بیت کوین چگونه کار می کند؟

خوب ، این سوالی است که گاهی سردرگمی ایجاد می کند. این جا یک توضیح سریع و مختصر داده می شود!

مبانی برای یک کاربر جدید

به عنوان یک کاربر جدید ، تنها نیاز دارید یک کیف پول انتخاب کنید که آن را بر روی کامپیوتر یا تلفن همراه

بیت کوین برای توسعه دهندگان

بیت کوین می تواند برای ساختن چیز های شگفت انگیز یا فقط برای پاسخ گویی به نیازهای عادی استفاده شود.

ساده ترین سیستم پرداخت وجه

پذیرفتن پول به سادگی اضافه کردن یک آدرس بیت کوین به یک وبسایت به عنوان بیت کوین است : لینک یا کد QR. مگر این که پرداخت به ارتباط با فاکتورهای اتوماتیک نیاز داشته باشد. این راه اندازی خیلی ساده در دسترس هر کاربری می باشد و می تواند نیازهای طیف وسیعی از مشتریان را

بیت کوین برای کسب و کار

بیت کوین راهی بسیار امن و ارزان برای مدیریت پرداخت ها است.

پایین ترین هزینه های موجود

امنیت رمزنگاری شده ی بالای بیت کوین به آن اجازه می دهد که تراکنش ها را در یک مسیر بسیار مؤثر و ارزان پردازش کند. شما می توانید با استفاده از شبکه بیت کوین در بیشتر موارد با هزینه ی صفر پرداخت ها را ایجاد و دریافت کنید. اگر مایل باشید که اولویت تراکنشی

بیت کوین برای افراد

بیت کوین آسان ترین راه برای تبادل پول با کم ترین هزینه است.

پرداخت ها از طریق تلفن همراه آسان شده است

بیت کوین بر روی تلفن همراه این امکان را به شما می دهد تا با دو مرحله ساده اسکن-و-پرداخت ، عملیات پرداخت را انجام دهید. نیازی به کشیدن کارت ، وارد کردن PIN ، یا امضای چیزی ندارید و تمام چیزی که برای دریافت پرداخت های بیت کوین نیاز دارید نشان دادن کد QR در نرم افزار

تعدادی از کلمات بیت کوینی که ممکن است بشنوید

بیت کوین یک روش جدید برای پرداخت ها ارائه کرده است و ، به عنوان مثال ، کلمات جدیدی هستند که ممکن است بخشی از واژگان شما بشوند. نگران نباشید ، حتی تلوزیون محقر هم کلمات جدید درست کرده است!

بیت کوین برای علاقه مندان

بیت کوین با دادن قابلیت کنترل روی پولتان به شما، در حال تغییر دنیای سرمایه گذاری است.

بیت کوین یک توافق جهانی است

به خاطر غیر متمرکز بودن ، طبیعت متن باز یا open-source ، بیت کوین اولین شبکه پرداختی است که توسط کاربرانش بدون قدرت مرکزی ، قدرت گرفته است. حتی توسعه دهندگان بیت کوین قدرت این که به روز رسانی های در پروتکل را اجبار کنند را ندارند اگر تعداد کافی از کاربران ، توسعه دهندگان ، یا ماینرها یا استخراج کنندگان نپذیرند. شما کنترل انحصاری بر روی کیف پولتان دارید.

درباره-بیت-کوین

کمی از تاریخچه

بیت کوین یکی از اولین پیاده سازی ها با مفهوم پول رمزگذاری شده است که اولین بار در سال 1998توسط Wei Dai در لیست پستی cypherpunks مطرح شد. مفهوم بالا روی این تصور بنا شده است که پول میتواند هر شیء یا هر نوع از رکورد باشد که به عنوان پرداخت برای کالاها و خدمات و بازپرداخت بدهی ها در کشور معین

European Banking Authority Issues Opinion Report on Virtual Currencies

The European Banking Authority on Friday released an “opinion” report on virtual currencies, which has just started to make its rounds across the crypto-community.

The 46-page report (which we have embedded below for your review) takes many different elements into account here, but also makes some statements that community members may find controversial.

From the report’s executive summary:

While there are some potential benefits of VCs [virtual currency], for example, reduced transaction costs, faster transaction speed and financial inclusion, these benefits are less relevant in the European Union, due to the existing and pending EU regulations and directives that are explicitly aimed at faster transactions speeds and costs and at increasing financial inclusion.

