What Is a Bitcoin?

Tuesday, 02 July 2013 | by Pat's Picks

In a sidebar to an article about the Winklevoss twins in this morning’s paper, the New York Times explains very concisely what bitcoins are. First of all, they aren’t coins at all. The virtual currency is defined as “one type of a digital math-based asset that is issued by, and transmitted through, an open source, cryptographic protocol platform known as the bitcoin network.” Huh? Basically, it’s “digital money that you cannot hold, but can be bought and sold online in exchange for traditional currencies like dollars and yen.”

SOURCE: New York Times