The global value of the Bitcoin — a digital currency invented in 2008 — has dropped nearly 30% in the last two days. The crash was likely caused by revelations that hackers stole 119,756 bitcoins — worth about $65 million at present prices — from the computer system of Bitfinex, a Bitcoin exchange based in Hong Kong. Bitfinex discovered the security breach early this week; the exchange halted trading on Tuesday. The result has been that the global bitcoin market has lost $1.5 billion in market capitalization.
Though people the world over trade bitcoins using open-source software and on bitcoin exchanges — many of which specialize in converting between bitcoins and specific, internationally recognized currencies — a recent article from Chabad declared that, under Jewish law, bitcoins are not kosher.
Jewish law forbids Jews from charging other Jews interest when lending them money. The rabbinic ruling on currencies requires that, if one person lends another a given amount of money, the borrower must return that same amount of money. The ruling is different when it comes to commodities: the borrower must return the value of the merchandise loaned to him or her in the first place, and not the exact merchandise or commodities loaned.
http://forward.com/news/world/346716/bitcoins-bad-week-currency-crashed-stolen-and-declared-unkosher/
