Bits and Pieces 22ndSep

Vietnam’s gold ban, ‘ghost inventories’ in China’s steel industry, more community currencies, possibilities for exotic new transaction types with Bitcoin and more.

 

Prices rise and supply shrinks ahead of Vietnam’s gold ban. http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Economy/230122/gold-supplies-dwindle-ahead-of-ban.html

http://www.livetradingnews.com/gold-price-in-vietnam-rises-to-12-month-high-86080.htm#.UFz_u1EpqA5

Stories of ‘ghost inventories’ in China’s steel industry makes GATA wonder if LBMA and gold and silver ETFs are next in line for inventory verification. http://www.gata.org/node/11751

A talk by Mike Hearn at the London Bitcoin conference discusses how the Bitcoin protocol can be modified to include exotic new transaction types. These could include a micro-Payment channel, assurance contracts, smart property, lock times and cross-chain trading. Fascinating stuff.

Listen to it here, http://vocaroo.com/i/s0rbwBRBSKxn (audio not so great.) Or read about it here, http://codinginmysleep.com/exotic-transaction-types-with-bitcoin/

Bitfloor thieves have yet to spend their stolen hoard. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19633980

BitInstant’s Charlie Shrem and Erik Voorhees went to Rio de Janeiro for the annual Global Payments Forum held by the North American Payments Association (NACHA) to speak about Bitcoin. A long but entertaining account of their trip can be found here, http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/9/15/brazil-and-the-global-payments-forum.html

What I found the most interesting about story is Mr Voorhees take on a presentation by a senior legal counsel to the Federal Reserve.

“The last presentation of the whole event was by far the most intriguing. On the surface it sounded quite dull, “The Implications of Dodd-Frank Section 1073”, and it was delivered by a conservative, senior legal counsel to the Federal Reserve, but in fact it became a perfect demonstration of two things:

a)      How crippling regulation is going to drive business toward Bitcoin, inevitably

b)      How this same regulation will be unable to cripple Bitcoin itself, inevitably

… My take away from this last session was the revelation that Bitcoin eviscerates entire statutes of law. Bitcoin will result in a number of “legal impotencies,” while simultaneously offering an alternative to the business and money that is being stifled by these same laws in the normal economy. I think Barney Frank may just be, inadvertently, Bitcoin’s new VIP star player. Perhaps he should be BitInstant’s Employee of the Month. Such laws will continue to weigh down Bitcoin’s competitors, inadvertently strengthening the use case for a system which undermines their entire apparatus of monetary control. The irony is beautiful.”

Another community currency, the Bristol Pound. http://bristolpound.org/

 

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