Coin News

William H. Hawkins or, as he is better known, "Trip Hawkins" had some good news from the Ninth Circuit this week.   A bankruptcy court had ruled that Trip's "profligate lifestyle" after realizing he was insolvent amounted to a willful attempt to evade or defeat taxes.  The Ninth Circuit has ruled that not immediately adjusting his lifestyle when he realized he was insolvent did not constitute willfulness.

....a mere showing of spending in excess of income is not sufficient to establish the required intent to evade tax; the government must establish that the debtor took the actions with the specific intent of evading taxes. Indeed, if simply living beyond one's means, or paying bills to other creditors prior to bankruptcy, were sufficient to establish a willful attempt to evade taxes, there would be few personal bankruptcies in which taxes would be dischargeable. Such a rule could create a large ripple effect throughout the bankruptcy system. As to discharge of debts, bankruptcy law must apply equally to the rich and poor alike, fulfilling the Constitution's requirement that Congress establish “uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.”

When I first started organizing CoinFest, I never imagined what it would become. It used to be just a simple gathering of less than 100 Bitcoiners at Vancouver’s famous Wave Coffee House, come together to celebrate the love of cryptocurrency. Not long after, the team behind CoinTrader brought the world’s first Bitcoin ATM to the scene, and CoinFest gradually expanded into a decentralized convention across multiple venues. Now it’s expanded around the world, spanning 7 cities and 5 languages so far, but as word of the movement spread, we were confronted with a lot of questions about how and why it works the way it does. The confusion is understandable: CoinFest operates under a radical set of principles, truly unlike anything […]

The post The Spirit of CoinFest appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

CoinDesk spoke with an owner of Discus Fish, a Chinese bitcoin mining pool that has grown in recent months.

Serrano Street – Calle Serrano – a shopping boulevard crossing Madrid that features prestigious international brands like Chanel, Prada and national ones like El Corte Ingles, has been making headlines thanks to the #callebitcoin project. The project aims to turn this street into a resource for Bitcoin users, and hopes to then see the experience replicated in other Spanish cities, setting an example across the Spanish speaking world. The idea for a “Bitcoin Boulevard” is not new, having been tried before in Netherlands and in the United States, but Serrano St. has became the first in Spain and will be the largest Bitcoin Street in Europe. The drive to turn Calle Serrano into a Bitcoin haven came from the Bitcointalk forums, where […]

The post #CALLEBITCOIN. BITCOIN IS OUT ON THE STREET! appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The Bitcoin Foundation has announced that bitcoin is not illegal in Bangladesh, despite previous reports.

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge in Texas ordered Bitcoin Savings and Trust and its owner to pay a combined $40.7 million after the Securities and Exchange Commission established that the company, which sold investments using the virtual currency, was a Ponzi scheme.

In a decision dated Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Amos Mazzant said Trendon Shavers "knowingly and intentionally" operated his company "as a sham and a Ponzi scheme," misleading investors about the use of their bitcoin, how he would generate promised returns and the safety of their investments.

Shavers, of McKinney, Texas, did not immediately respond on Friday to a request for comment. His ability to pay the judgment is unclear.

Shavers' lawyer withdrew from the civil case this week, court records show.

The SEC said Shavers used the online moniker "pirateat40" to raise more than 732,000 bitcoin from February 2011 to August 2012, promising investors up to 7 percent in weekly interest to be paid based on his ability to trade the currency.

But according to the decision, Shavers used new bitcoin to repay earlier investors, diverted some to personal accounts at the now-bankrupt Mt. Gox exchange and elsewhere, and spent some investor funds on rent, food, shopping and casino visits.

"The collective loss to BTCST investors who suffered net losses (there were also net winners) was 265,678 bitcoins, or more than $149 million at current exchange rates," wrote Mazzant, who sits in Sherman, Texas.

Mazzant held Shavers and his company liable to give up $38.6 million of illegal profits plus $1.8 million in interest. Each defendant was also fined $150,000.

The SEC announced the case on July 23, 2013, the same day it warned investors to be on alert for potential scams involving bitcoin and other "cutting-edge" investments.

