An intriguing document has just crossed my desk. It was talking about a new kind of digital money called “Bitcoin”. As I read it, I immediately realized what a potential breakthrough this new technology could be. But of course I was skeptical. Unsure if it would really work in practice. I decided to buy a few bitcoins just in case it was for real and would go on to become successful. After all, one bitcoin was worth just a few cents... So I went online to see where I could buy some. But there was a problem. There was no marketplace to buy or sell bitcoin. Bitcoin was too new. Such exchanges simply didn’t exist yet. I knew there was a process for “mining” bitcoin. But I didn’t want to spend days setting up an extra computer. And then install the software, figure out how it actually worked and keep watching over my mining computer. It was too much of a hassle just to get my hands on some bitcoin that were worth almost nothing at the time. So I decided to keep an eye on Bitcoin and monitor its progress. Fast forward to February 2011. I had gotten busy with other projects and suddenly remembered to check on Bitcoin.