Agro Perspectiva

Expert: Bitcoin had short lifespan, like anything artificial and speculative

28.02.2014 10:14 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) — Japanese Mt.Gox exchange, the first to trade Bitcoins, suspended all transaction with electronic money. All data on its website was destroyed without explanation. A massive cryptocurrency theft is rumored to be the reason for such a drastic action. Possible bankruptcy of Mt.Gox was mentioned in the inter-office correspondence. The first Bitcoin exchange was founded 5 years ago in Tokyo. In 2010, it was considered the largest e-commerce platform for cryptocurrency trading. Experts say, that now it is like Mt.Gox has never even existed. One of the virtual pyramids simply collapsed. This is the end of Bitcoin, Voice of Russia reports quoting the independent financial analyst Evgeny Retyunsky. «Bitcoin had a short lifespan, like anything artificial and speculative. I would not call it is a sunset, it is more of an end. There is nothing good for it in the future. Common sense will prevail. This cryptocurrency existed only on the web. There were no currency or gold reserves to back it up, no production and no goods, nothing that could serve as a basis of a real currency.» Mt.Gox staff refused to comment on the reasons the company had gone to the bottom. One of the reasons, according to analysts, could be the disappearance of nearly seven hundred and fifty thousand (744 thousand) Bitcoins in several years. This theft was discovered only this week. In dollar terms, 370 million were lost for good. It is possible that this was the work of the hackers who had decided to profit at the expense of the Bitcoin owners. Now these cryptocurrency fans are probably broke, since there is absolutely no guarantee that the money will be found. Anonymity and lack of control that the Bitcoin founders had always praised, played a low-down trick on them. This is one of the reasons the global regulators impose bans on electronic money, head of the Zecurion analytical center Vladimir Ulyanov says. «The authorities are against cryptocurrencies, they protect the official financial systems. Under current circumstances, Bitcoin’s fate is sealed.» Last year was marked by a series of scandals involving the sale of weapons and drugs using Bitcoins. Against this background, the authorities of many countries, including China, imposed a ban on the domestical use of cryptocurrencies. Russia was one of the first countries to make such a statement. In early February, the Central Bank placed the operations with virtual currencies, including Bitcoin, on the same footing as money laundering and terrorist financing. And the chief of the Federal Service for Drug Control Viktor Ivanov said that the anonymous currency had become a tool in the hands of drug mafia. «The drug mafia is increasingly resorting to unconventional payment systems for profit taking, settling accounts with creditors, transferring money to sellers and in transit countries. The Bitcoin system is often used to increase the security of the transactions. We have to develop an antidote to this disease.» Once it became known that the Mt.Gox’s financial viability is now questionable, Bitcoin’s course plummeted down. Its price reached $ 420. Later, it manage to recover for a while. At the closing of electronic trading one Bitcoin was worth $ 645. It should be noted that in December the rate reached a record high of 1237 dollars.