The Most Important Bitcoin Developments This Week: November 22, 2014

NEW YORK (InsideBitcoins) — The bitcoin price lost nearly 12% this week and is rapidly plunging deep underwater in year-over-year returns. While most industry insiders are still optimistic about future appreciation, investors will be entering the mostly uncharted territory of 12-month losses, at least in the near term.

Other important developments for the week included:

• The U.S. Marshals office set an auction date for the liquidation of 50,000 bitcoins seized from the cache of alleged Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. The stash has a market value of about $18 million.
• Blockstream, a firm dedicated to developing “Bitcoin 2.0″ applications based on the cryptocurrency’s blockchain technology, closed a $21 million seed round. The company, co-founded by Austin Hill, Adam Back and nine associates, gained the funding from high-profile entrepreneurs — including some of the biggest names in technology.
• Bloomburg hosted a bitcoin summit at its New York headquarters with a wide-ranging panel of insiders discussing everything from future applications, to regulation – and of course, the price of bitcoin.
• The Bitcoin Foundation made an official announcement of the redefinition of its mission, a move foreshadowed by its new executive director Patrick Murck in the past few weeks. The Foundation will focus on bitcoin’s core development, leaving a gap in policy advocacy and education that at least two organizations are looking to fill.
• At the Cato Institute’s 32nd Annual Monetary Conference, Kevin Dowd, a professor of finance and economics at Durham University, said “In spite of its success, bitcoin is not sustainable. It will collapse.” The reason? Centralized mining.

For other events of the week, check the Inside Bitcoins news summary. And as always, for breaking news, follow us on Twitter @InsideBitcoins and join the conversation on Facebook.

Hal M. Bundrick is the Editor-in-Chief of Inside Bitcoins. Editor@InsideBitcoins.com. Follow him on Twitter @HalMBundrick