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, for an old-media expense account!

Well, here's one way to cover the exorbitant cost of a parking space in New York City: peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace RelayRides just announced a big partnership with General Motors and OnStar, meant to make it easier for drivers to rent out their idle vehicles, Airbnb-style.

That is, if you can convince yourself to trust a complete stranger with your car.

RelayRides announced today that OnStar subscribers can now leverage the system to make renting out their cars simpler. Renters will be able to unlock OnStar-equipped cars using only their mobile phones, a.k.a. the one device most of us are practically guaranteed never to lose.

The company launched in Boston just over two years ago, then expanded to San Francisco in late 2010. A nationwide launch came in March, though up until now renters have typically had to pick up the keys in person.

Besides simplifying the car exchange process, it sounds like this partnership is another way for RelayRides to confront that whole "giving up your car" issue. From a statement released today:

“Using the OnStar API to access GM vehicles empowers RelayRides to make car sharing even safer and more convenient,” said Shelby Clark, RelayRides founder and Chief Community Officer. “The sheer number of vehicles eligible for the program allows us to greatly expand across the U.S. and introduce the economic, environmental and community benefits of car sharing to regions that car sharing services have previously been unable to serve.”

The company also promises a $1 million insurance policy for owners and $300,000 for renters. That would cover a lot of cab-inflicted damage, we suppose.

In fact, it seems like the demand side might be more of a problem. This Betabeat reporter, for one, is awfully attached to her Zipcar subscription, and that particular Boston-born company has clearly invested a lot of time, money and effort into ensuring that wherever a New Yorker wants a car, there'll be one within a reasonable distance. They even cover the gas, which at least removes the price-point pain. (As for finding a gas station, well, good luck and godspeed to you.) 

Then again, from a business perspective, we would imagine it's rather simpler to be the marketplace, rather than maintaining a Zipcar-scale network of vehicles.

Mark Ecko's office circa 2009 via Gawker

Back in December, Bo Fishback, CEO of the peer-to-peer marketplace Zaarly, which lets you buy and sell products and services from the people around you, told Betabeat that Zaarly planned to grow its presence in New York City from two full-time employees up to 10 or possibly 30 new staffers.

For the Kansas City-based company, which has raised $15.1 million in a little over a year since it launched, it was a signal of how important New York was both as a market and testing ground. “We hope to learn what we need to know from the New York community to help us go to scale in other cities,” Mr. Fishback told us at the time, along with the news that local staff would be moving into Marc Ecko's building at 40 West 23rd Street. Mr. Ecko is an investor, along with Ashton Kutcher, Michael Arrington, Crunchfund, and Kleiner Perkins.

But earlier today Betabeat was informed that Zaarly was closing down its New York office. "I've heard it's gone," said a source. Mr. Fishback confirmed the news, but said it was, "not really intended to be a big deal, and mostly just temporary moves," he responded by email.

According to Mr. Fishback, Zaarly had always intended for its local office to be more malleable. "It's actually part of the reason that we were paying for folks housing in NYC so that we could have the flexibility to move people around when it made sense," he added. Currently, all of the job listings--most for developers and engineers--on Zaarly's website are for positions based in San Francisco.

This recent adjustment, Mr. Fishback said, is tied to Zaarly's product development strategy. "We're in the midst of making some major product enhancements. So mostly for efficiency's sake, it just made more sense for us to have all our people working together under one roof, in one timezone."

Mr. Fishback said Zaarly is still committed to the community here. "We're regularly flying people out to New York, though, and New York continues to be one of the most active Zaarly cities."

Last June, after Zaarly had been in New York City for a month, Betabeat wasn't able to find a "peer" to deliver us a pack of Dentyne Ice in real-time, even at a considerable markup. And the requests on the site were scant, limited to just over a handful. But a perusal of the iPhone app this afternoon shows a number of requests from users in the five boroughs including a $200 for a Wordpress expert and $2000 for a wedding photographer from the past few days, although it's doesn't appear that those requests have been fulfilled since they were posted.

The Zaarly NYC Twitter account, which had 700 or so followers last June now has more than 5,200 followers and has been actively tweeting at locals--even, in the case of one Elmhurst resident, responding in Tagalog when necessary.

UPDATE: Mr. Fishback offered some clarification, also by email. "I wouldn't actually say we're shutting down given that we've got people there every week still and we didn't get rid of anyone... more just that we're getting a big product push ready to go so it made sense to have as many folks in one place as possible for the moment."

New York staffers are indeed being moved out to San Francisco. "We've got a bulging office there currently. :)," he wrote. He also added that, "NYC is our number one or two market in almost every category and continues to be one of our fastest growing Zaarly communities."

Material Wrld is a peer-to-peer ecommerce site that Ms. Zheng calls "a prettier and friendlier eBay with social features." Like eBay, the company offers a chance to turn the back of your closet into ca$$h money, only in this case its more front-of-closet and fancy.

