A masterpiece in cynicism about what's wrong with paper currencies, commercial banks and their overlords. What are bitcoins; how did they originate; how can you get your hands on them and how can you spend them? They are developing into a world currency which is digital, highly encrypted, easily and inexpensively transferred across international boundaries without revealing the identities of the sender or receiver. Bitcoins can be used to purchase goods and services, gift cards or for online gambling. Unfortunately, they have also been used for illegal purposes such as the purchase of narcotics, guns, counterfeit money and identity cards and for money laundering. The ease with which bitcoins can be inexpensively transferred on a peer-to-peer basis threatens to undermine the revenue stream of the current archaic commercial banking and credit card systems which rely on built-in inefficiencies to generate vast amounts of profit at the consumer's expense. It is no wonder that they are hostile to the introduction of bitcoins. The anonymous and highly encrypted nature of bitcoins makes their movement hard to track and defies governments who have empowered themselves to snoop on phone conversations and e-mail messages under the guise of protecting national security. Bitcoins also frustrate tax authorities by making it difficult to detect taxable income, capital gains and money laundering. Trying to tame the Bitcoin beast is no easy task because of its distributed nature and lack of central authority. Learn about other cryptocurrencies and whether off-planet banking will evolve over the next 100 years.