Lifeboat Foundation

By Ashlee Vance and Brad Stone — Bloomberg Businessweek

Joel Flickinger’s two-bedroom home in the hills above Oakland, Calif., hums with custom-built computing gear. Just inside the front door, in a room anyone else might use as a den, he’s placed a desk next to a fireplace that supports a massive monitor, with cables snaking right and left toward two computers, each about the size of a case of beer. Flickinger has spent more than $20,000 on these rigs and on a slower model that runs from the basement. They operate continuously, cranking out enough heat to warm the house and racking up $400 a month in electric bills. There isn’t much by way of décor, other than handwritten inspirational Post-it notes:

“I make money easily,” one reads. “Money flows to me.” “I am a money magnet.”

Flickinger, 37, a software engineer and IT consultant by trade, doesn’t leave the house much these days. He’s a full-time Bitcoin miner.

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Rob Wile — Business Insider

Last week we told you how Texas Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) became the first sitting elected official in Washington to accept Bitcoin for his 2014 campaign against Sen. John Cornyn.

Dan Backer is going to make sure Stockman is not the last.

By Andrew Couts — Digital Trends

The rise of Dogecoin and the soon-to-launch Coinye West (yes, it’s named after the rapper) made it seem as though almost anyone can create a Bitcoin competitor. Now, with the launch of a clever and simple tool, that is actually true.

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by Ingrid Lunden — Tech Crunch

Gaming giant Zynga has started to accept the cryptocurrency as a payment option for those buying tokens for virtual goods on the web versions of FarmVille 2, CastleVille, ChefVille, CoasterVille, Hidden Chronicles, Hidden Shadows and CityVille. It makes Zynga the first major gaming company to accept Bitcoin.

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By Nick Swartsell - Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON –Cody Wilson isn’t afraid of legal gray areas, whether they’re do-it-yourself firearms or anonymous online money.

Last year, the Austin resident and former UT law student posted plans for a 3D-printed plastic handgun online along with a video demonstrating the weapon. He took the plans down days later, after the State Department ordered them removed.

Continue reading “3D-printed gun advocate Cody Wilson announces bitcoin venture” »

Rob Wile — Business Insider

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) is the outsider’s outsider — what other Texan would spend a freezing New Year’s hundreds of miles away in New York City?

But there he was last night at the launch event for the NYC Bitcoin Center, located just up the street from the New York Stock Exchange.

Overmanagement by Mr. Andres Agostini

This is an excerpt from the conclusion section o, “…Overmanagement…,” that discusses some management strategies. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:

BEGINNING OF EXCERPT.

Question: What other contemporary issues particularly concern you? Do you find signs of
hope or resistance around these issues that, perhaps, you finding heartening?

Continue reading “Overmanagement” »

Will Conley — Slash Gear

Bitcoin miner Milly Bitcoin has done a little citizen letter-writing, and the results should make virtual currency miners breathe a sigh of relief. Milly Bitcoin’s mining company Atlantic City Bitcoin last June wrote to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) requesting an official administrative ruling on whether ACB must register as a money transfer service. FinCEN has now replied, and the answer is no.

ACB requested the ruling because there has been much confusion as to whether mining — and spending the proceeds — constituted a money transfer service. This may seem a ridiculous question to virtual currency aficionados, but the confusion arose because some businesses dealing in virtual currencies do indeed operate as money transfer services. Mining and spending virtual currency, however, is not a transfer service. Such was the ruling by FinCEN.

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