Day: February 20, 2018

SegWit Adoption

SegWit adoption has been steadily rising since its release in August 2017, albeit not as quickly as some would like. The problem is that it has to happen piece by piece, with each wallet, exchange, or other service provider rolling out the compatible address itself. Because each organization has both its own type of process — as well as its own issues — SegWit adoption has not happened overnight.

This phenomenon explains why the number of SegWit transactions still vary, accounting for between 10 to 20% of total transactions — though that percentage is set to increase. The protocol has already garnered some impressive results: As of today, February 20th, SegWit transactions account for almost 14% of the total — it peaked a few weeks ago when the transactions made up more than 18% of the total for the first time since activation.

As noted above, that percentage is likely to increase soon with announcements today from global leading exchanges Coinbase and Bitfinex confirming their adoptions of SegWit. Among other notable providers that have unrolled the protocol are: Shapeshift, Ledger wallet, TREZOR, Samourai wallet, and Edge Wallet. Several others have deployed SegWit, too, like the Kraken exchange and the CoinMall marketplace. 

Bitfinex

As for users of SegWit enabled exchanges like Bitfinex, the most noticeable changes in the short term will be, simply, a more efficient transaction process, with decreased transaction fees and improved speed — as a result of being able to fit more SegWit transactions in Bitcoin blocks. According to the company’s blog post today, the SegWit implementation means Bitfinex users “can benefit from lower BTC withdrawal fees (approximately 15%) and improved processing times on transactions across the Bitcoin network.”

Bitfinex CEO Paolo Ardoino puts it as follows:

“As a premier exchange, Bitfinex is committed to improving its market-leading offering for our loyal and discerning customers. SegWit provides not only an immediate benefit for users but also a foundation for future Bitcoin development. By supporting SegWit addresses, Bitfinex is tackling three of the biggest crypto-enthusiast concerns: transaction fees, transaction speed, and total network capacity. We are delighted that through this implementation we can provide our customers with bitcoin withdrawal fees that are up to 20 percent lower, as well as faster-than-ever transaction speeds.”

Lightning Network

In the context of the Bitcoin scaling issues, it’s important to discuss the development of another promising concept: Lightning Network (LN). Being initially introduced with the aim to, simply, make the Bitcoin network more useful, LN is a decentralized network of payment channels which permit users to make micropayments between two parties without the need to broadcast directly to the blockchain. As a result, transaction fees are decreased and the speed of the whole payment process is too.

Cryptocurrency idealists have envisioned Bitcoin becoming a sort of “free banking” system from the start. Consider LN in that context: Just like people don’t have to carry around weights of gold to engage in commerce, Bitcoin users need not clear all transactions “on-chain” to enjoy the benefits of the digital currency. With LN, they can transact using the network and clear their balances on the underlying blockchain — just like how people exchange gold-backed notes with banks. The most exciting part, in this example, is that rather than needing to rely on an intermediary bank, LN permits people to act on their own.

The post What SegWit Means for Bitcoin, Bitfinex, Lightning Network appeared first on NewsBTC.

Recognising its importance as a revolutionary technology, an Australian university has today announced the country’s first course on blockchain technology. It’s being hosted by Melbourne’s RMIT University and is scheduled to start in mid-March.

Blockchain Skills in High Demand

The eight-week short-course aims to address the current vacuum of young talent familiar with blockchain technology. Alan Tsen, a manager at one of the tech companies behind the new course, Stone and Chalk, told local news source 9news:

“There is a real demand for blockchain training and a skills gap in the market that needs to be addressed.”

Along with Stone and Chalk, the course has been developed by the university’s Blockchain Innovation Hub and graduate services provider, Accenture. Jason Potts of the former organisation told Business Insider about the technological complexities of blockchain and what the short course hopes to provide for students:

“It’s actually quite hard to understand… a whole lot of different technologies have come together to contribute to it working… Much of this course is designed to help executives and business leaders to understand not just how this new technology works, and understanding what’s actually behind it, but also how it reflects business models and business strategy.”

Without initiatives like the Melbourne university course, the lack of relevant skills issue is only set to get worse. The industry is rapidly expanding and according to tech think tank Gartner Research, will be worth over $176 billion by 2025.

Whilst the first practical application of the technology was cryptocurrency, there are various startups that are experimenting with it for a variety of different purposes. These include cybersecurity, resource management, healthcare, and the legal profession, to name but a few.

