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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBitcoin hits $750, up 107% in a week
Its latest gains come as the potential for regulation hangs over the market. The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) began a hearing at 3.00 p.m. Washington time on Monday. The event brought representatives from different federal agencies and representatives from the bitcoin community to discuss virtual currencies.
Ahead of the hearing, entitled "Beyond Silk Road: Potential Risks, Threats, and Promises of Virtual Currencies", several government agencies wrote to the committee outlining their views on the currency. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that the bank had no plans to regulate bitcoin.
"Although the Federal Reserve generally monitors developments in virtual currencies and other payments system innovations, it does not necessarily have authority to directly supervise or regulate these innovations or the entities that provide them to the market," Bernanke said in a letter.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101205416
While this looks like great news for someone who already has them, it shows that people really have no idea what value they should put on bitcoins.
Newsjock
(11,733 posts)Beware.
longship
(40,416 posts)Damn! Douglas Adams was smart.
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)gcomeau
(5,764 posts)Massive levels of volatility!
Wait.... no... that's just what traders and market manipulators want in a currency...
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)Isn't it still basically impossible (barring jumping through a bunch of hoops with intermediary companies) to withdraw USD from Mtgox?
If so, it's an even weirder bubble than normal, as it's still just a paper profit even for the sellers. But then, almost nothing about bitcoin makes sense, until you remember that it's a hobby project for libertarian true-believers that recently became untethered from it's main link to any tangible economy - buying and selling illegal drugs.
Fun fact. Mtgox is an acronym for Magic The Gathering Online Exchange. Most of the bitcoin "economy" is facilitated through a website repurposed from selling virtual trading cards. (not the actual paper cards, mind)
Kurska
(5,739 posts)One silk road shut down, but another one is already up. That is only one market anyways, you really don't think there is more than one illegal drug market on the dark web?
Bitcoin is the currency for many illegal things besides just drugs anyways.
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)Kind of fascinating to watch a speculative bubble form and pop in realtime.