Bitcoin Down 12 Percent this Year -Hackers Show Online Risk

2015 has not started well for bitcoin with prices having fallen 12%, from $320 to $288. The cyber attack on a leading bitcoin exchange is the latest challenge for the fledgling digital currency.

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Bitstamp, Europe’s leading bitcoin exchange – and third largest globally – has been off-line following a breach in their system by hackers on Sunday night. The UK based company has suspended lodgements and withdrawals and reported that roughly $5.1 million, around 19,000 BTC, had been ‘lost.’  The revelation follows the disclosure that Bitstamp’s wallet system has been compromised, prompting it to halt deposits and later shut down its platform entirely according to Coin Desk.

Today, Bitstamp said it expected to resume trading within 24 hours after suspending operations because of the ‘security breach.’

The bulk of the digital currency units are in cold storage – on computers not connected to the internet – and are therefore safe from further predations, the company has said. “Bitcoin customers can rest assured that their bitcoins held with us before temporary suspension of services . . . are completely safe and will be honoured in full,” Bitstamp said.

2014 was a tough year for bitcoin with prices falling from over $800 to just over $300. At its height, Bitcoin was trading at $1240. But in the run-up to and following the bankruptcy of the leading Mt Gox exchange, it has declined in value to around $285.
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Bitcoin or BTC in U.S. Dollars – 5 Years (Thomson Reuters)

Some say this reflects a steady loss of faith of it’s users in their ability to trade the currency safely due to exchange and technology risk. Others say it was a speculative bubble and was destined to burst and it is healthy it did.

We see the value in owning bitcoins as a form of cash diversification and see merits in owning and having a very small allocation to bitcoin.  It is slowly proving itself as a means of exchange. However, whether it will become a store of value is another matter.

Given the fact that we live in an era of currency wars and bail-ins – having a small allocation to such a liquid and fairly easily traded currency that is independent of debasing fiat currencies is not a bad idea.

When the chickens of government and central bank profligacy finally come home to roost, as they always do,  alternative digital currencies may serve as an accepted medium of exchange.

But today’s news highlights the vulnerability of any form of “virtual wealth.”

By virtual wealth, we mean many of our investments and savings today which are either in digital form – deposits – or intermediated by digital platforms – most investments including gold ETFs and digital gold trading platforms.

It is imprudent to rely on any asset which derives its value from or can only be accessed through the internet and certain online platforms and websites.

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This includes bank deposits in our modern digital banking system. In the event of a systemic crisis involving issues with ATMs, online bank accounts, capital controls and bail-ins – it will be prudent to own some assets that are outside of the financial system and indeed outside of the technological grid.

As tensions mount geopolitically – thankfully the consequences of military confrontation between nuclear-armed superpowers makes war a last resort – the Western bloc, Russia and China have all been experimenting with non-conventional warfare which include disabling the internet in target countries to collapse the economy.

If the internet and the financial system was brought down through unconventional warfare, criminal cyber attacks or simply a major glitch in the system – which has grown so complex that it is incomprehensible even to specialists – the assets of many people would be ‘erased’ and inaccessible.

Technology is a great enabler. But it can also be a great disabler. It is important to be aware of this.

Cyber and technology risk in the modern era is another reason to own physical coins and bars in an allocated and segregated manner, in the safest vaults, in the safest jurisdictions in the world.

SOURCE : http://www.ahametals.com/wednesday-january-7-market-update/

My wife's about to deliver our 3rd child this November, I'd like to name him satoshi since its a boy.
How do I get the 150btc?

The charge-back and freezing account

Source : http://www.ahametals.com/useful-bitcoin-data-resources/

The emergence of bitcoin is just one more signal that society has fully moved into the digital age. Technology has changed the way that we do just about everything in our lives, including the ways we consume data and information.

bitcoin data 630x345 The 9 Most Useful Bitcoin Data Resources

The days of pencil-pushing to gather and analyse data are numbered if not vanished, and new tools have made gathering, sorting, analysing and visualising enormous amounts of data easier than ever.

