The future of Bitcoin.

• Position: List - Brief article

When the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, Tokyo-based Mt.

Gox, went offline, critics of the cryptocurrency called for greater regulation. But Mercatus Center researcher Andrea Castillo says the worries are premature. In March, she told reason three things the Mt. Gox collapse reveals about the future of Bitcoin.

1 The Bitcoin ecosystem is growing up. Originally a digital bazaar for trading playing cards for the game Magic: The Gathering, Mt. Gox epitomized the first wave of scrappy Bitcoin businesses. But what worked in 2009 for hobbyists trading Bitcoins worth pennies simply does not cut it for our modern $7 billion Bitcoin economy.

2 Haters gonna hate. An embarrassing number of smug "skeptics" shared the news of Mt. Gox's collapse as if it were a death knell for Bitcoin...