Alleged Russian boss of Bitcoin ‘money-laundering scheme’ wants to go home

Alexander Vinnik, the alleged operator of troubled cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e (who is wanted in several countries for his potential involvement in a Bitcoin fraud case) has lodged an appeal for extradition to his native Russia.

Vinnik, who has reportedly been on hunger strike for three months, was arrested in July 2017 at the behest of the US Justice Department, accused of laundering billions of dollars with Bitcoin. He was on a family holiday in Greece at the time.

The extradition request has been made based on “humanitarian reasons.” Vinnik’s lawyers claim his life is at risk – he was reportedly transported to the court by ambulance – and argue the charges against him are baseless.

The lawyers have also thrown shade at the Greek justice system for holding him for more than the maximum 18-month period allowed for pre-trial detention.

Founded in 2011, BTC-e is reported to have handled approximately 5 percent of Bitcoin’s trading volume, although subsequent research revealed that as much 95 percent of ransomware-related cashouts took place through the platform.

An attempt to shut down the exchange was made by the US Justice Department when they charged Vinnik (and BTC-e) with allegedly running an international money laundering operation featuring funds from the hack of Mt. Gox on July 26, 2017, in an epic 21-count indictment.

The domain name was seized, with a statement later emerging showing BTC-e promising to return at some stage.

Cryptocurrency exchange WEX launched in September 2017, looking to cater to its unserviced user base. It even bears a striking resemblance to the now-defunct BTC-e.

But WEX was quick to separate itself from BTC-e, claiming it had no relation with the latter.

Vinnik, though, has maintained his innocence throughout saying : “I do not consider myself guilty […] The fact that I worked for BTC-e and did my job, and it’s not justifiable to accuse me of it. I found out about the charge about a month after I was taken into custody. This was told to me by my Russian lawyer.”

BTC-e was handed a $110 million fine and Vinnik received a $12 million penalty. If he is convicted in the US, Vinnik could face a maximum of 55 years behind bars.

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Traveling the world on cryptocurrency alone is tricky, but possible

Two years ago, Felix Weiss, a software developer, inspired awe from the entire cryptocurrency community when he traveled the world for 18 months using only Bitcoin . As more businesses around the world appear to accept cryptocurrency payments, I wonder if repeating this feat is easier now in 2018.

I tracked down travel services accepting cryptocurrencies to see how luxurious or humble your travel experience would be if you decide to take the Weiss route.

There are multiple airline booking services that accept cryptocurrency payments. CheapAirom, a US online travel agency, was the first to start accepting Bitcoin in 2013. The flight booking service currently also accepts Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Dash payments.

Today there are multiple other services who do the same, such as Expedia , BTCtriom , Destiniaom , Japan’s Peach Aviation , California’s Surf Air , and Latvia’s airBaltic , and A Bit Sky .

This one isn’t hard. Most of the travel agencies (including Expedia, Destinia, CheapAir) that let you book your flights with cryptocurrency also let you book accommodation. Airbnb-like services such as 99Flats and CryptoCribs also let you pay in cryptocurrencies for your accommodation. Depending upon which part of the world you are traveling to, finding a place to stay shouldn’t be too hard.

This one is a little tricky. While you can book your flights and accommodation online with services that accept cryptocurrency payments, for food you will need to track down local restaurants that will accept your digital gold. There are only scattered restaurants and cafes around the world that accept cryptocurrencies, such as the Suryawanshi family restaurant chain in Bangalore, India or La Sirene in Manhattan. Try using CoinMap to see if any restaurant near you accept cryptocurrency.

If you don’t have any luck, there is still the option to buy food coupons with cryptocurrencies from services such as Gyft or eGifter . Local exchanges in some countries also give you an option to buy gift cards with cryptocurrencies, including coupons for food.

Shopping with cryptocurrency is not nearly as difficult as buying food. Use CoinMap to find the stores accepting cryptocurrencies around you, which are far greater in number compared to restaurants.

If you end up at Brisbane International Airport in Australia, all the merchants there already accept payments in cryptocurrencies .

While some online stores such as Overstockom and Shopify-based stores accept cryptocurrency, shopping at local shops for a souvenir might be difficult.

What if you are stuck in a situation where no one is taking your cryptocurrency payments and you have no cash? Your last bet is to find a cryptocurrency ATM around you and cash out your cryptocurrencies!

The number of businesses supporting cryptocurrencies has increased greatly, making it far easier to attempt the Weiss challenge, but it remains a challenge to travel with nothing else.

So, cryptocurrency nerds, are you ready to try the Weiss route?

Ripple donates $29 million worth of XRP to an American public school charity

Ripple has donated $29 million to fund school supplies for students in public schools in the US. This donation was made through DonorsChooserg , a non-profit organization that allows individuals to donate directly to public school classroom projects.

Ripple announced the donation on its website yesterday:

The website even went down after the announcement of the donation. However, new requests are increasingly getting listed again on the DonorsChoose website.

Ripple’s announcement of the donation even ended up on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, who reported that Ripple’s donation fulfilled all the 35,000 requests listed at that time on the website. As per him, it’s also the largest donation ever made to DonorsChoose in its history:

Ripple is known to hold approximately 62 percent of all XRP tokens’ supply. This fact has attracted a lot of criticism from the wider cryptocurrency community, on the basis that the hold of Ripple over these tokens technically makes it centralized and gives Ripple an undue advantage for tampering with the supply-demand balance.

In reaction to this criticism from the community and the fear among investors, Ripple locked 55 billion XRP tokens in an escrow, which allows it to sell up to 1 billion XRP tokens per year.

While the exact motivation behind this donation cannot be pin-pointed, it may be seen as a ploy to affect market sentiments. Ripple reached its maximum market value at $3.65 at the start of this year, however is currently priced at only $0.58, as the entire cryptocurrency market continues to suffer.

It’s good that Ripple has opted to spend some of its resources for a good cause, but that doesn’t absolve them from having kept most of the entire coin supply to themselves and keeping monopoly over a currency that is supposed to be decentralized.