Mr. Karpeles (Photo: Twitter)

Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security shut down Bitcoin trading platform Mt. Gox's ability to accept or send transfers using Dwolla, a mobile payment service. A representative from Dwolla told Betabeat that the DHS had sent them a "seizure warrant" for the account, but declined to provide further detail. Now, in the warrant, obtained by Ars Technica, the reason for the seizure has been revealed: DHS believes Mt. Gox is operating an "unlicensed money transmitting business."

In the warrant, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations states that he has reason to believe Mt. Gox is breaking 18 U.S.C. section 1960, a crime punishable by up to 5 years in jail. The law reads:

(a) Whoever knowingly conducts, controls, manages, supervises, directs, or owns all or part of an unlicensed money transmitting business, shall be fined in accordance with this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
(b) As used in this section—
(1) the term “unlicensed money transmitting business” means a money transmitting business which affects interstate or foreign commerce in any manner or degree...

According to the warrant, DHS used an undercover informant who bought Bitcoins using Dwolla and then had them converted to dollars. Explains Ars:

Tracing that money, HSI was able to see that the money passed through a Wells Fargo account, number 7657841313, which was created by a single authorized signer: Mark Karpeles, the president and CEO of Mt. Gox.

Because Mr. Karpeles did not register Mt. Gox as a money transferring business when he opened the Wells Fargo account, the DHS says they have the right to seize the funds in Mt. Gox's Dwolla account, which is comprised of "Mt. Gox customers that withdraw said funds from Mt. Gox and direct their transfer to Dwolla."

You can read the full warrant here.

So natural to use. (Photo: Verge/PayPal)

PayPal is dropping processing charges for users of its mobile payment platform in an attempt to better take on Square and Groupon. [Verge]

Google is expected to debut a competitor to Spotify later today. Which one of you asked for this? [New York Times]

This is happening: "Boost VC is launching a fund of at least $300,000, called the Boost Bitcoin Fund to invest in Bitcoin startups." [Forbes]

Airware, a company that creates the insides of unmanned drones, is now freshly funded. Andreessen Horowitz just pumped a $10.7 million Series A funding into it. [TechCrunch]

A Blackberry BBM app is coming to iPhone and Android phones this summer if you still remember your pins. [BGR]

(Photo: Silicon Angle)

Update: Warrant Reveals Homeland Security Seized Mt. Gox’s Dwolla Account for ‘Unlicensed Money Transmitting’

The Department of Homeland Security appears to have shut down the ability to use Dwolla, a mobile payment service, to withdraw and deposit money into Mt. Gox, a Bitcoin trading platform. A Dwolla representative confirmed the move to Betabeat. Chris Coyne, cofounder of OKCupid, posted a screenshot of an email he received from Dwolla, stating that due to recent orders from the Department of Homeland Security, Dwolla cannot complete the bank transfer to Mt. Gox.

A representative for Dwolla told Betabeat that the company is "not party" to this matter and encourages those with questions to reach out to Mt. Gox or the DHS.

"The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a 'Seizure Warrant' for the funds associated with Mutum Sigillium’s Dwolla account (a.k.a. Mt. Gox)," he said. "In light of the court order, procured by the Department of Homeland Security, Dwolla has ceased all account activities associated with Dwolla services for Mutum Sigillum while Dwolla’s holding partner transferred Mutum Sigillium’s balance, per the warrant."

"Dwolla requires a court order before honoring requests such as seizing funds or revoking access to an account," he added.

Here's a screenshot of the email, posted to Hacker News:

Update: Here is what Mt. Gox sent us in response to a request for comment:

Thank you for the email. We can see that the Dwolla transactions are not getting processed right now. We will contact Dwolla and post an announcement regarding this. Your patience is appreciated till then.

Update 2: Mt. Gox has posted the following comment to its Facebook page:

Like many who have contacted us, MtGox has read on the Internet that the United States Department of Homeland Security had a court order and/or warrant issued from the United States District Court in Maryland which it served upon the Dwolla mobile payment service with respect to accounts used for trading with MtGox. We take this information seriously. However, as of this time we have not been provided with a copy of the court order and/or warrant, and do not know its scope and/or the reasons for its issuance. MtGox is investigating and will provide further reports when additional information becomes known.

