Charlie Shrem to Kick Off New CoinDesk Event Series

The early days of bitcoin are chock full of characters who fearlessly navigated unknown and choppy waters.

For some people, those unchartered waters led to trouble. But only Charlie Shrem can claim the title of "Bitcoin's First Felon."

Join the CoinDesk team on November 22 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm for our inaugural CoinDesk On Tap, an intimate fireside chat with Cooley LLP's Marco Santori and Charlie Shrem.

Santori and Shrem will talk about life after jail, and the lessons entrepreneurs can take from his experience.

Held at CoinDesk's headquarters in midtown Manhattan, CoinDesk On Tap is a new series of monthly events where individuals in the digital currency and blockchain sector share their stories, ideas for the future and what they’ve learned in this rapidly evolving industry.

Food and drink will be provided (of course), courtesy of Atlantic Financial, so we can properly toast Charlie's return to New York.

Be sure to register at EventBrite before tickets sell out!

Image via Michael del Castillo for CoinDes

CME Group Launches Bitcoin Price Indexes

CME Group has officially launched its bitcoin price indexes following months of development.

The derivatives giant has spent the last month beta testing its CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate and CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index in partnership with London-based firm Crypto Facilities. Announced earlier this year, the indexes leverage price data from a suite of global bitcoin exchanges in Asia, Europe and North America.

CME also disclosed the names of the independent advisory committee overseeing the price resources. Members include bitcoin advocate and author Andreas Antonopoulos and Imperial College London Professor William Knottenbelt.

When it first unveiled the price tools, CME said that it was aiming to provide institutional-grade resources for those trading in bitcoin markets. CME will release its reference bitcoin price at 15:00 UTC each day.

"These products are designed to allow bitcoin traders, companies and other users to rely on a credible reference rate price source," Sandra Ro, CME Group executive director, said at the time.

Disclosure: CME Group is an investor in Digital Currency Group, of which CoinDesk is a subsidiary.

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