Greece finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, resigns after Greece votes 'No'; Mt. Gox Trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, extends deadline for filing claims to July 29 and more top stories for July 6.
Yanis Varoufakis Resigns after Greece Votes 'No'
Greece's finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, has resigned on the day the world is still reacting to the Greeks rejection of austerity. Varoufakis was instrumental in the "no" campaign, which convinced 61% of Greeks that the deal creditors were offering was not good enough, and he was expected to play a major role in charting the country’s next course.
Varoufakis comments on a Monday blog post:
"I have been made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted 'partners', for my […] 'absence' from its meetings. [It is] an idea that the Prime Minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement. For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today."
- Yanis Varoufakis
Mt. Gox Trustee Extends Deadline for Filing Claims to July 29
Customers who lost money to Mt Gox's insolvency now have until 12pm on July 29 (Japan time) to file their online bankruptcy claims. This is an extension from the end of May 2015.
The news is carried in a document by the bankruptcy trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi, published on the on the former exchange's webpage.
Former Blockchain.info Developer Launches Competing Bitcoin Wallet
Timothy Lee, a former software developer at Blockchain.info, has launched Bitcoin wallet to compete with his former employer. ArcBit is an open source bitcoin wallet that promises to provide greater user privacy through stealth addresses.
Lee has quoted "difference in belief of what a bitcoin wallet should be" as the point of divergence with his former employer.
Lee:
"At Blockchain.info, I was the primary person working on the HD wallet for the iOS and Web wallet [...] While I was there, the company was making some design decisions on the wallet that I wish weren't made. One of those decisions ended up costing users some privacy, something I disagreed with."
Fred Wilson Says the Next Reddit Will Be Built on the Bitcoin Blockchain
Fred Wilson, one of Silicon Valley's most successful venture capitalists has said that the next generation of Reddit will be built on the blockchain. In a blog post titled “The Central Authority,” Wilson has proposed an entirely decentralized media platform, in which the decisions are wholly made by the moderators and clients.
Wilson:
“The interesting thing about an entirely decentralized media platform is that you can have clients that choose to curate, police, and censor and clients that choose not to. Twitter, as originally architected, could have headed down this path. But for many reasons, reasons I supported to be clear, it chose not to. But someone is going to go there. And I think it will happen soon. And I think it most likely will be built on the blockchain.”
London is the global drug trade money-laundering centre; crime expert
Roberto Saviano, an internationally acclaimed crime expert and author of the international bestseller Gomorrah that exposed the workings of the Neapolitan crime organization, has warned that the City of London has become the world’s drug trade money-laundering center. Saviano:
“The British treat it as not their problem because there aren’t corpses on the street.”
He believes UK banks and financial services have ignored “know your customer” (KYC) rules, which are designed to curb criminals’ abilities to launder the proceeds of crime.
Citi recognizes Australia as a hotbed for digital banking tests
Heather Cox, head of digital at Citi bank, one of the world's most powerful consumer banks, has said that Australians are open to adopting digital banking technology. She indicated that is why the country is a key market for Citi’s pilot projects.
Cox explained that Australia has a good regulatory environment and a smaller market on top of the willingness to try new technology. All these make it a relevant testing ground.
"The digital adoption and the use of digital services is just ingrained in the daily life, and it is surpassing even what we're seeing in the US."
Creation of invalid blocks to abate as software upgrades continue
The upgrade of the bitcoin software client has resulted in unreliable transaction confirmation over the past weekend. This was due to creation of invalid blocks by some miners. However, this problem is anticipated to resolve as more miners upgrade to the new software client.
Part of a notice posted on bitcoin.org reads:
“All software that assumes blocks are valid (because invalid blocks cost miners money) is at risk of showing transactions as confirmed when they really aren't. This particularly affects lightweight (SPV) wallets and software such as old versions of Bitcoin Core which have been downgraded to SPV-level security by the new BIP66 consensus rules.”
eTravelSmart and Unocoin partner to Allow Indians to Purchase Bus Tickets with Bitcoin
A partnership between the online bus ticket booking portal eTravelSmart and India’s largest bitcoin payment processor Unocoin is set to make it possible for users in the country to purchase tickets using bitcoin.
eTravelSmart:
“We need to support all possible safe, simple and reliable payment solutions to our customers while purchasing bus tickets in our portal. Bitcoin community and user base in India is increasing, which cannot be ignored. So we have taken a decision to accept bitcoin payments along with other payment gateways.”