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<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockyx/4131102854/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Rocky X via Flickr</a></p></div></div>A forum administrator going by the name "MentaL" on gaming site RageZone <a href="http://forum.ragezone.com/f10/bittorrent-source-dns-reward-948810/">claims to have gained access</a> to <keyword id="280892" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="BitTorrent">BitTorrent</keyword>'s internal network.</p>
<p>In the forum post describing his exploit, the user says he "was able <span>push public builds on all data such as uTorrent and more. I had master keys to everything, including DNS level material...<span>Once I sat down [and] reviewed what was on my screen I concluded it was in the best interest to notify the company immediately.</span>"</span></p>
<p><span>uTorrent is a BitTorrent client owned and operated by the company itself. This was obviously a sensitive vulnerability, so MentaL notified the company and was offered a $500 check as a reward. He accepted, but when it didn't show up in a timely manner, he got peeved:</span></p>
<p><span>"<span>A [different] hacker recently found a bug in which he was able to reset passwords and got £20,000 reward, me? I got the entire source of ALL products / webpages / DNS / financial documents and more and in the end they offered me $500. I felt insulted...<span>They make millions a year in ad revenue alone and I never released, tweaked, sent fake builds or nothing out to any user and I feel insulted.</span>"</span></span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://forum.ragezone.com/f10/bittorrent-source-dns-reward-948810/">MentaL goes on to post screenshots</a> of the data he was able to access as proof. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This strikes us as pretty self-righteous.</span></p>
<p><span><span>BitTorrent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</span></span></p>

A Self-Righteous Hacker Claims To Have Accessed BitTorrent's Internal Network

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="caption">Sybren via Flickr</p></div>If you use <keyword id="280892" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="BitTorrent">BitTorrent</keyword> or other services to download illegal content and <keyword id="6393116" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Verizon">Verizon</keyword> is your Internet service provider this is something you need to know.</p>
<p>BitTorrent news site <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/verizons-six-strikes-anti-piracy-measures-unveiled-130111/">TorrentFreak</a>, got its hands on Verizon's unannounced six strike anti-piracy measure.</p>
<p>Things start off pretty lenient in the form of warnings, but as users get deeper into the violations Verizon will slow your Internet speeds as low as 256kpbs, which is about as fast as dial-up.</p>
<p>Here's the full rundown with consequences via <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/verizons-six-strikes-anti-piracy-measures-unveiled-130111/">TorrentFreak</a>:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><strong>Alert 1 and 2</strong></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><em>“Are delivered by email and automatic voicemail to the telephone number we have on file for you. Notify you that one or more copyright owners have reported that they believe your account has been involved in possible copyright infringement activity.”</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><em>“Provide a link to information on how to check to see if file sharing software is operating on your computer (and how to remove it) and tell you where to find information on obtaining content legally.”</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;">If more infringements are found after the first two alerts then the account holder is moved on to the acknowledgment phase where “popups” appear on-screen. Customers will have to acknowledge that they received the new alert and will be instructed to watch a video about the consequences of online <keyword id="6358364" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="piracy">piracy</keyword>.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><strong>Alert 3 and 4</strong></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><em>“Redirect your browser to a special web page where you can review and acknowledge receiving the alerts. Provide a short video about copyright law and the consequences of copyright infringement.”</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><em>“Require you to click on an “acknowledgment” button before you will be able to freely browse the Internet. Clicking the acknowledgment button does not require you to admit that you or anyone else actually engaged in any infringing activity, only that you have received the alert.”</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;">If the infringements continue after the fourth alert the subscriber will move on to the mitigation phase. Here, the customer can either ask for a review by the American Arbitration Association or undergo a temporary speed reduction to 256kbps.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><strong>Alert 5 and 6</strong></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><em>“Redirect your browser to a special web page where you will be given several options. You can: Agree to an immediate temporary (2 or 3 day) reduction in the speed of your Internet access service to 256kbps (a little faster than typical dial-up speed); Agree to the same temporary (2 or 3 day) speed reduction but delay it for a period of 14 days; or Ask for a review of the validity of your alerts by the American Arbitration Association.”</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;">If more infringements are found after the sixth alert “nothing” will happen. The user will receive no more alerts and can continue using his or her Internet connection at full speed.</p>
