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The man accused of running the world's largest online narcotics emporium was convicted on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported. He has not been sentenced yet but could face life in prison.

The jury deliberated for 3 1/2 hours before unanimously finding Ross Ulbricht, 30, guilty of running the website as Dread Pirate Roberts. Ulbricht was convicted of all seven counts including trafficking drugs on the Internet, narcotics-trafficking conspiracy, running a continuing criminal enterprise, computer-hacking conspiracy and money-laundering conspiracy, according to Bloomberg.

A man in the back of the courtroom reportedly shouted “Ross is a hero!" ater the verdict was read, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara released a statement warning that Ulbricht's arrest and conviction should "send a clear message to anyone else attempting to operate an online criminal enterprise," and that the dark net is not a shield for anyone wishing to evade law enforcement. 

Another trial against Ulbricht accusing him of murder-for-hire is still happening in Baltimore, according to the Guardian. 

Ulbricht was arrested by the FBI at a public library in San Francisco in October 2013. After many delays, his trial began in Manhattan on Jan. 13.  

Prosecutors accused Ulbricht of being Dread Pirate Roberts (a reference to the cult movie "The Princess Bride"), the founder and operator of the Silk Road website. Ulbricht pleaded not guilty to charges of hacking, money laundering, and narcotics trafficking, and continued to deny that he was Dread Pirate Roberts up until the very end. 

Ulbricht's defense team, led by defense attorney Joshua Dratel, conceded at the trial that Ulbricht was in fact the founder of Silk Road, but had long since given up control of the site when he was arrested. The prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Serrin Turner and Timothy Howard, denied this, saying that Ulbricht was caught red-handed, "literally with his fingers at the keyboard, running the Silk Road" when agents surrounded him at the Glen Park Branch Library in San Francisco on Oct. 1, 2013.

Prosecutors called four witnesses to testify against Ulbricht and even presented his alleged diary entries that detail what he referred to as a "criminal enterprise." The defense struggled towards the end, especially as the journal entries and chat logs found on Ulbricht's laptop continue to incriminate him.

Here is Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara's statement on Ulbricht's conviction:

“As a unanimous jury has found, Ross William Ulbricht operated Silk Road – a clandestine global marketplace that offered buyers and sellers of illegal goods and services a promise of anonymity.  Ulbricht built this black market bazaar to exploit the dark web and the digital currency Bitcoin to allow users to conduct illegal business beyond the reach of law enforcement.  Ulbricht’s arrest and conviction – and our seizure of millions of dollars of Silk Road Bitcoins – should send a clear message to anyone else attempting to operate an online criminal enterprise.  The supposed anonymity of the dark web is not a protective shield from arrest and prosecution.”

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NOW WATCH: This Flying Car Is Real And It Can Fly 430 Miles On A Full Tank

NASCAR driver Justin Boston has received a sponsorship from bitcoin payments company BitPay.

The Central Bank of Italy (Banca d’Italia) is that country’s first governmental authority to issue a statement on virtual currencies. It recently published three directives: Warnings on use of virtual currencies (30 Jan 2015); Notice on virtual currencies (30 Jan 2015); Notice of Central Authority for Reporting on virtual currencies (2nd Feb 2015). The “Notice About the use of virtual currencies” (published on the Supervisory Bulletin No. 1, January 2015) is a summary of guidance previously issued by the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Banking Authority (EBA), and the Financial Action Task Force. The Central Bank of Italy is the first to release any statements based on the ECB’s comments. The Notice clarifies the legal status of virtual currencies […]

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Bitcoin Price is again dabbling near the lows. A strong wave to the upside, earlier in the week, was soon retraced. The Bitcoin price chart’s technicals imply advance is possible, but market uncertainty is holding back the buyers. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3 hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Bitcoin […]

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EU rules requiring merchants to record the country of residence of their customers could be bad news for pseudonymous payments systems like bitcoin.

