Bitcoin Heist: Millions Vanish from Online Black Market

[mick silver]

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http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Vp9eBRe.NUi7T1iTbOJdUw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9NDUwO2NyPTE7Y3c9NjAwO2R4PTA7ZH k9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xNDM7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/homerun/techmedianetwork.tomguide.com/e83ea13911e3bad011053f82b73f15b1View Photo (http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/secretive-online-black-market-robbed-photo-175333835.html)A secretive online black market …




A secretive online black market was robbed over the weekend, costing its users possibly as much as $100 million in Bitcoins — and some say the thieves were the marketplace owners themselves.
After the FBI shut down the largest online black market, Silk Road, in October, a number of other black market sites filled the vacuum. One was a narcotics bazaar called Sheep Marketplace.
Like Silk Road and most of its ilk, Sheep Marketplace was only accessible via Tor, the anonymizing software designed to protect users' Internet anonymity. Furthermore, all transactions were inBitcoin (http://www.technewsdaily.com/17776-what-is-bitcoin.html), a decentralized online currency that is difficult to trace.
MORE: Security and Privacy Apps and Plugins (http://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/501-PRISM-privacy-anonymous-browsing-instant-messager.html)
On Sunday (Dec. 1), Sheep Marketplace abruptly closed down, claiming one of its vendors by the name of EBOOK101 had exploited a security vulnerability to steal $6 million in Bitcoins. Most, if not all, of that money belonged to the site's numerous users, who used it to buy and sell their dubious wares.
"This vendor found bug in system and stole 5,400 BTC [about $5 million]—your money, our provisions, all was stolen," reads the message posted on the now-shuttered site's homepage. "We were trying to resolve this problem, but we were not successful."
Despite the message's promise that "all of current BTC will be distributed to users, who have filled correct BTC emergency address," it doesn't appear that any Sheep Marketplace users have received refunds.
That's all of the theft that can be confirmed. But the story doesn't end there.
Some believe that the thieves were Sheep Marketplace's administrators themselves, and that the whole marketplace was an elaborate scam.
A website called sheepmarketscam.com, set up before Sheep Marketplace's closing, lists what it claims to be evidence suggesting that the theft was an inside job.
Sheep Marketplace users weren't able to withdraw Bitcoins for up to a week before the site's shutdown, according to several Reddit users. Deposits, however, were still possible.
The admins blamed the problem on a technical glitch and said it would be fixed within a few days. They then said the problem was fixed, though on Reddit, former Sheep Marketplace users say that was never the case.
By the time of the site's shutdown on Dec. 1, withdrawals still hadn't been enabled.
Sheepmarketscam.com alleges that many of Sheep Marketplace's higher-ranking administrators and vendors had drastically slashed prices, allegedly to encourage as many people as possible to deposit money.
And a public but anonymous record (https://blockchain.info/address/1EiVHZnDVjFH6Tic1YmWUSfYmVUnUZdnMU) on a website called Blockchain.info, which tracks Bitcoin transactions, shows a transfer of 39,918 Bitcoins into a wallet associated with Sheep Marketplace at some point over the weekend.
At the current Bitcoin exchange rate, that's more than $43 million — far more than the originally reported 5,400 BTC, or $5 million.
MORE: Browser Plugin Secretly Mines Bitcoins at Your Expense (http://www.tomsguide.com/us/security-bitcoins-toolbars-malwarebytes-bitcoin-mining,news-17936.html)
Finally, a pair of Reddit users (http://www.reddit.com/r/SheepMarketplace/comments/1rvlft/i_just_chased_him_through_a_bitcoin_tumbler_and/) say they've been chasing a series of Bitcoin transactions that they claim originate with the Sheep Marketplace theft. The amount involved is more than 96,000 BTC, almost $100 million, and has been moved from wallet to wallet several times over the past several hours.
Meanwhile, other anonymous online markets on the so-called "dark web" are also affected by Sheep Marketplace's closing.
A site called Black Market Reloaded blocked new members, saying on its forums that Tor-based anonymous websites aren't designed to handle large volumes of users, and then announced a shutdownshut down as well, saying the site needed to close for maintenance.
"Sheep went down and BMR can't stand," wrote a Black Market Reloaded admin called Backopy in a forum post (https://fec33nz6mhzd54zj.onion.to/viewtopic.php?id=15337) dated Dec. 1. In the post, Backopy says that people will be given the opportunity to withdraw their funds before the closing.
"Don't worry, we don't rip [off] anyone and will be back stronger than ever," wrote another administrator called LeContog in the same thread.
Email jscharr@techmedianetwork.com or follow her @JillScharr (http://www.twitter.com/jillscharr) and Google+ (https://plus.google.com/104694419552620786135/?rel=author). Follow us@TomsGuide (http://www.twitter.com/tomsguide), on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Tomsguide) and on Google+ (https://plus.google.com/113097864502537730990/posts).