Bitcoin, of course, lends itself perfectly to these quantitatively-focused metric tools.

Few things about the digital currency are subjective, and even though nobody knows for certain what drives bitcoin’s price changes, plenty of people have tried their hand at using technical analysis to predict price trends.

Luckily for us, there’s no shortage of companies working with data to paint a picture of the ever-changing bitcoin ecosystem.

These websites provide information on pricing, trading, market capitalisations, blockchain statistics and more.

Here are nine of the most helpful bitcoin data resources:

1. Coinometrics



Coinometrics prides itself on its “institutional-level bitcoin data and research”, and the company’s analyses of volatility, price dispersion and currency flows have a refreshingly proprietary feel.

2. Coinmap



For bitcoiners eager to spend their BTC at brick-and-mortar businesses, Coinmap is a godsend. The site has a minimalist design, but is well populated with information on hundreds of retailers that accept bitcoin at their physical store locations.

3. Blockchain.info


Perhaps the most well known resource for analysing the block chain, Blockchain.infohas basic information on a number of metrics like market capitalisation, transaction volume, hash rate and more.

In addition to these stats, users can look up every bitcoin transaction on the block chain by searching a bitcoin address to trace where the coins came from and how much BTC is stored at any particular wallet address.
4. Bitcoincharts.com


A user favorite for pricing information, bitcoincharts.com offers a comprehensive look at the digital currency network, with a focus on technical analysis of price trends. The site offers a number of customisations for viewing price charts, and the long term view offers a nice perspective on the currency’s price history.
5. CoinMarketCap


Bitcoin isn’t the only player in the digital currency space. There are a number of altcoins gathering momentum in the industry, and while none rival bitcoin’s $7.7bn market cap, CoinMarketCap keeps an up-to-date record of the market capitalisation of some 462 digital currencies.
6. Bitnodes


Bitnodes is in development for a very specific pupose: to estimate and visualise the size of the bitcoin network. Powered by the Bitcoin Foundation, the site’s tools gather data on all the nodes running the bitcoin protocol version 70001.
7. Wizbit


For those yearning for a more visually focused analysis of bitcoin transactions, Wizbitfits the bill perfectly. The site shows all transactions and newly mined blocks in realtime on an eye-catching spinning globe.
8. Blockr.io


Blockr.io is another block chain-focused site that offers data on the block chains of currencies like bitcoin, litecoin, peercoin and more. The site’s “block explorer” has plenty of data on recent blocks, block difficulty, and estimates of future block difficulty, among other things.
9. CoinDesk


Of course we’re inclined to point out that CoinDesk is not only the world leader in bitcoin news, but also an industry-leading source for data and information on topics like price, venture capital investments and a number of bitcoin network statistics.

Our bitcoin ATM map recently launched as a tool to visualize the ever-growing number of bitcoin ATMs around the world and to provide information for those looking to find a bitcoin ATM nearby.

SOURCE : http://www.ahametals.com/the-future-of-bitcoin-panel-discussion/

In an effort to help widen bitcoin’s reach and create a simpler experience when dealing with the online currency, KryptoKit, makers of the bitcoin wallet browser extension, launchedRushWallet, a new easy-to-use bitcoin wallet that works on all web browsers and mobile devices and unlike other wallets, it doesn’t require any login credentials.

http://www.ahametals.com/finally-instant-cross-platform-bitcoin-wallet/

The word panic sounds just not right but "Alarming" 
It could be alarming if the price continues to drop as it is expected to rise for the rest of the year..
Anyway the drop just started for quiet few days but if that continues then that really something fishy goin out there..

Possible reasons for why the Bitcoin price is going down:
   
    
The only reason I think is viable to the price drop is
We all know that if someone who's holding a big stake in bitcoin and selling it could affect its pricing (correct me if im wrong)..

And the question is who? Satoshi? I don't think so..

Full Story

Maybe they think that this is an advocacy for not using dollar and use bitcoin instead

the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPvs9XjHOkI

Exactly and E-Gold, which by far the price is always dependent on how much the current price of gold.