Sad reality says that privacy is a luxury nowadays. With the hacking spree that infested the world this summer, serious damage dawned on both established companies and emerging players alike.  One of the many victims of the cybercrimes is peer-to-peer virtual currency, Bitcoin. But unlike other companies that have already shown positive signs of recovery following data breaches, Bitcoin is still under public scrutiny. Not directly linked on the cyber assaults, the big question now is, how private are transactions under a government that can and will order customer information? This is borne of the peer-to-peer payments method.

In his Forbes.com blog, Timothy B. Lee reflected on the ecosystem that Bitcoin will have to thrive in:

“Bitcoin’s alleged privacy benefits mostly reflect the fact that the government isn’t really trying to spy on Bitcoin users. It hasn’t built the kind of surveillance infrastructure the government has for tracking dollar-denominated transactions. And to be clear, I would rather that infrastructure not exist.”

He added, “But if Bitcoin becomes popular, the government will build precisely the same infrastructure for spying on the Bitcoin network. And when they do, it will become clear that for ordinary users, Bitcoin is, if anything, less surveillance-resistent than traditional cash.”

Looking back, Bitcoin faced a series of troubles after becoming prey to hackers. Kit Doston detailed the unfortunate string of events that compromised important accounts and eventually led to the Bitcoin market crash. Prior to the attacks, Symantec had already warned them of Trojan threats. In no time, users’ virtual money got hacked and values of Bitcoin dropped significantly. Also, legalities surrounding the cryptocurrency’s processes have also cost them a big client with Electronic Frontier Foundation or EFF bailing out. EFF was one of the pioneers in Bitcoin adoption.

For a better understanding of what transpired between the rise and fall of Bitcoin, Seth Hanford in his Cisco.com blog provided details on Bitcoin’s security architecture. He concludes that social and political demands will continue to attract virtual currency adoption, but inherent threats in Bitcoin’s system may just deny them complete success.

Their seamless journey was short-lived, terminated early by a fatal cyber-attack. Sadly, before this had all happened, Bitcoin was predicted to be a virtual currency market shoe-in, though Bitcoin presses on.  Hopefully we’ve all been able to learn from these lessons, and remember this precautionary tale of virtual markets in today’s world.