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Copyright 2013 Toms Guides (http://www.tomsguide.com/), a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Also Read (http://www.tomsguide.com/us/sheep-marketplace-bitcoin-theft,news-17942.html?)

[mick silver]

2 arrested, bitcoins seized in German fraud probehttp://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/oXh_6AJBHy_uEbdrklkymA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9Mjg-/http://l.yimg.com/os/152/2012/04/21/image001-png_162613.png (http://www.ap.org/)Associated Press – Wed, Dec 4, 2013



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BERLIN (AP) — German police say they have arrested two people and seized illegally generatedbitcoins worth more than 700,000 euros ($950,000) in an investigation of computer fraud.
The Federal Criminal Police Office said Wednesday it staged searches earlier this week in an investigation of three people suspected of manipulating existing malware and spreading it over the Internet, creating a remotely controlled network of compromised computer systems.
Police say the perpetrators used the processing power of the hacked computers to generate bitcoins, a cryptography-based digital currency. They also are investigating further suspected fraud, violations of copyright law and offenses related to the distribution of pornography.
They gave no details on the two people who were arrested Monday, one in the southern state of Bavaria and the other in Lower Saxony, a northern region.




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[mick silver]

U.S. officials: virtual currencies vulnerable to money launderinghttp://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/FZN6924R0WZ__x92.x6.GA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9Mjc-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/logo/reuters/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/)By Aruna Viswanatha | Reuters – Mon, Nov 18, 2013



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View Photo (http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/signs-window-advertise-bitcoin-atm-machine-installed-waves-photo-220903179.html)Reuters/Reuters - Signs on window advertise a bitcoin ATM machine that has been installed in a Waves Coffee House in Vancouver, British Columbia October 28, 2013. REUTERS/Andy Clark



