Waiting for the Bitcoin bubble to burst

The Guardian follows up the Economist’s piece earlier in the week examining Bitcoin and its role in greasing the wheels of Silk Road, the marketplace for drugs hidden behind Tor.

The most striking thing is a graph (the Economist produced a similar one) of Bitcoin’s price – here’s a more sophisticated version from Bitcoin Charts:

 

It’s the chart of a classic bubble. And bubbles always burst.

In the meantime the world’s monetary authorities should be doing their best to hasten that day. If banning Bitcoin is too difficult then making it unconvertible to cash is possibly easier and less heavy handed. No point in trying to launder illegal sales receipts through it if it is not possible buy anything other than drugs with it.

Related articles

• Bitcoin getting big enough to attract regulatory repression (wired.com)
• Silk Road: the online drug marketplace that officials seem powerless to stop (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
• Bitcoin To Become Borderline Illegal In US – OpEd (eurasiareview.com)
• Spain turns to Bitcoin, prompting incoherent discussion on Today (newstatesman.com)
• Bitcoin: Virtual Currency Enters Real World – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Sorry, Bitcoin Isn’t a ‘Currency’ – The Market Now (go.bloomberg.com)
• Bitcoin: this is what a bubble looks like (newstatesman.com)

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