The Briefing Room
General Category => Economy/Business => Topic started by: flowers on March 05, 2014, 08:12:18 pm
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2573863/Bitcoin-exchange-CEO-dead-home-suspected-suicide-age-28.html
The American CEO of an exchange for the troubled bitcoin digital currency has been found dead after a suspected suicide at her home in Singapore.
Wisconsin native, Autumn Radtke, 28, was discovered inside her apartment on February 28 and officials in the South East Asian city state are now waiting for toxicology test results to determine the exact cause of death.
Douglas Adams, the non-executive chairman of First Meta confirmed that his colleague had passed away in a statement which said the company was 'shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and CEO Autumn Radtke.'
The death of Radtke is the latest piece of bad news to hit the crisis-ridden bitcoin currency following the collapse of the Japanese-based Mt Gox exchange last week after $400m went missing and the closure of the Flexcoin bank yesterday in Canada after computer hackers robbed $600,000.
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/What is Bitcoin? I see it in the news, just haven't followed it. I know it is some sort of fake currency.
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/What is Bitcoin? I see it in the news, just haven't followed it. I know it is some sort of fake currency.
Not exactly fake, merely virtual and highly encrypted, and no more artificial than most modern currencies. It is a limited currency with a fixed number of bitcoins permitted world wide. Untraceable for goods and services, so rather popular with the "less savory" aspects of online commerce, though the closure of The Silk Road has caused some problems.
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Not exactly fake, merely virtual and highly encrypted, and no more artificial than most modern currencies. It is a limited currency with a fixed number of bitcoins permitted world wide. Untraceable for goods and services, so rather popular with the "less savory" aspects of online commerce, though the closure of The Silk Road has caused some problems.
Is is actual coin?
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Is is actual coin?
Nope. Not something you can carry around in your pocket. You can have a bitcoin wallet on your smartphone or a USB drive though. It's basically a gimmick.
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Nope. Not something you can carry around in your pocket. You can have a bitcoin wallet on your smartphone or a USB drive though. It's basically a gimmick.
Thank you for the info EC :patriot:
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possible that she was skimming funds from the users' deposits?
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What is BitCoin?
To steal a line from Dire Straits:
Bitcoin is money made outta nuthin'...
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What is BitCoin?
To steal a line from Dire Straits:
Bitcoin is money made outta nuthin'...
most money is made outta nuthin'
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possible that she was skimming funds from the users' deposits?
That is theoretically impossible. The coins themselves are 100% secure, and the stolen coins can be traced. The Mt Gox fiasco isn't down to a fault in the bitcoin itself, it's down to a fault in the "bank" software.
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That is theoretically impossible. The coins themselves are 100% secure, and the stolen coins can be traced. The Mt Gox fiasco isn't down to a fault in the bitcoin itself, it's down to a fault in the "bank" software.
so long as there's an avenue for defalcation, it's possible that she was skimming. When I said skimming deposits, I meant skimming the real currency deposits that back up the bitcoin someone has.
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so long as there's an avenue for defalcation, it's possible that she was skimming. When I said skimming deposits, I meant skimming the real currency deposits that back up the bitcoin someone has.
Possible. Not going to say likely, there seems to have been a rash of banking suicides going around recently, but certainly possible. I would note that all the recent "suicides" have one national factor in common. Heavy Chinese investment.
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Possible. Not going to say likely, there seems to have been a rash of banking suicides going around recently, but certainly possible. I would note that all the recent "suicides" have one national factor in common. Heavy Chinese investment.
no reason to believe it's anything other than coincidence at this point.
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no reason to believe it's anything other than coincidence at this point.
Totally agree. It just struck me as one of those odd co-incidences that may mean something or nothing. China owns about half the bitcoins in existence - they shifted their WoW gold farming teams into generating bitcoins early on.
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Totally agree. It just struck me as one of those odd co-incidences that may mean something or nothing. China owns about half the bitcoins in existence - they shifted their WoW gold farming teams into generating bitcoins early on.
agreed