<p>Verizon's anti-piracy measure is part of a program with five other Internet service providers that is scheduled to kick off in the US within the coming weeks.</p>
<p>Here's part of the official Verizon <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/images/verizon-six-strikes.png">FAQ TorrentFreak found</a>:</p>
<p><table class="image-container" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://torrentfreak.com/verizons-six-strikes-anti-piracy-measures-unveiled-130111/">TorrentFreak</a></p></td></tr></table></p>
<p>Verizon is the first major ISP whose policies have been released. There's no word when this policy will officially go into effect and how other ISP's are planning on handling the six strikes.</p>
<p><strong>Don't Miss: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/golden-i-verizon-augmented-reality-headset-2013-1">Verizon Has Computerized Glasses Just Like Google Does &gt;</a></strong></p>

LEAKED: Verizon's New Anti-Piracy Measure Will Give Offenders 6 Chances

<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Brian Ach/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Sequoia Capital partner and former PayPal CFO Roelof Botha</p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p><ul><li><strong>PayPal's former finance chief revealed Bank of America closed his account without giving a reason, sparking conspiracies that he may have been banned for trading bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.</strong></li><li><strong>Roelof Botha is a partner at Sequoia Capital and a board member of Square, Bird, and other technology companies.</strong></li><li><strong>Botha <a href="https://twitter.com/roelofbotha/status/1196234200665346048">tweeted</a> that the bank "decided to fire me as their customer" after 20 years.</strong></li><li><strong>Seed investor Manu Kumar <a href="https://twitter.com/ManuKumar/status/1196299972288765952">replied to Botha's tweet</a> saying Bank of America also shut his fund's account at the start of this year without giving an explanation.</strong></li><li><strong><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?IR=C">View Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</strong></strong></li></ul><p>PayPal's former finance chief revealed Bank of America closed his account without explanation, sparking conspiracies that he may have been banned for trading bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.</p><p>Roelof Botha, a partner at Sequoia Capital and one of Silicon Valley's most famous investors, shared the news <a href="https://twitter.com/roelofbotha/status/1196234200665346048">in a tweet on Monday</a>.</p><p>"After being a customer of @BankofAmerica for 20 years, I received this notice today that they decided to fire me as their customer! With absolutely no explanation...."</p><p>Botha - who sits on the boards of Square, Bird, Evernote, and other tech companies - attached the notice from Bank of America, which stated his account would be permanently closed in 30 days.</p><p>"After a careful review of your banking relationship, we've made the decision to close your account above," it reads. "This decision is final and won't be reconsidered." </p><p>Several members of the crypto community pointed out that PayPal has banned users for trading bitcoin, and suggested Botha may have been banned by his bank for the same reason.</p><p>"That's funny indeed, he did the same to many people but complains when it happens to him," crypto investor @JohanDXB <a href="https://twitter.com/JohanDXB/status/1196281496207675392">replied to his tweet</a>.</p><p>Manu Kumar - head of seed fund K9 Ventures, which invested in Lyft and Twilio - <a href="https://twitter.com/ManuKumar/status/1196299972288765952">replied</a> that the "same thing happened to @K9Ventures' account at @BankofAmerica. No explanation what so ever."</p><p>Kumar <a href="https://twitter.com/ManuKumar/status/1083461499920642048">tweeted in January</a> that Bank of America closed his company account due to a "determination that this is a business type we have chosen not to serve."</p><p>Tron and BitTorrent CEO Justin Sun - who famously <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/warren-buffett-justin-sun-timeline-crypto-lunch-china-donald-trump-2019-9-1028522523">paid $4.6 million for a charity lunch with Warren Buffett</a> and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/warren-buffett-lunch-justin-sun-invited-trump-binance-litecoin-execs-2019-9-1028506590">invited Donald Trump</a> to join them, only to postpone at the last minute - said the same thing happened to him.</p><p>"Me too 😂 I have been a customer of @BankofAmerica for 8 years and get fired as well 🤣" he wrote in a tweet that was later deleted.</p><p>David Marcus, PayPal's former president and co-creator of Facebook's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-libra-facebook-cryptocurrency-calibra-libra-association-congress-zuckerberg-2019-25?r=US&amp;IR=T">Libra cryptocurrency</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/davidmarcus/status/1196291930054807552">replied to Botha's tweet</a> saying, "You're clearly not their target customer segment..."</p><p>Bank of America <a href="https://twitter.com/BofA_Help/status/1196422163366076416">also replied</a> to Botha's tweet, saying "accounts are closed for various reasons" and inviting him to call the company for a review of his accounts.</p><p>Bank of America didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.</p><p class="tagline"><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/10-up-and-coming-fintechs-2019?IR=T&amp;itm_source=businessinsider&amp;itm_medium=ctgr_bii&amp;itm_term=ctgr_leadgen&amp;itm_content=finance&amp;itm_campaign=10-up-and-coming-fintechs-2019-2"></a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/this-mom-is-winning-halloween-with-movie-inspired-crocheted-costumes-2018-10">This mom is winning Halloween with her movie-inspired crocheted costumes</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