One company currently studying how blockchain technology can disrupt existing industries is Power Ledger. Also based in Australia, the startup hopes to provide a platform for sharing solar energy. They received substantial funding in late 2017 from a smart cities grant issued by the government. No doubt co-founder Jemma Green is as excited to hear about local educational institutions taking the technology seriously as she was about being named beneficiary of the government’s support:

“We are really delighted to see the federal government supporting Australian innovation, and recognising the role blockchain can potentially play for more resilient and efficient ecosystems.”

Whilst the Melbourne RMIT University blockchain course might be the first of its kind in Australia, it’s by no means unique globally. Institutions from Cyprus to the US and UK are now offering similar programmes. Evidently, with universities as prestigious as Berkeley in California taking notice of the technology, the future is bright for the blockchain space.

The post Australian University Launches Nation’s First Blockchain Course appeared first on NewsBTC.

Our living, breathing, open source, cloud based world just got a little more connected. FriendUP, led by Arne Peder Blix of Norway, is recalibrating our understanding of conventional operating systems by connecting, and consolidating blockchain applications, across limiting silos, into a single unified platform.

Here’s the white paper if you are curious (you should be – it’s great.)

FriendUP can be described as blockchain’s first operating system allowing users and developers to sign in with their Friend account and access state of the art blockchain apps, and desktop configurations, through a single customizable interface.   

A robust team supports the mission.

But before we get into the utility of FriendUP, which is what everyone is chasing after in their token investments this 2018, I’d like to first shed some light on words from the founder of this project as I feel that teams are what make the mission for cryptocurrencies and platforms, but more importantly, strong teams tend to follow through on their goals.

Arne recently had the opportunity to sit down with me in Davos and a few things he was saying caught my ear.

Firstly, he touts Norway’s favour towards transparency as being something that he wants to reflect in this platform. I completely agree. The more transparent and available the blockchain is, the more powerful it becomes – literally.

So for him to adhere to this principle puts him leagues ahead of other ICOs launching their tokens from JUST Google docs with extremely opaque missions and mysterious team members – ugh save us all.

Arne’s position, that the inherent values of the blockchain can be reflected in Norwegian day to day principles, is a very strong one. Norway is a social democracy with a very low income disparity between classes, meaning everyone is more or less on the same page when it comes to their community’s direction. I actually take comfort in knowing that the launch is coming from a place that promotes accountability and quality assurance.

Being heavily immersed in fintech for 15 years, Arne made the most logical move and approached the largest banks in Norway about assisting in the ICO process. In turn, FriendUP has literally become the standard in ICO planning and launch for the nation’s budding blockchain ecosystem. So the protocol for ICOs is going to be extremely stringent in Norway, and the nation is looking to make this process a norm, with FriendUP leading the way.

An amazing story of the recognition of ICOs being a powerful way to fund these development projects.

But because of the uncertainty surrounding blockchain technology, Arne reaffirms the need for transparency as people tend to react poorly to things they are unaware of – this also applies to large financial institutions still trying to navigate the market of these cryptographic currencies. Blockchain tech is very new, so the odds are that literally everyone is still learning.

But as Arne points out, not everyone is so eager to learn. This sometimes leads to fear of the unknown, especially concerning technology. So I really appreciated when he said that he believes young people might be able to connect more with a senior group in the realms of investing, and development, along the blockchain as generational gaps close through the cloud. Again, learning is so paramount in this ecosystem. We all must commit to personal education. So as Arne opens up the world of blockchain to Norway, he and his team have begun the process of pioneering a new echelon of application environments through FriendUP.

The Friend Unifying platform is going to be a pioneer on more than one front.

Being a pioneer, on the blockchain frontier in their home nation, could only mean positive things for this coin and its market participants going into the upcoming ICO.

As with all pioneers and trailblazers, fortune favours the bold.

In the video with Coin Telegraph at Davos, he continues to explain that by connecting decentralized technology through token to token integration (token pairing I.E. ETH/TRX), the Friend store will be an agnostic marketplace, like the Google store but cheaper, while also accepting both token and fiat.

A mix and blend of centralized and decentralized currencies (crypto and FIAT) will allow users access to functionality on the platform.

Let’s take a quick look at it.

A virtual computer that you can customize, configure, and cloud.

https://api.pressly.com/hubs/6686/files/121314/download/Friend%20Software%20Corp%2001022018%20E.pdf

This is what really caught my eye with the Friends Unified Platform.

I used to work in the I.T. department of a large corporate funded hospital in Toronto almost a decade ago while studying in university. Processing finance, administration and contracts was what I was tasked with all day long before being replaced by system automations.

