2.5Mb of Wikileaks Cables Embedded in the Bitcoin Blockchain

John Robb, a writer at Resilient Communities, just tweeted that a large amount of Wikileaks cable data has been embedded in the blockchain.

There are indeed methods for embedded text in the blockchain, the most famous being Satoshi Nakamoto's entry in the first block, "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." 

Some worry that child pornography could be stored in the blockchain, thus implicating anyone who downloads it, though the illegality of that is rather questionable.

Some guy just put 2.5 Mb of Wikileaks cables into the Bitcoin blockchain.It's out there forever now.Very cool use of the tech.
— John Robb (@johnrobb) April 24, 2013

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International message and email delivery updates

Hi! My name is Andrei and I have had the pleasure to join the LocalBitcoins.com team recently as a software developer.  Now I have happy news for all of you.

We have fixed some outstanding issues related to handling email and communications between exchange transaction participants in LocalBitcoins.com system. Now email delivery is more reliable, international characters are less likely to get skewed in the process. We also enhanced anonymization of email exchange, so that all email addresses in message bodies are automatically hidden when you reply to exchange messages, so that you cannot leak out your email address accidentally. The privacy of our users is utmost important for us.

If you have any idea how we can make the service better for you please don't hesitate to contact us at support@localbitcoins.com.

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Bitcoin/Ripple Market Sets Daily Volume Record

Is Ripple riding on the coattails of Bitcoin's sudden rise to fame, or is its popularity a result of the recent press release regarding some high profile investors?

Either way, today was a big day for the Ripple (XRP) market. Over 300 Bitcoins worth of Ripples were traded on the distributed exchange, blowing the previous record of 92 out of the water, and the day isn't over yet.

Courtesy of RippleCharts.com

Total USD inside the Ripple network was hovering around $80,000 today, while total BTC was around 1300.

Ripples were trading for between 25,000 and 40,000 to the Bitcoin.

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Bitcoin Alliance of Canada Makes Debut

By gathering key industry players The Bitcoin Alliance of Canada's goal is to cultivate Bitcoin knowledge and involvement nationwide.

WireService.ca Press Release - 04/13/2013 - The concept behind the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada (BAC) was inspired by the need for accurate and professional media coverage of Bitcoin in Canada. Both on television and online, news typically doesn't properly address the dynamic aspects of Bitcoin. However, with Bitcoin use skyrocketing globally, the need for more concise and insightful information will only increase. The BAC is poised to become a reliable source of that information.

Knowledgeable Bitcoin users, those who are fluent in economics, those with a story to share, and merchants looking to start accepting Bitcoin will be key players in the development of Bitcoin in Canada. The BAC will exist to explain Bitcoin with clarity and professionalism. With more and more cryptocurrencies cropping up, businesses in Canada both interested in or already using electronic cash should keep up with news and facts surrounding these varied systems. The BAC hopes to strengthen the Bitcoin community by making all the news and facts accessible to the general public. The BAC will strive to clearly express new and foreign concepts common to emerging currencies like Bitcoin in order to avoid misconceptions and confusion, and to better appeal to a broad audience.

Support and interest is welcome in this endeavor to establish a strong, knowledgeable market in Canada that understands and accepts Bitcoin. For media requests, general inquires, or to participate please contact the BAC.

Contact:
Anthony Di Iorio
Founding Member, BAC
416-831-9593
adiiorio@bitcoinalliance.ca
www.bitcoinalliance.ca

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Feedback system overhaul

We have learned that creating a functioning marketplace is a very difficult problem. Now we have tried to improve the marketplace by creating an overhaul to the feedback system.

In the new system, feedback is always enabled when an request is finished in a way or another. However, localbitcoins.com system tries to determine "confirmed" status for feedbacks with an algorithm. A confirmed status means that we have strong confidence that the feedback is legit.

Also users can block other users with the feedback mechanism. This helps stopping escrow spammers or buyers, who try to hedge bitcoin price using the system.

