The former executive chairman of a publicly listed Australian digital currency startup has been indicted by the US government for his alleged involvement in a fraudulent text messaging scheme. Zhenya Tsvetnenko was among three parties named in a superseding indictment unsealed last week in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Tsvetnenko co-founded DigitalX, which was originally a bitcoin mining firm called DigitalBTC before it moved to launch a payments app called Air Pocket. US prosecutors have alleged that Tsvetnenko, among other defendants named in the case, was involved with a scheme to sign consumers up for recurring text messages without their consent and make money off of the ensuing monthly fees. According to the indictment, as…
What started as an attempt to rescue investor funds in a high-profile project has resulted in a schism that has effectively split the community on the second-largest public blockchain. The split is not only psychological. Thanks to the design of public blockchain systems, it is also technical, with competing visions manifesting in two very real blockchains, or versions of the project’s transaction history. As of this weekend, there are now two groups working on two competing versions of a project called ethereum, a blockchain-based platform designed to enable decentralized application development. If bitcoin envisioned how a distributed group of users could create and manage a currency, ethereum sought to allow a distributed group of users to create and manage a…
A Florida man was reportedly robbed at knifepoint during a sale of $28,000 in bitcoin this week. According to the Sun Sentinel, a Palm Beach, Florida-based news service, Steve Manos, a 32-year-old Lake Worth resident, arranged to meet two individuals in West Palm Beach to exchange cash for the digital currency. Manos is said to have told local authorities that he had met with the two previously for other bitcoin sales. Yet, on 26th July, one of the two sellers pulled out a knife after Manos provided them with $28,000 in cash (worth about 40 BTC at press time). In the ensuing struggle, one of the alleged robbers attempted to take a gun owned by Manos, and ultimately the two individuals fled with the money. The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office went on to arrest…
Stephen D Palley is a lawyer in private practice in Washington, DC, focusing on construction, insurance and software development, including blockchain and smart contract design. In this opinion piece, Pally argues that a recent court case in which bitcoin was deemed not be “money” has questionable precdential value despite claims to the contrary. A Miami, Florida, trial court recently dismissed a criminal case against a defendant who had sold bitcoin to a police detective as part of an undercover investigation. The case, Florida v Espinosa, has been already been cited by some potentially important precedent for future cases, particularly those where bitcoin’s status as “money” or “currency” is at issue. Bitcoin industry…
A series of recent departures at itBit have left the company looking much different than it did just a few months ago. Following the release of itBit’s enterprise clearing and settlement network Bankchain last year, three directors (and at least three other employees) have gone on to other endeavors. The exits appear to come amid a larger company transformation from bitcoin-only exchange to enterprise blockchain service provider. Multiple former employees have confirmed with CoinDesk that at least seven itBit employees have transitioned to other companies in that time. Only six have updated their LinkedIn, while the seventh one has not replied to requests for comment. ItBit has also declined to comment. Two of the three departing directors have moved onto…