Bitcoin: Bubble or Bank?
CBC Technology Correspondent, Jesse Hirsh
Call it a currency without a country. Bitcoins ... digital tokens that are traded over the Internet ... can't be stuffed in your wallet, or crammed in your pocket. But that hasn't stopped the virtual coinage from sending ripples through the financial world. Early this year you could buy a bitcoin online for $15. But its value has surged --- spiking upwards of $250 this week.
With more and more people looking to shelter themselves from a jittery global economy an increasing number of these virtual bucks are finding real-world homes. Just ask Alex Likhtenstein. He co-owns EVR Bar in Manhattan, and allows people to pay their tabs in bitcoin.
For more on this, we were joined by Jesse Hirsh. He is a technology correspondent for CBC. He's also co-founder of Academy of the Impossible, a peer-to-peer learning facility in Toronto.
Co-founder of Bitcoin ATM, Jeff Berwick
Though its potential is still unclear ... our next guest is betting on the bitcoin. Jeff Berwick is a Canadian entrepreneur. He's trying to popularize the virtual currency by setting up Bitcoin ATMs -- machines that would withdraw and deposit money directly into bitcoin accounts. Jeff Berwick joined us from Acapulco, Mexico. Mexico.
Management Today magazine, Rebecca Burn-Callendar
Many have embraced the bitcoin because -- unlike the Japanese Yen or the U.S. Dollar -- it's not tied to a government. But according to our next guest, that's not a selling point ... it's a red flag.
Rebecca Burn-Callendar is the online editor of the business magazine Management Today. She joined us from London, England.
This segment was produced by The Current's Dawna Dingwall and Josh Bloch.
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