseudonym Dorian S. Nakamoto.
At least up until her article went live early Thursday. Within hours Goodman's scoop was being discussed across all corners of the internet, and before the morning ended there were reportedly journalists camped out in front of Nakamoto's Southern California home anxious to learn more about one of the most mysterious men on the internet.
If Goodman's attempt to do as much is any indication, however, then journalists will likely encounter anything but an easy time in trying to dig deeper. In her article, Goodman wrote that she was barely able to get any information from the man, and only managed to speak with him face-to-face after he called the cops on her.
"He thinks if he talks to you he's going to get into trouble," one of the police officers allegedly told Goodman.
"I don't think he's in any trouble," she fired back. "I would like to ask him about Bitcoin."
Nakamoto wasn't quite interested, though, and Goodman instead resorted on reaching out to multiple members of the man's family instead to piece together a profile of the person she says invented the cryptocurrency in secret with an internationally-dispersed team of coders.
According to Goodman, Nakamoto is a model train enthusiast who graduated from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, CA, with a degree in physics, and worked briefly for the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as an aircraft company now owned by major government contractor Raytheon.
"We were doing defensive electronics and communications for the military, government aircraft and warships, but it was classified and I can't really talk about it," David Micha, the president of the company now called L-3 Communications, recalled of the work his former employee did there.
"Nakamoto's family describe him as extremely intelligent, moody and obsessively private, a man of few words who screens his phone calls, anonymizes his emails and, for most of his life, has been preoccupied with the two things for which Bitcoin has now become known: money and secrecy," Goodman reported.
"He's a brilliant man," Nakamoto's brother told her. "He's very focused and eclectic in his way of thinking. Smart, intelligent, mathematics, engineering, computers. You name it, he can do it."
At the same time, however, Arthur Nakamoto cautioned the journalist: "My brother is an asshole."
"What you don't know about him is that he's worked on classified stuff. His life was a complete blank for a while. You're not going to be able to get to him. He'll deny everything. He'll never admit to starting Bitcoin," he told her.
Indeed, the cryptocurrency's alleged inventor offered Goodman little information if any about his rumored pet project.
"I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," he told her. "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."
According to Goodman, though, the exhaustive researching involved in crafting her Newsweek piece has left her certain that the Southern California man she outted is the one who invented Bitcoin.
"I don't have any doubt in my mind, but I am open to new information," she told Business Insider after her article went live. "For example, if he had helpers whom other people might find. I just don't think you can ever say the information is complete."
"I really wanted to do something in depth, but I have to say I'm kind of looking forward to somebody being able to get something more in depth," she said. http://rt.com/usa/satoshi-nakamoto-bitco...sweek-250/
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
Quote:"I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," he told her. "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."
Ah, yes. The passive voice. He didn't say, I turned it over to others. He didn't say I finished the job and turned it over to my employers or sponsors or investors. Just 'It's been turned over to other people.'
In my best Northern Minnesota, Fargo, ND accent, and I can muster up a good one: 'Oookay, din. Dere ya are. You betcha. Ya know, I don't tink we're dun with vinter yet, ya know.'
"We'll know our disinformation campaign is complete when everything the American public believes is false." --William J. Casey, D.C.I
"We will lead every revolution against us." --Theodore Herzl
I have also heard suggested that perhaps the reporter has invented the man to promote a new publication....
Quote:
The Reporter Who Found The Bitcoin Creator Is Answering Some Of The Biggest Questions About Her Story
Rob Wile Mar 7, 2014, 2:20 AM
Leah McGrath Goldman has the story of the morning, writing in Newsweek she believes she figured out the identity of the inventor of Bitcoin. We wrote about why the response to the story in the Bitcoin community is less than enthusiastic they think the hunt for the inventor's identity is a distraction from the overall Bitcoin mission, and that outing him could put him in danger.
And McGrath Goldman is now responding to some of their concerns on Twitter.
So far she's revealed that the photo she included of Nakamoto, as well as his home, are in the public domain, though she did state how she acquired them. Beyond that, she said, she left out sensitive personal information. She also responded to the concern that someone might now threaten the man, identified as Dorian Nakamoto, who is said to be worth $US400 million.
Check it out:
@jvnk@Newsweek I am not sure about intimate.' I took great pains to leave those out. I did want to offer a sense of his humanity, though.