I can tell you that I have had first hand experience seeing how overwhelmed the department was whenever any new application or software had to be deployed to the network, and additionally, onto user devices.

We’re talking not only millions of dollars just to purchase the application, but in addition, hundreds of working hours on top of premium dollars in I.T. salary, just to get these applications onto the thousands of user devices working on the hospital campus.

Technological silos, throughout enterprise computational environments, are a complete nightmare.

Installing heavy software into already overly complicated computing environments is a monumental challenge for literally every single centralized institution in the world. As technological innovations in our society speed up as time passes, these companies and organizations, that grow larger and larger, are less agile when reacting to changes that are needed for them to continue functioning optimally. Especially when it comes to tech.

So it was great to see that FriendUP will allow anyone to create their own virtual computer in seconds. Once more applications are loaded onto the blockchain that Friend up can assimilate onto its platform, I see many enterprises leaving their user application configurations up to their employees if given the chance.

I am personally interested to see what sort of blockchain healthcare applications will be assimilated onto the FriendUP platform as I personally feel this technology would be amazingly powerful in the hands of healthcare practitioners who need other blockchain technologies, such as telemedicine through Medical Chain, or to access to health records stored on the blockchain.

The possibilities for the FriendUP platform seem limitless once you start to think about how inundated our professional lives have become with so many applications.

The I.T. departments of our organizations are going to be all over FriendUP once the development roadmap matures.

In case you haven’t noticed – I am very strong proponent of functional utility for new coins and their platforms. There are many coins quite literally being printed everyday, so the fact that the FriendUp platform is coming with this much potential, across the board, utility makes me excited to see how the market will react once it hits exchanges.

Friend Cloud Templates – On-boarding made extremely easy.

FriendUP will also allow enterprises the full customization of their own workstation or multiple workstations, using applications on the blockchain, across technology silos that have typically limited efficiency in the past. Applications such as email, web-based apps, windows applications, or even disk space will be able to be customized through the FriendUP platform.

Alternatively, enterprises could also see themselves designing Friend Cloud Computer templates that will allow developers and organizations access to a shared virtual computer that is ready to use moments after logging in. This is another huge kicker as organizations could also create custom configurations for segmented groups for specific tasks, making the on-boarding process for new projects a lot easier, and a lot faster.

Instead of users wasting time on setting up personal accounts for each applications, they will be able to simply focus on tasks because they’ve already logged into a predetermined Friend Cloud Computer Template for their workstation.

Once the millions of I.T. departments across the globe realize how much easier software deployment will be through FriendUp and the blockchain, expect to see some very creative configurations for workstation setups using different platforms of the blockchain ecosystem.

A great way to think of the FriendUp platform is to use the very simple, but always amazing, example of the Power Rangers dino zords.

In this case, each individual dino zord represents a single blockchain application.

And their customization, into a FriendUP cloud computer interface, would be the final Megazord transformation.

Each individual blockchain application is in itself very powerful. They all come with their own sets of utility and function, depending on user needs.

But combining them into a stand alone interface for a specific user profile, group tasks, or an enterprise configuration for a specific tranche of employees, makes the final platform on FriendUP look very different from where we started with just the individual applications.

See more of the Friend project from the head of development architecture, just below:

http://www.cryptonicles.com/posts/an-interview-with-hogne-titlestad-head-of-friendup-development-architecture-conn-17231070

Or an interview with the CEO on the CNBC of Norway:

“The sum of the whole is greater than its parts” could not describe the potential for FriendUP any better.

Investors would be wise to watch the upcoming ICO dates very carefully.

As I suspect that as soon as more participants learn about what the Friend Unifying Platform mission really is, investors are going to be in for one hell of a treat finding a token with such strong potential for utility, in an industry desperate for solutions.

See Friend’s plans for the future on their comprehensive Roadmap.

This article originally appeared on Cryptonicles

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

Venezuelan cryptocurrency Petro, backed by national wealth, is already available for purchase. #NEWS

First Crypto ETF is launching an ICO. Interested parties can purchase 59,500,000 tokens at a price of 0.2 Euro cents per token. The ICO opens on February 19th. All buyers can register at our website and set up their own accounts. Now that the project has had a successful pre-ICO, it has moved on to the next stage. The token will be traded on multiple cryptocurrency exchanges. First Crypto ETF will announce the first cryptocurrency exchange where the token can be traded during the ICO.

