Bitcoin was designed to be a currency free from the corrupting influence of government or any other centralized authority. Now, though, with the value of a single electronic unit hovering around $1,000, the battle to control emission of Bitcoins is on. The developers of Bitcoin created an ingenious system to regulate the currency's supply: Independent "miners" earn new currency by using their computers' processing power to perform the mathematical operations needed to make transactions in Bitcoin possible. The operations become more difficult as the amount of Bitcoins issued approaches a limit of 21 million. ... (full story)