Bitcoin is something most people have heard of at some point. We may not understand Cryptocurrency but we understand it as an intangible financial medium. . .
That may be a thing of the past thanks to Utah man Mike Caldwell.
Casascius Bitcoins made of brass with gold electroplating, created by Mike play a role comparable to a gift card with a magnetic strip. Tied to the peer-to-peer, open source digital currency, each coin has a unique Bitcoin address and a redeemable "private key" under a hologram on the coin.
Caldwell has provided us a palpable means of carrying around the digital key that contains the value of our wallet and that key can be used to redeem the value of the Bitcoins online, but the hologram sticker leaves a honeycomb mark when peeled back, so you'll know if your Bitcoins have been tampered with.
The existence of things like the Casascius Bitcoin point of sale system, is based on Self-contained, computerized equipment that performs all tasks of a store checkout counter. It allows payments by bank or credit cards, verifies transactions, provides sales reports, coordinates inventory data, and performs several other services normally provided by employees.
Many online companies use this form of technology and it’s something many of us are familiar with.
U.S. statutes prohibit the creation of a currency that competes with the American dollar. Earlier this year, a North Carolina district court convicted a man who among other things designed and minted "Liberty Dollars", issuing and passing coins "intended for use as current money; and of conspiracy against the United States."
As a result of Bitcoin being only a digital currency until now, Bitcoin Wiki has been able to argue that it does not compete stating “...in general trading in any commodity, including digital currency like Bitcoin, game currencies like World of WarCraft gold or Linden dollars, is not illegal”.
