Some countries have silly limits on the amount of currency you are allowed to take out of the country. Bitcoin can function as cash in some instances and it adds to your spending budget, if you have a extra

method of payment. It's so convenient and fast, and hassle-free. You also have a lower risk of theft / loss when you travel abroad and you have no safe way to store your currency.

I would rather walk around with a mobile phone and draw little attention to myself, than carrying a wad of cash and painting a target on my back to all pick pockets out there. 

A white-hat hacker has released a new tool designed to illustrate the ease with which illicit actors can steal bitcoins from brainwallets, a type of bitcoin wallet iteration where passwords are not stored digitally – but in the memory of the user.

Originally conceived as a way to keep sensitive wallet data offline and make bitcoin addresses easier to remember, the brainwallet was partly undone due to how it interacts with the bitcoin blockchain. A brainwallet uses a single, long password or phrase, converts it to a private key, a public key and finally an address. Using an offline attack, it's possible to rapidly guess potential passwords to see if they're correct.

New research by Ryan Castellucci, a security researcher at digital fraud firm White Ops, indicates there is as major flaw in this method. He highlights that the final bitcoin address is recorded in the blockchain as a password hash. When used for website authentication, password hashes help determine whether the word or phrase supplied is correct, meaning this data can be used as a reference to bad actors looking for the password.

A new blockchain startup has claimed its software could help track down criminals faster and cheaper than ever.

Sabr.io, one of 42 companies unveiled at 500 Startups' demo day in San Francisco this Tuesday, aims to shave valuable time off investigations into outfits such as illicit marketplace Silk Road.

The platform, which integrates data from public and proprietary sources, claims to provide law enforcement with intel on digital currencies that's "otherwise inaccessible".

Genesis Mining is the latest company to announce its departure from New York, following the formal introduction of the state's BitLicense.

In a blog post released yesterday, the cloud mining firm – which claims to serve over 50,000 customers – said it had no choice but to block anyone with a New York IP address from using its services.

"While advocates for the BitLicense say they want to protect consumers, what the act really does is stifle innovation. It’s complex, expensive, and comes with a set of guidelines that make it nearly impossible for any startup to comply with."

A 30-year-veteran of the US National Security Agency (NSA) has joined the board of advisors at New York-based bitcoin exchange itBit.

With the announcement, Ed Giorgio joins a board of advisors that includes Josh Rosner, managing director at research firm Graham Fisher & Co; Kang Global Investors managing partner Richard Kang; and Aitken Advisors founder James Aitken.

In addition to Giorgio, itBit also appointed Jim Manzi, former CEO of Lotus Development Corporation, to its board of directors. The software industry veteran joins former FDIC chairman Sheila Bair; former US Senator Bill Bradley and Stonegate Capital's Jim Manzi in a move that expands the board to six members.

Police in the Netherlands are appealing for witnesses to find a person who is planting explosives and requesting a bitcoin ransom.

According to the police, the first attacks took place in May, when the perpetrator placed explosive devices in three different Jumbo supermarkets – a chain of stores belonging to the Van Eerd Group – in Groningen, the largest city in the north of the country.

Subsequent attacks followed in June and July when the offender sent a congratulatory card containing a small amount of explosive substance to another supermarket in Zwolle, a small town in the province of Overijssel, also in the north of the Netherlands.

Israel-based colored coins startup Colu has launched the beta version of its developer platform.

Based on bitcoin's blockchain technology, the platform will enable developers and individuals to register and exchange digital assets. Additionally, Colu announced its integration with Revelator, a music business management platform.

Colu's announcement follows its closure of a $2.5m seed funding round in January this year. The round, led by VC firms Aleph and Spark Capital, also included contributions form VC Barry Silbert's Bitcoin Opportunity Corp and boutique angel fund Box Group.

I think the repayment deserves switching the trust from negative the neutral

Anyway, I'm reachable if anyone wants more details.

A few hundred or thousand nuclear bombs dont kill all humans and dont destroy this planet, there will be billions of people who will survive a new world war.
Nearly all people in africa, south america asia and so on will survive imo.

Online survey giant Qualtrics has added bitcoin as a rewards option for consumers who respond to surveys and research requests issued by its enterprise clients.

The Utah company, which is valued north of $1bn following a $150m Series B in 2014, boasts more than 700 employees and investors including Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners. The offering was made possible by bitcoin payments processor SnapCard's recent integration with digital rewards platform Tango Card.

Consumers who want to access the platform to obtain rewards points must first sign up to the service to begin taking surveys. Once Qualtrics users earn 50 points for their participation, they receive a Tango Card gift code, which can then be redeemed for Amazon and Target gift cards as well as bitcoin.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a number of responses stemming from a request for information on the topic of virtual currency.

