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In Bitcoin We Trust?

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By now you have probably heard of Bitcoin, but can you define it? Most often it is described as a non-government digital currency. Bitcoin is also sometimes called a cybercurrency or, in a nod to its encrypted origins, a cryptocurrency. Those descriptions are accurate enough, but they miss the point. It's like describing the U.S. dollar as a green piece of paper with pictures on it. I have my own ways of describing Bitcoin. I think of it as store credit without the store. A prepaid phone without the phone. Precious metal without the metal. Legal tender for no debts, public or private, unless the party to whom it is tendered wishes to accept it. An instrument backed by the full faith and credit only of its anonymous creators, in whom I therefore place no faith, and to whom I give no credit except for ingenuity. I wouldn't touch a bitcoin with a 10-foot USB cable. But a fair number of people already have, and quite a few more soon may. This is partly because entrepre