Massively Bullish: Buttcoin.org for Sale

Edit: turns out I referenced a six-month old post. Oops.

You know the tide has turned when Bitcoin's detractors throw in the towel, which just happened in a big way. The site famous for its connection to the Cosby Coin incident, Buttcoin.org, is now for sale.

With headlines like "A really good fucking comment on why Bitcoins are destined to fail," "Someone grab me a fork, because bitcoins are done," and "Ars Technica readers expose Buttcoin as a shill for the Fed," Buttcoin.org was Bitcoin's most notorious critic. Obviously the site's owner does not see a bright future in the Bitcoin-bashing business and is hoping to pick up a couple of dollars (eww) before it becomes completely worthless.

This follows the December 12th closure of Something Awful's Bitcoin thread, which ended with this statement:

"Now is the time to retire this thread. Bitcoin has been mined for it's depths, all comedy nuggets extracted and now we have nothing left but shit-brown flakes to pan over. I would have liked to jettison this thread when we hit $1, but it looks like the miners will do everything to try and keep the money train rolling.

You can read a good write up on the Rise and Fall of Bitcoin, read the original GBS thread that started it all, check out the greatest moments on Buttcoin, and see peak comedy when Bill Cosby gave the forums a visit.

Good night, sweet prince."

No doubt there will be another round to fight with the trolls, but it definitely looks like they've run out of ammunition for the foreseeable future.

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Bitcointalk Forum Statistical Trend FINALLY Broken!

Since the bubble popped in June, the monthly stats for new forum topics, new posts, new members, and most online users has been in perpetual decline... until now!

Yesterday, the forum had 530 users online at the same time; the most recorded since October 17th. As a result, January 2012 broke the seven month trend of perpetual decline in forum statistics.

While it has been well established that these numbers are lagging indicators, the trend break is definitely a sign that we're out of our rut.

In other news, I need to get a life.

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Toronto's "Urban Living Suites" Now Accepting Bitcoin

Bitcoin Travel added "Urban Living Suites" to their listings today. From their website:

We are a newly renovated, family-operated inn offering simple, clean, and furnished suites for short terms rentals. Our rates are budget-friendly and we cater to those that seek a no-frills alternative to expensive hotels.

Located between Little Italy, Kensington Market, and Chinatown we are just a short distance away from Toronto’s more popular attractions. Toronto’s famous Queen Street is just a few steps away and there you will find trendy restaurants, art boutiques, local markets and great shopping. A street-car stop located just on the corner provides easy access around the city.

All our rooms are newly renovated and offer a contemporary and comfortable design furnished with pieces selected from our family-run furniture store located just below the suites.

All rooms include:

♦ Kitchenette (stove & mini-fridge).
♦ Private bathrooms.
♦ Towels and linens.
♦ Free high speed internet.
♦ Posture-pedic mattresses and dust mite covers.
♦ Weekly or daily cleaning services as requested.
♦ Eco-friendly cleaning products.
♦ Limited Free Parking (subject to availability).
♦ Laundry facilities are located nearby.
♦ Note: no phone in room (Pre-paid phones can be requested).

We are pleased to welcome travelers to stay with us and experience what Toronto has to offer. We will do our best to make your stay wonderful. Happy travels!

You can even stay long-term, subject to availability. Maybe someone will win my bounty after all!

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Shades of May 2011 as Bitcoin Tops $6.00

In a round of extremely volatile trading, Bitcoin hit $6.00 today and is now up 200% from the November 17th low of $1.99, and up 27% in only the first four days of 2012.

24 hour volume on the Mt.Gox USD market is in excess of 151,000 BTC, representing a very busy day on the Japan-based exchange.

$6.00/BTC was last seen on September 21st, only a couple of weeks after Bitcoinica first opened its doors and gave Bitcoin traders the opportunity to short the market. Interestingly, if Bitcoin crosses through $8.00, it will be theoretically impossible for any legacy short positions to still be in-the-money, as shorting the market was not possible above those prices.

What's to blame for this bullish market? It could be anything from recent positive media coverage to new software and service announcements. Whatever the case may be, clearly, people want their Bitcoins in a way that hasn't been seen since last May.

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Emperor PayPalpatine Orders Destruction of Violin

Hey look! It's our friends over at Regretsy with another sad PayPal story. It turns out that one of the possible outcomes of PayPal's dispute resolution process is that the recipient of an item can be ordered to destroy said item. In this case, it was a $2500 violin.

Yet another victim of the dark side...

Read the story, here.

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Financial Controls Stepped Up in Belarus as Internet Connections are Locked Down

On the 31st of October, last year, I reported on the disproportionate number of people in Belarus and Ukraine that were using Bitcoin, postulating that it may have had something to do with the precariousness of their currencies.

With the situation in Belarus continuing to deteriorate, the government has now imposed a veritable Internet lockdown to stifle financial transactions beyond the country's borders. Now, not only are its citizens forced to watch their savings vanish in a storm of hyperinflation, but their means of hedging their losses have also been cut off.

RowIT is still reporting 283 connections to the Bitcoin network originating in Belarus, down from the 671 reported in October.  Keep in mind that many more could be using lightweight clients or e-wallets, and are likely counting their blessings that they discovered Bitcoin.

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AMD Mentions Bitcoin on Website

Nice find by the Bitcoin Reporter!

It looks like AMD is starting to notice where a good chunk of their graphic cards are being used (fifth bullet down):

• The world’s first 28nm GPU. The revolutionary new GCN Architecture. Ready for DirectX® 11. PCI Express 3.0.¹ The AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 is your personal checklist for ground-breaking technology.
• The next generation of AMD Eyefinity technology is here, featuring all-new support for stereo 3D, universal bezel compensation and brand new display configurations. Face it: the best just got better.^2,3
• Armed with the new PCI Express 3.0 standard, multi-GPU configurations with AMD CrossFire™ technology are just another way to obliterate the competition with the revolutionary AMD Radeon™ HD 7970.^4,5
• Leave no performance behind. Get higher clocks and faster gaming with AMD PowerTune technology on AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 Graphics.⁶
• Fold and mine faster than ever with AMD App Acceleration powered by the unprecedented 28nm GCN Architecture.⁷
• The market isn’t ready for 4k video, but Radeon™ is. With full support for 3GHz HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2, the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 is set for quad HD.

Source: http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/7000/7970/Pages/radeon-7970.aspx

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