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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.

Can printing your own cash actually help revive a struggling economy? That's just what traders in one London shopping district are hoping for, as they begin accepting a new local currency.

OKCupid announced on Tuesday via Coinbase, a "bitcoin wallet" where people can buy and sell the digital currency, that it would begin taking payments in Bitcoin for its "A-List" features.

The site joins dozens of other sites, including WordPress and Reddit, in accepting the digital currency.

A few weeks ago the Royal Canadian Mint rolled out MintChip, a digital currency that is “better than cash.” It isn’t an alternative currency in that it’s a digital representation of the sovereign currency — the Canadian dollar.

New bitcoin trading site, Coinabul.com, is now accepting bitcoins in exchange for gold. Orders are currently live during the private beta. Coinabul is the only true Bitcoin-to-Gold exchange in the world. Bitcoin is a digital stored value vehicle, able to provide near-instant transaction capability in a global Internet economy. Bitcoin users are able to trade in bitcoins to their national currency via currency exchanges, but for users who prefer to save their money in gold, Coinabul provides instant gold purchasing capabilities.

According to a leaked cable the increase in China’s gold reserves is intended to “kill two birds with one stone.” Firstly, it serves as a model for other countries to encourage reserving more gold, and therefore less USD. Second, it strengthens the Chinese currency, the Renminbi, so that it can begin to replace the declining USD as the world reserve currency. All of this spells bad news for the American economy.

With the economy apparently souring further without having recovered from the current recession a look at two articles written in January of 2009 on the subject seems timely. This article and Recovery Depends on Investment and Capital Accumulation were originally published at the Nolan Chart.

determination to ‘move beyond anger to creativity’ is driving a strong barter economy in some places

American Airlines and United Continental must face trial over a lawsuit in which the lease holders of the World Trade Center allege that lax security allowed hijackers to destroy the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York on Tuesday rejected a motion by American and United to have World Trade Center Properties' suit seeking compensation thrown out.

The "defendants' motion is denied," the judge ruled, court papers show. "The overlap between WTCP's insurance recovery and its potential tort recovery presents issues of fact requiring trial."