Bitcoin exchange Got Hits

Bitcoin

U.S. law enforcement officials cracked down this week on the Bitcoin economy's biggest exchange, Mt. Gox, accusing its operator of running a money transmitting business without the proper license and freezing several of its key financial accounts.

The move sent a brief chill through the Bitcoin community, though some enthusiasts shrugged it off as an inevitable consequence of the cyber currency's growing public profile. A few even defended the feds. "This isn't the government trying to kill anything," one commenter wrote on Reddit's Bitcoin discussion board. "This is them locking accounts because they didn't file the right paperwork."

Mt. Gox is by far the biggest exchange in the Bitcoin economy, handling about 66% of all currency conversions.
The drama started on Tuesday, when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security obtained a warrant to seize the contents of Mt. Gox's account with Dwolla, a payment processing network based in Des Moines, Iowa.
Dwolla is one of the key services used by Tokyo-based Mt. Gox to let its American customers convert U.S. dollars into bitcoins and vice versa. The company stopped processing transactions to and from Mt. Gox's account after it received the warrant and tried to distance itself from the dispute.

Mt. Gox said it is investigating the matter. In the meantime, it posted a statement saying U.S. customers will only be able to deposit and withdraw funds with an international money order or by using OKPay, an international currency conversion system.
Related: How porn links snuck into Bitcoin's code
Will any customers lose funds? That's currently unclear. Federal officials now presumably have control of any funds that were sitting in the account's coffers, as well as a Wells Fargo account that was also targeted.
DHS declined to comment on its investigation, but it provided several news outlets, including CNNMoney, with a copy of its seizure warrant.
According to the document, Mt. Gox's U.S. subsidiary set up a Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) business account in May 2011. At the time, the company filled out a "money services business" questionnaire and said it was not a firm that dealt in or exchanged money for its customers.
Not so, say the feds. Because U.S. dollars can be passed back and forth on Mt. Gox through bitcoin conversions, they consider the site's operations to be a "money transmitting activity."
Related: Feds crack down on Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange
The crackdown comes less than two months after the U.S. government issued new rules saying that virtual currency exchanges will be subject to the same kinds of anti-money laundering rules that banks have to follow.
The volatile currency is becoming a significant economic force. The value of 1 bitcoin zoomed from $20 at the start of the year to a record high of $266 in April. It's now worth about $115. There are roughly 11 million bitcoins in circulation, giving the entire economy a market cap of around US$1.2 billion.

Findables case turns your entire smartphone into a business card

A unique QR code allows others to scan your case for professional and/or social-network info, or even to help return a lost phone or tablet.

Findables case turns smartphone into a business card

The Findables Case takes that idea to heart by emblazoning a unique QR code on each hard-plastic shell, the idea being to use that code to share information about yourself or help recover your lost phone.

In other words, your case can now take the place of your business card, while at the same time offering good Samaritans a means of contacting you (that doesn't involve poring through your address book).

When someone scans the code, they'll see one of three profiles (chosen by you via a companion app or the Findables Web site): Business, Social, or Lost.

Business provides the aforementioned biz-card alternative, meaning whatever professional contact information you want to share. Social steers the information toward things like your Facebook and Twitter accounts, while Lost provides basic recovery info and, if you wish, a reward offer.

The case itself is available for iPhone 4/4S, iPhone 5, iPad 3 and 4, iPad Mini, and Galaxy S3. Color options vary from one model to another, but mostly they're in the pastel family. I'm currently road-testing a green one on my iPhone 4S, and it's a decent shell: hard plastic, but thin and unassuming, with a two-piece design that's easy enough to remove if need be. (I didn't have much need; the case posed no problem with various speaker docks.)

The phone and iPad versions sell for $29.95, while the Smart Cover-equipped Mini edition runs $49.95. Those prices strike me as a bit high for something that offers little more than basic protection, though obviously there's some cost associated with imprinting custom QR codes.