Leah McGrath Goodman (@truth_eater) March 6, 2014
@EntropyExtropy Good question. Pictures and info people are asking about (including residence and car) already public. His name too.#Bitcoin
Leah McGrath Goodman (@truth_eater) March 6, 2014
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
A young American woman who ran the First Meta bitcoin exchange was found dead in her Singapore apartment last week. Police are investigating the "unnatural death".
Autumn Radtke was found on the morning of February 26 after Police received an emergency call from an apartment building. She was pronounced dead at the scene. A preliminary police investigation has ruled out foul play, but neighbors told police they suspected Radtke jumped from an apartment.
First Meta Ltd. issued a statement on its website, saying they were shocked and saddened' by the news and gave their deepest condolences to Radtke's family.
"The First Meta team is shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and CEO Autumn Radtke. Our deepest condolences go out to her family, friends and loved ones. Autumn was an inspiration to all of us and she will be sorely missed," the statement said.
The death of the 28-year old followed a tumultuous week for the virtual currency. Mt.Gox, once bitcoin's largest online exchange filed for bankruptcy on February 28 after $63 million worth of bitcoin went missing. The headline-grabbing currency has been shrouded in controversy since.
Prices fell sharply, and the day Mt.Gox closed, the cryptocurrency was listed at $565, less than half its value in November.
Neighbor and fellow bitcoin start-up entrepreneur Steve Beauregard lived in the same residential complex as Radtke and said her death wasn't related to her business. Beauregard is the CEO and founder of GoCoin, a bitcoin processer started in April 2013.
"This wasn't a bitcoin-related death. She had other things going on in her life. Collectively, there were a lot of small factors. ... It appears she picked a permanent solution to a lot of short term problems," Beauregard told Reuters.
First Meta is an online exchange for virtual currencies and real money, and is funded by Silicon Valley incubator Plug and Play.
Scott Robinson, an employee at Plug and Play, described Radtke as ambitious, "She was a go-getter, she always worked very hard ... she stuck out as one of the only women representing bitcoin."
Like many governments, Singapore doesn't recognize the legitimacy of the bitcoin currency, and has said they are not legal tender and users should know the risks.
Singapore has long attracted a large expatriate community because of the special tax exemptions it can offer as an independent state and has favorable conditions for start-ups.
Radtke moved from California to Singapore in 2012, where previously she worked at a video game currency start-up company. According to her LinkedIn professional profile, she held positions at tech start ups Xfire and Geodelic Systems. http://rt.com/business/radtke-bitcoin-de...apore-134/
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
Autumn Radtke looks pretty depressed to me. Highly motivated, wealthy, living the good life, doing something that could change the world financial system and which could also be used to easily launder money. Yup. Fits the profile. Move along. :hock::
"We'll know our disinformation campaign is complete when everything the American public believes is false." --William J. Casey, D.C.I
"We will lead every revolution against us." --Theodore Herzl
I've developed a new open source P2P e-cash system called Bitcoin. It's completely decentralized, with no central server or trusted parties, because everything is based on crypto proof instead of trust. Give it a try, or take a look at the screenshots and design paper:
The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts. Their massive overhead costs make micropayments impossible.
A generation ago, multi-user time-sharing computer systems had a similar problem. Before strong encryption, users had to rely on password protection to secure their files, placing trust in the system administrator to keep their information private. Privacy could always be overridden by the admin based on his judgment call weighing the principle of privacy against other concerns, or at the behest of his superiors. Then strong encryption became available to the masses, and trust was no longer required. Data could be secured in a way that was physically impossible for others to access, no matter for what reason, no matter how good the excuse, no matter what.
It's time we had the same thing for money. With e-currency based on cryptographic proof, without the need to trust a third party middleman, money can be secure and transactions effortless.
One of the fundamental building blocks for such a system is digital signatures. A digital coin contains the public key of its owner. To transfer it, the owner signs the coin together with the public key of the next owner. Anyone can check the signatures to verify the chain of ownership. It works well to secure ownership, but leaves one big problem unsolved: double-spending. Any owner could try to re-spend an already spent coin by signing it again to another owner. The usual solution is for a trusted company with a central database to check for double-spending, but that just gets back to the trust model. In its central position, the company can override the users, and the fees needed to support the company make micropayments impractical.
Bitcoin's solution is to use a peer-to-peer network to check for double-spending. In a nutshell, the network works like a distributed timestamp server, stamping the first transaction to spend a coin. It takes advantage of the nature of information being easy to spread but hard to stifle. For details on how it works, see the design paper at http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
The result is a distributed system with no single point of failure. Users hold the crypto keys to their own money and transact directly with each other, with the help of the P2P network to check for double-spending.