Interesting Links for 28-04-2014

[andrewducker]

• The world's newest mineral is unlike anything we've ever seen
  (tags: geology )
• Exercise during pregnancy gives newborn brain development a head start
  (tags: babies exercise pregnancy )
• Paedophiles to be treated as terrorists under new crackdown
  (tags: pedophilia terrorism censorship uk )
• As a first-born, it's nice to have scientific proof of my

Comments

[gonzo21]

It's things like that Dark Market that will result in bitcoin being declared illegal sooner or later.

[andrewducker]

Naah. No more than The Pirate Bay led to BitTorrent being made illegal.

[octopoid_horror]

Actually, using bitcoins is already considered suspicious activity by some banks.

Or, more accurately, the dubiousness of various of the exchanges means that using btcis a good way to flag up as suspicious activity on your account if you are buying or sell BTC for currency. If you don't do this then of course, no one will ever know!

Given that, as far as I'm aware, the two main actual uses of bitcoins* are buying drugs and gambling (the latter of which is illegal if it's US cross-border gambling which I assume it's likely to be given the bitcoin usage stats I've seen online), no wonder banks look at transactions to/from exchanges with some suspicion.

*I'm aware there are other things you can use bitcoins for, but I think I remember something saying that about half the blockchain was gambling transactions, and as far as I know, many of the sites that purportedly take bitcoin see very few transactions.

[nancylebov]

Would just having DarkMarket software on your computer be enough to put you under suspicion?

[gonzo21]

I suppose it depends on whether or not the powers that be can penetrate it at will. If they can, then people will probably be allowed to use it. If not? It'll be shut down somehow I think.