Coin News

Over the weekend, Ross Ulbricht's lawyer, Joshua Dratel, filed a motion asking the court to dismiss all charges against the Silk Road kingpin. It's largely what you'd expect from a bullish defense attorney. But here's the twist: Dratel throws bitcoin under the bus.

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Colombia issued its latest guidance on bitcoin on 1st April, clarifying its classification of the digital currency.

IRS Changes Course and Declares Bitcoin a Currency In a stunning reversal of intent, the IRS today issued a statement admitting they got it wrong. “After further review, and speaking to our consulting organization led by new Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, we’ve decided that bitcoin acts more like a currency after all.” This was greeted with celebration at multiple companies which have been taking a harsh stance on the IRS’s previous declarations. Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne issued a statement from a “Freedom Rally” that “Although the IRS has been used as a dangerous weapon against the Libertarian movement and has repeatedly shown hostile actions without legal recourse for Americans, “Once in a while they get one right.” Agents in Police […]

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A White House petition has been filed regarding Notice 2014-2, which calls for bitcoin to be taxed as property.

Has a distant relative ever made fun of your interest in crypto-currencies while spending their days on Facebook playing Bloons Tower Defense? Well, wish your inter-familial bouts goodbye. Common ground can be found! SuperRewards announced on March 31 that they will begin allowing users to buy in-game virtual currencies using Bitcoin. Whether or not you have […]

The post Mobile Gamers Rejoice! SuperRewards Accepts Bitcoin appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Seedcoin has signed BTC.SX as the sixth - and largest - funding deal in its first seed round.

iPhone users, did you know that you can legally gain access to an iOS Bitcoin Wallet? Love Will, LLC develops applications and provides services for the Cycle of Goodness, or C.O.G cooperative. Among one of these apps is an innovative wallet by the name of Pheeva. This is made possible through Apple’s enterprise software solutions reserved to companies like Love Will, LLC. But it’s more than a way to get a Bitcoin wallet, it’s a way to work with a like-minded group towards a good cause and reap benefits. Here’s how it works: Once you join and become a legal member of C.O.G., a registered state agency based in Kentucky, USA, you gain access to apps, including Pheeva, the iOS […]

The post Pheeva: The Good iOS wallet appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The trial of Ross Ulbricht, the alleged creator of the Silk Road Bitcoin-based black market for drugs, hasn't yet begun, but it's already raising hairy legal questions. First on the docket: Is Bitcoin even money?

The economist explains what gives bitcoin value, its worth as an investment and the purity of the protocol.

Zappos! today shocked the world by following in the footsteps of internet merchant giant Overstock.com in entering the Cryptocurrency sphere.  Tony Hsieh, Zappos! CEO, announced today via video and wall of text that Zappos! would issue all refunds in Bitcoin.   Zappos! specifically cited the Internal Revenue Service’s Virtual Currency Guidance as their inspiration for this […]

The post April 1st: Zappos! CEO Tony Hsieh Announces Bitcoin Refunds In Honor Of Satoshi appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Hackathons are nearly a ubiquitous sight for tech savvy netizens, nowadays.  Just last week, Coinbase announced the winners of their BitHack event as well as the unveiling of their own app store.  At the beginning of March, the Texas Bitcoin Conference’s Hackathon earmarked over $1 million USD in prize to its victors.  While the aforementioned […]

The post hack.uva: University of Virginia To Host The First Hackathon Sponsored By Dogecoin appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

While the true identity of the possibly pseudonymous founder of Bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto remains a mystery, there is one man who can be linked definitively to the digital cryptocurrency prior to its public debut.

He's a software developer who goes by the name Michael Weber, appears to be in his early 30s, and has a fondness for tight t-shirts, working out, heavily gelled hair, and sunglasses.

Based on his apparent connection to Bitcoin.org, the site used by Nakamoto in 2008 to launch the digital currency, Weber has been cited on multiple forums as potentially being one of the people behind the Bitcoin.

While there's no evidence Weber authored the Bitcoin code, the creator of the cryptocurrency clearly used his services. Furthermore, Business Insider has found additional connections between Weber and Nakamoto, as well as new information demonstrating Weber's past interest in anonymous online banking.

Weber has not responded to multiple requests for comment from Business Insider made via his email and phone numbers in Japan and Mexico.

The WHOIS domain records for Bitcoin.org show the site was first registered in 2008 to "Anonymousspeech LLC," a company dedicated to providing anonymous email and web surfing services to customers. In a recent email to BI, Martti Malmi, a developer who is one of Nakamoto's earliest confirmed collaborators, told Business Insider that Bitcoin.org was "originally created by Satoshi."  

