The creditors of the collapsed Mt Gox have agreed to support a group of US investors who are trying to re-establish the Bitcoin exchange.
Despite these problems, can crypto-currencies, such as Bitcoin revolutionise the way we pay for goods and services in the digital age?
After all, money is anything that can perform three basic functions: a medium of exchange to be used in the purchase and sale of goods and services; a unit of account to measure the value of goods and services; and a store of value that can be saved and spent at a future point in time.
Bitcoin was founded in 2009 although nobody knows by whom, only that he, she or they took the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
Since then a plethora of other crypto-currencies have since sprung up, including Ripple and Litecoin.
Each Bitcoin, like other forms of crypto-currencies, is simply a long string of computer code protected by a personal key which provides both ownership and security.
All Bitcoins in circulation and their transactions histories are recorded in a giant ledger known as the blockchain. This prevents each Bitcoin from being spent twice.
The crypto-currency is a very simple way of transferring value from one person to another. Once the personal key code has been entered the Bitcoin value can be transferred to another address.
No middleman is required to verify the transaction so they are quick, secure and cheap to use.
