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Owners of BitMEX, a Leading Bitcoin Exchange, Face Criminal Charges (nytimes.com) 24

Posted by BeauHD from the largest-and-most-established-exchange dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: American authorities brought criminal charges on Thursday against the owners of one of the world's biggest cryptocurrency trading exchanges, BitMEX, accusing them of allowing the Hong Kong-based company to launder money and engage in other illegal transactions. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted the chief executive of BitMEX, Arthur Hayes, and three co-owners: Benjamin Delo, Samuel Reed and Gregory Dwyer. Mr. Dwyer was arrested in Massachusetts on Thursday, while the other three men remained at large, authorities said.

Prosecutors said BitMEX had taken few steps to limit customers even after being informed that the exchange was being used by hackers to launder stolen money, and by people in countries under sanctions, like Iran. "BitMEX made itself available as a vehicle for money laundering and sanctions violations," the indictment released on Thursday said. BitMEX has handled more than $1.5 billion of trades each day recently, making it one of the five biggest exchanges on most days. BitMEX and Mr. Hayes have been known for pushing the limits in the unregulated cryptocurrency industry.

After it was founded in 2014, BitMEX grew popular by allowing traders to buy and sell contracts tied to the value of Bitcoin -- known as derivatives, or futures -- with few of the restrictions and rules that were in place in other exchanges. That allowed investors to take out enormous loans and make risky trades. The relaxed attitude also made it possible for people all over the world to easily move money in and out of BitMEX without the basic identity checks that can prevent money laundering. In August, BitMEX put in place some of those verification checks.

Submission + - Publishers Worry as Ebooks Fly off Libraries' Virtual Shelves (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After the pandemic closed many libraries’ physical branches this spring, checkouts of ebooks are up 52 percent from the same period last year, according to OverDrive, which partners with 50,000 libraries worldwide. Hoopla, another service that connects libraries to publishers, says 439 library systems in the US and Canada have joined since March, boosting its membership by 20 percent. Some public libraries, new to digital collections, delight in exposing their readers to a new kind of reading. The library in Archer City, Texas, population 9,000, received a grant to join OverDrive this summer. The new ebook collection “has really been wonderful,” says library director Gretchen Abernathy-Kuck. “So much of the last few months has been stressful and negative.” The ebooks are “something positive. It was something new.”

But the surging popularity of library ebooks also has heightened longstanding tensions between publishers, who fear that digital borrowing eats into their sales, and public librarians, who are trying to serve their communities during a once-in-a-generation crisis. Since 2011, the industry’s big-five publishers—Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster, and Macmillan—have limited library lending of ebooks, either by time—two years, for example—or number of checkouts—most often, 26 or 52 times. Readers can browse, download, join waiting lists for, and return digital library books from the comfort of their home, and the books are automatically removed from their devices at the end of the lending period. The result: Libraries typically pay between $20 and $65 per copy—an industry average of $40, according to one recent survey—compared with the $15 an individual might pay to buy the same ebook online. Instead of owning an ebook copy forever, librarians must decide at the end of the licensing term whether to renew.

Submission + - Blizzard In Hot Water With Lawmakers For Hearthstone Player Ban (theverge.com)

Submitted by jimminy_cricket
jimminy_cricket writes: Due to the ban placed on a Hearthstone player for supporting Hong Kong protestors, Blizzard is now receiving criticism from US senators. Quoting The Verge:
"‘Blizzard shows it is willing to humiliate itself to please the Chinese Communist Party,’ Sen. Ron Wyden said."

Comment Okay, here are my thoughts (Score 1) 303

1. If you're doing a shed, then the windows and door should be secured; get keypad/key lock, self-locking, that saves you a lot of "did I lock the door", and "where's the key" questions. Get some security bars for the windows without making it feel like jail. Consider shatter-proof windows, or a nice steel mesh if you want to open the windows in good weather. Google some options. Get a steel door and steel door jambs if you won't want someone to kick in the door.
2. Put in some sturdier material on the walls other than half-inch plywood. Insulate, vapor barrier, etc. Make sure you have a solid foundation and water-proof where the wood may be in contact. Keep the shed 1-2 inches off the ground.
3. Get some proper electrical wiring and a shut off switch, or a sub-panel. If you want backup batteries, a consumer UPS won't do the trick especially if you want a rack of servers.
4. If you run cable from the house to the shed, do it undergound, use pvc piping and go at least 2 feet undergound. Run at least two cables and a string/wire to fish more in the future.
5. Get a good view without being distracted and bothered by glare.
6. Splurge on good flooring.
7. Figure out what your ideal desk arrangement is and build the shed accordingly (U-desk, L-desk,
8. Get cable locks
9. Backup to a location inside the house or "cloud"
10. Build a quality roof.
11. Sound-proof, especially the roof.
12. Have a security camera pointed a the shed and inside it if you can

Comment Competitor to SlingTV? (Score 1) 45

This service sounds pretty much the same thing as what Dish is offering with Sling TV.

I actually cancelled cable and have now a couple of Nvidia Shield's with Sling TV. Works quite well; some channels provide on-demand, some channels allow you to watch programming from the last 24 hours, and of course. Works fine for us for now; I got the basic package plus blue package. You can watch up to three devices at the same time.

Comment Oh my. (Score 1) 469

"helps government agencies track down terrorists and uncover financial fraud,"

Other ethnic backgrounds not hired Palantir:
- North Korean
- Russians
- Iranians
- Cubans
- Chechens
- Former/current ISIS members

"Asians" may be a tad too broad. Chinese nationals? Hell, yes. I know of quite a few places that do something similar. The problem is that the idiots doing the screening cannot differentiate between a 2nd generation US citizen from Vietnamese or Hong Kong families, and someone who only a little while ago carried a nice red book and quoted the chairman.

What are the other 17 non-Asians? White, black, hispanic, pakistani, japanese, egyptian, etc?

Comment Encryption was expensive (Score 1) 125

by Lieutenant_Dan (#52959715) Attached to: What Vint Cerf Would Do Differently

Computationally that is, I don't think it would have flown in the early 90s and the adoption rate would have been the same it was with SSL (and TLS). It wasn't not so long ago that I actually had to provide resource impact reports on servers where everything would be encrypted. Nowadays (unless you deal with extreme large volumes), encrypting (using an symmetric key that is) doesn't have a significant impact. Web servers, load-balancers, etc can support it without breaking a sweat.

Comment Self-righterous bullshit; the "company" is pissed (Score 1) 80

If I was that Ziegler fellow I'd be consulting a lawyer. Spouting that shit publicly, verges (ha!) on defamation.

I'm not saying what Ziegler was right, although in this day and age, one should show very little loyalty to any corporation because they basically claim "people are our most precious resource" but treat employees like shit.

I've seen staff where I worked, take a few weeks off or take a leave of absence. What they do, is try another job and see if it suits them. They quit the original job, or they quit the new job. I'm not going to judge people too much when they do this, hell, the company is always evaluating if they should terminate you.

At this moment I have two contracts. Place A does not know of place B, but place B knows of me working at place A and they don't care. The type of work is very different and they're not in the same sector. Sure place A could claim some crap, but if they do, I just have to walk and move on to the next gig. They can claim some BS excuse anyways, doesn't matter.

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