Bitcoins is a online P2P crypto-currency, that is completely virtual and is does not have a central government backing it up. Using data that is simultaneously stored on all computers running the bitcoins software, you can easily exchange bitcoins from one person to another, without having a middle man.
To be explained a bit simpler, Bitcoins is online money, which you can spend at certain places, and it can be infinitely divided into smaller and smaller pieces. Where as money was backed up by gold, bitcoins only has value on the basis that we give it value. Without our participation, bitcoins would be considered nothing but a set of numbers, a string of highly encrypted, meaningless junk data. But, as it stands, we ARE giving it value, and as I write this, the value has gone from 10 cents a coin, to 30$ per coin!
(!EDIT!: MT. Gox crashed shortly after publishing this post; the value of a bitcoin almost instantaneously dropped to a penny per coin. It is unknown whether the value of BTC will rise again.)
"How does one acquire such a coin?" Well, bitcoins, (Or BTC) are "generated" through the slow meticulous process of repeated mathematical functions performed by your computer, to decrypt a block. These blocks increase in difficulty over time, and each block contains 50 BTC. Due to a built in function of BTC, they will continue to get harder and harder until there are exactly 21 million BTC's, and no more will be able to be generated. "So how do I start?" Well, you can't. If you want, you can download the BTC wallet software (which I recommend you do) and click "Generate", but chances are you won't ever be able to earn anything. On most normal computers, the CPU is what is doing the work, and the CPU is not able to handle decryption very efficiently. GPU's however, do work better, but again, I suggest you stay AWAY from this. The whole mining craze is gone, and it really is to late to join if you want it to be profitable to you in any way. Unless you already have an advanced Video Card, and don't mind sharing with others!
Anyways, it's really cool, it's a risky investment, etc. etc. If you want to earn any Bitcoins, I suggest going here: http://forbitcoin.com/
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