Expedia Bitcoin Sales Exceeding Company Expectations

Major online travel agency Expedia made a splash in the crypto-currency community recently when they announced they would be accepting bitcoin, and so far things are seemingly going well.

That’s according to a company executive, who recently spoke to CoinDesk. The company’s own Michael Gulmann, who services as Vice President of Global Product at the company, had the following to say:

Roger Ver Vows to Donate Funds For Retweets Related to Ross Ulbricht

Bitcoin evangelist Roger Ver is at it again. He’s not giving away a $20,000 bounty like it’s nothing though, but he is offering to donate to a cause relating to Ross Ulbricht.

I’ll give $10 to @Free_Ross for each RT. If guilty, he’s a hero. If innocent, he needs help. http://t.co/XwhqrN06UT pic.twitter.com/Oau4dkFvdV

— Roger Ver (@rogerkver) July 5, 2014

Ross Ulbricht is of course a famous name in the bitcoin community ever since he was arrested late last year in connection with the illicit Silk Road marketplace. Officials say that Ulbricht ran the marketplace covertly, yet Ulbricht himself maintains his innocence.

His family has established FreeRoss.org, a campaign which will help cover the costs for his legal defense. Of a $100,000 goal, the family has thus far managed to raise nearly $90,000.

And with Ver’s impromptu fundraiser, they are on track to meeting their financial goal. As of this writing, Ver’s tweet has received about 214 retweets. That’s a total of $2,140 going toward the legal defense fund.

Ulbricht wrote the following in a June 21 letter published on FreeRoss.org (in addition to the photo seen in Ver’s tweet).

The first thing they tell you when they arrest you is that what you say will be used against you, and they mean it. So I have to keep this brief. I’d just like to thank you for giving my Mom, Lyn, the chance to tell you about the situation I’m in and why the outcome of this legal battle will have a lasting impact on you and the rules you live under in this country.

One thing I’ve learned since beginning my tour of the federal criminal justice system is that these guys are not all-powerful. They can be beaten and precedent can be set that will limit their ability to infringe on our rights.

I urge you to stand by me and do what you can to turn this horrible situation into a win.

Ulbricht has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and a trial is slated to commence on November 3rd.

By Eric Calouro July 5, 2014 15:34-newsbtc.com 

Man Who Mistakenly Sent 800 BTC to Mt. Gox Address Recovers His Bitcoins

Remember that post we had at the beginning of June that related to a man who mistakenly sent 800 bitcoins to the wrong address? If you haven’t, check it out here.

In brief though, we had happened was a user by the handle of ‘TheDJFC’ has created a post on social sharing website Reddit.com explaining his epic failure. Not only did he send his bitcoins to the wrong address, he sent them to an address belonging to defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox.

Interestingly enough, however, the story has an update — and it’s a good one.

‘TheDJFC’ took to Reddit on the 4th of July to update the community, and he’s said that he’s managed to recover his 800 BTC.

According to the comments he made, it all came together with the help of a fellow Redditor, BTC China CEO Bobby Lee, the Bitcoin Foundation, a Law Firm in Tokyo, and would you believe it, even former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles.

As a thank you, TheDJFC has noted that he has donated 2.5 bitcoins to the aforementioned Redditor that helped him out, and adds that he will in the near future be making a donation to the Bitcoin Foundation.

When the story first broke last month, many in the community didn’t picture this type of ending. Sending money to Mt. Gox — after it collapsed no less — was thought to be like throwing money into the fire.

But thankfully for the TheDJFC, over $500,000 USD in the digital currency is in his possession again, and we’re willing to bet he’ll be triple-checking where he’s sending money to next time!

Prof. Mark T. Williams: “My Concerns Over Bitcoin Remain”

The chatter on social media surrounding December 2013 comments by Boston University Professor Mark T. Williams (better known inside the community as ‘Professor Bitcorn’) is as loud as ever as we begin the second half of 2014.

Williams had taken to business publication Business Insider to voice his concerns over the digital currency, which was at the time just out of a massive bubble and an all-time high.

“I predict that Bitcoin will trade for under $10 a share by the first half of 2014, single digit pricing reflecting its option value as a pure commodity play,” he wrote in a piece entitled FINANCE PROFESSOR: Bitcoin Will Crash To $10 By Mid-2014.

Yet here we are, smack-dab in the middle of the year, and bitcoin isn’t trading anywhere near $10 per coin as Williams predicted. In fact, the price at the Bitstamp exchange is over eight percent up in the past three days, hovering over $640 at the time of this writing.

