BITCOIN: VIRTUAL CURRENCY

Bitcoin became a fixture in world financial news in late 2013 and early 2014. The “virtual currency” had been launched five years earlier by computer hobbyists, and in late 2013 the U.S. dollar rate of exchange for one bitcoin rose quite fivefold within the space of some weeks. the worth of 1 bitcoin, which had begun trading at but five cents in 2010, briefly exceeded $1,200.00. Two days of hearings were held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Office of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and government regulators testified that algorithmic, stateless currencies like bitcoin had the potential to play useful roles within the commercial payment system. Stories appeared within the media about travellers subsisting for lengthy periods by spending only bitcoin, and various businesses, kind of them exotic like Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spacefaring, attracted publicity by accepting bitcoin as payment. The euphoric news surrounding bitcoin at the best of 2013 gave because of catastrophe in February 2014, when the Mt. Gox exchange, once the leader in worldwide bitcoin trading, imploded in an exceedingly spectacular bankruptcy. Hundreds of several dollars’ worth of bitcoins went missing in reference to the failure of Mt. Gox, yet the value of bitcoins on other exchanges remained surprisingly high at around $450 each at the time of this writing. [1]