By Lionel Laurent

LONDON (Reuters) - Waves of cheap money from central banks have shielded stocks from the volatility besetting currency and commodity markets, but increasing disparities in company earnings forecasts suggest that could soon change.

Analyst forecasts for European and U.S. companies have reached levels of dispersion not seen since 2010 and 2011 respectively, according to Thomson Reuters data, at a time when stock market volatility as tracked by the U.S. VIX <.VIX> and European VSTOXX indexes is closer to 2012 levels.

The higher the dispersion, the more spread out the numbers.

So on both sides of the Atlantic, corporate earnings expectations are no longer as benign as the market whose multi-year rallies they have underpinned, in a world where eye-popping moves in - for instance - the price of crude oil and the Swiss franc have hit firms in ways that are sometimes hard to predict.

Rock-bottom interest rates and central bank stimulus measures have cushioned stock markets against volatility, so potentially nasty surprises from company earnings may be a catalyst for even bigger trading swings.

"We have become used to relatively low volatility... Now we are getting into a slightly 'noisier' stage of the economic cycle," said Nick Nelson, a strategist at UBS, who said knock-on effects on companies from volatile currencies would feed through to the stock market.

"There is going to be an increasing spread of analyst views... The gap between (corporate) winners and losers is getting larger."

(Earnings estimate dispersion in Europe: http://link.reuters.com/gut34s

Earnings estimate dispersion in U.S.: http://link.reuters.com/ren92t

Dispersion in Europe by sector: http://link.reuters.com/tag93w)

ROCKING THE BOAT

For some, currency swings have already rocked the earnings boat.

U.S. multinationals DuPont and Procter & Gamble recently took earnings hits from the strong dollar, which according to some estimates could shave up to $12 billion off U.S. companies' fourth-quarter 2014 revenues.

Swiss companies are also under the microscope after the country's central bank last month scrapped its Swiss franc cap against the euro, which sent the franc through the roof. On the flipside, euro zone company earnings are seen getting a lift from the euro's weakness and the European Central Bank's scaled-up stimulus program.

The biggest uncertainty, however, remains oil.

Earnings forecasts for the energy sector are by far the most dispersed. While cheaper oil is cited as a good thing for consumers of oil and most companies, the ripple effects of energy majors cutting back on projects and writing down assets remain unclear - notably in the context of a four-day rally that has propelled crude prices back toward $60 a barrel.

"Earnings dispersion is going to pick up mainly because of energy," said William Hobbs, strategist at Barclays Wealth. "There will certainly be some sectors in the U.S. which will hurt from the stronger dollar, but that will be more of an immediate ...impact."

Regular stock market volatility indicators are not at panic stage yet and central bank support is still there.

But with pockets of the market showing increasing signs of uncertainty, equity investors might do well to brace for a bumpier road ahead.

"What does seem different is that there are more key factors driving the uncertainty now than three years ago," said Tim Edwards, director of index investment strategy for S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Russia, China, energy prices, currency wars... are all currently higher in many investors' minds."

(Reporting by Lionel Laurent; Additional reporting and graphics by Vincent Flasseur; editing by John Stonestreet)

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HashRabbit, which supplies enterprise-focused software to facilitate the management and security of bitcoin miners, has raised $500,000.

To make managing bitcoin easier, CoinJar has launched the CoinJar Touch app for iOS today. Now CoinJar users can buy, spend or cash out to a bank account from their iPhone. The Android version will be rolled out in the next few months.

Indian Mountain School (IMS), an independent, coeducational boarding school in Lakeville, Conn., has announced it will accept bitcoin donations for the school’s fundraising activities. The school becomes the first elementary/middle school in the U.S. to accept bitcoin. Joining the school in making the announcement were digital currency payment processor GoCoin LLC and digital currency platform […]

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Webjet has become the first Australian online travel agency to offer bitcoin as a payment method. The company has partnered with Sydney-based bitcoin startup BitPOS to enable customers to complete digital currency transactions through its Webjet Exclusives website. Paul Ryan, CEO of Webjet Exclusives, said: “It’s an innovative addition to the existing payment options available on site. We are […]

By Ernest Scheyder

WILLISTON, N.D. (Reuters) - Halliburton, Statoil ASA, Hess Corp and other North Dakota energy companies have decided, for now, not to lay off staff in the No. 2 U.S. oil producing state, hoping to be prepared for any prolonged rebound in crude prices.

