The myriad voices publicly explaining, debating, arguing, sniping, and prognosticating about the future of the new digital “cryptocurrency” Bitcoin, propelled the virtual currency to a top spot among the hottest news topics of 2013, with little sign of cooling off.
Its advocates describe Bitcoin as the future of money, populist banking, decentralized trust, and the currency of social revolution that will enable global collaboration on an unprecedented scale.
Critics decry it as play money in a virtual casino, an …