{"id":3930,"date":"2018-01-08T20:30:54","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T20:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=3930"},"modified":"2018-01-11T23:58:23","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T23:58:23","slug":"fire-and-fury-merchant-de-adoption-visa-bitcoin-futures-porn-ico-ripple-market-cap-collapse-book-pics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/08\/fire-and-fury-merchant-de-adoption-visa-bitcoin-futures-porn-ico-ripple-market-cap-collapse-book-pics\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire and Fury: merchant de-adoption, Visa, Bitcoin futures, porn ICO, Ripple, market cap collapse, book pics"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Microsoft drops Bitcoin as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ccn.com\/microsoft-no-longer-accepts-bitcoin-customer-support-confirms\/\">it&#8217;s terrible for trying to sell stuff<\/a>. &#8220;Multiple issues we are receiving with regards to it.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Arnhem&#8217;s &#8220;Bitcoin City&#8221; stops dead \u2014 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.livebitcoinnews.com\/bitcoin-payment-processor-bitkassa-suspends-services-due-high-transaction-fees\/\">BitKassa is no longer processing Bitcoin payments<\/a>, for similar reasons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Not to worry, we&#8217;ll use our Bitcoin Visa cards! Except all the Bitcoin Visas have stopped working. Because they were all going through one provider, WaveCrest, who were <a href=\"https:\/\/ftalphaville.ft.com\/2018\/01\/05\/2197305\/crypto-cards-just-suffered-a-major-setback\/\">violating their agreement with Visa good and hard<\/a>. &#8220;Exploring new options&#8221; is an ancient Bitcoin phrase that translates &#8220;sorry for your loss&#8221;:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wirex has been affected by the same card cancellations today and we are running a Live webinar event where we will be exploring our exciting new options for our new Plastic and virtual cards. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pMKKGJJX5Q\">https:\/\/t.co\/pMKKGJJX5Q<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Wirex (@wirexapp) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wirexapp\/status\/949313423917092864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 5, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Izabella Kaminska <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/izakaminska\/status\/950424929438195712\">reports<\/a> on the CFTC&#8217;s Bitcoin futures offering: &#8220;Friday\u2019s CFTC commitment of traders report for bitcoin futures paints a predictable picture. Dominated by small specs, esp. on long side. No real institutional participation, small number of big speculators making up bulk of short side. Interestingly it represents exact opposite pattern of trade in big financial contracts like S&amp;P or dollar futures, where institutional dominates and other\/non reportables are tiny comparative participants.&#8221; Basically, real money isn&#8217;t very interested.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/cboe-bitcoin-futures-2018-01-02.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3952\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3952 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/cboe-bitcoin-futures-2018-01-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/cboe-bitcoin-futures-2018-01-02.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/cboe-bitcoin-futures-2018-01-02-300x69.jpg 300w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/cboe-bitcoin-futures-2018-01-02-768x176.jpg 768w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/cboe-bitcoin-futures-2018-01-02-1024x235.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I am shocked, shocked to hear that Jonathan Lucas, founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fantasymarket.com\/\">Fantasy Market<\/a>, has <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2018\/01\/08\/ceo-of-porn-cryptocurrency-disappears-with-investor-money\/\">disappeared with the money<\/a> from his FMT webcam pornography ICO. Kevin Dugan at the New York Post appears to be doing what most financial press don&#8217;t bother to, and asking the basic and obvious pointed questions: &#8220;The venture flamed out in November after The Post <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2017\/11\/04\/investors-have-poured-3-2b-into-bitcoin-like-currency\/\">questioned Lucas for about an hour<\/a> on how his ICO would work and about statements he made in the white paper.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ftalphaville.ft.com\/2018\/01\/05\/2197220\/the-ripple-effect\/\">FT Alphaville discusses<\/a> the XRP bubble. In the comments you&#8217;ll see real-life usage \u2014 Ripple&#8217;s totally-not-XRP-but-it-<em>could<\/em>-be replacement for SWIFT carries literally &#8230; $9,000 a day of transactions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Meanwhile, BBVA Bank trialled Ripple&#8217;s software and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com.au\/ripple-leak-controversy\">it was not so great<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The price of Ripple took a 35% hit today, and the market cap of all cryptocurrencies dropped horribly? Why? Coinmarketcap <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CryptoCurrency\/comments\/7oxivj\/cmc_just_tumbled_the_whole_market_with_one_move\/\">excluded various dodgy South Korean exchanges<\/a> from its numbers. &#8220;Market cap&#8221; is a terrible and useless number, and <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2017\/12\/17\/why-you-cant-cash-out-pt-1-why-bitcoins-price-is-largely-fictional\/\">crypto prices aren&#8217;t a solid single number but a considerable spread<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>I endorse this morning&#8217;s Guardian editorial, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2018\/jan\/07\/the-guardian-view-on-cryptocurrencies-a-greater-fools-gold\">&#8220;A greater fool&#8217;s gold&#8221;<\/a> \u2014 get-rich-quick schemes never are, and trusting software instead of humans is stupid and ill-conceived \u2014 but my favourite part is the photo (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/editorial\/image-editorial\/hong-kong-technology-traders-sell-bitcoin-mining-computers-despite-criticism-from-china-04-jan-2018-9307018g\">Alex Hofford\/EPA<\/a>):<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/08\/fire-and-fury-merchant-de-adoption-visa-bitcoin-futures-porn-ico-ripple-market-cap-collapse-book-pics\/guardian-bitcon\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3931\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3931\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/guardian-bitcon.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"372\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/guardian-bitcon.jpg 620w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/guardian-bitcon-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I was on Friday&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/w3csvrvc\">BBC World Service Tech Tent<\/a> with Rory Cellan-Jones \u2014 the segment on Ripple, XRP and the crypto bubble from 9:20 to 16:15. I talked very fast about the XRP pumpers on Twitter and how get-rich-quick schemes aren&#8217;t.