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Alpha Technology has a new development update and its Viper scrypt board seems to be making headway. The British ASIC maker said it has completed the schematics for the ATX power distribution board and of the AC power metering board. Those of the actual ASIC board are not complete yet, but Alpha said it is “almost” done. In addition, the company has finalised the design of the enclosure and WebGUI user interface. ... In any case, the advent of powerful and immensely efficient scrypt ASICs is not good news for GPU miners, as the ASICs will render GPU-based miners uncompetitive...

LAS VEGAS -- Local rancher Cliven Bundy may have his cattle back, but his supporters say they are still preparing for an imminent threat. Militia groups from all over the country say they are flocking to the Bundy ranch to protect the family from a feared federal government raid. The Bureau of Land Management allowed Bundy to release his cattle Saturday, after they felt threatened. Bundy now has a whole contingent of armed guards surrounding him 24 hours a day. "They're just there, trying to make sure something crazy doesn't happen to him," Bundy's son Ammon Bundy said. His security...

The price of bitcoin recovered from a low of roughly $380 and rose past $420 at press time on 11th April, on the news that Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), had issued new statements potentially clarifying the central bank’s position on bitcoin. According to reports, during Boao Forum, Xiaochuan offered his opinion on the nascent technology, saying that China would not seek to ban bitcoin and other digital currencies entirely.

A global clash of nations is underway in full gear. The time is finally right. The urgency is acute. The banking system insolvency is widespread. The illiquidity has reached the surface. The geopolitical chessboard has busy movements of many pieces, even with a delayed check in Ukraine after a devious capture of the Cyprus castle but not the Syrian knight. The Saudi support via OPEC for the Petro-Dollar has fallen out of view, dragging its pummeled chin on the desert sands. The Eastern superpowers are marching arm in arm, ready to challenge the West. It seems the Western leaders, in...

Bitcoin prices crashed today as Chinese businesses began receiving official deposit shutdown notices from banks, confirming recent suspicions of an impending crackdown. Exchanges will stop account recharging via bank accounts between now and 15th April. Even though the news has been anticipated for over a week now, bitcoin prices sank under $403 from a high of $450.74 on the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index after companies began making public announcements on their sites.

The "blood moons", or so they are called, are a set of eclipses taking place over the next year. There have been several books written about them; even a DVD or two produced about them. But, are they what we think they are? If not, is this a gigantic, prophetic, misunderstanding of astronomical proportions?

US Congressman Steve Stockman of Texas is preparing to introduce a new bill, the ‘Virtual Currency Tax Reform Act’, which, if passed, would tax bitcoins as currency instead of property. Currently, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) views bitcoin and other digital currencies as property. When someone sells their bitcoin or makes a purchase in bitcoin, they are subject to a 15% capital gains tax. Any wages paid out in digital currencies must also be reported to federal tax authorities.

Last week, the big story was how bankers use HFT (High Frequency Trading) algorithmic software not only to rig markets but also to commit theft on a daily basis (Frontrunning, like Quantitative Easing, is just fancy Wall Street lingo to disguise its true meaning of theft). Though many in the public blogosphere expressed shock that stock markets are rigged and that regulators like the Securities Exchange Commission willingly allow this theft to occur, the only thing shocking about this story was how long it took this story to reach the mainstream and that people were crediting Michael Lewis with uncovering...

The day when the nation collectively has made enough money to pay its total tax burden for the year is three days later this year, according to a new report. According to a report released Monday by the Tax Foundation, this year Tax Freedom Day falls 111 days into 2014, on April 21. By April 21, to group says, Americans will have made enough to pay the $3 trillion in federal taxes and $1.5 trillion in state taxes — more than they will spend on food clothing and housing combined. Tax Freedom Day is later than it was last year,...

In response to claims by the Ukraine government (and the west) that Russia provoking trouble in Eastern Europe - with The White House's Jary Carney even suggesting that pro-Russia demonstrators were paid - Russia's foreign ministry has responded. Posting via their Facebook page, Russia urged Ukraine to halt any interior military preparations which could instigate a civil war. But the kicker, for which we anxiously await a rebuttal, is Russia's comment that they "are particularly concerned that the operation involves some 150 American mercenaries."

