Bitcoin 1 June 2013

The current Bitcoin price is $128.96 with an average of $128.16 for the last 24 hours.   A deviation of about $1 compared to yesterday.   Volume stands at 16 737.25.

Blocks    238960
Total BTC    11.224M
Difficulty    12153412
Estimated    13330093 in 944 blks
Network total    112.252 Thash/s
Blocks/hour    7.74 / 465 s

The Sydney Morning Herald had an article A virtual currency loved by geeks is fast becoming the currency for crooks.   The article was telling about Cocaine and other drugs that can be easily purchased using Bitcoin anonymously.   It takes about the growing concerns regarding the use of Bitcoin by criminals and money launderers.   It also gave examples of how Bitcoin is used legitimately in Australia to buy anything from meat to books.  But there are still huge concerns over the illegal activities. 

''Criminals have been using Bitcoins for some time because it is not regulated and it's not controlled. There is also a huge jurisdiction issue because it's online.

There was a special mention about the trading of online gaming stuff using virtual currencies and how it is extremely tough to police such activities.   This is where virtual currency is used to purchase online virtual items and then sold to other players for "clean money".   Overall I would say it is a fair article with the pros and cons of Bitcoin.