Sorry didn't realise it was paywalled. This is it minus a few charts (1yr price, difficulty, miner revenue):

If Bitcoin is a bubble, it is a bubble that began deflating on November 29 2013. At its proudest moment the price of one unit of the much-ballyhooed virtual currency was $1,242, which meant the value of all the Bitcoins in the world was just under $14bn.

These days it trades mostly in a range of $450-$650 a coin and at a market cap of $6.5bn. The jury is still out on whether the Bitcoin technology will prove robust and the currency itself will find mainstream use. If the answer to either question is no, then no amount of hot air is likely to keep the price at current levels.

But even as the Bitcoin price decays, there is another candidate for the bubble label: the market for the specially designed computers that hold the Bitcoin network together and “mine” for newly minted coins.

Nicolas Courtois, a senior cryptography lecturer at University College London, has calculated that at least $1bn has been invested in this “mining equipment”, and some miners, who wish not to be identified, suggest that could be a modest estimate.

Prices for the latest computer hardware have been chased higher because investors have required faster and faster machines to make narrower and narrower profits mining for Bitcoin.

Mr Courtois estimates a majority of investors are making a loss.

“It has been a very bad experience for most investors and a jackpot for a few lucky ones,” he says. “The bottom line is that the production of mining machines was much higher than expected and advertised.”
Bitcoin price

Miners are central to the operation of the virtual currency. Linked together, they are the peer-to-peer network that confirms transactions and maintains the online ledger showing where all the Bitcoins are. New coins are their reward for taking part, but the likelihood of getting a coin has decreased as more miners come online and the number of Bitcoins approaches the maximum allowed.

When the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakomoto created the virtual currency in 2009, he envisioned a decentralised market powered by ordinary users operating equipment no more sophisticated than a MacBook. But now development costs for the most cutting-edge technology, in US dollar terms, can run into the double-digit millions. The biggest miners now run large rigs, sometimes filling entire warehouses, with giant fans to keep them cool.
Bitcoin mining difficulty

Bitcoin folklore has it that a savvy German miner known as ArtForz worked out how to adapt graphics processors (GPUs), the sort found in video game technology, to run the Bitcoin algorithm much more efficiently in 2010, sparking today’s arms race. The era of Bitcoin mining farms chock full of precariously placed cables and energy-intensive overheating processors – evocative of Star Trek’s Borg villains – had begun.

“We’ve paid between $10m and $15m for the development of our 20 nanometre technology, depending on what you include in those costs,” says Nanok Bie, director of marketing at KnCMiner, a Sweden-based miner that develops rigs for commercial distribution.
Bitcoin miners' revenue

The 20 nanometres refers to the size of the microchip that makes the cryptographical computations needed to process Bitcoin transactions and hunt for new coins.

Once the preserve of libertarians and technowonks, Bitcoin began attracting more attention last year, when the price of a single coin climbed in fits and starts from just $14 at the beginning of January 2013. Believers argued it could replace what they claim are devaluation-prone fiat currencies, or undercut traditional payments processors such as Visa and MasterCard or banks.

In recent weeks, the price has again been volatile. An increasing number of companies have won headlines by announcing they will accept Bitcoin as payment for online transactions, but these firms typically cash in their Bitcoin for dollars or other currencies immediately on receipt. This has created the situation where increased adoption of the currency can depress, rather than increase, the price.

The price weakness further narrows the margins on Bitcoin mining, spurring ever greater desperation to obtain the latest equipment. Buyers of mining computers report having to pay in advance for machines that take months to arrive, and internet discussion boards are full of accusations of unscrupulous sellers delaying delivery so they can use machines for themselves, or failing to deliver what they promise at all.
In depth

Bitcoin
Bitcoin

As interest in Bitcoin increases, US officials are looking into how to regulate, rather than shut down, the virtual currency

Firms such as KnCMiner and rivals Butterfly Labs and Cointerra are among those hoping to expand sales beyond Bitcoin adherents to investors who believe alternative virtual currencies, such as Dogecoin or Litecoin or other Bitcoin copycats, might break through to the mainstream as well.

These manufacturers are hopeful that all the investment in their industry will spur innovation. As well as ultra-fast, ultra-efficient chips, future technological developments could include mining rigs whose excess heat is channelled to heat homes, or investments in low-cost energy production such as solar power, says Mr Bie.

For now, says Mr Courtois, a number of players are willing to mine Bitcoin at a loss, either in the hope of a long-term turnround, or to support the system, or to get hold of a currency that is anonymous and untraceable and therefore useful in illicit transactions.

Economics, however, may well catch up with the whole system. The fate of Bitcoin and its miners are tied together, and the outcome will decide whether the whole virtual currency experiment is ultimately labelled a bubble.

I'd like to see some good consolidation around $550 - $600 and a break higher, to be comfortable about new longs, since otherwise we could quite probably continue to drift lower.

http://www.forexminute.com/bitcoin/bitcoin-foundation-brings-primer-law-jurisdiction-small-businesses-start-members-42415

despite the rot some (more) good comes out of the BF

Export from Havelock? How long did it take?

Yes you're right, I think my imagination was running away with me!

It'd be sweet if FC has a few of those containers bubbling with BE300's, and a roadmap for Gen4 in play.

Yes, generally speaking, all expenses related to earning the income are deductible.

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/bitcoin-wallet-security-best-practices/2014/08/21

Some of you might find this article useful.

I wonder if any non Australian businesses will setup offices in Australia to circumvent money transmitter rules in their own countries, just as multinationals now shift money around to avoid paying tax?

Here's Ron Tucker's interpretation, which agrees with mine:

"The way they've chosen to interpret how it should be applied is unfortunately very stifling for emerging Australian digital currency businesses and the industry as a whole," said Ron Tucker, the chair of the Australian Digital Currency Commerce Association and a partner at BitTrade, a digital currency trading service.

"It's essentially a double GST effect. It is adding 10 per cent tax on the entire supply of the Bitcoin.

"So if the Bitcoin is worth $500 today, you'll be paying 10 per cent tax on that, as well as the GST on the service or commission fees that the Bitcoin companies may charge."

Mr Tucker said the ATO's view on Bitcoin will send business either offshore or underground.

"I've already heard from a number of our members that they are in the process of – or already have or will be – setting up shop offshore," he said.

source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-20/bitcoin-will-not-be-taxed-as-money-ato-says/5683974

Yes, as it stands you would pay 10% GST. If you buy 1 bitcoin at an exchange rate of AUD$500, your total price would be AUD$550.

It seems to me they are clumsily trying to force a square peg into a round hole with potentially ugly consequences.

It's all over the media, but just for the hell of it, here's another take: http://www.startupsmart.com.au/financing-a-business/11-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-atos-bitcoin-guidance/2014082013032.html

This kind of stupidity could almost be funny if it wasn't so sad. He must have put on his "Ignorant Bastard" hat to write that. One thing racing to zero is that guy's credibility and future earning potential. I don't even see how he can fall back on the 'it was parody' excuse.

http://www.moneytips.com/influencers-money-secrets

and Forbes comment on it: http://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2014/08/19/here-are-how-19-world-famous-financial-experts-are-investing-their-money-today/

Yes that's correct.

Huh? 100 pennies = £1; 100c = $1. How's that more complex?