Digital Gold (35 page)

211
 
“For the time being, Bitcoin is in many ways”: Felix Salmon, “The Bitcoin Bubble and the Future of Currency,”
News Genius
, http://genius.com/Felix-salmon-the-bitcoin-bubble-and-the-future-of-currency-annotated.

211
 
finally went public in the
New York Times
: Nathaniel Popper and Peter Lattman, “Never Mind Facebook; Winklevoss Twins Rule in Digital Money,”
New York Times
, April 11, 2013, http://dealbook .nytimes.com/2013/04/11/as-big-investors-emerge-bitcoin-gets-ready-for-its-close-up/?_r=0.

211
 
a national television station in China broadcast a half-hour segment: The May 3, 2013, segment is available at http://jingji.cntv.cn/2013/05/03/VIDE1367596319388137.shtml.

211
 
$2 million into BitPay: The announcement is available at http://www .marketwatch.com/story/bitpay-raises-2-million-led-by-founders-fund-2013-05-16.

212
 
$5 million into Coinbase: The announcement is available at https://www.usv.com/post/coinbase.

213
 
Mark was sued in a Seattle court by CoinLab: Complaint filed by Coin-Lab against Mt. Gox on May 2, 2013, in United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.

213
 
money in Mt. Gox's two American bank accounts—some $5 million—was seized: Romain Dillet, “Feds Seize Another $2.1 Million from Mt. Gox, Adding Up to $5 Million,”
TechCrunch
, August 23, 2013, http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/23/feds-seize-another-2-1-million-from-mt-gox-adding-up-to-5-million/.

218
 
federal prosecutors arrested the operators of Liberty Reserve: Information on the arrest is available at http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/press releases/May13/LibertyReservePR.php.

218
 
the top financial regulator in California sent the Bitcoin Foundation: The letter was posted by the executive director of the foundation at http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2013/06/23/bitcoin-foundation-receives-cease-and-desist-order-from-california/.

224
 
announced a few days after Charlie shut down BitInstant: Erik Voorhees to BTCF, July 17, 2013.

225
 
one-millionth registered account: Eileen Ormsby,
Silk Road
(Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, 2014).

225
 
commissions collected by the site often approached over $10,000 a day: RUTE GX 250.

225
 
Ross agreed to pay $100,000 up front: RUTE GX 241.

226
 
“Don't want to be a pain here”: Sealed complaint against Ross Ulbricht filed by FBI Special Agent Christopher Tarbell, September 27, 2013.

226
 
paid for with 3,000 Bitcoins, or roughly $500,000: Letter opposing Ross Ulbricht's release on bail, filed by Assistant United States Attorney Serrin Turner, November 20, 2013. These alleged murders and the chats between Ross and redandwhite were discussed during Ross Ulbricht's trial, but Ross was not charged with any counts of murder for hire and Canadian police never found any evidence of any suspicious deaths during this time that might be tied to Ross.

227
 
He moved out of his friend's apartment in June: Sealed complaint against Ross Ulbricht filed by FBI Special Agent Christopher Tarbell, September 27, 2013.

227
 
“encrypt and backup important files”: Letter opposing Ross Ulbricht's release on bail, filed by Assistant United States Attorney Serrin Turner, November 20, 2013.

228
 
“Without going into details, the stress of being”: Dread Pirate Roberts to Silk Road forum, September 20, 2013.

228
 
Ross assigned Variety Jones: RUTE GX 241.

228
 
When agents knocked on the door: Sealed complaint against Ross Ulbricht filed by FBI Special Agent Christopher Tarbell, September 27, 2013.

229
 
Ross changed apartments: Thomas Kiernan, RUTT, January 22, 2013.

238
 
opened 350,000 free Blockchain.info wallets: Data on wallets available at https://blockchain.info/charts/my-wallet-n-users.

240
 
At a Bitcoin Meetup in July 2013, two hundred: Information on the meetups is available at http://www.meetup.com/bitcoin-Argentina/.

241
 
“You don't have to be battling”: Jose Crettaz, “Bitcoin: Fiebre argentina por la máquina de dinero digital,”
La Nación
, June 30, 2013, http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1596773-bitcoin-pasion-argentina-por-la-nueva-maquina-de-hacer-billetes-digitales.

