News for today's 2018

<br /> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wtHXKsx8gY288nK0Lm6kMLUZX6KNR7U5qCPEepeGn74Z4-OUKccOchB5YoKLpPYrSzy79-KhnPqSkVcJsx32gDwYKKp78RKir2BLQP-ty8E30ikyEOhGw-oCI8Moqa2pBAp41L6Lm1c0/s1600/bitcoin530.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wtHXKsx8gY288nK0Lm6kMLUZX6KNR7U5qCPEepeGn74Z4-OUKccOchB5YoKLpPYrSzy79-KhnPqSkVcJsx32gDwYKKp78RKir2BLQP-ty8E30ikyEOhGw-oCI8Moqa2pBAp41L6Lm1c0/s1600/bitcoin530.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: large;">BANKS ARE MISUSING THE MONEY MONOPOLY THEY HAVE, USING MONEY FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES</span></span><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes;">Via stratrisk</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With all its other problems, the euro is also getting unexpected — and “underground” — competition from a new virtual currency. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It’s called the <i>bitcoin, </i>and in case you haven’t heard, it is the most ambitious (and to-date, successful) attempt to create a new online currency, generated by the calculations of thousands of computers. Some say it amounts to a kind of anarchic money.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This week, as the euro crisis has reached CYPRUS, the bitcoin (BTC) marked a record high on the largest online exchange, bitcoin.de. The exchange rate has approached 50 EUR, more than doubling the value of the virtual currency within four weeks.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The latest run on bitcoins was caused by reports of a bitcoin fund being launched by MALTA-based hedge fund called Exante. The Bitcoin Fund has an initial minimum subscription of $100,000 and a 0.5% upfront subscription fee. Current assets under management in the Bitcoin Fund are $3.2 million.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6896989063397229776" name="rdb-footnote-link-6">Investors demand </a>is rising quickly,” says Oliver Flaskämper, who drives bitcoin.de: “Many investors realize that the present market cap of around $520 million leaves a lot of room.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">INCREASING NUMBER OF PLACES ACCEPT THE ALTERNATIVE CURRENCY</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">EUROPEANS alone have more than 5 trillion euros in their wallet files and accounts. Everyone can use bitcoins as long as they have a wallet app installed on a PC or a smartphone. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What makes bitcoins particularly attractive is that users can use them for payment at an increasing number of places. Over 2,000 companies and organizations now accept the alternative <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6896989063397229776" name="rdb-footnote-link-8">currency</a>, including pizza delivery outfits, but also gambling sites of dubious repute.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9BQaSmWnlLe9FAeZAeNrPqOLXzAFZlJCj8iJy06qG57Hb-wi1Pe5SXleKi5FusR3s1IeQ2mPAUpUCHhvz4FQ-pHmc_3Nh9mhB1sLNYrKFIVvDdZcOihorJ7vRm6glYInjEWtyPpXo2CD_/s1600/bitcoin_accepted_sign1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9BQaSmWnlLe9FAeZAeNrPqOLXzAFZlJCj8iJy06qG57Hb-wi1Pe5SXleKi5FusR3s1IeQ2mPAUpUCHhvz4FQ-pHmc_3Nh9mhB1sLNYrKFIVvDdZcOihorJ7vRm6glYInjEWtyPpXo2CD_/s1600/bitcoin_accepted_sign1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It has also been said that bitcoins are used in drug transactions. Unlike credit cards or online payment services like Paypal, bitcoin transactions are essentially anonymous which has aroused the suspicions of bankers and politicians alike. Bitcoin fans argue that cash was and remains the primary means of paying for drugs– and that nobody has aired the idea that cash should be abolished.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The history of the bitcoin has so far been marked by ups and downs. The virtual currency was introduced in 2009 by Japanese programmer Satoshi Nakamoto, who wanted to create counterfeit-proof money for the web. It now appears however that the name is a pseudonym, and that nobody really knows who is behind the bitcoin idea.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="266" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yYTqvYqXRbY?feature=player_embedded" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>BITCOIN SYSTEM BEARS RESEMBLANCE TO THE GOLD STANDARD</b></span></div><span style="color: #990000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hype developed around the crypto-currency relatively quickly. In 2011 the first speculation bubble – that had driven the exchange rate to $30 – burst. Then came a hacker attack on the major bitcoin exchanges. Users lost virtual coins worth several hundred thousand euros and confidence – and prices – collapsed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Despite fluctuations, bitcoins remain an extremely interesting concept. They are created by highly complex calculations running on thousands of computers. Approximately every 10 minutes, 25 new bitcoins are created. The algorithm takes into account that at some point a maximum number of virtual coins will be reached – ostensibly around 2140, and from 2033 on no large quantities of new bitcoins will be made.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In that sense the bitcoin system bears resemblance to the gold standard. Unlike euros or dollars the amount of bitcoins cannot be increased at will. The virtual coins are interesting for investors betting on the inflation of paper money..</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bitcoins might even presage a whole new era. “Money is being re-invented,” Thorsten Polleit, chief economist at Degussa Bank, believes. He sees a future where different kinds of money will be competing with each other. “The banks are misusing the money monopoly they have, using money for political purposes. In the long run that will lead to devaluation” – and the demand for private mediums of exchange will increase, he says.