Though his name did not appear on the Bitcoin.org registration, there is substantial information indicating Weber has played a key role in "AnonymousSpeech LLC."

AnonymousSpeech.com, the website associated with that company, shows it is dedicated to providing anonymous email and web surfing services to customers. An archived description on the site from 2007 said the company "specializes in international law and IT security consulting" and had been "based in Tokyo, Japan since 1996." By 2009, the AnonymousSpeech.com site indicated the company was "located in Switzerland" and, as a result, "governed by Swiss law and allowed to delete customer data legally from its servers." 

In 2007, AnonymousSpeech advertised the ability to accept bank transfer payments to a Swiss bank account identified as belonging to "Mike Weber." The company also took payments via "E-Gold" a service that allowed anonymous, digital transfer of gold ownership between users. By 2008, AnonymousSpeech was also taking payments via Bank Weber, which is billed on its website as a "Swiss Internet Bank." According to WHOIS records, Bank Weber's homepage was first registered to a Michael Weber at a residential address in Tokyo in 2007. 

Business Insider sent a message to the contact email identified on the Bank Weber site on March 18 inquiring about the company's services. As of this writing, we have not received an answer.

By late 2010, AnonymousSpeech was accepting payments via Bank Weber, E-Gold, Weber's Swiss Bank account, and Western Union. Customers who opted for Western Union payments were instructed to send them to "Michael Niklaus Weber" in Mexico City. In March 2013, a note on the site indicated it no longer accepted "payments from E-Gold." However, by the end of the year, AnonymousSpeech featured a banner boasting "We Accept Bitcoin."

In addition to AnonymousSpeech and Bank Weber, records show a second connection between Weber and Nakamoto.

Bank Weber was registered in Weber’s name with the street address of "Sakura House," a real estate agency in Tokyo specializing in shared accommodations for foreigners. The same Sakura House address was used to register Bitcoin.org. The registration for the Bank Weber site also included an email, [email protected], which is connected to records for at least 19 other domains.

One of those domains is Vistomail.com, which is registered to:

• Michael Weber, as well as weber's [email protected] email 
• AnonymousSpeech's Sakura House street address 
• An additional Tokyo address used for some of Weber's other sites.

Nakamoto used a Vistomail account, [email protected], to make forum posts and to communicate with the developers who helped build the Bitcoin code. Nakamoto's other known email — the one he included on his Bitcoin manifesto — is [email protected], which uses the same free email provider apparently favored by Weber.

Nakamoto has not responded to messages from Business Insider sent to both of those emails.

Vistomail was also apparently popular among some users of Silk Road, the now-shuttered illicit online drug marketplace where Bitcoin was the local currency. A quick request to [email protected] would get users "High End Professional Document Creation." [email protected], meanwhile, took orders in the UK for marijuana.

Malmi told Business Insider that Weber was the contact for Anonymous Speech's domain registry service, but was "not related to bitcoin in any way" beyond that.

"Domain names need to have valid contact details, some registrars allow clients to stay anonymous behind the registrar's name," Malmi said in a recent Skype chat. "Anonymousspeech is one of the few registrars that don't require any details from its clients. You can just create an account and pay by cash in the mail (or bitcoins these days)."

At the very least, it's clear Nakamoto knew about services Weber was offering and used them for his email and to register the site where he launched Bitcoin.

Malmi, who has previously denied being Satoshi, has himself has played a role in managing Bitcoin.org. In late 2011, WHOIS records show registration of the Bitcoin site was transferred from AnonymousSpeech to a Finnish domain company, Louhi Networks Oy. Malmi works in Finland. He confirmed the site was transferred to him in 2011. He described this as the "first time (in 2011) I was in contact with Satoshi."

The Bitcoin.org registration was transferred back to AnonymousSpeech in September 2013 before moving to Whoisguard two months later. Malmi said the site was transferred from Weber's company because of an unspecified "security issue."

"Last year it was on anonymousspeech for some time to allow multiple admins without a breach of ToS but it was transferred to the current domain host because of a security issue," said Malmi. "Now there are other admins besides me, but they wish to stay anonymous."

Other sites and social media accounts linked to Weber provide further information about his personality, activities, and current whereabouts.