241
 
the peso was down some 25 percent: Historical data on the two different exchange rates available at http://dolarblue.net/historico/.

245
 
wobbling out of control in late September: All details in this paragraph are from RUTE GS 241.

245
 
“I have poison oak rash”: RUTE GX 325.

246
 
The next day he spent the morning working: Jered Der-Yeghiayan, RUTT, January 14, 2015.

246
 
He headed to the far side of the library: RUTE GX 128H.

246
 
“sure, someone could stand behind you”: RUTE GX 225B.

247
 
“dread: im ok, you?”: RUTE GX 129C.

247
 
There were 25,689 orders in transit: Numbers are taken from a screen shot of Ross's computer on the day of his arrest; it was submitted by the government as evidence before Ross's trial.

247
 
This was the signal that cirrus had: Jered Der-Yeghiayan, RUTT, January 14, 2015.

248
 
“I'm so sick of you,” the woman shouted: David Kushner, “Dead End on Silk Road: Internet Crime Kingpin Ross Ulbricht's Big Fall,”
Rolling Stone
, February 4, 2014, http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/dead-end-on-silk-road-internet-crime-kingpin-ross-ulbrichts-big-fall-20140204.

248
 
As Ross turned around to see what was: Thomas Kiernan, RUTT, January 22, 2013.

248
 
did so by searching on Google through old: Gary Alford, RUTT, January 26, 2013.

249
 
Users of Silk Road visiting the hidden site that morning: “FBI Arrests Silk Road Drug Site Suspect,” BBC News, October 2, 2013, http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24373759.

251
 
In court, Ross was in shackles: “Attorney Denies Charges That San Francisco Man Operated Encrypted Drug Website,” Associated Press, October 4, 2013.

257
 
China's previous experience with a successful virtual currency: Mark Lee, “China Bans Online Virtual Money Dealing for Minors,” Bloomberg, June 22, 2010, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-06-22/tencent-shares-fall-after-china-announces-virtual-currency-ban-for-minors.

259
 
The reporter for Channel 2 tracked: The May 3, 2013, segment is available at http://jingji.cntv.cn/2013/05/03/VIDE1367596319388137.shtml.

260
 
Macao, seven times bigger, in revenue terms, than Las Vegas: Charles Riley, “Macau's Gambling Industry Dwarfs Vegas,” CNNMoney, January 6, 2014, http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/06/news/macau-casino-gambling/index.html.

261
 
a division of Baidu, the search engine giant and the fifth-most-visited website in the world, announced: Vitalik Buterin, “Baidu Jiasule and the Chinese Bitcoin Community,”
Bitcoin Magazine
, October 16,
2013, https://bitcoinmagazine.com/7492/baidu-jiasule-and-the-chinese-bitcoin-community/.

262
 
John Donahoe, said in an interview: Andrea Felsted, “Ebay to Expand the Range of Digital Currencies It Accepts,”
Financial Times
, November 3, 2013.

266
 
“long-term promise, particularly if the innovations”: Ben Bernanke letter to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, September 6, 2013.

268
 
A story the previous week in Xinhua: Xinhua story is available at http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2013-11/15/c_118148623.htm.

269
 
“I do not want to shut down or stamp out Bitcoin”: Morgan Peck, “If Senators Really Like Bitcoin They Should Encourage Banks to Cooperate,”
IEEE Spectrum
, November 21, 2014, http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/networks/us-senate-.

269
 
Silk Road 2.0 showed up on the dark web: Eileen Ormsby, “Remember, Remember . . . Silk Road Redux,”
All Things Vice
, November 7, 2013, http://allthingsvice.com/2013/11/07/remember-remember-silk-road-redux/.

270
 
The number of Blockchain.info wallets: Data on wallets available at https://blockchain.info/charts/my-wallet-n-users.

271
 
But the relatively apathetic public response: David Lauter, “Public Largely Tunes Out NSA Surveillance Debate, Poll Finds,”
Los Angeles Times
, January 20, 2014.

271
 
“We see the intrinsic value of Bitcoin”: Gil Luria, “Bitcoin: Intrinsic Value as Conduit for Disruptive Payment Network Technology,” Wed-bush Equity Research, December 1, 2013.

