Bitcoin news

Taken from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/bitcoin/2014/03/08/0b1ad2f0-a631-11e3-8466-d34c451760b9_story.html

The article noted:

Future generations of Bitcoin billionaires may someday look back on 2014 with knowing smiles. Here was a year when thefts spread, exchanges collapsed, rates gyrated like a teenager’s moods. And yet the buying of bitcoins showed no signs of abating.

The past week was particularly extreme. The apparent suicide of an American business executive in Singapore was investigated for possible ties to her Bitcoin investments. A California man fingered as the currency's mysterious inventor reacted to his sudden fame by asking that journalists buy him lunch. After finishing his meal at a sushi restaurant, he went on to deny any role whatsoever in Bitcoin.

Perhaps the most surprising development was that the virtual currency, despite wild fluctuations in value, continued to weather the mayhem. As the humans involved in the adventure looked increasingly vulnerable, Bicoin looked comparatively solid, trading nearly 10 percent higher Saturday than a week before. Each bitcoin is worth more than $600 in recent trading.

“Bitcoin works really well,” said Matthew Green, a Johns Hopkins University cryptographer who is working to develop a different virtual currency. “All this craziness around Bitcoin isn’t around Bitcoin itself. It’s around the people.”

Bitcoin, first issued in 2009, has gradually gained acceptance as a digital currency that, unlike dollars or euros, can move through the global trade system with low fees, relative privacy and no regulation. That has helped it flourish among technology enthusiasts and libertarians, as well as on marketplaces for illicit drugs and weapons.

I think these are interesting times for Bitcoin.  Can it weather the storm?  Can it survive as the world's first (?) and best (?) virtual currency?

Mt. Gox - a Japanese Bitcoin trading agency - declared bankruptcy after hackers stole bitcoins - but seemingly the virtual currency has been able to survive that problem.  Hackers seem able to steal codes for the currency - but not sure how widespread the problem is.

We'll try to follow the story as it progresses!!!