The tiny Central American nation of El Salvador has been in the news this week after its legislature passed a new law that recognises Bitcoin as legal tender. The law was proposed by its president, Nayib Bukele just a couple of days before, and it was rushed through and approved Read more…
I’ll get to the Bitcoin bit soon, but first let me explain what prompted this idea. Thanks to a Twitter thread by Cory Doctorow (archived here), I’ve been listening to this great interview with Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis. In the video, Varoufakis explains the historic decoupling between stock markets and the Read more…
There is a very interesting dispute taking place in cryptocurrency circles right now that has nothing to do with price, hacking, exchanges, or any other of the usual hot topics surrounding this area. This time copyright is being used to try to answer one of the most important questions for Read more…
Costa Rican news outlets have been reporting a tragic story of a kidnapping that has a very interesting cryptocurrency twist. 12 people have been arrested in Costa Rica and Spain in connection with the kidnapping (and suspected murder) of American entrepreneur William Sean Creighton, who disappeared in September 2018 and Read more…
I could be fabulously wealthy right now. When I first wrote about Bitcoin, the price was $14.65 USD, and as of writing, the price is hovering just above $12,500 after undergoing a few ups and downs since December. If I had bought 10 BTC that day for a $146.50 USD Read more…
Bitcoin has been back in the news. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) handed a blow to the cryptocurrency when it denied an application by the Winklevoss twins (of Social Network fame) to create an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on Bitcoin called the Bats BZX Exchange. An ETF is Read more…
I haven’t written a blog post about Bitcoin and the blockchain for quite a while, mostly because I spent most of my BTC energies in this First Monday article with Chris Marsden. This blog post will act in part as an introduction to the concepts for those not familiar with Read more…
My scepticism towards Bitcoin is well-documented. While I really like the idea of decentralized payment systems and cryptocurrencies, the current implementation of Bitcoin has too many question marks for my liking. While the BTC exchange rate has been going up recently, in part prompted by a bit of hype arising Read more…
On May 28 2015, federal district judge Katherine Forrest sentenced Ross Ulbricht to life in prison for his role as the creator and administrator of the notable dark net website Silk Road. The site was an anonymous online marketplace that could run using encrypted connections over the Tor network. The Read more…
After some bad news for the Bitcoin world, including the demise of its former largest exchange, may be reaching a mature stage. Bitcoin’s price continues to swing wildly, in the last 60 days the price has been in the range of $420-580 USD. Such currency instability has been one of Read more…