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/finmag.penize.cz\/recenze\/329332-bitcoin-a-vlady-jsou-kamaradi\">Review in Finmag (in Czech)<\/a> of my book and David Golumbia&#8217;s\u00a0<i>The Politics of Bitcoin<\/i> (<a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2ypHz1R\">US<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2z9aQuM\">UK<\/a>). Quite comprehensible in <a href=\"https:\/\/translate.google.com\/translate?sl=auto&amp;tl=en&amp;js=y&amp;prev=_t&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Ffinmag.penize.cz%2Frecenze%2F329332-bitcoin-a-vlady-jsou-kamaradi&amp;edit-text=\">auto-translated English<\/a> \u2014 I also like the term &#8220;clever contracts&#8221;. Hopla!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A nice <a href=\"https:\/\/rominirani.com\/book-review-attack-of-the-50-feet-blockchain-david-gerard-752fca72ca2b\">blog review<\/a> from Romin Irani. &#8220;I came across this book via a discussion with my colleague at work, who recommended the author.&#8221; KEEP UP THE WORD OF MOUTH, DEAR READERS!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>More delighted readers share their book photos!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Only 23 pages into this book and loving every fabulously snarky (and piercingly accurate) sentence. \u201cAttack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum &amp; Smart Contracts\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RLvlM9gQaZ\">https:\/\/t.co\/RLvlM9gQaZ<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidgerard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@davidgerard<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/889anoY4ut\">pic.twitter.com\/889anoY4ut<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Charles Arthur (@charlesarthur) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/charlesarthur\/status\/947876147634851840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 1, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8230;also in today&#39;s mailbag copies of &quot;Attack of the 50 foot <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Blockchain?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Blockchain<\/a>,&quot; by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidgerard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@davidgerard<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XwEOZc5FZK\">https:\/\/t.co\/XwEOZc5FZK<\/a>, and &quot;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/IoT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#IoT<\/a> Penetration Testing Cookbook,&quot; by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/scriptingxss?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@scriptingxss<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adi1391?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@adi1391<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/raLpOUMIJo\">https:\/\/t.co\/raLpOUMIJo<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TgJsh7dJpq\">pic.twitter.com\/TgJsh7dJpq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Alasdair Allan (@aallan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/aallan\/status\/949694452939022338?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 6, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Reading <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidgerard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@davidgerard<\/a>&#39;s book on the train home <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QnYdI79u1F\">pic.twitter.com\/QnYdI79u1F<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Peter Hicks (@poggs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/poggs\/status\/950449673231327233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 8, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And now, the weather:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/brian_armstrong\/status\/950113038111096832<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">The above <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/brian_armstrong\/status\/950113038111096832\">tweet<\/a> is from the CEO of Coinbase. It&#8217;s worth noting here that one of Craig Wright&#8217;s earliest Bitcoin ventures was to trade (allegedly existing) bitcoins from one of his companies to another, then claim a tax refund of <a href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20151118140648\/www.mcgrathnicol.com\/app\/uploads\/D14-140526-Hotwire439AReport-BFK.pdf\">AUD$3.1 million<\/a> that would have been received from the Australian Tax Office in actual AUD. The ATO was unimpressed with this kind of creativity, and instead ordered a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com.au\/revealed-the-ato-hit-suspected-bitcoin-creator-craig-steven-wrights-company-with-a-1-7-million-penalty-2015-12\">AUD$1.7 million penalty<\/a> against him.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It&#39;s probably now more cost effective for someone to seed pages with Javascript that attempts to scrape Coinbase creds out of your browser RAM than to run a Javascript miner<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Matthew Garrett (@mjg59) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mjg59\/status\/948840594641600512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 4, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">Matthew Garrett is a Linux kernel developer. (He once fixed my wifi for a pint.) He&#8217;s been dealing with <a href=\"https:\/\/meltdownattack.com\/\">Meltdown\/Spectre<\/a> and swearing copiously, like the entire rest of the IT world. Update your Firefox and Chrome <i>now<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Incredibly, sales of my <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8VeAA9DCFT\">https:\/\/t.co\/8VeAA9DCFT<\/a> have increased. Will I owe a larger royalty cheque to Bannon &amp; Trump? If so, the irony will know no limits. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FireAndFury?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#FireAndFury<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Randall Hansen (@ProfRAHansen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ProfRAHansen\/status\/949510305612271616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 6, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">BRB, just rereleasing my book as <i>Fire and Fury: Bitcoin Mining Accidents and Getting Your Money Out Of Coinbase<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Fire and Fury&#8221; seems to be a title that shifts copies, so let&#8217;s see how it goes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[352,310,361,353,351,367,289,167,237,14,360,357,364,362,358,359,6,368,350,369,338,366,312,363,354,355,356,339],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-arnhem","tag-bbc","tag-bbva","tag-bitcoin-city","tag-bitkassa","tag-brian-armstrong","tag-cboe","tag-cftc","tag-coinmarketcap","tag-david-golumbia","tag-dugan","tag-fantasy-market","tag-finmag","tag-guardian","tag-jonathan-lucas","tag-kevin-dugan","tag-links","tag-matthew-garrett","tag-microsoft","tag-randall-hansen","tag-ripple","tag-romin-irani","tag-rory-cellan-jones","tag-tech-tent","tag-visa","tag-wavecrest","tag-wirex","tag-xrp"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3930"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4099,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions\/4099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}