In the face of economic ruin while tied to fiat currency, Iceland has opted to dole out crypto-currency to its citizens, in a bid to reinvigorate the economy. On March 25th 2014, Iceland will being to issue Auroracoins as gifts in a program called the Airddrop
, sending free currency to 330,000 people and will encourage Icelanders to use them as part of their daily lives. This requires support from developers to create programs for accepting Auroracoins and the global crypto-currency exchanges to accept them. The idea that a country is adopting crypto-currency, if only partially, to combat out-of-control hyper inflation is powerful. If this works in Iceland, it could work elsewhere. Watch this space.
Source: Auroracoin and Rob Chamberlain
It was only a matter of time before hackers managed to break into crypto-currencies. Unknown assailants are sending “mutated” lines of code into the programme that runs Bitcoin and have caused problems at two Bitcoin firms to date – Slovenia-based 
Bitstamp and Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox.
Source – Bitcoin Foundation
The New York Department of Financial Services is weighing up how to regulate a non-fiat currency and is considering the use of the public ledgers behind Bitcoins, for example, as a possible anti-money laundering control in combination with a know-your-customer programme. As nearly all Bitcoin firms have an AML compliance programme in place, this could be an easy segue for the NYDFS and other regulators.
Source – Chicago Tribune
Related articles
- Toronto Gets Bitcoined (betakit.com)
- New Icelandic crypto-currency will be for the people to help grow stagnant economy (secretsofthefed.com)
- Bitcoin, Technology and Regulation – Which One will Define Crypto Currencies? (forextv.com)
- The Bitcoin business: Securing your crypto-currency (itpro.co.uk)
- Bitcoin: Anonymously genius (english.pravda.ru)
- Bullish on Bitcoin : The biggest land grab since the Internet (siliconangle.com)
