Just came across this article.......thought those that have bitcoins, may find the article interesting .... even to the point of concerning But I will let you guys make your own decision http://go.bloomberg.com/market-now/2013/10/02/if-this-isnt-the-end-of-bitcoin-what-is/
On a scale of 1 to 10, this is about a 1.5 on my could-this-be-the-end-of-bitcoinometer. Like every other movement/crash/rally it will fade into the overall trend, up, when you zoom out enough. http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#tgSzm1g10zm2g25zl I'm doubtful the site in question had all that high a volume and non-speculative influence on the price of btc anyway. It just made for great headlines, with the site being so brazen.
This paper linked from a forbes article (that was linked in the article posted) should be of interest to any using bitcoin for anonymous payments. http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~smeiklejohn/files/imc13.pdf It seems this researcher has developed means to in part track transactions with bitcoin. She does offer some tips on keeping your transactions immune to snooping though, so this method is by no means widely useful. However given that these guys and whole other bunch of egg heads globally are busy working away on ways to track bitcoin payments, it does not bode well. I know anyone who questions the safety/anonymity of bitcoin regularly gets slammed as 'not understanding'. But very well known people involved in technology over the years have made predictions like the famous 'there is a global market for only 5 computers' and been badly wrong... some bitcoin champions may need to entertain the idea that a day may come (maybe sooner than they thought possible) when bitcoin will indeed become hackable and traceable.
It's weird how many people are enthusiastic about this digital fiat currency. Although the idea is very original, if you take a look at the enormous price fluctuations, you'd rather have US dollars than Bitcoins.
One thing I never get is how stackers always have that saying "if you don't hold it you don't own it." BitCoin to me feels so much like a game of musical chairs. It's all fine and dandy now but when the music stops, how sure are you that you can cash out in time?
I agree short term although I read in a Forbes article that the US government will probably liquidate their stolen coins when the dust settles. Hopefully they do it on mtgox.
Not just 30,000 - DPR's personal wallet allegedly holds 600,000 coins (5% of all in circulation), and it's encrypted, so they haven't been able to seize them. Bet there's some pressure being out on him to divulge the private key.