Perhaps with the off-the-mark prediction we might see some level of a prediction change from Williams? Not exactly.

I caught up with Williams [who's presently in Istanbul] on Tuesday evening to find out just where he stands on the subject. As it were, Williams told me his “concerns over bitcoin remain,” not surprisingly.

“In April I provided a 30 page congressional testimony listing my various risk concerns,” the professor pointed out (you can find it here or embedded below). “Bitcoin is in a hyper bubble and will implode.”

In that testimony, Williams reaffirmed his concerns with the digital currency, outlining what he called “unaddressed” risks on a number of different fronts.

“Bitcoin is in a hyper bubble and will implode,” Williams told me. “Since my prediction in 2013 Bitcoin has dropped by 50 percent. In February during the flash crash a trade of 6,000 coins momentarily pushed the price down by over 80 percent to a low of $102. Bitcoin is extremely volatile. It is 7 times riskier than gold, 8 times riskier than S&P 500 and 15 times riskier than the US Dollar.”

During our exchange, the Professor also commented on this past Friday’s Marshals auction, which saw the sale of over 29,000 bitcoins seized from the illicit Silk Road marketplace in late 2013.

“The market is also thinly traded and this is why the U.S. Marshals Service held a private auction instead of selling on a public exchange such as [BTC-e]. If the government had dumped over 29,000 e-coins on the public market, prices would have plummeted,” he said.

Meanwhile, on social media, the bitcoin community has taken to make light of Williams’ [so far] inaccurate prediction. From Williams’ prospective, however, the bottom line is clear.

“The Bitcoin market remains unhealthy and extremely hazardous to investor financial health,” he concluded.

Circle Appoints Former Bank of Ireland Director to Head European Operations

Boston-based Circle Internet Financial has been somewhat of a mystery since announced. Their entire business, it seems, has remained under wraps, and the community is eagerly awaiting for what they have in store and how it could change the current crypto landscape.

And while it seems that period of waiting will continue for the foreseeable future, the company does come out here and there with tidbits of information on their development.

Take today, for example. The company announced on their official blog that they have made a new, impressive hire.

His name is Garrett Cassidy, and he’s a Financial Technology ‘leader’ and a former Programme Director of the Bank of Ireland, a post at which he put in nearly two years from 2012 – 2014.

Based in Dublin, Cassidy has been appointed Circle’s Managing Director of European operations, a position that will require him to closely watch over the company’s doings in the European Union and also manage effective strategies.

Circle’s Maria Tucker writes:

Garrett brings more than twenty years of experience in technology, finance, capital markets, operations and payments. Prior to joining Circle, Garrett held senior positions at Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank, and Goldman Sachs. Garrett’s wide-ranging expertise in financial technology and payment systems, deep understanding of regulatory requirements, and experience scaling operations to support consumer financial products all provide Circle with a tremendous anchor as we build our organisation in Europe.

The company says they are “extremely happy” to have him on the team.

High profile hires

Circle has been working on establishing a team of elite financial professionals to help guide them through the process of getting their business of the ground.

Late last year, the company added a Michele Burns (on the boards of Goldman Sachs and Cisco) to their board of directors. Later in January, the company announced the hiring of Michael Barrett, who has worked as the vice president of security at American Express and chief information security officer at PayPal.

To date, the company has received tens of millions of dollars in venture capitalism financing, though they have not announced when their service will be publicly available.

VC Investor Tim Draper is the Winner of the Government’s Bitcoin Auction

And now for the news scores of members of the bitcoin community have been waiting for. The winner of last Friday’s bitcoin auction held by the United States Marshals Service has been revealed.

His name is Tim Draper, and he’s a prominent venture capital investor, and he’s made away with all 29,000+ bitcoins worth over $18 million.

The plan? According to this post on Medium, Draper will be partnering with a start-up called Vaurum with the goal of providing bitcoin liquidity in emerging markets.

Said Draper in a statement:

Bitcoin frees people from trying to operate in a modern market economy with weak currencies. With the help of Vaurum and this newly purchased bitcoin, we expect to be able to create new services that can provide liquidity and confidence to markets that have been hamstrung by weak currencies. Of course, no one is totally secure in holding their own country’s currency. We want to enable people to hold and trade bitcoin to secure themselves against weakening currencies.