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By Aruna Viswanatha
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Virtual currencies may give consumers a cheap, efficient and convenient way to move money, but those same attributes make them appealing to criminals, the head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division told Congresson Monday.
"We have seen increasing use of such currencies by drug dealers, traffickers of child pornography, and perpetrators of large-scale fraud schemes," Mythili Raman, the acting assistant attorney general for the division, told a Senate panel.
The currencies offer criminals both anonymity and the ability to process transactions that cannot be reversed, which can "significantly complicate" the government's ability to follow money trails in related criminal investigations, she told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Further complicating efforts, many digital currency services do not have controls to protect against abuse, Raman said.
"Many are still struggling with implementing appropriate anti-money laundering, know-your-customer and customer due diligence programs," she said in prepared remarks.
Raman appeared alongside top officials from the Secret Service and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network before the Senate Homeland Security Committee to answer questions about the growing use of digital currencies such as Bitcoin, and whether the government is doing enough to police the market.
It was the first such hearing before Congress, and Bitcoin surged over 27 percent to a new high of US$675 ahead of the hearing.
"Virtual currencies, perhaps most notably Bitcoin, have captured the imagination of some, struck fear among others, and confused the heck out of the rest of us," Senator Thomas Carper, who chairs the committee, said in his opening remarks at the standing-room only hearing.
NEW METHODS
Virtual currencies or digital cash have increasingly become a popular new way to purchase goods or services.
They are not regulated or issued by a central bank. They have been touted by some as an alternative currency in countries facing financial instability.
The most popular virtual currency is Bitcoin, which exists through an open-source software program and whose supply is controlled by a computer algorithm.
But critics have raised concerns about a lack of regulatory oversight over virtual currencies and the fact that some of them can be transferred anonymously, raising fears that they could be used by scam artists.
The general counsel of the Bitcoin Foundation, Patrick Murck, told lawmakers that digital currencies offer many benefits and are not only a cloak for illegal business. But he added that law enforcement would have to develop new methods to investigate some criminal activity.
Over the past year, U.S. authorities have taken action against several players in the digital currency space.
In May, U.S. authorities seized two accounts linked to the Tokyo-based exchange Mt. Gox, the major operator for the Bitcoin digital marketplace, after it failed to register with FinCEN.
Around the same time, U.S. criminal authorities also indicted the operators of the digital currency exchange Liberty Reserve and accused the company of helping criminals launder more than $6 billion in funds linked to everything from child pornography to software used for bank hacking.
In October, federal authorities shut down an online marketplace called Silk Road that was used for purchasing drugs and hiring hit men.
Earlier this month a new version of the website opened for business again, raising concerns over whether authorities were fighting a loosing battle.
Raman rejected such concerns and said the government was sending a message to criminals by taking down these organizations. "We have kept pace," she said.
(Reporting by Aruna Viswanatha and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Jan Paschal and Dan Grebler)



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[Ponce]

"IF YOU DON'T HOLD IT, YOU DON'T OWN IT"... Ponce............................. so there.

[Serpo]

We have seen increasing use of such currencies by drug dealers, traffickers of child pornography, and perpetrators of large-scale fraud schemes," Mythili Raman, the acting assistant attorney general for the division, told a Senate panel.

Normal money is so much more pure and only used for nice things.hahahaha

Ive asked a couple of people if they have heard of bit coin and they say ,oh yea isnt that what crooks use on the internet......brainwashing is working

[Horn]

The E-coin needs to be fought tooth and nail if trying to become some sort of standard form of money, it is not with 0% intrinsic. How they are handled as some form of alternate currency is very delicately, so as not to be interpreted as such..

Really the only attraction is that of something finite, but as they are deflationary in name, they will be replaced at the end of their cycles, by name. This will occur. By name most will be forgotten and new names arrive. If a nation of people try to adopt them to use as money it would be an ugly mess and flushed down the drain soon enough.

[madfranks]

The E-coin needs to be fought tooth and nail if trying to become some sort of standard form of money, it is not with 0% intrinsic..

Or you could simply leave people free to choose what they want to transact in, and if its something you personally don't like you could get over it.

[EE_]

Just passing this along.

BITCOINS, THE SECOND BIGGEST PONZI SCHEME IN HISTORY
December 4, 2013 By The Doc 47 Comments
http://www.silverdoctors.com/bitcoins-the-second-biggest-ponzi-scheme-in-history/

I hereby make a prediction: Bitcoins will go down in history as the most spectacular private Ponzi scheme in history. It will dwarf anything dreamed of by Bernard Madoff. (It will never rival Social Security, however.)
The fundamental characteristic of money is its relatively stable purchasing power.
Bitcoins will never achieve this. It is a mania going up. It will be a mania coming down. It will not increase the division of labor, because people will recognize it as having been a Ponzi scheme, and they will not again buy it. They will not use it in exchange. Companies will not sell goods and services based on Bitcoins. Bitcoins have to have stable purchasing power if they are to serve as money, and they will never, ever achieve stable purchasing power.
There has to be an economic justification for a capital investment, and there is no economic justification of buying Bitcoins as an alternative currency. The Austrian theory of money shows why.
I do not invest in capital that has no economic justification other than the greater fool theory. There are too few fools to keep the scheme going.
Bitcoins are the 2nd biggest Ponzi scheme in history. You can’t say you weren’t warned!