Each buyer will obtain a token representing a portfolio of 10 sufficiently liquid and attractive cryptocurrencies. The token value will be linked to cryptocurrency development. Both the general public and experienced players will be given a simple and transparent opportunity to get involved in the world of cryptocurrencies. Instead of purchasing a number of different cryptocurrencies, all you need is a single token. The First Crypto ETF token saves both your time and the costs of purchasing, analysing and making the difficult choice of which cryptocurrency to buy.

The portfolio is managed by an innovative intelligent technology called the Authorize Engine. This technology uses a unique programming code tailored to the needs of cryptocurrency management. This technology, with the precision of AI, will manage both purchases and sales within our portfolio and maintain the token price on par with the portfolio’s value. The technology runs on advanced hardware infrastructure and reputable cloud solutions. The software side of things is managed by a team of experienced programmers from Vacuumlabs who have extensive experience in programming for financial and banking institutions. Thanks to our unique technology, there will be significant cost savings when buying and selling cryptocurrencies. First Crypto ETF offers a full guarantee of transparency. Both our portfolio and activities will be audited by one of the big 4 (KPMG, EY, PwC, Deloitte). Transparency is of the utmost importance for the First Crypto ETF project. Unlike other ICO projects, we have opted for a pro-client approach and we don’t hold ICO buyers hostage or make them victims.

The cryptocurrencies in our portfolio will be carefully and safely stored in cold wallets. In the next stage we will be introducing a project with an improved Digital Asset Custody solution offering standards similar to those offered by financial custodians.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

One of the most intriguing things about the cryptocurrency space is the diverse, eclectic, and often eccentric characters it attracts. Everyone from Wall Street brokers to cypherpunks and from industrialists to anarchists can be found staking their claim in the fledgling crypto economy and saying their piece. In a recent interview, venture capitalist Tim Draper was on fine form, producing a number of memorable quotes which encapsulate the bullish mood permeating the cryptoverse once more.

Also read: Kathleen Breitman: Tezos Will “Go Rogue” and Launch Soon

Hodling the Future in Place of the Past

“I think bitcoin is the future currency,” opined Tim Draper on Thursday. In a typically upbeat interview, the entrepreneur, whose net worth has been placed at $1 billion, had a lot of nice things to say about bitcoin. In the most quoted segment of his Bloomberg interview, Draper reasoned, ““People ask me, ‘Are you going to sell your bitcoin [for fiat]?’ and I say, ‘Why would I sell the future for the past?’” This augments previous remarks when Draper was quoted as saying: “I don’t know why anyone would want to go back to fiat when crypto is distributed, secure and global, while fiat is subject to the whims of political forces”.

While bitcoin’s status as a pure currency is a matter of some debate, it and the crypto assets it shares a space with are forming a new class of wealth storage and money transfer that offers a viable alternative to the status quo. Like most business moguls who are heavily invested in crypto – Michael Novogratz; the Winklevoss twins – Draper is very bullish about where bitcoin is going. The 59-year-old made his money at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the venture capital firm famed for its investment in billion-dollar startups.

Fortune Favors the Brave

More than 30 years since Draper founded his company, which oversees assets of $5 billion, he’s reinvented himself as a crypto entrepreneur willing to put his money where his mouth is. An entrant in Forbes’ recent Crypto Rich List, Draper made much of his crypto wealth through having the perspicacity to snap up the Silk Road bitcoins auctioned by U.S. Marshals in 2014. He was fortunate, of course, to have the capital and the accreditation required to acquire those 32,000 bitcoins, which now look like a snip at $18 million.

For all the success that foray brought him, Draper’s immersement in all things crypto hasn’t been without its controversies. A high profile backer of Tezos, he’s been forced on the defensive as delays have dragged on and the lawsuits have piled up. One of the biggest bones of contention with the Tezos affair is the extent to which bitcoin has since grown in value. This has benefited Tezos but has done nothing for the investors who parted with their BTC last year on the promise of XTZ tokens.

When questioned about bitcoin’s volatility on Bloomberg, Draper brushed aside suggestions that this was a turn-off for “regular people”. Instead, he chose to focus on the confidence he has in bitcoin, averring: “My bitcoin is more secure than my dollars in the banks…my bitcoin is very secure”. While some entrepreneurs, most notably Steve Wozniak, have conceded that the rough and tumble of the cryptocurrency markets is not for them, Tim Draper seems to be enjoying the ride, and has no intention of selling “the future for the past”.

Do you think Tim Draper is correct to call bitcoin the currency of the future? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Wikipedia.

