On October 2nd 2013 Silk road (the notorious and biggest ‘no question asked’ online bit coin market place) went offline, most likely forever.

It’s founder arrested on a number of charges.

Silk road and other market places like it  (which are now competing for silk roads formerly commanding market share) are the places that created the perception that bit coin was only for shady deals.

Any currency can be used for shady deals, Australian dollars, US dollars or Euros it really makes little difference. Following the shut down of Silk road bit coin prices took a large initial hit in price dropping 10% in a day but recovering most of the losses in the following 3 days. This means either the competitors to silk road a really stepping up to the plate ( and hoping they are better at staying out of jail) or the shady deals are only a small part of the bitcoin market that it can survive without. Most likely both reasons are somewhat true.

I’d like to see a fiat currency retain 97% of its value after a bank run.