The Number of Fools is Limited
By Gary North, The Burning Platform:



I hereby make a prediction: Bitcoins will go down in history as the most spectacular private Ponzi scheme in history. It will dwarf anything dreamed of by Bernard Madoff. (It will never rival Social Security, however.)
To explain my position, I must do two things. First, I will describe the economics of every Ponzi scheme. Second, I will explain the Austrian school of economics’ theory of the origin of money. My analysis is strictly economic. As far as I know, it is a legal scheme — and should be.



PONZI ECONOMICS

First, someone who no one has ever heard of before announces that he has discovered a way to make money. In the case of Bitcoins, the claim claim is literal. The creator literally made what he says is money, or will be money. He made this money out of digits. He made it out of nothing. Think “Federal Reserve wanna-be.”

Second, the individual claims that a particular market provides unexploited arbitrage opportunities. Something is selling too low. If you buy into the program now, the person running the scheme will be able to sell it high on your behalf. So, you will take advantage of the arbitrage opportunity.

Today, with high-speed trading, arbitrage opportunities last only for a few milliseconds seconds in widely traded markets. Arbitrage opportunities in the commodity futures market last for very short periods. But in the most leveraged and sophisticated of all the futures markets, namely, the currency futures markets, arbitrage opportunities last for so brief a period of time that only high-speed computer programs can take advantage of them.

The individual who sells the Ponzi scheme makes money by siphoning off a large share of the money coming in. In other words, he does not make the investment. But Bitcoins are unique. The money was siphoned off from the beginning. Somebody owned a good percentage of the original digits. Then, by telling his story, this individual created demand for all of the digits. The dollar-value of his share of the Bitcoins appreciates with the other digits.

This strategy was described a generation ago by George Goodman, who wrote under the pseudonym of Adam Smith. You can find it in his book, Supermoney. This is done with financial corporations when individuals create a new business, retain a large share of the shares, and then sell the stock to the public. In this sense, Bitcoins is not a Ponzi scheme. It is simply a supermoney scheme.

The Ponzi aspect of it comes when we look at the justification for Bitcoins. They were sold on the basis that Bitcoins will be an alternative currency. In other words, this will be the money of the future.

The coins will never be the money of the future. This is my main argument.



THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL’S THEORY OF MONEY’S ORIGINS

The best definition of money was first offered by Austrian economist Carl Menger in 1892. He said that money is the most marketable commodity. This definition was picked up by his disciple, Ludwig von Mises, who presented it in his book, The Theory of Money and Credit, published in 1912.

In that book, Mises argued, as Menger had before him, that money arises out of market transactions. That which did not function as money before, now functions as money. Something that was valuable for its own sake, most likely gold or silver, becomes valuable for another purpose, namely, the facilitation of exchange. People move from barter to a monetary economy. This increases the division of labor. As more and more people use the money commodity in order to facilitate exchanges, the division of labor extends, and as a result, people’s productivity increases. They can specialize. This specialization produces increased output per person, and therefore increased income per person.

In this scenario, something that had independent value becomes the focus of traders, who find that their ability to buy and sell increases as a result of the use of this commodity. Money develops out of market exchanges. Money was not used for its own sake initially, but it becomes widely used as money as a result of innumerable transactions within the economy. (I discuss this in my chapter in Theory of Money and Fiduciary Media, published by the Mises Institute in 2012.)

