Prices rise and supply shrinks ahead of Vietnam’s gold ban. http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Economy/230122/gold-supplies-dwindle-ahead-of-ban.html

http://www.livetradingnews.com/gold-price-in-vietnam-rises-to-12-month-high-86080.htm#.UFz_u1EpqA5

Stories of ‘ghost inventories’ in China’s steel industry makes GATA wonder if LBMA and gold and silver ETFs are next in line for inventory verification. http://www.gata.org/node/11751

A talk by Mike Hearn at the London Bitcoin conference discusses how the Bitcoin protocol can be modified to include exotic new transaction types. These could include a micro-Payment channel, assurance contracts, smart property, lock times and cross-chain trading. Fascinating stuff.

Listen to it here, http://vocaroo.com/i/s0rbwBRBSKxn (audio not so great.) Or read about it here, http://codinginmysleep.com/exotic-transaction-types-with-bitcoin/

Bitfloor thieves have yet to spend their stolen hoard. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19633980

BitInstant’s Charlie Shrem and Erik Voorhees went to Rio de Janeiro for the annual Global Payments Forum held by the North American Payments Association (NACHA) to speak about Bitcoin. A long but entertaining account of their trip can be found here, http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/9/15/brazil-and-the-global-payments-forum.html

What I found the most interesting about story is Mr Voorhees take on a presentation by a senior legal counsel to the Federal Reserve.

“The last presentation of the whole event was by far the most intriguing. On the surface it sounded quite dull, “The Implications of Dodd-Frank Section 1073”, and it was delivered by a conservative, senior legal counsel to the Federal Reserve, but in fact it became a perfect demonstration of two things:

a)      How crippling regulation is going to drive business toward Bitcoin, inevitably

b)      How this same regulation will be unable to cripple Bitcoin itself, inevitably

… My take away from this last session was the revelation that Bitcoin eviscerates entire statutes of law. Bitcoin will result in a number of “legal impotencies,” while simultaneously offering an alternative to the business and money that is being stifled by these same laws in the normal economy. I think Barney Frank may just be, inadvertently, Bitcoin’s new VIP star player. Perhaps he should be BitInstant’s Employee of the Month. Such laws will continue to weigh down Bitcoin’s competitors, inadvertently strengthening the use case for a system which undermines their entire apparatus of monetary control. The irony is beautiful.”

Another community currency, the Bristol Pound. http://bristolpound.org/

The Vietnam government continues its ‘war on gold’ as it attempts to push the use of its own currency, the Dong, on a population that stubbornly continues to view gold as money. http://therealasset.co.uk/vietnams-war-gold/

GATA secretary scheduled to appear on Russia Today’s ‘Capital Account’ program on Tuesday. The video should be posted here, http://rt.com/programs/capital-account/, shortly after the broadcast.

Bitcoin Magazine discusses how the Bitcoin community should police itself in the wake of a recent large Bitcoin theft. “What this ultimately boils down to is that the Bitcoin community needs to have a serious conversation about the way that it handles the judicial process. So far, everyone involved has been very unwilling to make any overtures to established police authorities, presumably wishing instead to establish an alternate extralegal “lex mercatoria” to handle Bitcoin-related cases in an ad-hoc fashion.”  http://bitcoinmagazine.net/the-july-13-bitcoinica-investigation-and-sound-justice/

London Bitcoin Conference http://www.bitcoin2012.com/

During his appearance in front of the House Subcommittee on Financial Services, Mr Grey of the American Open Currency Standard questioned Representative Paul understanding of legal tender laws and stated that he is in favor of leaving them in place. He explains is stance on the issue in a blog post along with a few interesting notes on his experiences at the House hearing. http://www.opencurrency.com/5-things-i-learned-from-d-c/

James Fayed, former owner of e-billion, has withdrawn claims to $22mil+ in seized bank funds and precious metals. The funds will be forfeited to the US and Australian governments. A few more details can be found here. http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=550982&CategoryId=12396

http://www.tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/business/gold-bars-to-be-traded-by-state-monopolies-only-1.67544

With the new rules set to take effect in only 6 months, many small gold shops in Vietnam are becoming pawn shops in an effort to escape the decree.

http://www.tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/business/gold-shops-turn-into-pawnshops-to-flout-bullion-ban-1.79735