The case is SEC v. Shavers et al, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, No. 13-00416.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, editing by G Crosse)

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Here I will reveal the top 5 reasons why bitcoins beat dollars, both now, and in the future. For the sake of brevity, I limited this list to the top 5, but may not be limited to these five alone. The dollar certainly has it’s own inherent advantages, but it will prove fleeting in nature […]

The post Top 5 Reasons why Bitcoins beat Dollars appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Bitcoin Magazine is proud to live stream the San Francisco Bitcoin Meetup at Geekdom on Tuesday, September 30 at 7:30pm (PST). This month, we’ll be hosting a panel session in place of the two speakers to change it up. The topic will be on outreach with discussion on various use cases to widen the understanding and use of cryptocurrencies. There will also be 1-minute long lighting talks for others to announce crypto related projects or events. The panel will start at 7:30pm, go for 40 minutes and will be followed by a set of 10 lightning talks. Share and bookmark this page to come back and watch the meetup live! The video will be available on-demand shortly following the broadcast, also on […]

The post [Live Video Stream] SF Bitcoin meetup at Geekdom appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

A Texas man found guilty of defrauding US bitcoin investors faces over $40m in fines and penalties.

One small step for Apple… There are moments when technologies break into popular discussion. Often it takes a big company incorporating something new into a product launch. Using their brand and their voice, they introduce the world to a concept that technologists have known about for years. Apple did that last week. They may, in fact, have done it a few times last week. But they definitely did it for the concept of “tokenization.” In outlining the security and privacy features of Apple Pay, Apple SVP Eddy Cue introduced the average consumer to the idea that our personal information, including our payment information, can be handled in a new and different way. Namely, our information can be altered and adapted […]

The post Apple’s Use of Tokenization for Encryption appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The Bitcoin Foundation has retained regulatory expert Monica Monaco to promote bitcoin with policymakers in the EU.

Bitcoin prices are getting smoked.

The digital crypto-currency has fallen below $400, according to data compiled by CoinDesk.

Bitcoin opened at $421.46. It hit a high of $426.65 before hitting a low of $380.75. Bitcoin prices were last trading around $386.

Here's the chart of Bitcoin's performance over the last week: 

Here's a longer term chart showing Bitcoin's wild ride: 

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Everyone and his dog are worried about the ongoing decline in the value of Bitcoin, but I am here to tell you that 1) This is good, and 2) The trend will eventually reverse. There are punctual events that tend to drive the value of Bitcoin down, and perhaps today’s Alibaba IPO is one. But […]

The post Bitcoin Price Goes Down? Good! appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Researchers at the University of Illinois have analysed a survey to explore the identity of bitcoiners.

The Bitcoin price struck the primary target at $412 during Thursday’s US trading session. Technical analysis considers the potential paths for the Bitcoin price from current levels. Bitcoin Technical Analysis Yesterday’s low printed as follows: Bitstamp: $407.94 BitFinex: $408.80 BTC-e: $400.23 BTC-China: 2,516 CNY Weekly Bitcoin Price Chart Looking at the long-term weekly Bitstamp chart, […]

The post Bitcoin Price Declines Further and No Independent Scotland appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Alibaba’s IPO (Initial Public Offering) is set to take place today at 11.00 AM ET on NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) under the ticker BABA. The IPO of Alibaba will become the largest IPO of a company in the United States, ever. Alibaba Group will price its shares at 68 USD, which makes their company […]

The post Alibaba’s US IPO May Have Crashed the Bitcoin Price appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

BitLanders, formerly known as the Film Annex, is a social media site that pays its users in Bitcoin. It first came to my attention earlier this year when I was planning to write a profile on Roya Mahboob and Fereshteh Forough, co-founders of the Women’s Annex (At the time, it was still named the Film […]

The post BitLanders Review: Social Media That Pays Bitcoin appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

The price of bitcoin declined $50 today as overall downward momentum mounted, before rebounding at press time.

The post was written by Ian Worrall of Sembro Development LLC Normally in the Bitcoin world sudden price fluctuations ranging from $10-$30 can be attributed to market manipulation by large holders of the virtual currency. However, when the price changes greater than $30 in a short period of time there is typically something more behind it such as imposed government regulations or technical implications such as a mining pool nearing 51% of the total network hash rate. Today, September 18, 2014, the price of Bitcoin is down 9.39% ($42.70) at the time of writing this article and has decreased by a whopping 17% this week (≈$70) with no clear indications as to why. Through our analysis we believe we have determined […]

The post Why The Bitcoin Price Dropped Today appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

ASICMiner, led by FriedCat, has been setting the pace with Bitcoin ASIC miners since the first block erupter. They have not stopped since then and have recently introducing the Gen 3 BE200 chip that many companies have been using in their new miners such as Rockminer and BTC Garden. FriedCat and his ASICMiner team started shipping […]

The post Review: ASICMiner Tube 830+ gh/s Bitcoin Miner, Sold in US by 112bit.com appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

BitPay has introduced the newest version of its BitPay API.