Here is the central fact of money. Money is the product of the market process. It arises out of anunplanned, decentralized process. This takes time. It takes a lot of time. It spreads slowly, as new people discover it as a tool of production, because it increases the size of the market for all goods and services. No one says, “I think I’ll invent a new form of money.”

Note: any time you see a proposal of a new form of money, hold on to your old form of money.

The central benefit of money is its predictable purchasing power. A monetary commodity is not easy to produce. The cost of mining is high. Money is slowly adopted by a large number of participants. These participants use money as a means of exchange. Why? Because it was valuable the day before. They therefore expect it to be valuable the next day. Money has continuity of value. This is not intrinsic value. It is historic value. So, a person can buy money by the sale of goods or services, set this money aside, and re-enter the markets in a different location or in a different time, in the confidence that he will probably be able to buy a similar quantity of goods and services.

Money is not accumulated for its own sake. It is accumulated to buy future goods and services. It is useful in the facilitation of exchange precisely because its market value varies little over time. It is the predictability of money’s market exchange rate that makes it money.

BITCOINS ARE NOT MONEY

Now let us look at bitcoins. The market value of one bitcoin has gone from about $2 to $1,000 in a year. This is not money. This commodity is not being bought for its services as money. It is unpredictable to a fault.

Admittedly, those who got in early on this Ponzi scheme are doing very well. They will probably continue to do well for a time. As more people hear about this investment, which is justified in terms of its future potential as money, more people will buy it. Late-comers are not buying it because they understand its potential as future money, any more than the late investors in Charles Ponzi’s scheme thought they were buying into the arbitrage potential of foreign postage stamps. They are buying Bitcoins because we are in the midst of a Ponzi scheme mania. They will continue to buy because they think this time it’s different.

This digital so-called money will not be used to facilitate exchange. Nobody is going to be getting rid of an asset that has moved from $2 to $1,000 in one year in order to buy pizzas. People want to hang onto it, refusing to sell, in the hopes that it will go to $2,000. This is the classic mark of Ponzi scheme psychology.People do not buy the investment for the benefits that the investment provides as an investment, in other words, because it is a capital asset. They buy it only because it has gone up in price. They expect this to continue.

Here is the Austrian school’s theory of money. People buy money because it has not fallen in price. But it has also not gone up in price much, either. It is predictable. Why? Because it is held in reserve by a large number of people over a large geographical area. It has become money through tradition, through experience, and through endless numbers of exchanges on a voluntary basis. It has proven itself in the marketplace as a means of facilitating exchange, and thereby as a means of preserving value over time. This is not the characteristic feature of a Bitcoin. People are not buying it to serve as money; they are buying it because they are in the midst of a mania, and they are gambling that the number of buyers will continue upward forever.

Here is an economic fact: the number of fools is limited. They are a scarce economic resource. As the price of bitcoins rises, more fools will be lured into the market. But this is a finite market.

In other words, bitcoins cannot possibly fulfill their supposed purpose: to serve as an unregulated currency unit. Bitcoins are not an alternative currency. They are something you buy in the midst of a mania, and you will sell at some point in order to get back your money. You are thinking of buying Bitcoins, not because Bitcoins will serve as a means of exchange, as originally argued, but because you want to get back lots more money than you paid for them. In other words, Bitcoins are not money; dollars are money. There has been no challenge from Bitcoins to the reign of the dollar.

JUST SAY NO

When you see an offer of an investment which inherently cannot possibly exist on its own merit, and yet lots of people are coming into the market to buy the item, you know, without any question, that this is a Ponzi scheme. In other words, people are buying into the program, not because of an arbitrage opportunity, and not because of a capital breakthrough in terms of technology, but because somebody else bought it cheaper yesterday. You buy it today, not because you think it is going to offer a stable value, but because you think you’re going to make a bundle of money when more people come into the market. Again, this is the classic mark of a Ponzi scheme.

