There’s a new charitable giving startup built by students at the University of North Carolina. It launched during finals week, and it’s designed to help us give a little something extra to families in need while we do our own last minute holiday shopping. The company is called CommuniGift, and it’s partnered with online retailer Amazon. Plus, how technology helps us find shipwrecks. And, today’s Techsplainer is about protecting your passwords.

Bitcoin has had a wild week, in no small part because the huge road block the currency hit in China. There the exchange is called BTC China. In recent months the price of Bitcoin has skyrocketed thanks to people buying it up in the country, where the national currency is tightly controlled, but a few days ago the Chinese government put on the breaks, forcing the exchange to stop accepting Chinese currency. That cut the price of Bitcoin in half, but there’s still plenty of interest in the country. 

China’s largest Bitcoin exchange, BTC China has been forced to stop taking Chinese currency. The move follows a reported meeting this week between payment processing companies in the country and the People’s Bank of China, and a decision by national financial agencies in the country earlier this month that effectively banned dealing in Bitcoin, the so-called cryptocurrency — which Marketplace Tech has been looking at all week — seems either on the verge of collapse or going to the next level. So, which is it? Plus, the first piece of artwork created with Google Glass.

All this week, Marketplace Tech is talking about the digital currency Bitcoin. We’ve heard about what it is and how a company called Coinbase is trying to help more customers and businesses use it for transactions. Today we talk to one of the new businesses that is starting to use Bitcoin — a private medical practice in San Francisco. Plus, healthcare.gov gets a new boss. And, new regulations could be coming for data brokers.

All this week, Marketplace Tech is talking about the digital currency Bitcoin. Yesterday, we found out that like most forms of currency, Bitcoin is “a massive hallucination we all agree upon.” But it’s also a techy idea — a network where computers with a shared record of transactions can trade long strings of letters and numbers to keep track of who has what. Whether that description sounds simplistic or overly complicated, there’s a company designed to make sure we don’t ever have to worry about it. Plus, what options are there for people who need to replace their incandescent bulbs after new efficiency standards go into effect in 2014?

All this week, Marketplace Tech is looking at Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency’s price has soared. Banks and governments are starting to pay attention and develop monetary policy when it comes to the form of digital cash. We plan to talk about everything from how to make it to who is holding it. But first, what the heck is Bitcoin? Plus, how Facebook can benefit from joining the S&P 500. And, Google stops letting Android users block apps from accessing non-essential data.

In the next few days, a rover launched by China’s space agency is scheduled to land on the Moon. It’ll be the first spacecraft to touchdown on lunar soil in almost 40 years. So what might a Chinese space rover be looking for on a dusty rock we haven’t been to since the Bee Gees were still topping the charts? And it’s Friday, which means time to play Silicon Tally, the game where Marketplace Tech host Ben Johnson and a worthy adversary try and stump each other with numbers from the week’s tech news.

Tonight, around midnight, you may see some nerds running around in cloaks and bare feet. The destination will be the movie theater of course, for the first showing of “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” The film promises to be full of special effects — not all of them visual. There are a lucky few who will be watching the movie in theaters fitted with new speaker technology from Dolby called Atmos. Plus, an IP troll targets Germans who watch porn online. And, the challenges facing Adobe after a security leak last month exposed usernames and passwords.

Today the World Health Organization releases its annual report on malaria. The disease kills some 600 thousand people every year — most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa. Part of fighting any disease is understanding how populations move. And there’s a tech device now being used to tackle this challenge. It’s called a cell phone. Plus, 3-D printed guns. And, should surgeons wear Google Glass in the operating room?