While I agree with the OP that bitcoin has pretty much reached it's full potential on a technology scale,
the lag in public perception may lead to a widespread understanding of this only much later, I hope in 2017.

It means that exchanges can be hacked (if they weren't already) using this exploit, until they patch the affected systems.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/09/bug-in-bash-shell-creates-big-security-hole-on-anything-with-nix-in-it/

The bid sum on Bitstamp reached (for a short time, it recovered a bit) the lowest point of this year, at just above 3 M$.
I noticed a discrepancy between the evolution of bids on Bitstamp and on Chinese exchanges, and I believe that
Chinese coins have been dumped for months. If it's westerners returning profits from China or new coins mined in China
and used for capital transfer, I can't tell, but the effect is the same.

I hope this bear market won't further unfold like 2011, not only because the price might fall below 200$, but also because it could last another 5 - 6 months, and I'm bored of it.

Since this question seems directed at me, I'll try to answer: if the bottom won't be below 250$, then IMO a return to the ATH and more
in the second half of 2015 is almost certain. But for me the most important is that bitcoin stays healthy until the second half of 2016,
when the block reward halving combined with a general uptrend should create a nice mania phase.

RyNinDaCleM would you mind elaborating on that unbelievably (for me, and I'm a bear!) bearish scenario.
Do you mean that if long term support at 340$ will be broken (and I believe it will be), then what follows might be a death spiral?

Months ago I made this prediction, and I was called insane for making it:

F-22 takes first shot at ISIS:
http://aviationweek.com/defense/f-22-s-takes-first-shot-against-ground-not-air-target

Tested and broken, this looks a bit more bullish that expected.
And again the CCMF, to da moon, whatever talk...
And if 5 - 6 days from now it'll start dropping again, the sky will be falling.

12h MACD suggests upcoming testing (major, I doubt it will break) of resistance at 430$ again.

The triangle broke down, but I doubt that it will continue. There is a bigger triangle that will break after several days.

This model in which Chinese buy BTC directly from the miners in order to get $ out of China by dumping on foreign exchanges
is not just bearish, but worrisome for the future recovery. Eventually the Chinese authorities will stop it and seller pressure will lessen.

I didn't want to get into this dispute, but... why the hell would the Chinese gov invest billions? Those billions will be spent on weapons and luxury houses for the ruling communist party.
The PBoC has already reduced bitcoin to a marginal role in China, if they want they can ban it once and for all, no need to spend millions, let alone billions.

AFAIK it's aminorex's prediction tool (neural network?).

My point is that historical patterns shouldn't be measured with the same metric.

Article at Fudzilla:
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/35822-nvidia-proves-that-the-lunar-landings-happened

A large mining operation most likely has some staff able to do good TA. For them it matters when they sell in order to maximize profits.
If the TA staff sees a clear downtrend for the next month, they may decide to sell all currently mined and some of the stash, to have fiat for bills until the recovery.

If bitcoin is dead for you now, then in about a month you'll think it stinks.

A couple of bearish analyses at Tradingview:
https://www.tradingview.com/v/DGDpVV7X/
https://www.tradingview.com/v/XuCOpkDa/
https://www.tradingview.com/v/thP23Url/

That's not as bearish as it looks, because the market movements take so much longer now than in late June - early July 2013.
If you look at the daily charts for that period, price being just below the BB was very common towards the bottom.