The hype about Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency

Virtual currencies and communities, such as Bitcoin, are well-documented. Starting with Facebook Credits and culminating with Bitcoins, the journey for virtual currencies has been a bumpy one (BTC). With virtual currency, the in-game economy relies heavily on the desire of people to spend money on online entertainment. Amazon Coins, a new virtual currency, will soon be available in the Amazon Kindle app store. In order to use Amazon Coins, only purchases of Kindle material, such as books, music, movies and TV shows, may be made. Examples of reward schemes that have existed in the past include: air miles and airline incentives, Green Shield stamps from the '60s, dividends and stamps from the 'Cooperative Society, and the now-ubiquitous reward systems of online companies.

Virtual communities have the potential to make it easier to build useful goods and services and social networks. It is true that third-party providers such as Facebook and the anticipated billion-dollar market for World of Warcraft use sovereign currencies, but this value can often be exchanged for real-world currencies. Since the beginning of virtual communities, "sovereignty" has always resided with content providers. Virtual currency purchases from "gold farmers" in China do more than just support the virtual worlds in which gamers play. Virtual currency that may be traded for actual money may fall under this category. A new currency has been invented by inventors that may be used everywhere.

Bitcoin, being a non-sovereign money, has the potential to be used in place of national currencies in other countries. A quick overview of Bitcoin's revolutionary potential follows.