The online currency bitcoin has recently surged in popularity and worth, and many people find themselves asking what on earth this new money is.

Bitcoin is an online, nontraceable payment method that can be used to buy and sell goods by using an online transaction. It is an untracked market, and is unregulated by banks, leading to expensive and worthwhile investments that can raise in price rather quickly, or a deep price drop.

Bitcoin is made through bitcoin mining, an extremely lengthy and expensive process that uses high-tech advanced computers that create extremely complex and long lines of unique code. This system insures that bitcoin cannot be stolen or “hacked.”

Basically, the more bitcoin is made, the more complex the code behind it is, making it safer to exchange with but harder to make.

Most bitcoin is used on websites in the deep web, a small and untraced internet server that sells weapons, slaves, drugs, and any other nefarious needs.

Due to the unique nature of the currency, it cannot be found by the government, and is perfect for crime. It cannot be tracked by its source, unlike money, which has serial numbers, so trade for these goods are seamless.

Bitcoin has very high exchange rates, but its popularity has only recently surged by chance. And we should ask ourselves, is this worth investing?

Personally, I would say no. Bitcoin is complicated and not worth investing into unless you have a college level understanding of computer programing. It’s hard to use the bitcoin you have once you have it. Someone out there could take other’s bitcoin and money could potentially be lost.

Many governments, nations and think tanks might even plan to ban or block this new market. It’s still under several investigations, and might just lead to disaster. If you want to spend your money, put it in a savings account, invest in Eurodisney, or pay off credit card debt.