By Jon Matonis Forbes Tuesday, March 27, 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/03/27/the-payments-network-as-economic-weapon/  "Extraordinary and unprecedented" is how SWIFT chief executive, Lázaro Campos, describes the March 17th move by Belgium-based SWIFT to discontinue service to 30 Iranian banks. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, is a worldwide financial messaging network to facilitate the interbank transfer of funds. Now, it...

By Joseph Salerno The Circle Bastiat Wednesday, March 28, 2012 http://bastiat.mises.org/2012/03/laundered-money/ By repeatedly refusing to print money in larger bills, the Feds make it harder to make huge financial transactions and can more easily monitor the financial maneuverings of citizens. Under cover of its multiplicity of fabricated wars on drugs, terror, tax evasion, and organized crime, the US government has long been waging a hidden war on cash. One symptom of the war is that the...

By Jon Matonis Forbes Saturday, March 24, 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/03/24/bitcoin-doesnt-need-a-dongle/ There's a lot of talk about dongles recently. Square has always relied on a dongle and now PayPal is sporting a fancy triangle-shaped dongle, nicknamed the 'Blue Dorito'. Both of these dongles equip your mobile phone to accept and process credit cards securely by inserting the device into the smartphone's 3.5mm audio input jack. Apparently, this passes for...

By Michel Bauwens P2P Foundation Wednesday, March 28, 2012  http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/why-the-p2p-foundation-is-paying-its-salaries-in-bitcoin/2012/03/28 The P2P Foundation thinks that readers may be interested in the following recent development. First, one word about the structure of the P2P Foundation. The Foundation is first of all a virtual and physical community of contributors, people who volunteer content for our wiki, blog and other resources. This is entirely a...

By Jon Matonis Forbes Monday, March 19, 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/03/19/could-bitcoin-become-the-currency-of-system-d/   If zeros and ones are outlawed, only outlaws will use zeros and ones. Cryptography shall always have a place in securing our digital future and most especially in securing our digital value. Advanced public-key encryption for the masses cannot be eliminated nor denied -- the genie is out of the bottle and mankind is the better for it. The...

From this March 15th, 2012 Russia Today television broadcast, it is interesting to watch the news anchors struggle around trying not to mention something that they are not allowed to mention. According to realhuman on the Reddit site, "Police called it 'promotion of drugs'. The magazine published buyers' reviews about different sellers and how to log in with tor and buy with bitcoin. The fine was about $1300." For further reading: "Russian Esquire magazine fined for writing about Silk Road",...

By Jon Matonis Forbes Monday, March 12, 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/03/12/brainwallet-the-ultimate-in-mobile-money/ For as much as I am fascinated by the societal and political implications of bitcoin, I must admit that I am equally fascinated by the implications of Brainwallet. Quite simply, a brainwallet, or thoughtcoin, refers to the concept of storing bitcoin in one's own mind by memorization of a special and unpredictable phrase. No, you are not actually...

By Jon Matonis Forbes Tuesday, March 6, 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/03/06/virtual-currencies-and-roach-motels/ According to Google's Eric Schmidt at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the company once considered issuing its own digital currency for use and circulation across its expanding global platform. After reviewing various proposals for the proposed Google Bucks, the company decided not to proceed, citing 'legal concerns' which most likely implies the...

Interviewed by Louis James, Editor International Speculator Wednesday, March 7, 2012 http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/columns/casey-research/928/doug-casey-on-cashless-societies-0928.html L: Doug, we've had a lot of questions from readers about the apparent push governments are making to go to paperless currency – all electronic, no cash. Do you think that's likely, and what would be the implications? Doug: I think it's probably inevitable. It's not just cash, but the whole...

Voucher-Safe is an open source project from the founders of Pecunix. This overview of the decentralised P2P digital currency was published originally in the December 2010 issue of DGC Magazine. Siddley Voucher Safe Project Voucher Safe Open Source Voucher Payment Project For further reading: "Voucher-Safe Goes Live!- Global Anonymous Digital Cash", Voucher-Safe Forum, November 18, 2010 "P2P Voucher System Implementation", Voucher-Safe, January 8, 2010