You may or may not have heard about Bitcoin.  If you have then by all accounts you are a bit of a nerd.  If you had heard of it a few months ago then you were a super nerd, if you had heard of it a few years ago then you were a hyper encryption nerd.  If you had bought any a few years ago then you would also be rich, very rich!

Bitcoins are a digital currency based on complex encryption algorithms that are currently being bought and sold just like other currencies.  The difference between Bitcoin and other currencies is the astronomical growth in value being seen.  The reason they are popular is probably down to the fact that they are 1) cool (to nerds) 2) making fast profits (cool to day traders I guess) and 3 ) not cool to banks (which is cool to people who don’t like banks).

I just bought a Bitcoin today – actually half a Bitcoin and have it stored quite nicely in my Bitcoin wallet – it all looks a little bit like the matrix at the moment with long passwords and funky wallet ID’s but either way it is all quite exciting.

To buy a Bitcoin you need to get yourself a wallet – that is right, a virtual wallet – signup to blockchain.info for one of these then go off and buy a Bitcoin off someone who already has a few and wants to sell them (God knows why they would want to do that).  I just used bitbargain.co.uk which was pretty straight forward – although it got a little hairy when my online banking went down – mid transaction!  Once you have your Bitccoin transfer it to your wallet and hey presto – you are all done.

I bought 0.50 BTC for £219.50 10 minutes ago – I wonder how much it will be worth tomorrow, next week, next year…

Either way – it was fun but I would suggest you only do it with money you can afford to loose as it may all go away tomorrow…