Free Talk Live

The bursting of the Bitcoin bubble

BITCOIN, briefly the world’s favorite cryptocurrency, is in trouble. It plummeted from a peak of around $33 per unit in June to just $2.51. In May Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the Pirate Party in Sweden, famously blogged that he was converting all of his Swedish-crown savings to Bitcoins. Five months on, he tweeted that after “hoarding” Bitcoins until they hit $18 or so, he had moved to a “buy-and-sell pattern”. Mostly sell, it seems. “I currently don't hold any,” he admitted.

We really do try very hard here at Cracked to maintain a no-bullshit policy. We're not the goddamned New York Times, but we do try to make sure we don't repeat a claim unless we can link to a smarter group of people who confirm it. We kind of think everyone who touches a keyboard should do that.

But in the course of looking down our noses at the nutjobs who spread urban legends and conspiracy theories, we have to sometimes stop and point out that there are downright terrifying historical precedents for even their craziest of claims.

The Bitcoin Economy Is Collapsing With No Sign of Recovery

When Newsweek/The Daily Beast's Dan Lyons wrote about Bitcoins back in mid-June, that was a sure sign the digital currency had reached the mainstream. Now many readers -- from 70-year-old retirees to those drawn in by the newsweekly's cover that issue -- who might otherwise never have heard about Bitcoins, were aware of this completely anonymous form of money.

"How's this for a disruptive technology? Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer network based digital currency with no central bank, and no transaction fees. Using a proof-of-work concept, nodes burn CPU cycles searching for bundles of coins, broadcasting their findings to the network. Analysis of energy usage indicates that the market value of Bitcoins is already above the value of the energy needed to generate them, indicating healthy demand. The community is hopeful the currency will remain outside the reach of any government."

A growing list of merchants accept bitcoins.

Bitcoin Conference London 2012

15-16 September, London

Call For Papers is now open: email proposals to genjix@bitcoin2012.com

After months of planning we are glad to announce we will be holding the Bitcoin Conference in London. The first conference was held by Mitchell Bourne in association with us. He set an amazing standard, showed us the ropes and bestowed us with considerable experience. This year he will be taking a diminished role as we take over the chariot. We hope to live up to the high standard he set last year.

The unregulated digital world of Bitcoins suffered another flash-crash last night. According to Ars Technica, the 23% plungefest in the value of the digital currency (the second in a week) was due not to Waddel & Reed, not HFT algos, but 'forking' Cryptographic algos gone wild agreeing on different (legacy) keys as being correct - akin to finding Tungsten in your Gold bars (and hence the drop in the value). This latest glitch is different from the problem that caused Bitcoin prices to briefly crash to zero in June of 2011.

Bottom line: The world is going to be turned over by bitcoins unless governments step in and ban them by prosecuting individuals.

1. Bitcoin is a technologically sound project.
2. Bitcoin is unstoppable without end-user prosecution.
3. Bitcoin is the most dangerous open-source project ever created.
4. Bitcoin may be the most dangerous technological project since the internet itself.
5. Bitcoin is a political statement by technotarians (technological libertarians).*
6. Bitcoins will change the world unless governments ban them with harsh penalties.

Army Reserve presentation calls Christians ‘extremists’

A U.S. Army Reserve training brief on extremism and extremist organizations puts evangelical Christianity at the top of the list of groups soldiers should watch out for, and avoid.

One of the issues, other than if governments will try to outlaw bitcoin, is the high amount of electricity needed to create a single bitcoin. It might cost more to generate a bitcoin than the actual value a bitcoin is currently traded at. High electricity bills can lead to marijuana busts. And it is this unusual power consumption needed that caught my attention since it appears as a bitcoin miner has been mistaken as a person running a marijuana growing operation.