In 2007, Weber registered the site NaNiNu.com, which seemed to be an early social network designed to organize events and networking for foreigners living in Tokyo. One 2006 party oraganized on the site was described by its unnamed administrator as a farewell for “ a member of the infamous Sakura House in proud Nakano Sakaue gang” who was “leaving Japan soon.” Steven Taradai, a representative for the Sakura House real estate agency in Tokyo confirmed via email that their property near the Nakano Sakaue train station in Shinjuku is located at the street address used by Weber. Business Insider asked Taradai whether Sakura House had records of Weber living at the apartment building and he declined to comment saying the company is, "legally and contractually bound not the release the information about Sakura House tenants and their place of residence to the third party."

GoalSetting1.com is another site registered to Weber through his name and the email and physical addresses in Tokyo he has used for other registrations. That site is a social network that allows users to share their personal goals. A note on the site identifies Michael Weber as its "founder and creator." There is also a page for Weber on the site that appears to have been posted in early 2006. Weber's goals included: "stop procrastinating," attain a "golf score under 100," "power gain on Creatine," and "stop picking my nose." He also described himself as a Swiss software developer living in Japan who was "always around" two Tokyo neighborhoods known for nightlife — Roppongi and Nishi Azabu.

A photo on Weber's goal-setting profile appears to match pictures on other accounts identified as belonging to a Michael Weber on Google Plus and Wayn.com. The Google Plus page is far more sparse and it has not been updated since late 2011. It identified Weber as living in Mexico City and includes a single picture captioned "Capitan Mike" that seems to show Weber piloting a small aircraft. Weber's Wayn page is much more recent than his Google Plus profile. It was updated as recently as last month and identifies him as being "currently in Mexico City."

Obviously, none of this is a smoking gun showing Weber is the person behind "Satoshi Nakamoto." There's no definitive proof he's involved in Bitcoin beyond providing its inventor with an anonymous email domain and hosting the site used for the cryptocurrency's launch. Still, Weber's ties to Bitcoin.org and Vistomail make him one of the only people who can be conclusively linked to Bitcoin before it was made public. His ties to AnonymousSpeech.com also suggest he had some level of technical expertise and an interest in anonymous digital currencies. 

One odd site registered in Weber's name with the Sakura House address and [email protected] email is aidsgame.com, which was billed in 2004 as "the first Internet Virtual HIV test." Current versions of the site proclaim "HIV Does Not Cause AIDS" and feature a curious note.

"I came to the conclusion that AidsGame.com is a joke! I leave this page online since i ranks high for certain HIV/AIDS related keywords," the note said.

However small Weber's role was in the launch of Bitcoin, it's clear his apparent interests in digital currency align significantly with Satoshi's. 

Know anything further about Weber or his role in Bitcoin? Drop us a line.

Join the conversation about this story »

The company says bitcoin is just a promising payments technology. It is that, and much more, says Ariel Deschapell.

CEO Alan Safahi of ZipZap tells CoinDesk about his company's expansion plans, and why bitcoin matters in emerging economies.

The bitcoin community launched two fundraisers over the last week for two high-profile figures in bitcoin.

Coinbase is all over Reddit today. Several people reported receiving e-mails from the Bitcoin enterprise, asking them to make a payment to another user. On top of that, a list was released containing information of many Coinbase users.  At first, most people thought this was an April fools joke, but eventually, most became worried Coinbase […]

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Just a month ago, the 2014 run rate for venture capital invested in bitcoin startups stood at $100m.

There’s A Virtual Currency Provision In The 2014 Federal Budget Implementation Act Last Friday, Canada’s new Minister of Finance Joe Oliver presented the first of two 2014 budget implementation bills to the House of Commons.  The bill , that was tabled, was written by recently-resigned former Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty.  Flaherty has previously revealed […]

The post Canada Starts Bitcoin Regulation: Virtual Currencies Mentioned In 2014 Budget Implementation Bill appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

ONE does not often find $100m in one's tatty old wallet. But that's just what Mt Gox, the shuttered Bitcoin exchange, says happened a few days ago. While Mt Gox has filed for bankruptcy in Japan and America, and initially said that it had lost 850,000 Bitcoins (valued then at nearly $600m), it uncovered 200,000 (about $100m at today's rates) in a disused wallet that it thought was empty.It seems as though Bitcoins are being plundered continuously. Flexcoin, a smaller service, had a significant theft following Mt Gox's initial announcement, and opted to shut down although most of its coins were secured. Poloniex suffered a similar fate to a larger percentage of its customer holdings but remains in operation. China-based Vircurex last week exhausted its reserves following thefts in 2013 and froze withdrawals from older accounts as it attempts to produce new revenue to repay lost coins.Beyond the issues of competency, security and accounting at exchanges large and small, these losses highlight the difficulties of maintaining ready access to currency that, unlike legal tender, can exist in a sense simultaneously in many locations. Bitcoin relies on a secret: a private encryption key that is, of course, just a series of numbers, while a corresponding public key, which an be distributed freely and safely, is the "address" to which transactions may be sent. Those numbers ...

