OUCH! David Weidner Slams Bitcoin

The WSJ columnist writes:

This is no way to run a currency.

The bitcoin panic this week sparked by the disappearance of Tokyo-based exchange Mt. Gox rattled the so-called cryptocurrency markets. At one point Monday, bitcoin value fell more than 20% in just a few hours. It has since stabilized, if you can call it that, to around $550. Bitcoin is trading at $578.80 as of this writing – oops, make that $584.40…

So, assuming it stays somewhere near that level, it’s either up 1750% in the last year, or down 53% from its late-December high. In other words, stable as a Richard Sherman interview or Vic Wild’s nationality.

This isn’t intended to make fun of bitcoin or its evangelicals. They make their own fun. We just watch[...]

In the end, bitcoin as an “alternative” currency is much like “alternative” music. It works for people with a narrow set of tastes, some who simply just want to be different. Dollars, like top 40 radio, may have its limitations (I’m looking at you, Drake), but it’s what most of us can agree on.

Bitcoin may indeed become the currency of the future. But today it’s like an indie band that always seems to use the wrong chord (hello, Arctic Monkeys).