Vaurum pegs itself as a “robust bitcoin exchange for financial institutions”, and the huge pool of bitcoins acquired by Draper from the auction will help serve as a liquidity source for the exchange.

“It’s still quite difficult to get access to bitcoin in these developing economies — and that’s exactly where it is needed the most. Our goal is to build reliable infrastructure and increase liquidity, which are two major challenges in the ecosystem,” a Wednesday-morning statement from Avish Bhama, Vaurum CEO, reads.

Both Tim and Adam Draper are investors in Vaurum, having met at the Boost start-up accelerator in San Mateo, California.

Certainly, it will be interesting to see Vaurum make use of the bitcoins.

“Many thanks to the United States Marshals Service for their facilitation of the auction. We’re excited about the opportunity to put these coins to good use and are looking forward to working with Tim in such a unique way,” said Bhama.

Bitcoin Foundation Welcomes Newest Affiliate in Denmark

On Wednesday morning, the Bitcoin Foundation welcomed the Dansk Bitcoinfonening as their newest affiliate based out of Lyngby, north of Copenhagen, Denmark.

This makes Dansk Bitcoinfonening one of several Bitcoin Foundation affiliating operating around the world today, with the other affiliate being based out of Australia, Canada, Germany, Mexico, and the Netherlands.

The news comes following the declaration that profit gains/losses stemming from bitcoin trades be deemed tax free by the Tax Board of Denmark in March, with the exemption of businesses.

The affiliate will be led by Pascal Mikkelsen, who will be serving as Chairman along with Martin Clemens Bloch and Carsten Keutmann on the board.

According to the Bitcoin Foundation, “The team focuses on building the bitcoin community by initiating bitcoin projects, meetups and conferences so that anyone from bitcoin newbies, journalists, investors to core developers can network, learn and contribute to Bitcoin’s adoption in Denmark.”

“We believe global teamwork is essential in developing a global financial evolution,” said Pascal Mikkelsen. “With this partnership, the Danish Bitcoin Foundation is strengthening its international connection.”

The Bitcoin Foundation was established with a number of goals in mind: of which include establishing standards, funding core development, protecting the digital currency, and promoting its use throughout the world.

For additional information on Dansk Bitcoinfonening, you can visit their website at: danskbitcoinforening.dk

Coinbase Announces ‘The Vault’, An Ultra-Secure Account For Large Balances

San Francisco-based Coinbase has announced a new account type for users who wish to securely store large amount of bitcoins outside of traditional account types.

Dubbed The Vault, the product will sit as an option near the traditional account type, the Wallet, beginning today.

So what exactly separates a Vault account from a traditional Wallet? According to Coinbase, using a Wallet is akin to carrying cash in your pocket. Using Vault, on the other hand, is more like using a savings account at the local bank.

In terms of security, the Vault has three layers of protection. The first is time-delayed withdrawals, which allows the users to add a 48-hour delay to making withdrawal on the service. During that time frame, Coinbase contacts the account hold to make sure the request to withdraw is legitimate.

Another interesting security feature is the ability to have multiple approvals for withdrawal. The user can specify three or five fellow Coinbase users who will approve the withdrawal, like family members, for example.

As one would come to expect, the Vault wallets also utilize the same cold storage technique deployed by Coinbase for existing accounts, in which 97 percent of bitcoins are stored completely offline and in different parts of the world.

And coming soon, Coinbase says they will be adding multi-signature technology for The Vault in the coming weeks, allowing customers to manage their own vault security.

“The first iteration of the vault we completed uses the battle-tested offline storage technology we have in use today. We will release our multi-sig vault approach as well once it has been appropriately vetted by security teams both internally at Coinbase and externally,” Coinbase says.

Coinbase says the Vault service is free, though a one percent fee is applied when buying or selling bitcoin. The product is currently being rolled out to five percent of users at the moment, with a widespread release on the 16th of July.

For more information, check out the post today on the Coinbase blog. Additionally, you can visit coinbase.com/vault.

Bitcoin Millionaire Olivier Janssens Awards $100,000 Bounty to Mike Hearn’s Lighthouse Project

Back in mid-May, we posted about bitcoin millionaire Olivier Janssens and an initiative he started to get the community to program a software platform that could replace the Bitcoin Foundation. A bounty of $100,000 was offered, and today, Janssens has announced a winner.

“I am now confident though that I have selected the best possible winner. I have also selected a runner up because these guys deserve to get a prize for what they accomplished,” he wrote Wednesday on a Reddit.com post.

