The Future of Money: Intro to Bitcoin

A revolutionary new approach to money is in place: Bitcoin, a virtual currency.  Started in 2009, the Bitcoin currency is not regulated by any central authority; instead it is run as an open-source network of peers, meaning it cannot be manipulated by government.  The Economist published a thorough report in June 2011 explaining exactly how Bitcoin operates, enabling the instant purchase of real goods without being pegged to any “real” currency.
TechCrunch has been covering the Bitcoin phenomenon over the past year, following the progress of and challenges facing the project.  Fred Wilson, a well-known venture capitalist, recently claimed that “social upheaval” is the next-big-thing coming to the internet, citing Bitcoin as an example of this.  Meanwhile critics like blogger Jason Calcasis call this project “dangerous”, warning of the potential of peer-to-peer currency to destabilize economies and encourage contraband.  
The Bitcoin 2.X model is aimed to solve the problems facing Bitcoin.  The 2.X version would allow for a division in values between various extensions of Bitcoin currency.  This would utilize the novel technology in place but permit the separated currencies to have a more stable value, and allow multiple communities to use the existing infrastructure.  This would likely bring many more users to the network.

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