Bitcoin News Roundup - 31 May 2015

Recapping the week’s biggest Bitcoins stories from around the web.
The “Silk Road saga” is over, the founder of illegal online market Silk Road has been sentenced to life in prison without parole. US District Judge Katherine Forrest was not convinced that Silk Road was created “out of youthful naïveté.” On the top of the prison sentence, Ulbricht has to pay a fine of nearly $200 million.
Australia plans on making a criminal offense to informing people about the benefits of cryptography.
As Justin OConnell of CryptoCoins News reports, academics and cryptography researchers in Australia could face up to ten years imprisonment in the event of even lecturing on cryptography. According to Australian Department of Defense, “university researchers would need prior permission from a Minister at the DoD to communicate new research to foreign nationals or to publish in any research journals.”
Switzerland might consider establishing the first bitcoin bank. As Sarah Jenn of NewsBtc writes, according to Handelszeitung, Switzerland’s major newspaper, arrangements are in progress for a bitcoin bank to acquire the licenses to start operations.It is also confirmed by various sources in the financial industry that the Financial Market Supervisory Authority is aware of the project and the license application will be submitted with the forthcoming weeks.
Canadian universities are increasingly acknowledging the bitcoin potential and openly support the cryptocurrency technology. As JP Buntinx of Digital Money Times writes, students at Simon Fraser University are allowed to pay for their textbooks in bitcoin. Additionally, the campus provides three bitcoin ATMs.
Regulation
The American Bar Association (ABA) is hosting “Bitcoin and other Digital Currencies: Emerging Issues in Regulation and Enforcement” event. The event will take place on June 26^that the Ritz-Carlton in Washington DC. As John WeruMaina of CryptoCoins News writes, the ABA plans to investigate the latest improvements in bitcoin compliance and regulation issues, including whether the digital currency should be regarded as money or as a commodity.
Taxes
New Jersey favors tax breaks for companies that embrace the bitcoin. As Katherine Fletcher of Coin Report writes, New Jersey Assemblymen Raj Mukherji and Gordon Johnson introduced a bill that would block municipalities from launching their own tax regulations on bitcoin. Registration with the Department of Banking of Insuranceis mandatory for the companies that operate in the cryptocurrency industry. Additionally, the bill includes incentives to attract more businesses to adopt the bitcoin and expand the use of the digital currency in New Jersey.
Payments
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) joins forces with Ripple Labs. As Jeffrey Maxim of Bitcoin Magazine reports, CBA will capitalize on Ripple technology to expedite payments between its subsidiaries. The CBA has tested the cryptocurrency technology before taking the decision to explore the benefits of intrabank transfers using the Ripple protocols. According to CBA CIO David Whiteing “Bitcoin is a protocol which is now being replicated by non-asset based vendors like Ripple and others. We are about to launch using Ripple as a means to transfer payments between our subsidiaries.”
Bitstamp launches a new prepaid debit card. As Maria Santos of 99bitcoins writes, the London-based Bitcoin exchange has partnered with the payment processor AstroPay to enable Bitstamp’s clients to acquire debit cards in USD, Euros and/or GBP. The debit cards could loaded in fiat currency or in bitcoin and they will be available within the European Union.
ChainPay, the global bitcoin gateway partners with Payment Goblin to facilitate seamless bitcoin transactions. According to Bitcoinist.net, the partnership will enable the customers of Payment Goblin, the UK-based payment processor, to accept bitcoin by using its API. According to an announcement by Payment Goblin “Through this partnership, we hope to introduce merchants currently using traditional card payments to the benefits of digital currency.”

New Sites to Explore in Deep Web

New Sites To Explore

Reddit user NekroTor is on a quest to reboot many of the Freedom Hosting sites that were taken down. On February 16th of this year, on his onion-routed blog, Nekrotown, he wrote, "2 days ago the BlackMarket Reloaded forum got seized. On the same day, the long-awaited Utopia Market was seized, which just goes to show that all the markets fucking suck these days except for Agora and TMP, and that you should just wait until BlackMarket Reloaded opens up again... eventually ...5 years later, no BMR."
NekroTor is correct in writing that most of the content right now on the Dark Web is not that great. On top of the fact that there used to be a wealth of sites for illegal black market interactions, there also used to be radio, books, blogs, political conversations, and even an Encyclopedia Dramatica that was a satirical culture-based wiki and is now laden with porn and pop-ups.
NekroTor created a new version of Hidden Wiki that has some functional links to audio and video streaming as well as some up-to-date forums for socializing and buying and selling. There are still a few image boards left, but the popular Onii-chan has the words "Well be back later" typed over spinning dildos.

Redditors Who Are Reaching Out For Deep Web Direction

After watching House of Cards, user TrelianScar turned to Reddit for guidance on how to navigate the Dark Web. TrelianScar is not alone. The Deep Web is making appearances in the media, in dinner conversations, and of course on Internet forums. One user jokingly writes to TrelianScar saying, "Wait till we send you an iPad. Then talk to the Dutch oil painting. Then await instructions," referencing HOC's unrealistic depiction of Deep Web interactions.
On a more serious note though, user Serbia_Strong writes, "What are you looking for first of all? Drugs? Guns? Assassins? Credit cards or counterfeit cash? I'd start your journey at the Hidden Wiki and then narrow in on your interests. I pretty much save every site I come across (you can't exactly just google them). Start at The Hidden Wiki and if you need any links just ask. Enjoy your descent into madness :)"
Another user, Dexter-Del-Rey explained a similar conundrum last week—he too is new to the Deep Web and wants some functional starter links. Redditor Ampernand writes back saying, "On the topic of torchan... here's a good piece on how it fell authored by the previous host. Currently torchan is hosted by someone that allows cp, gore etc, censors critics and doesn't give a flying fuck about the community. Effectively torchan has become exactly what it was trying to not be. Also, nntpchan is better." Ampernand links to NNTP-chan, which is a new forum replacing the image board Onii-chan.
New channels are popping up daily in the Deep Web. Currently, marketplace alternatives to Silk Road, Agora, and Pandora are the most frequented. Nonetheless, both TrelianScar and Dexter-Del-Rey were each respectively warned in their threads that the Dark Web is chock-full of scammers and is quite unlike its Hollywood depiction.
Interestingly, the Deep Web has lost much of its stigma over the past year and mainstream web services are experimenting with the platform even if they're not embracing it. In late October 2014, Facebook enabled Tor browser users to visit them anonymously, saying in a press release that "It’s important to us at Facebook to provide methods for people to use our site securely."