PayPal's former finance chief says Bank of America closed his account with 'absolutely no explanation'

<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0BXZUXYDIFV&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1440&amp;RH=718#/SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0BXZUXYDIFV&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1440&amp;RH=718&amp;POPUPPN=1&amp;POPUPIID=2C0BF1SLQ6XAP">REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji</a></span></p><p class="caption">Eoh Kyung-hoon, leader of a club studying cryptocurrencies, checks a chart after a meeting at a university in Seoul, South Korea, December 20, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p><ul><li><strong>The amount of funding raised through "initial coin offerings" rose from $3.3 billion in the first quarter to $8.3 billion in the second, according to a new report.</strong></li><li><strong>But the proportion of funding campaigns that failed also rose to 55%, leading analysts to say the quality of projects in the market has "significantly worsened."</strong></li><li><strong>The average return for ICO tokens in the quarter was -55%, compared with a gain of nearly 50% in the first quarter.</strong></li></ul><p>LONDON - Money continues to flood into the booming market for digital tokens issued by startups despite the projects seeking funding getting worse and investment returns suffering, according to a new report.</p><p>55% of "initial coin offerings" (ICOs) failed to complete in the second quarter, according to a report from agency ICORating. That was 5% more than failed in the first quarter.</p><p>ICOs are where companies and projects issue digital tokens structured like bitcoin or ethereum. These tokens are sold in return for cash used to fund the development of their businesses. ICOs exploded from almost nothing to be a multi-billion dollar market in 2017, surging in popularity alongside the rise in the price of bitcoin.</p><p>The increasing failure rate came despite a rise in the amount of money being invested into ICO tokens. 827 projects raised $8.3 billion through initial coin offerings in the second quarter of the year, the report states, compared to $3.3 billion in the first quarter.</p><p>This mismatch led ICORating to conclude that "the overall quality of projects has significantly worsened." Fewer projects are attracting bigger sums, while many others languish with small sums or outright failure. The biggest ICO in the second quarter of 2018 was PumaPay, a cryptocurrency solution for merchants that raised $117 million in May.</p><p>The increase in investment into ICO tokens comes despite poor performance in the second quarter. ICORating found the median return for tokens in the second quarter was -55.5%, compared to +49.3% in the first quarter. Bitcoin, the bellwether for the crypto and digital asset market, has declined over 50% since the start of the year.</p><p>North American startups attracted the bulk of funding, taking in 64.6% of the total raised in the quarter. Financial services continued to be the most popular sector for startups, with 87 ICOs focusing on the industry.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>ICORating</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Separately on Wednesday, blockchain-focused VC firm Outlier Ventures released a report saying that venture capitalists invested $1.8 billion into blockchain-focused businesses in the second quarter of the year. Most ICO projects use blockchain technology in one way or another, although the majority of VCs still invest in equity rather than buying tokens issued during an ICO.</p><p>Outlier Ventures' review of activity in the blockchain space found an increase in M&amp;A activity among startups. Tron <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/18/bittorrent-tron/">acquired torrenting service BitTorrent for $140 million in June, for example.</a> Tron aims to decentralize the entertainment industry and raised $70 million through an ICO last December.</p><p>Jamie Burke, CEO at Outlier Ventures, said in a release: "We are seeing extremely well-capitalized protocols launch venture funds and accelerators as well as acquire equity-backed companies and teams to scale development or buy network-market-fit."</p> <p class="tagline">Get the latest Bitcoin price <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/BTC-USD">here.&gt;&gt;</a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-chief-strategist-reveals-the-one-thing-that-will-keep-the-market-soaring-2018-7">Stock trading is a 'monotheistic religion' - a JPMorgan chief strategist reveals the one thing that will keep the market soaring</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

1 in 2 ICOs failed in the second quarter - and those that succeeded suffered huge losses

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Hervé Falciani, the French-Italian whistleblower who <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/stats-hsbc-money-laundering-and-tax-evasion-2015-2" target="_blank">handed over information on 100,000 HSBC client accounts to French authorities in 2009</a>, has published a detailed account on how the transfer of the data actually took place. </p><p>The IT engineer has published a book, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/La-cassaforte-degli-evasori-delluomo-ebook/dp/B00T9UMPHI" target="_blank">La Cassaforte degli Evasori</a>, which tells his side of the story, writing how he came up with the decision to organise the greatest leak of secret bank details to date. </p><p>First of all, it did not take that long: "The data from HSBC was smuggled in just a few months in 2007."