bitcoin is slowly but surely going mainstream with consumers

The bitcoin cryptocurrency has hit a few bumps in the road, but consumers now find it easier to make purchases and spend their bitcoins online. Silicon Valley startup companies are going beyond simply trying to mine and own bitcoins, and want to focus on apps and services for consumers to use.

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently ruled that bitcoins are property, not a real currency, while other countries are struggling how to deal with the digital currency.

"It's all about to change over the next 12 to 24 months," said Marshall Hayner, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur hoping to bank on bitcoin with a QuickCoin app. "We are going to see all kinds of people adopt it. It's going to power transactions on the Internet."

Although first introduced in 2009, it was only the past two years that helped bitcoin progress and garner major news headlines. However, the demise of Mt. Gox and other bitcoin exchanges suffering data breaches that led to lost currency, as malware attacks will only increase.