Bitcoin Plaza

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Ripple Coming To U.S. Banks

The Ripple Protocol is coming to two U.S. Banks, one located in New Jersey and the other Kansas, according to an announcement released by Ripple Labs that included press releases from the banks themse

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne to Keynote Inside Bitcoins Las Vegas – Get 10% OFF

Inside Bitcoins Conference and Expo will be returning to Las Vegas on October 5-7! The event will feature 35 informational sessions, over 70 speakers, 4 keynotes, and a half day of workshops!

Taking place at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino, the conference will cover a wide range of topics including mainstream adoption, compliance, bitcoin startups, investing, mining, altcoins, equipment, and more. An impressive lineup of bitcoin experts and thought leaders will share their insights and knowledge on the implications of bitcoin, along with predictions on what lies ahead.

The first 300 paid attendees will receive US$50 in bitcoin.

New to Inside Bitcoins Las Vegas will be a half day of small classroom-style workshops taught by cryptocurrency leaders, which will provide attendees with an interactive, informative setting to learn about various facets of the bitcoin ecosystem.

Recently announced is a keynote by Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com, who will be leading a session titled, “Cryptosecurities: the Next Decentralized Frontier” on October 6 at 3:30pm. Byrne will also be making an exciting announcement at the event regarding Overstock’s latest development on the Bitcoin front.

Featured speakers include:

Patrick Byrne, CEO, Overstock.com

Bobby Lee, CEO, BTC China & Board Member, Bitcoin Foundation

Daniel Larimer, Founder, Bitshares.org

Perianne Boring, Founder & President, Chamber of Digital Commerce

And many more! See the full roster of speakers here.

Interested in attending? Enter code BMAG14 for 10% OFF Gold and Silver Passports. Register now!

CEX.IO announces halving of fees and rapid addition of fiat pairs

CEX.IO and Ghash.IO have announced several major upgrades including the ability for customers to make purchases using fiat currency for the first time.

XCurrency Plans to Launch Public Corporation, Currently ‘Bullet-Proofing’ Its Code

Less than two weeks after we reported on XCurrency’s trustless mixing service, the currency’s developers on Wednesday announced plans to form a corporation, sell shares and submit its code to outsider

Bitcoin Core Dev, Mike Hearn: Openness is Bitcoin’s Biggest Strength

Mike Hearn is one of Bitcoin’s most polarizing figures. I wanted to learn more about this core developer who has helped Bitcoin grow but still holds reservations about its future so I forwarded him a

Ditching the Dollar in Hawaii

How does one give up USD while living in the United States? Will I completely destroy my quality of life? Is it even possible?

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Butterfly Labs Finally Has Wings Clipped

One of the most notorious bitcoin companies around will finally be facing legal consequences.

US PayPal Merchants Can Accept Bitcoin Starting Today

The excitement around PayPal’s first foray into Bitcoin via Braintree is barely over, but now the company has announced its merchants will be able to opt to accept Bitcoin as payment – from today.

First Blockchain marriage will take place at Disney World Bitcoin Conference

Bitcoin conference “for the whole family” at Disney World Florida will play host to a one-of-a-kind event on October 5 – the world’s first blockchain marriage.

Network Visibility Product Incorporates Bitcoin Pooled Mining Detection

Bitcoin is gaining popularity. Although the price has declined, people are still asking about and joining the ‘mining frenzy’ with increasingly capable hardware. In fact, the current aggregate hashrate of the Bitcoin network is topping a staggering >200,000,000 GH/s.

Remember that the profitability of mining depends on not only the necessary investment in hardware, but, most importantly, in the recurring cost of the energy required to power mining rigs.

The world is full of people who are willing to game any system for an expected personal profit. Unsurprisingly, there is a trend of individuals engaging in what is called ‘illicit bitcoin mining’, which is, essentially, borrowing computing resources and stealing power to mine for bitcoin.

There are known cases of malware authors who install hidden miners in unsuspecting Internet-using computers all around the globe (see here and here).

Other individuals steal power or computing resources from their employers (see here and here).

How do we solve this problem?

The ultimate way to thwart illicit bitcoin mining in corporate infrastructures is by accounting for power consumption. However, Barcelona-based startup Network Polygraph offers a cloud-based network monitoring solution, which could offer an alternative solution.

Josep Sanjuas, CEO of the company that commercializes Network Polygraph, states: “Rather than focusing on power consumption, pooled bitcoin mining can be detected by checking for certain patterns in network traffic.”

Network Polygraph provides network visibility, which helps network managers understand what is happening in their network in order to better manage it. For example, it produces bandwidth usage charts, flags the IP addresses that generate most traffic, and detects network-based attacks.

As part of its core features, Network Polygraph determines which applications have generated network traffic by using complex machine-learning based methods. Its creators have recently incorporated Bitcoin mining detection to their product and it is already reporting illicit mining activities in customer networks.

“We were surprised when Network Polygraph started flagging mining activities in our customers’ networks,” explains Sanjuas. “We expected we would catch some bitcoin-related activity, but we ended up uncovering an illicit Bitcoin miner that had been operating for months,” he continues to explain.

“We are not allowed to disclose much about these cases for obvious reasons, but we expect illicit mining to become a greater problem as bitcoin keeps becoming more mainstream.”

Sanjuas explains that “to our best knowledge, [Network Polygraph] is the first network visibility product that features bitcoin mining detection.” He clarifies that bitcoin mining detection is not the main selling point of Network Polygraph’s product line, but “just another way [the company] can justify its cost, besides regular usage for network operations, troubleshooting or capacity planning.”

It is important to note that Network Polygraph supports bitcoin usage, and promises to “work out a solution” if customers wish to pay in bitcoin for their services.

For more information on Network Polygraph or to explore their business in more depth, please visit https://polygraph.io.

Jersey Bitcoin Investment Fund Buys in While Price is Low

Asset management company Global Advisors announced on Monday that it had deployed its first round of client capital to buy up bitcoins for its Bitcoin investment fund:

Bitcoin Vietnam Co. Ltd. Adds Extra Functionality, Lowers Entry Barriers for Users

Vietnam's first and leading Bitcoin broker Bitcoin Vietnam Co. Ltd. announces the launch of its new 'Bitcoin Vietnam Wallet' functionality.