Our next goal is trying to limit the advertisement spam in the system. Also fine-tuning the processes more fluid.

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News Bits - April 11th, 2013

• Winklevoss Twins own 1% of all Bitcoins;


• Fair and positive analysis of Bitcoin on Bloomberg TV today;


• Tired of staring at the ticker all day? Try BTC Track;


• A new online marketplace, BitPapa, is launching this month;


• Trading will resume on Mt.Gox at 7pm Pacific;


• Ripple is starting to make waves in the media.

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A Gorgeous Visualization of Key Bitcoin Statistics

A Bitcoin enthusiast working for Tableau Software forwarded me the code for an incredible visualization of stats regarding Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related statistics. I had to squish it a bit to fit in on my blog, but you can find it here.

Learn About Tableau

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Ripple Coin Flip, the SatoshiDice of Ripple?

I came across Ripple Coin Flip on the bitcointalk forums and decided to give it a try. There's only one available address to send to and it gives you a 49% chance of doubling your money. The ripple address is rEgXAZiBKcLPo64wRd5JaASpZ8mGidfZiX if you want to try it for yourself. Watch this video to see how well it works!

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Drew Carey and Roseanne Barr are Bitcoin Fans!

Just tried to buy breakfast w bitcoins. Refused. #whenwilltheworldcatchuptomyhipness?

— Drew Carey (@DrewFromTV) April 7, 2013

Leave your Narrow Corridors. Leave all limited thought. Dream the Dreams of poets and pirates. Ahoy me mateys! YE R WATCHIN' BITCOIN B BORN

— Roseanne Barr (@TheRealRoseanne) March 26, 2013

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Bitcoin in Video: Coverage from the Last Week (Part 2)

See Part 1 here.

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Bitcoin in Video: Coverage from the Last Week (Part 1)

For your convenience, here are six videos that captured the excitement in the media surrounding Bitcoin over the last week. The last one is a great documentary put together by Bitcoin Magazine and the GoldMoney Foundation. Click here to see eight more videos.

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$200 USD on Monday? GoWest and Hazek Jr Debate the Possibility

An excerpt from a Skype discussion...

GoWest: This morning's trading activity has been absolutely mesmerizing, if not unbelievable. In the nearly two years I've been following Bitcoin, I can't remember the last time I've seen such a bullish run this early on a Sunday. It seems quite likely that we could hit $200/BTC as early as Monday.

hazek jr: I agree, the Bitcoin exchange rate is going full retard at the moment, and what is happening today on a Sunday typically shouldn't be happening. So in my disbelief I cannot agree that we will reach $200 that fast. I'm as confident as ever we will get there eventually but we need to take a break first, wait for traders to take some profits perhaps with a temporary top just below $190 and then in a day or two we can make a $200 attempt.

GoWest: You have to keep in mind that last week's press coverage was unparalleled. I guarantee that, in response, some deep pockets lined up to get their money into Mt.Gox. At a rate of 1000 account verifications a day, which seems to be the case, anyone who got in line early last week will be able to get their funds into Mt.Gox when the banks open in Japan on Monday or on Tuesday (which is still Monday over here in North America). There's plenty of time for fiat to rush in and give us the boost we need to soar past the $200 or $2.2 billion mark. As I'm typing this, we've hit $163, with over 1000 BTC support above $159.

hazek jr: That's an excellent point, Mt.Gox does open their offices with quite a nice head-start before the rest of us which could yield just enough of a push. However if one examines a bit of trading history from the past 6 months, one could easily see the same potential momentum in buying getting accumulated which then simply needed to face a psychological barrier, for how ever short period of time, before being able to push through. That's why I stand by my prediction, $200 no sooner than Wednesday.

