Former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges plead guilty to stealing over US$800,000 worth of bitcoin while investigating Silk Road; a Goldman Sachs global investment research analyst praised blockchain technology, and more top stories for September 1. Silk Road Investigator Shaun Bridges Pleads Guilty in Bitcoin Theft Former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges has plead guilty to stealing over US$800,000 worth of bitcoin during an investigation into online black marketplace Silk Road. The 33 year old Bridges admitted to money laundering and obstruction of justice in federal court in San Francisco . Bridges also admitted that his theft made convicted Silk …

Goldman Sachs has joined a round of funding for internet bank Circle, Purse.io has integrated with Shapeshift.io to allow altcoin holders to make third party purchases from Amazon, SilkRoad trial judge rejects retrial demand and many more top stories from April 30. Goldman Sachs invests US$50 million in Circle Leading the start-up’s series C funding round, Goldman Sachs has joined a group of investors in raising US$50million for Circle. Working alongside IDG Capital Partners, Breyer Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Accel Partners, the involvement of a high profile name like Goldman Sachs is likely to encourage increased interest and attention …

The number two spot for the most hated man in Bitcoin has changed a lot. Currently, it might just be Josh Garza as many PayCoin investors are not happy with the results of that investment. For a while it was Butterfly Labs CEO Sonny Vleisides, and for a while it was that NewsWeek reporter. But the number one spot has never been up for debate. It has been and may always be, former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles. Losing or stealing 300 million dollars worth of Bitcoin will do that to you. Now, we are finding out that he may …

Coinalytics is a Bitcoin data aggregation service that takes requests for transaction-mapping. They work to identify “clusters” in the blockchain and use them in an attempt to connect real-world identities to Bitcoin addresses. Using a tweeted suggestion of a BTC address to start from, Coinalytics has made this map of supposed Silk Road transactions: - “The numbers within clusters are IDs Coinalytics uses to track each Bitcoin address relationship. Note the transaction flow from cluster to cluster. Cluster 917, for example, is composed of nearly 350,000 addresses; yet this visual flow enables clean view of entity relationships.” – Coinalytics Silk …

1. FBI Takes Down Silk Road 2, Several Other Dark Markets Without a doubt, this week’s biggest story was the international crackdown on dark markets called Operation Onymous. The operation included the FBI shutting down Silk Road 2, with at least 10 other black markets going down, as well. “[Silk Road’s alleged] operator, Blake Benthall, who according to one Gawker story, was a former employee at SpaceX, was reportedly arrested in San Francisco almost exactly one year after Silk Road 2.0 went live on November 6, 2013,” Carlo Caraluzzo reported Thursday. “The site is now offline and visitors to the …

As we posted in October, the FBI closed the old site in the beginning of month and arrested its author and the owner - 29 -year-old Ross William Ulbricht, also known as "Dread Pirate Roberts". The old Silk Road worked since 2011. Because of the complexity system of registration, that ensured customers anonymity, it could not "light up” to the security services. However, the illegal goods are delivered to customers by mail in discrete packages. In addition to that, the investigators have information that in March Ulbricht ordered one of the members to make a contract killing. As information given …