</p><p>Falciani, who had been working for HSBC in his native Monte Carlo, arrived in Geneva in 2006. By the end of 2008, Falciani had to flee Switzerland and ask French police for protection. </p><p>Working alongside Falciani <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/herve-falciani-reveals-secret-organisation-behind-hsbc-leak-2015-3" target="_blank">was a complex network of secret agents, tax officials, and HSBC employees who had decided to drag down the international bank</a>. </p><p>All the data was smuggled through the internet. There was no secret disk or hard drive used to store the data. The software, which was created by member of the secret service who Falciani barely met, seemed to use torrents to upload the bank files:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"The cloud was easy to use: it was like going on a web page through a computer that allowed you to see the data. I used a USB key to connect to the Internet, but that was it. [...] The system was based on a similar software to BitTorrent, a P2P protocol used to for exchanging files on the Internet. The information uploaded from our contacts from within the bank was split into thousands of files and sorted in the hard drives of thousands of computers. The owners of those PCs didn't even know that their disks contained the HSBC files."</p><p>Falciani writes that in order to access the cloud, he would call a phone number, from which the secret service would give him a password that changed every night. And every night he would check that the data uploaded during the day was correct. </p><p>That was Falciani's role: reviewing and organising. Falciani wasn't in a position to have access to the costumers' data. His role at HSBC was a technical one, not an accountant.</p><p>"From HSBC I personally didn't take any data, for the simple reason that I was not allowed to," he said.</p><p>But Falciani was the controller of the data, and the final editor of what was leaked. That is why he is still wanted by the Swiss police for breaking banking secrets, a criminal offence in the Confederation. </p><p>By February 2008, the work was done. Falciani and the team behind him had already stored 800 gigabytes of data in the cloud. </p><p>About a quarter of it was passed to the French fiscal police.</p><p>Falciani then had to attract the attention of the Swiss police because, unless the Swiss would have openly demanded the data he had smuggled, the French police were not allowed to use the files.</p><p><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/new-yorks-touted-whistleblower-act-shows-how-europes-attitudes-towards-informants-differ-massively-2015-2" target="_blank">Europe still lacks a protective framework for whistleblowers</a> and, ironically, someone needs to accuse the whistleblowers of theft before the data can be openly discussed. </p><p>According to Falciani, he got into the eye of the police by going to Lebanon and pretending to set up fake societies to sell the data. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">By the end of 2008, Swiss police took the bait and summoned Falciani to the police station.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/190-bowery-bank-turned-mansion-sale-real-estate-new-york-2015-2">This NYC bank-turned-mansion bought by a photographer for $102,000 just sold for $55 million</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="E4ZmpiczqsrLpEFaVejoudIvRLSzCQeL" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

How the HSBC whistleblower used the internet to leak private bank information to the police

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Two of tech's biggest venture capital funds, Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, are investing $1 million into OpenBazaar, a wildly ambitious bitcoin startup that aims to create a decentralised, police-proof online marketplace where users can sell literally anything using bitcoin.</p><p>However, the company is at pains to make clear that it isn't trying to create a "Silk Road 3.0." Lead developer Brian Hoffman spoke emphatically against "misuse" of the platform when I talked to him, instead arguing it has the potential to revolutionise online commerce - a next-generation Etsy with no transaction fees whatsoever. Early press focused on its potential criminal implications, but Hoffman says he is determined to "change the conversation."</p><p>But with an uncensorable structure, Hoffman concedes, comes the risk that it could also be used to <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">distribute illegal contraband and immoral products with little risk to the seller. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It is, in the words of the company, "a </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">decentralized network for peer to peer commerce online - using Bitcoin - that has no fees and cannot be censored. Put simply, it's the baby of eBay and BitTorrent."</span></p><h3>OpenBazaar is bitcoin taken to its logical conclusion</h3><p>To understand how OpenBazaar works and where it came from, you need to understand a little about digital currency bitcoin. Unlike other currencies, it has no central authority regulating or controlling it - it is totally decentralised. Users of bitcoin instead contribute their processing power to the upkeep of the network, and a public ledger (required to avoid double-spending) of all transactions is shared between users on the network. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>Bitcoin transactions can't be blocked by any authority, offering users a way to buy absolutely anything - provided they can find a seller. In the early days, the digital currency rose to prominence in part because it helped facilitate an unprecedented online drug trade, principally through online contraband market Silk Road. </p><p>But while bitcoin is decentralised, and impossible to stop without shutting down every computer on the network, Silk Road the marketplace <em>was not</em>. Although it obscured its location from authorities through use of anonymising software Tor, it was ultimately tracked down, shut down, and its creator - <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-silk-road-founders-life-sentence-appeal-2015-6">the 31-year-old Ross Ulbricht - was jailed</a>.