He writes (in full):

Before I go into the details of who won, I want you to know the rationale behind my choice. The initial question was: What is the best platform to replace the Bitcoin Foundation? To start off, we have to ask ourselves: why do we need a Bitcoin Foundation in the first place? In other words, which purpose does the Bitcoin Foundation serve? According to their website, it is ‘Keeping Bitcoin rooted in its core principles: non-political economy, openness and independence’. I guess those 3 things somehow failed to apply to the Bitcoin Foundation itself, as they want to be the main representatives of Bitcoin, and as a result also on Bitcoin.

Further analysing the Foundation, the main thing they are doing right now is funding some of the core Bitcoin developers. And I might add, they are not doing a very good job at that. Since people expect the Bitcoin Foundation to take that role, there is no real initiative to fund the developers directly. As a result, the developers are underfunded, because the Bitcoin Foundation does not have that much money (it got lucky with the price of Bitcoin rising and it’s memberships fees being paid in Bitcoin since it’s inception). They have admitted this buffer won’t last and is going to be a serious issue in the future. We also don’t know how much they are paying the developers and how much money they have left, since their transparency is pretty much non-existent. The funding could stop at any time and endanger Bitcoin even more. There have been highly concerning reports about the core devs being chronically underfunded, and as a result, Bitcoin development is grinding to a halt. As such, and to guarantee the (political) independence of the developers, the community should start funding the developers directly, ASAP.

Next to that, the Bitcoin Foundation has been doing some lobbying with Washington. Again we are lacking serious transparency here. It would be much better if we as a community can select our lobbyists directly and actually know what they are doing. Good lobbyists can come forward with a proposal and set their goals. We can then decide directly to fund them or not. Which is pretty much what is happening all over the world without the Bitcoin Foundation. People are coming out of the trenches and have their own lobbyists involved with their local governments. The same thing applies to organising conferences. Do we really need a Bitcoin Foundation to organise the one big conference? No, as has been proven many times over . There are many big conferences that are a huge success, and none of them are organised by the Bitcoin Foundation. We can do this ourselves.

Now, the question remains, what is the best way to organise all of this? Do we need a platform that simulates the Bitcoin Foundation, but with a better voting mechanism? A sort of “direct democracy”? After careful consideration, the answer is no. Such a “direct democracy” will still have the overhead of politics, getting people elected, etc. Bitcoin is apolitical. I know it takes time to get out of this mindset, but Bitcoin truly liberates the world beyond politics. We should not attempt to recreate unnecessary overhead or middlemen. Let’s have Bitcoin set us free. And for this very reason I have selected Lighthouse from Mike Hearn as the winner

Hearn’s Lighthouse platform is built atop the bitcoin block chain technology, allowing for assurance contracts that will have money returned if obligations aren’t met.

It’s a Kickstarter-like endeavor, and will allow core developers of the bitcoin protocol to propose their schedules, and set extra features when they receive extra funds.

Hearn’s Lighthouse will also allow lobbyists to make proposals that can be funded by the community, in additional to a slew of other possibilities.

“Mike has agreed to release the platform as open source before the end of August. He will be awarded $40,000 on completion. After the platform is live, I will put an additional $50,000 towards the first core dev crowdfunding project that gets made on it. This should help them become independent the moment it gets released, and hopefully will start streamlining Bitcoin core development again,” Janssens writes.

Janssens also selected a runner-up: Eris by Project Douglas, which runs atop Ethereum, allowing many applications to run in decentralized fashion sans needs for servers.

For their work, Janssens offered a prize of $10,000.

Read the full post here.

Russia’s Stance on Bitcoin May Be Changing For the Good

With previous news items suggesting that authorities in Russia have been cracking down on the use of bitcoin and other digital currencies, we’re now learning that there may be a change of heart going on.

According to a report published by the Wall Street Journal, The Bank of Russia — the country’s central bank — is reportedly gathering up information on a slew of digital currencies, and says they aren’t blocking anyone from using bitcoin. That information specifically came from the bank’s first deputy chairman, Georgy Luntovsky.

“At this stage we need to watch how the situation develops with these kinds of currencies,” Luntovsky commented. “These instruments should not be rejected.”

Back in January of this year, it was reported that the Central Bank of Russia had indicated that individuals using bitcoin were “unintentionally violating the law” — and continued use could be viewed as suspicious.

Those comments, not surprisingly, raised a ton of questions in the community. Along with fears.