The level of employment in the United States has been declining since the year 2000. There have been moments when things have appeared to have been getting better for a short period of time, and then the decline has resumed. Thanks to the offshoring of millions of jobs, the replacement of millions of workers with technology and the overall weakness of the U.S. economy, the percentage of Americans that are actually working is significantly lower than it was when this century began. And even though things have stabilized at a reduced level over the past few years, it is...

The relative calm of the last two weeks as US talking-heads proclaim Ukraine 'fixed', Russia 'under control', and Europe 'recovering' is being obliterated this morning. The storming of various non-Crimean Ukrainian city government buildings suggest round two of the push is beginning and Russia is wasting no time explaining how this will go down. Russian Senator Viktor Ozerov stated that "Russia has no right to [send peacekeepers] unilaterally" to Eastern and Southern Ukraine (unless the UN agrees)... but... "Russia is interested in stability in Ukraine. At the same time, the will of the people must be documented. A referendum is...

Everyone's talking about Michael Lewis' latest book Flash Boys and HFT (high-frequency trading) and whether the markets are rigged. What they're not talking about is how the markets have been set up for institutionalized rigging. I'm not kidding. The markets are rigged. You're going to have to get over it and deal with it. The rigging is in the system and that's just the way it is... As to HFT, I'll get to that... But you can't pass judgment on HFT until you understand how cascading technology and unintended consequences landed us in the deep end of the dark pool...

Last week, St. Louis Fed Director of Research David Andolfatto released a presentation on Bitcoin, becoming one of the most prominent central bank officials to study the cryptocurrency. We caught up with Andolfatto to ask him about why he put this deck together, where he thinks Bitcoin is going, and whether he personally has anything invested in it. Business Insider: What was the genesis for this presentation? David Andolfatto: Its genesis was a blog post I'd started, addressing arguments that gold bugs frequently put forth, that gold is superior money. Of course, Bitcoin was in the news — I read...

The most repeated prophecy in the entirety of the Gospel record is often hidden behind the definitive article. The definitive articles from the Greek text have been translated: THIS, THAT, and THE - but they all definitively define THE PROPHET who was prophesied by Moses. This is THE PROPHET the Almighty promised to send, and THAT PROPHET is the one who would speak only that which he heard from heaven. It is THIS PROPHET that we must shema (hear and obey). There is not a more repeated prophetic declaration in the Gospel record than the recognition that Yeshua is THAT...

eBay’s main US site has introduced a category for ‘Virtual Currency’, with listings for dozens of bitcoin and altcoin-related activities – including shares in mining operations. Although eBay is still not accepting bitcoin as an official payment, any recognition of the currency is significant since eBay is the parent company of PayPal, the payments firm long earmarked for disruption by many bitcoin fans. The popular online auction site and marketplace quietly included the category in its ‘Category Changes‘ list for April under ‘Coins and Paper Money’. At press time there were multiple entries for bitcoin and altcoin trades, Mining Hardware,...

It’s no surprise that Wences Casares, the CEO of Xapo, a bitcoin startup, is a big bull on the digital currency. His company, which specializes in insured Bitcoin vaults, just raised $20 million in a funding round led by Benchmark. But Mr. Casares belives that other bitcoin bulls, especially those in the U.S., do not fully appreciate the value of the currency, which has proved especially sticky in emerging markets prone to wild currency fluctuations, such as Mr. Casares’ home country Argentina. In a video interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Casares says he’s not worried about bitcoin’s own...

The US House of Representatives committee on small business held a hearing on 2nd April to discuss the growing use of bitcoin by the country’s small business owners (SMBs), and the pros and cons that using this technology as a payment option offers the demographic. Entitled ‘Bitcoin: Examining the Benefits and Risks for Small Business’, a panel of experts spoke about the benefits and costs of the use of bitcoin by SMBs, while also touching on hot topics like Silk Road and the recent IRS decision on the tax treatment of digital currencies. Committee Chairman Sam Graves noted in his...

Very shallow at 10km! Offshore...

A petition to amend Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Notice 2014-2, the new guidance released on 25th March that announced digital currencies would be treated as property for tax purposes, has been filed on WhiteHouse.gov. Managed by the presiding presidential administration, the official website of the White House allows for the filing of public petitions on all manner of subjects, from whether Election Day should be a designated holiday to whether Alaska should secede from the US and join Russia. Petitions that cross a certain threshold of signatures then generally garner a White House response. Filed on 28th March, the new...