Kamis, 17 April 2014

Initial Response regarding Localbitcoins account vulnerability claims


Couple of hours Reddit user don4of4 posted warning to reddit, claiming that localbitcoins user accounts are vulnerable to some kind of exploit.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/23a26k/breaking_remove_your_btc_from_localbitcoins/

Similar post has been made on Localbitcoins forums.

So far we have found one systematic and recent attack against LocalBitcoins users, and right now it seems that the amount of users attacked have been under 30, and amount of bitcoins reported has been less than that. The common pattern between these cases has been that prior the transaction there have been login to the account, and the fact that none of the users affected had 2-factor authentication enabled. Most likely explanation to these attacks have been stolen user credentials through phishing or malware. So far nothing indicates that this have been a security flaw on the website itself, but we are going to continue investigating the case.

There have been also two or three isolated cases which does not necessarily fall directly to this pattern*, and those case still need more research before anything can be said from them.

We will continue investigating these cases during the weekend, and meanwhile outgoing transactions might be delayed, since we try to minimize cold storage movements until everything is sorted out. We apologize all inconvenience affected.

*) edit: There have been claims that users with 2FA have been affected. So far we have received three this kind of reports in total during last month, and some further investigation is required before we can draw too many conclusions about these cases.

Selasa, 08 April 2014

LocalBitcoins updated the servers against OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability

LocalBitcoins has updated its servers to fix OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability this morning.

The downtime was due to necessary security updates related to the Heartbleed bug. This is a serious security issue affecting most of the Internet. The issue was disclosed some hours ago.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this incident.

 

Advertisements disabled - manual action needed

If you are running trade advertisements on LocalBitcoins you may need to re-enable your LocalBitcoins advertisements.

Due to impact of OpenSSL updates on LocalBitcoins and the Internet, LocalBitcoins did not have valid Bitcoin market exchange rate data available. Because LocalBitcoins users price their advertisement based on different exchange rates they choose, and those exchange rates could not be read, the advertisement where disabled by an automatic process.

Go to your Dashboard on LocalBitcoins. If your advertisement shows a valid price, you can click Enabled / Disabled column to make your advertisement visible again.

We also recommend LocalBitcoins users to use min() and max() functions in the pricing equation to have ceiling and floor values against the volatility of Bitcoin exchange rate.

 

Security certificate changed

As the Heartbleed bug caused potential security certificate leak,  LocalBitcoins team took action to revoke and replace it. You may receive browser warnings about changed security certificate.

Senin, 10 Maret 2014

List your Bitcoin ATM on LocalBitcoins

Starting from today you can list the locations of Bitcoin ATMs (automatic teller machines) on LocalBitcoins. LocalBitcoins wants to see the Bitcoin ecosystem growing and we believe ATMs are one important part of in the process of making Bitcoin more consumer friendly.

Buying Bitcoins with cash is safe and easy making LocalBitcoins popular service among the first-time Bitcoin buyers. LocalBitcoins has cash trading activity already in 5000 cities, so advertising your Bitcoin ATM on the site brings good visibility for the machine.



As the writing of this, LocalBitcoins has Bitcoin ATM advertisements e.g. in Helsinki, Singapore, Zurich, Alberta and Boston.
  • Bitcoin ATMs will show up on the map with other cash trades (see ATM in the listing).
  • All ATM models supported (Lamassu, Robocoin, etc.)
  • When setting up an advertisement, separate buy and sell advertisements are required, as all ATM models do not support both functions.
  • Setting up an advertisement is free.
You can find the Create ATM advertisement button under the Dashboard of your user profile on LocalBitcoins site. Here is the direct link for creating a Bitcoin ATM advertisement.

Pricing information is not available yet, so the Bitcoin exchange rates are not shown for ATMs.

Senin, 03 Maret 2014

LocalBitcoins Responds To The Ukraine/Russia Crisis

Is your country going to war, and your national currency value is dropping like bomb? Or is your country in crisis, and the banks are implementing currency controls? Only able to withdraw $100 cash per day?

You know the solution... Check it out below.


Bitcoin sellers/buyers in Russia
Bitcoin sellers/buyers in Ukraine

Or spread the word and earn Bitcoins using our Affiliate Program.

Minggu, 02 Maret 2014

If Someone Buys Bitcoin Today, They'll be Lucky to See a 300%+ ROI

There's significantly less incentive for someone to speculate on Bitcoin today. To see a return comparable to what we've been seeing over the last couple of years, the amount of capital that would have to be injected into the markets is exponentially more than it was just over a year ago. This is going to cause investors to really do their homework before buying Bitcoin, and recent news events are exactly the sort of thing that will deter new investors.

