April 10, 2013

Hold on to Your Bitwallets, Folks

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The Guardian reports on the latest Bitcoin follies:

Bitcoin, the digital currency, lost more than $160 (£104) in value on Wednesday, just hours after hitting a record high. The currency hit a new high of $266 before falling to $105 and then bouncing back to $130. The fall is unlikely to put off speculators. Two months ago, a Bitcoin was worth $20.

….Wednesday’s wild ride came as someone gave away thousands of dollars worth of Bitcoins on Reddit, the social news site. News blog Business Insider calculated a Reddit user under the name “Bitcoinbillionaire” had given away $13,627.69896 worth of Bitcoins to Reddit users over the day. The mystery donor signed off with a quote from Ron Paul, libertarian politician and one-time would-be presidential candidate: “It’s no coincidence that the century of total war coincided with the century of central banking.”

So the monetary base of the Bitcoin empire dropped by about a billion dollars because someone gave away $13,000 on Reddit. And this is something we’re supposed to take seriously as the future of money? Seems a wee bit fragile, no?

For more on the techno-idiocy that is Bitcoin, Adam Serwer and Dana Liebelson answer all your questions here.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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