Digital Media News

Virtual currencies are not a new phenomenon. From airline miles to Second Life’s Linden Dollars, virtual currencies have been around in one form or another for over 40 years. However, it’s only recently that Bitcoin, the world’s first decentralized peer-to-peer digital currency, has caused a real stir in the online community.

In case you’ve somehow missed the hype, Bitcoin is a new kind of “money” that isn’t really money at all. It’s the world’s first crypto-currency;that exists in the virtual world and is controlled by computer technology, rather than a Government or bank. This “digital money” can be used to buy anything (where the currency is accepted)and can be sent directly from person-to-person, in any country.

Bitcoins are held in virtual wallets with unique keys. Transactions are made by sending bitcoins from one wallet to a unique key associated with another wallet in a cryptographic process that is verified by computers across the bitcoin network.

For a long time, Twitter's revenue stream has been made up almost entirely of advertising dollars, but last week, the social media company announced that it is diversifying, by taking a step into the world of e-commerce.

The social networking company is currently trialing a system that enables businesses to embed “buy now” buttons in their tweets, so customers can purchase products directlythrough the site. The button is being marketed as a fun way for users to shop and find deals on exclusive merchandise, but the new offering ultimately represents the company's latest bid to claw back revenue, following a decline in user growth.

The feature is initially being tested on a small group of brandsincluding, The Home Depot, Burberry and non-profit group (RED), but Twitter expects to roll the service out and increase the visibility of its e-commerce tweets, in the lead up to the holiday shopping season.