BITCOIN

Gold is known as an alternative to paper currencies, can be traded anywhere in the world, and has a limited supply; the same is true for bitcoin. 

 

Bitcoin is minted in quantities determined by an algorithm.  Currently there are 11 million in circulation and the pre-determined algorithm will determine additional mints until a finite supply about 21 million of them are created and no more.

 

This digital virtual currency trading under the symbol BTC or XBT,  became operational in early 2009; it was created by an unknown person using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto.  In 2011 the value of one Bitcoin rapidly rose from about $0.30 to $32, before falling back down $2; at the time of this writing, bitcoin equals roughly $300 USD.  Bitcoins have acquired a reputation for use by criminals to purchase drugs, launder money, and gamble. Since its inception, Bitcoin exchanges and transaction processors have been hacked routinely with losses totaling millions of USD.

Bitcoin uses cryptography, it does not do so to protect the privacy of individuals; all transactions are logged in a public file called the blockchain. It is possible, although difficult, to associate bitcoin transactions with real-life identities.

To use bitcoins one is assigned one or more bitcoin addresses, and wallets allow a user to complete transactions between addresses by requesting an update to the blockchain, the public transaction log instrumental to Bitcoin. Wallets come in a variety of forms: apps for mobile devices and computers, hardware devices, and paper tokens.



Link to realtime chart:  http://bitcoinwisdom.com/