Photo: Macro Sea

"New Lab" For Brooklyn Navy Yard Real estate developer Macro Sea opened the first "beta" portion of its New Lab project at the Brooklyn Navy Yard yesterday, a year ahead of schedule. The opening, which was attended by City Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn and Borough President Marty Markowitz, will welcome a "first-of-its-kind advanced manufacturing hub" which will be the centerpiece of the Brooklyn Navy Yard's 220,000 square foot Green Manufacturing Center. The New Lab will give entrepreneurs a place to create and test their businesses alongside other engineers and designers. Maybe the first thing they can figure out is an easy way to actually get to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

More Bitcoins With Gift Cards Mobile gift card company Gyft is the most recent business to jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon, agreeing to let users who purchase gift cards on its Android platform use Bitcoins as a purchasing method. Gyft is partnering with Bitcoin payment system BitPay for the transactions, which will now open 50,000 physical locations including GAP, Lowes, Sephora, GameStop, American Eagle, Sports Authority, Nike, Marriott, Burger King, Fandango, Brookstone, and more to customers wishing to use Bitcoins.

City Council Approve Tech Campus The New York City Council voted Wednesday to approve the building of Cornell's Roosevelt Island Tech campus. The vote is the final step in the city’s land use review process for Cornell NYC Tech, the two million-square-foot applied sciences and engineering campus that will be located at the Goldwater Hospital site on the island. The vote also included a number of programs associated with the campus that will be instituted, including a one-year summer ferry pilot program to the island.

Meetup For Women In Tech Google is teaming up with Personal Democracy Forum to offer 15 free registration/fellowships to their 10th annual Tech/Politics/Advocacy Conference, which will be held June 6-7 in New York. PDF is apparently looking for women who are "deploying new applications of technology in the political or civic arenas." While coding & dev skills are a plus, they aren’t required, so ladies with any level of tech skills should consider applying. The lineup already includes Becky Bond, Catherine Bracy, Kimberly Bryant, Sara Critchfield, Jaclyn Friedman, Dan Gillmor, Joi Ito, Nancy Lublin, Liz Mair, Nate Silver, Ben Rattray, Harper Reed and Douglas Rushkoff along with top execs from Github, Google, Uber, Union Square Ventures, with more to be announced later. Personal Democracy Forum is aiming for 50/50 representation of women onstage,which is probably some sort of record.

Film Startup Gains Investors Digital distribution service Yekra, known for its “AffiliateConnect” feature which allows studios, networks, and filmmakers to build movie for specific audiences by genre or topic, announced it raised $3 million in a recent round of seed funding from Angel Maurice Gallagher and Bray Capital. Next Thursday, the site will premier the digital release of the new art culture documentary Tattoo Nation, which features Danny Trejo, Travis Barker, Ed Hardy and other icons of the tattoo world.

Art Meets Tech Marina Abramović and Siena Oristaglio will be speaking about the cross section of tech and art next Wednesday at 7 p.m., at an event hosted by General Assembly. The Serbian performance artist will be speaking alongside her social media developer Oristaglio about the development of the MAI Institue as well, which will open in Hudson, New York, in the near future, and will pursue "a role in culture by seeking productive unions between the arts, science, technology, spirituality and education."

(Photo: Flickr.com/gpaumier)

Facebook is now a Fortune 500 company. [USA Today]

We still don't know the true identity of "Satoshi Nakamoto," the enigma who created Bitcoin. But we do know that he/she is likely filthy rich. [The Verge]

Checking in with the progress of the city's tech campuses. [New York Daily News]

"There are many problems with the assumptions behind the “big data” narrative (above, in a reductive form) being pushed, primarily, by consultants and IT firms that want to sell businesses the next big thing." [Quartz]

Linguists have identified a few words they say have been kicking around, in one form or another, for 15,000 years. It's a pretty obvious list: "fire," "mother," "not." [Washington Post]

(Photo: Flickr.com/29311691@N05)

You can buy Domino's pizza and busted Mercedes convertibles and a night in a Howard Johnson's with Bitcoin, the digital cryptocurrency that's taken New York and beyond by storm. Now added to the roster of ridiculous things available for purchase with Internet money: a beautiful $1.9M condo in the fancy Trump SoHo building.

DNAInfo reports that the one-bedroom, 741-square-foot unit was listed today on BitPremier, a marketplace for luxurious goods purchasable with Bitcoin. If you're hoping to write a check for the swanky digs, you might want to make it out to Mt. Gox: the owner is only accepting Bitcoin. In total, the apartment will cost about 18,547.617 in Bitcoin. Chump change, ya know.

