If you, like me read or watch the news, you may be aware of the trend for localised currencies. From the Brixton pound to the Kenyan mpesa and Uruguay’s charrua (a digital currency aimed at businesses, which runs in tandem with the Uruguayan peso) however what about an international digital currency that is not underwritten by any government? Enter the bitcoin.
What started out in 2010 as an underground currency for grey-market activities, has since grown to a $400 million worldwide market for buying everything from pizza to domain names. The software underlying the currency, which operates on a decentralized peer-to-peer network, is designed to ensure security – that it can’t be counterfeited – and to enable anonymity.
The currency has yet to reach mainstream, I’m not paying for my latte with my mobile bitcoins, but it is accepted as form of payment on The likes of WordPress and Wikipedia. Silicon Valley is also beginning to take notice, Bitcoin startup CoinLab last year secured $500,000 from venture capitalist Timothy Draper. In France, regulators have approved the first bitcoin exchange that will operate as a bank. Bitcoin is changing finance the same way the web is changing publishing, I might even start looking into it as a payment method on myflashtrash.com
