Weekend Roundup: Russia Wants to Block Crypto Information Outlets, Philippines Votes to Create Digital Currency, and Hackers Steal 15 BTC from CryptoThrift

1. Russian Government Plans to Block Cryptocoin ‘Information Resources’

On Monday, William Suberg reported on the ongoing attempts by the Russian government to hinder cryptocurrency use in the country, which includes blocking access to cryptocurrency information resources.

“In a move which echoes the country’s recent contingency plans to shut off Russian access to the worldwide web in times of crisis, the legislation calls for ‘creating a mechanism to quickly block the information resources used for creation and circulation of surrogate currencies.’

“Specifically, while Bank of Russia’s remit will be to ‘set the protocols for administrative breaches of law related to the issuing and use of surrogate currencies,’ Russia’s Ministry of Communications and Mass Media will ‘block any information facilitating the issuing and use of surrogate currencies,’ according to the summary text of the legislation.”

2. Filipino Lawmakers Vote to Create National Digital Currency

Diana Ngo reported Monday that the Philippines’ legislature had drafted the E-Peso Act 2014, which would create a digital version of the country’s peso.

“Under the bill, E-Peso would become a legal tender and a legal payment method within the Philippines, and would be available in all local banks branches.”

3. 15 BTC Reported Stolen in Hack on CryptoThrift

Ian DeMartino reported Tuesday that online auction site CryptoThrift had just more than 15 bitcoins stolen from a hot wallet that was being used for holding money in escrow.

“The funds, which the company says it will cover, were being held in escrow during the duration of various sales. CryptoThrift has stated that the majority of the funds being held in escrow were held in offline storage, safe from the attacker. That security practice is credited with lessening the effect of the attack. CryptoThrift blames an unnamed third party plug-in for the leak.”

4. Federal Judge Allows Butterfly Labs to Reopen, Work on a Limited Basis

Sophie Shuhcmacher reported Monday that a US federal judge had given Butterfly Labs the green light to begin “limited” operations again.

5. Overstock’s Patrick Byrne Unveils Plans for Blockchain Stock Exchange

On Wednesday, Carlo Caraluzzo reported on something that had long been speculated: Patrick Byrne is going to take on Wall Street with a blockchain-based stock exchange.

“Overstock.com, in cooperation with Counterparty, plans to create a new platform — code named Medici — that will allow the retailer to issue corporate stocks online and eventually host a whole range of financial services on top of a global network.”

Elsewhere

Assembly Coins’ Andrew Barisser has a thoughtful critique of Counterparty. Vitalik Buterin responds. If anyone from Counterparty posts a response to Barisser’s piece, I will update with a link.CoinDesk has a nice followup on what Russian startups are doing in the wake of the government’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies.Criticisms of fiat currencies aside, Norway’s new banknotes are going to look sweet:

Market activity

As many of you are well aware at this point, Bitcoin’s exchange rate against the dollar took a big hit last weekend, hitting a low of about US$280 before beginning to rebound late Sunday/early Monday.

Thursday saw buy prices as high as US$380, a return to last week’s high-water mark, before dipping back to around the US$360 mark at the end of the week.

Trade volume took off as prices early Monday hovered around US$300; daily trading volume exceeded US$28 million, the highest such peak since March.

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