</p><p>OpenBazaar takes bitcoin's decentralisation to its logical conclusion - by decentralising the market itself. The project has no central server to be seized; instead, it is distributed between every member of the network, all jointly responsible for its upkeep.</p><p>On eBay, there's a central authority that moderates the network, monitors for illicit items on sale, arbitrates disputes, and holds funds in escrow. On OpenBazaar, however, there is none of this. Instead it makes use of "multi-sig" bitcoin transactions that require a third-party (it could be anyone the other two parties agree on) to sign off on transactions, to prevent fraud. And it offers a rating system through which users can gauge the trustworthiness of others, in lieu of any official stamp of approval.</p><p>As for removing illicit or illegal items on sale? It's very simple. They can't be removed.</p><p>In short: It can't be shut down, and it can't be censored. </p><h3>The next Silk Road - or the next Etsy?</h3><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Created by bitcoin developer Amir Taaki in 2014, the project was initially called DarkMarket, and explicitly positioned itself as a successor to Silk Road. <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/04/darkmarket/">Taaki told Wired that he was</a> "in an arms race to equip the people with the tools needed for the next generation of digital black markets."</p><p>It subsequently rebranded as OpenBazaar, and Taaki stepped aside to pursue other projects - principally Dark Wallet, a bitcoin money-laundering app.</p><p>Then, Brian Hoffman - who had previously worked at the management consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton - took over, precipitating a change in rhetoric. "We're not the 'Super Silk Road,'" <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/08/openbazaar-not-for-drugs/">operations lead Sam Patterson told Wired in September 2014</a>. "We're trying to replace eBay in a better form ... We recognise that people may choose to use that technology in a way we see as distasteful, immoral, and illegal, but we're giving them the option to engage in a kind of human interaction that doesn't exist right now."</p><p>More than 100 developers have contributed to the project since its inception, and there's now a core team of five full-time employees and one contractor, who have - up until this point - been supported by donations from the bitcoin community. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>OpenBazaar is currently still in a beta stage, and solicits contributions from the community as both funds and code - the project is open source, after all. Hoffman told me that we should expect to see a more polished version released in a timeframe of "months."</p><p>Speaking over the phone from his home in Fairfax, Virginia, Hoffman frames OpenBazaar as more like Etsy than anything else. After all, it's an online marketplace where anyone can list items, with a review system - but without any burdensome transaction fees.</p><p>"I use Etsy is because that's what is primarily considered a market leader in what we know as peer to peer commerce online at the moment," he told me in a follow-up email. "I think the decentralised model where 'take rates' (the percentage cut the marketplace takes) are eliminated will force the incumbents to have to rethink their strategy for capturing profit from consumers. It will force them to have to think about new ways to provide value-added services rather than just raising fees on customers to make more money."</p><p><strong>Here's how a shopfront on OpenBazaar looks:</strong></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><h3>There are no issues with law enforcement - yet</h3><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Though still in its infancy, goods are already being sold through OpenBazaar. Hoffman brings up the honey he has bought, as well as a pen made from a bullet - one of his first purchases on the platform.</p><p>He says there has, as yet, been no problem with illegal goods being traded on the platform. But the 32-year-old computer science major is also realistic about the fact that there almost certainly will be, given time. </p><p>For now, OpenBazaar is trying to "curb blatant misuse," namely by not yet directly integrating support for anonymising software Tor. That's not to say users couldn't mask their identity before booting up the platform, however.</p><p>Hoffman is also careful to define OpenBazaar as a protocol, rather than a product - a distinction essential for keeping his hands clean of any potentially illegal activity carried out using the software. While the owner of a file-sharing site is responsible for any illegal content on it, the creator of the decentralised BitTorrent file-sharing protocol isn't criminally liable if it is used for illegal activity. They have no control over it - it's just a piece of code - and the same is true of OpenBazaar.</p><p>One wonders, however, if this distinction will be lost on the authorities. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/fbi-encryption-going-dark-isis-apple-facebook-whatsapp-steinbach-lieu-2015-6">Law enforcement is currently waging a concerted war on strong encryption products</a>, despite the urgings of security experts and tech companies, claiming that secure messaging aids terrorists and paedophiles. An online market that has the capacity to be used by drug dealers, criminals, and even terrorists to evade capture is guaranteed to come under very heavy scrutiny.</p><h3>Enter, Andreessen Horowitz</h3><p>Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures are two of tech's most-respected venture capital firms, and they're getting into bed with a project whose lead developer readily acknowledges may be used to distribute possibly illegal material.