"It's the most demoralizing experience to walk into a consignment store, offer your nice Rag & Bone jacket that you bought for $600 in top notch condition and they offer you $40," Ms. Zheng added by gChat. Locals who have tried to sell designer items to Michael's on the Upper East Side or Tokio 7, Matiell, Buffalo Exchange, and Second Time Around in the East Village might know what she's talking about.

Although Material Wrld isn't unveiling its beta marketplace until the Spring, yesterday they launched an online pop-up store (and "Whose closet do you want to raid?" Twitter campaign) to generate interest in the concept. During the week-long affair, shoppers have a chance to buy items from a number of stylish New Yorkers, like Leandra Medine, better known as the Man Repeller, freelance stylist Chelsa Skees (longtime girlfriend of Foursquare's Dennis Crowley), designer Steven Alan, Danielle and Jodi Snyder, the cofounders of DANNIJO, and Fueled founder Rameet Chawla.

Like what you saw them wearing at Tom & Jerry's the other night? Now you may be able to buy it, gently used of course.

The pop-up stores (there will be another in April) are designed to "get over the chicken and egg problem," of populating the site with items and establishing the brand with familiar names. During the Spring launch, the site will feature "100 hand-selected sellers and slowly scale up to preserve the quality of our community and content." After that, Ms. Zheng says she plans to scale sellers through an exclusive referral system. "We'll have strict guidelines around types of product that can be sold. So no fast fashion (Zara, H&M, Forever 21)." Add in Urban Outfitters and sadly that eliminates 95 percent of Betabeat's wardrobe.

The idea of curated items sounds swell in theory, but it's hard to imagine how you can quickly grow a market one carefully vetted item at a time.

Ms. Zheng and her cofounder, Rie Yano, a former digital media marketer for Coach, both met in grad school at Harvard. "We're riding the wave of HBS duo female-led startups," like Gilt Groupe, Rent the Runway, Birchbox, and BaubleBar, wrote Ms. Zheng. "The fashion tech community in NYC is pretty close knit," she explained.

"Rie and I have been bouncing around ideas since graduating from b-school," added Ms. Zheng. "Last summer, two of our ideas converged during a trip to Montauk. My idea was a P2P marketplace for pre-owned fashion with community elements (like Etsy but not just vintage/handmade) and Rie's idea was a platform to allow self-expression (e.g. uploading fav items and outfits)." The latter, of course, is a popular concern with New York fashion startups.

In a melding of both concepts, Material Wrld offers a suggested pricing calculator and "Netflix-style shipping" for users that want to sell their clothes, as well as the chance to upload  items just to show off your taste--for those in search of some closet envy from the masses, we suppose.

Time to weigh your options

Besides having the most amazingly made-up name we have seen in a while, Shpoonkle is an interesting addition to the new crop of startups focused on creating a peer to peer online marketplace. Betabeat's Nitasha Tiku just did a big report on the convenience economy fueled by companies like TaskRabbit and Zaarly. Schpoonkle is also looking to match supply and demand, but with a focus on the growing number of unemployed law school graduates.

According to some estimates from working law professors, as many as 50 percent of recent minted law school grads can't find full time legal work nine months after leaving school. "At the same time, over a million people are being turned away from legal aid who can't afford a $300 per hour lawyer," says Shpoonkle founder and CEO Robert Niznik, 22, who just graduated from New York Law School this month. "With our model, we've been able to cut the cost of legal work to under $200 an hour and match a lot of lawyers hungry for work with new clients."

Mr. Niznik started the business eight months ago while he was still in school after hearing horror stories about the post-graduation job market. He raised a small round from friends and family and since March has grown the company from eight to thirty five employees.

His users are people like Diana Mullaev, who graduated from Tuora Law School on Long Island in 2009. "It was devastating watching my classmates struggle to find work and handle their student debt. I remember the day my best girlfriend from law school called to tell me she got a job, I was so excited. But it turned out to working for Eddie Bauer." Now Ms. Mullaev uses Shpoonkle a few times a month to find cases and build her personal injury practice.

Of course, not everyone is excited by this new model. Over at Solo Practice University, Susan Liebel writes, "Here you have a race to the bottom as lawyers bid against one another to pay the lowest fee to anonymous clients with legal problems.

Shpoonkle has hired a techie PR firm to pitch it around to sites like VentureBeat and yours truly. It's found a far gentler reaction there than from the legal blogosphere. "Any lawyer who signs up for this service should be immediately disbarred, then tarred and feathers, then publicly humiliated. It doesn’t matter how awful a lawyer you are, how pathetic your business, how grossly incapable you may be in getting any client to retain you. Those are all good reasons to apply for the assistant manager’s position at Dairy Queen. This is worse…"

Why the bile? There have in fact been many attempts to create this kind of reverse auction model for legal services, where clients post their cases and lawyers bid for the work. None have succeeded so far, but as we have seen with sites like TaskRabbit, SkillShare and Kickstarter, the current economic climate and the strong social infrastructure now underpinning every part of the web is powering a new boom in peer-to-peer marketplaces.

And let's not forget that name, "It's just a funny word I made up," Mr. Niznik told Betabeat. "It makes you stop and think, like Google when it first came out. Then you build it up as a brand."

We'll have what he's having.