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUb3JHrjRbxPD_HReIM_fn6K-CskLtypL6ZpwJP2ztH2PwZf4BcDczql5dKB8WgKMz-IwEEFMZatH6t3USnfudTumtJw-qFM6LuLAhjXhNxmcd5uVq3HJvXURXblhuq6wZAdncLRIjsWE7/s1600/BitcoinQR5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUb3JHrjRbxPD_HReIM_fn6K-CskLtypL6ZpwJP2ztH2PwZf4BcDczql5dKB8WgKMz-IwEEFMZatH6t3USnfudTumtJw-qFM6LuLAhjXhNxmcd5uVq3HJvXURXblhuq6wZAdncLRIjsWE7/s1600/BitcoinQR5.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">BITCOIN, THE NEW ALTERNATIVE?</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></b><b><span lang="ES-AR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">BITCOIN, LA  NUEVA MONEDA ALTERNATIVA?</span></b></span><span lang="ES-AR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="ES-AR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-AR; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />En Argentina, donde la población tiene que hacer frente aconstricciones económicas  "home made"  impuestas por las autoridades locales, BITCOIN, una moneda alternativa en línea está experimentando una popularidad creciente.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="ES-AR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-AR; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />El nuevo sistema de pago está descentralizada en una red peer-to-peer - al igual que el sistema de descargas BITORRENT. Los argentinos están luchando actualmente con alta inflación, la moneda extranjera - las soluciones para frenar la inflación, es difícil de conseguir en estos días. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span lang="ES-AR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-AR; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Así los argentinos empresariales han comenzado a utilizar BITCOIN con el fin de enviar dinero fuera del país,  obtener dólares  o euros. Todas las transacciones son anónimas. Las autoridades no tienen ninguna posibilidad de controlar esas transacciones.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BITCOIN, THE NEW ALTERNATIVE CURRENCY ?</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Argentina, where the population has to cope with “home made” economic constrictions imposed by local authorities, BITCOIN, an alternative online currency is experiencing increasing popularity.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The new payment system is decentralized in a peer-to-peer network – just like the download system BITORRENT. Argentineans are currently struggling with high inflation, foreign currency - the solutions to curb in inflation, is hard to get these days. Thus entrepreneurial Argentineans have started to use BITCOIN in order to get money out of the country or purchase Dollars or Euros. All transactions are anonymous. Authorities have no chance to control such transactions.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">BITCOINS, THE ONLINE-ONLY CURRENCY</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Created in 2009 by a mysterious programmer named Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoins behave a lot like any currency. Their value is determined by demand, and they can be used to buy stuff. Bitcoin transactions are encrypted and handled by a decentralized global network of tens of thousands of personal computers. Merchants around the world accept the currency, from a bakery in San Francisco to a dentist in Finland. Individuals who own bitcoins and wish to exchange them for physical currencies like euros or dollars can use exchange sites such as localbitcoins.com, a Finland-based site founded by Jeremias Kangas. “I believe that bitcoin is, or will be in the future, a very effective tool for individuals who want to avoid sanctions, currency restrictions, and high inflation in countries such as Iran,” Kangas wrote in an e-mail. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /><span style="color: #990000;"><b>THE ADVANTAGE FOR COUNTRIES WITH RESTRICTIVE FOREIGN CURRENCY POLICIES IS THAT BITCOINS CAN BE SWAPPED FOR DOLLARS THAT CAN THEN BE KEPT OUTSIDE THE COUNTRY</b>. </span><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another plus: Regulators can’t easily track the transactions, since bitcoins aren’t issued from a central server. Bitcoin users can conduct business on virtual private networks, which hide customers’ identities.<br />Many entrepreneurs and visionaries wish the culture of using digital money will spread all over the world, because it does not have any dependency on anything like politics.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: 259.5pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">HOW IT WORKS</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The project was started in 2009 by an enigmatic programmer known as Satoshi Nakamoto. He always communicated electronically, never answered personal questions, and disappeared from online forums in December. The conspiracy-minded speculate that Nakamoto was actually a group of people, or a government cryptographer, or a pseudonym for Gavin Andresen, the Amherst (Mass.) programmer who took over the project after Nakamoto vanished. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="266" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Um63OQz3bjo?feature=player_embedded" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Digital transactions normally require a trusted intermediary such as PayPal to credit and debit accounts properly and prevent cheating</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. With BITCOINS, "there is no middleman, says Andresen or," more accurately, there's a distributed middleman. Individual transactions are encrypted, logged by a decentralized network running on thousands of home computers, and recorded in a public ledger. The system works similarly to peer-to-peer music-sharing networks in that files are shared among swarms of users, rather than downloaded from a central server. