would cost about $8,500 currently. Millions of people buy bitcoin around the world, and all of these transactions are kept track of by a decentralized network of computers around the world — not by a government or bank.

There are plenty of advantages to using bitcoin. There are no third-party interruptions when transferring or purchasing bitcoin, and users can access and pay for their coins anywhere they have Internet access. It’s also easier and faster to transfer large sums of currency across international borders than money wires or bank transfers.

Anyone can join the computer network, and about 9,500 computers were in the network as of late 2017. The record of these bitcoin transactions on the network is known as the blockchain — essentially a permanent ledger, according to localof money internationally. It is quicker to transfer bitcoin than it is to go through a bank transfer, which can take weeks.

Writing about #bitcoin this week. Here's a bitcoin ATM I saw in Prague pic.twitter.com/MympOum6Jv — Kara Driscoll (@KaraDDriscoll) December 21, 2017

As more cryptocurrency pops up and it gets traded on mainstream exchanges, more issues are popping up. Youbit, a cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, announced this week that it would shut down after being hacked for a second time this year. The exchange lost 4,000 bitcoin in April during a cyberhack.

Others worry about insider trading since it is an unregulated currency. Coinbase, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, is looking into possible insider trading of Bitcoin Cash, the spin-off currency of bitcoin.

Bitcoin Cash was created in August