31 Mar 2014 / Columbus Dispatch – Gabriel Coe’s speech quickens as he explains why he embraced Bitcoin. It’s a digital currency with no need for banks. There’s little regulation, he says. But his enthusiasm grew from a simpler benefit: It made him a lot of money.
Coe first heard about Bitcoin about a year ago while a sophomore at Ohio State University. Think of it as money that replaces physical coins and bills with strings of computer code. People cash in traditional money for digital “Bitcoins” that can be sent online to anyone, anywhere, usually for a fee of less than 40 cents.
Some, like Coe, prefer to “mine” Bitcoins: He and his friends bought a boxy piece of computer hardware that helps process Bitcoin transactions around the world. It gathers pending exchanges and sends them to a public online ledger book, but only if the computer can solve a complex puzzle in the process.
Others compete to crack the code. The first one to solve it earns 25 newly minted Bitcoins, which in U.S. dollars amounts to $13,000.
“I’ve used it to support myself this semester,” said Coe, 21, of Bexley. Although he keeps quiet about his total earnings, it has been enough to cover rent, food, car insurance, gas, clothes and part of his spring tuition at Ohio State….. Read more
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/03/31/bitcoin-club-seeks-student-customers.html