In order for Bitcoins to become an alternative currency, there will have to be millions of users of the currency. There will have to be tens of millions of users of the currency. They will have to develop in a market on their merit as money, not as an investment of dollars in order to get more dollars back. It would have to develop through exchange, not bought as an investment. In other words, the free market will have to adopt Bitcoins as a means of increasing the division of labor.

Bitcoins are not increasing the division of labor. They are bought on the basis that somebody can get into a game of musical chairs. Instead of running out of chairs, leaving one person the great winter, the promoters started with a given number of chairs, and then they hoped that lots would come and bid on the chairs. “If we issue it, they will come.” This took place. The promoters creators are now very rich, as measured in dollars.

The fact of the matter is this: Bitcoins will not increase the division of labor by serving as an alternative currency. Inherently, Bitcoins have made their mark, not on the basis of their stable value in exchange, that is, their value in increasing the division of labor in alternative markets that do not use the dollar. On the contrary, Bitcoins are being purchased for one reason only: to get in on the deal. Buy low; sell high. Buy with what? Dollars. Sell for what? Dollars.

The mania has destroyed Bitcoins’ use as money. Bitcoins are too volatile in price ever to serve as a currency.

Which is money: dollars or Bitcoins? The answer is obvious: dollars.

This is a Ponzi scheme.

WHAT GOES UP COMES DOWN

This will lead to the ruination of more people than any private Ponzi scheme in history. There will be the poor schnooks to get in at the end, paying perhaps thousands of dollars per Bitcoin. Then the market will unravel. It will unravel for the same reason that all Ponzi schemes have unraveled: not enough new buyers. When the new buyers do not show up in great numbers, the holders will start to dump them. What went up in price, as measured in dollars, the real money, will come down in price.

This mania is going to be the stuff of best-selling books. This is going to be this stuff of Ph.D. dissertations in economics and psychology. This is going to be the equivalent of Mackay’s book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.

The interesting thing is the mania started among the most technologically sophisticated people on earth: computer techies. The techies who got in early are going to be fabulously wealthy . . . if they sell. But the poor schnooks who come in at the and are going to lose money. Collectively, this will be the greatest single scheme for lots of people losing money that we have ever seen. This Ponzi scheme is not illegal . . . yet. It will spread. It has gone viral.

The price will soon be too high for most people to buy one Bitcoin. What I think is going to happen next is that somebody is going to start a Bitcoin mutual fund. You will be able to buy fractional shares of a Bitcoins. Maybe you can get in for $250.

Anytime you buy an investment, you had better have an exit strategy. There is no exit strategy for Bitcoins.

You must get out at the top, or you lose your shirt.

CONCLUSION

Anytime that anybody tries to sell you an investment, you have to look at it on this basis: “What are the future benefits that this investment will give final consumers?” In other words, how does it serve the final consumer? If it does not serve the final consumer, then it is a Ponzi scheme.

Bitcoins cannot serve the consumer. There is nothing to consume. The only way that Bitcoins can work to the advantage of the consumer is that they provide the consumer with increased opportunities, based on Bitcoins’ function as money. But the fundamental characteristic of money is its relatively stable purchasing power.




Bitcoins will never achieve this. It is a mania going up. It will be a mania coming down. It will not increase the division of labor, because people will recognize it as having been a Ponzi scheme, and they will not again buy it. They will not use it in exchange. Companies will not sell goods and services based on Bitcoins. Bitcoins have to have stable purchasing power if they are to serve as money, and they will never, ever achieve stable purchasing power.

Whenever somebody tries to sell you an investment that is based on the economic analysis of a market — an analysis that cannot possibly be true — do not buy the investment. This is a simple rule. I adhere to this rule.

There has to be an economic justification for a capital investment, and there is no economic justification of buying Bitcoins as an alternative currency. That was how Bitcoins were initially sold, and it was impossible as an economic concept from the beginning. The Austrian theory of money shows why.

I do not invest in capital that has no economic justification other than the greater fool theory. There are too few fools to keep the scheme going.

