Is Bitcoin Over the Hill?

The hype cycle shows up a lot with enterprise technology markets, which are abuzz with fashions, but it may also apply to bitcoin.

"The truth is that the general bitcoin community is growing tired. Tired of falling prices. Tired of scandals like Mt. Gox. Tired of rigs they invested in not paying off like they hoped. Tired of maintaining those rigs."

Has bitcoin started the inexorable descent into the trough of disillusionment? If so, how can we tell?

"At one point, bitcoin and virtual currencies were a novel and interesting story. The sexier angles including Silk Road were there. Since the novelty has warn off and the bad actors are being driven out of the ecosystem, they have lost interest."

Querying trends on bitcoin as a topic, rather than search term, shows a strong spike in interest last April, followed by an even stronger increase at the end of last year.

Someone on Quora suggested price as an alternative metric for tracking enthusiasm around bitcoin.

The price fluctuations seem broadly correlated with Google search trends for bitcoin.

One of the most telling things about the 'waning enthusiasm' Bitcoin Talk post is how the commenter references the bitcoin community.

"There are many groups, I'd probably categorize as follows: developers/tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, investors, observers, 'hardcore bitcoiners' and 'softcore bitcoiners'. The former are those for whom bitcoin is a lifestyle. The latter are just those who enjoy using bitcoin sometimes."

Venture capital firms are investing more, rather than less, in bitcoin, tripling the 2014 run rate over the total 2013 investment rate in short order, thanks to a flurry of investments.