Article content continued

Backers of bitcoin say it’s about time for a new kind of currency that can be exchanged in private and secure ways. Its promoters include internet entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

This week mainstream financial markets are for the first time allowing investors to make future bets on the direction of bitcoin, but bitcoins themselves will continued to be traded only on private exchanges, which are mostly out of reach of regulators.

Mark Fratella, a teacher who lives in Elmhurst, Illinois, bought some bitcoin “for the novelty of it” back when it was worth $700 or $800.

Fratella is holding onto his bitcoin, and buying a little more from time to time. He’s also buying other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum and Litecoin. He’s heard the talk of a bitcoin bubble.

“But I have also seen a few analysts talk about how, in the grand scheme of things, there are a relatively low amount of people into bitcoin and there is a huge potential for growth,” he said. With the futures trade starting, Fratella thinks people who have been leery of its decentralized, deregulated nature will start buying into it too.

The futures also give investors the opportunity to “short” bitcoin — that is bet that its price will go down — which presently is very difficult to near impossible to do.

While the value of bitcoin itself may be inflated, even some of its biggest critics say that the technology that’s behind bitcoin has promise. That technology is called blockchain. It’s a kind of digital ledger that securely records transactions and prevents the same bitcoin from being spent twice.