Many oil producers and their contractors are trying to strike a balance between cutting costs and maintaining workforce reserves after a more-than 50 percent drop in oil prices since last June.

The drop has made some oil patch investors anxious that North Dakota could experience a third oil bust after slumps in the 1950s and 1980s. Local business leaders, though, say they're confident the state's economy can abide the slowdown.

Indeed, oil prices are nothing if not volatile, up about 19 percent in the past four trading days after plunging for months.

Whiting Petroleum Corp, the largest North Dakota oil producer, has no plans to lay off any of its 507 employees in the state, spokesman Eric Hagen said.

Oilfield service provider Halliburton has told its roughly 1,500 North Dakota employees that job cuts are not coming, for now. The update came in a letter to staff from Brent Eslinger, senior district manager for Halliburton in Williston, considered capital of North Dakota's oil patch.

Halliburton spokeswoman Susie McMichael added that the company "will continue to monitor the business environment" and cut costs as needed.

Hess Corp, the state's third-largest oil producer and one that uses Halliburton to hydraulically fracture wells, has no plans to cut North Dakota staff.

"We're all about lean efficiencies, but there are no plans for layoffs," Hess spokesman John Roper said.

Other large North Dakota producers, including Oasis Petroleum Inc and Statoil, have said they have no plans to reduce their workforce. EOG Resources Inc hasn't "announced any layoffs," spokeswoman K Leonard said.

To be sure, all energy-related companies in North Dakota's oil patch are hunkering down. Many of the state's oil producers, including Hess and Oasis, have cut 2015 capital budgets. Whiting and EOG release spending plans later this month.

While there are nearly 800 wells needing to be fracked in North Dakota, oil producers can wait up to a year to do so. Hess, for instance, plans to bring fewer wells online in 2015.

Halliburton's announcement last month that it will lay off 1,000 in the eastern hemisphere - as well as similar plans by peers Schlumberger NV and Baker Hughes Inc, which Halliburton is buying for roughly $35 billion - sparked concern that the companies would cull large portions of their North Dakota staffs, steps that would have a negative economic ripple effect. Such fears, for now, appear unwarranted.

Continental Resources Inc, North Dakota's second-largest oil producer, did not return a call seeking comment on staffing levels. Chief Executive Harold Hamm, though, bragged in a Tuesday press release that Continental's North Dakota acreage continues "to provide exceptional results."

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Terry Wade and Andrew Hay)

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The Bitcoin industry is heating up! Have you been thinking about securing a Bitcoin job? Do you want to help build the future of fintech? If so, you have come to the right place. Bitcoin startups across the world are interested in hiring skilled professionals to join their teams, and we’re bringing you new opportunities every week. Do yourself a […]

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Recently a Bitcoiner who goes on Reddit by the name alkinsonf began posting a series of complaints against the popular exchange Cryptsy. The user declared that after a brief time of uninterrupted trading, his account was locked with over 175 Bitcoin in it. The user sent several requests for support, as you can imagine, and […]

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One of the great things about Bitcoin is that is opens up a reason to learn about things I am not normally exposed to.  I have never tried investing beyond buying bitcoin, but I have been hearing about trading for a while.  When I got the chance to learn about it firsthand with Jeremy from Coinarch, I was pretty surprised at how easy it was.  I definitely don’t trade much, just $20 or so every few days, but it has been an interesting exercise, and I now enjoy asking trader friends for tips.  No one has really given me anything golden, and I am not leaving music to take up a career on Wall Street, but it’s fun nonetheless!  Maybe one […]

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Boost VC’s launched Tribe 5 Monday with 24 bitcoin companies, bringing its total portfolio to 50 companies.