currency

The interesting thing about Bitcoin isn't what it is today. What's interesting is that this experiment is turning into a serious proving ground for the idea of "crypto-currency," digitally created currency protected by powerful cryptography.

Crypto-currency is traceable, more portable than paper money, and harder to steal. If the Bitcoin experiment proves successful, how soon will a government or other regime develop, back, and distribute crypto-currency as a true alternative currency?

My money, paper or virtual, says that day is coming.

A particularly evolved regime could officially back a crypto-currency, issue some basic standards and regulations … Read more

Update at 6:15 a.m. PT Friday: Bitcoin's tumble continued after trading resumed. As of now, the digital currency is trading at $69.

Less than two hours after the resumption of Bitcoin trades following a lengthy suspension, currency exchange Mt. Gox is offline, the apparent victim of a distributed-denial-of-service attack.

"We are experiencing a stronger than usual DDoS," the Tokyo-based exchange said tonight in a Google+ post. "We are working in it."

Mt. Gox, which handles three-quarters of the trades in the digital currency, announced a suspension of trading this morning after a rollercoaster … Read more

Bitcoin's wild ride continued this evening, immediately carving 35 percent off the value of the digital currency as Mt. Gox, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, resumed trading after an extended suspension of operations.

The value of the peer-to-peer currency began trading at $78 a Bitcoin against the U.S. dollar, falling as low as $65 before recovering to trade as high as $135. The plunge followed yesterday's rollercoaster trading day, which saw Bitcoin's valuation drop 61 percent before recovering a bit with a 37 percent loss.

The decentralized digital currency, which had quadrupled in value in … Read more

After a meteoric run-up in the valuation of Bitcoin in the past month, the virtual currency suffered a dramatic correction today, losing more than 60 percent before mounting a bit of a recovery.

The peer-to-peer currency, which has quadrupled in value in the past four weeks, traded as high as $266 per Bitcoin today before plummeting to $105. It recovered to trade at $145 as of this writing, a one-day loss of 37 percent. Despite today's losses, Bitcoin is still up more than 1,000 percent in the past three months.

Today's drop came amid another distributed denial-of-service … Read more

Forget gold. The hot investment during this time of economic uncertainty in Europe appears to be Bitcoin.

Earlier this month, the peer-to-peer virtual currency was trading at a record $40 for one Bitcoin, more than doubling its value since January, when it was languishing in the midteens. In the past three weeks, it has doubled again, trading as high as $95 today.

All told, it's an increase of nearly 350 percent in the past two months, and much of it is because of the banking crisis in Cyprus.

Bitcoin "is clearly having a breakthrough moment here, and a … Read more

When I heard about Amazon Coins, the company's virtual currency for making Kindle Fire app and in-app purchases starting in May, I immediately grew worried.

Amazon's customer focus, something I find sorely absent at money-extraction engines such as airlines and banks, has kept me loyal for years. I'm concerned, though, that the Amazon Coins program is a step in the wrong direction for Amazon customers.

In short, I don't like the inflexibility, costs, changeable rules, and risks that can be attached to virtual currency. I dislike it when there's a special form of money that … Read more

Come May, Kindle Fires users can pocket virtual coins to spend on their favorite apps.

Announced today, Amazon Coins is a new type of virtual currency developed by the retail giant. The coins will be used to purchase Kindle Fire games, apps, and in-app items from the Amazon Appstore.

To kick off the currency in May, Amazon will offer shoppers tens of millions of dollars of free Amazon Coins to spend on Kindle Fire apps. The company will also let customers buy more coins directly through their Amazon accounts.

Amazon sees the currency as a boon for developers, as it … Read more

We Canadians love innovating our money. We're printing plastic banknotes and chucking out useless coins.

Last March I said I wouldn't mourn the passing of the Canadian penny.

And yet today, as the Royal Canadian Mint officially stopped distributing the cent to banks, I have mixed feelings. I saw the Google.ca animated doodle honoring the coin and felt a tad nostalgic.

So I fished out a few pennies from my pockets and considered the brazen image of Queen Elizabeth and the maple leaf. … Read more

Simple FX comes in two versions: the lite and paid version. Both contain the same features, but the paid version allows for more currencies. Instead of the regular display of direct rates, the app opts for a chart that shows monetary increments of one currency and the corresponding exchange value of another. This feature allows for quick estimation, sets it apart from other converters, and increases its utility for average travelers. Sometimes having an instant estimate for costs of items is better than having to tediously calculate values to the nearest cent. However, this chart function is not as useful … Read more