Next, the vast majority of merchants are using Bitcoin as a protocol, not as a store of value. Anytime we hear of a new merchant choosing to "adopt Bitcoin," what they're actually doing is two-fold. One, they're getting free advertising for themselves, especially local businesses that find themselves on the front of the business sections of their local papers. Two, they're not adopting Bitcoin, they're adopting BitPay or Coinbase. These merchants care about lower fees and irreversible transactions, not so much the value of a Bitcoin itself. There are a few exceptions where the merchants retain some or all of the Bitcoins, but they're the minority, by far.

Third, Bitcoin early-adopters are cashing out. When you hear about Overstock, TigerDirect, Fancy, and others doing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars of business in Bitcoin, those are old Bitcoins that are being sold. No one is going out to buy Bitcoins so they can make purchases they could already make with PayPal. It's inefficient and expensive.

Finally, there are better protocols that are being derived from and have improved upon Bitcoin. If Bitcoin is more useful to businesses as a protocol, then why wouldn't a better protocol oust Bitcoin in the long run? The Bitcoin 2.0s of the world (Ethereum, Open Transactions, Ripple, etc) will eventually unseat Bitcoin. Some say that Bitcoin will remain an ideal store of value, and the other technologies will become the ideal "payment rails," but is Bitcoin really a good store of value if 35% of Bitcoins are held in only 500 addresses?

Anyway, suffice it to say that I'm not done in the crypto-currency space. I've divested into Bitcoin 2.0 technologies, and look forward to seeing the space grow. I expect to see better returns on those investments than I would if I simply held Bitcoin.


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Please discuss here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=496365.0

Sabtu, 01 Maret 2014

I Sold All My Bitcoins

There are better ways to implement globally distributed ledgers that allow for instant payments, sans drama.

Feel free to comment on this post when Bitcoin hits $10,000 so you can ask me how "butt-hurt" I am!

Senin, 17 Februari 2014

Introducing the LocalBitcoins ATM

The Bitcoin ATM was succesfully used in
the Helsinki Bitcoin meetup to buy beer
We are happy to announce the first production batch of LocalBitcoins ATM's. The ATM allows both buying and selling BTC, and the cost is about half of that the cheapest model currently on the market. It also doesn't require internet connection by default, which makes it more robust and cost-effective than the competiting models.

You can easily buy and sell bitcoins from LocalBitcoins ATM using your LocalBitcoins wallet. When you buy, the machine generates a redeemable code for the fiat currency amount the user puts in. This code can be redeemed for bitcoins on LocalBitcoins.com with the floating rate specified per-ATM.

Selling is almost as simple: an user loads bitcoins to the LocalBitcoins wallet, goes to the ATM url. After that the user can specify, how much fiat he wants to withdraw. After submitting the sell request, the user gets deposit code for the specified fiat amount. Then the user inputs the code to the ATM, and the machine outputs the specified amount cash.

The ATM can be programmed to support over 100 different currencies. Very beneficial is the bank note recycler, which reduces maintenance needs for the machine.

The operator of the machine can specify the premiums, and therefore earn profit by the ATM usage. LocalBitcoins charges 1% fee from the transactions. LocalBitcoins itself doesn't operate the machines, but the LocalBitcoins traders.

The initial batch will be 5 pieces, for operated near Helsinki, Finland area only. The next batch after that will be considerably larger. The price for the first batch model is 1990 EUR + VAT. As these ATM's are experimental, LocalBitcoins will commit to a full refund when problems are found and the ATM is returned. Also the first batch orderers get 70% discount from the next batch if they return the first model.

Do you want to be a pioneer, and be the first to profit from the badly needed bitcoin liquidity injection? Send us a request using this form. If you are able to operate the ATM in Finland, or in nearby cities to Helsinki (Tallinn, Stockholm), you can be part of the initial 5 piece batch.
The first model of ATM is so small, that it can easily be transfered even in a metro
The concept was originally developed by bitcoinkiosk.com. LocalBitcoins.com bought the whole package in December 2013, and plans to mass-produce these ATM's at large scale. See the original video of operation (the current model includes a receipt printer, however).

Press enquiries: team@localbitcoins.com
Want to be an ATM operator? Fill the form here.

 
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