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Hoffman says he wasn't actively seeking venture capital investment, and their investment came almost "by accident," after being introduced by a mutual connection. </p><p>Chris Dixon leads the investment for Andreessen Horowitz, and managing partner Brad Burnham does the same for Union Square Ventures. Both are investing $500,000 in this seed round, and are joined by angel investor and board member William Mougaywar, who is investing $10,000. Neither Burnham nor Dixon are joining the board, which Hoffman concedes is likely because of the controversy the project has the potential to ignite.</p><p>While OpenBazaar is a non-profit project, the funds are being used to create OB1, a for-profit company that will build revenue-generating value-added services - such as shopfronts or escrow services - on top of the OpenBazaar protocol layer.</p><p>Burnham told me in an emailed statement that "OB1 will, of course, never knowingly offer its value added services to anyone using the OpenBazaar protocol to engage in illegal or morally questionable activities."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>But, he goes on, "the harder question is how to support the development of an open protocol, one that OB1 does not control, without encouraging, or endorsing, or even facilitating the misuse of that protocol. This calculus is further complicated by the fact that many contributors to the open source project are likely motivated by a mistrust of political or economic power. We do not have an easy answer. It would be disingenuous for us to say the OB1 team has no influence over the open source project. They are respected code contributors and are likely to encourage the development of the protocol through their own work and will now be in a position to offer bounties to encourage the development of specific features.  But there is no design principle that we can encourage, that would eliminate the possibility of misuse, without undermining the value inherent in a free and open marketplace, so the best we can do is aggressively advocate for the responsible use of the OpenBazaar protocol, be open and transparent ourselves, and be an example for others. "</p><p>Chris Dixon did not respond to a request for comment.</p><h3>What lies ahead for OpenBazaar?</h3><p>OpenBazaar, if it proves successful, is an obvious competitor to the likes of Etsy and eBay. But Hoffman suggests that rather than disrupting established businesses, companies could potentially implement the OpenBazaar protocol into their own services. "Our hope is [other businesses] don't view it as a competitor but as a technology to embrace and integrate within their existing platforms how they see fit. As OB1 we will attempt to work with those interested to discuss how that's feasible as well."</p><p>But it's an open question whether public companies worth billions of dollars would want to be associated with a technology like OpenBazaar. And similarly, it's up for debate whether normal consumers will want to use the network - knowing that, by doing so, they are helping keep online a market that could sell immoral contraband. Hoffman suggests that potentially objectionable content could be hidden from users unless they actively hunt for it. But whether "out of sight, out of mind" is enough remains to be seen.</p><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/08/openbazaar-not-for-drugs/">In an interview with Wired in September 2014</a>, Hoffman suggested that if OpenBazaar became overrun with illicit or immoral materials, he would "be willing to walk away from it." I asked him if he still held by that. "Yes, absolutely."</p><p class="tagline">Disclosure: Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, is an investor in Business Insider.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/supermarkets-shopping-tricks-layout-grocery-food-2015-1">5 Ways Supermarkets Trick You Into Spending More Money</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1iYW41bzr_vjHXCsCd2rpQ8gbIyrNecc" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Some of tech's biggest investors are funding a police-proof marketplace that lets you sell literally anything

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Flickr/cybershotking" title_caption="A web." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/52278f856bb3f70439316148-960/329184504_b58ce169f4_b.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cybershotking/">Flickr/cybershotking</a></span></p><p class="caption">A web.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Currently, when you access the internet on your phone, tablet or computer, you get to view websites and watch video at pretty much the same speed everyone else does. The traffic you create simply by browsing the web is treated equally by the companies that have built the infrastructure of the internet - internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast and AT&amp;T, and "interconnect" companies like Cogent and Level 3, which route and direct traffic between you and your internet provider.</p>
<p>This state of affairs, broadly, is called "net neutrality." Everyone gets the same treatment.</p>
<p>And it's about to change.</p>
<h3>New rules</h3>
<p>The FCC - which regulates how internet service providers are allowed to handle traffic - said yesterday that it would create new rules that may allow ISPs to treat traffic differently. Some people - companies big enough to pay extra, basically - may get faster internet than the rest of us. Here's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-fcc-will-lay-out-new-net-neutrality-rules-2014-4">what the FCC specifically said</a>:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">The NPRM [the FCC] will propose ... that broadband providers would be required to offer a baseline level of service to their subscribers, along with the ability to enter into individual negotiations with content providers. In all instances, broadband providers would need to act in a commercially reasonable manner subject to review on a case-by-case basis. Exactly what the baseline level of service would be, the construction of a 'commercially reasonable' standard, and the manner in which disputes would be resolved, are all among the topics on which the FCC will be seeking comment.</p>
