Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and it’s increasingly rare to run into people who haven’t at least heard the term. I won’t go into what it is in detail but it’s strong crypto and the Bitcoins have real value. https://www.circle.com/ and https://www.coinbase.com are two reputable sites to have your wallet at and purchase coins. You can have your wallet on your own computer so no one controls your coins but you. You’re also responsible for backing your wallet up so do a little research as if you loose the private key you loose your bitcoins stored at that address.

Why bother with Bitcoin when we use Paypal? It should be pretty obvious to anyone who’s dealt with Paypal much. Most commissioned art technically violates their terms of service. Yeah, you know what kind of art I’m talking about. You can get your account frozen if they get wind of what the money changing hands is for.

With Bitcoin no one can freeze your money if you are in control of the wallet. The system is semi-anonymous and it’s increasingly becoming accepted at many retailers. You do have to use a service like Coinbase or Circle to convert it back to regular currency.

If Bitcoins change hands for art what if one party doesn’t come through? It’s the same problem as Paypal. They will side with the person paying almost all the time. If that person is vengeful they can disclose what the money was for and get the artist’s account frozen. It goes back to the old system of half now and the other half on delivery. In that both parties are half in and if the artist doesn’t deliver and keeps the payment then reputation will hurt them. It’s not that much different with Paypal now.