Not sure if many of you got into, or were ever aware of the existence of,
e-gold but the BTC situation just seems awfully deja vu to me.
BTC itself need not be a scam or intentional fraud of any sort and yet it could still very well still fall into the same footsteps as e-gold (which itself was also not intended to be a scam).
My understanding is that e gold was investigated by the US government for money laundering, taken to court, and fined. I am not sure how the same could ever occur with bitcoins- there is no central authority, nobody to fine, nobody to sue.
Further, while the media likes to state otherwise, BTC transactions are recorded in each block and are indeed trackable to an extent, at least as well as cash can be. It's not really the dream currency for illegal activities it is made out to me, because you can simply follow the block chain to see who spent what.
All said, I think the recent "crash" was merely a needed correction. BTC value should rise, but it was rising a little too fast. I am not going to sell, I kinda wish I had the funds to buy when it dipped down to $13 this morning.
edit: Of course, another key difference is you had to buy e-gold to get e-gold. I have not bought any BTC, yet I have nearly 30. Mining is in some ways safer because worst case scenario I can use my computers for other purposes or sell them.