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Suppose you're in the market for alpaca socks, one of the few consumer items you can buy with BITCOINS. Step one: Get some BTC—that's the symbol—at a currency exchange site such as Mt.Gox. Then download a desktop app from bitcoin.org, which will store your lucre (some use an online service such as Instawallet.org instead) and connect you to the decentralized BITCOIN network. Next, find the alpaca farms BITCOIN address, a string of characters also known as a public key. Click the send coins button. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">THE BITCOIN NETWORK HAS HANDLED AS MANY AS 87 QUADRILLION CALCULATIONS PER SECOND, 35 TIMES MORE THAN THE TOP SUPERCOMPUTER. </span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The purchase is unconfirmed until a miner certifies it. Miners are power users who crunch numbers on behalf of the network, and some have racks of computers dedicated to the task. They're called miners because, just as gold miners increase the supply of gold, they create new BITCOINS, at an algorithmically controlled rate. The greater their computing power, the more they generate for themselves. Once a miner's computer has processed a transaction, the alpaca farm gets BITCOINS and you get socks. It's complex but fast: The BITCOIN network has handled as many as 87 quadrillion calculations per second, 35 times more than the top supercomputer. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">BITCOIN, ONLY FOR “MATURE” COUNTRIES? </span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BITCOINS have all the advantages of cash—free to use, very hard to trace—as well as its disadvantages. That digital wallet is a file on a hard drive or online, and if it's lost or stolen there's no recourse. The currency is backed only by the faith and credit of its participants and outside the scope of any banker, politician, or the Federal Reserve. To a certain breed of libertarian nerd who grew up on cyberpunk, it's the Digital Rapture. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BITCOIN also resonates with those who have something to hide. "Any anarchist cyberscheme like BITCOIN will rapidly attract the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse: Mafia, drug dealers, terrorists, and child pornography," says author and futurist Bruce Sterling. The hacker group LulzSec, which has claimed credit for breaking into websites at Sony (<a href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=SNE">SNE</a>) and the U.S. Senate, says a donor recently sent in $7,000 worth of BITCOINS. Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) urged federal law enforcement to shut down Silk Road, an online catalog for drugs, and spotlighted BITCOIN'S role as the only method of payment for these illegal purchases. Among the legit merchandise you can buy with BITCOIN: organic gardening services, a BITCOIN merit badge from NerdMeritBadge.com, and a smattering of tech products. </span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">BITCOIN: WILL THE ONLINE CURRENCY INFLUENCE GEOPOLITICS AND STRATEGIES?</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Merit badges and gardening are not the stuff revolutions are made of, but BITCOIN'S ascent has created a virtuous cycle: As early adopters see the value of their stakes rise, they have an incentive to entice new users and merchants. The number of people on the BITCOIN network at any given moment has climbed from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands since the start of the year, says Andresen. There are dedicated BITCOIN currency exchanges, escrow accounts, and smartphone apps. In the planning stages are options exchanges, cash registers, and high-frequency trading programs. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IF THERE'S ONE INDUSTRY THAT TAKES THE MOST CREAM OFF THE TOP AND PROVIDES THE LEAST VALUE, ITS FINANCE!</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mark Suppes, a Web developer (who freelances for Bloomberg LP, parent of this magazine), bought a used ATM on EBay (<a href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=EBAY">EBAY</a>) for about $400. In a Brooklyn warehouse, he's reprogramming it to accept BITCOIN transfers from a smartphone and dispense U.S. dollars. Suppes is motivated by self-interest—"I own enough BITCOINS that I'll be set if this works out," he says—and a desire to stick it to what he considers economic parasites. "If there's one industry that takes the most cream off the top and provides the least value, its finance," he says. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bankers needn't worry at this point. The most common reason to hold BITCOINS is as a speculative investment. "Any given day, it can move 20, 30, 40, even 50 percent," says Adam Cohen, a developer at startup Seatgeek who wrote a critical post about BITCOIN on the Q&A site Quora. "That's scary. I wouldn't want to have a lot of my wealth tied up in it right now." Sterling calls BITCOINS "a cousin project to WikiLeaks." For a glimpse of its future, he says, "find the half-dozen zealots who were core activists of WikiLeaks and ask them how their plan for massive planetary liberation has been going." </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The skeptics are why Andresen evangelizes. After his last haircut, he persuaded his barber to accept payment in BITCOIN. "I had to promise I would buy it back from him if it dropped in value," he says. "I insured his downside risk." </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The bottom line:</span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> BITCOINS, a two-year-old virtual currency, have exploded in value since December as tech-minded speculators snap them up.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

EURO BEWARE: THE REAL THREAT MAY BE BITCOIN, THE ONLINE “CRYPTO CURRENCY”

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EURO BEWARE: THE REAL THREAT MAY BE BITCOIN, THE ONLINE “CRYPTO CURRENCY”

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