<p>The devil, naturally, is in the details.</p>
<p>Instead of treating everyone equally, ISPs will only be required to give you a "baseline" level of service. Some people - again, likely companies rather than individuals - will be able to get faster, better service.</p>
<p>The change came about because <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-federal-appeals-court-has-struck-down-2014-1">a federal court recently ruled that the FCC does not have the power to regulate the Internet the same way it regulates phones</a>. With phones, companies have to supply everyone with the same hardwire service - even if they live way out in the countryside where it's very expensive to put up the lines. The web used to work that way too - companies had to give you the same service even if you cost them more - but that's now going to change.</p>
<h3>Some websites will get slower Internet services</h3>
<p>The big change will be around companies like Netflix. Currently, sometimes almost a third of all web traffic is Netflix's streaming movies. Netflix often accounts for nearly 50% of all web video streaming at any one time. Over time, companies like Comcast have gotten tired of serving bandwidth hogs like Netflix and paying for the privilege of doing so. By amazing coincidence, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-comcast-deal-explained-2014-2">the speed at which Comcast delivered Netflix movies started to get slower and slower</a>.</p>
<p>So Netflix reached a deal with Comcast: Netflix would pay Comcast for a direct connection between its servers and Comcast's, so that Netflix's traffic didn't have to go through the interconnect companies. As if by magic, <a href="https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/comcast-netflix-streaming-speeds-up-over-65-following-peering-agreement-2014-4">Netflix speeds went up again</a>. (This wasn't the first time that an ISP has made a major decision like this: In 2007, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/net-neutralityfor-dummies-and-how-it-effects-you-2014-1">Comcast blocked BitTorrent</a> and in 2005 <a href="http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&amp;b=1234951">Madison River Communications blocked people from making phone calls over the net</a>.)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-position-on-comcast-and-net-neutrality-2014-4">Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is actually hopping mad about this</a>: He believes that all companies' traffic should be treated equally, and if ISPs are in the business of providing the web service, they should do just that in aggregate -and not pick winners and losers based on the fees they're willing to pay.</p>
<p>Comcast, obviously, has the opposite view. If it is to serve Netflix at the same prices it serves your personal homepage on About.me, the Netflix is essentially getting a huge service for free, Comcast argues.</p>
<h3>'There is no free lunch'</h3>
<p>AT&amp;T has been even more blunt. Netflix has built a business that requires a huge amount of bandwidth, but it doesn't want to pay for it, <a href="http://www.attpublicpolicy.com/consumers-2/who-should-pay-for-netflix/">AT&amp;T argued recently</a>:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">As we all know, there is no free lunch, and there's also no cost-free delivery of streaming movies.  Someone has to pay that cost.  Mr. Hastings' arrogant proposition is that everyone else should pay but Netflix.  That may be a nice deal if he can get it.  But it's not how the Internet, or telecommunication for that matter, has ever worked.</p>
<p>The FCC's impending ruling will change this landscape a bit. It looks as if the FCC will require Comcast and AT&amp;T to offer Netflix et al. a baseline level of service, but companies will be able to pay to get faster service. The advantage, obviously, will go to the richest companies (or the companies whose web apps are so cleverly designed that they use bandwidth in a miserly fashion).</p>
<p>Moreover, today's "baseline" service may be perfectly adequate for most companies who only publish web sites. But in the future "baseline" broadband might be a bit like baseline 56K dial-up modem was in the 1990s - a miracle at the time, but completely hopeless now.</p>
<p>In other words, it would be the end of net neutrality and the winners would be those who pay to win. Even if you don't have a website yourself, you could see the effects in the loading times of sites you visit - some could slow way down comparatively. </p>
<h3>'They are flat out wrong'</h3>
<p>The FCC says that's <em>not</em> going to happen. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-fcc-will-lay-out-new-net-neutrality-rules-2014-4">FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said:</a></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">There are reports that the FCC is gutting the Open Internet rule. They are flat out wrong. Tomorrow we will circulate to the Commission a new Open Internet proposal that will restore the concepts of net neutrality consistent with the court's ruling in January. ... behavior that harms consumers or competition will not be permitted.</p>
<p>But ... as long as some players will be able to pay to get more than baseline service, it looks a lot like the "baseline" will end up being the lowest tier of service, for the web's low-bandwidth losers.</p>

Here's a Simple Explanation of Net Neutrality And How It Affects You - In Plain English

<div style="width: 100%; overflow: hidden;">
<p><span style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em>This post is part of the <keyword id="1737060" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Roadmap-To-The-Future">Roadmap To The Future</keyword> Series. Roadmap To The Future explores innovative industry trends and breakthroughs in science, entertainment, and technology. This series is sponsored by Verizon. </em></span></p>
