Quick, Everyone Panic! Bitcoin Weathers a Stormy Week

There have been some serious shenanigans in the Bitcoin community and economy in recent days.  The Mt. Gox exchange continues its downward spiral, while people who (inexplicably) provided control of their Bitcoin to Silk Road 2 got taken for a ride.  Here's one of the best rundowns on the Gox flaw that I've found online, from IEEE Spectrum:

Here's what a terrible week looks like in the world of Bitcoin: Two of the most trafficked Bitcoin exchanges, Mt. Gox and Bitstamp, temporarily halt trading and suspend bitcoin withdrawals in the midst of a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS). On exchanges that are still open for business, the value of the currency takes a brutal, sudden hit and then continues to tumble. Bitcoin users notice strange errors in their wallet balances after making routine transactions. Rumor spreads that the Bitcoin protocol is critically flawed. And where rumor is lacking, conspiracy theories abound.  All this, and it's barely Thursday.

Word is that as of this morning, Bitstamp had begun allowing withdrawals once again.