Bitcoins are not illegal. They should not be made illegal. They should merely be avoided.

[JohnQPublic]

Just passing this along.

BITCOINS, THE SECOND BIGGEST PONZI SCHEME IN HISTORY
December 4, 2013 By The Doc 47 Comments
http://www.silverdoctors.com/bitcoins-the-second-biggest-ponzi-scheme-in-history/

I hereby make a prediction: Bitcoins will go down in history as the most spectacular private Ponzi scheme in history. It will dwarf anything dreamed of by Bernard Madoff. (It will never rival Social Security, however.)
...

Sorry. Derivatives have already eclipsed all of this and by orders of magnitude.

[madfranks]

These stories of bitcoin theft always fail to note how the bitcoins were left in the custody of third parties. I've read lots of comments by people who think that all bitcoins are susceptible to hacking and theft because of articles like this. Not one person who keeps their bitcoins on a local wallet or offline storage has lost their coins to theft.

one thing that's important to note, is that lots of these people using bitcoins are young and many are naive. It's like hundreds of kids discovering a treasure of gold coins, giving them all to an anonymous third party who promises to take care of them, but steals them instead. Bitcoins are digital gold, if you give them to someone else, they can simply disappear with them never to return.

[EE_]

In California, A Tesla Has Now Been Bought With Bitcoin
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/05/2013 19:11 -0500

Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

I’ve been waiting for this headline. It was just a matter of time before the exchange of BTC for a Tesla happened. The purchase took place at Lamborghini Newport Beach in California, and this isn’t just a one time gimmick. The dealership has announced that:

Lamborghini Newport Beach in California is proud to announce that we are fully capable of accepting Bitcoin as payment for vehicles. We are excited to be opening the door to this new currency.

Bitcoin, a fully encrypted and fully digital currency, has been used by a recent client of ours to pay for a Tesla Model S Performance we had in our inventory. That's right, an electronic currency was used to purchased a fully electric vehicle.

This is what you see if you go to the dealership’s blog:

The world is changing fast (you can even buy airline tickets for BTC), as well as purchase a “Bought with Bitcoin” shirt.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-05/california-tesla-has-now-been-bought-bitcoin

[Horn]

Or you could simply leave people free to choose what they want to transact in, and if its something you personally don't like you could get over it.

Do you hate money, wouldn't you want your children to have a chance at having some?

You probably have the same haircut Woodrow Wilson did.

5787


Not one person who keeps their bitcoins on a local wallet or offline storage has lost their coins to theft.

Where's ximmy?

[Horn]

You can see the monitoring being done here at Reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/SheepMarketplace/).
All of this has led Isabella Kaminska over at FT Alphaville to ponder on this sight of the private enforcement of the law (http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2013/12/04/1713032/capital-controls-bitcoin-edition/):
All in all, it’s a wonderful example of how money is supposed to work. It shows very clearly that there is no intrinsic value to a Bitcoin. Rather, its value is determined by the community. And what the community giveth, it can also take away if you don’t play by the rules of the society in question. This is more than can be said for traditional cash or even gold, both of which are much more difficult to track or “black-list” in such a way. Indeed, to black-list conventional money you need the intervention of state and police, which runs into its own principal-agent problems.

What we are seeing here, however, is community-based self-policing. Pirate code. Honour among thieves etc.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/12/05/calling-david-friedman-redditors-providing-private-legal-enforcement-over-bitcoin-theft-at-sheep-marketplace/




Oh aren't they are playing all the harpsichords for Libertards to get sucked into the blackhole that is E-coins?

Its like the pied piper came to town. They love seeing us trade nothing, stealing nothing away from each other, while they come along with all seeing eye institutional solution... and we still trade not-a-thing, but pieces of dying names with one another.

Get your Terra-centralized harpsichord blockchain here.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89kONE_1I4g

[Horn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71x4MSlpGUk