By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. government said on Monday it plans to auction over 2,700 bitcoins that were forfeited during several cases, several of which stemmed from investigations of the online black market known as Silk Road. The U.S. Marshals Service said that the online auction would be held on Aug. 22, and that potential bidders must register by Aug. 18.
Mark Karpeles, the former head of defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, was arrested on Saturday in connection with the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the virtual currency, Japanese media reports said. The French-born Karpeles, 30, is suspected of falsifying data on the outstanding balance of the exchange, at one point the world's largest hub for trading the digital currency, they added. When it filed for bankruptcy in February 2014, Mt. Gox said 750,000 customer bitcoins and another 100,000 belonging to the exchange were stolen due to a software security flaw.
By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top U.S. tech companies are warning the Obama administration against imposing new policies that the companies say would weaken increasingly sophisticated encryption systems designed to protect consumers' privacy. In a strongly worded letter to President Barack Obama on Monday, two industry associations representing major software and hardware companies said, “We are opposed to any policy actions or measures that would undermine encryption as an available and effective tool.” The Information Technology Industry Council and the Software and Information Industry Association, representing tech giants, including Apple Inc, Google Inc, Facebook Inc, IBM and Microsoft Corp, fired the latest salvo in what could be a long fight over government access into smart phones and other digital devices.
By Foo Yun Chee and Rene Wagner BERLIN (Reuters) – European Union regulators plan a year-long investigation into ecommerce to help remove barriers to cross-border trade in the 28-nation bloc, the EU's antitrust chief said on Thursday. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said she decided to launch the inquiry because such hurdles were hampering the growth of online sales as well as signs that some companies may be deliberately blocking trade. According to the European Commission, while one in two EU consumers shopped online last year, just 15 percent of them bought a product online in another EU country. “It is high time to remove remaining barriers to ecommerce, which is a vital part of a true Digital Single Market in Europe,” Vestager told reporters.