272
 
“emerge as a serious competitor”: David Woo, “Bitcoin: A First Assessment,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch FX and Rates Research, December 5, 2013.

274
 
The good news was that the agencies: The Chinese government statement is available at http://www.pbc.gov.cn/publish/goutongjiaoliu/524/2013/20131205153156832222251/20131 205153156832222251_.html.

286
 
Krugman focused largely on Bitcoin's claim: Paul Krugman, “Bitcoin Is Evil,”
New York Times
, December 28, 2013, http://krugman.blogs .nytimes.com/2013/12/28/bitcoin-is-evil/.

286
 
Cowen, meanwhile, argued: Tyler Cowen, “How and Why Bitcoin Will Plummet in Price,”
Marginal Revolution
, December 30, 2013, http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/12/how-and-why-bitcoin-will-plummet-in-price.html.

287
 
“to an extent that makes a sub-Saharan African kleptocracy”: Charles Stross, “Why I Want Bitcoin to Die in a Fire,”
Charlie's Diary
, December 18, 2013, http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/12/why-i-want-bitcoin-to-die-in-a.html.

289
 
“It represents a remarkable conceptual”: Francois Velde, “Bitcoin: A Primer,”
Chicago Fed Letter
, December 2013.

289
 
Overstock announced that it would begin: The announcement is available at http://blog.coinbase.com/post/72787431702/coinbase-and-overstock-com-announce-largest.

290
 
Overstock processed more than $100,000 in orders: Sales data available at http://www.prweb.com/releases/bitcoin2014Keynote/PatrickByrne/prweb 11699797.htm.

291
 
Thiel called him the “firefighter-in-chief”: Evelyn M. Rusli, “A King of Connections Is Tech's Go-To Guy,”
New York Times
, November 5, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/business/reid-hoffman-of-linkedin-has-become-the-go-to-guy-of-tech.html?pagewanted=all.

291
 
Hoffman later introduced Thiel to Mark Zuckerberg: David Kirkpatrick,
The Facebook Effect
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010).

294
 
“The gulf between what the press and many”: Marc Andreessen, “Why Bitcoin Matters,” DealBook,
New York Times,
January 21, 2014, http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/why-bitcoin-matters/.

295
 
He believed that it could help open the door: A transcript of Balaji's talk at Startup School 2013 is available at https://nydwracu.word press.com/2013/10/28/transcript-balaji-srinivasan-on-silicon-valleys-ultimate-exit/.

299
 
The prosecutors had e-mails in which: Sealed complaint against Charlie Shrem filed by IRS Special Agent Gary Alford, January 24, 2014.

300
 
“If you want to develop a virtual currency”: The press release announcing Charlie's arrest is available at http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/January14/SchremFaiellaChargesPR.php.

303
 
told CNBC in late January: Jamie Dimon, interviewed on CNBC, January 23, 2014.

309
 
In a statement, Mark explained: While material from the Mt. Gox web-site has been deleted, the full statement is still available at http://pando .com/2014/02/10/blame-game-embattled-mt-gox-points-to-flaws-in-bitcoin-protocol-bitcoin-community-calls-bs/.

310
 
He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt: The confrontation was recorded and is viewable at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob9Ak1t09Ao.

315
 
“This tragic violation of the trust of users”: The statement is available at http://blog.coinbase.com/post/77766809700/joint-statement-regarding-mtgox.

316
 
lawyers in Chicago and Denver filed a lawsuit: Jonathan Stempel and Emily Flitter, “Mt. Gox Sued in United States over Bitcoin Losses,” Reuters, February 28, 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/28/bitcoin-mtgox-lawsuit-idUSL1N0LX1QK20140228.

317
 
An academic study in 2013: Tyler Moore and Nicolas Christin. “Beware the Middleman: Empirical Analysis of Bitcoin-Exchange Risk.” In Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi, editor,
Financial Cryptography
, volume 7859 of
Lecture Notes in Computer Science
(New York: Springer, 2013).

317
 
“The only way to stabilise the system is”: Izabella Kaminska, “Magic: The Undercapitalized Gathering Online,”
FT Alphaville
, March 3, 2014, http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2014/03/03/1787992/magic-the-under capitalised-gathering-online/.