Bitcoins are starting to catch everyone’s eye ever since the Silk Road bust by the FBI last month. Bitcoin’s are virtual currency that anyone can own anonymously. They can be exchanged by person-to-person. There is no bank or central monetary authority that regulates it such as the Federal Reserve. The market is completely unregulated, so it's "buyer beware." Some of the exchanges have created feedback systems to root out unscrupulous users, according to USA Today.
The idea came up first in 1998 on the online community. It became available in usable form in 2009. There is about $1.5 billion of bitcoin on the market according to bitcoin.org.
Bitcoin’s advantages include low exchange fees, no variance in value by country and accounts that cannot be frozen. Bitcoins do fluctuate in value. One bitcoin now costs about $142. It is public so anyone can use it.