We’re fast approaching the end of 2013, and with that comes a ton of looking back at what made the year so special. For the Australian National Dictionary Centre, that means choosing a word of the year. And this year, that word is bitcoin.
That’s right. It’s a word that seemingly came from nowhere. Had you asked a sample of people in January if they knew what bitcoin was, the likelihood of any of them knowing was very low. Fast forward to today, with tons of media coverage, more people are likely to have at very least a basic idea of bitcoin (even if they think it’s only used for crime).
Bitcoin has grown so fast so quickly that many people are seeing it as a get-rich-quick scheme. Whether or not that can be considered good publicity is something we’d rather not comment on. But still, we’d rather have bitcoin as the word of the year than ‘twerk’. (via abc.net.au)