Bitcoin

An anonymous cryptocurrency millionaire recently launched a fund to donate $86 million in Bitcoin to charity. One of the biggest donations so far is to MAPS, an organization working to turn MDMA into a legal PTSD treatment.

In an effort to make bitcoin more attractive to a wider range of legitimate businesses, students at Trinity College Dublin are looking for ways to increase transparency in transactions without ditching the anonymity altogether and believe a "credit-check" database could be one answer.

As part of a move to expand into supercomputing and deal with the excess heat that is a byproduct of bitcoin mining, BitFury Group, a bitcoin infrastructure provider and transaction processing company, has purchased Allied Control, which makes cooling systems for supercomputing and data centers.

Microsoft has quietly announced that its customers can now use bitcoin to purchase certain products through third party payment processor BitPay, which also supports tech sales site TigerDirect and Virgin’s space flight offshoot Virgin Galactic.

Expedia.com has just announced that it will accept bitcoins as payment for online hotel bookings, joining the likes of Virgin Galactic, Overstock.com, and Atomic Mail in embracing the digital currency.

Bitcoin is having serious teething problems. Most of these problems are associated with bitcoin storage or conversion, and should settle down as the currency is more widely accepted. Assuming this happens, let's look at the strengths and weaknesses of a mature Bitcoin currency in a modern economy.

The value of a thing is what it will bring, or so says an old financial aphorism. It appears that the value of Bitcoins earlier in the month was such than 91.4 Bitcoins = one used Tesla Model S.

As Bitcoin turns four years old, we take a look at how a group of anonymous programmers have managed to create more than US$300 million out of thin air.