01.27.14
Wow. Wonderful coin. Very rich.
One of the most prominent players in the Bitcoin universe, Charles Shrem, was arrested by federal prosecutors on Sunday and accused of helping grease the wheels for drug transactions on the now defunct online bazaar Silk Road.
Mr. Shrem was the founder and chief executive of a popular website, Bitinstant, where Bitcoins could be bought using dollars. The criminal charges unsealed on Monday by the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan claim that Mr. Shrem used his company to convert money anonymously for people interested in buying narcotics on the Silk Road site, and also personally bought drugs on the site. He was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport …
[And the famously wealthy Bitcoin speculators, the Winkle-Nuisances]
Bitinstant stopped operating last summer, but the site was viewed as a pioneer in the industry, and Mr. Shrem had recently said that he planned to restart it. The company won early backing from Winkelvoss Capital, which is run by the Winkelvoss [sic, since corrected] brothers, who were early players in Facebook.
In a statement, Winkelvoss [sic] Capital said, “We were passive investors in BitInstant and will do everything we can to help law enforcement officials. We fully support any and all governmental efforts to ensure that money laundering requirements are enforced, and look forward to clearer regulation being implemented on the purchase and sale of Bitcoins.???
In the past few weeks, various reports have indicated that 90 percent of all Bitcoins are held by hoarders.
The current and ridiculous price of one BitCoin in Pasadena: between 970 and 1040 dollars.
Like corporate stock that rises in value when employees are fired en masse, BitCoin speculators rush to push up the value when bad stuff happens.
It is the perfect money for our time, a gift for wealthy tech sociopaths.
Tom Paterson said,
January 28, 2014 at 5:55 am
It’s Wink-LE-voss of course. If you copied and pasted then they’ve since silently (I hate that!) corrected the original which now shows the correct spelling.
George Smith said,
January 28, 2014 at 8:16 am
I have a little sympathy for the copy desk people who have to shoot this stuff to the web several times each day, since I know and have known a couple of them at the big paper out here. They know they make mistakes and it bugs ’em too.
Tom Paterson said,
January 28, 2014 at 9:12 am
I’d proofread a love letter if anyone ever sent me one.