It's time to put your money where your monitor is and while it doesn't grow on trees it does grow in your hard drive.
Bitcoin referred to as electronic money or virtual currency bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system that offers a 21st century alternative to regular brick-and-mortar banking a Bitcoin is something that most users will never see and never touch beyond their computer screens exchanges are made via wallet software rather than the traditional wallet in your back pocket and there exists no central bank or authority so the value of your bank balance is set entirely by the supply and demand of the market.

Buying things with bitcoins as with all money it's best if you're able to spend it it's been gradual but there are more and more commodities becoming available to Bitcoin holders perhaps the most high-profile acceptor of the currency is Virgin Galactic their upcoming space tourist flights are purchasable if you prefer your transport a little more traditional than Lamborghini is the first motor company to give the go-ahead and what car-stereo would be complete without Spice Girl Mel B she was the first musician to recognize payments for her music.

The numbers the Bitcoin supply is finite production of bitcoins is romantically called mining with millions of dollars worth mined or exchanged electronically each day every Bitcoin transaction is verified using an extremely complex algorithm and these verifications are done by a large network of mining computers competing against each other when a miner successfully verifies a transaction he or she is rewarded with a small amount of bitcoins this is also how new bitcoins are introduced into the system and mining is a lot of work globally the network of mining computers is now over 250 times more powerful than the world's top 500 supercomputers combined.

The value with no thing to hold in your hand the bitcoins value might seem indecipherable and as a new concept it does tend to fluctuate however in general the value seems to be increasing in November 2011 after a crash a Bitcoin was worth $2 u.s. in November 2013 a Bitcoin topped $1,000 US and value and briefly was worth more than an ounce of gold though its value has since fallen just imagine the level of security when the first Bitcoin cash machine opened in Vancouver Canada the previous month.

Bitcoins and bankruptcy an old saying says you have to speculate to accumulate and there are speculators aplenty when it comes to Bitcoin while there are winners there are inevitably losers - in February 2014 Mount GOx the one-time largest Bitcoin exchange was forced to file for bankruptcy protection due to possible hacking theft or mishandling that cost them in excess of four hundred and fifty million dollars bitcoin is a currency that can lose up to 80 percent of its value in seconds so mount GOx was in very big trouble very quickly.

Banning the bitcoin probably because it subverts the traditional banking system and works outside government regulation bitcoin is outlawed in many around the world and is heavily frowned upon by many others in July 2013 tie line became the first country to completely ban the currency though they later relaxed the ruling and China with its higher global profile banned banks from trading bitcoins in December of the same year the US Treasury has also flexed its monetary muscles by shutting down a physical Bitcoin production company in 2013.

Know your limits the number of bitcoins that can exist is limited to 21 million and the production rate is scheduled to be halved every four years to ensure that the value of a Bitcoin is not lost this means that supply will run out around 21 40 and although miners will no longer be rewarded with new bitcoins they will still be paid for their efforts through transaction fees as it stands today over a century before the deadline roughly 64% of bitcoins sit unused in their respective accounts appreciating and depreciating with time.

WikiLeaks the notorious organization

WikiLeaks relies very heavily upon this futuristic form of finance in mid-2011 the nonprofit whistle blower group began using Bitcoin as a method of processing donations because other money transfer companies wouldn't deal with them to become so dependent on something so unpredictable is perhaps not the wisest of moves but so far using the cryptocurrency hasn't done a lot of harm to the media profile of Julian Assange and company watching the world change as a result of your work priceless.

               Silk Road the equally infamous

Silk Road website used bitcoins as its form of currency a black-market trading site that specialized in illegal drugs and goods as well as some more reputable products it provided browsers with anonymity and made its money using bitcoins when alleged site founder Ross Ulbricht was arrested his estimated fortune was so inconceivable that it's believed that well over half remains unaccounted for as a side note the name of all bricks alter-ego Dread Pirate Roberts was lifted from the movie The Princess Bride go figure before we unveil our top pick here are a few honorable mentions.

Bitcoin beginnings Satoshi Nakamoto is the person or persons behind
Bitcoin launching the software in 2009 Nakamoto past majority control on two scientist Gavin Andresen in late 2010 and and reasons comments capture Bitcoin perfectly he says it's like better gold than gold Nakamoto's believed to be in possession of 1 million Bitcoins equivalent to 1.1 billion u.s. dollars but his name is probably a pseudonym the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is unknown it's been suggested that electronics companies Samsung Toshiba Nakamichi and Motorola are the founders but there's been no confirmation it's a mystery for the modern world.