50 Insane Facts About Bitcoin (Infographic) The more we know about the curious currency, the weirder it gets.

By Kim Lachance Shandrow Mar 5, 2014

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Bitcoin is a fickle thing. As one U.S. Senator recently admitted, it confuses "the heck out of us." If you still don't quite fully "get it," you're far from alone.

Ok, so by now most people -- fine, maybe only a few -- understand that Bitcoin is virtual cash that's generated ("mined") by computers, lives on the internet and is used to purchase real and digital stuff online and in person.

But where exactly did it come from and why is it suddenly in the news so often? Is Bitcoin really the future of money? If so, what can you buy with it right now?

Bitcoin users can purchase thousands of legal items on the straight and narrow with the controversial cryptocurrency, like tickets to a Sacramento Kings Game, fresh beef in Australia or even tuition for the University of Nicosia. And before the takedown of Silk Road, people reportedly swapped bitcoins for countless shady illegal goods, including dime bags of weed, stolen guns, forged documents and possibly even hitman services. Creepy, right?

The more we know about the curious currency, the weirder it gets.

For an entertaining yet educational eyeful of just how bizarre the Bitcoin story is, from its mysterious beginnings to its rise as a kind of, almost, on the brink of mainstream currency around the globe today, take a look at the revealing infographic below from WhoIsHostingThis.com.

Click to Enlarge+

50 Insane Facts About Bitcoin (Infographic)

Image credit: Who Is Hosting This

Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist at Los Angeles CityBeat, a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for Government Technology magazine, LA Yoga magazine, the Lowell Sun newspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at @Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebook here.

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