Cryptocurrency Round-Up: Dogecoin Hacked; Scottish Bitcoin Trial & Foundation Resignations

• Bitcoin Price: £257.36 (via CoinDesk.com)

The cryptocurrency speculators have taken a day off it seems, as the markets have remained virtually flat for the last 24 hours.

The top five altcoins (bitcoin, litecoin, peercoin, dogecoin and namecoin) all experienced increases or decreases of less than 1% in the past day, with darkcoin seeing a drop of over 3% after a major increase in value over the weekend.

While the markets may have been quiet, there has been a lot of news elsewhere in the cryptocurrency world.

Bitcoin the new Scottish currency?

An experiment is taking place in Scotland this week where one retailer is declaring a "pound-free zone" and only using bitcoin.

CeX, which buys and sells second-hand electronics, DVDs, and video games, has also installed Scotland's first bitcoin ATM at its Glasgow store, with commercial director David Butler saying this could be the answer to Scotland's currency problems should they vote for independence later this year:

"With Scottish Independence high up on the news agenda along with questions surrounding what currency Scotland would use, the three day trial will give Scots the opportunity to ditch the pound and trial a different kind of currency altogether."

Pouring cold water on the possibility however is Philippe Gelis, a currency expert and co-founder of foreign exchange trading platform Kantox who said:

"Although perhaps valuable as a publicity stunt, the idea that cryptocurrency has the potential to take over from the pound in an independent Scotland has a fundamental flaw – Bitcoin cannot be classified as a currency."

Popular Dogecoin wallet service hacked

Despite being seen as the friendly cryptocurrency, one where those using it are not out to make a quick profit, it doesn't mean it won't be a target for cybercriminals.

On Tuesday Doge Vault, one of the most popular dogecoin wallet services, confirmed it had been hacked on 11 May, and having been alerted to the breach, shut down the service on 12 May.

The administrator of the account has yet to reveal the extent of the attack, both the number of accounts compromised and the amount of dogecoin stolen.

An updated statement is expected within the next 48 hours.

Bitcoin Foundation resignations

The Bitcoin Foundation, which is hosting the Bitcoin 2014 conference in Amsterdam this week, has seen 10 of its members resign at frustration about the "general direction" of the organisation.

The Foundation's mission is to help the bitcoin community "exchange resources and ideas more freely" but annual member Patrick Alexander wrote on the group's forum:

"So far, the track record of prominent Bitcoin Foundation members has been abysmal. I know that most foundation members are probably swell people and are not like this. However, the actions of a few have overshadowed us all unfortunately."

Alexander stated in the posting that he was terminating his membership and since then nine others have followed suit. The Foundation has hundreds of members including companies and individuals.

The resignations come days after the Foundation announced the controversial appointment of Brock Pierce to the organisation's board. Pierce is a former child actor and dot-com entrepreneur who is looking to rebuild MtGox.

The controversy surround decade-old allegations of possessing child pornography, sexual misconduct and embezzlement which continue to haunt Pierce.

Pierce is the latest controversial board member, following MtGox CEO Mark Karpeles and BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem.

Bitcoin Foundation forum administrator Brad Wheeler responded to Alexander, outlining the way the foundation operates and why there was little to no vetting of members.