This is slightly off topic but blogs are to be fun... right? Currency is a big topic today throughout the world... here is another twist

What's a Bitcoin?

It's the state-of-the-art in money. It's a new form of electronic money. It's already become "the gold standard" of digital currency.

Ya know how email changed old-fashioned mail forever? Well, Bitcoin is changing money forever.

Based on some old technologies, and some new technologies... Bitcoin is the result of combining... the very state of the art in cryptographic security + the idea of a limited quantity commodity similar to gold and silver (where there's only so much of it) and using it as money + the idea of massive numbers of computers connected by the internet... forming a strong, resilient, indestructible peer-to-peer network. It's called a cryptocurrency.

Why would I use Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is the world's first completely Decentralized currency. This means it has no issuing entity... therefore, no single point of failure. In many ways Bitcoin is more secure than your bank. If your bank were to fail, your money could be gone forever. The Bitcoin network is made up of millions of computers all over the world, connected via the internet. The entire internet would have to go down, in order for the Bitcoin network to fail.
There will never be more than 21 million Bitcoins. The number of Bitcoins is limited by the design of the network. This number can never be increased. Also,
Bitcoins are virtually infinitely divisible. Currently, they are divisible up to 8 decimal places. For example, you can send someone 0.00000001 of a Bitcoin... for a Stabucks. However, in the future, they could become even more divisible as needed... as the value of one Bitcoin becomes ever larger.
It's as free as email. Bitcoin transactions are free. Whereas credit cards and other online payment systems typically cost 1-5% per transaction, plus various other fees adding up to hundreds of dollars... Bitcoin usage and transactions are always free*. It doesn't matter if you send $0.01... or $1,000,000.00... the transaction cost is always the same: free*
It's as easy to send as email. Just one click. Bitcoin payments are sent with one click - just like email.
Payments are irreversible. No matter whether you accept Bitcoin payments for your business or otherwise, payments can not be reversed. There's no such thing as a "chargeback" with Bitcoin. Payments can only be refunded by the recipient, voluntarily... as a separate new Send transaction.
It's more secure than online banking existing in the world today. Traditional banks use encryption when you log on to your online banking. The cryptography technology used in Bitcoin is even more secure. In other words, if it were to ever become possible to hack in to it... Then ALL the world's banking would be compromised. With today's known technology, experts all agree... It is absolutely un-hackable and un-breakable.?
With Bitcoin, there is no central bank... no privately owned federal reserve bank corporation. The value of Bitcoins does not go down when the privately owned corporation called "The Fed" decides to "print more money". In fact, it might even go up in value... as it triggers more people to seek out alternatives to storing their money in the world's "fiat currencies" (paper money that different nations' central banks just continue to "print more of")... and buy more Bitcoin instead. In the news, the corporate-owned media call it, "Quantitative Easing".... We think it would be more appropriate to call it, "The Titanic".
It's as anonymous as you want it to be. Just like with cash, transactions can be totally anonymous. Transactions are only identified by your Bitcoin address, and you can have as many Bitcoin addresses as you want. You create another new Bitcoin address with one click any time you want to. Most people create a new Bitcoin Address for every person sending them a payment. That way, they know for sure who the payment came from.
There's no big brother. Third parties can’t prevent or control your transactions. Transfer money easily through the internet, without having to trust middlemen; no central bank, nor central authority.
It's not a bank. It's not paypal. What may be the best feature of all? "Bye bye, PayPal." "Bye bye, Bank."

What else can I do with Bitcoins?

Bitcoin is absolutely ideal for charitable organizations that are doing amazing great work in the world, like EpicChange.org, for example. People can donate with one click. People can donate tiny amounts, or large amounts, with no transaction fees. And, of course, many small amounts really add up!

Can I exchange Bitcoins for normal cash?

Absolutely! 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you can sell Bitcoins...

For cash in person... in your hand... from a local exchanger,

For cash by postal mail or fedex... from an exchanger, or

Direct deposit into your bank account... by an online online exchange site

For details on how you can sell Bitcoins for cash... See the Sell tab.

The Fine Print

* Users have the option of paying a very tiny fee (like $0.01 for example) to receive "priority processing" of their transaction. In the future, this should result in faster processing of their transaction. (In fact, the system is designed so that transactions that pay $0.02 fee will have even higher priority than transactions that pay a $0.01 optional fee.) However, at this point, with the current transactional volume of the network, paying this optional fee will have no effect whatsoever - because every transaction is already processing as fast as technically possible. Note that, even in the future, all transactions that do Not pay the optional "priority processing fee" will still be processed. For more technical details about this, see bitcoin.org

** Past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future success. This site gives no financial advice. Nothing on this site should be construed as giving financial advice.

? Bitcoin protocol is designed to not need any encryption of the transmission. This is because the data is already encrypted to begin with. All the data is visible to anyone, however no one will be able to read anything anyway. While most banks use RSA keys to authenticate peers (usually 1024-bit or 2048-bit RSA keys), Bitcoin uses EC (elliptic curve) keys of size 160-bit, which most experts consider more secure.