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17 Jun 2011 13:20

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Tech: The rise of the mysterious BitCoin: The nerdiest currency around

  • I spoke to one guy who thought aliens might have come to earth to bring us this technology, it’s so perfect.
  • BitCoin enthusiast Bruce Wagner • Discussing the origin of the mysterious open-source peer-to-peer currency project. The project was started by some guy who disappeared from online forums back in December — just as the currency was taking off. The currency is akin to BitTorrent if you could use it to send money — in good ways and bad. And without an easy way to trace the currency, it’s got some somewhat sketchy fans, like hackers and drug dealers. And the value of the currency itself (tied to no government, so no Federal Reserve) is leaping quickly — roughly 6,000 percent since the year started. So, would you buy some stuff with bitcoins? source