by “San Francisco startup bitcoin exchange Gox has been knocked offline and frozen out of additional funds, according to a spokeswoman. The New York-based digital wallet service service, one of the largest bitcoin exchange, shut down on Tuesday, likely because of hacking, according to Commerzbank analyst Carsten Brzeski, who expects it to be offline for several days. The move follows a recent discovery of a major bitcoin exchange hack of around 7,000 bitcoins, worth around $370 million at current exchange rates.” – New York Times.
“Bitcoin was invented in 2008 by a person or group of people who went by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto. It’s one of several digital currencies that is used online as an alternative to real-world currency, such as pounds sterling and dollars. Bitcoin emerged as an alternative to money managed by the global financial institutions, giving people an option to control their own money and commerce.Bitcoin essentially removed the middlemen in the banking system. At its core, it’s a decentralized digital money which eliminates the need for banks and financial institutions.”- CNNMoney.
“Several groups of hackers earlier this year ransacked the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange, which handles about 80 percent of the world’s bitcoin transactions, and withdrew about $500 million worth of the cyber-currency.” – New York Times.
“Bitcoin is a currency for the Internet. Without any central authority. The technology behind it will change the way we send money, store funds and interact with computers forever. I’m talking about the next big thing.” – Larry Page, cofounder of Google.
“A record-breaking speed at which a new digital form of currency is spreading” – it started in Tokyo, Japan, is now in 42 countries, and is even starting to penetrate the U.S. stock market — shows just how far the Internet has become a portal to markets all around the world.” – David Geffen, American businessman.
“When a person buys goods or services with bitcoin, she gives the seller an electronic “wallet” address. The seller then records that the bitcoin “wallet” address has been used as payment by entering it into a secure database. Then, the payment is verified by other users of the database. If the network accepts a payment for a wallet that is part of the secure database, other Bitcoin users will validate the payment, ensuring that the user sending the payment is the owner of the bitcoin address that she put on record and that they are a legitimate user.”
