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| Source: TheDigitalConsultant |
Is Bitcoin imploding? It's a question that needs to be asked.
In the past few weeks we have had the Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange go 'belly up' in a rather spectacular fashion. It reportedly lost 750,000 Bitcoins, blaming its demise on a 'bug in the Bitcoin system'.
This has been followed by Canada's Flexcoin who closed down after losing around 440,000 euros worth of Bitcoins to hackers.
Today there are reports of the American CEO of Bitcoin exchange company First Meta, who is based in Singapore being found dead near her apartment. The reason for her death has yet to be explained.
Also today we finally discover, through the investigations of Newsweek, who the founder of Bitcoin actually is. Mr Satoshi Nakamoto is a 64-year-old Japanese-American and has subsequently disowned the project and strongly denies any current association with the crypto-currency.
"I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," he says, dismissing all further queries with a swat of his left hand. "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection" he told Newsweek.
However, all is not what it seems as it turns out that the Mr Nakamoto was in fact NOT the creator of Bitcoin after all.
However, all is not what it seems as it turns out that the Mr Nakamoto was in fact NOT the creator of Bitcoin after all.
It is barely two days since the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued a warning to consumers and businesses 'to be cautious with transactions involving Bitcoin, as virtual currencies are unregulated and consumers may not have legal recourse should there be problems'.
Clearly this prophecy has come to pass and these recent developments are hardly reassuring for those who have taken the plunge and are, or were, playing the Bitcoin market.
Not to be deterred, Singapore also recently installed two Bitcoin ATM's where people can insert their hard-earned Singapore dollars and convert them to Bitcoins. I shouldn't imagine there is much of a queue to do so given all of the above.