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that enables near-instant, low-cost payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority: transaction management and money issuance are carried out collectively by the network. Read all about it at wiki.Bitcoin.com.

The post Tim Draper on Bitcoin: “Why Would I Sell the Future for the Past?” appeared first on Bitcoin News.

The cryptocurrency space possesses two qualities that make it the ideal environment for scams. Firstly, there is no shortage of legitimate anecdotes about people who have enjoyed immense wealth courtesy of early digital currency investments. The proliferation of such tales provides the perfect backdrop for a “get rich quick” scheme. Secondly, since the technology is incredibly tough for the layperson to understand, a lot of information has to be taken on trust. Unfortunately, thanks to these two factors, there’s a growing list of stories of people who have been duped out of large sums of money. Here are some tips to help you avoid joining it.

Common Crypto Scams and Their Tell-Tale Signs

Ponzi Schemes: Ponzi schemes work by recruiting new investors to generate returns for their first backers. These scams usually fall to pieces when it becomes apparent that there isn’t actually enough money being generated for all investors.

A common red flag of ponzi schemes is that they promise a high rate of return with very little risk. This is contrary to the usual investment maxim of “high risk/high reward”. Put simply, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Another red flag to watch out for is multi-level or tiered marketing structures. If it sounds like one level is relying on the efforts of a lower tier to generate profits, you’re likely dealing with a ponzi scheme

Examples of recent cryptocurrency ponzi schemes include Bitconnect. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin was amongst those to call Bitconnect out based on their hugely optimistic forecast for investor returns:

Yeah, if 1%/day is what they offer then that's a ponzi.

— Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) November 2, 2017

Exit Scams: Exit scams are common in the ICO space. They rely on a gullible investor pool and reasonably savvy presentation of a company that doesn’t exist. Those behind the scam will launch an ICO, usually with the most grandiose of claims, before disappearing entirely.

Red flags of exit scams would be incomprehensible white papers, none existent teams, and extravagant profit projections. With it being so easy to pull off an ICO exit scam, it’s important to thoroughly research any project before backing it with hard cash. Study the white paper. Check out the team and their backgrounds.

Remember, most ICOs will probably fail at delivering the promises made to investors eventually. Add in the fact that some of them are downright scams and the chances of an investment falling to zero are even greater.

A recent example of an exit scam was Confido. They successfully raised $300,000 at ICO before promptly disappearing.

Phishing Scams: Phishing has been a popular scam amongst cybercriminals for a long time. The premise behind phishing scams is to trick an internet user into handing over valuable or sensitive data to the scammer. They do this by creating websites or emails with an uncanny resemblance to a trusted service. With potentially huge value now accessible through purely digital means, it’s unsurprising that phishing scammers are targeting cryptocurrency users.

Red flags of phishing websites or emails are non-secured webpage URLs or requests for sensitive data. Check that the website uses a secure address (starts with https rather than just http). In addition, look out for any strange characters within the address itself. Be particularly mindful of the use of tiny dots above or below letters. Also, avoid sponsored advertisements on search engines or social media. If you use an exchange or similar service regularly, type the URL in yourself and bookmark the page after checking its SSL security.

These are just a few of the various scams around and their telltale signs. While the cryptocurrency market remains predominantly lawless, such deceptions will unfortunately be part and parcel of it. Bitcoin and other digital currencies allow their proponents to essentially become their own bank. Whilst this ensures unprecedented freedom from traditional financial institutions, it also demands that investors and users are responsible for their own funds.

The post Common Crypto Scams and How To Avoid Them appeared first on NewsBTC.

Confiscated bitcoins in Finland create storage problem for authorities following new gov’t guidelines #NEWS

ICO-hub, a crypto funding guarantee system, is set to launch in Russia this March #NEWS

Dutch bank ING Groep NV confirmed Tuesday that Bitfinex had an account with it.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

According to security research firm RedLock’s Cloud Security Intelligence (CSI) team, electric car manufacturer Tesla’s cloud account was hacked and used to mine cryptocurrency. The report, released Monday, comes as crypto-related cybercrime is on the rise and users and exchanges are struggling to keep up with hackers and the constantly evolving methods they employ to steal money and information.

RedLock’s researchers say they found Tesla’s unprotected information on a Kubernetes console, which is a Google-designed system for optimizing cloud applications. It is this exposure that allowed hackers to access the company’s cloud. The breach was discovered last month when the CSI team was trying to determine who or what had left credentials for an Amazon Web Services account open to the public.

