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IRS casts unusually wide net for bitcoin user data

Payments Source

A request by the IRS for user data from a bitcoin exchange highlights simmering tensions between compliance and customer privacy for financial institutions and will test how those demands are balanced in the young field of cryptocurrency.

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IRS Offers $625K For Help Cracking Cryptocurrency Secrecy

PYMNTS

The United States may have some of the world's best cryptographers working for the National Security Agency and other spy shops, but the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is crowdsourcing at least part of its effort to beat the algorithms that cloak information about certain cryptocurrencies. Even the U.S.

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DA’s Office In Pennsylvania Pays Ransom In Bitcoin

PYMNTS

At a time when the IRS is trying to find out the identities behind bitcoin users, the Pennsylvania Allegheny County District Attorney’s office revealed it had to use bitcoin to pay a ransom to get its data back. Last month, news broke that the IRS is actively looking for bitcoin-based tax evasion.

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California judge grants IRS request for Coinbase customer data

Payments Source

A federal court in California has accepted a controversial request from the IRS to obtain the records of possibly millions of users of the bitcoin exchange Coinbase.

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Bitcoin Daily: IRS To Meet With Crypto Groups; Thieves Take $630,000 In Ether From Lender bZx

PYMNTS

The IRS has invited cryptocurrency groups to meet for a regulatory summit March 3 to discuss how the two can work together going forward, published reports said Tuesday (Feb. The overall theme will be balancing taxpayer services with the IRS’ regulatory needs.

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Bitcoin Tracker: Bitcoin Flies High

PYMNTS

Only two days in, and December has already been good to bitcoin. This week saw bitcoin’s price jump over its previous 2016 high to reach a high of $778.14 These things can change by the minute, as all cryptocurrency users well know, but the end of November and the first few days of December appear to have been good to bitcoin holders.

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Scammers Love Bitcoin, But Consumers Aren’t So Enthusiastic

PYMNTS

With transactions that become irreversible almost instantaneously, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are winning new converts — among scammers eager to avoid credit card chargebacks that can eat into their ill-gotten gains. Jack Dorsey Likes Bitcoin, But So Do Crooks . For example, the U.S. A month earlier, the U.S.

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