Will Silk Road bust kill Bitcoin?

[msk19994]

The eBay of the black market has met its demise. The US Justice Department has shuttered Silk Road and indicted its alleged founder.An online marketplace founded in 2011, Silk Road facilitated commerce in illegal goods and services, including drugs, counterfeit currency and hacking services, with payments processed in the digital currency Bitcoin. Perhaps not coincidentally, the price of Bitcoin fell to about $US119 on Thursday, down from $US145 at the end of September.
About 600,000 Bitcoins worth about $US1.2 billion have been exchanged on Silk Road, which prosecutors called "the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet." The FBI seized 26,000 Bitcoins – worth about $US3.6 million – from the Silk Road in what prosecutors called the largest Bitcoin haul in history.
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Ross William Ulbricht, 29, known on Silk Road as "Dread Pirate Roberts", was arrested in San Francisco and charged with narcotics-trafficking conspiracy, computer-hacking conspiracy and money-laundering conspiracy. Ulbricht calls himself an "investment adviser and entrepreneur" on his Linkedin profile, but prosecutors said his activities included making a death threat against a Silk Road user who had threatened to reveal information about the site.
While the FBI celebrated, Silk Road travellers took to Reddit where they are freaking out about lost money, unconsummated drug deals and the declining value of Bitcoin.
What will Silk Road's end mean for the popular crypto-currency? Before Bitcoin was sufficiently mainstream to constitute non-profit donations or warrant its own exchange-traded fund, it was best known for its utility (and ubiquity) on Silk Road. Bitcoin's association with illicit trade was once central to its identity – and is still an impetus to government scrutiny.
But Bitcoin no longer needs Silk Road. For one thing, there are other online marketplaces where Bitcoin could be used illegally. Perhaps more importantly, in the three months ending in June, Bitcoin start-ups raised almost $US12 million from venture capital investors. Bitcoin may still be high-risk, but a customer base of legitimate start-ups and fewer drug lords probably bodes well.


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[UltimA]

It used to trade at peak $220+ per BTC.

If you really want to possess a commodity, get a type of physical guarantee - a precious metal for example.

Whether people want to accept it or not, Bitcoin is not a legitimate commodity, has no actual value, and is reliant heavily upon illegal activity to keep the core of it alive.

When you take the above into consideration, you are no longer storing your money safely, but are rather gambling with it. If you want to take such extreme risk, do it with the stock market.

You will find the usual surge of PR bullshit about trust and further investment in Bitcoin; sadly people don't seem the realize the people behind the PR are the unfortunate victims of having huge amounts of BTC who want to attempt to reinflate the value. Imagine losing millions overnight? :cough:

 

[ShockSRV]

Bitcoin can never shutdown, no matter what the fuck feds do.
End of story.

 

[blkhtr007]

Any currency or valuables you possess can be seized, this has nothing to do with shutting down bitcoin.