It seems only yesterday — it was only yesterday — that bitcoin went soaring past $1,000, popping eyeballs everywhere. But as most of America gears up to tuck into some turkey on Thursday, profit-takers seemed nowhere to be seen, as the virtual currency sailed past that big level to tap a new high of $1,170 over at Mt. Gox, last changing hands at $1,143.90 (albeit in low volumes).
Great for the Winklevoss twins, bad news for people like James Howell, a Brit who tossed a hard drive that held $7.5 million worth of bitcoins, based on the latest levels over $1,000. Poor Howell, his hard drive is now buried somewhere in a landfill that’s as big as a soccer field and four or five feet deep.
And with the rising value of the currency, bitcoin theft stories are going to get even more common. Two days ago, a Denmark-based exchange says it had more than $1 million worth of bitcoins taken in a robbery that lasted a few days. The victim, Bitcoin Internet Payment Services — believed to be the biggest exchange in Europe — was hit by two huge denial-of-service attacks. The Danish provider was swamped by traffic that overloaded its site, “despite several layers of protection”, it said.
Unsentimental bitcoin won’t be missing out on the busiest shopping week of the year either, holding its own event — a Bitcoin Black Friday involving hundreds of merchants. One of those, Gyft, lets people use bitcoins to buy gift cards with big retailers such as Target TGT , Sears SHLD , Gap GPS , Toys R Us and more.
The speed at which bitcoin has been galloping away inspired ZeroBlock — a bitcoin digital news, information and data aggregator — to recently push out its app to Android phones, adding to its existing Apple version. But some remain convinced that the virtual currency is doomed. Edward Hadas, economics editor of Reuters Breakingviews, said in a blog Wednesday that bitcoin developers are trying to prove that money can be successfully privatized, but says history shows money not issued by governments is always doomed.
“Bitcoin exemplifies some of the problems of private money: Its value is uncertain, its legal status is unclear, and it could easily become valueless if users lose faith,” Hadas says.
“Besides, if bitcoin ever really started to take off, governments would either ban it or take over the system,” partly due to worries about the stability of a shadow monetary system or due to self-preservation worries, he notes.
Bitcoin, Hadas says, is appealing because “governments are not fully living up to the responsibility that comes with state-sponsored money. Bitcoin, or something like it, will thrive until the authorities do better.”
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