BitCoin has certainly had a tumultuous week, from exchange problems and transfers frozen to a $2.7 million theft, this caused Venture Beat to ask if the end was near for Bitcoin.
Silk Road 2.0, a black market drug-trading site based on untraceable Bitcoins, reports that 4,474 Bitcoins, valued at about $2.7 million, have been stolen from the site. The virtual currency is encrypted computer code that is stored in a virtual wallet, and only a limited number of Bitcoins are created.
The site’s administrator, who goes by the name of Defcon, posted that “a vendor exploited a recently discovered vulnerability in the Bitcoin protocol known as ‘transaction malleability’ to repeatedly withdraw coins from our system until it was completely empty.” The coins were apparently stored onsite in escrow.
There is also a new currency coming on the market, NoFiatCoin, one would think they could have come up with a better name, but the whole idea behind NoFiatCoin is that it is partially backed by Gold and Silver. Rebecca Grant wrote a piece on Venture Beat that detailed the thinking behind NoFiatCoin.
An oft-cited concern with crypto-currency is that it is not backed by anything “real.”
NoFiatCoin (XNF) is a digital currency backed by gold and silver bullion. The idea is to combine the benefits of digital currency with the relative security of precious metals.
At least one-third of every batch of XNF released into the market is backed by gold and silver coins. The transactions happen through Ripple, “the world’s open payment system.” You create a Ripple wallet, and buy XNF with U.S. dollars through Bitstamp, or exchange Bitcoins for XNF through Ripple. When you want to cash out, XNF will mail you (as in, physical mail) the value in coins.
“Unlike other alt coins, we redeem our own balances — you can come in-and-out of the digital currency world with hard assets,” founder Robert Reyes told VentureBeat.
However, buying XNF requires a significant amount of trust in Reyes and his team. E-gold’s proprietors were indicted by the US Department of Justice on four counts of money laundering.
Reyes said XNF is taking measures to protect against this type of thing and is in the process of striking a deal with a “reputable” insurance company. It is also being careful to avoid regulatory issues by avoiding certain markets (like the US).
“We don’t need banks anymore,” he said. “Honestly we don’t. To me the financial system is all a scam. The landscape changes every day, with governments coming out with new warnings, restrictions, and regulations. Any minute they can flip the switch. And if Bitcoin crashes, all you are left with is ones and zeros — binary code isn’t worth anything. That’s why assets are so important, they give people security.”
Could this be the next iteration of crypto currency ? This hybrid approach could be something that takes hold. Yes HybridCoin.com is registered.
Well, i was going to grab the .co.uk version of nofiatcoin but withing seconds it was gone, never mind, i got the .co
Yep. I had nofiatcoinwallet.com in my checkout cart, but I was a second too late apparently so I got nofiatcoinswallet.com for whatever it’s worth, lol.
The guy that beat you is the one who sold the bitcoin one for $250K
Personally NoFiat sounds dumb, I like the XNF acronym better.
Lol, I agree. I don’t like the name, but what the hell. With GoDaddy discount, two bucks is woth it, if I can flip it in a year for a couple extra bucks.
Well I like the fact the XNF coin is tied to precious metals, or anything of value for that fact.
I know many people who want to invest in coins, but do not trust bitcoin one bit, the fact you have something tied to the coin, could help gain traction.
Looks like coin trades at $6.15, I am going to do some research, and if it checks out, I will buy 100 coins for fun.
Well I own bitcoincoldwallet.com and if someone would buy it and set up a cold wallet storage, people could feel more secure about keeping their coins there. The Cold Wallet is a wallet that is not connected to the net so as to prevent cyber attacks. I would do it, but don’t have the knowledge, money, or time right now, but I understand what your saying.
Pump, Pump, Pump…POP!
It’s really too bad that the Bitcoin ETF didn’t IPO in time because there were a lot of people that wanted to place a LEGAL short bet on this crap.
Bitcoin owners…sell while you still can. Premium Bitcoin domain owners…sell while you still can.
I jUst don’t trust this whole crypto coin exchange stuff in the first place. It’s not so much trust…it’s just that I still don’t understand it. I don’t get it, and I don’t invest in things I don’t understand. I had bad feelings about bitcoin and you see what’s happening.
Now as far as investing in domain names related to digital currency, im all about it! If you can snag a relevant coin related domain for a quick flip. More power to you. Good luck Steve. If I don’t grab the next big coin key word name, I hope it’s you.
It will not be as valuable as 42coin.
However, buying XNF requires a significant amount of trust in Reyes and his team. E-gold’s proprietors were indicted by the US Department of Justice on four counts of money laundering.
LOL!………….Will be the next Coinye Coin.
@Alan
Any private person who buys a bitcoin can be indicted for money laundering if somebody wants to force the issue. So the chances of operators who work within the frame work, their chances go thru the roof. Until someone can tax it, trace it, regulate it, that will always be the gray area, but all those things are why people like coins, so it is a no win situation.
the whole thing seems like a promo for ripple..
also being 1/3 backed by gold doesn’t really make sense. either every coin is worth some amount of gold or it isn’t.
This is just another gimmick coin. They are try to prey on the confusion of a decentralized system vs. a centralized system. A decentralized system cannot be “backed” by anything because some entity would control the assets.
Ripple is an exchange platform where you can exchange anything for anything and there are different trust levels. Ripple is not decentralized because it is controlled by OpenCoin, Inc. They created an exchange platform that does not charge transaction fees or they would be regulated everywhere. Instead, they created a scheme where these XRP Ripples are ‘destroyed” every time a transaction is made. OpenCoin created all the XRP Ripples and they gave some away and now they sell them to pay expenses. It is a roundabout way of collecting transaction fees and the system is not decentralized like Bitcoin. But you may not need Bitcoin if you use Ripple to exchange currencies directly.
@ HELP.org
I saw you made some really big investments in the bitcoin domain space past few weeks.
Bitcoin dropping to $375, and a mass exodus of sellers, exchanges being halted, I am not sure what to make of it, but falling below $500 has shattered confidence in this coin.
Bitcoin is experimental and these things are expected. There were a number of things that came together but most of the noise was because the original exchange, Mt. Gox is having continuing problems. Most veteran users stopped using them months ago. They made a big deal about something that is a well-known bug. When they did this a bunch of hackers launched DDOS attacks against the other exchanges (happens all the time). The Mt. Gox price is not longer relevant and the current sale price at this moment is $663. If you actually could buy coins at $375 you could immediately sell them for $663. The drops down to $550’s yesterday was a great buying opportunity and you could make $100 per coin in a few hours. I views these things as buying opportunities.
worse possible name on the planet