The ESMA, which regulates securities activity in the European Union, first sought submissions from the finance and digital currency industries in April. The agency published 14 responses from participants such as German megabank Deutsche Bank, Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo, regional trade group European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA) and interbank messaging network SWIFT, among others.

The submissions offer varied perspectives on how European regulators should approach overseeing activity on the continent. At the same time, the documents show how some of these organizations are adapting to the technology as it evolves.

Yesterday, social media lit up with the news that bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto had emerged from the shadows to make a transaction.

The mysterious figure is estimated to own somewhere in the region of one million coins, all mined during the currency's early months. His fortune, now worth $281.6m, has not moved in six and a half years.

Yet speculation bubbled after a user spotted what appeared to be signs that some coins had moved, according to data from Blockchain.info. The site displayed coins in bitcoin's genesis block, or 'block one', moving to an address created this year.

Patrick Byrne, CEO of US online retailer Overstock, unveiled tØ.com today at the headquarters of the major US stock market Nasdaq in New York today.

The announcement marked the formal debut of tØ (pronounced tee-zero), Overstock's long awaited blockchain-based private and public equities trading platform first announced in 2014.

Byrne also unveiled a "big surprise" in the form of the platform's Preborrow Assured Token, which Byrne suggested would democratize securities lending. The product, he said, is already being used in an enterprise pilot program, and is the subject of interest by major banks.

Japanese government officials are weighing whether to regulate bitcoin exchanges in the wake of new developments in the ongoing investigation of Mt Gox.

Media reports from The Japan Times and The Japan News suggest that the government, including those from the country's Financial Services Agency, may seek to implement a registration system for exchange operators. Such a framework may include a licensing scheme and user identification requirements.

The Times quoted Finance Minister Taro Aso who said that government officials would need to "carry out studies" on how to properly regulate digital currency exchanges.

LOT Polish Airlines is now accepting bitcoin payments, meaning the digital currency can be used to pay for flights to more than 60 global destinations.

Tickets can be purchased on LOT's desktop and mobile websites. LOT does not accept directly, but exchanges the digital currency for fiat using an unnamed payment service provider, the media outlet said.

LOT now accepts bitcoin alongside payment methods including American Express, PayPal, MasterCard and Visa.

The arrest of Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpeles on Saturday is the latest twist in a lengthy plot surrounding the now-defunct bitcoin exchange.

Arrested in Japan over allegations he manipulated Mt Gox's volumes prior to its demise in 2014, Karpeles' detention has captivated worldwide attention.

Credited with being one of the world's first bitcoin exchanges – accounting for up to 80% of trading volume during its peak – Mt Gox first launched in the summer of 2010 and suspended operations in February 2014 amid heightened speculation about potential untoward activity.

Last week, wallet provider Blockchain became the first bitcoin company to take part in an official government trade mission.

CEO Peter Smith was one of 31 executives to take part in a trade delegation, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, to promote the UK's FinTech businesses in Southeast Asia.

The FinTech sector, which now employs 135,000 people in the UK and creates $20bn in annual revenue, is a key part of the Conservative Party's plan to stimulate trade and investment.

Smart contracts platform Symbiont has issued its first "smart security".

The announcement was formally unveiled at an event in New York today, during which the security was issued on the bitcoin blockchain.

Symbiont aims to provide services in the nascent cryptofinance sector, and traces its roots to both Overstock's Medici project as well as the Counterparty project. Several developers, originally working on Medici, left that initiative earlier this year and later established Symbiont.

Digital currency transactions should be treated in the same way as fiat currency transactions for the purposes of Goods and Services Tax (GST), according to the Australian Senate Economics References Committee.

A new report from the committee suggests changing the way in which transactions involving bitcoin or other digital currencies are classified.

The recommendation represents a significant shift from a previous ruling by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), which stated digital currencies were "intangible assets" and should be taxed as such.

Following on the heels of last week's American Banker conference, the inaugural Keynote 2015 echoed many of that event's larger themes, emphasizing the blockchain as a potentially universal solution for a variety of use cases beyond payments.

On the talking block at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles were trends such as the role of the distributed ledger in identity and security as well as its implications for consumer protection given that the technology could come to replace traditional third parties.

Overall, Keynote succeeded at providing insight into this variety of viewpoints and voices, even if many didn't express them in direct conversation on stage. For example, among the presenters were Swarm community manager Caterina Rindi and Silvio Tavares, CEO of the credit card industry group the CardLinx Association, who spoke about distributed ledgers from the viewpoints of innovators and incumbents, respectively.