We've talked about Bitcoin before, but the cryptocurrency has come a long way since we first described it, and it's in the forefront of people's minds. If you're curious about it, or not sure what the fuss is all about, this video is a great introduction.


Put simply, Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies like Litecoin and Dogecoin) is a decentralized digital currency, where a network of users keep a collective transaction ledger publicly so everyone's on the same page about who owns which bitcoins and where they're moving and trading around the internet. Bitcoin "miners" verify the encryption keys that go along with those transactions, and receive new bitcoins in the process for all of the work, energy, and time required to validate those keys.


There's more to the world of Bitcoin, of course, and other cryptocurrencies are at the stage now where they're easier to mine and participate in, if you're interested, but they do have a long way to go before they're generally accepted by the public and a broadly used currency. Even if some internet retailers and websites are happy to accept it, a number of governments and major banks are waffling over whether they even consider cryptocurrencies real money. For more on the topic, make sure to read our primer on Bitcoin, and check out the Mashable link below.

Everything You Need to Know About Bitcoin in 2 Minutes | Mashable