Bitcoin Weekly With SiliconANGLE

The Bitcoin market had an exciting week with the market value breaking over the $400 mark again–but it’s been hovering above and below the $400 band since that happened. Canada received an amazing talk from Andreas Antonopoulos, previous Chief Security Officer at Blockchain.info and author of “Mastering Bitcoin,” who spoke to the Canadian senate with an impassioned explanation of Bitcoin and its innovative future.

In the legal corner of Bitcoin news, Dorian Nakamoto–a man outed by Newsweek alleged to be the Satoshi Nakamoto–is seeking a lawsuit against Newsweek for what happened after the article that brought attention to him. Still no word on who or what the actual Satoshi Nakamoto happens to be. And, Butterfly Labs is striking back against the Federal Trade Commission after a complaint shut down the business as part of an investigation into its practices.

Last, but not least, a new website has launched that gives an up-to-date measure of historical Bitcoin volatility at btcvol.info.

Bitcoin floats over the $400 mark

When the market value of bitcoin fell below $400 near September 27th, it must have led to a community-wide depression. It seems this way because now that the market value has risen, once again, above $400 (sometime midnight Sunday) it triggered a few joyous posts on reddit.

Since then, the price has hovered near $400, rising and falling in a band between $415 and $395.

Andreas M. Antonopoulos speaks to the Senate of Canada about Bitcoin

Andreas Antonopolous last week went in front of the Senate of Canada and spoke to the government body about the regulating Bitcoin. The first eleven minutes is Antonopoulos speech and the remaining almost hour-and-a-half of the video is questions. Even if you don’t have two hours to watch, it’s worth watching his opening statements.

Antonopoulos argues against tight regulation on Bitcoin because it will stifle innovation and during the questions segment rebutted numerous queries about crime and money laundering by discussing the nature of privacy and security with Bitcoin. He especially did a good job of showing how while BItcoin is more transparent than fiat money it can also be more secure.

The senators ask interesting and extremely thoughtful questions, most of which center around consumer protection and economics; but amid the most enlightening was “Who are Bitcoin’s biggest detractors” around the 41:20 mark.

Dorian Nakamoto plans to sue Newsweek

In an attempt to resolve the hunt for the legendary Satoshi Nakamoto–the mythical Batman and inventor of Bitcoin–Newsweek’s Leah McGrath Goodman claimed that Dorian Nakamoto of California happened to be the mythical Bitcoin inventor. This led to a major disruption of Nakamoto’s life.

This has happened before. A reporter for The New Yorker interviewed Michael Clear, another cryptographer with a math background–yet also denied being Satoshi. However, Dorian Nakamoto had the benefit of a very similar name.

After the Newsweek article, Nakamoto immediately denied being Satoshi.

A legal defense fund has been started to gather funds in order to sue Newsweek over the article. The website for the fund accuses Newsweek of misquoting Nakamoto’s brothers, attributing words to them that were never said, and of alienating his estranged wife and children. The website’s about page ends by roundly chastising Newsweek as a “a reckless news organization” that “targeted and victimized” Nakamoto.

Butterfly Labs submits dismissal request over FTC lawsuit

On Friday, October 10, Bufferfly Labs filed a Motion to Dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) complaint against the company. This comes after the FTC charged the Bitcoin mining machine vendor with adverse consumer practices (PDF of complaint), describing the company as “bogus.” Last month a judge agreed with the FTC and shut down Butterfly Lab’s operation.

In a press statement, Butterfly Labs says that it hopes that the motion to dismiss will give it the legal breathing room to examine the merits of the FTC’s case. The company claims that the FTC’s accusations are meritless and causes more harm to Bitcoin consumers than Butterfly Labs has while in operation.

Bitcoin volatility at btcvol.info

Introducing a track of Bitcoin volatility in US dollars: btcvol.info.

As of the time of writing volatility is estimated at 4.06%. That doesn’t seem like that much and it’s much less than in 2011. For a better idea of what volatility is like in the bitcoin market see this article in Bitcoin Magazine.

Volatility is important because it changes the cost of holding value in a currency, such as bitcoin. If its possible for the value to suddenly fall, then people will be cautious about carry much of it. In the early days, it was thought that merchants would fear to exchange products for bitcoin. The volatility of bitcoin brought to bear services such as BitPay and Coinbase, which ameliorate price changes by paying USD for bitcoin received.

Another interesting effect of volatility is that it attracts the attention of speculators. Several exchanges spoken to have said that they see a marked increase in the number of sign ups when bitcoin market becomes volatile.

Developers interested in tracking volatility can use btcvol.info’s simple API. The latest volatility is available via JSON at /latest; full historical volatility is available at /all; and all data can be downloaded as a CSV file at /csv.