a-real-bitcoinIf you’ve been on the internet much during 2014, you’ve probably heard the term Bitcoin floating around. What is Bitcoin? In case you’re wondering, it is a form of online currency that can be used to purchase goods and without any serial number, there’s no real way of tracing it back to a buyer or seller.

Aside from the software developers who work on new versions of the code that underpins Bitcoin, there’s no Central Bitcoin Bank—no virtual Federal Reserve. Bitcoins are backed by no one and nothing and completely unregulated.

When you write your friend a check, money from your account is withdrawn from your bank, and then transferred to their bank, and then they withdraw it as cash. With BitCoin, there are no middlemen (other than the users that comprise the network itself). Money goes straight from you to whomever, through the BitCoin P2P system, with no intermediary agency passing along the chips.


Bitcoins are “mined” similarly to gold, meaning there is a finite supply in the world. However, instead of pick-axes in the ground, bitcoin miners use increasingly sophisticated computers to solve increasingly difficult computer algorithms. Each time a miner solves one of these cryptographic puzzles, they are paid in the currency, adding it to the money supply. The current maximum of mineable bitcoins in the world is 25 every ten minutes.


You can view their YouTube video below:

Today, Microsoft announced they will be accepting Bitcoin payments for games and apps on Windows, Windows Phone, and XBox.