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The Bitcoin Foundation's new chief says that crowdfunding could help secure the future of the group that promotes the development of the digital currency.

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Bruce Fenton, once a Morgan Stanley stockbroker, has just been appointed executive director, according to the foundation's blog, replacing Patrick Murck, who was interim executive director.

The foundation faces financial problems linked to the drop in the value of its bitcoin holdings.

"I'm confident that we can run a lean and effective foundation and run at a budget surplus by using our resources carefully," Fenton said via email, adding he has not had a chance to review the foundation's assets in detail yet.

"I'd also like to see us use more decentralized tools like crowdfunding," Fenton said. Crowdfunding can be a creative way for members to support the projects they care about, he added.

He also stressed the need for feedback and engagement from corporate and individual members of the foundation.

Fenton, founder of investment firm Atlantic Financial in Massachusetts, worked at Morgan Stanley in the 1990s, specializing in emerging technologies. He is a member of the Bitcoin Association, another bitcoin promotion group, and has organized the Dubai Bitcoin Conference and advised bitcoin startups.

Fenton takes the helm of an organization marked by controversy. His appointment follows the rejection of board member Olivier Janssens' claim that it is effectively bankrupt.

Among its founding members are Charlie Shrem, who pleaded guilty to transmitting money linked to the Silk Road online drugs site, and Mark Karpeles, who presided over the collapse of MtGox, once the world's largest trading place for bitcoin. Board members have quit in frustration or spoken out against the foundation.

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Bitcoin Foundation new boss looks to crowdfunding to secure future

The newly appointed head of the Bitcoin Foundation, a group that promotes development of the digital currency, believes crowdfunding is one part of the solution for its troubled finances.

A one-time Morgan Stanley stockbroker, investment advisor Bruce Fenton was appointed executive director based on a vote of five ayes to one abstention by the groups board of directors, the foundation wrote on its blog. He replaces Patrick Murck, who was interim executive director.

The move follows an admission by the foundation that it faces large financial problems linked to the drop in the value of its bitcoin holdings. It rejected board member Olivier Janssens claim that it is effectively bankrupt.

Im confident that we can run a lean and effective foundation and run at a budget surplus by using our resources carefully, Fenton said via email, adding he has not had a chance to review the foundations assets in detail yet.

Id also like to see us use more decentralized tools like crowdfunding, Fenton said. Crowdfunding can be a creative way for members to support the projects they care about, he added.

He also stressed the need for feedback and engagement from corporate and individual members of the foundation.

Fenton, founder of investment firm Atlantic Financial in Massachusetts, worked at Morgan Stanley in the 1990s, specializing in emerging technologies. He is a member of the Bitcoin Association, another bitcoin promotion group, and has organized the Dubai Bitcoin Conference and advised bitcoin startups.

Fenton takes the helm of an organization marked by controversy. Among its founding members are Charlie Shrem, who pleaded guilty to transmitting money linked to the Silk Road online drugs site, and Mark Karpeles, who presided over the collapse of MtGox, once the worlds largest trading place for bitcoin. Board members have quit in frustration or spoken out against the foundation.

Tim Hornyak reports on IT, telecommunications, science, and technology in Japan for the IDG News Service. More by Tim Hornyak

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New Bitcoin Foundation chief eyes crowdfunding

Bitcoin is completely decentralised, which means that no single authority can prevent trades from being made, or blacklist buyers and sellers. Photograph: Siegfried Layda/Getty Images

Paedophiles are using the digital currency bitcoin to buy child sexual abuse images online, according to the Internet Watch Foundation.

In its annual report for 2014, the group, which is tasked with attacking the problem of child abuse images online, said a number of the most prolific commercial child sexual abuse websites started accepting the currency as a payment for images last year. It discovered 37 websites selling the images for bitcoins between January and April 2014.

The group said that illegal content was being sold in folders on legitimate websites which had been hacked, and that URLs for the websites were distributed via spam emails.

Bitcoin has a number of properties which make it well suited for trading illegal material such as child sex abuse images. The cryptocurrency is completely decentralised, which means that no single authority can prevent trades from being made, or blacklist buyers and sellers.

It is also largely pseudonymous, and there is nothing inherent to a bitcoin wallet that links it to any real-world individual. When the currency is used with care, it can be nearly impossible to discover the people behind online trades a fact which was responsible for bitcoins first major real-world use, underpinning the online drugs marketplace the Silk Road.

But while the currency is often described as anonymous and untraceable, there are a number of elements to its design which law enforcement authorities have been able to use to track down people attempting to use bitcoin illegally. The decentralised nature of the currency means that every single transaction is made in public, and in order to convert bitcoins into a conventional currency, they must typically be bought and sold through a bitcoin exchange. Those exchanges are often legally required to keep detailed records on customers, in order to comply with money-laundering regulations.

The IWF said it was working with several of the worlds largest bitcoin exchanges to share intelligence and develop strategies for preventing the currency being used by distributors of child sexual abuse images.

Emma Hardy, the IWFs director of external relations, said: One area we look at in particular is the commerciality of child sexual abuse images and videos people who want to buy and sell this type of content online.

We noticed for the first time ever last year that cryptocurrency or bitcoin was being used.

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Paedophiles sell child abuse images for bitcoin

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office and four town police departments were infected with the "megacode" virus.

In an effort to keep their computer files from being destroyed, a group of cooperative police departments in Maine paid a $300 ransom demandin bitcoin.

According to local news station WCSH-TV, the shared computer system of the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office and four town police departments was infected with the "megacode" virus.

When someone using the communal network accidentally downloaded the virus, an encryption code locked all the computer data, holding it for ransom. After the $300 fee was paid via a bitcoin transfer, the police received a code to unlock the encryption and restore their files.

"We needed our programs to get back online," Damariscotta Police Chief Ron Young told WCSH-TV. "And that was a choice we all discussed and took to get back on line to get our information."

There is no official word on who carried out the attack; the FBI could only track the bitcoin payment to a Swiss bank account.

The hackcommonly known as ransomwareis a virus that blackmails users by encrypting their hard drives or locking them out of their computer. The only way to gain access again: pay the monetary demand. There is no guarantee, however, that the machine will be restored.

A similar struggle was depicted in a fall episode of CBS drama The Good Wife. The hackers demanded $50,000 on the show, but real-life ransoms are typically a much less pricey $200 to $400.

A common currency for paying off hackers, bitcoin was named the world's worst legal tender for 2014 by Bloomberg, which said bitcoin peaked at around $1,130 in 2013, landing at $320 by the end of last year.

For more, see Everything You Need to Know About Bitcoin.

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Maine Police Pay Ransomware Demand in Bitcoin

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