GoWest: Alright, so we're only arguing about 48 hours here. Here's some food for thought: you only have to get an account verified with Mt.Gox if you're going to deposit (or withdraw) more than $50,000 USD. Anyone else is simply waiting for an "ID check." What percentage of those 14,180 accounts are getting an ID check and how many are dealing with $50,000? What's 14,180 accounts (the current waiting list) x $50,000 USD? That's $709 million. That's right, $709 million dollars. Even if only 2% of the accounts are dealing with $50,000, that's still $14,000,000. I'm beginning to think that $200 may be a low-ball estimate for Monday. 

hazek jr: Ok, you're on!

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The Mt.Gox Verification Queue: 14,180 Users!

I just received a report from a friend that the Mt.Gox verification queue, as of eight minutes ago, is now 14,180 users long.

Fourteen thousand, one hundred and eighty users! That's a lot of money about to flow into Bitcoin.

Six days ago the queue was reported to be over 8300, with approximately 1000 accounts being verified daily; that works out to 12,000 new accounts in the last week.

Update:

Why is there a requirement to verify an account? From Mt.Gox:

"If you plan to invest more than 50,000 USD or equivalent on the long term in bitcoins, we need to know about you. In this case please use our verification system to get your account verified first. 

Please also be advised that all deposits are subject to an ID check by our AML team and this process would take up to 1 business day.  First-timer depositors are requested to upload their copy of the official ID to facilitate this process (you will not have to be fully verified at this point if your deposit is lower than 50,000 USD)."

So, how many of these 14,180 users are planning to invest over $50,000? How much money is that in total? The implications are staggering.

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TorBroker - The Silk Road of Stock Brokers

A daring new service, "TorBroker," was quietly announced in the gambling (how ironic) sub-forum of bitcointalk.org last week.

TorBroker does for securities trading what Silk Road did for the drug trade, allowing users to buy and sell any of nearly 1000 stocks and ETFs anonymously and under the cover of the Tor network. Users fund their accounts with Bitcoin and pay a 1% fee to buy and sell securities.

The main selling points of the service are that users can access publicly traded securities without providing any identifying information, not even an email address, while masking their IP addresses through the Tor network, and of course, dodging capital gains taxes. Trades can only be executed at the opening bell, so day traders won't find this service overly useful.

Can you trust TorBroker to not run away with your Bitcoins? Well, there's an interesting answer, with a dramatic Bitcoin twist. Roger Ver, a.k.a. "Bitcoin Jesus," was contacted by the creators of TorBroker and was asked if he'd be willing to hold 1000 BTC as a security bond that could be used to pay back users in the event that TorBroker disappeared. Here's the full quote:

"I don't know TorBroker or any of the people behind it, but about a month and a half ago they contacted me, and at least one other well known member of the Bitcoin community, and asked us to publicly hold 1,000 BTC as a security bond that would be used to refund customers if TorBroker ever disappeared with their customers money.

While I fully support TorBroker's efforts to bring additional economic freedom to traditional financial markets, legally it didn't seem safe for me to be the front man for this.

The fact that they were looking for someone to hold this bond seems to be a strong indication that they are in this for the long term, and do not intend to disappear with everyone's money.

If the regulators are able to uncover the true identities of the TorBroker accounts, I am sure that they (the regulators) will steal everyone's money though.

I wish TorBroker the best of luck,  and financial tyrants the worst."

No doubt, if the Silk Road has pissed off the FBI, TorBroker is really going to get the SEC's skivvies in a knot!

TorBroker can be accessed with the Tor Browser at http://torbrokerge7zxgq.onion.

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The Bitcoin Bubble

More people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing, so more people buy it, then more people use it, and it becomes easier to transact with it, which makes it more appealing...

(it's not a bubble, it's a positive feedback loop).

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And there it is... Bitcoin has hit $100!

I probably should've prepared something for this moment, but to be honest, I had no idea it would come this soon.

$100 US per Bitcoin; amazing.

That's a market cap of 1.1 billion...

This blog has really become an archive of the trials and tribulations of Bitcoin, as we crashed from $30 all the way down to $2 and, the slow... very slow recovery and renaissance.

What a ride, what a ride.

Congratulations, Bitcoin!

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