Bitcoin Linkfarm

Last month and this have seen dramatic developments in the world of bitcoin. Let's try to catch up.

Bitcoin is one of a group of efforts to create a pseudo-currency online. Its existence is a testimony on how little trust exists for the legal tender of the US, the one-time world numeraire. An issue I discussed at book length here.

There was a massive sell-off on Wednesday, April 10, which resumed on Thursday.

Daily Bail

Natural News

Conspiracy theories abound, both as to the run-up in the value of bitcoins that began in July 2012 and in the crash in April 2013.

My own view is that bitcoin has been (at least for now) the victim of its own enthusiasts, who got ahead of themselves. On March 29, Jeffrey Tucker of Laissez Faire Books wrote, "Maybe the price will keep climbing," etc. One of those this-time-its-different things that often get themselves written just before a bubble bursts.

Robert Wenzel called him out.

It appears Wenzel was right. Anyone who listened to Tucker has taken quite a hit., And Wenzel isn't above saying "I told you so" either.

A balanced assessment comes from Ryan Avent : "Either Bitcoinia will remain a small, fringe economy thanks to inherent instability, or a stabilizing financial structure will somehow grow within it."

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