Nick Gillespie on Why Bitcoin - or Something Like It - Will Survive Bankruptcies and Government Crackdowns

The shuttering on Tuesday of Mt. Gox, writes Nick Gillespie,

hasn't just left customers of the Japanese-based bitcoin exchange panicked to the tune of about $300 million, it's instigated the latest round of comparisons to tulip-bulb mania, sour anti-semitic rants from neo-Nazis, and "Is Bitcoin Finished?" stories.

So: Is bitcoin finished? The short answer is no. And while I explain why, think on this: If and when the end does come for bitcoin, an internet payment protocol that only cranked up in 2008, it won't be because of cyberspace's answer to bank robber Willie Sutton undermining belief in a virtual currency (ain't they all virtual?), it will be because governments around the globe are trying their damnedest to choke off a payment system that allows people to cut out the middle man.