http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-28/bitcoin-may-be-the-global-economys-last-safe-haven

Bitcoin May Be the Global Economy's Last Safe Haven

Interesting fact about Bitcoin: Nobody knows the real name of the creator (or creators). We have no clue who did it, other than the person goes by Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin is still very small in comparison to other companies. Yes, an entire "currency" has a smaller market value than many single companies. The value of one Bitcoin is about $78 dollars (March 2013) and in March there were 10,952,975 Bitcoins in circulation. A thought behind the Bitcoin is an interesting one, with the entire world using the Internet, isn't the Bitcoin a step towards a global currency? 

What makes the Bitcoin different from PayPal? Bitcoins are purchased using the U.S. dollar, the Euro, or whatever the currency in an area is. The same thing happens on PayPal. PayPal keeps track of things in terms of the currency being used. Everything is not done in the U.S. dollar on PayPal. With Bitcoins, everybody is using the same currency even if they purchased something with euros or dollars. One person in Brazil can buy something from a person in Pakistan that is selling something for two Bitcoins.  There wouldn't be an issue with exchange rates. The person simply now has two more Bitcoins. People tend to question the legitimacy of the Bitcoin. It was created by an anonymous person. No one knows who it was, but let's face it, Bitcoin works. There has been speculation that Bitcoin was just a joke that was meant to satire the global economy, but that joke has made people seriously consider its possibilities. the technology to back it has been flawless, so if it was in fact a joke, it's gotten a little more serious. The ideas of global currencies have been explored before with much rejection, but this seems to be working. What do you think?

- David Gerhart

http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/11/18/why-isnt-bitcoin-interesting-to-leading-economists/

Why Isn't Bitcoin Interesting To Leading Economists?

I think that the entire concept of the Bitcoin is perplexing. Cyber currency wasn't even an idea just a few decades ago, and now here it is, valued as a 5 billion dollar piece of our economy. The author of the article steps back and looks at the Bitcoin and why it has not been researched much by our respected economists. The author states that the answer to that question is simple: 5 billion dollars isn't a lot of value. If you think about it, that is the same size as a single mid-cap stock. One company. Bitcoin is as valuable as one decently sized corporation. That's why economists don't focus on Bitcoin that heavily YET. Economists are more interested in all of the firms instead of just one, moderately large corporation. 

Bitcoin is, however, a currency market. Currency markets are usually looked at by economists. Economically, Bitcoin is no different than any other currency. It will have inflation just like any other currency, in fact, the inflation is actually easier to predict than the value of the dollar because every transaction is so easily monitored. But, it is hard to study Bitcoin transactions from an economic standpoint because the transactions are anonymous in the sense that we don't know what demographic is buying the product. Economists study who buys and sells, with no method of determining that, how can they see what's going on? Bitcoin is still relatively small in terms of the entire economy, but who's to say it can't make an impact someday? That day just hasn't come yet. 

- David Gerhart