A New Coinage

Worried about the rupee’s fall against the dollar? Or the euro hitting a new high? Or why the yen is bucking the trend of the benchmark Nikkei share average? Fret not, forex watchers, all these vexations may soon be a thing of the past, going by the stir created by the latest invention on the internet – “bitcoin”, a cybercurrency nurtured from the ground up by fringe elements of cyberspace who have fashioned a crypto-currency using cryptography to control the creation and transfer of money, rather than relying on central authorities.

For some time now, money based on fiat currency – money issued by the state – has appeared to be an unreliable store of value. The loss of confidence in a fiat currency-based monetary system has triggered an active quest for alternatives. The most exciting one is Bitcoin, which seems to be a prelude to a state-free/bank-free monetary system.