The drop started the exact time the futures trading opened on December 18. Price suppression against a perceived threat? It's an interesting coincidence at the least. cryptowat.ch/markets/bitfinex/btc/usd
The development of the Bitcoin protocol continues. It won't stop. It's died a hundred times or more already. Can't kill what's already dead. 
I still love how elegant it is. You can send anyone, anywhere money practically instantly and practically free with no middlemen. All you need is an address. It is a protocol called Bitcoin with its own, baked-in currency called bitcoin. The protocol is completely open and is a platform for further development, no permission required. The tech's real.
(By the way: you can't effectively mine bitcoin with a GPU. They're woefully inefficient.)
Fully transparent: github.com/bitcoin
With the emergence of Bitcoin and all the over 1,000 cryptocoins, financial transactions are being decentralized on a massive scale. These decentralized transactions have no recourse whatsoever to the US Dollar. This changes the dynamics of international trade, foreign relations, diplomacy, and the impact of economic sanctions. There have always been attempts to "de-dollarize" the global economy and cryptocurrencies seem to be a veritable means of achieving that goal.
net-informations.com/q/mis/crypto.html
Select to expand quotealfredbill said..
With the emergence of Bitcoin and all the over 1,000 cryptocoins, financial transactions are being decentralized on a massive scale.
Actually it's really, really, really tiny. A quaint hobby for most. How many transactions are you decentralising?
