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This past week, the anonymous digital currency Bitcoin hit a milestone by passing the $2000 mark in trading.
Between regulatory hurdles, heists and its all-too-common use in online crime, it's sometimes a surprise the cryptocurrency has survived, writes Jan Fingas of Engadget.com.
Fingas notes that the rapid rise (up hundreds of dollars in a matter of weeks) reflects confidence in recent regulation in markets such as Japan and China.
Don’t get too comfy, he warns:
As our TechCrunch pals observe, Bitcoin's share of the cryptocurrency market has plunged sharply in the past few months. Where it regularly dominated the market with about an 80 percent share, it's down to just 47 percent in a matter of months. Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin and others have all seen surges that have whittled away Bitcoin's control.
BetOnline, for example, made news in the online gambling sector by being the first Web casino operator to embrace Litecoin.
Fingas says that Bitcoin’s scaling may be resulting in the slowdown of transactions and, as such, folks are seeking out alternatives to the popular cybercurrency.
If scaling is a problem at all, it hasn't spooked users yet. It may just be a matter of the market growing up, or of speculators hedging their bets by pouring money into more than one digital currency, he writes.
Nearly all major online gambling websites targeting the North American market have now incorporated Bitcoin after some initial resistence.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