Russia’s general prosecutor added that under existing Russian law, only the Ruble is deemed as an acceptable and legal tender currency, and that so-called “money substitutes” (such as bitcoin) were illegal.

And while Luntovsky acknowledged that evidence was readily available suggesting the digital currency is being used in Russia to purchase drugs and other illicit goods, he added that “It turns out that criminals start to use everything new.”

Lamassu Releases Open Source Software For Their Bitcoin ATM Network

New Hampsire-based Lamassu — the manufacturer of one of the leading bitcoin ATMs available today — has announced the release of something they are calling Rakía, a brand-spanking-new open source back-end system that will redefine how the company’s network of ATMs in use around the world are utilized by customers.

Operators of the Lamassu devices — which presently allow consumers to buy butcoin with fiat currency in a matter of seconds — will be independent nodes, and won’t have to rely on a centralized service. According to Lamassu, these operators will have complete control over setting pricing, commission fees, and background trading operations. On top of that, operators will potentially be able to accommodate integration with “any relevant Bitcoin service or software.”

The software can be view on GitHub here.

When using Lamassu’s Santo Tirso stand, these devices can be transformed into two-way ATMs, allowing the end user to buy bitcoin with fiat and also sell bitcoin in exchange for local currency.

Read more: Lamassu Announces a Modular Two-Way Bitcoin ATM System

That’s really where the beauty of Rakía comes in. The company says:

One use case of the Rakía platform would be to have a two-way Lamassu machine in two international airport hubs. Another, remittance between developed and developing nations. A third: a bankless-ATM.

“It’s important to note that we don’t plan to be the next Western Union, Moneygram or Travelex,” said Lamassu CEO Zach Harvey. “We want to create a platform for thousands of small businesses to compete against these legacy financial institutions, and against each other. These are markets in dire need of fierce competition to bring down transfer and exchange fees.”

Because Rakía is open source, developers will be able to make tools that can make these machines even more useful, and Lamassu adds they too will continue to expand functionality as time progresses.

“This is an evolution of the Bitcoin ATM format. We’ve already spoken to several key Bitcoin businesses that are excited about integrating their services with our new Rakía platform,” Harvey added. “What this means for our operators is that their machines are about to graduate from Bitcoin ATMs to full-fledged Bitcoin portals, granting users effortless access to remittance, cash exchange, cash withdrawal and bill-payment services.”

Rakía will be demonstrated live at CoinSummit in London from July 10th-11th.

BBB: Businesses Hit By “Bitcoin Extortion” Scheme Safe From Bad Ratings

Remember those extortion letters a number of businesses began receiving a few weeks ago? The Better Business Bureau has come out to say “don’t worry” about the whole thing.

And just in case you’re not briefed on the matter, a number of business owners received letters with an explicit threat: pay up or horrible things will happen to your business.

The blackmail letters read:

You business, BUSINESS NAME, has been targeted for extortion. The selection process is random, and was not triggered by any event under your control.

Should you fail to pay the one-time monetary tribute, by the deadline provided below, your business will be severely and irreparably damaged.

The letter threatened business owners that they could receive harassing telephone calls, vandalism, mercury contamination, false reports of tax evasion, money laundering, health code violations, and even methamphetamine production if they didn’t pay one bitcoin to an address specified on the letter.

This letter was received by Neapolitan Pizzaria in New Hampsire. Via: Krebs on Security

One other threat provided was complaints to the Better Business Bureau, an agency that keeps records of complaints toward businesses with the end goal of having those complaints resolved. Often times, consumers will consult a business’s rating with the Better Business Bureau before giving them their business, and as such, a bad rating could mean less business.

“It’s a bit flattering that the extortionists singled out BBB, but their threat is completely worthless,” Mary E. Power, president and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. “The first thing BBB does when we get a complaint is share it with the business and verify that the complainant is a real customer. If they are a customer, we help the business and the consumer work it out. If they are not a customer, we don’t accept the complaint and it has no bearing at all on the business’s BBB rating.”

The extortion letters also threaten to leave businesses who don’t pay with negative online reviews.

“BBB also scrutinizes customer reviews,” said Power. “BBB doesn’t publish reviews until we have verified the reviewer. Businesses should feel assured that these extortionists will not be able to make good on their threats involving BBB complaints or reviews.”

Cases in which these extortion letters have been distributed are minimal, but businesses can take comfort in knowing they are at least protected on one front if they become an unlucky recipient.