Wu Zhengfu, a top-level official in the People’s Bank of China, has made a public announcement that April Fools day jokes are now officially banned in the country. A formal statement, now released on the PBoC website, states that “at this stage, all public informational and media institutions must not make statements of fraudulent comedy, directly or indirectly, on the day of April 1, nor act as a platform for individuals to write such statements, nor hyperlink to such statements, nor use April 1 as the day for whimsical announcements”. According to Zhengfu, the People’s Bank of China does not consider April fools’ day a threat to China’s cultural system, but it does cause risks of potentially destabilizing the government’s […]

The post People’s Bank of China Bans April Fools Jokes appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis can compete with bitcoin as currency, but not payments, said David Andolfatto.

Over the past few days, we’ve watched the market value of Bitcoin take a serious knock. We suspect this is the result of two major factors. The first being the uncertainty regarding China’s banking position on the cryptocurrency, and the second, the IRSs policy decision announced earlier this week. In the context of Bitcoin’s price […]

The post Why there may never be a better time than now to buy into Bitcoin appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis David Andolfatto released a report on Bitcoin (PDF) yesterday, and it gave the Bitcoin community another peak into what financial regulators really think about cryptocurrency. The report is 36 pages long, but one of the most interesting slides in the report has to do with […]

The post St. Louis Fed: ‘Enforcing Outright Bitcoin Ban Close to Impossible’ appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

The IRS really does wants you to declare capital gains tax when you buy things with bitcoin.

Arrested bitcoin entrepreneur Charlie Shrem's case may be postponed to allow a plea deal, according to a US Attorney.

Square Market's one of the latest e-retailers to realize that Bitcoins might not be too cryptic to be used as a legit payment option, after all. The e-commerce website now accepts payments made using the cryptocurrency, as Square Market Lead Ajit...

Recently gun manufacturer, TrackingPoint announced that you can purchase their SmartScope rifles which allow shooters, even a novice one to hit a target over 1000 yards away using cutting edge technology, with Bitcoins. The Precision Guided Firearm (PGF) developed by TrackingPoint is the most accurate shooting system in the world. Called the Xact SystemTM, it […]

The post Now You Can Buy One of The Most Advanced Guns and Scopes With Bitcoin From TrackingPoint appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

The next hearing in the ongoing US bankruptcy case concerning bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox takes place in Texas tomorrow.

Depending on who you believe, Dorian Nakamoto is either the wealthiest Bitcoin billionaire the world has ever seen or a cash-strapped old man bewildered at his sudden fame. But regardless of his actual financial position, the man Newsweek named as the shadowy creator of Bitcoin could soon be set to be $21,000 richer.

In about two hours if threats are carried out, email marketing service Mad Mimi (CrunchBase) will be hit with another denial-of-service attack (DDoS) similar to what it endured yesterday, which made its service unavailable for a period of time. The attacker then demanded 1.8 bitcoin as ransom to prevent another assault. Mad Mimi declined to pay the sum, and so, at some time around 6 p.m. PDT,… Read More

We’ve written about the huge discounts that are coming for Bitcoin users in the future, but this one sounds a bit too good to be true. A new tech startup named Brawker is looking to match Bitcoin buyers with people who are looking to purchase items online with their bitcoins. The way it works is […]

The post Brawker Promises 7% Cash Back for Any Online Purchase with Bitcoin appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Ten years ago, on April Fool’s Day 2004, Google’s Gmail was released to the public as a beta product. “Google Gets the Message, Launches Gmail. User Complaint About Existing Services Leads Google to Create Search-Based Webmail…Search is Number Two Online Activity – Email is Number One; ‘Heck, Yeah,’ Say Google Founders…Amidst rampant media speculation, Google Inc. today announced it is testing a preview release of Gmail…” began the Press Release. It would take another 5 years, 3 months and 6 days (or 1,923 days) on July 7th, 2009 before Gmail would be taken out of beta. Google announced “Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really)” that: “We’re often asked why so many Google applications seem to be perpetually in […]

The post Bitcoin in Beta Longer than Gmail appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.