What is Bitcoin?

I think it was a few months ago when I got a chance to meet with some local Bitcoin enthusiasts here in Manila (see also Bitcoin in the Philippines - Will Technology Liberate Our Money?). On the video below, Stefan Molyneux talks about this digital currency, how it works, and also briefly touches on government monopoly on money:   
For those interested, another meet-up has been organized and here's the event's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/537512599665182/. It's not even limited for libertarians at all. In fact, many of the attendees are not libertarians. So please feel free to attend or message me if you're interested.
With the recent popularity of the Silk Road bust almost coinciding with the Breaking Bad finale, there's a lot of curiosity that's brewing about Bitcoin. And in spite of the bust and other government attempts to regulate, control, or even prohibit the use and trade of Bitcoins, the price recovered well and continues to rise:

graph of the Bitcoin price in the last few months

Of course, there are still many things to learn about it and the meet-up on Saturday will definitely be helpful. With the decision of the Federal Reserve to avoid any sort of taper, as expected by proponents of the Austrian School of economics, markets are losing faith in the US paper dollar (be reminded that this is regarded as the world's reserve). 

As governments rob the people's savings of its value (see also The Invisible Tax) it is important to learn more about how money works and alternative currencies. Hayek has always talked about competing currencies, long before any sort of digital currency. And with the emergence of Bitcoin technology and other digital currencies, it's really making a lot more sense.

I'm looking forward to the meet-up on Saturday and will be blogging about it as well so watch out for that.