This isn’t the first instance the researchers uncovered: First there was Aviva, a British multinational insurance company, and then Gemalto, the world’s largest manufacturer of SIM cards. Before discovering Tesla’s security issue, RedLock reports that hackers had secretly infiltrated these organizations’ public cloud environments to mine cryptocurrencies as well.

RedLock immediately reported the incident to Tesla, and the company quickly attempted to fix things. A Tesla spokesperson confirmed that no customer data was compromised by the breach: “We maintain a bug bounty program to encourage this type of research, and we addressed this vulnerability within hours of learning about it,” the spokesperson said. “The impact seems to be limited to internally-used engineering test cars only, and our initial investigation found no indication that customer privacy or vehicle safety or security was compromised in any way.”

According to the report, once the hackers gained access to Tesla’s cloud servers they began running a mining protocol called Stratum to mine for cryptocurrencies, evading detection by obscuring the true IP address of the mining server and keeping the CPU usage low.

What’s particularly interesting is that, according to RedLock, using Tesla’s cloud account to mine cryptocurrency is more valuable than any data actually stored within it:

“The recent rise of cryptocurrencies is making it far more lucrative for cybercriminals to steal organizations’ compute power rather than their data,” RedLock CTO Gaurav Kumar told tech website Gizmodo.

Cryptojacking efforts like the one that hit Tesla are growing increasingly common. RedLock estimates that 58% of organizations that use public cloud services — such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud — have publicly exposed “at least one cloud storage service;” Of these, 8% have experienced some sort of cyberattack.

The post Tesla: Elon Musk’s Cloud Hacked to Mine Cryptocurrency appeared first on NewsBTC.

The SEC has turned down a FOIA request related to BitConnect, citing an exemption commonly seen with records related to law enforcement.

There is never a boring day in the world of cryptocurrency. The CEO of Bitcoin Inc mentioned on Twitter that he had been arrested in his home by the Department of Homeland Security. According to the information shared with us, this arrest is the direct result of a Bitcoin transaction dating back to November of 2016. For now, he has been released on a personal recognizance bond.

The Story of The Bitcoin Inc CEO

There is a lot of interesting information to be found in this particular story. It all began when the CEO of Bitcoin Inc – not to be confused with the CEO of Bitcoin the currency, as such a position doesn’t exist – got arrested over a Bitcoin transaction dating back to November 2016. It seems the Department of Homeland Security is concerned about this specific transaction for unknown reasons.

Furthermore, the CEO has been charged with involvement in a money laundering instrument. Assuming he did not adhere to specific regulations or requirements, such a charge may stick in the long run. His LocalBitcoins transaction was well below the threshold at which users need to file for an official Money Service Transmitter license. As such, charging him with money laundering seems like a bit of a stretch, but it is possible there’s a lot more to this story than meets the eye.

On Friday Feb 9, I was arrested in my home by Department Of Homeland Security over a #Bitcoin transaction from nov 2016 and am released under a personal recognizance bond. I am being charged with:

18 USC 1956 – Money Laundering Instrumenthttps://t.co/4w7NJIi4jw

Asset Forfeit pic.twitter.com/5kINtbxH17

— Morgan (@NODEfather) February 14, 2018

Additionally, it seems the individual’s phone is still in the hands of the DHS as of right now. While that is not a big problem per se, the Bitcoin Inc CEO will need that device to access 2FA codes for cryptocurrency-related services. Holding on to such a personal item – especially an electronic device – raises a lot of questions, especially where this arrest is concerned. It is unclear why the DHS decided to arrest him specifically, and it almost appears as if someone reported this person for Bitcoin activity.

Even though selling Bitcoin on LocalBitcoins is not illegal in the US, it does lead to some scrutiny by the government. The United States is seemingly turning against cryptocurrency users right now, even though this may very well have been an isolated incident. Regardless of the reason behind this arrest, it is evident that it has created a rather worrisome precedent for the rest of the Bitcoin community in the US.

Moreover, sharing all of these details regarding an ongoing investigation on social media may not necessarily have been the CEO’s best idea. After all, if the government finds out this information has been shared without official permission, there will be severe repercussions. Moreover, any comments issued on social media will only hurt his cause in the long run.

For the time being, we will have to wait and see how this story plays out. There are still a lot of details we don’t have as of right now, and there is probably more to this story than is being shared on social media. The document on Twitter indicates he was detained for three days, and he apparently spent another two in a holding facility. It’s a very worrisome development if this is to become the new norm for dealing with Bitcoin users in the United States.