</div><p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="caption">Tim Ferriss</p></div>Tim Ferriss is an entrepreneur, lifestyle hacker, and author who writes about how to optimize aspects of your life.</p>
<p><a href="http://amzn.to/LQjLlm">His newest book is 4-Hour Chef</a>, and while there are plenty of recipes in it, it's actually about about how to maximize your learning ability. Ferriss teaches the reader the techniques he used to go from being indifferent towards cooking to becoming a kitchen warrior.</p>
<p>Ferriss' previous books, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded/dp/0307465357">4-Hour Workweek</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Body-Incredible-Superhuman/dp/030746363X">4-Hour Body</a>, were released through conventional publishers, but he's one of a growing number of A-list authors opting to go with <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword>'s publishing model instead.</p>
<p>We conducted a brief email interview with Ferriss to get his thoughts on where books and publishing are heading, and here are some of the highlights on what he had to say:</p>
<ul>
<li>Publishers need to behave more like talent agencies or venture capital firms to survive.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Despite being boycotted by Barnes &amp; Noble, he doesn't regret his decision to publish through an Amazon property.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>E-books are a net positive for the publishing industry.</li>
</ul>
<p>Here's the full Q&amp;A:</p>
<p><strong>BUSINESS INSIDER: How does the experience of releasing 4-Hour Chef through Amazon compare to releasing your other books through more conventional publishers?</strong></p>
<p><strong>TIM FERRISS:</strong>  I was penalized for the bestseller lists (due to the Barnes and Noble boycott, etc.), but I was able to get incredible Amazon on-site promotion and data intelligence.  Wondering who's buying your books, where, and which sites are driving the most Real converting traffic to your book page?  I have that insight now, which I never had before.  It's been extremely cool and will inform everything I do in the future. </p>
<p>Plus, in the end, the boycott didn't do much damage; The 4-Hour Chef still hit all the lists and now has more than 1,000 reviews.  I gauge success in years, not weeks.  The weekend box-office approach to book launches is short sighted and encourages crappy books.</p>
<p><strong>BI: Could you see yourself returning to a Big Six publisher for your next book?</strong><br /><br /><strong>TF: </strong>Never say never, right?  It depends entirely on my goals (i.e. NYT list versus revenue versus critical acclaim, etc.).  It also depends on what strengths publishers maintain, develop, or lose.  Publishers need to be more like CAA or WME (or venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz) than printers to survive.  All that said, I think it's more likely I'd so something completely solo as an experiment before anything else.<br /><br /><strong>BI: How much of a liability was it to not have 4-Hour Chef in Barnes &amp; Noble and other retailers?</strong></p>
<p><strong>TF:</strong>  I won't lie: it hurts.  I'm pro-reader, not anti-bookstore.  So to see B&amp;N drive their own customers to competitors, to inconvenience their true retail fans, bothers me.  That's anti-reader behavior.  It's also not fun to get handicapped on the lists, to be sure.  That said, I don't regret my decision.</p>
<p>The controversy turned into a great David(me)-vs-Goliath(B&amp;N) story that helped drive the book video trailer to more than 1.25 million views, for instance.  It's the most viewed non-fiction book trailer of all-time thanks to B&amp;N.</p>
<p><strong>BI: Are e-books ultimately good or bad for the publishing industry? Somewhere in between?</strong></p>
<p><strong>TF: </strong>Depends on which party, I suppose.  I view it as net positive.  It will unearth gems and give chances to people who would have otherwise ended up in some publisher's slush pile.  Simultaneously, it will create avalanches of garbage and noise that all authors – traditional or otherwise – need to fight through to get noticed.  I've written <a href="http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/">extensive how-to articles on my blog</a> about this, but <a href="http://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Marketing-Violate/dp/0887306667">"The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing"</a> is also a good starting point for would-be best-selling authors.<br /><br /><strong>BI: In your personal experience, how big or real of a problem is e-book piracy? Is there a way to curb or stop it?</strong></p>
<p><strong>TF: </strong>I'm not overly concerned about it.  Keep in mind that <a href="http://featuredcontent.utorrent.com/4hourchef/">I partnered with BitTorrent to promote The 4-Hour Chef</a>. I gave away 2.5 gigabytes of content, including big parts of the book, cut chapters, behind-the-scenes video, etc. It was downloaded more than 1.5 million times in the first 10 days and had more than a 60% (I believe) click-through rate to the Amazon book page. The best way to "curb" piracy is to use the very same <keyword id="47094" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tools">tools</keyword> to promote your best content.</p>
<p><strong>BI: What's the future of books, physical and otherwise?</strong></p>
<p><strong>TF:</strong>  I wish I knew.  Actually, scratch that.  I'm glad I don't know.  It makes the experimentation all the more fun.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fourhourchef.com">Learn more about Tim's book here</a> or <a href="http://amzn.to/LQjLlm"><strong>buy it on Amazon &gt;</strong></a></p><p class="tagline">Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.</p>

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