Ross was an idiot who gave away his identity when he first started working on silkroad (forum posts asking for help) and many otherr mistakes, poor opsec, hiring hitmen (cops in disguise), and ordering fake ids (another trap) and much more. He didn't even use tor to connect to the silkroad server in iceland which led to that being located and imaged as well.

Ross was truly and idiot and its amazing how long it took LE to find and catch him at all as he was not trying to stay hidden at all.

That said, SilkRoad is still up and doing very well.

They use coinbase which, like bitpay, will convert the btc into usd for the supplier. They will have their usd payment just as quickly as any other payment processor so there is no issue of the price dropping before an item is even prepared for shipping let alone before it is shipped.

This is fantastic news, and I hope more major retailers follow.

I don't understand the bitcoin hate.

Bitcoin is the most amazing thing happening in the world today. It is the internet revolution now taking on the finance industry after conquering the media industry.

So what? Why does the price of bitcoin even matter? Bitcoins strength lies in its ability to be used as a payment processing network - and at a fraction of the cost of traditional payment networks (visa, mastercard, paypal, SWIFT, etc).

Everyone is obsessed with the price of bitcoin (and therefore comparing it to a ponzi scheme because of its price) and treating it as a speculative investment scheme or get rich quick scheme. This is actually very detrimental to bitcoin.

But no. Bitcoins power lies in using it as a payment processing network not its price. It does need some more price stability, however, so this crazy speculation needs to stop.

Umm... what about server passwords? What about core router and switch passwords? What if you work at a telecommunications company and are in charge of the a large part of the network?

Do we want another Terry Childs incident here?

OF COURSE your Boss has every right to know your passwords. Maybe not your personal windows login password, but that is NOT what we're talking about here. Passwords to core and critical systems in a business SHOULD be accessible to senior management in case something should happen to you.

Of course we're side tracking from the OP's original question at this point.

So the solution is to just use croudsourcing outside of the US? If you want to start a croudsourced business, move to Canada or elsewhere in the world?

They mentioned "teams from IBM" .... this wasn't a V7000 Unified that died on the backend, was it? :)

This is great news for me and my shares in TSLA. :D

I moved country (from Australia to New Zealand) and it was the best thing I ever did.

I want to move again (now to SoCal or the Bay Area but visa issues yay) and am really looking forward to it.

People SHOULD move and experience life in a new area. Especially in a different country where possible.

Surprised NO ONE is mentioning this....

Sheep Marketplace went down yesterday after weeks of suspicious behavior such as disabling withdrawals of money, a countdown to when withdrawals would be available but running at a slower speed, still no withdrawal when it expired, minimum of 1BTC withdrawal so people would deposit money, and more.

So far it appears some $47 million worth of bitcoins was stolen.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/12/01/silk-road-competitor-shuts-down-and-another-plans-to-go-offline-after-6-million-theft/

I have no problem for paying for my own relocation costs. (And honestly, its not going to be expensive.. its just me, I have no family, and I've relocated countries before so already have experience. And I visit the US often enough that I am familiar with the area I'd like to go live/work.) And I have friends and a relative there. So plenty of places I can live at for free for a few months before I get my own place, etc as well.

Got a US bank account, phone number, and more already. All I need is a job offer and visa :/

I'm an Australian living in New Zealand for a NZ Telco, so.. Hi. :)

And re: applying for US jobs, yeah, that's the response I've received. Yeah I am pretty serious about wanting to move there. Been in NZ basically 5 years now and figure its time to go somewhere else (and no, I don't want to go back to Australia.)

My guess is US employers want to either,
1) Find someone ASAP (so local is good, but expensive)
2) Get someone cheap who is willing to be a slave on a H1-B visa (because if they get fired they get deported.) Dealing with the hassle of getting them in on a visa is acceptable because they will work their butts of for minimum wage.

Aussies/Kiwis are like #1, will want the high pay but with the hassles of a visa so employers just won't consider us at all. We're the worst of both options and thus the least desirable.

Anyway, that's the feeling I get...

Very interesting stuff. Having lived in the IT world my entire life (I got into programming when i was 12) I really forgot thats how the world operates.

I think part of it is because those industries barely evolve. You go to school, you study, you pass, you get a job, get some experience and that's it...

In the IT and Tech world everything is evolving and changing so rapidly you have to constantly learn on the job. You are NEVER done learning in IT. That's why we expect to learn on the job and figure out things as we go along; because that's how we've done things our entire lives.

Perhaps other people (especially hiring managers, recruiters, HR) need to learn that this is HOW tech works?

Hey,

I'm an Australian Citizen and work as a Senior Systems Admin at a telecommunications company. I'm looking for a job in the US on a visa (E-3 which is easier to get than H1B for Australians).

What do you think would be my chances? I guess you'd need a copy of my CV, but just wondering if real employers who are struggling to find the right candidate would bother with the trouble of getting an E-3 visa for an Aussie? (FYI the E-3 is a lot less work than getting a H1B but because its not well known known nobody seems to really want to bother with it).

I also visit the US yearly and could interview in person and have a US ph number (voip) employers can call me on too.