A really good post explaining how the BitCoin protocol works.

Explaining how the BitCoin protocol works has its advantages and disadvantages wrapped up in a nice story line, well thats not for me but Michael Neilson has done a pretty good job with his explanation of How the BitCoin Protocol Works.

I particularly like where Michael likens it to...



A question that could be posed in the United States is a very important one.
“Is money a form of speech?”

As this is an important legal  question because of the protection afforded speech under the US Constitution. 
In my (legally uninformed) opinion digital money may make this issue more complicated. 

As we’ll see, the Bitcoin protocol is really a way of standing up before the rest of the world (or at least the rest of the Bitcoin network) and avowing “I’m going to give such-and-such a number of bitcoins to so-and-so a person” in a way that’s extremely difficult to repudiate. 

At least naively, it looks more like speech than exchanging copper coins, say.
Extract from MIchael Neilson's post.

 Its still early days for the BitCoin protocol, who knows where it may lead us.