Maybe BitInstant founder Charlie Shrem has finally found a pad worth moving out of his parents' basement for?

Googlers? (Photo: ConferenceBike)

The bizarre tale of Google's takeover of Provo's fiber network is getting even weirder. The search giant billed the Utah city $500,000 to locate where the wires are hidden since the company that installed them didn’t keep proper records of where they were buried. [Ars Technica]

Matthew Keys, the beleaguered former Reuters deputy social media editor, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he conspired with Anonymous to break-in and attack websites of his former employer, Tribune. His next court date is June 12. [Huffington Post]

“Anytime I’m at a dinner or an event, social or business, people are buzzing about Tinder." And with those words spoken, a Times profile of the dating app was born. [New York Times]

Google houses more than 1,300 colorful bikes in a warehouse near its Mountain View headquarters for employees to use because there's no perk not offered there. Were you expecting anything less? [Wired]

PayPal said that it's "kinda thinking about" introducing Bitcoin as a form of payment in its system. [Silicon Angle]

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is officially on Twitter. No word if he's #TeamFollowback. [TNW]

Bitcoins don't look like this. (Photo: ThreatTrack)

A Russian porn website is infecting people’s computers with malware that overtakes their systems to mine for Bitcoins. (Pretty sure that's the most Internetty sentence in history.) PCWorld reports that the malware (called "Fareit") has been circulating for the past six months and only affects Windows computers.

Bitcoin, a decentralized digital currency, is exchanged via peer-to-peer software. But, as PCWorld explains, it takes computer power to "mine" the coins:

New bitcoins are created by mining, or contributing computing power that is used to verify transactions, which are entered into a public ledger called the blockchain.

New blocks are created about every ten minutes, and miners who create a new block are rewarded with 25 bitcoins, the preset reward set by the Bitcoin's system's pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Fareit, which was coded in Cyrillic, infiltrates the victim’s computer and installs a mining application to create Bitcoins. The hackers use the computer to compute parts of the blockchain which is then sent to Russian domains.

Since Bitcoin sellers are rewarded for adding more blocks to the chains, the sketchy sites earn a profit from your computer, according to a blog post on security firm ThreatTrack.

To block the threat, keep your antivirus software up-to-date. Or just ignore the existence of Bitcoins

Oh hello.

There are now 150 million Snapchats sent every day. Very few of them are sent by people older than 30. [Business Insider]

Facebook is testing ads in your Graph Search, but so far they're not based on your searches. (So you won't get an eHarmony ad when you search "ex-girlfriends who I still love.") [TechCrunch]

The founder of the Silk Road--who goes by the name "Dread Pirate Roberts"--isn't too worried about Bitcoin booms and busts. “Bitcoin’s foundation, its algorithms and network, don’t change with the exchange rate." [Forbes]

The New York Times won a Pulitzer for investigating Apple's business practices. [Pulitzer]

Meanwhile, Funny or Die has released iSteve, its very own movie about Steve Jobs. [Funny or Die]

How it looks. (Photo: OKCupid)

Good news, singletons: you can now spend your Bitcoins to help you get laid. OKCupid has begun accepting the popular decentralized digital currency as a form of payment. Payments will be accepted via Bitcoin wallet website Coinbase, according to an announcement on its blog.

Betabeat first reported two weeks ago that the IAC-backed site was considering accepting Bitcoins after a Reddit user posted a screenshot from an alleged OKCupid representative claiming that the company was looking to expand its payment options. 

Now, the news is official. When we logged in to our OKCupid account, we noticed there's an option for Bitcoin payments on the site’s “A-List” premium subscription service page. The link directs users to Coinbase to complete the payment.

OKCupid charges users $10 per month to access the enhanced features, like message read receipts and the ability to creep on profiles without the person knowing. Today Bitcoin is trading at $61, which means a six month subscription comes out to about .5 BTC.

We reached out for comment from OKCupid but have not yet heard back.

The Next Web notes that OKCupid’s acceptance of Bitcoins lends further legitimacy to the budding currency:

OKCupid’s user base isn’t exactly the kind that you’d think is familiar with or already dabbling in Bitcoins, and there’s a real irony in allowing an anonymous currency to be used on a dating site — where trust is a big factor — but the fact that OKCupid is making this move demonstrates the mainstream attention that digital currencies are receiving right now.

Smize harder, Bitcoins: it's your time to shine!